RefleX
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"This is a story of the fight of the resistance military forces and the earth military forces" |
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RefleX is a 2D Bullet Hell Shoot'Em Up developed by Siter Skain and part of The Tale of Alltynex trilogy. It forms a trilogy with two of their other games: though developed after Kamui and before Alltynex Second, storywise the games go in reverse order (Alltynex 2nd -> RefleX -> Kamui). The gameplay plays mostly like a regular shooter but with a few twists. Instead of being the regular One-Hit-Point Wonder, your ship, the Phoenix MkII, can take a boatload of hits, and you have a shield that can reflect certain bullets right back at the enemies. This is offset by the fact that you have no extra lives, no bombs and no way of restoring durability once it's gone.
The story first centers around the resistance group known as the The Valkyness in their effort against the corrupt government. Progress is slow and the government doesn't even recognize the Valkyness as a serious threat... more of a minor nuisance. That is, until their new fighter, the Phoenix MkII developed by Doctor Dennis, is scrambled after its carrier ship is shot down. Equipped with a new form of shielding system, extreme durability, and significantly greater firepower, it poses a new serious threat to the government.
Then a third party gets involved and It Gets Worse. RefleX is the most story-driven game in the trilogy and has by far the darkest plot as well. Although the story is All There in the Manual it is noticeable in that the story plays a huge role in gameplay, such as the ship being repaired before stages 5 and 7.
Tropes used in RefleX include:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Like the rest of the series, it loves to play with this trope.
- Anyone Can Die: Played brutally straight.
- Apocalypse How: Class 1 in the ending.
- Autobots Rock Out: Despair -Cancer-
- Battleship Raid: The fight against Sagittarius.
- Bittersweet Ending or Downer Ending: The immensely powerful ZODIAC's are destroyed and will never threaten people again... but Earth is in ruins and most of humanity has been wiped out.
- Bullet Hell: Some bosses (particularly ZODIAC Virgo and Libra) have certain attacks that can easily put any CAVE boss into shame. Fortunately, you don't have to actually dodge them.
- Climax Boss: ZODIAC Virgo
- Continuity Nod: The ruins of ALLTYNEX are clearly visible at the beginning of Stage 7.
- Cosmetic Award: Beating the game without continuing nets you a secret theme, "A Choice with No Alternative" which is a remix of the stage 1 theme from Reflection, the prototype game for RefleX.
- Crowning Moment of Awesome: Many, but the final battle with Libra and the Kamui fighters is probably the most awesome one.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: Let's just say that this game is full of amazing tracks.
- "Raiwat Virgo" is probably the game's most iconic theme.
- Darker and Edgier: The darkest one in the trilogy.
- Deface of the Moon: When Cancer gets shot down by ZODIAC Virgo, it crashes into the moon and creates a huge crater. The blast apparently destroyed most of both the military's and the Valkyness' lunar bases in the process.
- Development Hell
- Destructive Saviour: ZODIAC Ophiuchus.
- Direct Continuous Levels: Stages 1 to 6.
- Disc One Final Boss: Cancer.
- Dual Boss: Gemini fits this.
- Enropi are three dual bosses straight followed with a battle with the leader.
- Enemy Mine: The Raiwat invasion forces the government and the Valkyness to join forces in order to repel them.
- Explosive Overclocking: Played straight and invoked.
- Played straight in that Libra fired its strongest attack twice in rapid succession and in doing so severely crippled itself.
- Invoked by the Phoenix/ZODIAC Ophiuchus in the end by fusing the 12 ZODIAC cores with its own, causing it to overload and selfdestruct in order to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again.
- Famous Ancestor: The Valkyness are descendants of an Raiwat defection group who escaped before the mutations took effect. Let's just say that the Raiwat are not happy to meet those who got to live happily because of his actions while they had to suffer.
- Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon: Sagittarius' main cannon as well as the ZODIAC's laser.
- Get Back Here Boss: When ZODIAC Virgo realises that the Phoenix is an ZODIAC, it decides to turn tail and flee, but the Phoenix soon catches up and destroys its rear engines, leaving it with no other option than to stand and fight.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Cancer
- Goddamned Missiles: They are fast and can only take one hit, but they are the only weapon that can pass through your shield.
- Gut Punch: ZODIAC Virgo delivered two of these, first when it shot down Cancer from behind and when it destroyed the Phoenix.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: Time of end.
- The Hero Dies
- Hero-Killer: ZODIAC Virgo.
- High Speed Battle: The battle against Scorpio.
- Hitbox Dissonance: Averted, the hitbox is much bigger than the Bullet Hell genre would suggest.
