Gundemonium

Gundemonium is horizontal shoot 'em up created by Platine Dispositif, whose sole member is known as Aeju Murasame. It was originaly released in 2003 and excluding the remakes, it's a part of the Gundemonium trilogy; the other two games are GundeadliGne (2004) and Hitogata Happa (2005). It's set in the alternate 1800s where alchemy is a major part of humanity as a whole. The player characters are agents of an organization called Rosenkreuz Foundation that is fighting against a demonic invasion.

The game heavily features fast-paced gameplay and a mechanic called »Demonic Shift«, which allows you to get more lives and points... with a sacrifice. There's also a dynamic rank system that adapts to your performance at any time, which makes this game suitable for everyone, including the absolute beginners.

The game received two remasters: "Gundemonium Recollection" for PC in 2007 and »Gundemoniums« for PS4 and PS Vita in 2018. Both of them provided graphical updates and much more content than the 2003 version. This article will cover »Recollection« because it's been available for years and is much more accessible to people outside Japan than the other two versions thanks to Rockin' Android.

Gundemonium Recollection

Title screen

Developer:	Platine Dispositif
Music:	Aeju Murasame (Arrange by DM Ashura
Program:	Aeju Murasame
Art:	Aeju Murasame
Release date:	2003 (Gundemonium), 2007 (Gundemonium Recollection), 2018 (Gundemoniums)
Next game:	Gundemoniums

Gameplay Overview

The gameplay heavily features a dynamic rank system called »Phase Level« that reacts to player's performance on the fly. The better you play, more difficult it gets and vice versa. Every difficulty mode uses it with varying limits. You get an extend every 1 million points - the reason for that is in the scoring system itself, which will be explained in its own section. As for playable characters, you have 3 characters available (one of them needs to be unlocked). A character called »Earl Type« is configurable and has 64 possible combinations. All of them even have their own names.

There are 5 stages and the first 4 are divided into 4 sections that are labeled A, B, C and D. First 3 are the stage portions and D is the main boss portion. All stage portions last 40 seconds while the boss ones can last longer because beating one phase resets the timer. Fifth stage is the exception to this structure because you only fight the final boss and even the TLB if you meet several conditions at a certain point in the fight.

Its main scoring mechanic is called »Demonic Shift« that in exchange of certain resources grants you more point items and a bomb if it finishes successfully on its own. However, it instantly switches to Phase Level 11, which can either make the game much harder or easier depending on the situation.

Difficulty modes

Novice

An easy mode for this game. It only lets you reach Phase Level 2 and Demonic mode is disabled, which heavily reduces its scoring potential.

Revised

A normal mode that lets you increase Phase Level to 7 and you can optionally activate Demonic Shift - if activated and then deactivated, Phase Level reverts to the last one you had prior because Phase Level when in Demonic Shift is higher than 7.

Unlimited

Like the name implies, it doesn't limit you how high your Phase Level gets. The limit of Phase Levels is unlimited in theory, but the actual one is (for now) much lower due to human limitations. Demonic Shift can be used for rank management if Phase Level gets much higher than 11.

Demonic

The hardest difficulty in the game. In this one, the Phase Level is locked at 11 and cannot be changed, which requires above average skill in order to do well. Since Demonic Shift doesn't affect the rank in this mode, it can now be used all the time without instantly changing the difficulty. Revenge bullets are frequently present, so moving around becomes extremely important because they easily limit where you can move.

Some tips for anyone considering this mode:

• be prepared to macrododge most of the time,
• Demonic Shift is your best friend,
• the riskier you play in early game, the better your chances of survival becomes later on,
• revenge bullets appear in a compact state and are manipulatable, so you can afford to destroy enemies in point-blank range and still be able to not get hit by them.

Controls

Gundemonium is a 4-button game with 2 optional macro buttons. The following 4 buttons are essential for playing the game:

• Shot: Your main weapon. Can be tapped rapidly when using certain characters to increase damage.
• Mana Action: Activates the character's Mana Action, a special character-dependant ability. Nearly every such ability deals damage in some way and some even assist the player with special effects.
• Bomb: Activates the character's bomb, which deals damage to enemies and makes you invulnerable. Additionaly, it converts all projectiles that were present on-screen at the time of activation into blue gems.
• Slow Movement: as the name implies, it slows down your movement speed to allow more precise dodging.

