Espgaluda

Espgaluda

Title screen

Developer:	CAVE
Music:	Toshiaki Tomizawa Neptune Reeb T-FORCE
Program:	Tsuneki Ikeda Takashi Ichimura
Art:	Akira Wakabayashi Hiroyuki Tanaka Hideki Nomura Kengo Arai
Release date:	Arcade: October 2003 PS2: 2004
Previous game:	Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi
Next game:	Mushihimesama

Espgaluda (エスプガルーダ) is a vertical shoot-em-up released by CAVE in 2003, and the spiritual successor to ESP Ra.De. A departure from the military style present in most shooting games, Espgaluda is notable for its steampunk, fairy tale setting, along with the player's ability to slow down enemy bullets, which allows for survival as well as an open-ended, bullet cancel-based scoring system. Due to its easy-to-learn, hard-to-master mechanics and lower difficulty than most other CAVE titles, it's often considered a good entry point into the company's games, as well as into playing shoot-em-ups for score.

Espgaluda was ported to the Playstation 2 in 2004, and a sequal titled Espgaluda II was released in 2006.

Typical Espgaluda gameplay

Gameplay Overview

Espgaluda is a four-button game with five stages, no loops, and two playable characters, the siblings Ageha and Tateha.

Controls

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• A (Press): Fires standard shots
• A (Hold): Fires a focused laser shot, and slows the player down
• B: Activates and deactivates Kakusei Mode, allowing the player to change the speed of and cancel enemy bullets
• C (Press): Fires a limited-use barrier attack similar to a bomb, dealing high damage and granting invincibility
• C (Hold and release): Charges up and releases a more powerful barrier attack
• D: Auto-fire for the standard shot

Gameplay revolves around picking up gems which are dropped by enemies, then using the characters' psychic powers to enter Kakusei Mode, which consumes gems and slows down all onscreen bullets, and causes all bullets shot by an enemy to be destroyed when the enemy is destroyed - known as a bullet cancel. Points are awarded per destroyed bullet, with more points awarded for more bullets destroyed. This results in a gameplay loop of collecting gems, entering Kakusei mode and destroying as many bullets as possible, exiting the mode and repeating the process.

Characters

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	Ageha The older sibling. Has a narrow shot which will also swivel in the direction of the player's movement, similar to the Type-B ship in the DonPachi Series, a wider laser, and a faster movement speed.
	Tateha The younger sibling. Has a wide shot that covers a large area, a narrower laser, and a slower movement speed.

Mechanics

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Barrier Attacks

Instead of a strict bomb counter, Espgaluda barrier attacks use a meter. Pressing the C button will activate a barrier attack and consume a quarter of the meter, but C can also be held to charge up a larger barrier attack. Charged barrier attacks will do more damage and grant additional invincibility during the chargeup time, but will consume barrier meter during the charge. Additionally, getting hit while in Kakusei mode will activate a barrier attack automatically, consuming half of the barrier meter and preventing the player from losing a life. Picking up an energy item will restore 50% of the barrier meter, and losing a life will restore the barrier meter to full.

During Kakusei Mode, enemy bullets turn pink and slow down significantly

Kakusei Mode

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Pressing the B button causes the player to enter Kakusei Mode. In Kakusei mode, Ageha's laser becomes more powerful, at the expense of his main shot power, with the inverse taking place for Tateha. Additionally, getting hit will result in an automatic barrier attack, consuming 50% of the barrier meter and preventing the player from losing a life.

There are two types of Kakusei mode: one in which the player has gems, and one in which the player has no gems, called Kakusei Overmode. Regular Kakusei mode causes the following additional effects:

• All onscreen bullets turn pink and slow down significantly
• Certain enemies will shoot more bullets
• Destroying enemies will cause a bullet cancel - depleting the player's gem count, destroying the bullets they shot, awarding points, and converting the destroyed bullets into gold ingot items (for more details, see Scoring)

Using the bullet slowdown and destruction features of Kakusei mode is a recommended strategy when playing for survival, as slower bullets become easier to dodge, and the automatic barrier will protect the player in case they get hit.

