This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on June 13th, 2020.
Another week, another PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of games for the original PlayStation that are somewhat obscure, unusual, or unknown. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral to emphasize the review itself. Now, let’s go!
This week, here’s another shmup - Soukyugurentai. This arcade game is also known as Terra Diver. It was released to arcades worldwide in September of 1996 and later to consoles on February 7th and December 25th of 1997 for Saturn and PS1 respectively. The console releases were only in Japan. Technically there are two PlayStation versions, Soukyuugurentai: Oubushutsugeki and Arcade Hits - Soukyugurentai. I’m not sure that there is any difference other than retail price at the time of release, publisher and cover art, but I have the latter (which was actually released on May 22nd, 2003).. The former version was published by Data East and the latter from Hamster. The game was developed by Raizing. Soukyugurentai is a story about a war between interplanetary corporations. Neither seems particularly good, but the player flies under the banner of the JDF who is connected to the Jin-Sei Corporation, the largest of these interplanetary resource hoarders. Utilizing NALS laser web system, the player’s fighter will battle against the Eight Luck Corporation to make sure that they don’t become the dominant money lords of 2057.
The two Japanese cover art images for Soukyugurentai are similar in a lot of ways. Both utilize a red/orange/green color-scheme on a black background. Both show ships and lasers. Both display the large title of the game in hot colors. The original release is a full-size image with the player’s ships flying towards the viewer. This looks pretty cool and gives a sense of action. The Arcade Hits version is much less clear and features large black, outer border with an inner border consisting of a black and yellow checkerboard. I’ll take that original release cover over the re-release any day.
Soukyugurentai isn’t a particularly pretty game, graphically. The game utilizes some decent sprites, but the graphics are a bit blurrier than I expect from a PlayStation title. Some elements, such as certain beam attacks, look kind of cheap with limited animation. On the other hand, the ships move nicely with some neat rotations, and bosses have destructible segments like last week’s title, Einhänder. Unique to the PlayStation version of Soukyugurentai are various FMVs displaying news broadcasts of the war between the corporations. These look great! I was really surprised how much I liked the look of these cutscenes, many replicating the look of security cameras and the like excellently. These broadcasts went a long way to me enjoying the game further, so I do find them to be a strong point to this title.
As for sound, Soukyugurentai is also good, though, again, in some unusual ways. The musick combines the heavy, cinematic tones of Metal Gear Solid with the fast, chiptune/rock of Mega Man. I don’t find this musick to be as memorable as the tracks from RayStorm or Einhänder, but it still sounds good. I really like some of the sound effects in this game, sounds for charging lasers, fire standard shots, collecting power-ups, and locking-on all sounding sharp and distinct. Again, a notable exclusive to this title is a voice that narrates events in the mission. Because she speaks in Japanese, I cannot give any real overview of what she says, but, just based on her vocal expressions alone, I enjoyed her accompaniment throughout the missions against the enemy corporation.
Actually fighting this enemy corporation, Eight Luck, is an interesting matter itself. You can select one of four ships colored red, blue, green, and yellow (the last of these being exclusive to this version), each with their own parameters and laser webs. These laser webs are basically a targeting system for the lock-on capabilities of each ship (think Ray Force/RayStorm/RayCrisis). Each ship has two with the ability to toggle between them available during the mission. One web usually targets straight ahead while the other will aim towards the rear or sides. The webs can also be rotated. Enemies that are locked-on are shot at with missiles or powerful lasers once the targeting button is released. Otherwise, the player has a rapid shot and a bomb of which the latter also has two shots (again, a straight-ahead shot and a crowd control shot with the latter utilized by pressing the bomb button while the player is already shooting). You can collect bombs and power-ups from special ships that appear during each mission. That’s really all there is to Soukyugurentai; it’s pretty straightforward.
Soukyugurentai could be said to perhaps be too straightforward. You press the Start button at the title screen, select one of the four pilots, and it’s off to fight the war... or so I thought. While I was writing this review I actually realized that this only allows you to play the Special Mode. The Arcade Mode, which removes the yellow ship, the narrator, and the cutscenes while also upping the difficulty is accessible by pressing the Select button at the title screen. There is also an Option menu and a neat High Score Battle that gives you a password after you complete the first level, so you can compare scores with another person. After discovering these other modes and options, my only real complaint about this title is that those options are hard to find and that there is a slight bit of slowdown while locking on very, very rarely, at least during the Special Mode (Arcade Mode feels slightly faster overall). I really enjoy the laser webs, the different pilots, the destructible elements to the bosses, and the musick. I was able to complete the Special Mode on my third playthrough, and I will probably play through the Arcade Mode sometime in the future now too. Soukyugurentai is a nice package of originals and extras that is really worth your time.
Soukyugurentai receives a Good.
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