Thunder Force: Difference between revisions

The [[Excuse Plot]] puts player in shoes of the [[Human Alien|Galaxy]] [[The Federation|Federation]]'s [[One-Man Army|pilot]] in the ''[[Super Prototype|Fire Leo]]'' starfighter against the overwhelming cybernetic [[The Empire|ORN Empire]]. ''Thunder Force V'' [[And Now for Someone Completely Different|changes the focus to Earth]] when Earthmen discover the wreck of ''Thunder Force IV'''s Fire Leo (Rynex) and reverse engineer it. The Guardian, an AI designed to study Vasteel (as Rynex comes to be known), however, goes haywire on humanity, but not before they create their ''own'' Vasteel starfighter. ''Thunder Force V'' is also known for having more story than the previous games, which ties together the events of ''Thunder Force IV.''. The sixth installment was trapped in [[Development Hell]] for a decade, but eventually released.

** ''Thunder Force AC'' (Arcade, 1990) -- An arcade port of ''Thunder Force III'' (unusual in that ports generally go from arcade to console and not the other way around), but with altered 4th and 5th stages. Ported to the Saturn via ''Thunder Force Gold Pack 2'', with an autofire feature that was not present in the original version.

** ''Thunder Spirits'' (SNES, 1992) -- A SNES port of ''Thunder Force AC'' (making it a ''port of a port''), with a new stage 5 and stage 8. The least-known of the three versions of ''TFIII'', despite being on the most popular platform of the three platforms it appeared on.

* ''Thunder Force IV'' (Genesis/MD, 1992) -- Released as ''Lightening ''(sic)'' Force: [[Market-Based Title|Quest for the Darkstar]]'' in North America. Ported to the Saturn via ''Gold Pack 2'', with less slowdown and ''Thunder Force III'''s player ship as an unlockable ship.

* ''Thunder Force V'' (Saturn, 1997) -- The first game in the series with three-dimensional graphics, and introduces the [[Limit Break|Over Weapon]] system, in addition to expounding on the plot of ''Thunder Force IV''. Ported to the [[PlayStation]] as ''Thunder Force V: Perfect System'', with less slowdown (but reduced visuals) and some [[Omake]] content.

* ''Thunder Force VI'' (PlayStation 2, 2008) -- A whopping 11 years after the initial release of ''Thunder Force V'' and one failed attempt to bring it to the Dreamcast. Due to the low quality-to-anticipation ratio, it was not well received.

* [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot]] : Main plot of ''Thunder Force V''. Humanity built a super computer named Guardian to study the wreckage of Rynex, the 4th game's Fire Leo. It then built a large fleet of starships based on the data. Then Guardian's AI damper program mysteriously disappeared, and it turned against humanity with said fleet. {{spoiler|Subverted. Guardian is still loyal to humanity. Chaos/Khaos (the [[Big Bad]] from the previous game) escaped its destruction by transferring its program to Rynex, which deleted the AI damper after Guardian accessed its history logs. In the end, Guardian reveals that it helped humanity by purposefully spreading its forces thin and leaving critical flaws in its tactics, allowing the protagonist, Cenes Crawford to destroy the fleet.}}.

* [[Always Accurate Attack]]: The Free Range in ''Thunder Force V'' worked like this-: anything entering the green wireframe area would be in for a world of (unavoidable) hurt.

* [[Artificial Human]] : Cenes Crawford, [[Player Character]] of ''Thunder Force V'' is actually a clone of a dead [[Ace Pilot]]. Same as C CTNs C of ''Thunder Force VI''.

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: In ''Thunder Force V'' and ''Thunder Force VI'', you can make your ship do rolls. It does nothing but [[Rule of Cool|look stylish]].

* [[Battleship Raid]] : The Cerberus in ''Thunder Force III'' and ''Thunder Force VI''.