In Kakusei Overmode, all bullets turn red and increase in speed. The Kakusei Overmode Level increases as shown by the circular gauge around the player

Kakusei Overmode

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Kakusei Overmode is activated when the player enters Kakusei mode with no gems, or runs out of gems during regular Kakusei mode. Kakusei Overmode causes the following effects:

• All onscreen bullets turn red, and speed up instead of slowing down
• Destroying enemies no longer causes bullet cancels
• Enemies drop gold ingots instead of green gems
• Points are awarded continuously over time

Kakusei Overmode can be dangerous due to the increased bullet speed, but it also grants rewards. When in Kakusei Overmode, the player will constantly accumulate small amounts of points. The points accumulated are based on the player's Kakusei Overmode Level, which is indicated by a circular meter around the player, increases constantly during Kakusei Overmode, and maxing out at level four, after which the player will acquire a blue "ghost" effect on their sprite.

Kakusei Overmode Level increases faster when not shooting. A higher level causes bullets to move even faster during overmode, and the level will reset back to 1 when the player is hit.

Lastly, a higher Kakusei Overmode Level will increase the number of gems dropped by enemies when not in overmode. More gems allows the opportunity for more usage of regular Kakusei mode, which players can use for both survival and scoring purposes.

Playing the game while entirely in Kakusei Overmode is a popular challenge for the thrill-seeking player.

Items

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	Gem Increases your gem count for Kakusei mode and awards a small number of points. Destroying small enemies quickly and levelling up Kakusei Overmode will grant marginally more gems. The player can carry a maximum of 500 gems, before enemies begin to drop gold ingots instead.
	Gold Ingot (various sizes) Awards points. The more gold ingots are collected, the more points are granted for bullet cancels, up to 1000 ingots.
	Power Up Increases your shot power.
	Energy Increases your barrier meter by 50%.
	Maximum Power Grants maximum shot power - dropped from the player upon losing their last life.

The aftermath of a bullet cancel - each cancelled bullet is multiplied up to 100 times

Scoring

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Points are awarded for many actions in Espgaluda, including destroying enemies, shooting large enemies, picking up gems and gold, being in Kakusei Overmode, and having lives and barrier meter remaining after beating the game. However, the main source of points is bullet cancels, performed by destroying enemies while in Kakusei Mode. This is because the value of the destroyed bullets has a multiplier applied to it, depending on how many bullets were destroyed over the course of a Kakusei session, and all cancelled bullets are converted into gold, awarding points that dwarf most other sources.

Bullet Cancel Multiplier

The bullet multiplier always starts at 1 when Kakusei mode is first initiated. Cancelling more bullets over the course of Kakusei mode will increase the multiplier by 1 for every bullet destroyed, up to a maximum of 100. Leaving Kakusei mode resets the multiplier, so staying in Kakusei mode to destroy as many bullets as possible is key to score.

The multiplier is always increased by 1 for each bullet, even if they all come from the same enemy. So destroying an enemy that shot ten bullets will not have all bullets multiplied by ten, but instead the first bullet will be multiplied by one, the next by two, the next by three, and so on. The base value for a single cancelled bullet is 40 points.

Gold Ingots

Cancelled bullets will be turned into gold ingots, as well as all gems collected past 500, and all gems collected during Kakusei Overmode. The point value of gold ingots varies based on how many gold ingots are currently collected, up until the maximum ingot count of 1000. Ingots will slowly drain during boss fights, and losing a life will cut the player's gold amount in half, which can cause the value of obtained gold to drop in turn. The value of each gold ingot is represented by the following table:

Gold Ingot Count	Points Per Ingot Collected
000-099	100 points
100-199	150 points
200-299	200 points
300-399	300 points
400-499	350 points
500-599	400 points
600-699	600 points
700-799	650 points
800-899	700 points
900-1000	900 points

Endgame Bonus

Clearing the game can be a significant source of points. Endgame points are awarded for every life remaining, as well as the maximum number of lives held at any given time over the course of the game, the barrier gauge remaining, and the gold remaining. The point breakdown for each endgame bonus is as follows:

• Lives remaining: 1,000,000 points each (minimum 1,000,000 with one life remaining, max 6,000,000)
• Max lives held at once: 500,000 each (minimum 1,500,000 due to lives at game start, max 3,000,000)
• Barrier remaining: 16,000 points per 1% (max 1,600,000)
• Gold remaining: 1,000 per piece (max 1,000,000)

This gives a minimum possible endgame bonus of 2,500,000 points, and a maximum of 11,600,000 points.

Strategy

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

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Story

(tbd your dad isn't a good guy)

Version Differences

(tbd, ps2 version has arrange mode and fixes 2p score advantage)

Gallery

(tbd)

References & Contributors

1. Shmups Forum Espgaluda strategy thread: https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=134
2. Initial article written by SLRmercury