Arcade Archives: Phelios (PS4|5 - Switch)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Arcade Archives: Phelios (PS4|5 - Switch)

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DANGER ZONE (PART XXV)
CLASH OF THE GODS


Time to say "Goodbye" to the Genesis port of Phelios, 'cos Namco and Hamster brought the arcade game home.
Yeah I know. All your attention is over Artemis.



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One decision before starting your adventure.

The first thing you've must learn before start playing is to choose the difficulty. You can decide to play an easy or hard version, but here's the catch: Easy only allows you to play a few levels before the game ends just like the Arcade version of Gradius III, while picking Hard is the complete game.



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Apollo, the ancient Dragon Buster.

Although being a vertical shooter, Phelios makes a turn from being an Xevious-based game like Dragon Spirit did, the vertical scrolled shooter with air-to-ground targets breaking with the monotony of the Air-to-Air combat and that also means take down ground targets with your regular shots. This game ditches that for a more Gradius/Salamander-like mechanic using Options that fire the same shots as the player. However, unlike Konami's shmups, Phelios limits Apollo's firepower and the number of Options, allowing him to carry 3 instead of 4. Some of the power ups are exclusive for the rider and others can be used for both Apollo and Options. Being the Beam the Apollo only weapon, locking the options from firing even its default shots, but replacing them with a strong, wide and fast firing rate shot, the Across weapon, which is the "Bounce" weapon of the game, can be fired by both characters, while the Homing is another Apollo-only weapon. But there's another weapon that can be used for both Apollo and the Options and that's the Charged Shot. Like in games such as R-Type, Megaman 4 and the Megaman X series, you have to hold the fire button until you fill a gauge in order to release a powerful fireball that causes greater damages. Like R-Type, Phelios core gameplay is based around this principle and you'll better learn and master this in order to make some progress since you'll be stucked with your default "Pea shooter" as the weapons are stage exclusive for the first 3 levels and they have temporary duration. Fortunately, that "Temporary" only counts as long as you fire them like a Megaman special weapon, so they act as limited ammunition, indicated by a crystal on the hilt of the sword-shaped gauge. After having the last Power-up item in stage 3, you'll be on your own and the game will really take advantage of your situation, since the game lacks of 1-hit to kill Popcorn/Zako enemies and some of them will take more regular shots due to the concept of the charged shots. Although the game pulls an R-Type on the concept of "Die-and-go-back", it is more tolerant with the player by giving Apollo a couple of heart points (or either 3 or 4 depending on the operator's adjustments) before going down, along with a reasonable amount of extra lives: 50,000 points for the first one, 100,000 for the second and the third after hitting the 200,000 point mark.



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A brief switch from the basic Air-to-Air combat.

The game makes a brief switch from the Air-to-Air combat to Air-to-Ground before the first boss fight. Here you have to destroy or at least evade the spore between the Death Skulls which shoot you eyes on pure Abadox-style. Destroying the Death Skulls will just reveal a congratulatory message for Apollo. That's also another detail from this game, throughout your mission, you'll be getting messages about the stage when you start that particular level. Unfortunately they're all in Japanese, so there's no translation about them.



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The best idea is to make them crash.

Phelios also break with all the known concepts of shmups. One of them can be found on Stage 3 where rather than shooting, the game will require you to do evasive maneuvering in order to make the Griffon Riders crash with the walls of the cliffs. It needs a little practice because of two things: First one, the first Griffons will come from behind, and then you'll be facing Griffons in front of you, requiring you to perform evasive moves and rely on the Charged Shot at the same time.



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Just when you've thought R-Type was brutal, this happens...

Stage 5 is gonna be extremely difficult, as it pulls a stage hazard as cruel as anything you've saw on Dragon Spirit. The main hazard here are the spiked balls. While the black ones can be destroyed by multiple regular shots or like 4 or 5 Charged Shots, the red ones are gonna be the worst of all, as they explode into 8-way large debris blast, and it gets worse when two red balls crash simultaneously, scattering deadly debris which could be hard to avoid. Don't be ashamed if you burn continues or rage quit in disgust. Another annoying stage hazard is on Stage 4 where the arches block the visibility, resulting in unfair collisions with bullets or enemies (another continue burner). Also, the Homing is not gonna be as helpful as its name implies. It might track its enemies but its way too slow, it can only be fired by holding the fire button (fatal for the first segment of the stage) and its fire rate doesn't help you either, so it is much more convenient to avoid the item.



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Give me a "P" (P!), Give me an "H" (H!), Give me an "E" (E!)
Give me an "L" (L!) Give me an "I" (I!) Give me an "O" (O!) Give me an "S" (S!).


