Karous

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Karous
Karous title.png

Title screen

Developer: Milestone/RS34
Music: Daisuke Nagata, Kou Hayashi
Program: Manabu Matsumoto, Junpei Isshiki (Milestone)/Jiro Hamaya (RS34)
Release date: Arcade
JP : November 15, 2006 [1]
Dreamcast
JP : March 8, 2007 [2]
Milestone Shooting Collection 1 (Wii)
JP : April 10, 2008 [2]
KO : 19 December 2008 [3]
US : 23 January 2009[4]
Milestone Shooting Collection 2 (Wii)
JP : December 30, 2012 [2]
Sakura Flamingo Archives (X360)
JP: November 27, 2014[5]
Switch/PS4/PS5:
JP:
November 27, 2025
Steam:
January 22, 2026[6]
Previous game: Radirgy
Next game: Illmatic Envelope (Illvelo)

Karous (jap.: カラス, karasu) is a cel-shaded, vertical shmup from 2006 developed by Milestone. It was published by Sega and released November 15, 2006 in japanese Arcades on Sega’s NAOMI platform and later ported to Sega Dreamcast on March 8, 2007. It was the last Dreamcast game, that was officially licensed by Sega.


For replay videos, visit the Video Index.

Gallery

See Karous/Gallery for our collection of images and scans for the game.

Gameplay Overview

Basic Game Info

Karous features 5 stages and 3 game modes:

  • Easy Mode: 3 stages
  • Normal Mode: 5 stages
  • Hard Mode: 5 stages and unlockable TLB

The game is played with an 8-way stick and three buttons.

The default extends are at 50 million and 200 million points.

A full run is 1 loop only and lasts around 25 minutes.

Controls

  • A : Shot
  • B : Sword
  • C : D.F.S. (when available)
  • Not holding A or B : Shield

The 2025 Ports also offer a rapid-fire option.

Interface

Karous interface base.png

  • Top left blue vertical gauge : D.F.S. gauge (or SP gauge)
  • Top left yellow horizontal gauge : HP gauge
  • Top left three circles : Weapon levels
  • Top right white number next to "EXP" : Score
  • Top right red number : Total level
  • Top right small white text : Log
  • Long vertical red gauge on the right : Boss Durability gauge (only appears when fighting bosses)

Sometimes you receive a message and it is displayed on the bottom of the screen.

HP

HP Gauge
2 Karous 2HP.png
12 Karous 12HP.png
14 Karous 14HP.png
28 Karous 28HP.png
30 Karous 30HP.png
36 Karous 36HP.png
48 Karous 48HP.png
60 Karous 60HP.png

In the default settings, You have 30 HP at the start of the game. You take damage when you get hit by enemy bullets or lasers, but you do not take damage from touching enemies.

Hazard Damage
Destructible bullets (square) 12
Indestructible bullets (round) 10
Lasers 8

A full HP gauge represents 30 HP. When you have more than 30 HP, the excess HP is shown by the second green layer of the HP gauge. Your HP does not exceed 60.

The HP gauge turns red when it is 12 HP or below. If you take damage and the HP reaches zero, you get a game over if you do not continue.

Log

When you get multiplied scores, it is shown in the log like

base score(total level)=score

where score = base score ×total level.

The log also shows when you take damage, when D.F.S. is ready, when a weapon level increases, and when an item is obtained.

Enemy Spawning

An enemy formation. Its leader is in the center.

Karous features a dynamic wave spawning system, where once all enemies in a wave disappear (either by being defeated or leaving the screen), the next enemy wave spawns. A stage starts with a flying enemy table and a mid-sized enemy table starts a little later.

A wave in the flying enemy table consists of one flying enemy formation with one leader. A leader enemy has a flashing outline.

A wave in the mid-sized enemy table consists of at least one mid-sized enemy. A mid-sized enemy has multiple parts you can destroy.

The tables are interrupted by midbosses in stages 3, 4, and 5. After a certain amount of time has passed, both of the enemy tables stop and a boss appears.

There are no ground enemies except for hidden item spots.

Weapons and Level-up Mechanics

Your machine (Defect) has Shot, Sword, Shield and a special attack called D.F.S. As you use each of Shot, Sword and Shield, you get experience points and level up that weapon. they start at level 0 and can be leveled-up to a maximum of 100.

