I don't know if there are papers on the topic. I guess not, even from Japanese experts...these are all "ancient" works, and researching them would take time and patience (It's "publish fast or perish soon", these days: writing about lolis and Isekai might result in quickly published material). Then again, I should search for relevant material first
Said this:
I am pretty sure that homing lasers, wireframe sections and ascending ships are based on some classic animation sequences that have become akin to "animation/visual tropes" (a bit like the
Metal Black's bonus stages have the Itano circus dancing missiles in videogaming form). Taito programmers always tried to offer a cinematic and anime-atic experience to their works, so all these tropes as references to earlier works should not be surprising (I am being lazy and not linking to the relevant shmuplations, sorry). The same could certainly be said about other companies and games (e.g. Konami:
Gradius II and
Surprise Attack are two examples I can summon right now), but Taito were generally way more explicit about this intent.
For instance:
In
Raystorm ST 4 should feature several of these visual tropes, but I think that the ascending lasers suddenly turning in the player's direction appear somewhere in a
Harlock episode first (the '77 series), and then pop up again in several other works
Macross? I haven't seen it in 25+ years or so).
On a similar note,
G-Darius includes sequences that are based on Matsumoto's classics (
Harlock,
Yamato). The best example I can think of is the fight with Absolute Defender: a volley of lasers should start from the right side and at a deeper level than the player's position, move to the centre of the screen and curve while transiting to the left side, due to the visual effect of moving on the depth axis.
I'd add that Mech design seems more inspired by other "realistic mechas" series (
Votoms, perhaps?). However, right now I am thinking that "Odin", ST 5's boss in
Rayforce, and the fact that it looks like one of those chunky and yet flamboyant mechas from Nagano Mamoru's manga series (
Joker galaxy, or whatever it is called).
As a teen, playing two shmups with so many obvious manga/anime/etc. references (and from Taito, even) had its own strong mesmerizing effect. Still, I remember that my gaming partner on
Raystorm at some point was literally grimacing through our credits, seeking the elusive 1-CC trophy. There's a limit to how many "deaths from auto-centre ship movements" a man can withstand in a single night (or single semester, frankly...).
Bonus track:
Battle Garegga features at least one
Gundam reference, too: the ending credits are an homage to the "ascending flamingoes" scene from the original series (ep. 18? The "White Base" ship lifts off from the Amazonian basin and a flock of flamingoes flies away. Next destination: Space).
Ghost track:
Sokyugurentai always made me think that the Raizing team had read at least Kim Stanley Robinson's
Red Mars (and maybe the whole trilogy?) but also other SF works on Mars colonization, and then decided to create a hard SF world setting (do they mention this, in the shmuplation? Too lazy to re-read it). The G.Rev guys certainly did: the orbital elevator in the game is located in "Sheffield" (Valles Marineris?), like the elevator in the third book of the trilogy (and their fates should be similar).
I actually think that a paper could indeed be written on this topic: "Japanese fiction lifti---pardon, using Robinson's trilogy as a source across media", or something. It would simply describe what those pesky Japanese authors did (and wild tangent: eugh, Robinson's work is not for me). Literature colleagues would call it a "close reading", I guess.
Chomsky, Buckminster Fuller, Yunus and Glass would have played Battle Garegga, for sure.