Notable Storyline/Villains/Heroes in a Shooter

[PowerofElsydeon]

I admiss Im aware that gameplay (in a real game) is the real focus and stuff lying around in the manual is unecessary

But It would be cool to know who the hell is the pilot that controls the Vic Viper (that can actualy be seen on the FMV of the Ps1 port)

I mean a Game Charm is a substance consisting of unikness that sets it apart from comon concepts and when felt appealing can induce to extended imersion wich is unrechable by cliché driven games
That s why phalanx would be some obscure snes shooter if it wasn t for the cover art

So lets not mention cute em ups or Radirgy/Karous ´cause the charm from those games comes from a diferente aestetic than the more cliche space figths and not from creativity with characters or storyline

Let me know some of your favourite characters or storyline that set your game apart from the rest

[Blinge]

There may be some language issues here as I'm not sure 'charm' is the right word; too broad.

[PowerofElsydeon]

Sorry im not 100% fluent in English

[Squire Grooktook]

Notable examples for me of games who's backstory entertainingly backs up the gameplay nicely:


Rayforce has a wonderful combination of backstory, atmopshere, visual story telling, ambience, etc. really the crowning jewel of the genre in this regard IMO.

Einhander's setting is pretty cool.

Metal Black has glorious dreamlike and melancholic atmosphere.

The Alltynex Trilogy is detailed as fuck in the guidebook and also weird as fuck which is a plus for me.

Touhou dialogue is unique....ly horrible.

Radiant Silvergun. Self explanatory.

I like Dodonpachi DOJ's has a gloomy feel that's uplifted by its gorgeous music. Aesthetically I consider it the dark souls of shmups and stg's (hate to make that over-abundant comparison but it works for me).

R-Type's lovecraftian biohorror backstory with IREM's characteristic gritty art direction is wonderfully oppressive.

Speaking of oppression, gloom, and lovecraftian horror, I consider X-Multiply to be the best unofficial Lovecraft game ever. DO YOU KNOW WHAT I AM???

[Xyga]

"how are you gentlemen?"

[Captain]

Einhander is more than just 'pretty cool'

You know all the comparisons I'll make, game is a nigh-masterpiece.

[Feedbacker]

I like Dodonpachi DOJ's has a gloomy feel that's uplifted by its gorgeous music. Aesthetically I consider it the dark souls of shmups and stg's (hate to make that over-abundant comparison but it works for me).

I just love that feel in DOJ, especially on stage 5 with the music, the DDP stage 1 boss and mid-boss carcasses lying down the canyons and those huge mechanical hearts at the end (probably here to maintain Hibachi alive).

R-Type Delta is amazing as well.

[ZacharyB]

I must agree with Rayforce. Awesome storytelling, without using a single word.

They're all nice little science-fiction vignettes.

Gun Frontier is another romantic favorite, especially after learning the trials and tribulations involved in its production.

[Durandal]

I like SHMUPs where you can make out the story by the progression of the stages/backgrounds.
Or having a recurring rival like in Strania, those final boss battles do really have another kind of tension than just covering 95% of the screen with bullets.

[PowerofElsydeon]

Well It s a shame that Zero Wing gets constantly trashed
I think its great gameplaywise tough its a R Type\Gradius wannabe It lives up to those titans
And the Music is awesome

But what I love about the Game is the actual Drama that hopefully doesn t get destroyed by that fucked up cutcene exclusive to the genesis
Cats is my favourite Vilian ever(I want to kill him so much) because after you beat him in a rough final boss figth he bails in some sort of escape pod and the game tells you to complete the second loop for the real ending but no matter how many times you beat him he always escapes
Except on the Genesis version that is
Plus he has a cool design

Gradius and R Type never achieved that so there is no denial that Zero Wing is Cool

Awesome music of the second level
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leHyfjTtypk

[Perikles]

I think its great gameplaywise tough its a R Type\Gradius wannabe It lives up to those titans

Cats is my favourite Vilian ever(I want to kill him so much) because after you beat him in a rough final boss figth he bails in some sort of escape pod and the game tells you to complete the second loop for the real ending but no matter how many times you beat him he always escapes
Except on the Genesis version that is

Hm, I cleared three loops of the MD version (starting on Normal instead of the default Easy) and always got the same ending (edit: not quite, loop 2 and 3 were the same; final boss escapes in either one, though). The only MD Toaplan shooter that actually hands out a different ending for each subsequent loop is Tatsujin.