You get experience points when:

  • You hit enemies/enemy parts with a weapon
  • You erase bullets with a weapon
  • Enemies/enemy parts get in the barrier D.F.S. generates
  • Defeat enemies/Destroy enemy parts

If you do something that results in you getting experience points for a certain weapon, an experience chip of that weapon's color appears where that action takes place and starts flying towards the level display. The size and the appearance of the experience chip indicate how many experience points you get. When it reaches the level display, the experience point is added to your weapon, and the chip is converted to a D.F.S. chip and sent to the D.F.S. gauge.

Various shield experience chips: small stars, large stars, stones, small crystals, and large crystals.


Shot

At level 0, Shot consists of a pair of forward shots and a pair of spread shots. forward shots are faster and stronger than spread shots. Shots become bigger, faster and hit harder in higher levels. They destroy square bullets upon contact.

Level-up threshold Special Effect
10 A pair of spread shots are added.
26 The forward shots change their appearance.
30 A pair of spread shots are added.
50 A "Ver. Up+" effect is shown and your machine changes its appearance.
52 The forward shots change their appearance.
60 A pair of spread shots are added.

When you hold down your Shot button, forward shots are fired every 8 frames and spread shots are fired every 11 frames. The fire rate is boosted when you point-blank. If you use rapid-fire, all shots are fired every 6 frames and deal less damage to enemies. You can use rapid-fire for efficient leveling because of more shots hitting enemies.

Sword

Sword hits enemies near the front of your machine. Although it has a limited range, it can deal a large amount of damage especially when it is leveled up.

You can use Shot and Sword at the same time, but doing so will make both attacks weaker.

Sword can also destroy square bullets.

Level-up threshold Special Effect
20 The second slash with a greater range is added.
A "Ver. Up+" effect is shown and your machine changes its appearance.
50 The third slash with an even greater range is added.
A "Ver. Up+" effect is shown and your machine changes its appearance.

Defect keeps swinging Sword when you are holding the Sword button.

Shield

Shield blocks square and round bullets, and deals contact damage. Although its attack power is weaker than Shot or Sword, the reflect shots of high-level Shield make a good offensive and defensive weapon against bosses.

Level-up threshold Special Effect
20 Shield changes its appearance and it reflects one out of every few dozen (depending on Shield level) bullets and shoot reflect shots, or "ref-shots." Ref-shots can delete bullets they touch. They are also fired when Shield is dealing contact damage.
A "Ver. Up+" effect is shown and your machine changes its appearance.
50 Shield changes its appearance and it reflects every bullet it touches.
A "Ver. Up+" effect is shown and your machine changes its appearance.

In the entire game, Defect can go through 5 visual upgrades. On DC and Wii versions, however, its form resets at the beginning of each stage due to a glitch.

D.F.S.

Weapon Immunity

Some enemies are invulnerable unless they are hit with a specific weapon.

The player’s ship has 4 different weapon systems, a regular spread shot, a sword for melee range, a shield and a D.F.S. Bomb. The shot, sword and shield can be powered up by earning experience points from destroyed enemies or collecting specific power up items dropped by special enemies. The D.F.S. gauge can be filled by destroying enemies and cancel enemy bullets with the shot or shield. When the gauge is full it can be consumed to use the D.F.S. Bomb. During the D.F.S.-attack the player ship is invincible and the player gets a bonus on experience points and score from destroyed enemies. As soon the shield is leveled up to 20, it acts also as an offensive weapon by reflecting enemy bullets. The overall level of the ship is displayed on the right side of the screen and also appears on the leaderboard.

Items

Normal Items

A small point item spawns when you defeat all enemies in a formation of flying enemies. 10 small point items and a D.F.S. Charge item spawn when you take a damage. Slashing a normal item with sword pushes it upwards and can change it into another normal item.

Item Item
(translated)		 Description Log
Karous P.png Karous P en.png Point (small and large): Increases your score.
A small and a large point item have a base score values of 500 and 3000, respectively.		 Small:
500(your level)=score
Large:
3000(your level)=score
Karous EXP.png Karous EXP en.png Experience Points: Gives you experience points. The color of the item corresponds to a specific weapon with a similar color. Shot:
SHOT EXPERIENCE GET!
Sword:
SWORD EXPERIENCE GET!
Shield:
SHIELD EXPERIENCE GET
Karous Shield.png Karous Shield en.png Auto Shield: Deploys a shield in front of your machine for about 6 seconds.
After that, the shield is retracted and you have to wait the usual shield deployment duration to use it again.		 AUTO SHIELD ON!
Karous Change.png Karous Change en.png Bullet Conversion: Changes all enemy bullets on the screen into small point items. ITEM CHANGED!!
Karous life.png Karous life en.png Recovery (small and large): Recovers your HP gauge a little.
A small recovery item increases your HP by 1. It has a larger variant that gives you 5 HP.
Your HP does not go higher than 60.		 Small:
RECOVER!!(+1=your HP)
Large:
RECOVER!!(+5=your HP)
Karous SP.png Karous SP en.png D.F.S. Charge: Completely fills your D.F.S. gauge. SP GAUGE FULL!

