Gradius V
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| Gradius V | |
|---|---|
 The Gradius V cover depicts the Vic Viper starfighter accompanied by four Options. |
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| Developer(s) | Treasure Co. Ltd KCET |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Designer(s) | Hiroshi Iuchi (director) Atsutomo Nakagawa (director) Yasushi Takano (producer) |
| Series | Gradius series |
| Engine | Intrinsic Alchemy [1][2] |
| Release date(s) | JPN July 22, 2004 NA September 14, 2004 EU October 8, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Horizontal scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Cooperative |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen CERO: All Ages PEGI: 3+ OFLC: G |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Media | 1 CD-ROM |
Gradius V (グラディウスV Guradiusu V?) is a scrolling shooter video game created by Konami for the PlayStation 2, and the latest title in the Gradius series of games. The game has been noted for its graphical improvements, expanded gameplay, and maintaining the series' core aspects.[3] Gradius V made its first public appearance at the E3 gaming convention of 2003[4] and during the subsequent year in a near finalized form[5] prior to its release on July 22, 2004 in Japan.
Set predominately in space, the player navigates the starfighter Vic Viper through a continuously scrolling background depicting the territories of Bacterion, an evil empire which serves as the player's enemy.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Satellite orbit
The story opens in the year 8010, Gradius era, when a military space station orbiting planet Gradius is attacked by Bacterion forces. As part of a counter-offensive, Vic Viper of the Gradius army engages the assailants in space. After a short struggle, two spacecraft appear through a time warp, one identifying itself as a future version of the Vic Viper. The craft requests the aid of his past self in order to destroy the cores within a large Bacterion carrier which proceeds on a collision course with planet Gradius.
Diving into the burning atmosphere, the two penetrate the craft's rear hatches and interior defenses, before confronting an alien entity. With one core destroyed, the past Vic Viper exits and engages four approaching Core warships before entering the overrun underground stratum of Gradius' capital city.
[edit] Bacterion territory
Shortly after, the Vic Viper encounters a massive alien organism thriving in the darker depths of space. Navigating through an ever-changing terrain of moving flesh and regenerating tissue, Vic Viper eventually reaches the heart of the organism and obliterates it.
After emerging from the creature, the Vic Viper enters a debris-filled asteroid cluster and confronts the Bacterion's forward resource operation outpost. After piloting through the swarms of floating debris and defense installations, the Vic Viper engages a massive Core mining warship equipped with heavy weaponry within a sea of unprocessed rock.
The Vic Viper continues deeper into a nebula and discovers a heavily defended Bacterion manufacturing facility. Deep within, various devices process a mysterious and corrosive green liquid, and the Vic Viper bravely evades the deadly torrent. After navigating the liquid flow channels of the facility, Vic Viper finds an escape path to the exterior by flying in reverse. However, an entire flotilla of Bacterion Core defense battleships is waiting just outside the superstructure.
With the entire Bacterion defense army on full alert of a certain spacecraft rapidly closing in on the heart of Bacterion space, a massive rush of fighters scramble to engage the Vic Viper. Yet, the Vic Viper continues unimpeded and proceeds to infiltrate the gates of the enemy base at full throttle. After destroying a high-speed defense Core ship in a mad pursuit, the Vic Viper penetrates the high security area, defended by a heavily armed Core Wall and a colossal, multipedal zero gravity contraption called the Elephant Gear.
Vic Viper invades the innermost hangar of the Bacterion base, but is obstructed by a large unknown object. After a futile attempt to infiltrate the object, Vic Viper's computer concludes that it is impenetrable. After a full scan yields no weak points, the pilot recognizes the spacecraft as the one that appeared out of a space-time anomaly near the beginning of the game. He therefore orders the computer to generate that very same space-time anomaly and pass through. On the other side, Vic Viper runs into its past counterpart. Together the two ships manage to destroy the very core of the Bacterions.
Just before its final destruction, the Bacterion base's organic brain reveals that it is only part of a greater whole and thus there will always be new Bacterion invasions.
Mission sequence [6]
- Satellite Orbital Sky
Big Core Mk-1 Rev.2 - Battleship Part 1
Death Mk-III → Tetran
Big Core Mk-II → Big Core Mk-IV - City Underground Stratum
Ground Spider - Bacterion Cell Hub
Huge Heart - Asteroid Front Base
Blaster Cannon Core - Bacterion Multiplication Factory
Rolling Core → Circle Core
Big Core Mk-III → Covered Core Mk-II - Bacterion Fortress Hub
Beacon → Keepers Core → Elephant Gear - Battleship Part 2
Venom
[edit] Gameplay
Similar in design and structure to previous Gradius titles, players take control of the Vic Viper spacecraft with a traditional Gradius power meter at their disposal for changing or upgrading current weaponry by accumulating capsules from destroyed enemy ships and emplacements. When a power capsule is picked up and the power meter is empty, the first block of the meter becomes highlighted. Each time a new capsule is acquired, the next block becomes highlighted, deactivating the one that was previously lit. On each block a different power-up is available. At any time, the player can choose to add the highlighted block's power-up to the Vic Viper's arsenal, deactivating the power meter in the process. By repeating this process over and over again, the Vic Viper grows stronger and stronger over the course of play.
Possible power-ups include speed increase, weapons, Options (see below) and a protective force field. The exact lay-out of the power meter differs depending on the type of Vic Viper that was selected at the beginning of the game. Most power-ups can only be taken once, notable exceptions being 'speed up' and 'Option'.
'Option' can be selected up to four times, each time adding a new Option to trail behind Vic Viper in a growing tail.