Last 2 keys are of a macro type that can make your play sessions less tiring and more consistent if you're able to handle playing with more buttons.

• Rapid Shot: grants you the »Rapid Shot« ability certain characters have, which changes their shot properties. It can be bound to a separate button, so that you don't have to mash the shot button for longer periods of time and strain your body.
• Demonic Shift: acts as an simultaneous press of Mana Action and Bomb buttons at the same time. Makes the Demonic Shift activation much more consistent, so you don't have to worry about pressing two buttons with a slightly wrong timing at a crucial moment.

Characters

Eryth

A main character of this game. She has high mobility, her Mana Action can create Planeshifts and her main weapons are dual revolvers. Her defining trait is being one of the few characters in the game that can utilize the Rapid Fire mechanic.

Movement speed level: 6

Equipment
Name	Icon	Type	Description
Derringer guns		Weapon	They can fire their bullets in a straight line towards the right side of the screen. Because of this, she needs to move around the screen a lot in order to successfully destroy her enemies. Rapid Fire effects: Eryth starts firing both revolvers at the same time, which increases the amount of damage she can deal to enemies. If Rapid Fire is used too much, the revolvers will get overheated, which will disable them for six seconds and make her defenseless in a worst case scenario.
Fortune Wheel		Mana Action	A wheel that consumes 33 points of Mana when activated and deals damage to enemies if it collides with them. At the same time, it will cause Planeshifts while it's dealing damage. It penetrates anything and is active as long as it's on the screen and multiple instances can be deployed if one has enough Mana energy. It disappears if the player activates Demonic Shift, even if it's damaging an enemy, but the Planeshift effect won't immediately go away, which can be utilized in certain situations.
7-Way		Bomb	A flying machine gun appears that shoots bullets in a wide spread to the right. It follows your vertical position on the screen and once it reaches you, it will stop moving, do its thing and then go away. Because of this, you can manipulate where on the screen it will be positioned, which makes it a versatile tool at any time.

Earl Type

The Earl Type's customizable nature provides a wide variety of arsenals and speeds for anyone's needs. Their entire arsenal will be covered in the next section. While having less overall options in a single character, such as multiple shot types and/or a Demonic Shift buff, their customizable nature allows them to shine where the player needs them to.

Due to their customizable nature, their movement speed varies. Speaking of customization, their arsenal also changes their appearance on some aspects of their bodies.

^{(ED: Movement speed changes cannot be explained properly at the moment due to lack of data. Needs to be reverse-engineered.)}

Weapons
Name	Icon	Appearance	Description
Star Fire		Short hair	One of two wide-shot weapons in the game that can get slightly more powerful during Planeshifts and the center part is the most damaging; the rest of the bullets are weaker and have a slight transparent appearance. Despite being one of the few weapons in the game that can cover a large portion of the screen, pointblanking enemies only gives a small damage boost. Using this weapon type will lock the character to the lowest speed grade, regardless of other equipped Mana Actions and bombs.
Twin Drill		Twin tail hair	High fire-rate weapon with piercing shots that can pierce through anything. The weapon can be aimed with upwards and downwards movement, which makes crowd control easier.
Lucky Ray		Ponytail hair	Fires a narrow laser. It can hit its target instantly, but seems to be broken because it's supposed to do more damage to a single target over time according to the manual for the Steam version. Because of that, it has poor damage output.
Photon		Short hair with glasses	An unique weapon that fires one projectile at once that can destroy most stage enemies in a single hit. The shots will also cause Planeshift to occur if used in a pointblank range. It can only fire in a straight line and before it can shoot again, the previous projectile either needs to leave the screen completely or hit an enemy.