Gradius and R Type never achieved that so there is no denial that Zero Wing is Cool

Tztztz, Bacterion's obituary is where it's at.

[Illyrian]

Muchi Muchi Pork.

Seriously, look the story up. It's amazing.

[Captain]

Speaking of CATS, there's another version of Zero wing with an additional final boss. Presumably the memelord dies, maybe not, I don't know japanese.

[Koa Zo]

Gaiares and Download 2 immediately came to mind when I read this topic.
I've become less of a fan of Gaiares over the years but the full screen cinematic story sequences are a beautiful design for the Mega Drive/Genesis.
Download 2 is a superb utilization of the CD-ROM format imo, NEC Avenue really made a great production with the game!

Cool that Radirgy was mentioned, I've always been charmed by that story and characters.

[Hagane]

I don't care much about storylines, but I do like memorable bosses and presentation. And man Raizing knew no match on this aspect. My favorite boss is Bashinet in the original Mahou Daisakusen, how it tries to stop you assuming several forms in different levels, and the amazing final showdown when you think you've beaten the game. A really neat touch.

[Squire Grooktook]

One thing I always thought would be cool would be to have a kind of "multimedia" universe shmup. Kind of like the way war-board games like Warhammer 40k have their base table top strategy game, but then they also have books of lore detailing characters, setting, history, etc. game spin off's exploring other parts of the universe, etc.

Touhou is the closest thing there is to that at the moment.

I kind of feel like Raizing might have had something similar in mind what with all the lore and character/machine bios they put out for Armed Police Batrider (and Garegga and Mahou to a lesser degree).

[PowerofElsydeon]

I think Ellinor Waisen from Aleste 2 is my heroine



She is the daugther of Ray Waisen who stared in the original aleste

The intro to arguably the best Compile game shows her papy geting killed by aliens who want to conquer earth
Thus she sets out to kill every fucker out there not for real revenge but more importantly to prevent mankind to decay
Obviously she suceds in dodging hundreds of bullets coming from zanac style randomization due to her incredible shumping skills(This Game has a Demon difficulty setting wich lives up to its name)
Plus I Admire her Tomboish personaity and looks

I mean it
It may not sound like much but she s better Lara or Samus not just because we are talking about a real harcore game with tons of replay value coming from Zanac´s A.I.
But because her cause to save the entire mankind and avenge the loss of her pappy is the migthiest determination a human being can have
That Determination gave her the incredibe power of flawlessly dodging hundreds of bullets
Wich is so unHuman

Damnd the Game came out in 89 and 2 decades and half have passed and Im unawhere of a better heroine

[LordHypnos]

I tend to like some cheesy half-assed shmup storylines. I don't know that I have a favorite, but Mars Matrix has an exceptionally good / bad one (depending on your perspective).
from the manual of the DC version (The heading is "The Red Planet Rebels!"):

Half a century has passed since humans successfully carried out their project to migrate to Mars.

During the colonization, several self-governing areas formed on the red planet, but independent control was never granted. Instead, the MDA (Mars Development Agency) was created by the Earth Federation.

Outwardly, Mars seemed to be self-governing; in reality it was a shackled colony completely controlled by Earth.

December 8th, 2309 ...
A sudden crackle of static bursts into Earth's atmosphere. An unexpected transmission from Mars breaks into all broadcasts -- "We declare our independence. We are no longer Earth's subjects" -- and all contact from Mars is lost

The red planet maintains an eerie silence. All of Earth's attempts to contact Mars fail.

