Line #41 VideoGame/SigmaStarSaga


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sigma_Star_Saga_9774.jpg]]
2
3	''Sigma Star Saga'' is a hybrid ShootEmUp / {{RPG}} developed by Creator/WayForwardTechnologies and published by [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco]] for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance in 2005.
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5	An alien race known as the Krill attacked Earth 60 years ago, and, though they were driven off, the global ecosystem was left in tatters due to a "hole the size of Canada" getting carved out of the Pacific Ocean. Now, the Krill have returned, and humanity is ready for vengeance. You play as AcePilot Ian Recker, who, after leading the initial counterattack, is sent undercover in the Krill army to gather intelligence on a rumored superweapon they're developing. However, the lines between friend and foe quickly become blurred, and Recker is left in serious confusion as to where his loyalty truly belongs as he tries to unravel the mysteries of the Krill.
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7	Out of battle, you walk around areas like in any typical RPG, but during random encounters, you enter a side-scrolling shmup battle. You're able to customize your ship's weapon using three different types of Gun Data chips, which are found in overworld areas. Cannon chips determine how your ship fires bullets (i.e. straight forward, spreading, aimed manually, rapid fire). Bullet chips determine what kind of projectiles you shoot (basic, long-range shots, lasers, wavy shots, rockets, etc.). Impact chips determine what your shots do when they hit enemies (nothing, create lasting explosions, turn around, burst into flames, etc.). One chip of each type is used to create a unique combination. With the total number of chips of each type, you can make exactly 15,680 different guns. However, you can only use one unique gun at a time, because you can only switch Gun Data outside of battle.
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9	[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused]] with ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Mario & Luigi:]]'' '''''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]'''''.
10
11	!! This game provides examples of:
12	%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExamples are not allowed on the wiki. Please expand them with context before uncommenting them. Thank you.
13	* AbilityRequiredToProceed: Lots of backtracking is required to get past most things, and largely helped by the scanner, which allows you to find most of the game's (hidden) equipment.
14	** One case is also more [[RuleOfSymbolism symbolic]] in nature. The commander's room in Starbase 6 is accessible only via an item which you should already have, but the person inside gives some meaning to the method used to get in.
15	* AcePilot: Recker, as previously mentioned, as well as Psyme.
16	* ActionPrologue: The game begins with a fight against the Krill.
17	* AfterTheEnd: The game takes place sixty years after the Earth was nearly destroyed by the Krill [[spoiler:(except it wasn't exactly the Krill's fault.)]]
18	%%* AlienInvasion
19	%%* AlliterativeTitle
20	%%* ApologeticAttacker: Recker versus [[spoiler:Blune]], and to a certain extent in [[spoiler:his rematch with Psyme]].
21	* TheAtoner: Recker begins the game as leader of the elite Sigma Squadron. By the end of the first battle, he's the only member left alive, and he blames himself quite strongly.
22	* AWinnerIsYou: Given the game's strong focus on its storyline, the multiple endings are all very brief and fairly anticlimatic. Additionally, the easiest one to achieve is arguably the best.
23	* BackTracking: This game is just plain loaded with it. Made significantly worse with the game's unescapable RandomEncounters. At least the game is eventually nice enough to provide you with gun data that [[AntiFrustrationFeatures makes kills count more towards ending the fight]].
24	* BadBoss: Commander Zelly seems to have a reputation amongst the Krill leadership for this sort of behavior, at one point stated to be worse than the guy everyone calls the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Tyrannical Overlord]]. She shows it when [[spoiler:she slaughters her ''entire base personnel'' in order to keep sensitive information from being leaked... even though 90% of them had no idea that this sensitive information even existed. It's subverted in the endgame, where Zelly is just about the only high-ranking ally the player has.]]
25	* BattleBikini: All the female Krill soldiers (like Psyme) and high brass (Commander Zelly) all wear the parasitic bikini-like armor. Scarlet wears a small top baring her stomach, an odd choice considering where Recker first encounters her.
26	%%* BigBad
27	%%* BigBoosHaunt: The Forgotten Planet
28	%%* BittersweetEnding
29	* BizarreAlienBiology: played for all it's worth. Apparently, the females are telepathic, and grow wings when they're in love. Said wings are ''detachable'', and are given to the person she likes.
30	** [[spoiler:"You got the GIRL WINGS! Wings like a girl!"]]
31	%%* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: The main cast. Scarlet (blonde), Recker (brunette), and Psyme (redhead).
32	%%* BondOneLiner: "Looks like his schedule's clear now."
33	%%* BossRush: Actually, it's more of a mini-boss rush, if such a thing exists.