For a final twist in the game, once you reach Chapter 7, the game will tell you to pick the letters that spell PHELIOS, because you need to pick the Sword of Phelios in order to defeat Typhon and his "Gigas" final form, and that will require you to destroy all the red capsules containing items. They could either include a letter or point bonuses from 50 to 5,000. So, missing one of them is not an option unless you memorize the level and know which ones are letters and which are bonus points.

While the original arcade was only ported to the Genesis, and is the mostly remembered aspect of the game. It was a solid home port, but technically, it was way too much for the console that claimed to have "Arcade Graphics and Sound" on its box. We would had to wait even more until February 2 of this 2023 when this game was released as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives. Remember that date, everyone 'cos that's the day we finally ditch the Genesis version and we can, at last, play the real arcade game. Along with the original game, we have the traditional bonus modes of Hi-Score (for those who are enthusiasts of the 1 credit, no continues) and Caravan (play for 5 minutes). Getting the 300,000 point Gold Trophy is gonna be a challenge for all the reasons mentioned before, so casual shmuppers will be pushed to their limits.


Got problems with the game? here's a couple of tricks that will give you an upper-hand against Typhon's forces.


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Medusa is an easy target.

1.- START WITH 4 HEARTS: This will require you to burn 2 credits if you don't want to do "Game adjustments" in the normal settings. As soon as you begin the game, get killed until you burn all your lives. Continue and you'll start with 3 hearts, repeat the deliberate suicide at level 1, continue again and there you go, start the game with 4 Hearts of life.
2.- MEDUSA IS A SITTING DUCK: As soon as Medusa appears, you can shoot at her nonstop as long as you're between her "Optic Blasts". As long as bullets hit Medusa, she's not gonna move, making her an easy target.



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Flowing rivers and spinning rocks with 3D-esque action.

In terms of graphics, it follows the same line of Assault, Ordyne and Mirai Ninja by utilizing the System II hardware and its pixel rotation and zooming effects, giving the scene, objects and enemies a sense of movement and great speeds and sometimes a simple 3D look like the rocks thrown by the green trolls at Stage 6. This graphic aspect is something that Namco will improve on Dragon Saber. Small details are even in constant motion like the water in Stage 6 and the lava in Stage 4. The only small flaw is the slight overpixelation in some aspects like some of the enemy explosions, the dragons of Stage 1 and the bosses which contrasts with the player's sprite. While I think they're trying to give them the sense of three-dimensional altitude change through movement, it simply goes a little bit off, but not as waaaaay too much like Cybernator and its screen covering explosions.



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Through the hourglass I saw you, in time you slipped away.

Like Dragon Spirit and Dragon Saber, Phelios ditches the science-fiction and military themes on shooting and made a more fantasy approach. This time, the game is based on the Greek mythology with all the major poem and folk creatures and divinities that engulf the Greek myths. In-between levels you'll be watching cutscenes, most of them are watching Artemis captured, tortured and tormented by Typhon in an attempt to run away from his temple, and others are a flashback of her romantic days with Apollo at Delos, followed by her advice of picking the Sword of Phelios to defeat Typhon. Although the cutscenes are incredibly well made and gorgeously animated, the torture scenes of Artemis were the reason why the Arcade game never left Japan. Ironically the Genesis version depicted her in a more revealing way and nobody complained about it. Not to mention, you severe the limbs and heads of the Graeae and you can see organs twitching from their decapitated bodies (and that was years before Mortal Kombat).



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The most remembered aspect of this game.

It is nice to see how they kept the anime styled influences on the character design, this is mostly notorious in Artemis, as the player character is never seen and Typhon is a reptilian-like entity. Back then, there was only two options in character design: Realistic or Anime. Namco decided to use the second option and it looks quite brilliant, even for the late 80's standards, and like most classic 80's animes, it really holds up when compared with modern designs.

For a game based on Greek mythology, the soundtrack ditches the electronic and upbeats in favor of a more Clash of the Titans influenced music score, and you know what that means: Epic, war-themed, marching drum filled soundtrack that reminds me of a later game: Super Turrican 2. While the epicity is intense in Stage 1, the game lowers that pace a little bit but the "War tension" momentum is regained in the third level. The sixth level has a more relaxed, yet action-suspense like beat that manages to fit the game. The cutscenes are packed with voiced dialogues which add more life to the game and its plot.


TRIVIOS

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The guys at Namco made a Konami nod.

