Radirgy Swag

Radirgy Swag

Nintendo Switch game logo

Developer:	RS34
Music:	Daisuke Nagata
Program:	Manabu Matsumoto, Takahiro Kawachi, Hayato Okabe
Art:	Daisuke Nagata
Release date:	June 13, 2019 (Switch); March 4, 2026 (Steam)

Radirgy Swag is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up developed and published by RS34 for Nintendo Switch in 2019. It plays in horizontal orientation, with a slightly angled perspective (unlike many 2D shoot-em-ups that have a strictly top-down perspective).

The game's title and general aesthetics draw from the original Radirgy, though this game makes several departures from the traditional arcade format of its forebear. Radirgy Swag consists of a single continuous run with endless enemies (under certain circumstances) and no bosses or rigid stage transitions whatsoever. Also, this game features an energy meter that depletes over time and upon being hit by enemy attacks (but can be replenished with items), instead of the traditional lives system.

For replay videos, visit the Video Index.

Gameplay Overview

Radirgy Swag is a four-button game with two playable ships and optional equippable items (these items are unlocked over multiple playthroughs). Movement can be controlled with the analog stick (with uniform speed) in any direction, or with the directional pad in a total of eight directions.

Controls

Buttons are configurable in the options menu. The button descriptions below appear as they are in the options menu.

• Shot: Shoots a forward-facing or cross-shaped shot (the shot type can be changed with the switch button).
• Sword: Initiates a close-range attack. If this attack hits an item, the item moves upward and changes into a different item type.
• ABS-NET: Generates a circular field around the ship that grants temporary invincibility, absorbs all bullets that touch it, and collects items. Equivalent to a bomb in other games.
• Switch: Change between forward-facing and cross-shaped shot.

Also, a shield appears in front of the ship if the shot and sword buttons are not pressed for a short time. The shield remains in front of the ship and absorbs bullets until either the shot or sword button is pressed again.

Unlockable Secrets

There are a number of equippable items that are unlocked over multiple playthroughs. Apart from the transport tickets, these items change the behavior of the player ship or enemies. The item names in English here are based on the translations in the Steam release, and the original Japanese names are provided in parentheses for reference.

• Machine Transportation Ticket 1/2/3/4 (機体輸送券1/2/3/4): Start at progressively later parts of the game, instead of the very beginning (higher number for later area).
• New-Law-Compliant Plating (対新法部分装甲): ABS-NET cannot be used.
• Evader OS (イベダOS): The player ship can only move horizontally, and not vertically (the name is a pun on Space Invaders).
• Rocket Engine (ロケットエンジン): The player ship's movement speed is faster, but the Wee-Fee speed gauge depletes quicker.
• Super-Budget Engine (超特価エンジン): The player ship's movement speed is slower, but the Wee-Fee speed gauge depletes slower.
• Weird Leaves (謎の葉っぱ): Enemy attacks are stronger (more bullets).
• Weird Stamina Booster (謎の忍耐力強化薬): Enemy HP is higher.
• Giant Restraints (巨人用拘束具): Shot and sword cannot be used; only ABS-NET and shield.
• Weird Vision Enhancer (視力強化薬) Enemy bullets move faster.

Ships

There are two ships in the game: Baihu ("Byakko" in Japanese; shown on the left in the ship select screen) and Kanamaki Junkitus ("Kanamaki Chiractor" in Japanese; shown on the right in the ship select screen.)

Baihu has a wide forward-facing shot and a plus-shaped cross shot.

Kanamaki Junkitus has a narrow forward-facing shot and an X-shaped cross shot. This ship also has a stronger sword attack (colored purple instead of blue) when the forward-facing shot is selected.

Items

Items appear when a flashing green "captain" enemy is destroyed, when an entire wave of enemies is destroyed, and when a large-sized enemy is destroyed. There are multiple types of item, determined randomly when each item appears. Items switch to another type (also determined randomly) when hit with the sword attack.

• Big debris (Gold star): One condition for entering endless mode (see the next section) in the game involves collecting about 30 of this item in a single run. This item increases the hidden "Debris" counter by 6. (See below for more details on the hidden counters.)
• Energy (Green square): Replenishes 10% health.
• Speed (Pink inverted triangle): Increases the speed toward the goal, the enemy appearance rate and bullet count, as well as the player's attack power. The speed is indicated by the Wee-Fee meter at the top center of the screen. This does not change the player ship's movement speed around the screen.
• Debris (Brown triangle): Supposedly does nothing, but in fact increases the hidden "Debris" counter by 1. (See below for more details on the hidden counters.)
• Points (Blue triangle): Grants points. The darker variant gives more points.
• Shield (Orange square): Generates a small shield in front of the ship for a limited time. This is the same shield that is generated when the shot and sword buttons are released, though this shield remains active even if these buttons are pressed.
• Signal: (Yellow inverted triangle): Increases multiplier (shown in the reception gauge at the top left).
• Power (Red square): Increases the player ship's attack strength.

Endless mode

The game will normally end when the distance gauge at the right of the screen fills up and the player ship reaches the Moon (typically about 10 minutes from the start of the run). However, if four specific conditions are met in a single run, endless mode will activate, whereby the player ship skips past the Moon and enemies continue to appear until the energy meter depletes. In endless mode, the distance gauge continues to go upward, and will even move past the top edge of the screen with extended play. The four conditions for activating endless mode are as follows:

• Collect lots of star items over multiple runs (endless mode cannot be activated on a fresh save file without playing the game for some time).
• Collect at least 30 star items in the current run.
• Collect lots of speed items.
• Keep the Wee-Fee (speed) gauge up for an extended period of time in the current run.

