shmups.system11.org

How important is it to chain and level up weapons, and how screwed will you be later on in the game if you don't chain enough to get your weapons fully leveled?


<changed RQ to GD -inc.>

You won't be able to take down bosses like XIGA without chaining weapons pretty much. Of course this means you have to endure the boss fight even loner making the goal a tad bit more difficult.

Well I mean, to what point do you need to chain? Can you chain the first two stages, then ghetto chain the rest, with some screw ups here and there, and still get by?

The sooner the better. Whilst you can easily pass the first boss without doing so you might want to get it ready for when the 3rd boss shows his mug. I'm not really good at forming tactics for this though, ask someone else ;)

if you're playing arcade mode, you will want weapon levels for A and C to be 10+ at least.

Oh yes. If your playing Arcade Mode choose Area 2 instead of Area 4 when going for 1CC. Area 4 is like evil. Well not as evil as Area 5 anyway.

I was planning on doing Saturn mode, but maybe I'll play Arcade mode to skip out on chapter 4 until I can 1cc it or something. I can get my weapons to level 10ish by the end of chapter 1, but they progress SOOO slowly after that, especially since I don't know how I'm supposed to chain persay, I just kind of wing it.

Arcade version is easier anyway since you don't ave to fight that bloody phoenix boss.

IIRC the weapons level up a bit slower in Saturn mode (to balance out having the extra stages to score in), though using a "saved" game is good just to practice surviving without having to worry too much about weapon strength. IIRC you can eventually unlock a stage select too...

Being this thread already I will exploit it for my requests instead of opening another one

I'd like to know how gameplay mechanics work in this game.

I know only that you have different weapons and you need to chain enemies to upgrade them, but I don't know what are the principles to follow in order to chain and how the chain itself works on the upgrades.


I don't have the game nor a Saturn console, but I plan to buy both since I like this and other beautiful shmups ported for this wonderful machine, I've seen a couple of superplays and I'm curious.


VTF-INO is a god!!! His swordplay is really amazing, is so much confident that makes the game seem to be designed to play this way!

There are guides on this, but the basic principle is to either stick with one color, or get one red, one blue, then one yellow, and continue chaining yellow. After that, the trick is finding out which will net you the most points at each spot in the game. Most of the time you can just stick to red and be fine though.

Also, you have three weapon types to level, A, B, and C. All the other weapons, are just combinations of these, and divide the "experience" equally. So using A + B (lighting, right?... I could be wrong) will level up both A and B, and using the radiant sword will level all 3 (albeit much more slowly, since it's divided). Also, they affect different aspects. I believe a higher level in weapon C will increase how far apart the homing beams for the lightning gun will go, and A will increase damage on most guns (at the very least it affects the three guns using the A button).

So yeah, those are the basics as I understand them... I think there's actually an FAQ at gamefaqs that isn't too bad.

I tried that guide on Gamefaqs: it's really big, but not alway clear... however, it was einough clear to let me understand the generic idea of the chaining system. So thank you


From what I read, I think RSG is a really deep shooter in wich you have to consider many things top maximise your score: you have to evaluate if it's better to chain reds or yellow in the level, because yellows are worth more points but are scarce, so if they are too few it's better to stick to reds, and also you have to use certain attacks in certain situations for a certain amount of attacks to obtain weapon bonus, so you are forced to think in wich situation you can destroy a couple of enemies with, for example, homing weapon to obtain extra points...


I think the funniest part shoul'd be thinking about strategies to maximise score, so I'm glad I didn't watch too much those superplays on rjpageuk's site

I agree. Watching super-plays of "puzzle-em-ups" like Radiant Silvergun does kind of hurt their appeal a great deal. Super-plays only become fun for those games when you start to get really good, figure out some of your own things, and then compare strategies, find out what you're doing right, what you're doing different, and what you're doing wrong. At least, that's how I am ^_^

Yeah, that's the spirit, cheers for puzzle'em ups

And yes, this way of thinking is good also for Raizing games, otherwise you end up emulating, not playing. We shoul'd try to play Garegga like a regular shmup, then read about rank and medals, and try to make score and survival exploiting exclusively this knowledge, then read about milking strategies, secrets, try to envolve in our strategies, and then watch to superplays to find better ways to do what you do your way.


Or we thought about learning to play guitar starting from Michael Romeo solos?????

Arvandor, you well and truly know my views on RS

Anyway, as mentioned, your weapons will power up at a quicker rate in Arcade mode than they do in Saturn mode. Plus, the game is slightly shorter.

But for practice, keep saving in Saturn mode until you have them at say 15 or higher. That way you can breeze through Areas 3 and 2 and start learning strategies for later Areas. Then you will know what's coming when you go for the 1CC.

Where I can read your review? it is the one in the xenocide files?

Did you mean mine? I haven't done one. I was saying that Arvandor knows my views on Radiant Silvergun, meaning he knows how I feel about the game. I've owned it 8 years and still play it regularly.

Looooooool, I read wrong


However, I'd like to know your view about the game however especially if you played it for eight years

Well, for starters, I'm not good at it! I just love the game. I was sold on the hype SSM were giving it back then and just had to own it. Unfortunately, the store I pre-ordered through never got any copies in and so began a mad and frantic search. A few months after it came out I found a guy selling bundles of Japanese Saturn games and in one bundle was RS. I grabbed it. The game cost me a whole whopping US$18

Anyway, to me it is the greatest game ever made for any console. Not just the best shooter either, it's the best game. I can't pinpoint what it is about it but I still get this feeling of awe every time I put it in the Saturn. I read the Faq's and walkthroughs on it wish I was half as good as those guys but the bottom line, I just love playing Radiant Silvergun.