* [[Big Bad]]: Chaos/Khaos is pretty impressive one. After harassing [[The Federation]] for two games, we've finally blown it up in the third. Only to find it program was transferred to secondary system in the forth. And even reveal to be the {{spoiler|one behind Guardian's rampage in fifth.}}.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: ''Thunder Force IV'' has {{spoiler|the Rynex being crippled in the escape from the explosion following the defeat of Khaos and being abandoned to drift in space, while the scientists of the Galactic Federation admit that sending it in the first place was a mistake in the first place. It also hints at another threat named "Faust" is on its way. Yet they still have hope for humanity's future.}}.

** ''Thunder Force V'' has {{spoiler|Cenes Crawford, pilot of the Gauntlet/Vambrace learn that the Guardian was on Earth's side all along, and that it did what it could to help her fight Khaos who was behind the corruption. Cenes destroys herself and the Vambrace so that another incident like that can not happen again.}}.

** The boss subname for A3 in ''Thunder Force V'' is often accused of this because it sounds odd at first ("It died three times, and was reborn twice"), [[Fridge Brilliance|until the player realizes A3 transforms into three different modes during the fight]].

* [[Boring but Practical]]: Twin Shot and Back Fire, the only weapons you don't lose when you die.

* [[Boss Dissonance]]: Many bosses in ''Thunder Force III'' die within seconds of exposure to your weapons, especially the [[Game Breaker|Sever]]. In contrast, the stages themselves have many deathtraps that demand twitch reflexes and ''[[R-Type]]''-style memorization.

* [[Boss Subtitles]]: ''Thunder Force V'' and ''Thunder Force VI''.

* [[Crosshair Aware]]: The Sky Raid stage in ''Thunder Force IV''.

* [[Death Is Cheap]]: Subverted in ''Thunder Force V''. The reason why Cenes Crawford can afford to effectively "respawn" in a new body again and again is because of technology reverse-engineered from Vasteel, which is in turn reserved for the best pilots Earth had to offer. {{spoiler|With the Guardian destroying the facility allowing her to "respawn,", however, she's aware that there'd be no going back on this one.}}.

* [[Deconstruction Game]]: To a degree, ''Thunder Force V.''. Given the premise of a [[One Man Army]] going up against [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|a rogue AI menace]]. {{spoiler|Except that the Guardian, the AI in question's still loyal to humanity despite its compromised programming and deliberately left gaping holes for the protagonist to exploit, making it possible to go after said AI ''at all'' and deliver a [[Suicide by Cop]].}}.

* [[Evil Counterpart]] : {{spoiler|The Vasteel Original (the Rynex) in ''Thunder Force V'' and Vasteel Nocht in ''Thunder Force VI''.}}.

* [[Fallen Hero]]: The player's ship in ''Thunder Force IV'', "Rynex", comes back in ''Thunder Force V'' as a [[Sequential Boss]] that you have to fight against and destroy.

* [[Fan Sequel]]: ''Broken Thunder'', released after ''Thunder Force V'' and before ''Thunder Force VI''. The good news: Hyakutaro Tsukumo worked on the soundtrack. The bad news: Itit was so ill-received that it is theorized that Tsukumo's involvement with it was why he was left out of ''Thunder Force VI'''s soundtrack.

* [[Fetus Terrible]]: The ORN Emperor in ''Thunder Force VI'' is an extremely ugly and monstrous infant with 3 eyes and varying number of irises in each of them. Apparently, the design was lifted from a character from a manga the project director had once drawn.

* [[Final Boss Preview]]: ''Thunder Force IV'' had ORN Faust at the end of the [[Battleship Raid]] level. Your team of ships try to destroy it and get their asses completely handed to them, forcing the remaining members of your squad to resort in giving you the [[Mid-Season Upgrade]]. Thankfully, you get your revenge in the final level.

* [[Genre Shift]]: Across two games; ''Thunder Force II'' adds some side-scrolling areas to go with ''TF1Thunder Force 1''-style overhead areas, and ''Thunder Force III'' does away with overhead areas completely.