Career Items

A career item is spawned when you defeat an item career. Slashing a career item changes it in a more predictable way, so you are likely to get what item you want.

Item Description Log
Karous ShotLv.png Shot Level-up: Increases your shot level by 1 and keeps your current experience points.
Slashing this item will change it into a sword Level-up item.		 SHOT LEVEL UP!(your shot level)
Karous SwordLv.png Sword Level-up: Increases your sword level by 1 and keeps your current experience points.
Slashing this item will change it into a shield level-up item.		 SWORD LEVEL UP!(your sword level)
Karous ShieldLv.png Shield Level-up: Increases your shield level by 1 and keeps your current experience points.
Slashing this item will change it into a speed-up item.		 SHIELD LEVEL UP!(your shield level)
Karous SpeedUp.png Speed-up: Increases your movement speed by one level.
Slashing this item will change it into a speed-down item or a shot level-up item.		 SPEED UP!(1.0)
Karous SpeedDown.png Speed down: Decreases your movement speed by one level.
Slashing this item will change it into a shot level-up item.		 SPEED DOWN!(1.0)
Karous Heart.png Recovery: Gives you 10 HP.
Your HP does not exceed 60.
When you reach a score extend threshold, this item flies to your machine. If you already have 60 HP, a level-up item appears instead.
Recovery item also has a small chance to spawn from an item career or slashing a career item.		 RECOVER!!(+10=your HP)

Hidden Items

Each stage in Normal Mode and Hard Mode has one hidden item on the ground. The spots where the items are hidden react to the player's weapons, but only one weapon can uncover each one of them.

The hidden item locations and the weapon to uncover it is indicated in Shigi's message.

The hidden item appears as a 3D Milestone logoRadirgy - Milestone logo.png in Milestone releases, an SFL logo Sakura Flamingo Archives - Sakura Logo.png in Sakura Flamingo Archives, and a cicada Karous cicada.png in RS34 releases.

Playing in Hard Mode, collecting all 5 hidden items, and defeating the boss in stage 5 without Time-out are required to see the TLB.

Characters

  • Karous (カラス) – Player's ship pilot
  • Shigi (シギ) – Navigator
  • Akahara (アカハラ(赤原))
  • Hakugan (ハクガン(剥眼))


Scoring/Strategy

The main strategy is to fill your D.F.S. - gauge as quick as possible and use the D.F.S. to absorb bullets, destroy enemies for score and level up your preferred weapons early. High scoring requires a very aggressive playstyle.

Also try to make use of the score items as much as possible by "juggling" them and picking them up at their maximum worth.

Bigger enemies, midbosses and bosses have destroyable parts, so you want to destroy them piece by piece.

You can earn a lot of points from bossfights, by destroying single parts and absorb bullets with your D.F.S. The bosses can be milked, but time out pretty quickly so if you take to long you won’t earn points for destroying the boss.

This also makes it pretty easy to dodge the bossfights by sitting on the bottom of your screen and hiding behind your shield.

Ports / Releases

  • Milestone Shooting Collection 2 - 2010, Wii (JP)
  • Sakura Flamingo Archives - 2014, Xbox 360 (JP)
  • Karous - The Beast of Re:Eden - 2015, 3DS (JP/NA/EU)
  • Karous - 2025 by RS34, Steam (JP/NA/EU), Switch/PS5 (JP)

References

  1. 1CC Log for Shmups (https://1cclog.blogspot.com/2015/09/karous-dreamcast.html)
  2. Manual for the Steam version (https://store.steampowered.com/manual/4090420?l=english)
    1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20061016200358/http://www.mile-stone.co.jp/product/krs/krs_top.html
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://web.archive.org/web/20111103070604fw_/http://www.mile-stone.co.jp/product.html
    3. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/game/wii/ultimate-shooting-collection/release-info
    4. ↑ https://www.nintendolife.com/games/wii/ultimate_shooting_collection
    5. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/game/sakura-flamingo-archives
    6. ↑ https://store.steampowered.com/app/4090420/_/
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