| Title | Radiant Silvergun overestimates my chances in bullet hell |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Game reviews |
| When | September 15, 2011 |
There's something simultaneously familiar and daunting about the Treasure logo appearing when I fire up Radiant Silvergun, a classic bullet hell shmup that thinks a lot more of me than I do..
Read the full articleAgreed. This has been a prized 'Treasure' in my Saturn collection for over a decade, but I never quite learned to properly play. My few times finishing the game gave enough enjoyment just to see the lightshow on display, as it was one of the most technically proficient games on the system. Some of the later levels display some truly astounding effectwork and boss design that signals how much care and love went into this project.
I just wish I could appreciate it on the level as the expert display within many of the 'pro' runs on youtube. Much like a great fighting game that I am limp to understand; it is clear I am experiencing a very different product than what the best players are.
If you switch the chaining mode to 'Ikaruga' mode, you just need to worry about shooting 3 enemies of the same color to continue your chain. Shooting 3 red, then 3 blue doesn't break your chain. This mode makes the game a hell of a lot more approachable than the normal mode which the best strategy is to shoot all the red ones.
In many modern shoot em ups, the game makes itself harder if you are playing well.The real pisser with RSG is that the game is harder if you aren't playing well. Your weapon levels are tied to how well you are scoring. If you aren't chaining well, the further you progress, the more underpowered you will be. You can offset this by playing in story mode, which lets you save your weapon level progress across play throughs.
Yeah, I played the demo last night and definitely didn't fit its groove. I fully expected to, having enjoyed Ikaruga (when I'm not raging against it) but maybe I've just hit my limit on this stuff. I definitely liked the Covert Ops or whatever the hell it's called demo way more.
Yeah, Radiant Silvergun is quite complicated, and by no means an ideal introduction to 'modern' shooters, IMO. To anyone looking for glorious screen-filling explosions and a smoother difficulty curve, I'd advise picking up Mushihimesama Futari. You can pick it up for about 35 bucks, it has tons of different modes and is perfectly balanced. t's my favorite game of all time and it could (should?) be yours too!
Yes, I do champion shmups in general and Futari in particular. It may be a niche genre but I feel they can deliver thrills and satisfaction to a degree few games do these days. I wish I was more articulate, so I could champion this better but heh, maybe it's for the better. This way I can sit here in my ivory tower and be an elitist douche ;)
Tom, about your last comment. It's not even for all the pre-existing fans. As a guy who bought the game on Saturn and had a blast playing it at the time, I can say you already had to do the digging at the time, it wasn't easier. And actually, much to my shame, I discovered some of its intricacies only recently: I made way more efforts to get into the game this week than I did when it was released and when I replayed it every couple of years until my Saturn finally died. And boy does it pay.
To add to what you wrote, the game gives you additional credits and lives as you play it. The Saturn metric was a credit for every played hour or something like that. It seems it's somehow different this time.
In effect, the game gets easier as you learn it, but also as you get more lives/credits and you weapons level up in story mode.
I love this passive-agressive approach to the learning curve: throwing you into the water, letting you drown and telling you next time you won't drown that much. It's a twisted incentive but it actually works and makes the progression all the more satisfying.
I should say I'm rediscovering the game but honestly, everything old is new again and it's an absolute blast.
Fun fact: I looked a FAQ for the Saturn version on gamefaqs and the existing one is full of dated console wars silliness. more than 10 years later, the guy's irrationnal hate of Einhander looks absolutely out of place, considering a lot of people have forgotten Einhander but know or remember RS.
(New comment system? New comment system!)
I love that there's a sort of hardcore shmup class of gamer, and it sounds like ian, thomas, and DZ might be in that category. Thanks for your comments, guys.
DZ, I really wish Radiant Silvergun (I'm not hardcore enough to call it RSG yet!) was clearer about the different modes. There is no explanation whatsover -- none! -- of the differences between story mode and arcade mode. I have no idea why I'm saving different progress files and I have no idea which modes use which files. Your use of the word "passive-aggressive" is so perfect, but I wish it didn't apply to the metagame as well. Urk.
Oh hell yes, Tom, there's a thriving subculture of shooter* fans out there, and I love following along to see what the next big thing is. I myself have never been a fan of the bullet hell games, so I was really looking forward to playing this one, but for a reason I can't explain, I'm just not feeling this one. Probably because, to borrow one of your terms, I am mostly a shooter* dilettante.
*Sorry. I really don't like the word "shmups" even though I'll admit that "shooter" just isn't very descriptive.
Yeah, shmup and bullet hell are pretty bad terms for the genre. Unfortunately, "shooter" is already taken, so that doesn't really work either. It's like people who try to refer to Call of Duty as a "war game".
Radiant Silvergun is not bullet hell (which is a subgenre of shoot 'em ups). In fact, it's hardly even a real vertically scrolling shooter (as you observed). In practice, it's more of an incredibly demanding action puzzle game. Also, it was an arcade game, before the Saturn port.
This is on Steam now. :)