Transcendpang
Official Logo
| Developer: | wosderge |
|---|---|
| Release date: | 2010 |
TranscendPang is a freeware doujin shoot 'em up created by wosderge. The game's gameplay is mostly derived from the classic arcade game Buster Bros., also known as Pang, but with some key differences. Where Buster Bros. may be described as an action game, TranscendPang takes the basic "Pang" format and turns it into a frantic shoot 'em up experience. The soundtrack features several artists from the Japanese doujin and rhythm game scenes.
Gameplay Overview
In TranscendPang, your character is fixed to the ground, with only the ability to move left and right, just like in Buster Bros. You also have a shot button, an OverDrive button and a Skill button. In total there are 12 playable characters, as well as 2 secret characters, where each character has unique stats for movement speed, wire speed and overdrive damage, as well as completely unique skills.
Your goal is to progress through the stage by shooting incoming balls that appear at the top of the screen and bounce around on the stage, and destroy the bigger enemies that appear from time to time, called sentinels. Each stage has unique theme with its own music where all the sound effects for shot and kills add to the music that's already playing, creating a generative soundtrack. This also means that your shot and the enemy balls are synchronized to the tempo of the music that's playing.
Controls
- Shot (Z): Fires a wire towards the top of the screen.
- OverDrive (X): Destroys all balls on screen, and deals damage to sentinels and bosses.
- Skill (C): Activates the character's special skill.
- Boost (Shift/Space): Increases the rate of incoming balls.
Sub-skills
You can equip up to two sub-skills for your character. This is done by moving to which character you want the skill of, and pressing either Left or Right. Their assignment is indicated by two different colored dots next to the characters whose skills you've equipped. Sub-skills are very useful, as they let you equip a total of 3 skills, since you also keep the skill of the character you're playing as.
In order to active a skill, you need to build up your skill gauge and hold either Up or Down while activating the skill.
- The skill you selected with Left gets assigned to DOWN + Skill (pink dot)
- The skill you selected with Left gets assigned to UP + Skill (green dot)
If you're able to rebuild the skill gauge before the skill runs out, then you can activate another skill in the middle of the first skill, making it possible to combine two skills. The only catch is that sub-skills deplete the skill gauge much quicker than your primary skill, so be careful when activating it.
Bombs
Bombs in this game refers to the glowing balls that explode after 4 beats. Throughout the stage, bombs will spawn in naturally from the top of the screen, but they appear in a different color than the regular balls.
Regular Bombs
Regular bombs are usually red or orange, and once activated they will glow white. You can also tell if they're about to explode by listening to their audio cue, which is typically a short musical phrase that lasts for 4 beats. If you shoot a bomb while it is glowing white, you will delay its explosion until the next cycle.
If a bomb's explosion hits balls smaller than itself, it will destroy those balls immediately. However, any balls the same sizer or larger will be turned into bombs themselves by the explosion.
If a bomb comes in contact with a sentinel or a ruler (boss), it will explode immediately, while also dealing a lot of damage. However, the player can not be hurt by regular bombs.
it is also possible to create bombs yourself. If you are able to split the same ball three times before it hits the ground, it will turn into a ball. This means that in order to create bombs, the ball needs to be at least size 4 or 5.
Hostile Bombs
Hostile bombs however can hurt the player. These will appear purple, or green if color support is turned on.
While they behave like normal bombs, they will also turn smaller balls into purple bombs. You can turn them into regular bombs by shooting them while they're not glowing. That means that if a purple bomb is about to explode, you'll have to hit it once to deactivate it and then once again in order to turn it into a regular bomb.
Hostile bombs will not damage sentinels or rulers.
Depth
Depth is the metric of progression and score in the game. By hitting balls and destroying sentinels, you get points which are added to the depth.
Each stage has a pre-defined total depth, which is presented to you at the start of the stage. Once you have reached that depth, you will have reached the end of the stage and the stage's boss will appear. Additionally, each floor of the stage has its own target depth which is required to reach in order to progress to the next floor. However, due to how the floor change only happens at the start of each musical phrase, it is possible to exceed the target depth of each floor. It is not possible to exceed the total depth of the entire stage.
Norma Time
Each stage has a norma time, which is presented to you at the start of every stage. If you are able to reach the total depth of the stage within the norma time, you will face the NEO version of the boss, instead of the regular version. The exception is the final stage, which does not have a NEO version of the boss, and the norma time is infinite (but displayed as 59:99.)
Bonuses
While playing the game, you can be rewarded by two main types of bonuses, one for eliminating sentinels and one based on the size of bombs.
Sentinels Eliminated
For every 6 sentinels eliminated, you will be rewarded with an extend. This includes sentinels eliminated across two different stages. For example, if you eliminated 4 in one stage, you will get the reward once you eliminate 2 sentinels in the next stage.
Sublimation Bonus
A sublimation bonus is rewarded to you based on the size of the largest bomb exploded during a chain. The bonus will be rewarded once the last bomb in a chain has exploded.
| Tier | Reward |
|---|---|
| 1st Sublimation Bonus | No reward |
| 2nd Sublimation Bonus | Score bonus (Needs research for calculation) |
| 3rd Sublimation Bonus | Full skill gauge |
| 4th Sublimation Bonus | Shield +50% (Needs research for abnormal mode) |
| 5th Sublimation Bonus | Extend |
Modes
The game has 5 modes you can choose between.
Wandering Mode
This is the main mode of the game. In this mode you have to play through 7 stages out of a possible 19, arranged in a branching tree, similar to the Darius series.
The tree has a depth of 3 branches, except the final stage which has 4 potential stages. You can only move between adjacent branches, i.e. from A to B, or from C to B, but not from A to C.
Your performance in each stage is what determines what the next stage will be.
| Movement | Condition |
|---|---|
| A to A | Defeat normal boss (norma time not beaten.) |
| A to B | Defeat NEO boss (beat the norma time.) |
| B to A | Defeat normal boss. |
| B to B | Defeat NEO boss. |
| B to C | Defeat NEO boss and get 2 extends during the stage. |
| C to B | Defeat normal boss. |
| C to C | Defeat NEO boss. |
| Final-X | Defeat NEO boss and get 2 extends in Stage 6-C. |
The exception to this rule is stage 2-B, which lets you move up to 3-C without getting the two extends which are normally required.
Advanced Mode
This mode lets you play a through one of 3 courses, each consisting of 6 predetermined stages.
Some courses must be unlocked before you can play them.
| Course | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 | Stage 4 | Stage 5 | Stage 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Sphagnum Squarossum (1-A) | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
| Maniac | Easy-0 (2-A) | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
| ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
Invasion Mode
This mode lets you play any stage freely, as long as you have played it at least once before in Wandering Mode.
A useful mode for practicing certain stages and their bosses.
Genesis Mode
This mode lets you play any custom stage the game is able to find inside the "user" folder in the game data folder.
Boss Rush
This mode is its own self contained stage which lets you play against every boss in the game in sequence.
Characters
Coming Soon.
Stages
Coming Soon.
Strategy
Coming Soon.
This is a stump. I'll add more later.