- Implacable Man: ZODIAC Virgo. Eventually, The Phoenix will become this too.
- Infinity+1 Sword: Beating the game the first time you unlock the ZODIAC Ophiuchus for the stage select to use on any stage.
- It Got Worse: At the beginning of this game, your carrier is ambushed by Human Virgo, which kills Doctor Dennis and many of your companions. From here, things keep getting worse.
- The Juggernaut: ZODIAC Virgo as Human Virgo found out the hard way.
- Killed Off for Real: The pilot of the Phoenix, although thanks the the core's AI, the Phoenix was still able to keep going despite practically being flying wreckage.
- Knight of Cerebus: ZODIAC Virgo.
- La Résistance: The Valkyness.
- Lightning Bruiser: Scorpio is pretty big, has lots of weapons and is fast as hell.
- Made of Explodium: One must wonder what those Kamui fighters are made of in order to explode like that.
- Made of Iron: The Phoenix.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Many enemies and bosses alike love to use this, because it isn't hindered by your shield.
- Meaningful Name: You think they call your ship "Phoenix" just because it sounds cool? Think again!
- In addition, the ZODIAC Ophiuchus. Ophiuchus is actually considered an astrological sign in Japan, but not in many other parts of the world, which stick to the traditional 12-sign Zodiac. The fact that the Ophiuchus is an "extra" ZODIAC that the others were unaware of may be a reference to this.
- Melee a Trois: The final battle with the Phoenix/ZODIAC Ophiuchus vs ZODIAC Libra vs two Kamui fighters.
- Mercy Mode: Somewhat, everytime you die, the game lets you start with an extra continue and these stack up. Also inverted in that everytime you beat the game you lose one.
- Mood Whiplash: After finally destroying the final boss, Libra, a mellow piano suddenly starts playing followed by ZODIAC Ophiuchus blowing itself up.
- More Dakka: Well, it comes with the whole Bullet Hell package.
- Needs More Love
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When the Phoenix destroyed the Sagittarius, it turns out that it was busy holding back a much graver threat, the Raiwat Invasion force.
- Nintendo Hard: Well, it is a Bullet Hell game, so it has to be.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Virgo delivers this to the Phoenix in the middle of stage 7, killing the pilot and causing the Phoenix's Eleventh-Hour Superpower.
- Oh Crap or This Is Gonna Suck: As soon as "Mortal Illness" starts playing, you know things will get ugly.
- Also what likely passed through ZODIAC Virgo's mind just moments later when it realised that the Phoenix had a ZODIAC core.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: The game sure makes some good use of these.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Averted, then played straight when the Phoenix becomes ZODIAC Ophiuchus.
- Outside Context Villain: The ZODIAC's.
- Player Punch: Virgo's beatdown.
- Also ZODIAC Ophiuchus' self destruction.
- Power Gives You Wings: The ZODIAC fighters gain these when they activate their full power. The Phoenix gains these as well.
- Previous Player Character Cameo: The Kamui fighters in final stage. In fact, aside from being much more durable, they don't really do much that the player couldn't do in Kamui.
- Really Dead Montage: The charred remains of the Phoenix MkII in a crater are shown by the end of the credits.
- Return to Shooter: The games most central mechanic.
- Roboteching: Some of the enemy lasers are able to do as much as a 90 degree turn. Of course you can use this against them by reflecting said lasers right back.
- Shout-Out: Libra's final attack has striking similarities with Nanoha's Starlight Breaker.
- Sucking-In Lines: During Libra's final attack.
- Super Prototype: The Phoenix MkII, invented by Doctor Dennis and powered by the 13th ZODIAC core.
- Tank Goodness: Taurus is sure one big tank.
- Tear Jerker: "End of Reflection".
- Also the credits, sounding somewhat triumphant and still sad.
- Theme Naming: The Zodiac gets a lot of exposure in this game.
- Time Skip: Stage 8 takes place years after Stage 7, and the ZODIAC's have been busy getting killed by ZODIAC Ophiuchus, with most of Earth becoming collateral damage in the process.
- The Unfettered: ZODIAC Ophiuchus.
- Was Once a Man: The Raiwat.
- Wave Motion Gun: The ZODIAC's are armed with these and sometimes the laser blasts cover the entire screen.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: ZODIAC Ophiuchus can be seen as this. It is trying to get rid of the deadly ZODIAC's but is absolutely relentless in its quest and doesn't seem to care who or what gets in its way.
- Western Zodiac: The game's bosses are named after these.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Scutum has a distinctly church-like Ominous Pipe Organ in its theme and crosses on its armor and turrets. One of its attacks forms a six-pointed star with lasers.
- Most of the bosses are named after Zodiac constellations.