Mana Actions
Name	Icon	Appearance	Description
Daath Whisper		No breasts	Activates Planeshift while draining mana at a constant rate. It requires at least 33 Mana to be activated, which consumes at an accelerated rate of ~42 Mana/s. After that, the consumption rate significantly slows down to 10 Mana/s – grazing and Tetrabiblios items can extend its duration. If used with Star Fire, it can make it slightly more powerful. It won't stack with other weapons that can cause Planeshift, like the Photon. - combining it with the Photon weapon only makes it possible to trigger Planeshift without pointblanking and doesn't enhance the effect itself.
Derringer		Small breasts	A brown Mini-Earl is summoned that fires a line of bullets to the right; it will trigger Planeshift when they hit enemies. Costs 33 mana and it only lasts 2 seconds. Can be used multiple times in a row with enough Mana. One of the few Mana Abilities that can transfer their Planeshift effect into Demonic Shift for a bit. The strength of this effect depends on the amount of Mini-Earls deployed that were doing damage at the time of the activation - one Mini-Earl gives a very weak Planeshift bonus, so you need to have multiple instances active in order for the transition to be more effective.
Rising Sword		Medium breasts	Fires a massive laser that has instant travel time and rapidly drains the mana gauge with the rate of 60 Mana/s. It's excellent damage is offset by the fact that the weapon cannot cause Planeshifts to occur. On top of that, it disables your main weapon when it's active.
Hell Spike		Large breasts	The strongest Mana Action in the game that can either destroy bosses in one hit or severly damage them. Because of its massive power, it uses all Mana and your Mana bar needs to be completely charged before you can use it. Because it's a melee ability, you need to be right in front of your target to successfully hit them with it. Using it on regular enemies is not recommended.

Bombs
Name	Icon	Appearance	Description
Bloodrain		Normal	Blood-colored bullets rain from above the screen, damaging anything on the screen it touches. Every »drop« seems to actually hit enemies, but the more durable ones (including bosses) may create a safespot if they're strong enough, which can protect other enemies as a result. The bomb only lasts 2 seconds.
Overdrive		Angel wings	Increases attack damage for 8.5 seconds and affects every weapon except Lucky Ray and all Mana Actions that directly deal damage. Photon users need to pointblank as much as possible while the »bomb« is active in order to do more damage. If your bomb stock is maxed out and you use the "bomb", then pick up an extra bomb pickup, it'll only add one "bomb" to the stock instead of giving points despite one of the "bombs" still being active. Notes regarding the final boss/TLB: 1. Final boss's health regeneration state disables Photon's firerate increase no matter how close you get, but doesn't gain health as a trade-off 2. When you get hit during the fight while it's active, your shots will heal the boss for a few seconds after you recover. 1st health regen state duration during bomb activation: ~0.6 s 2nd health regen state duration after you get hit: ~2.3 s Derringers and the Hell Spike are affected by this as well. Rising Sword and Lucky Ray still damage the boss like normal. Photon for some reason won't neither damage or heal.
Shooting Star		Brown tail	Summons a fire dragon to chase down any enemy that's one the screen. Lasts for 3.7 seconds and if there are no enemies on screen, it will attempt to move in circles near the player, even if the latter is moving. Does a lot of damage.
Rozenkreuz		Barefeet	Causes a chain of explosions that move from left to right. It's position can be influenced by movement (it follows your vertical position, so by going up or down, you can manipulate where you want it to go). It lasts 1.5 seconds.

Each Earl Type combination also has an unique name and all 64 names are listed in the following table:

1XX		2XX		3XX		4XX
111	Seika	211	Multiflora	311	Majorette	411	Adenochaeta
112	Suzaku	212	Blue Moon	312	Cinderella	412	Koricole
113	Mermaid	213	Chablis	313	Rugosa Plena	413	Margaret
114	Ingrid	214	Angela	314	Catherine	414	Viridiflora
121	Villosa	221	Luciae	321	Banksiae	421	Michelle
122	Daintybess	222	Primula	322	Rosa Canina	422	Matilda
123	Rubrifolla	223	Regensberg	323	Ronsard	423	Tanfifum
124	Cinnamon	224	Shiun	324	Violacea	424	Osiana
131	Paniculigera	231	Nelly	331	Snow Queen	431	Jaclaf
132	La France	232	Sparrieshoop	332	Heritage	432	Louise
133	Hugonis	233	Harmonie	333	Elizabeth	433	Peace
134	Esmeralda	234	Tanrowisa	334	Van Sian	434	Sarabande
141	Richelieu	241	Doris	341	Scarlet	441	Frolic
142	Damascena	242	Swan Lake	342	Tahiti	442	Leonidas
143	Laevigata	243	Carrousel	343	Meikinosi	443	Gigantea
144	Meialfisar	244	Kronenburg	344	Pristine	444	Carina

