1.- A ''Run N' Gun'' game (Contra, Metal Slug, Gunforce)
2.- First Person Shooter (Wolfenstein 3D, GoldenEye 007, Halo, Gears of War)
3.- A Rail Shooter (Operation Wolf, Steel Gunner, Terminator 2 Judgement Day)
If you choose any of this options, you're wrong and i don't blame you, anyone would think on Run N' Gun when they hear the word ''Trigger''. Triggerheart Exelica is a vertical shmup created by Warashi (Shienryu and Sengeki Striker), and one of the latest games on the Sega Dreamcast.
Gameplay: 7/10
To begin with the game have four different modes:
Arcade Mode: The normal, basic game that is an exact copy of the Arcade version, this mode doesn't need a deep explanation or an in-depth analysis. You can select the game difficulty, the number of lives and bombs to start the game, and also adjust the 1up settings.
Story Mode: Like arcade with a backup story and different endings, it interrupts you when a stage begins like in Cybernator, but showing a pic of the character, some text and spoken, honestly that kind of "Interruptions" don't help the game, just slows things down. Like in Arcade Mode, you can adjust the difficulty, score and 1up settings.
Arrange Mode: A harder version of the Arcade Mode, there's more bullets in the screen, the enemies are stronger and unlike the other modes you can't change the game settings, so you have to fight your way to the end with just 2 lives and 2 bombs, and you can get 2 1ups in the whole game, but you'll need to reach 25,000,000 points for the first one and you'll get the second 1up when you have 50,000,000 pts. and for make things worse, there's no continues, that means if you die with the final boss, you go back to the beginning of the game, and to be honest i really hate this mode due to the insane difficulty, so get ready to "Reset to Nothing" a lot of times.
Training Mode: You can select 1 stage for practice, and selectable difficulty, power level, lives and bombs, there's no rankings for Training.
The variety is just simple beyond belief, you only have two characters, they with different shot types and anchor speed.
TH60 Exelica: Spread Shot, Slow Speed - This one is useful for beginners.
TH32 Crueltear: Linear Shot, High Speed - Straight shot and faster, for expert players.
Slow or Fast?, that's very basic for a game like this, i just expected more variety like in Blazing Star and Aero Fighters 2, that could be good for the gameplay.
You have 3 weapons in this game: Normal fire, Anchor & Bomb.
The Anchor feature is an original thing, you can capture an enemy for use it as shield or throw it to other enemies, the bonus is based on gold crystals that increases your score depending on the crystal size, and that's a pretty cool feature, being able to grab your enemies and throw them, it reminds me of Mischief Makers.
The game has a feature called "V.B.A.S." (Variable stage Boss Attack System) feature works like this: The boss phases are more or less depending on your scoring and playing performance (for example if you play perfect you'll face 3 or 5 modes), and an extra battle with Faintear in levels 1 & 3.
Very original features, but it's not out of flaws: every time you get hit your Triggerheart will generate a Field-like Shield that lasts 3 seconds, but there's a downsize to this defensive move: you'll lose all the extra bombs that you had, sometimes can be a real problem (like in Arrange Mode), and that's a little bit unfair because i didn't die, i just got hit by a bullet.
A thing that i hate is the countdown before unpausing the game, just like in the PS2 port of ESP Galuda, i think that's the stupidest and annoying feature that a game could have.
Graphics: 8/10
For be a Dreamcast game is nicely made, there's a good amount of detail in the backgrounds (except for the clouds which they look like they used "Filter>Render>Clouds" in Photoshop), the bullets are clearly visible the boss designs are very robotic & futuristic kinda like a combination of the Orbital Frames of Zone Of the Enders and the mechas of Virtual On, but the best part are the characters, i like the idea of use flying people instead of aircraft (like in Space Harrier or E.S.P. Ra.De), and i like more this idea when the characters are girls looking very cute and sexy (specially Crueltear, she's the hottest of the three
), but what i don't get is why they're wearing swimsuits, i know that's common on Mecha Musume, but in shmups it's unnecesary, if their Spec Suits were more like the Zero Suit of Samus in Metroid Zero Mission or the Plugsuits of Neon Genesis Evangelion, then will be fine, because if i wanted to see swimsuits i would play Dead Or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball instead of a shmup.Sound & Music: 7/10
The music was composed by Masahiro Kajihara (A.K.A. "KAJA"), yup, the composer of Gainax's Princess Maker game series, this could sound like a good idea but it doesn't, 'cos in this game, the music is very Midi and it tooks out a lot of points, and it reminds me of other games, for example, ''Exelica Dancing at Dawn'' (Stage 1) reminds me of Phalanx (Stage 1 ''Assault'' to be exact), according to Warashi's website, the game has "a 90's style music score", in my opinion that's a lie, because there's a lot of game's from the 90's has better music than this: Axelay, Gradius III, Blazing Star, Thunder Force V, Super R-Type and R-Type III are a big example of a real 90's style music score.
