Radiant Silvergun

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Radiant Silvergun

Developer(s)	Treasure
Publisher(s)	ESP
Designer(s)	Hiroshi Iuchi
Platform(s)	Arcade, Sega Saturn
Release date	Arcade ^JP 1998 Saturn ^JP July 23, 1998
Genre(s)	Vertical scrolling shooter, Manic shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, 2 player Co-op
Input methods	8-way joystick, 3 buttons
Cabinet	Upright
Arcade system	Sega Titan Video
Display	Horizontally oriented, 704 × 513, 6144 palette colors

Radiant Silvergun (レイディアントシルバーガン, Reidianto Shirubāgan^?) is a vertically scrolling shooter video game, developed by Treasure Co. Ltd. It was released in arcades on the ST-V platform in 1998 and subsequently ported to the Sega Saturn, with added cutscenes by noted animation studio GONZO. The game was not released outside of Japan. However, Masato Maegawa has recently hinted that the game could appear on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 with high-definition visuals.^[1]

The game is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the 'maximalist' school of vertical shooter design.^{[citation needed]} (Contrast this with Ikaruga's studied minimalism.) It features a unique and innovative weapons system, with seven weapons available at any time. The player has three buttons to control the weapons; the weapon fired depends on the combination of buttons pressed. According to producer Hiroshi Iuchi, the main inspiration for the game's design was Image Fight, an arcade game by Irem from 1988.^[2]

1 Gameplay
2 Story
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Gameplay

The weapons scheme is as follows. Saturn-only button configurations are in italics.

Vulcan

the regular forward gun. A single beam can be fired by tapping A.

Homing

green discs fire at angles and aggressively track the closest enemies.

Spread

two bombs fire out from wide angles and explode on contact. The resultant explosion damages anything within its range.

BC or X

Lock On Spread

eight probes extend from the ship and move in circles around it. Any enemies that contact a probe are met with a high-speed homing projectile from the ship.

AC or Y

Back Wide

a variant of the Vulcan, this fires one beam forward and several wide shots toward the back.

AB or Z

Homing Plasma

two laser beams swing side-by-side from the front of the ship and lock-on to any enemies it connects to, subjecting them to a constant lightning beam attack as long as it is in range. The lasers are not stopped by physical barriers.

ABC or R

Radiant Sword

a small sword is brandished from the ship and is introduced by moving in a full circle. The player can drag it around and control its direction by moving backward from the desired direction. The sword constantly damages anything it touches.

The sword can also absorb any pink shots enemies fire, absorbing the energy in them to charge up a powerful, screen-clearing attack called Hyper Sword. This strategy is used a good deal in the game to avoid dying and quickly kill bosses. If a player does not kill a boss in a certain amount of time, the boss self-destructs and the player earns no points. This forces the player to level up their weapons quickly.^{[citation needed]}

Unlike in most other shoot 'em ups, there are no power-ups. All weapons are available from the start. Weapons can 'level up', however, becoming more powerful as the player uses them to score points (failure to properly level up the weapons in the early stages leads to a very frustrating, and even impossible, later game). The game is designed so that there is almost always a 'right' weapon for any situation. Indiscriminate firing is severely punished.^{[citation needed]}

The game rewards players for "chaining" enemies of just one of three colors (red, blue or yellow). Whenever the player kills enemies that are the same color, while ignoring the other two colors, they get faster upgrades and large score bonuses. This also facilitates faster upgrading of weapons used to do so. The levels are designed so usually, the player can go as far as possible on one color, hit one of another color, and then have the rest of the level as the third color.^{[citation needed]} As such, the game highly rewards memorization.^{[citation needed]}

The game's first level is stage 3. At the end of stage 3, the player can choose to continue at stage 2 or stage 4. Both stages lead to stage 5, then stage 6, and the finale at stage 1. This is true to the story's chronology; for example, the events of stage 2 occurred a year before stage 3. In the Saturn version, the player is forced to play all of the stages, starting at stage 3, to stage 2, then 4 through 6 and 1.