Realizing the situation is extreme, the Earth Federation Army readies its toughest military contingent to deploy from the moon and converge on Mars. This armed spaceforce is made up of hundreds of ships -- and a few experimental fighters ...
Space explodes into a battlefield. The Mars War of Independence begins!

Now this is just excellent cheesy sci fi stuff (just begging for doujin games to expand the continuity, I might add,* maybe even fan fiction), but a few things stand out.

First of all: It's actually kind of ambiguous whether you're with the rebels or the Earth federation. Of course this is actually made pretty clear by the game itself (IIRC, anyway). You're an experimental fighter sent to suppress the revolution.

Second: Just looking over this, it seems like maybe you're actually a bad guy (Then again in Under Defeat you are actually fighting for the Germans in WWII, so... but still). I mean really, it sounds like maybe the Mars populace had good reason to declare independence. According to the ending sequence (or I think that's what it was), the reason for the rebellion was some nonsense about something called the "infinity chip" and a sorceress (the final boss) misleading the population, and that everyone realized that the Earth Federation was right all along after the chip and the sorceress were destroyed, but realistically that's just the official explanation, and it's not even particularly convincing. I guess the earth federation doesn't have to worry about some higher galactic federation questioning it's right to rule in this reality.

I find it quite charming indeed
~~~
*No official line from Final Form Games on this, to my knowledge, but I kind of feel like Jamestown works well as an unofficial prequel to this. Mars was settled during the events in Jamestown, and later there was a rebellion. The dates don't quite match up, but that seems like it could probably be explained away. Final Form Games did admit to being quite influenced by Mars Matrix in an interview with Shooting Gameside magazine. I wonder if I could figure out some way to tie in Cowboy Bebop

[Giest118]

Kamui of the Tales of Alltynex trilogy has an interesting final boss, storyline-wise.

tl;dr he's your grandfather's soul put in a planet-destroying superweapon.

[Captain]

One thing I always thought would be cool would be to have a kind of "multimedia" universe shmup. Kind of like the way war-board games like Warhammer 40k have their base table top strategy game, but then they also have books of lore detailing characters, setting, history, etc. game spin off's exploring other parts of the universe, etc.

I think Gwangedash, or more likely G-wange would end up as this if they weren't massacred.

[Lobinden]

One thing I always thought would be cool would be to have a kind of "multimedia" universe shmup. Kind of like the way war-board games like Warhammer 40k have their base table top strategy game, but then they also have books of lore detailing characters, setting, history, etc. game spin off's exploring other parts of the universe, etc.

Touhou is the closest thing there is to that at the moment.

I kind of feel like Raizing might have had something similar in mind what with all the lore and character/machine bios they put out for Armed Police Batrider (and Garegga and Mahou to a lesser degree).

I think this could work very well with certain CAVE games, especially Ketsui.

[Magma Dragoon]

This reminds me that I really should get back to writing about shmup villains, it's been quite a while.

[juonryu2nd]

Kamui of the Tales of Alltynex trilogy has an interesting final boss, storyline-wise.

tl;dr he's your grandfather's soul put in a planet-destroying superweapon.

I liked the Raiwat Libra in RefleX. The pride of its crew got broken in the most satisfying way possible.

[Lord Satori]

Tyrian is probably as immersive as it gets when it comes to shmups and storylines. I never get tired of reading through the datacubes. It's so good, you spam advertising new shop items and the like on occasion! I wish there were more like it. It has many notable villains, but the fact that Trent Hawkins, the protagonist, is given a name but never a face sells this immersion completely. The datacubes make you feel as if the Tyrian sector really exists, and even go into detail about the culture of some of the destinations.

As for actual characters, I like the Gradius concept of a character that is in complete control of it's entire army, but is ultimately powerless to defend itself. They're so convinced by their superiority due to their vast army, that they talk down to you to their very end despite their near to total lack of offensive power.