The specific numbers for these conditions have not been clarified, though the developers have revealed that the conditions become more lenient as more orders are completed.

The game has a secret command for displaying data that can help track how many star items have been collected in each run, along with other information:

• Pause the game after sortieing.
• While the game is paused, hold the X, Y, and B buttons down. While holding these buttons down, press the A button to resume the game.
• A small window will be displayed at the right of the screen with three lines: Ave, Barigo, and Debris.
  • Ave: This value indicates the average speed over the run, and it starts at 3.0 at the beginning of each run.
  • Barigo: This value indicates the total time spent in the current run with a full reception (multiplier) gauge at the top left.
  • Debris: This value increases when junk or star items are collected during the current run (brown junk items are worth 1, and star items are worth 6).

Scoring

The multiplier is based on the number of bars of reception and Wee-Fee, as shown in the table below. Here, the block at the left of the reception gauge is counted as one bar of cell reception, and the dot at the bottom of the Wee-Fee gauge is counted as one bar of Wee-Fee. The values for zero to two bars of Wee-Fee have been verified in the game, and the other values have been extrapolated. In essence, being in the OVER state and having full reception will always give x64 multiplier.

Multiplier Values
		Reception bars
		0	1	2	3	4	5	6
Wee-Fee bars	0	1	2	4	8	16	24	32
	1	2	4	8	16	24	32	48
	2	4	8	16	24	32	48	64
	3	8	16	24	32	48	64	64
	4	16	24	32	48	64	64	64

Enemy patterns

There are three different patterns for enemy placement depending on what the TV shows when the A button is pressed in the ship selection screen to start the game.

• Color bars: Pattern 1
• Static: Pattern 2 (more enemies than pattern 1)
• Radiowave forecast: Pattern 3 (even more enemies; larger enemies appear right from the start)

Invulnerability to player shot

Some enemies are invulnerable to the player's shot (just like in the original Radirgy), and can only be damaged with the player's sword attack. These enemies will flash yellow when shots hit them (unlike other enemies which will flash red).

Strategy

Manual for the Steam Version

There are no stages or stage end bosses in this game; it goes through several different backgrounds with different enemy waves, but the main strategy is the same throughout.

• Hold down the shot and sword buttons to kill enemies, generate items, and continually switch the type of these items. Let go of sword and grab star items (gold), speed items (pink), and energy items (green) when they appear.
• Press the ABS-NET (bomb) button regularly to maintain invincibility. Enemy bullets are too fast to dodge, so bombing is key. It is ideal to time each button press when the white circle of the previous bomb extends outwards (at the very end of the previous bomb).
• Ensure that the Wee-Fee (speed) gauge is high, as this ensures that many enemies appear. Destroying lots of enemies helps to generate items and rapidly build the ABS-NET gauge.
• Position the ship on top of larger enemies to kill them quicker (there is no collision damage in this game).

Gauges and the systems that govern them

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Radirgy Swag features multiple gauges. Each gauge is described below, along with the systems that they are related to.

• Top right (Cyan): Health. Goes down gradually with time, and this decreases faster the greater the distance is in one run. This gauge drops a lot if the ship gets hit by a bullet (and even more if the bullet is a breakable one).
• Far right (Green): Distance. This represents the player ship's progress toward the Moon. If the conditions for endless mode are not fulfilled, the player ship stops at the Moon when this gauge is full, and the ending sequence plays. If the conditions for endless mode are fulfilled, the player ship skips past the Moon and this gauge continues to fill up.
• Bottom right (Blue): ABS-NET (bomb) gauge. This fills up when enemies are destroyed and when the ABS-NET field absorbs bullets. This gauge fills up very quickly, encouraging liberal use of ABS-NET.
• Top center (Green): Wee-Fee (speed) gauge. This goes up when speed items are collected. When this gauge is at two bars, the OVER state is activated, resulting in more enemies and faster enemy attacks.
• Top left (Green reception): Multiplier. This fills up when enemies are destroyed while the ABS-NET field is active. The multiplier value goes up depending on the number of bars in this gauge and the Wee-Fee gauge.
• Orders: Small objectives to complete as achievements. Not directly connected to scoring.

Story

After the "Umbra Incident" Tadayo Aita left school and moved into an abandoned train station near Shinjuku a few months ago. She now works in a part time job collecting junk. Someone else at her workplace named Atla gave her a personal request that sounded pretty dangerous: She wanted Tadayo to get in a Terminal Suit called Byakko and go to an asteroid near the Moon.

Version Differences

• The Dispatch Games translation only includes messages from Atla Ataka; other characters' messages are not included.

Trivia

• Kanamaki Junkitus's name in Japanese is "Kanamaki Chiractor" (金撒チラクタ). In the Q&A segment of a live stream, the developers mentioned that "Chiractor" is based on the Japanese word "chiriakuta" (塵芥) meaning "garbage."
• Dispatch Games' European and North American release of the game was delisted from the Switch eShop in April 2023, due to license expiration.

References & Contributors

• Information on gameplay mechanics gained by mojilove through playing the game, and through translating in-game text and a [developer livestream].