[edit] Story

An octahedron-shaped artifact called the Stone-Like, along with a non-functioning robot, has been unearthed. Earth's secretary of defense, Chief Igarashi, orders the Stone-Like to be examined. Meanwhile, up in Earth's atmosphere, inside the spaceship Tetra, Commander Tengai issues Buster, Reana and Gai to test out the three new Silvergun prototype fighter crafts. Back on Earth, Igarashi relays information on the Stone-Like and the robot, claiming it has the serial number 00104, the exact same number of the robot aboard the Tetra, CREATOR 00104. Tengai cannot believe this be just a coincidence (partly due to Igarashi proving that it is, indeed the same robot), and has the three Silvergun pilots on standby. Suddenly, the Stone-Like starts to act up and destroys the facility containing it. As it overwhelms the Earth defense forces, the Stone-Like wipes out all life on Earth in a magnificent flash. Only the crew of the Tetra remain unharmed, as they were in satellite orbit. One year after the Stone-Like destroyed Earth, the Tetra, running low on supplies, makes its return to Earth.

The story is now told non-linearly, beginning with the third stage of the game, entitled Return. The Tetra flies back to Earth, and the three pilots, in their respective Silverguns, are sent out to investigate. Stage 2, Reminiscence, is actually a flashback sequence, where the Tetra and the Silverguns head to the Earth defense headquarters, where Chief Igarashi is, prior to the Stone-Like's attack. Knowing it's impossible to stop the Stone-Like, Igarashi has the Tetra and the Silverguns to make for satellite orbit, and evade the Stone-Like. The escape is successful, but the same cannot be said for Earth and its inhabitants.

Back in the present, the Stone-Like, now aware of the Tetra and Silverguns' presence, uses its power and commands its own manufactured weapons to destroy them. Stage 4, known as Evasion, now takes place. Seeing a need to know more about the Stone-Like, Tengai has Creator, the robot aboard the Tetra, to head for the Earth defense headquarters and gather information about it, while the Tetra and the Silverguns hold off the Stone-Like's forces. However, the Stone-Like sees through their plan and heads straight for the headquarters as well. Stage 5, Victim, begins, as two towering battleships lumber over the headquarters, intending to prevent Creator from succeeding its mission. The Silverguns hastily destroys the cruisers, but the Stone-Like appears and levels the headquarters. Just before the building collapses, Tengai pilots the Tetra and holds up the structure from falling, allowing Creator to board Reana's Silvergun to safety. Catching the Stone-Like off-guard, Gai goes on a suicidal run and attempts to destroy the artifact, but fails to do so, as his Silvergun vanishes upon contact with it. Tengai orders Buster and Reana to head for space, while he makes a last ditch effort and attempt to stall the Stone-Like, just as Gai did. With all seemingly lost, Buster persuades Reana to join him and try to destroy the Stone-Like. Before they head out into the space, Creator asks that they leave it one thing from them...

The Stone-Like, having located Buster and Reana, engages them in space combat, while briefly explaining that because of humanity's constant nature to war and destroy, it had to bring about the apocalypse. Stage 6, Origin, concludes with the Stone-Like, having been defeated, now transports the two Silverguns and its pilots back in time, to the year 100000 BC. Stage 1, Link, has the Stone-Like unleash its power in a cataclysmic explosion. As Buster and Reana make an attempt to escape the blast, they are swallowed up in the blinding light, seemingly destroyed. The ending concludes with Creator, 20 years into the future, having secluded itself inside an underground facility on Earth, now brimming with life again, creating a clone of Buster and Reana, from their strands of hair, the thing that he asked from both of them. The Stone-Like is now deactivated, its power exhausted from the last battle.

In its last moments before its energy fades, Creator explains that the Stone-Like is the guardian of Earth, and sees to it the advancement of the planet, its inhabitants and their way of living. If it deems that things must start over, the Stone-Like will destroy Earth and recreate it again, until humanity realizes their nature and change before the Stone-Like delivers the consequences. Creator's purpose was always to ensure that mankind will survive, through their clones, and with these words, Creator stops functioning. As the story ends, the Buster and Reana clone start to wake from their cloning tubes.

It should be noted that the story of Radiant Silvergun is only available in the Saturn Mode of the Sega Saturn version of the game. Arcade Mode and the original arcade version of Radiant Silvergun does not include any cutscenes or dialogue save for a slideshow at the end of the game consisting of stills from the ending video.