34	* BreastPlate: Female parasites seem more to protect their host's modesty than anything else (although, given their BizarreAlienBiology, the upper chest and nether regions may very well be [[Anime/{{Robotech}} the only places female Krill are vulnerable]]).
35	-->'''Recker''': ''So do your [[BuffySpeak slug bikini thing]].''
36	* CharacterLevel: During shoot-em-up battles, the enemies you kill leave behind experience orbs (which could be mistaken for suicide bullets, since they're basically tiny dots). Gathering enough of these boosts your maximum health. Interestingly, it is your character's (living) armor that gathers the experience, not the character himself.
37	* ChekhovsGunman: The pilot of the first boss ship, [[spoiler:Psyme]].
38	* ChickMagnet: Recker, what with the way that Psyme and Scarlet treat him after knowing him for all of a few hours.
39	* CreatorInJoke: Commander Tierney is named after [=WayForward=] director Adam Tierney, while "Tyrannical Overlord" is the staff nickname for [=WayForward=]'s founder.
40	* CurbStompBattle: On the last planet, there's a random chance you'll control a [[spoiler:Krill Battleworm (the first boss)]]. As if controlling such a powerhouse wasn't enough, it's also invulnerable.
41	* DeadlyWalls: Downplayed. If you crash into an enemy or the environment, your ship appears to explode, but you simply lose some health and "respawn", with brief MercyInvincibility.
42	%%* DeadpanSnarker: Recker
43	%%* DiscOneFinalDungeon: The Forgotten Planet
44	%%* DoomsdayDevice: [[spoiler: The Sleeping Flesh]]
45	* EarthAllAlong: Most of the game is spent searching for a series of six planets which will ultimately lead to a DoomsdayDevice. [[spoiler:Earth is the "seventh" planet, which had said device gouged out of it]].
46	* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler:Sort of. The Sleeping Flesh uses entire planets as eggs, so when they "hatch"... Ironically, part of what the Krill were doing in their first "attack" on Earth was ''saving'' it from this fate. Sort of.]]
47	* ExposedToTheElements: Female Krill [[spoiler: and Scarlett]] on the [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Ice Planet]].
48	* FloatingContinent: Every planet seems to consist entirely of these (except, presumably, Earth).
49	%%* Foreshadowing
50	* GambitPileup: Keeping up with the plot in the latter half of the game can be somewhat difficult, to say the least.
51	* GameBreakingBug: Protip: don't shoot the "tombstone" enemies on the Forgotten Planet as your last kill of the battle. This occasionally makes the battle {{Unwinnable}}, since no more enemies spawn, but the battle doesn't end.
52	** It's also a very bad idea to level up any time during the boss fight stage there, again for the same reason.
53	* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Your ship being destroyed (usually by ramming into a wall) does not mean it's instant game over. You respawn and regain the same ship with invincibility frames.
54	* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Although most of the game's bosses tie in pretty well with the story, it does throw a couple of these at you (including a ''literal'' swarm of giant space fleas).
55	** One of which (a giant flying skeleton) is {{Lampshaded}} hilariously by Scarlet when Recker tries to tell her about it:
56	-->"Way to go fantasy nerd (sic). Did you find the +1 Dagger, too?"
57	* GladiatorGames: Early in the game, you are forced to fight another Krill soldier. Luckily, they let you keep your gun.
58	* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:The Tyrannical Overlord when he merges with the Sleeping Flesh.]]
59	* GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler:On ''both'' sides, as it turns out.]]
60	%%* GreenHillZone: The Forest Planet
61	* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: ''Purple''-skinned space babe Psyme. Also Commander Zelly.
62	* GrayAndGrayMorality: As the rest of the page shows, the Human-Krill conflict is more complex than Recker and the player initially assume.
63	-->'''Blune''': "I'm saying that with time you will see that things aren't so black and white."
64	* GroundPound: A pair of boots gives you the ability to do this.
65	%%* GogglesDoNothing: Scarlet
66	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Scarlet will sacrifice herself to destroy the Sleeping Flesh in the end. However, on a NewGamePlus, you can provide an alternative and save her life.]]
67	* HopelessWar: The Krill military outnumbers humanity's by a very large margin. [[spoiler:Subverted in that the Krill don't even consider themselves at war with Earth. Earth's entire military is seen as so pathetically small that it isn't even worth fighting. The two "attacks" they made? They were ridding Earth of an extremely destructive CosmicHorror type DoomsdayDevice, and later simply checking up on us to see how well the Earth was recovering. Earth ''mistook'' them for attacks and retaliated, "like frightened animals who bite back after blood is drawn", as one Krill puts it.]]