[edit] Options
Options (called Multiples in the European and North American releases) are pulsating globes that trail behind the Vic Viper, mimicking both its motion and fire. Since Options cannot be harmed and can pass through any object without harm, clever use of multiple Options can allow the player's fire at places that are impossible to reach with just the Vic Viper.
New for Gradius V is the addition of a second attribute for the Options which allows players to manipulate the formation and firing angle depending on the type selected at the beginning of the game. By default, the Options trail behind the player's ship in a tail like fashion. The four types behave as follows.
- Type 1: Freeze
- Allows Options to be locked in a fixed position relative to the Vic Viper as long as the Option button is depressed.
- Type 2: Direction
- By depressing the Option button, the Options' fire angle can be aimed a full 360 degrees. While changing the Option fire angle, the Vic Viper cannot maneuver.
- Type 3: Spacing
- Places an even number of Options above and below the Vic Viper. The distance between the Options and craft expands or reduces when the Option button is depressed.
- Type 4: Rotate
- Allows the Options to be circled around the Vic Viper in a swirling fashion when the Option button is pressed. The next time the rotation is activated, Option motion will be in the opposite direction, alternating between clockwise and counterclockwise.
[edit] Development and history
Gradius V is the result of a collaboration between Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and development studio Treasure Co. Ltd, which incidentally was founded by former Konami employees in 1992.[7] Gradius V took many shapes and forms during the course of development and the staff changed aspects of the game's mechanics to distinguish Gradius V from previous efforts. Producer Yashushi Takano of KCET claimed in an interview on the promotional DVD Gradius Breakdown that the traditional Gradius formula had become stagnant, and that he sought a new direction. He also admits that some of their early work was not as impressive as it would later become. An arcade version was also planned but ultimately dropped because of time constraints.[8]
[edit] Changes from previous titles
Many aspects of the Gradius franchise were altered or tweaked for this installment. An important change is the format of the hitbox, the area of the Vic Viper vulnerable to damage, which has been reduced to only cover the ships's central body. Projectiles and hazardous materials may now scrape the edges of the ship without resulting in a fatal collision. In addition, the 'speed up' power-up now has a cyclic feature: if the power-up has been activated enough times to max out the Vic Viper's maneuvering speed, the power meter slot will display 'init speed'. This power-up, when activated, will reset the ship's speed to its initial value.
Other, smaller changes include the standard inclusion of a rapid-fire button and the time limits placed on boss battles. Bosses will eventually retreat if not destroyed within a set period of time. Lastly, the Weapon Edit option reappears for the first time since Gradius III, but must be unlocked by completing the game's first loop. This option allows the player to customise the power meter with different kinds of weapons, including many weapons not available in the default configurations.
[edit] Bundling and bonuses
A number of extras have been included in initial print runs of Gradius V in both Japan and North America. On April 9, 2004, Konami announced that a DVD called Options was being offerered to pre-ordering customers in Japan, containing interviews with the development staff, an art gallery and a collection of "super play" videos.[9] Adding further incentive for customers to purchase the upcoming product, Konami later revealed the availability of The History of Vic Viper – a limited edition booklet chronicling the history and weapons system of the Vic Viper ship and an additional promotional DVD with expanded content titled Gradius DVD The Perfect. Both items were bundled together with the finished game exclusively for the Japanese marketplace.[10]
[edit] Audio
The soundtrack was produced by freelance video game music composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, whose previous video game work included the soundtrack to the PlayStation role-playing game Vagrant Story and the arcade shooter Radiant Silvergun. Sakimoto admitted being both honoured and stressed by the task entrusted to him.[11] and also revealed that specific requests concerning the style of the music were given by his client, and the score as a result comprises remixes of material used in previous Gradius titles, as well as a number of new tracks in a similar vein.[11] It was released separately as Gradius V Soundtracks by Konami Media Entertainment on August 18, 2004.
[edit] Reception
Gradius V amassed a Metacritic rating index of 82, compiled from 46 reviews around the Internet.[12] Positive response tends to focus on the intricate level design, graphical excellence, and "old school" appeal of the frenetic shoot 'em up gameplay. Most negative criticism highlights the extreme difficulty of the game, as well as what is deemed an over-reliance on such a tried and true gameplay formula, to which G4TV said that "While the action is always constant and involving, the lack of variation and the need to be in an exact spot at an exact time is simply not going to strike everyone as fun."[13]
[edit] References
- ^ Intrinsic Alchemy customers. Vicarious Visions Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-06-02. (archive)
- ^ Track Record. Vicarious Visions Alchemy. Retrieved on 2006-08-09. (Japanese)
- ^ GameSpy.com - Game of the Year - 2004. GameSpy.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-07.
- ^ Gradius V E3 2003 Preshow Report. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2006-07-29.
- ^ Gradius E3 2004 Hands-On Impressions. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2006-08-07.
- ^ . (2004). Gradius Options [DVD]. Japan: Konami.
- ^ Treasure Company Profile. GameSpy. Retrieved on November 2, 2006.
- ^ . (2004). Gradius Breakdown [DVD]. North America: Konami.
- ^ Gradius Preorder Bonus. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved on July 25, 2006.
- ^ Early Gradius V Bonus. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved on July 25, 2006.
- ^ a b Hitoshi Sakimoto interview. CocoeBiz., L.L.C.. Retrieved on June 22, 2006.
- ^ Gradius V. metacritic.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-25.
- ^ G4 - Feature - Gradius V Review. G4TV. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.
[edit] External links
- Official websites
- General resources