- The name Phelios comes from the greek word "Helios" which means "Sun".
- Apollo is the God of the Sun and Artemis the Goddess of Hunt.
- The game's description on Arcade Archives website calls Apollo as "Apollon", based on the Japanese translation of the Greek name.
- Medusa
(Boss 1) was one of the Gorgons with a feared power: Those who gaze into her eyes would turn into stone.
- Curiously, Medusa means "Guardian" or "Protectoress".
- Like in Castlevania, the boss fight with Medusa is against a floating head that breaks free of the statue where it was confined.
- The Graeae
(Boss 2) were three sisters who were born blind, without teeth and with gray hair, and they shared an eye (Crystal ball in the game) and a tooth.
- The Graeae names are Deino
(or Dino) which means "Terrible", Enyo which means "I Remember" and Pemphredo which means "I sputter".
- Graeae means "Old Women". They're also known as "Grey Ones" and "Gray Witches". They're also known as Phorcides, which can be confused with the three Gorgons who are also daughters of Phorcys.
- Griffons, also known as Griffins
(Stage 3 winged creatures) were legendary half-lion, half-eagle creatures. Theire name comes from "Gryphos" which means "Curved" or "Hooked".
- The first depiction of Griffons were from Egyptian origin dating back to 3,000 B.C., In Iranian mythology they're known as Shirdal which means "Lion-Eagle".
- The first appearance of Griffons in Greek/Mediterranean mythologies are dated back from 1950-1550 B.C.
- For a mythological creature, the Griffon's origins have their roots on dinosaurs. Folklorist and historian of science Adrienne Mayor of Stanford University suggested that preserved fossil skeletons of Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus found by ancient Scythian nomads who mined gold in the Tian Shan and Altai Mountains of Central Asia, may have been at the root of the image of this mythical creature.
- Siren
(Boss 3) was a humanoid creature with an alluring voice. Her bird-like description is based on that from Argonautica, a 3rd century BC poem by Apollonius of Rhodes.
- In Berber and Greek mythology, Antaeus
(Boss 4) was the half-giant son of Poseidon and Gaia and he was invincible as he remained in contact with the Earth. He was defeated by Hercules by holding him aloft and crushing him to death with a bear hug.
- The name "Antaeus" means "Opponent". He was also known as the Giant King of Lybia. He was known by the Berbers as "Anti".
- Scylla
(Boss 5) was formerly a a beautiful Naiad who was claimed by Poseidon, but the jealous Nereid Amphitrite turned her into a terrible monster by poisoning the water of the spring where Scylla would bathe.
- Cerberus
(Boss 6), also known as the Hound of Hades is the dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving.
- Typhon
(Boss 7) was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology. He attempted to overthrow Zeus for the supremacy of the cosmos. But Zeus defeated him and threw him to the Tartarus.
- Typhon is also a primal divinity associated with hurricanes, hence the term "Typhoon". He is also known as Typhoeus, Typhaon and Typhos.
- Phelios made a Cameo in Tales of Vesperia as the item "(C) M Statue". You can obtain it on the Gachapon Machine that costs 500 Nam Cobanda Chips.
- During Namco's first Arcade Archives announcements on Twitter, Phelios was heavily requested by several users. On February 2 they got their wish.


MYTHOLOGICAL UNACCURACIES

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Everyone knows how this story ends, right?
After defeating Typhon, Apollo and Artemis went to Disneyland.


- Namco made a small twist on the myths of Apollo and Artemis, while in the real myth they're brother and sister, in this game they're lovers.
- Unlike the game, Artemis' took pride in never being in love with any man.
- While the mythology depicts Antaeus as a human being with god-like invincibilty as long as his body touches the ground, in the game is depicted as a flame-like being.
- Scylla is commonly known as a monster with six dog heads and several snakes springing from her thighs. In Phelios, Scylla takes the form of the Crystal Brain from Bakutotsu Kijutei, the sequel of Baraduke/Alien Sector.
- Mythology depicts Cerberus as a three-headed dog with a serpent for a tail, but in this game depicts him as a humanoid torso with three dragon-like heads, and the Genesis version as a Bydo-like bio-weapon that would fit on R-Type.
- The castle depicted in the ending resembles more of a fantasy-medieval one rather than a Greek temple.
- The Arcade Archives site and in-game manual calls Artemis as "ALTEMIS" and tags her as a Queen rather than a Goddess.




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It wasn't all my job.
Thank the Gods for this console port.


Looks like the Gods of the Olympus heard the people's pleas of playing this at home and ditch the Genesis version for good. Yeah, the fanservice of Artemis on the Genesis version is the mostly remembered aspect, but it can't be compared with the audiovisual spectacle of the original arcade version, and that's why Arcade Archives: Phelios is a fantastic surprise for Namco and Shmup fans.
Now we can only wait when they're gonna release Bosconian, Galaga '88, Fighter & Attacker and NebulasRay on the Arcade Archives series. Any of those games would be an amazing surprise.



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Another positive result on the "Lea Scale".
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