Elixirel

This one is special due to the fact that she needs to be unlocked first before you're able to play as her. In order to unlock her, you need to beat the TLB in a run or get 24 Play Orders out of 29(?). She is the second character in the game that has actual benefit with the Rapid Shot button.

Her equipment shares some similarities with the Earl Type 11X units, but her main weapon is stronger and has an unique bomb called »Gundemonium«.

Movement speed level: 5

^{(ED: The condition for unlocking the character via the amount of Play Orders needs to be verified.)}

Equipment
Name	Icon	Type	Description
5-Way		Weapon	A machine gun similar to the one Earls can use, but more powerful and can even fire a red beam if you hold the shot button. This is the second weapon in the game that can benefit from the »Rapid Shot« button because you can fire bullets without having to tap the main one. When her Mana Action is active, the bullets turn into drills that can pierce anything and the red beam gets stronger.
Daath Whisper		Mana Action	Works exactly the same as the Daath Whisper Earls can use and it has the same consumption rate when activated and after.
Gundemonium		Bomb	It damages everything on the screen. The most unique feature about it is that instead of using stocks, it uses an energy bar that can slowly fill up on its own over time and it takes 21 seconds to completely refill - bomb pickups can do that instantly. The recharging process temporarily stops during intermissions between stage sections.

Items

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Name	Icon	Description
Large green gems		Large green gems are the game's main scoring item. Whenever you collect one, it increments the value of the next one by 10. That value caps at a limit that heavily depends on player's performance. They also replenish a bit of your Mana when picked up. Its size also changes depending on how much they're valuable. The more valuable they are, the bigger they get and vice versa.
Small green gems		They appear when you beat bosses, activate/manually deactivate Demonic Shift, get enough Friction or when a stage section timer runs out in the main game. Their value depends on the Phase Level the player currently has. Their formula is: Phase Level * 10.
Blue gems		Blue gems appear from bullets cancelled when you use a bomb or when hit while in Demonic Shift. They recover Mana much more than their green counterparts, but decrease the Gem value by 10 each. While they can give you lots of points in large quantities when you current gem value is high, they can make your large gems nearly worthless if collected too much in a short time interval.
Bomb pickup		Adds a single bomb to the stock. The most you can have at once is 5 and they appear after beating certain mini bosses or if Demonic Shift successfully ends on its own. They are important at the end of main boss fights because they determine how much Basic Bonus you get.
Life pickup		These not only add a life to the stock, but unlike score extends, they can also raise the maximum life count by 1, up to 5. They appear after beating certain bosses and two of them have requirements in order for the pickup to appear at all.
Tetrabiblios		A collectible that appears during a run when you complete play orders (in-game achievements) during a run. Collecting it will grand 50.000 points and refill the Mana gauge entirely. This is the only item that will extend Demonic Shift's duration. Unlike the other achievements on various platforms nowadays that only trigger once, the ones in-game will ALWAYS spawn when you meet a condition (ex. activate Demonic Shift x times), so you can consistently make them appear in a run with proper routes.

HUD

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Most of the HUD in this game is either marked or self-explanatory, but there are a few elements that may not be immediately obvious. One of them is the blue bar (9) that is the timer for the current stage/boss section you're in. It depletes from the left to right, takes 40 seconds before it completely depletes and has 4 lines that divide the timer into quarters. The latter is used to estimate the amount of time you have left.

[11] displays information when you perform Onslaughts (speedkilling an enemy wave quick enough), defeat bosses and it displays the new gem value limit before a new section or stage begins.