And in the Arrange Mode, the music is more reasonable, except in stage 1 where the horrible composing it's an example of how NOT to use a synthesizer for compose or re-arrange music.
About this "Ripped-off" soundtrack, i have another examples, ''Deep Crimson Impact'' (Faintear's theme) sounds like a variation off of "Duel of Top" by Tsukumo Hyakutaro (Rynex theme in Thunder Force V), and ''V.B.A.S.'' (Boss Battle) sounds like something from Naruto, instead of a Boss Battle if we compare it with "Get Rid" from Blazing Star or "A3" from Thunder Force V.
Replay Value: 2/10
Now you are gonna ask me: Why i'm giving this game a low rating?, well, something that anyone expects from a hard game are the unlockable rewards like Image Gallery, Sound Test and extra characters or new game modes (like in Raiden III, Thunder Force V: Perfect System or R-Type Final for example), but unfortunately this game DOESN'T HAVE ANY UNLOCKABLES, and that's a big disappointment
, because i think every hard game needs an unlockable reward that makes you worth all the problems that you can get.If it was a big game like Sonic Adventure 2 i understand it, but this game it only has 5 stages, compare this with Thunder Force V: Perfect System on the PlayStation, the game is 7 Stages long, it has a Time Attack mode, 3 Hidden variants of the RVR-01, a 3D Viewer, a Sound Test, 3 Text Reports, a huge CG Gallery, and 1 extra credit every 3 hours, and the game is programmed on a CD, just like the Dreamcast games, so the lack of unlockables in Triggerheart Exelica is unacceptable.
Endings: 3/10
(SPOILER ALERT!!)
The endings of this game screams "Lack of effort", and they're very disappointing (in my opinion)
Arcade Mode Ending: This ending is a "Your friend dies saving you", a sad letdown.
Story Mode Ending: Depending on your gameplay you can get a good or bad ending, the bad ending is a "Backed-Up" version of the Arcade Mode, but if you beat this mode without continue you'll get a good ending where your friend survives.
Arrange Mode Ending: When you beat this game mode you'll be thinking "A Hard game deserves a great ending", but unfortunately, it's the same ending of "Arcade Mode", when i finished this game mode i tought there's should be a special ending after the credits, before i tell you how the ''ending'' looks like, take a guess of what would you expect.
a) The unused, captured character survives (Crueltear, if you beat the game with Exelica), and you'll get a Happy Ending.
b) The whole battle was a game that the Triggerhearts were playing (kinda like the Zone W ending in Darius Gaiden)
c) Some fanservice pics of the characters.
d) Your character gives you a ''special message'' and thanks you for play this game.
e) A Post-Credits scene confirming the death of the captured character in stage 5 (like the post credits scene in Thunder Force IV showing the ruined Rynex)
All of them could be a nice option, but sadly there's no special ending for reward your problems, the only thing that happens in the end is that Faintear comes out along with the word "Congratulations!!" and she says "Did you see it? My great effort! Bye-bye!" (In japanese obviously), after 10 seconds the Game Over screen appears, at first i tought i unlocked Faintear as a third character, so i went to the Player Select and guess what... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! the only playable characters: Exelica and Crueltear, there was no Faintear to play with. In other words the ending is worthless, makes all the efforts go unrewarded and also makes this ending one of the worst endings (if it's not the worst ending) in videogame history.