* [[HarderGratuitous ThanForeign HardLanguage]]: "Very Hard"''Two'' in ''[[Thunder Force]] IIVI'': foran theobscure Sharpand X68000,obsolete "Mania"offshoot inof ''III'',Chinese andcalled "Maniac" in ''IV''Tangut, and ''VI''Mongolian.

* [[HomageHarder Than Hard]]: Some"Very ofHard" in ''Thunder Force II'' for the bossSharp namesX68000, "Mania" in ''Thunder Force VIII'':, [[Deepand Purple]],"Maniac" [[Ironin Maiden]],''Thunder andForce A3IV'' (forand Alabama''Thunder 3).Force VI''.

* [[Human Aliens]]: The Galactic Federation seems to be made of this, judging from the cutscenes seen in ''Thunder Force IV.'' Averted in ''Thunder Force V'' as it's set on Earth.

** Subverted in ''Thunder Force IV'' where other Galactic Federation fighters team up with you to take on the Cerberus battleship before the trope gets played straight in the boss fight immediately following and for the rest of the game.

** Subverted in ''Thunder Force V'' in that your character leads a squad of RVR-01 Gauntlets (named "Thunder Force", incidentally). Played straight later on as only the [[Player Character|protagonist]] goes off to space following the battle at Babel; this is justified in that only one RVR-02 Vambrace was completed in time and that Cene Crawford's remaining squadmates drew straws.

* [[Justified Extra Lives]] : ''Thunder Force V'' explained it as a cloning system called "Circulate Death".

* [[Lethal Lava Land]]: The fire planet levels throughout the series.

* [[One-Winged Angel]]: Gargoyle Perfect in ''Thunder Force VI''.

* [[Player MooksMook]]s: You can unlock the Rynex-R, the main fighter of the Galactic Federation, in ''Thunder Force VI''.

* [[Raising the Steaks]]: [[Shout-Out|Iron Maiden]] from ''Thunder Force V'' is an undead animal of sorts (complete with flies, rotting flesh and blood). Its description? "It was dead, but alive at the same time"."

* [[Recurring Boss]]: Gargoyle starting with ''Thunder Force III'', and ORN Faust in ''Thunder Force VI''.

* [[Redshirt Army]]: The Galactic Federation in ''Thunder Force IV'' and ''Thunder Force VI''.

* [[Sequential Boss]]: Many of them. Of note is Armed Armament Arm from ''Thunder Force V'', who has three different forms. Same applies to UNKNOWN II, the [[Final Boss]].

* [[Single Biome Planet]] : The sole exception is ''Thunder Force V'' which occurs on Earth. The ocean planet in ''Thunder Force VI'' is justified, it's post-global warming world, and you will get pass the submerged city at one point. The jungle is really an abandoned space colony, with overgrowth forest took over residental area.

* [[Space Zone]]: ''Thunder Force VI'' plays with this by having the background move around with no effect on gameplay at times.

* [[Super Title 64 Advance]]: The [[PlayStation]] port of ''[[Thunder Force]] V'' was called ''Thunder Force V: '''P'''erfect '''S'''ystem''.

* [[Surprisingly Good English]]: All the English in ''Thunder Force V'' was there in the Japanese version as well. It kinda explains why the Guardian sounds slightly "off" compared to a native speaker.

* [[Transforming Mecha]] : A3 ([[Fun with Acronyms|Armament Armed Arm]]) and Guardian's Knight from ''Thunder Force V'' and B3 (Barbaric Berserk Beast) from ''Thunder Force VI''.

* [[Unstable Equilibrium]]: From ''Thunder Force III'' onwards, dying takes away your current weapon. This can lead to situations in which you [[Too Awesome to Use|avoid using the most effective weapon for the situation, lest you die and lose it]].

* [[Video Game 3D Leap]]: As a presentation upgrade starting with ''Thunder Force V''.

* [[Wave Motion Gun]] : The Rynex's Thunder Sword.

[[Category:Play Station 2PC-88]]