Like the stage timer, Mana gauge (3) also has lines that divide it. In this case, you have thirds instead of quarters because some of the Mana Actions consume exactly 33 Mana, which is useful for glancing over the gauge during intense moments instead of looking for the number that's on the right. The fill in the gauge has 3 possible colors depending on how much Mana you have:

* blue (when the gauge is completely filled)
* yellow (when Mana is between 33 and 98)
* red (when Mana is 32 or less)

Number	Name
1	Life containers
2	Score counter
3	Mana gauge
4	Friction counter
5	Large gem counter
6	Phase Level indicator
7	Stage section mark
8	Chain hit counter
9	Stage section timer
10	Bomb stock
11	Information bar
12	Boss's health bar

Rank

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Phase Level is the game's rank system. It is capped at 2 for novice mode, 5 for Revised difficulty and is uncapped in Unlimited. Rank is fixed at 11 for Demonic Challenge. Phase Level increases: After a named enemy is killed. Individual boss phases all count as a named enemy. After a successful counter-bomb. When entering demonic shift. After a Friction Break (500 grazes)

Phase Level decreases: When bombing, or getting hit. When being awarded with an Extend while on max lives.

Rank significantly affects bullet patterns. Enemies will fire more shots, they will fire them faster, and once Phase Level is high enough, patterns that were previously static will begin to be aimed. At Phase Level 11 and higher, every enemy will fire aimed suicide bullets when killed. This mechanic, combined with damage immunity from named enemy kills, can be abused for significant amounts of bullet grazing.

Some guides on the internet say Phase Level rises if Eryth's guns overheat. This is not the case, and is likely a mechanic in another Platine game.

(Ability Level should probably go here as well)

Scoring

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We are in the process of learning the scoring. Come back later, or ask us about our findings anywhere the game is played.

Strategy

Keep an eye out on your score at all times. Getting an extend when at full life stock is a terrible outcome. Using the extend for a demonic shift or getting hit on purpose for rank control and a free bomb is far better in all situations. Killing enemies and collecting green gems is the main objective here. Milking bosses can be a good idea, but it's always important to weigh what the milk gives you, compared to the bonus enemies, considering enemy kill count plays into the stage bonus.

Bombing during extremely dense sections can be very counterproductive. Every cancelled bullet will become a blue gem and be magnetized to the character. This can completely erase accumulated gem value in bad situations. Lumiere can destroy bombs, but bullets will still be cancelled. Ereshkigal is not only bomb-immune, but has a counter-bomb mechanic which fires many bullets back at the player. Elixirel herself will heal from bombs, she can often completely heal.

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This section details some particular strategic information about the game and its gameplay, such as hidden 1UPs and some basic scoring tricks. For anything particularly deep or highly complex, you can probably leave it in the Strategy page.

(Currently evaluating whether or not this specific section should even include information outside of the separated Strategy pages. Worth thinking about as a community.)

Story

From the instruction manual of Gundemonium Recollection:

In the 18th century, mankind’s rapid advancement had slowly led them to disaster. With the powerful Philosopher’s Stones, also known as the Matrixes, there were great advances in alchemy, bringing about a new age. These advancements came at a cost, however - The Matrixes were found in the Spring of Yord, deep within a Hell known as Que Pholith. Destruction poured out from Que Pholith and the Demonium army attacked in full force. People eventually learned to control the Matrixes in an attempt to counter the demons. Those people are called Matrix Masters, though even they weren’t enough to stop them. When the 7th Demonium emerged, known as Gundemonium, an artificial Matrix was created to counter this threat. Her name was Elixirel, the Chrome Matrix Proxy. Then it happened . . . Elixirel was captured by Gundemonium, and turned against against mankind. The Rosenkreuz Foundation rushed into action to stop the demons and put an end to this, marking the beginning of Mission Gundemonium.

Unlockable Secrets

A third character, Elixirel, can be unlocked by defeating the true final boss in Unlimited Mode.

Play Orders Section goes here Matrix Orders Section goes here

Version Differences

• Gundemonium: The original 2003 game. Largely unavailable and considered inferior to the Recollection version, as such, little to no information is available.

