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.
Contents
Gameplay Overview
Espgaluda is a four-button game with five stages, no loops, and two playable characters, the siblings Ageha and Tateha.
Controls
- 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, and awarding points per destroyed bullet. A score multiplier is applied based on the number of bullets destroyed over the course of a given usage of Kakusei mode. This results in a gameplay loop of collecting gems, entering Kakusei mode and destroying as many bullets as possible, then 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, and a faster movement speed |
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Tateha The younger sibling. Has a wide shot that covers a large area and a slower movement speed |
Mechanics
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.
Kakusei Mode
(tbd)
Items
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Gem Increases your gem count for Kakusei mode and awards a small number of points |
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Gold Ingot (various sizes) Awards points. Higher number of ingots collected grants more points for bullet cancels |
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Power Up Increases your shot power |
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Energy Increases your barrier meter by 50% |
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Maximum Power Grants maximum shot power - dropped only on game over |
Scoring
(tbd, here's how gold, stage end points, etc actually work)
Strategy
See Espgaluda/Strategy for stage maps, enemy and boss descriptions, walkthroughs, and advanced play strategies.
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
- Shmups Forum Espgaluda strategy thread: https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=134
- Initial article written by SLRmercury
