THE SEIBU KAIHATSU BOOK OF GENESIS (Part II)
SCIONIC WARFARE
Seibu Kaihatsu keeps making surprising returns in Arcade Archives.
While it is not the heavily requested Raiden II, it is still a shmup from the company. Even if its from the Pre-Raiden era.
This time, Hamster and Seibu Kaihatsu brings us Scion.
Finding a way into the city.
While at first, Scion looks like a basic vertical shmup where the objective is to take control of the Mana Jatatei (that's your ship's name) and try to survive endless waves of enemies as much as you can until your spare ship stock runs out, the true nature of its game is revealed as soon as you take down a Jatatei and get the Power Unit: Scion is actually a take on Namco's Xevious since the game involves air-to-ground targeting. This in fact is the core of the game's gameplay. While in Xevious was bombarding literally on everything and on everywhere, Scion goes a little more "Surgical" by taking down Energy Blocks in order to advance to the next "layer" of the trapped city. In fact you can take all the time you want since the layer will remember which blocks were destroyed as it loops forever while you concentrate on making points with the air targets. Fortunately, there's no time limit to push you and that encourages self-imposed "challenges" like taking down "X" number of enemies and rack a higher score without advancing to the next layer of the city. At first you begin with the air-to-air weapon or "Anti-Air Psycho Ray" before taking down a item carrying Jatatei to obtain the Power Unit, equipping you with the Ground Attack Crusher, which is your Air-to-Ground weapon. While on Xevious, the Blaster is your Solvalou-bundled weapon, in Scion, it becomes a separated upgrade. But once you pick it, you have to be more careful than normal because if it gets hit by a bullet, it will be destroyed. Also, you have to stop shooting once the carrying Jatatei is destroyed because you can destroy the Power Unit with your own shots.
Bomb the base!
In the tradition of the Andor Genesis, you have to use Air-to-Ground weaponry to take down the boss, which this time is a base which will reveal after all the switches and key ground targets are taken down. You'll probably think it will loop again with the previous three layer and base configurations, but the truth is the game has a total of 11 "Maps". 11 Layers that have to be cleared in order to save cities and bomb the bases. While the game is the classic 3 lives, no continues format, it is far more forgiving, enjoyable and playable than Xevious since both ship and enemies are on the right speeds. That means you can shoot down more enemies despite having a basic frontal shot. The main objective is to see what's beyond level 999. Thought clearing 99 stages was enough? Think again.
Never expected that.
Looks like there's more to Scion's gameplay than meets the eye. Well, we know both Xevious and Super Xevious had hidden secrets that increase your score, but Scion adds hidden secrets in the game such as shooting the Ground Attack Crusher to a stadium to reveal a baseball or a racetrack to reveal a horse, once you unlock them you can "land" on the airstrip on the background.
Talk 'bout cryptic.
Breaking the Energy Units are also a bonus factor. If you break the units in a specific order, you can obtain a Bonus Tip, which is the 1Up of the game, and what's better you can do this on all the 11 stages of the game. This feature changes the pace of "Surgical Precision" to "Tactical Precision" as you can decide to take the specific pattern or take down each unit as soon as it gets in your sights.
This was the only home port back then.
While the arcade game was unique for its time, the dawn of consoles and computers were unable to pick the fun, except for the Japanese MSX computer which had a port of Scion. Although it simplified the level from 3 phases to two of them, it made a solid port in gameplay and recognizable graphics despite its limitations. After that, it was forgotten for any console, and even any Raiden game as a bonus (Remember Mezase! Senkyu Oh's demo in the PlayStation port of Raiden DX?) until October 30th, 2025, when it was resurrected as an early Halloween surprise by Hamster and Seibu Kaihatsu as part of Arcade Archives and Arcade Archives 2, and its good to have another Seibu shmup in the collection with the genuine graphics, sound and gameplay. Also, the classic interface was replaced with the Arcade Archives 2 one, adding an even more complete manual explaining all the secrets of the game ("No More Secrets" indeed). Since its based on the original Japanese hardware, the only difference between Seibu Denshi and the localization by Cinematronics is the disclaimer, where the Seibu logo was replaced with "CINEMATRONICS LICENSED BY SEIBU DENSHI INC. ©". Yeah, Seibu Denshi changed the publisher in North America after splitting from Venture Line (Stinger). In fact, Cinematronics was the "Seibu USA" before switching to Taito (Air Raid/Cross Shooter) and finally teaming up with the company of Frank Ballouz, better known as Fabtek which became the home and american arm of the Raiden family and Seibu Kaihatsu's catalogue as well.
Surpassing Namco in not one, but two levels.
For a 1984 game, thinking of multiple layers was not just an experimental concept. It was experimental and potentially expensive. Seibu Denshi took the challenge and gave us layer effects for the game adding a sense of depth as each level "peels" the layers that engulf the trapped city prior to the enemy base bombardment.
As for the music, it feels quite repetitive most of the time. Fortunately, we're in the 2020's. So mute the game and play a Hi-NRG song like "Video Games (Gets in your brain)" for a retro-arcade hall atmosphere, or any of the music of the Raiden games. Here's a little suggestion.
Lightning War (FM Towns Version)
Rough & Tumble (SNES version) (SNES Raiden Trad sucks, but it has good music)
Lighting Strikes
A Stormy Front
Gallantry for Nova
SCIONIC FACTS
- First Seibu Kaihatsu title released as part of Arcade Archives 2.
- First Seibu Kaihatsu title released on XBOX Series X/Series S.
- Second Seibu Denshi/Kaihatsu game and second shmup overall.
- The Arcade Archives release is the second home port of the game and first Arcade-Perfect port.
- Lone Seibu game published by Cinematronics.
- The power up loss after clearing a stage was retained on the Atari Lynx port of Raiden.
- The "Tips" and warps were repurposed as the hidden SOL towers in the Raiden series (Raiden DX, Raiden IV, Raiden V) and Caladrius.
- It is unknown if Crystal Heaven is related with the Crystals plot element from the Raiden series.
- Like Stinger, it is also a mystery where in "Raidenverse" timeline Scion takes place.
More vintage "Pre-Raiden" Seibu history.
Seibu Denshi made a twist in the formula of Xevious giving us a more complete and solid clone which in my opinion was better than the original from Namco as it plays a bit more fair and with fresh new mechanics that greatly improvise the premise of Xevious rather than be a mere copy.
The "Raiden Family" grows in our consoles: Stinger, Scion, Raiden, Viper Phase 1, Raiden Fighters Remix Collection, Raiden III x Mikado Maniax, Raiden IV x Mikado Remix, Raiden V/Raiden V Director's Cut and Raiden Nova. "Lightning Collection" indeed (Sorry, Power Rangers).
How long do we have to wait for Cross Shooter/Air Raid, Raiden II, Raiden DX and the Raiden Fighters series to hit Arcade Archives? Just gives us all that and you can post all the Namco-Taito-Konami-whatever stuff you want.
8 R-9's out of 10 in the R-Scale:
