Raiden IV

Raiden IV, the seventh full game in the Raiden franchise, was developed by MOSS and was first released on June 7, 2007 in arcades.

Raiden IV is considered to have refined the ideas that Raiden III introduced to the series. Raiden III used 3D graphics instead of sprites; the ship had smaller hitbox; and the bomb deployed instantly instead of after a delay. All these changes were carried over to Raiden IV.

Two significant updates were made to the game in later releases. The Xbox 360 port, released in Japan on October 2, 2008, added two additional stages playable in the “Xbox 360 Mode”. This was renamed Additional Mode in later releases, distinct from the Arcade Mode in which only the original five stages are played.

In April/May 2014, Raiden IV: Overkill was released worldwide for the PS3, which featured Overkill Mode. This mode featured an entirely new scoring system and added two new bonus stages, bringing the total stage count to nine. Enemy patterns were also adjusted.

Gameplay Overview
Raiden IV’s gameplay is characterized by medium quantities of bullets, fast bullet-speeds, an absence of static obstacles, no bullet-cancelling, and a multiple-weapon power-up system. This puts it in line with the style of previous game in the series as well as traditional vertical arcade shmups of the early 90s, where the Raiden series originated.

Controls


Raiden IV has two-button controls with autofire by default.


 * A: Fire
 * B: Bomb

Sub Weapon Charge Shot: After a sub weapon (ie. missile) has been obtained, releasing the fire button will charge your ship. Firing after a few seconds will release a larger barrage of your missiles. Each missile that hits will score additional points.

Ships
The arcade release had only one playable ship (Fighting Thunder ME-02).

For the Xbox 360 release, two additional characters were made available as DLC. Raiden MK-II is the ship from Raiden II; Fairy was first seen in the original Raiden as a point-scoring item first, now turned into a playable character.

Later releases, for PS3 and PC, made all three ships available in the base game.

Weapons
There will be three main weapons in a run that correspond with the three coloured power-up items, and three sub-weapons corresponding to the M, H and R items.

Each ship starts the game with its respective red weapon and no sub-weapon.

Weapon Levels Terminology

Weapon levels will be refered to by the number of items needed to reach that level. Therefore, the player starts at level 0 for both weapons (the weakest main weapon and no sub weapon).

Effect of Death/Continue on Weapon Levels

On death, the ship's main-weapon power is set to 2 and sub-weapon power is set to 1. The weapon types (ie. colour/missile type) will be unchanged. (This happens even if the player's weapons are less powerful than this, for instance, at the start of the game. If they player does not have a subweapon when they die, they are equipped with M-type missiles of power 1)

Additionally on death, weapon items are released on the screen. Either two or three power up items are released, based on the players main weapon power. One sub weapon item is released, unless the player had no sub weapon.

On continue, the ship's power is set to 0. A full power item is released onto the screen (if there is not on there already).

Main Weapons
The function of the purple power-up for the ship characters is selected from the two choices at the start of a run, and cannot be changed during a run.

Sub Weapons
Despite their appearance, the fairy’s subweapons function identically to those of the Fighting Thunder ME-02, with just a marginal reduction in damage.

Extra Lives
There are no score extends in Raiden IV.

There is one hidden 1UP item in each loop of the game.

As such, in Arcade/Additional modes and with default settings, there are a maximum of four lives to 1-ALL the game with, and five to 2-ALL with.

In Overkill mode only, two additional 1UPs can be earned in the first bonus stage (which takes place after stage 3) by collecting all 20 fairies and in the second bonus stage (which takes place after stage 5) by destroying more than 1000 meteorites for both loops, making it a total of nine lives (six for 1-ALL) for this mode.

Loop 1 Hidden 1UP Location
In Stage 4, around the middle of the level, you descend into a section with a circle of statues with faces. If you do not destroy the two statues on the left when you first see them and allow them to leave the screen, but then destroy all the statues, the last statue destroyed will release the 1UP.

The clue to this secret relates to the diamonds that appear on the statue's foreheads. The first two statues do not have the diamond lit in red up when you first see them, only after the screen rotates back around to them. To obtain the 1UP, all statues are killed while they have the red-lit diamond.

In Loop 2, the 1UP is a bomb instead.

Loop 2 Hidden 1UP Location
In Stage 3, after the section with the bridge and before the boss, you get into a section with the small red rail tanks in which you have to destroy all of them without letting them escape, the last rail tank destroyed will release the 1UP.

In Loop 1, the 1UP is a bomb instead.

Rank
To be confirmed

Loops
A second loop follows the completion of Stage 5 (Arcade) or Stage 7 (Additional/Overkill). There are no requirements to enter loop 2.

In loop 2, bullet speeds are considerably faster and there are more bullets in each pattern. Some bosses have additional patterns.

Visually, the colour temperature of the stages in loop 2 is different, and the bosses are recoloured.

A True Last Boss is faced at the end of loop 2.

Strategy
See Raiden IV/Strategy for stage maps, enemy and boss descriptions, walkthroughs, and advanced play strategies.

Strategic Summary
Coming soon...

Scoring (Original)
The following applies when playing in the Arcade or Additional/Xbox 360 modes.

Scoring Summary
Coming Soon...

Enemy Destruction Points / Flast Shot System
Each enemy has a base point value. For example, the first enemy you meeet is a small ship with a base value of 1,000 points. Medium size ships are [usually] 10,000 points, and bosses are 100,000 points.

When an enemy is destroyed, a multiplier is applied to the base value based on how quickly you killed the enemy. The maximum multiplier is x5.0, and decreases the longer the foe is on the screen. The rate of decrease depends on the enemy.

The multiplier appears on top of large enemies after you kill them, and to the side of th screen when killing small enemies.

Scoring (Overkill)
Coming soon...

Story
Coming Soon...

Development History
Coming Soon...

Version Differences

 * Include information here about differences in a game between various versions. This includes regional differences, patch updates/bugfixes, and the like.

Trivia

 * All bosses have the antagonistic red crystals embedded into their designs.

Gallery
See (Template Page)/Gallery for our collection of images and scans for the game.

Video References
Video Index

References & Contributors

 * 1) 72.8% Water