Radiant Silvergun

"WARNING: No Refuge"

There exists in this world only a handful of games that single-handedly redefine a genre. Super Mario Bros. redefined the platformer. Doom redefined the FPS. And although Space Invaders defined the shmup, Radiant Silvergun redefined it and completely exceeded everyone's expectation of what a game in the genre should be. Released quietly in the arcades and then to the Saturn in Japan only, RS is a highly sought-after masterpiece that not even its spiritual sequel Ikaruga can outshine.

Presentation

Radiant Silvergun is simply, yet efficiently presented. It features the original Arcade Mode, Saturn Mode (which is an enhancement of Arcade), and a fine array of various Options. There are no other modes, however there are unlockable options that will mimic other modes, such as being able to start at any stage.

For a Japanese-only release, there isn't a lick of kanji anywhere in this game. Everything is in English, which is great for importers. Unfortunately, all of the voiceovers (essentially the entire story) are all in Japanese. Normally this wouldn't be that much of a problem because the story is unimportant in a shmup, but not in the case of Radiant Silvergun!

RS breaks new ground in the shmup genre by having a completely epic storyline that is suprisingly cohesive and engaging. The storyline (dare I say) beats out the plots of some RPGs. Unfortunately if you don't understand Japanese, much of this story will be lost, leaving you to blindly decipher the cutscenes and voice cadences. A complete translation of the game has been hosted online (which I am very grateful for). I suggest you read through it during your RS play sessions to fully be aware of what's going on; it's long but trust me you won't regret it.

Although RS is a ‘serious' game, there are still bits of quirky light-heartedness thrown in. For example, when the boss appears, the game will give you 3 useless hints for how to defeat it. The game's broken English calls these the ‘Be Attitudes For Gain'. The hints are usually as absurd as ‘Follow Feeling', ‘Brotherly Love', and ‘Evasion Tech'. The Stage 6 boss says ‘Be Praying' for every hint =P. These ‘Be Attitudes' can be very entertaining and just add to RS's charm.

Graphics

RS was released in 1998 and was one of the last official Saturn releases (the arcade release was mere months earlier). Needless to say they pulled out all the stops here. You'll find everything in this game that the Saturn was not designed to do: transparency, 3D modeling, etc. Scaling and rotation are also done in fine fashion. The backdrops can move slowly or very fast, but don't ever lose clarity. There's never a hint of slowdown, no matter what. Foreground objects are also very well done, with a wide variety of bullets flooding the screen. Continuing the quirkiness, one sub-stage transforms the entire game into vector graphics- very cool.

Radiant Silvergun also has to be one of the first shmups to have the game go berserk before a boss approaches. The entire screen strobes and the word ‘WARNING' flashes all over in a very odd way, before the two simple words ‘NO REFUGE' calmly appear. It's all flash, but it's still a really cool effect, and you can compare it to how post-98 shmups announce their bosses.

Audio

Everything about Radiant Silvergun is world-class, especially its soundtrack. It's an orchestral score that is absolutely sublime. The music matches the on-screen action perfectly and really does add to the overall package. Although most of the tracks are variations of the same theme, it helps add to the game's unity.

Gameplay

So what makes Radiant Silvergun this game that everyone puts in such high regard? Surely it can't be that revolutionary, it's only another shmup! And that is where you're wrong. One of the things that gives RS a high mark is that by shooter standards, it's a very long game. Usually shmups are about 5-6 stages long. RS is about 18 stages long. To tie-in with the story, the stage sequence is out of order, which also adds to RS's charm. You begin on Stage 3, then move on to Stage 2, then 4, 5, 6, and finally Stage 1. Most of these stages have up to 5 sub-stages (3A, 3B, etc), which accounts for the ‘official' stage count being so high. Each sub-stage greatly varies in length but all feature a unique, full-blown boss. Although you can beat the game in little over an hour, compare that to shmups you can beat in 15 minutes. Plus the storyline will keep you so engaged that the game will feel longer than it is.