68	* HundredPercentCompletion: the game will acknowledge when you beat it if you found all of the gun data, and will make it all immediately available to you in the NewGamePlus.
69	%%* InnocentFanserviceGirl: any female Krill.
70	%%* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon The Krill Homeworld]]
71	* LethalJokeItem: The Puck. ''Looks'' like one, yes, and even Recker stares down at it in disbelief. Any player will consistently use it throughout the on-foot parts of the later game for the simple fact that, except for the rare minibosses on that front, [[OneHitKill it kills anything coming into contact on a single hit]]. Granted, it is actually a sliding landmine, but you wouldn't guess just by looking at it.
72	%%* LethalLavaLand: The Fire Planet
73	* LockedInARoom: [[spoiler: Recker and Psyme are sent to the Ice Planet inside a cargo box.]]
74	* LoveTriangle: Recker, Psyme, and Scarlet. [[spoiler:Psyme wins in both endings where she survives, Scarlet wins if she survives and Psyme dies.]]
75	* LuckBasedMission: Some random encounters are outright unwinnable if you are unlucky enough to be summoned by a large/slow moving spaceship in a constricted area that it cannot possibly navigate through without crashing (at least one such area results in a crash before the game ''even relinquishes control of the ship to you''). And since there's no option to retreat, your only option when faced with any fight that you have no chance of winning is to [[CycleOfHurting commit suicide]].
76	* MercyInvincibility: Notable as the game not only provides this normally, but there is also a power-up which provides it for every 30 hits you make. Can be something of a game breaker when combined with a gun that can score hits fast enough to keep it going near-constantly.
77	* MissingSecret: Sort of. The inventory code was for some reason copied over from the gun data code, resulting in about a gazillion more slots than you will ever be able to fill. May or may not count as a MissingSecret, but is definitely a case of lazy programming.
78	* MistakenForPregnant: One [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments particularly hilarious]] subplot partway through the game has Recker [[spoiler:thinking this about Psyme, mainly due to an incomplete understanding of Krill physiology. To be fair to him, though, the comments made by the Krill characters hinted that something "miraculous" was taking place...]]
79	%%* TheMole: Recker, [[spoiler:and Blune]].
80	* MsFanservice: Psyme is a GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe in a BattleBikini and Scarlet is a sexy scientist.
81	* MultipleEndings: There are four different endings to the game... which one you see depends on [[spoiler:which main characters you keep alive]].
82	* NewGamePlus: After beating the game, it can be replayed with all previously unlocked weapons and ships available at the beginning... as well as get a chance to get the best ending, which is unavailable on the first playthough.
83	%%* NonLethalBottomlessPits
84	* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Well, Recker is distracted at first, but grows used to it by the second chapter.
85	* OminousSavePrompt: the game gives you a somewhat-unneeded one of these (as you would probably have remembered to save before heading into the battle in question, anyways).
86	* OneHitKill: [[spoiler: The [[FinalBoss Overmind]]'s fused form, if the ship [[GameplayAndStorySegregation crashes into its giant head]], no matter how much health you have. You are better off touching any other projectile instead.]]
87	* OneHitPointWonder: Subverted, although you only receive Mercy Invincibility if you crash into something.
88	* OneManArmy: There are two instances in which Recker wipes out the crew of a enemy base. All by himself.
89	* OrganicTechnology: The Krill have some organic tech, though most of it is still mechanical. Their ships are living beings that form a psychic bond with their pilots to improve performance, and Krill Parasites are powerful living armor that, despite their name, are completely harmless, and in fact boost the physical capabilities of their wearer.
90	* PoweredArmor: Krill parasites are symbiotic armor that boosts the physical capabilities of their wearer.
91	* PowerupLetdown: One of the game's highlights is the vast array of options to customize your ship's guns. You'll find lots of these upgrades hidden all throughout the game as you progress through it. Only a small handful of them are actually worth the trouble to find.
92	* PuzzleBoss: At least two, one of which has an entire paragraph on the trope's page about [[ThatOneBoss how]] [[GuideDangIt unfair]] [[AttackReflector it]] [[LuckBasedMission is]].
93	* RandomEncounters: Whenever one of these occurs, you are beamed up to a spaceship, and fight enemies shmup-style until you shoot down a certain amount of them. Bonus points to the "random" aspect, as the ship you pilot is also random. Possibly the only justified use of this trope in video game history -- the idea is that your parasite notices the ships getting nervous above, and beams you up to them if it thinks there are enemies.