Another great example is the sentient karma compressor system named GARLAND from Hellsinker. Created by sacrificing and sealing the souls of four children to create a system that would suppress all karma in the world to create an everlasting paradise, the system fails mysteriously sending the world into a period of great despair.

Spoiler

This was caused when a girl looking for her lost cat inadvertently found her way in the system. The children's souls echoed for the first time causing the system to search within itself, shutting down and keeping the cat safe until it would be found.

GARLAND is one of those interesting villains because even though it is the source of all of the anguish that resulted, you can't really blame it for doing what it did. Considering how vague and open for interpretation the ending was (hell, the entire GAME), it's never made clear whether GARLAND was destroyed, restarted, or if something else happens. Also, the text fragments you unlock for beating EX 2 don't help either.

In an alternate universe where Udderdude bothered to complete the scrapped story for a certain game of his, that game would probably be mentioned as well.

[Zaarock]

I always thought the setting in Border Down was interesting.

The player ship is an Unmanned Vehicle, can't think of any shmup that does this and I think it's a really cool idea. It makes sense for a shmup setting and the border system. Once a vehicle gets destroyed your pilot connects with another. The ship design also looks unmanned and that allows for increased maneuverability and suicide missions etc.

Throughout the game you do simulations and a decisive battle against aliens with surreal designs called 'First Approach'. But in reality the aliens are fake and your commanders are creating a superweapon out of the Antares ship. Your piloting to repel the fake alien invasion is part of the development program. They create an improved AI piloted version of the player ship based on the players training & piloting data except now the ship can take a ton of hits instead of one. When you fight it in 6C/D the improved ship still follows the rules and attack patterns of your own ship for the most part, making it a true mirror fight (same invulnerability timings on the break laser, etc). Once you realize what happens the training stages and surreal alien designs make a lot more sense. Some of the bosses clearly have designs based on the Antares ship, probably preparing the AI to combat copies of the same superweapon. After rebelling and clearing 6C/6D your character apparently suffers brain damage. Don't remember what happens in the other endings.

[Magma Dragoon]

Some of my favorite villains:

* Sinistar: One of the earliest uses of digitized voices in a videogame, which really gives an otherwise mere giant floating skull a lot of personality.
* Dr. Venom: Probably one of the first instances of a fleshed out villain in a shmup ever. Also interesting how he himself indirectly caused his own species extinction when he went back in time.
* Eaters: From a unreleased Jaleco game, you control this creature which lives to prey on other living beings, changing it's form as it eats. You start as a mere microbe and climb on the food chain with each stage, eventually preying on humanity and causing a nuclear winter which decimates the planet.
* Mysterious Pilot: He pops up frequantly, making you wonder what the hell he has to do with anything, then you make to the end and find he has everything to do with all that happened.

[xxx1993]

I've enjoyed to the Shikigami no Shiro trilogy. Mainly, it's characters. I mean, Reika breaks the fourth wall, for example. I've also taken a liking to Kohtaro and Sayo. And DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou... I enjoyed that as well, I mean, it felt like I was really talking to the Element Dolls. Saya in particular spends most of the Xbox 360 Mode talking to the player. And what about Astebreed? I really liked seeing Roy and Fio fighting the Filune.

[xxx1993]

I like Dodonpachi DOJ's has a gloomy feel that's uplifted by its gorgeous music. Aesthetically I consider it the dark souls of shmups and stg's (hate to make that over-abundant comparison but it works for me).

I just love that feel in DOJ, especially on stage 5 with the music, the DDP stage 1 boss and mid-boss carcasses lying down the canyons and those huge mechanical hearts at the end (probably here to maintain Hibachi alive).

R-Type Delta is amazing as well.

Not really into the "dark and edgy" feels in shmups at all, actually... There's a reason why I dislike the R-Type series, RefleX of the Alltynex trilogy, and especially Sine Mora.

[Lord Satori]

I'm sure we can all agree on Sine Mora, but what exactly is "edgy" supposed to even mean in this context?

[Captain]

A completely serious setting. Often also dark.

Alien mind flayers and genocide come to mind from the above examples.