Raiden Fighters Jet

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Raiden Fighters Jet

Title screen

Developer:	Seibu Kaihatsu
Publisher:	Seibu Kaihatsu
Producer:	H. Hamada S. Mori
Music:	Y. Hashimoto
Program:	T. Saito M. Ishikawa I. Doi
Art:	T. Sasaki K. Morino T. Hatsuse Y. Gouma Y. Fuyukama N. Ohzeki N. Matsushita S. Ono N. Sugaya
Designer:	S. Yano T. Saito
Release date:	Arcade: August 1998 Xbox 360 JP: March 27, 2008 US: May 5, 2009 iPhone: December 13, 2012 PC: 2013
Previous game:	Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive

Raiden Fighters Jet (JP:ライデンファイターズJET, commonly abbreviated as RFJ) is a shoot em' up developed by Seibu Kaihatsu and released in 1998. It is the third and final game in the Raiden Fighters series. It is also the final game by Seibu. RFJ is known for its fast bullet speeds, energetic soundtrack, and large number of hidden secrets and easter eggs found during gameplay which are integral to playing for score. It was rereleased in 2008 for the Xbox 360 as part of the Raiden Fighters Aces collection, and again on PC in 2013 as part of Raiden Legacy.

For replay videos, visit the Video Index.

Gameplay Overview

Raiden Fighters Jet is a 2-button game with fourteen playable ships, plus two secret ships. The stages progress in a branching path depending on player performance, with a full run of the game adding up to seven stages. RFJ contains two different scoring systems - one in which medals follow the player and increase in value by merging with each other, and another that's activated mid-run via an easter egg. Bonus points are awarded under certain conditions, including destroying enemies quickly before they begin shooting, destroying multiple enemies simultaneously, destroying parts of enemies in a certain order, and grazing enemy bullets. Easter eggs and secrets are very important to score, primarily in the form of point and item-granting fairies which appear under certain conditions, and micluses, Seibu Kaihatsu's mascot, which come out from under specific locations in the scenery when the player hovers over them.

Controls

The hit-boxes (yellow) and graze-boxes (red) for the different ships in Raiden Fighters Jet

• A button (Press): Fires standard shots from the ship and slaves.
• A button (Hold): Charges the player's special attack.
• B button (Press): Fires a limited-use bomb.

Ships

RFJ contains fourteen standard ships and two secret ships. Each ship differs by speed, shot type, bomb type and base bomb count, and hitbox size, as well as whether they have access to laser and missile shot types. The two secret ships are a fairy and an option ship (referred to as "slave" in-game), selected by holding the B button when pressing start, then picking any of the other ships at the character select. Choosing the miclus ship will select the fairy, and choosing any other ship will select the option ship. The option ship inherits the speed and bomb type of the ship it was selected with, while having its own shot type and a significantly smaller hitbox.

Using 2P side gives some of the ships an alternate color scheme, but this difference is purely cosmetical. Some of the ships on 2P color use their RF2 colors.

1P	2P

Resources

RFJ uses lives to measure player health, and starts the player at two lives. There are no extra lives granted to the player at any point.

The player starts off with two or three bombs depending on the ship selected, which are replenished after respawning from death, regardless of how many bombs they had before. Additional bombs are granted by killing specific enemies.

Those playing for pure survival are advised to use a bomb if they feel death is unavoidable, in order to maximize how many bombs will be available to them throughout their playthrough.

Items

RFJ has four different types of items: power up items which increase the strength of the player's shot and switch it between laser type (L) and missile type (M) where applicable, bomb items which grant the player an additional bomb, slave items which grant the player an additional option ship, and medals which grant the player score. Every non-medal item grants 5,000 points when collected as a surplus item.

Item	Description
	Missile Powers-up the missile weapon.
	Laser Powers-up the laser weapon.
	Slaves Adds a slave.
	Bomb Adds a bomb up to a maximum of 7.
	Medal Medals that can be combined to create larger medals. Essential for entering Gold Medal Mode.
	Gold Medal Medals that increase in value when collected one by one.

Level Progression

Raiden Fighters Jet ditches the stage structure from previous entries. There are 12 stages with a non-linear progression based on the player's own performance (deaths and accomplishing other tasks). This means that not every level will be seen in a single run, as only a maximum of 7 can be played. After clearing, a run will be labelled the following way:

• ALL1: The last level is Level 35.
• ALL2: The last level is Level 50.
• ALL3: The last level is Real Battle Phase 2.

Upon entering Real Battle Phase 1, if the player is using any of the fighters lettered from A to H (the default fighters from Raiden Fighters 2 and Hell Diver) a cutscene plays and they will control the Ixion for the remainder of the game. This Ixion is different from the one normally selectable in the player select screen, as it inherits the missile and laser weapons of whatever fighter the player was using before this. When using any of the other fighters, the cutscene doesn't play and the game continues as normal without changing to the Ixion.

The exact details about the level progression are presented here:

If you die 2+ times in Level 5 or before, go to Level 10.
Else, go to Level 15.

If you die in Level 10 OR Level 15, go to Level 20.
Else, go to Level 30.