This is when you ask yourself "is this game worth the $85 price you paid for failure?", OF COURSE NOT, and that's not fair because when you buy a game, you have something on your mind and that's "WIN!", that's why you play the game to the end and see how the game admits defeat. So if you're going to lose even if you beat the game, why the game doesn't have the god damn courtesy of say "You Lose" in a more honest way?, it could be something like this: "CONGRATULATIONS!! You made a great job finishing this game, but unfortunately you failed: one of the Triggerhearts perished in this war for no reason, Faintear is still alive and for worse you will not get anything as a reward for sitting the whole time and play this mode to the end, even if you defeated all the enemies. 85 Dollars and 20 Minutes or even hours of your life are now in the garbage because of this waste. YOU'RE A SUCKER. THANKS FOR PLAYING! GAME OVER.".
On a second tought: F@#$% that ending.
After the endings, the Name Entry screen has the hipocresy of say "CONGRATULATIONS!!" above the "Enter your name", Congratulations my... how they can say that when the satisfaction of beating the game is tarnished by a Triggerheart's death (and Faintear mocking at you if it was the Arrange Mode)?, i can understand it perfectly when i complete the Story Mode with a good ending becaude it has a lame but happy ending.
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Here's 5 things that should be improved in this game
- Story Mode: For a Dreamcast game we expect some good animations (3D or Anime) like Sonic Adventure 2, instead of seeing text interruptions like Cybernator.
- Arrange Mode: A completely useless (and worthless) mode, i think it they could make a Boss Rush or Time Attack (Like Raiden III or Thunder Force V), and turn the game mode as an unlockable.
- Game Music: That's one of the things that bothers me of the game, i know the original arcade game has the "Midi-Style" music, but at least put an option for hear better music (for example, the PlayStation port of Raiden DX had that feature), and that would be useful since the music in Arrange Mode sounds much worse that Arcade/Story Mode.
- Endings: Well, the endings, just i explained before, they're a disappointment, first of all, you don't wanna see your friend die, and get an incoherent ending in the Arrange Mode. I know it's a game, but in ending terms you can expect anything, from a sheet of paper saying "Great Accomplishment!" to a whole cutscene, but those endings are A-OK compared with the ones of Exelica, at least is not a sad one like Angeraze 2, but for quote Lilia from Airforce Delta Strike: "My... do better next time, i mean it".
For the Story Mode endings, some animations would be better than a picture and some dialogue.
- Replay Value: For a game like this they couldn't put an unlockable gallery and a Stage Select for Arcade & Story Modes?, Thunder Force V: Perfect System have that, and it improved the replay value even more, so in this game it'll make the gameplay more satisfying.
Extra Data: Well i found some stuff about the game.
- The game forbids three empty spaces or "SEX" as initials, if you enter it, it will be replaced with "WRS" (WaRaShi)
- When you're in the Game Over screen (it doesn't matter if you die or beat the game), press left or right in the pad for spin the "Game Over" symbol.
- You can change the background image in the Main Menu, just exit the menu and go back, there's 11 different background images.
Pro's:
- The game has 4 modes of gameplay.
- The Anchor "Capture & Throw" feature.
- The character design goes from cute to sexy
- The Boss Design feels very Futuristic, like a mixture between Zone Of the Enders and Virtual On.
- The V.B.A.S. System adds some challenge to the game.
Con's
- The Character Variety is very basic.
- Arrange Mode is an unfair and unnecessary game mode.
- Photoshop-Made Clouds.
- Midi-like Music, sounds like if Kajihara doesn't know how to use a synthesizer.
- Countdown to unpause, what kind of idiotic thing is that?
- In-game interruptions in Story Mode, works well on RPG's but not in Shmups.
- Endings are one huge letdown, probably the biggest letdown in both shmup and videogame history.
- No Unlockables, that sucks.
Conclusions: Triggerheart Exelica could be a decent game, Warashi made a good work in gameplay, graphics and artwork, but the bad music, lack of unlockables and the disappointing lackluster endings makes this game to cross the line turning out into a bad game. I know perfectly well that i'm not waiting a masterpiece of shmups, it's not Axelay, Thunder Force V or anything else, but the point is the game had potential, but they dropped the ball.
- If the game is focused on "Anchor Capture" instead of shooting, why they call it "Triggerheart", it should be Anchorheart Exelica, because the word "trigger" sounds more like "Run N' Gun" rather than shmup.
- Something that baffles me of the opening is the first character that appears: Crueltear, not only that, her Story Mode is more detailed than Exelica's, it feels like Crueltear is the main character and not Exelica, they should call the game Triggerheart Crueltear.
So that's my Review-Critic of Triggerheart Exelica.
Triggerheart Exelica's Final Score = 5.5/10