94	* RealMenWearPink: The girl wings. Even the game makes fun of you for it. Verbatim from the game: "[[ItemGet YOU GOT THE GIRL WINGS! Wings like a GIRL!!]]" The "magical" sound effect when you deploy them certainly doesn't help matters.
95	%%* RespawningEnemies
96	* RPGElements: Sort of; it's an RPG with space-shooter Sidescroller elements.
97	* RubberForeheadAliens: Purple skin, finlike ears, and unusual outfits aside, the Krill appear pretty much identical to humans.
98	%%* ShiftingSandLand: The Sand Planet
99	* ShoutOut: In the beginning of the game, a human fighter [[Film/IndependenceDay flies straight up into a giant alien laser, causing severe damage to the mothership.]]
100	** Whether or not it's intentional, the Krill are only one letter off from Trill, another HumanoidAlien species seen in Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration and Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine: they both live in symbiosis with a parasite, although its nature is pretty different.
101	* SingleBiomePlanet: Used heavily, even in Earth's case (Earth is at one point referred to as the "Ocean Planet").
102	* SlapSlapKiss: Recker's relationship with Psyme is something of a volatile one. When he first meets her [[spoiler: he blasts her out of the sky]], and she spends most of the game calling him an idiot for not automatically knowing everything about her BizarreAlienBiology. She threatens to kill Recker several times, and that's before she gets ''really'' pissed off at him.
103	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: The Ice Planet, though the "slippy slidey" portion is averted.
104	* SmartBomb: And they can even kill some enemies your normal shots can't destroy.
105	* SmoochOfVictory: [[spoiler: Psyme to Recker in the best ending]].
106	%%* StormingTheCastle: TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon on the Krill Homeworld
107	* {{Stripperiffic}}: Psyme. Her outfit looks like she has pasted breastplates and a pasted crotch plate. Scarlet (a human) really isn't wearing that much more than Psyme (a Krill female), especially considering that [[spoiler: [[ExposedToTheElements you meet her on the Ice Planet]]]].
108	* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: You eventually receive a puck (yes, a puck) which -- in addition to fixing a few {{Broken Bridge}}s -- can be kicked at your enemies. For far much more damage than your gun does.
109	* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Standard coloration for Krill eyes.
110	* SpamAttack: The best gun data combinations all tend to be these.
111	* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: [[spoiler:The Iot were the original creators of the Sleeping Flesh. The Krill caught on early and removed a Sleeper from Earth, then used it to wipe out the Iot in retaliation for "impregnating" the Krill Homeworld with another Sleeper.]]
112	* TwentyFourHourArmor: The parasites hardly ever come off--according to some dialogue on the Ice Planet, some Krill don't even take them off to shower.
113	* TwinTelepathy: Psyme's younger sisters Lolly, Folly, and Sliss are "tri-oplets": triplets that share a PsychicLink. They always operate and often speak in unison, leading the Krill to consider them as a single HiveMind-like entity. They also count as TheDividual.
114	%%* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: The Krill Homeworld
115	* TheVirus: A very significant portion of the game's plot centers around a mysterious, human-developed virus.
116	%%* WakeUpCallBoss: The third boss stage.
117	* WeaponOfMassDestruction: The game's plot hinges on a superweapon that both sides would very much like to have in their possession. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a bio-weapon that incubates inside a planet, then "hatches" out of the planet like an egg, and is capable of annihilating all life on other planets as well, [[NightmareFuel leaving the planets as dusty, lifeless rocks with only ghosts left behind]]]].
118	* WelcomeBackTraitor: [[spoiler: Inverted. You're allowed surprising free reign of the Krill's starbase network even after you've obviously expressed your intent to betray them (yet before you have a significant bargaining chip).]]
119	* WhatMeasureIsANonhuman: Admittedly, the humans have a reason to hate the Krill, but making boots from the skin of dead Krill pilots is probably overkill.
120	%%* WhamEpisode
121	%%* WhamLine
122	* WingedHumanoid: Sort of. Female Krill cause their Parasites to develop a pair of wings when they are attracted to a man. Once fully developed, the wings are meant to be detached and given to the man's Parasite.
123	* WithThisHerring: Played mostly straight with Earth (you get a gun and not much else), subverted with the Krill.
124	* WombLevel: [[spoiler: The FinalBattle with the Tyrannical Overlord takes place inside the [[DoomsdayDevice Sleeping Flesh]], Which the former has [[FusionDance merged with]]]]]
125	%%* ZombieApocalypse: [[spoiler: the Ice Planet]]

Context VideoGame / SigmaStarSaga