Raiden IV
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Raiden IV, the seventh full game in the Raiden franchise, was developed by MOSS and was first released on June 7, 2007 in arcades.
Raiden IV is considered to have refined the ideas that Raiden III introduced to the series. Raiden III used 3D graphics instead of sprites; the ship had smaller hitbox; and the bomb deployed instantly instead of after a delay. All these changes were carried over to Raiden IV.
Two significant updates were made to the game in later releases. The Xbox 360 port, released in Japan on October 2, 2008, added two additional stages playable in the “Xbox 360 Mode”. This was renamed Additional Mode in later releases, distinct from the Arcade Mode in which only the original five stages are played.
In April/May 2014, Raiden IV: Overkill was released worldwide for the PS3, which featured Overkill Mode. This mode featured an entirely new scoring system and added two new bonus stages, bringing the total stage count to nine. Enemy patterns were also adjusted.
Title screen
| Developer: | MOSS |
|---|---|
| Music: | Go Sato |
| Program: | Person B |
| Art: | Person C |
| Release date: | June 7, 2007 |
| Next game: | Raiden V |
Contents
Gameplay Overview
Raiden IV’s gameplay is characterized by medium quantities of bullets, fast bullet-speeds, an absence of static obstacles, and a multiple-weapon power-up system. This puts it in line with the style of previous game in the series as well as traditional vertical arcade shmups of the early 90s, where the Raiden series originated.
Controls
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Raiden IV has two-button controls with autofire by default.
- A: Fire
- B: Bomb
Sub Weapon Charge Shot: After a sub weapon (ie. missile) has been obtained, releasing the fire button will charge your ship. Firing after a few seconds will release a larger barrage of your missiles. Each missile that hits will score additional points.
Ships
The arcade release had only one playable ship (Fighting Thunder ME-02).
For the Xbox 360 release, two additional characters were made available as DLC. Raiden MK-II is the ship from Raiden II; Fairy was first seen in the original Raiden as a point-scoring item first, now turned into a playable character.
Later releases, for PS3 and PC, made all three ships available in the base game.
Hitbox
Ship Comparison
| Ship Name | Player 1 | Player 2 | Speed | Max Power-Ups | Max Damage | Bomb Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fighting Thunder ME-02 |  |
 |
Medium | 5 | Medium | Instant start. Expanding circle with full screen coverage | |
| Raiden MK-II | Example | Slower | 7 | Stronger | Delayed start. Circular area-of-effect with partial screen coverage. | ||
| Fairy | Example | Faster | 5 | Weaker | Instant start. Spreads bottom to top with full screen coverage. |
Weapons
There will be three main weapons in a run that correspond with the three coloured power-up items, and three sub-weapons corresponding to the M, H and R items.
Each ship starts the game with its respective red weapon and no sub-weapon.
On death number of power-up items are released into the stage and when the player respawns their weapon power is correspondingly decreased [to lowest level?].
Main Weapons
| Ships |  |
 |
 |
Purple |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fighting Thunder ME-02 Raiden MK-II |
Vulcan | Laser | Plasma Laser | Proton Laser |
| Details | Details | Details | Details | Details |
| Fairy | Fairy Vulcan | Milky Laser | Bubble Launcher | N/A |
| Details | Details | Details | Details | Details |
The function of the purple power-up for the ship characters is selected from the two choices at the start of a run, and cannot be changed during a run.
Sub Weapons
| Ships | M | H | R |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fighting Thunder ME-02 Raiden MK-II |
Nuclear Missiles | Homing Missiles | Radar Missiles |
| Details | Details | Details | Details |
| Fairy | Flower | Feather | Leaf |
| Details | Details | Details | Details |
Despite their appearance, the fairy’s subweapons function identically to those of the Fighting Thunder ME-02, with just a marginal reduction in damage.