RS features a single ship to choose from, no power-ups, and no bombs. But you do have seven (!) different firing methods at your disposal. Each button on the Saturn controller correlates to a method of fire. The A button is a straight shot. The B button is a homing shot. The C button is a diagonal shot that ends in a damaging mushroom cloud. The X button is lock-on lasers. The Y button is a back spread shot, and the Z button is a pair of sweeping ‘sticky' lasers. The shoulder buttons activate the Radiant Sword which will do major damage and absorb certain enemy shots (another first for the genre?). If you collect enough enemy shots, the Radiant Sword will turn into a huge sword attack that takes up most of the screen (RS's version of a screen-clearing bomb). All of these attacks are available to you from the start for the duration of the game, and most of the innovation of this game is to decide which weapon will be best for each enemy wave/boss. Because there is no wrong answer, you'll be switching through different attacks constantly depending on your situation, and it's great fun to cycle through your shots to find the best method of assault.

For those of you score-attack enthusiasts, RS has a unique scoring system that radically changes how you play the game if your goal is simply a high score. Every enemy in RS is given a red, blue, or yellow accent. By continuously shooting down enemies of the same color, you'll be awarded a progressive chain bonus. So if you want to get your score as high as you can, you'll have to devote yourself to only killing a certain color and evading the other ones. Playing for completion and playing for score are almost two separate games.

Bosses are plentiful, engrossing, and surprisingly very original. Unlike other shmups, the goal isn't to simply destroy the core as fast as possible. Instead, you're rewarded by destroying different segments of the boss (while still destroying it entirely before it self-destructs). After each boss a Result screen will come up showing the percentage of boss you actually destroyed; destroying it entirely will give you a ‘Perfect' bonus worth a ton of points (and it comes with a really cool sound effect).

All new gimmicks aside, Radiant Silvergun is simply a well-done game, absolutely solid in every sense of the word. Bullet patterns, while being one notch below pure bullet hell, are beautiful to look at and challenging to evade. Some stages consist of maze-like passageways (usually lined with enemies), bringing a minor sense of platforming into the game. Perhaps what truly makes RS such a lauded effort is that never once does a part of the game feel like a rehash of another game or even another stage. Originality is RS's best asset, and it will keep you on the edge of your seat every time you play.

Replay Value

For a game with no additional modes (other than an extended Arcade mode), RS has suprisingly high replay value. When you first start out playing Radiant Silvergun, you'll find your weapons relatively underpowered and your number of available credits low. You'll unlock additional credits with continued gameplay time, and your weapons will ‘level-up' over time as well. In the HUD you'll find your 3 main weapons (buttons A, B, and C) assigned a level number. The more you use a weapon, this number will go up and the shots will be bigger and more powerful. (Your X, Y, and Z weapons are essentially combinations of the main 3 and will level up accordingly.) Essentially you'll be playing through Radiant Silvergun over and over and realizing that your weapons are doing more and more damage. Part of what makes RS so great is that although this makes the game progressively easier to beat, it still remains as challenging as ever. Your weapon levels are saved to the Saturn's internal memory, and should you not want to play with overpowered weapons, you can always simply start a ‘No Save' new game.

RS also features unlockable options that allow you to tweak how you play the game, and that's always fun to mess around with. There's also a somewhat-secret mission you can work on. Hidden throughout the game are invisible cartoon dogs that can only be uncovered with the X button lock-on missile. Finding these dogs gives you a massive point bonus and puts them in your ‘dog ranch' viewable on the Options screen. It will count how many dogs you've found and give you an according rank (how much of a ‘dog master' you are). It's purely a programming easter egg, but can be a very rewarding (albeit pointless) side-quest.

Overall

Radiant Silvergun is easily in the Top10 list of ‘Best Video Games EVER', and really should win a ‘lifetime acheivement' award for its services to the shmup genre. You'll find yourself coming back to play this again and again, not just to level up your weapons but simply because it's a fun game. RS is one of the biggest reasons my Saturn will always be hooked up to my TV. How ironic that this masterful game was developer Treasure's first effort at a shmup, they originally dealt with sidescrollers (and with a resume like Gunstar Heroes and Silhouette Mirage, they were already well-respected in the hardcore gaming community).

Radiant Silvergun's only domestic release was for the JP Saturn and was produced in a limited quantity. RS will easily fetch for over $200 on eBay, so this game is certainly an investment. RS's spiritual sequel Ikaruga has been recently released on Xbox Live Arcade, but I wouldn't count on RS being ported despite there being no reason for it not to be. Despite its exclusivity and elusiveness, Radiant Silvergun delivers a hardcore gaming experience that is, for a lack of a better word, priceless.

Final Comment: Stage 1 is the most epic 60 seconds of your life.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/09

Game Release: Radiant Silvergun (JP, 07/23/98)