Have you one credited the game? How much time it took?

i got a 1cc on silvergun in maybe 150-200 hours (?). you can see me in the silvergun hi-score thread

ben-shinobi is a famous french RS player, and his website is here:
http://benjamin.bouloch.free.fr/ben-shinobi.htm

and there is a very in-depth guide from one of the links at the top (it is french converted to english). i found it very helpful

Ok, scuse me if I answer slowly





I know well the skills and knowledge of Ben Shinobi but I wanted only to discuss about the game concepts without going in particular; viewing superplays of a game before starting even playing it it's a pity


The fun it's in discovering the strategies by yourself, especially in an "adventure shooter" like this. However, thanks for the infos

if you are really interested in some of the background to silvergun, such as the thoughts of the man who created it, and story-line, you can also visit:

http://www.emuxhaven.net/~silver

but you really need to buy this game ASAP

I think I'm going the wrong direction...so far I tried my best to get a consistent score in stage 3, only to notice then when I enter stage 2 (the route that I plan to do) I completely go OMG and die, die, die.....maybe going forward leaving the chaing thing for later is the best choiche?...any opininon?

it's best really to try and chain as much as possible
your weapon levels (A, B, C) are directly powered up according to the points you make with each weapon. so if you don't score highly, your weapon levels remain quite low. and xiga for example (6A boss) is extremely difficult if weapon levels too low. my advise would be take point scoring in these priorities:

1. chains
2. boss bonus
3. weapon bonus
4. merry dogs and scratching/boss milking

so maybe chain levels, but kill bosses quickly instead of trying for the 100%. most bosses on stage 2 can be killed with 1 hyper sword attack

hope some of this helps!

Huge help, for sure! Thank you!
About chain, I'm enough confident in stage 2 and I'm starting to get used to stage 3.
I do aim for 100% bosses, but without those eternal leechings. On the other side, I still don't completely understand why pushing the same buttons in every run sometimes I get the weapon bonus (mostly for C, obviously) an sometimes no. Scracthing is no worry atm. I'm still having troubles choosing to play with pad or stick....the stick allows better movement control, but using 7 buttons makes me think I'm playing some progmetal stuff on a keyboard!

i agree totally. i have the saturn and the st-v versions. the trouble with playing with three buttons is not only pressing more than 1 button at a time, but also *releasing* them at the same time. but my personal opinion and observations from me playing is that i'm able to make more accurate small movements with an arcade stick. i'm contemplating hacking it apart and adding extra buttons as three is just not enough really!

leeching bosses only makes small scores, so i wouldn't worry about leeching bosses. the only 1 that is very good for score is 4C but as you play stage 2 route, it's not important!

for the weapon bonuses, click the link i posted before to ben-shinobi's site, and click on the RS faq. it has extremely detailed information on all aspects, and will explain to you what parameters need to be achieved for weapon bonuses, etc etc.

i have a score for stage 2 route of about 18 million, and while i think it is better designed than stage 4, there aren't as many points available. but my main tip would be to kill the 2E boss as quick as possible. it takes much time to get 100%, and the lives you lose will not be worth the point gain.

but yes, chains are most important. like section 2B for example, i like to carry a hyper sword ready over from the 2A boss, because if you can start a secret chain on 2B (1 red, 1 blue, 1 yellow) and then kill all the rest of yellows that stage is worth over 1 million points . and the hyper sword is there as a backup in case you look likely to make a mistake.

You also own the STV version?! WOW!
Do you play on cab or supergun? I just imagine how this game would look on a cab.....when I finally had the chance to play (only once) Ikaruga on cab after 2 years spent on a TATEd 15" tv I started crying like a child!!!!
BTW thank you once again for the precious info!
ATM I'm busy with university and guwange tournament, but the saturn is always ready!

i have a supergun set-up. if you have any other questions, hopefully i can help . i really should start playing this game again....

Hello everyone.

I need some info about gameplay and mechanics that are probably already known or really obvious, or easy to find on the net, but since I've not so much time to spend with the pc and -more important- at the moment I can use only 56k I'll ask here.
I decided to stick to arcade mode, stage 2 route. Stage 3 is "fine", I exit with 3.3-3.4 mil.

So (very silly stuff first):
-how do I unlock the four extra options? I've unlocked stage select and game speed, other two are to unlock. What must I do?

-does the number of dogs uncovered affect something?

Then:
-there is still something I can't understand about weapon bonuses, particularly with the C weapon. I know that I must make 16 hits (from Shinobi's guide) but I can't understand if BOTH the sprays must hit, if 16 means 8 C shots with both sprays hitting something... In every run I do the exact movements and attacks at the very start of the game but sometimes I get to the first boss with 152k, some other times with 142k, so there is a 10k weapon bonus miss.
-what abot the Z weapon ("homing plasma" or something)?

It was said before that weapon levels are related to score. So it's sort of mandatory to get the chain work done properly. Are weapon bonuses related to the weapon level up as well? Or are these two completely different things?