Descpription:
ESP Ra.De. is an arcade game developed by Cave and
published by Atlus in 1998. It is a vertical scrolling shooter,
set in Tokyo in the year 2018. It, unlike most other shmups, has
a fairly involved story and fits nicely into the manic shooter genre.
It has two sequels, Espgaluda and Espgaluda II. The game is played
as a fairly standard manic shooter: the player is faced with six stages
of increasing difficulty, each one with its own sub-boss and final boss
to overcome; once the game's main antagonist is defeated, an ending
pertaining to the character chosen is shown.
unlike the DoDonPachi series, there is not a second loop. Each of the
three characters is given a unique backstory and primary attack, varying
in power and bullet spread, which is launched by repeatedly pressing the
A button: holding it results in automatic fire and the character slowing down.
A so-called Piercing Cannon is activated with the B button: a varying
number of powerful flames are launched forward, exploding once they come
into contact with an enemy, dealing large quantities of damage.
The smartbomb common to the genre is replaced with the ESP Drive: when
the C button is pressed, the character becomes invulnerable, a small energy
arc forms in front of him/her and a brief energy blast is launched forward,
disrupting enemy shots and fiercely damaging regular foes and bosses alike.
If the button is held down, a shield will encircle the player character,
converting every shot that touches it into bonus tokens and further
increasing the attack's power. This however drains the power gauge at the
bottom of the screen, which can be replenished only by death or certain bonus icons.