If you continue in Level 20 or before, go to Level 30.
Else, go to Level 35, OR Level 40 if you destroy over 98% of enemies AND collect over 90% of medals in Level 20.

If you die in Level 30 or before, go to Level 40.
Else, go to Level 45.

If you continue 4+ times in Level 40 or before, go to Level 35.
If you die in Level 40 OR timeout a boss OR Gold Medal Mode is NOT active, go to Level 50.
Else, go to Real Battle Phase 1.

If Gold Medal Mode is NOT active in Level 45 OR you timeout a boss, go to Level 50.
Else, go to Real Battle Phase 1.

If you die in Real Battle Phase 1 OR continue in Real Battle Phase 2, XTB-1 (the True Last Boss) cannot be fought.

Scoring

Full details: Raiden Fighters Jet/Scoring

Medals

The medal system in Raiden Fighters Jet can be summed up in two states: before and after Gold Medal Mode. At first, enemies always drop the same medals. These differ from the ones in the previous entries since collecting all of them never increases the value of the next one, neither does the number of slaves equipped. Instead, these medals can merge together into a higher value medal. When medals are dropped by airborne enemies, there are 2 ways the player can intentionally achieve this:

• Grazing bullets: This causes all the floating medals to follow the player and merge together in the process, for as long as the player is earning points from the graze.
• Having at least one slave: This makes floating medals follow the player's slave(s). Floating medals can then be guided to merge with ground medals speeding-up the process. It's worth noting that the hidden slave formations can affect this, and may even make it impossible to collect the medal until all of the player's slaves are destroyed.

From there, the player must perform the following steps to enter Gold Medal Mode.

1. Build up a 2,048,000 points medal: By merging enough medals together this will create a medal worth 2,048,000 points, the maximum possible value. This is accompanied by a distinct sound effect.
2. Make 9 medals appear: After picking up the maximum 2,048,000 points medal, medals will continue to spawn as normal until the player makes 9 medals appear on screen at once (e.g. by shooting a Miclus but not immediately picking up the medals). When done correctly, the medals will explode and all subsequent medals will appear as gold medals instead, fundamentally changing the scoring system.
3. Gold Medal Mode: In Gold Medal Mode, the medals that merge together are replaced by the gold medals from the first 2 Raiden Fighters games, which have a base value of 10,000 points. Collecting all the medals on screen will increase the medal value by another 10,000 points, up to a maximum value of 100,000 points per medal. If a medal goes offscreen, the medal value will reset back to 10,000 for the next medal to appear on screen. Once the player has entered Gold Medal Mode, the game will not return to any of the earlier phases of medal collection. The only way to exit Gold Medal Mode is using a continue in Real Battle Phase 2.

Miclus & Fairy

Full details: Raiden Fighters Jet/Scoring#Secrets

Hovering over certain locations in the scenery will cause a Miclus, Seibu Kaihatsu's mascot, to appear. Continuously shooting a Miclus will release a total of 9 medals and destroying a Miclus awards an additional 100,000 points.

Fairies can appear when shooting down the main turret of a large ground enemy and waiting for it to advance far down on the screen. Picking up a fairy grants 100,000 points. Fairies will drop a bomb item if left on the screen for some time. However, they can also be killed by the player, reducing their value to only 10 points.

Both of them can also appear as rewards for fulfilling additional stage specific secret conditions.

Bonus Message Chaining

Certain actions will make various bonus text messages appear on screen. If these messages pop up in close succession, a multiplier x2, x3, x4 etc. is built up, which caps at x9. The multiplier is active as long as there is at least one text message displayed on screen. The bonus messages are as follows:

QUICK SHOT	Destroy certain enemies before they shoot
DESTROYED AT A TIME	Destroy certain 2 enemies simultaneously
DX BONUS	Destroy all parts of the trains in LEVEL 05
DISCOVERED THE MICLUS	Make a Miclus appear
DISCOVERED THE FAIRY	Make a Fairy appear
KILLED THE FAIRY	Shoot down a fairy

The multiplier gained from chaining these text messages is applied to most of the score bonusses displayed on screen (except for medals). It is worth mentioning that the chainable text messages for the Fairy and the Miclus immediately appear with uncovering these characters themselves, which then increases the multiplier. However, the actual score which effectively can be multiplied is gained only after picking up the Fairy and blowing up the Miclus (after shooting it for 9 medals).

Grazing Bullets

Getting close to enemy bullets without touching them is known as grazing, and will grant additional points as well.

Stage Completion Points

Bonus points are awarded at the end of each stage based on three criteria: ability, medals earned, and technical points. Ability is a cumulative bonus based on enemies killed, medals collected, and bonuses chained. Medals earned is the number of medals collected during the stage, excluding medals blown up to enter gold medal mode.

Technical points are awarded according to the following criteria:

1. Not dying in the level: five points
2. Enemy destruction: up to three points, based on the number of medium and large enemies destroyed
3. Discovering at least one miclus: one point
4. Discovering at least one fairy: one point. However, killing a fairy will deduct a technical point.

The number of technical points for a level cannot exceed ten.

References

1. Raiden Fighters Emporium
2. System11 forum thread
3. Primary info provided by SLRmercury, Plasmo and sht_ycw79