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gcfmug · 1 year

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ZeroRanger is an interesting game

i haven't played all that many kinds of shmups. only Touhou and R-type, which i played when i was like 12 and haven't touched either franchise since. the closest to a bullet hell game that i've played otherwise has probably been The Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne

ZeroRanger is much more of a normal shmup than a bullet hell. it has fairly simple bullet patterns, and it's rare to see a "heat seeking curving laser" , the closest you get to that are streams of bomber ships trying to blow you up by ramming into you

mechanically spaking, the game is pretty simple. you have omnidirectional movement (though that requries playing with a joystick), but no speed up / slow down function (unless, again, you play with a stick). your ship starts out with only it's main fire, and as you advance through the stages you gain more weapons, finishing with the ability to turn your ship into a goddamn mecha

the first time i saw the transformation sequence cutscene, i was completely sold

there are 2 ships. rybb and decker, type-b and type-c respectively. every weapon you have fills the same function on both ships, but they fire differently or have special attributes. an example is that rybb's charge shot explodes into a fireball upon impact, while decker's has infinite piercing. there are nuances for every weapon, but from my time playing, both ships are just as strong and capable of finishing the game

what, to my opinion, sets ZeroRanger apart from other shmups is it's visuals, it's story and it's soundtrack. the story is... honestly a bit too complex to get at first, mostly because it is shrouded in symbolism and mystery.

it starts out fairly simply — a massive alien fleet invades earth, leaded by Green Orange. earth's defense systems are compromised, and the ace pilot that was supposed to fight off the invasion is MIA. you're one of two sisters (of a trio, where the other is the ace pilot) and you got a ship that is barely functioning. time to save the world

the beginning couldn't be more generic, and it stays that way for a few stages as well. you fight off waves of enemies — most of them are earthen ships, flying drones, tanks, battlecruisers. there're hints that things might be a bit... weirder than it is immediately apparent - as the bosses you fight take more and more damage, they reveal a massive glowing Orange eye at the center of their bodies upon reaching their last health bar, and upon defeat, they bestow you two glowing orbs where you find your upgrade weapons

grabbing one plays a short cutscene with an ominuous backing track, ending with a strange symbol. if you're familiar with buddhism, or know sanskrit, you will quickly realise that this symbol a number, written in sanskrit. destroying an orb, however... well, destroys it. you gain nothing but a massive distorted explosion.

if you're starting out, and you haven't played many shmups, it's probably fair to say you have died, either on stage 1 (probably to the first miniboss, tbh) or on stage 2 (probably to the miniboss, again. or-typo is a binch). when you die for the first time you get this cute little message that goes something like "you have entered an endless cycle of life and death"

upon dying, your score is converted into extra continues, filling up an eight pronged gauge that looks like this

at this point, the symbolism is fairly clear, and it only becomes clearer as you play. ZeroRanger's story is one that mixes sci-fi and Buddhism, where your goal is to escape the cycle of reincarnation by... well

as you continue playing, you will eventually reach higher stages. stage 3 is where you gain the ability to transform into a mecha — a power bestowed to you after defeating the stage's boss, a humanoid mecha that fights with a swarm of sword-like drones, who uses said drones to create an impenetrable shield around them

the game after stage 3 is where all pretenses of this being a simple story gets thrown out of the window. enemies now are filled with eyes, you fight the reincarnated minibosses from stage 1 and 2 together, who upon being defeated turn into flying buddha heads (which turn into flying heat seeking bombs when killed). as you fly into the enemy base, you destroy wave after wave of skulls, gaining entry after defeating a giant skull with a single eye in it's forehead

you enter the base by being devoured

fighting onwards, you are pitted against overwhelming odds, waves of controlled earthen fighters oppose you, and the better you have played thus far the harder the difficulty becomes. stage 4 seems to finish once you destroy a strange skull shaped boss, which spews large orbs... similar to the ones you've used to power yourself up, though touching these is a deadly mistake.

inside the skull, you find the center of Green Orange's command, and as the pre-boss text indicates, you are going to have a pretty awkward reuinion.

for the first time you find someone, or something, willing to talk with you. Erasure. a computer created using a mysterious artifact found a long time ago by earth's government. this computer predicted the alien invasion, and using it's peculiar powers of reality manipulation, you and your sisters were trained to become the fighters who would one day destroy the invading fleet.

sadly, Erasure was hijacked by Green Orange, and thus now fights for the opponent.

still, Erasure seems to have some amount of regret over the whole thing, telling you that your chances of survival are zero. but that you must "do not give up". it then sends you into a gauntlet of bosses

of these, 3 are mandatory fights, and one is not. you are transported to a strange, dark room, where instead of a ship you seem to have become a small, orange sphere. a large, humanoid monk — corpse like and desiccated — seems to be sleeping. hitting them triggers a fight.

if you pop their snot bubble, they wake up, and begin a tale:

a long, long time ago, manusya such as us were invaded by an alien fleet. using the power of the Lotus Jewel, we created fighters to destroy these aliens. manusya, fearing that the skies would covet the power of the Jewel, sent it's strongest fighter into the great beyond — to kill, destroy, and annihilate any form of life in a pre-emptive strike.

this, they say, is the story of a god who wanted to become...

and then Erasure pulls you back.

if you manage to win against every boss, Erasure gets stumped by your perseverance and skill. however, it says that "Green Orange would not be happy seeing you still alive, but i got a solution!"

the solution is sending you to the past.

this is where i am, so far. i keep dying to the last boss of 2-2, so this is where this review? ends. i kinda know the rest of the story, but i want to experience myself

and if this shitty cliffhanger makes you want to experience the story, well, there're a few full playthroughs on youtube, and the game is pretty cheap. go listen to the soundtrack, it fucks hard

#mugpostin #zeroranger

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