• Gundemonium Recollection: Released in 2007, this remake of the original comes with new characters, improved bullet patterns, upgraded graphics and an overhauled engine. In 2011, it's been published by Rockin' Android on Steam and PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3; the former also has an arranged soundtrack by DM Ashura. Although it is no longer listed for sale on either platforms, Steam keys are still available, valid, and the only currently known way to obtain this version.

• Gundemoniums: Released in Japan by the publisher Mediascape in 2017, with a worldwide release in 2018 by publisher Strictly Limited, Gundemoniums is a remake of Recollection. This version is played in a fully horizontal 16:9 aspect ratio over the previous games' 4:3 resolutions. It sports much of the same core game as Recollection, yet adds several new features. To accomodate the new aspect ratio, most enemies have had their sprites changed, as have their bullet patterns. A new ability named "Alterburst" can be chosen instead of Demonic Shift, which briefly stops a stage segment's progression timer. "Signet" mode has been added, which features unlockable bonuses that the player can use to assist them in trying to clear the game, although scores and replays are disabled in this mode.

Bugs

Since this game wasn't very played on Steam while it was still available for purchase, it contains several bugs that were never fixed and are listed below.

Replay Mode bug

What this bug does is that whenever you delete any replay that isn't the last one you have, any replay that was after the deleted one will disappear. It may look like they were deleted as well, but they're actually still there, but hidden in-game for some unknown reason. This has been present for years and since the developer stopped selling the game on Steam, this bug can no longer be properly fixed. Fortunately, there is a workaround solution to this problem: renaming the replay files.

All you have to do is to rename the replay files in order. They're labeled as "gdmrepXXXX" (XXXX represents numbers, starting with 0000). While this can be done by hand, the process gets time-consuming very quickly if you have to correct several dozen replay files. In that case, you can use software that can rename a large amount of files very quickly for you and even automate the process to make it even easier and quicker. ReNamer is one of the renaming tools that is recommended since it's free, portable and compatible with older Windows operating systems.

The replay files can be found in two possible locations:

• game's root folder,
• somewhere in Steam's "userdata" folder.

If you have a non-Steam version of the game, you're free to change the however you want. However, it gets a bit complicated for Steam users due to the cloud saving feature.

First, you need to disable cloud saving for this game in particular by right-clicking on the game in your library, then select "Properties". At the time of writing this (2021-06-20), the option for disabling should be available on the first tab ("Keep games saves in the Steam Cloud for Gundemonium Recollection"). Untick the checkbox, then exit the "Properties" window. Now you need to copy your replays and a save file to a different location. The one used for cloud saving is as follows:

• Steam\userdata\[your AccountID number]\92200\remote

Copy everything in the "remote" folder, then paste the files in:

• Steam\steamapps\common\Gundemonium Recollection

If done correctly, you should be able to freely rename the replay files (by hand or via software). For those that really need the cloud saving feature enabled for this game as much as possible, you'll need to copy the renamed replay files back in "Steam\userdata\[your AccountID number]\92200\remote\replay" and re-enable the feature. Every time when you'll be deleting replays, you'll have to do the steps above all over again.

Warning: if you forget to copy the "gundemonium.sav" file, you may end up either having no user data or having it out-of-date when you'll start playing.

Trivia

Game is good!

Gallery

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

Video References

If the game already has an existing entry in the Video Index, please link to the page here. If you want to link to smaller clips perhaps not included in the Index, you can also leave them here.

References & Contributors

1. Remember to include everyone that you can in your credits if they contributed information! | Having links handy is even better, when available.
2. If you are a primary source of information for a game, be sure to link to your Shmup Wiki user account by including a link to your profile, such as: [[User:(You)|(Your Name)]]
   1. And while you're at it, make yourself a little profile page (if you want, of course)! As a contributor, you deserve to be recognized for your efforts.

• Written by FORECAST and InFireX, so far.
• Thanks to user Goshi on the shmups forum for his guide. It has been rather helpful.
• Information found mostly on the manual and Goshi's forum thread. Everything else found by the gundemonium players over on discord.
• Template page assembled by CHA-STG and Plasmo.