Items
| Item | Images | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Power-Up | |
This item cycles through the three colours in a Red-Blue-Purple repeating pattern. An indicator around the edge of the item shows how long until the next change. The process will be halted if the player stops firing, and one power-up item on the screen will be drawn to the player. Otherwise, all power-up items will move in a circle near the middle of the screen, and eventually leave the screen if not collected. |
| Sub Weapon | Example | This item cycles through the three options in a M-H-R repeateding pattern. |
| Point Scoring Items | Example | Medals. Fairy. Miklas. |
| Bomb | Example | Example |
| 1UP | Example | Gives the player an extra life. There is one 1UP item in each loop. See below for the hidden location of these items. |
1UP Locations
Coming soon...
Rank
To be confirmed?
Loops
A second loop follows the completion of Stage 5 (Arcade) or Stage 7 (Additional/Overkill). There are no requirements to enter loop 2.
A True Last Boss is faced at the end of loop 2.
Scoring (Original)
The following applies when playing in the Arcade or Additional/Xbox 360 modes.
| Action | Image | Points | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inflicting Damage | Example | 10 points/hit? | Example |
| Destroying Enemy / Flast Shot System | Example | Enemy Base Value x Flash Shot Multiplier | See below |
| Charged Sub Weapon Shots | Example | 500 points/hit (8,000 for one full barrage) | Example |
| Collecting Medals | Example | 3,000 points/medal | Medals are found on the ground or by destroying certain enemies or objets. Medals on the ground of a stage start invisible and are revealed when they are hit. Note that medals also provide an end of stage bonus (see below) |
| Collect Fairy | Example | 30,000 points | Example |
| Destroy Sols (aka Hidden Towers) | Example | 100,000 points/Sol | Each level contains one Sol. The Sol is in a fixed location and is hidden until revealed. To reveal a Sol, hover your ship over the location. Destroy the Sol to collect the points. |
| Collect Miklas | Example | 100,000 points/Miklas | In loop 2, destroying a Sol will also reveal one Miklas item nearby. |
| End of Stage Bonus: Bombs | Example | 10,000/bomb in stock | Example |
| End of Stage Bonus: Lives | Example | 50,000/remaining life | Example |
| End of Stage Bonus: Medals | Example | 30,000/medal collected on this stage AND on this life | Example |
| End of Loop 2 Completion Bonus | Example | 5,000,000? | Example |
Enemy Destruction Points / Flast Shot System
Each enemy has a base point value. For example, the first enemy you meeet is a small ship with a base value of 1,000 points. Medium size ships are [usually?] 10,000 points, and bosses are 100,000 points.
When an enemy is destroyed, a multiplier is applied to the base value based on how quickly you killed the enemy. The maximum multiplier is x5.0, and decreases the longer the foe is on the screen. The rate of decrease depends on the enemy.?
The multiplier appears on top of large enemies after you kill them, and to the side of th screen when killing small enemies.
Scoring (Overkill)
Coming soon...
Strategy
See (Template Page)/Strategy for stage maps, enemy and boss descriptions, walkthroughs, and advanced play strategies.
This section details some particular strategic information about the game and its gameplay, such as hidden 1UPs and some basic scoring tricks. For anything particularly deep or highly complex, you can probably leave it in the Strategy page.
(Currently evaluating whether or not this specific section should even include information outside of the separated Strategy pages. Worth thinking about as a community.)
Story
Basic story breakdowns, plot information, and endings are included here.
If there is no story at all, or any information about the setting, then this section can be omitted. Try to include at least small things here when you can.
Development History
If available, you can include information here about the hardware, the development of the game, and its general reception. Try to have as much information in this section cited as possible.
Version Differences
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Trivia
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Gallery
See (Template Page)/Gallery for our collection of images and scans for the game.
Video References
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Other
We have support for wikitables, giving us the potential to add lots of cool info in a small box on the page somewhere, but we are not using them at the moment. I'm just leaving this here so we can have it handy in case we decide to actually use them. Feel free to not use this section.
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