* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Thanks to Creator/ManabuNamiki. For the Saturn port, [[Creator/HitoshiSakimoto the rest of the group which would be known as Basiscape]] joined in the fun.
** The theme of all the flying bosses, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Edu8-D1jAY Stab and Stomp]].
** And pretty much the rest of the soundtrack, as well as the Saturn port's arranged soundtrack [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJcIsZxtGEU&fmt=18 Rearrangements of Stage 5's music ("Subversive Awareness") and "Stab and Stomp", anyone?]]
** Marginal Consciousness. What's weird and scary about this track, is that in the arcade version, it keeps increasing in pitch indefinitely [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NS8jaW1iIc when listened to in the sound test]].
** Erupter, the theme of the last boss, Glow Squid. A hardcore techno piece similar to the Hibachi music from ''VideoGame/DoDonPachi [=DaiOuJou=]''. In fact, both games' soundtracks were composed by Manabu Namiki. There is also the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9kRHIs0Ayk remix]] by renowned speedcore musician m1dy, which amps up the banger factor.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHJJ0Q9xaa8 Degeneracy]], the Stage 4 theme, is a very catchy track.
* BestBossEver: Despite [[ThatOneBoss its difficulty,]] Black Heart is a pretty cool boss. RuleOfCool dictates that you fight it while flying through a thunderstorm at high speeds. The fact that [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Stab and Stomp]], the game's most awesome song is playing in the background, simply adds to the awesome.
* BrokenBase: The options to change the bullet colors to more visible ones in the Saturn and ''[=M2STG=]'' ports (and which is forced on in the Denmark and China builds of the game). Some argue that turning them on is effectively a cheat that puts arcade/PCB players at a disadvantage; notably, the Shmups Forum high score thread for the game disqualifies scores achieved with them. Others consider the realistically-colored bullets to be FakeDifficulty and an anti-accessibility point, with an additional point in favor of the latter being that the official online leaderboards for ''Rev.2016'' accept scores with non-default bullet colors.
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
** At the highest levels of play, [[VideoGame/MahouDaisakusen Gain]] is the most commonly used character due to his powerful swords that can pierce through enemies and his AreaOfEffect bomb that can earn the player obnoxious amounts of points from the flamingoes in Stage 2 and Black Heart MKII's mines in Stage 7. Those who are averse to his learning curve may instead use the Golden Bat (the all-buffs version of the Wild Snail) due to its piercing shots and very long bomb duration.
** Most players of the ''Rev.2016'' edition play with non-default bullet colors for better visibility and less FakeDifficulty, with only a few hardcore purists intentionally leaving bullet colors at default.
* CultClassic: The game was released in 1996, and though it has been eclipsed by Creator/{{CAVE}}, Creator/{{Treasure}}, and ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' games in terms of popularity, there are still players who love the game for its surprising depth and countless scoring tricks and continue to dedicate themselves to achieving the coveted "letter" scores or [[NintendoHard even just trying to clear the game at all]]. It has [[http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=351 one of the most in-depth guides on Shmups Forum]], detailing every critical aspect of the game. Its cult following status managed to persist long enough for a 20th-anniversary port on a modern platform to come about.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Black Heart, the boss of Stage 5, and its MKII version serving as the penultimate boss. Also, the flamingoes in Stage 2.
* FanNickname: "The Wall" for the turret wall in Stage 6.
* ItsHardSoItSucks: This game is one of the most polarizing within the shmup community, with a common criticism being "I have to [[ViolationOfCommonSense die on purpose]]?!" Even though arcade shmups are NintendoHard by nature, ''Garegga'' is known for the high degree of strategy needed to execute a 1-credit clear compared to other games, where a 1CC mainly boils down to ''merely'' "don't get hit, use bombs wisely".
* LowTierLetdown: [[VideoGame/MahouDaisakusen Chitta]] is widely regarded as the worst character/ship in the game. First off, there's her SmartBomb, which takes ''about a second'' before it actually activates, heavily hampering its defensive capabilities. Then, there's her Options, which fire homing shots. [[BlessedWithSuck While this might seem like a boon, it can cause problems]] by [[UnwantedAssistance destroying the wrong targets]], setting the player up to miss medals on the other side of the screen, earning less bonuses from destroying certain enemies/parts as some of those award extra if destroyed with a specific type of attack, and causing enemies to [[TurnsRed release deadly spread patterns]] if certain parts of theirs are destroyed. ''Battle Garegga'' is a game that often requires precise shots, and homing attacks are the exact opposite of precise. A common strategy is to have her Options in the back formation for most of the game so that they don't unnecessarily hit targets, making her firepower more controllable at the expensve of dampening her damage outout greatly. Unlike Gain, who is also regarded as being difficult to use, she doesn't even have anything in her kit that would make her [[DifficultButAwesome useful for experts]].
* MemeticMutation: Basically any remarks/jokes about what raises rank in Yagawa games, including one person asking "Does pausing the game in the saturn port raise Rank?".
* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
** The robotic-sounding announcer is always a treat.
---> [[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Shot level up! ]]
\\
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Weapon level up! ]]
\\
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Special power up! ]]
\\
[[/folder]]

[[folder: [[One Up EXTEND! ]]
]]
** That satisfying chime that plays when you pick up a 10,000-point medal, ''especially'' when it happens in rapid succession.
* NightmareFuel:
** Listening to "Marginal Consciousness" in the game's SoundTest, or in sound-playing software for arcade data dumps? Don't let it run for more than 3 minutes or the pitch will escalate to seriously creepy levels.
** The way Nose Lavagghin, the first boss, suddenly bursts into flames when you defeat it, especially if you didn't destroy any of its turrets or engines. It suddenly lets off a burst of flame from the main body, and the turrets and engines that haven't been blown up catch aflame with plumes of fire billowing off. Then it glows orange and descends offscreen, small explosions obscuring its form from view. It's just how ''suddenly'' it happens that it almost qualifies as a jumpscare.
** Look at the ground when you fight Mad Ball, the Stage 2 boss. It's a town that's been [[SceneryGorn thoroughly razed to hell and back]].
** The way [[FinalBoss Glow Squid]] [[spoiler:is reduced to the cockpit for the final phase and then flies around frantically spewing every attack it still has]] can make you wonder if the pilot has just gone completely AxCrazy trying to make a LastStand.
* OnceOriginalNowCommon: When ''Battle Garegga'' was first released, it was infamous amongst arcade gamers at the time for its unusually high difficulty that's partly due to its infamous [[DynamicDifficulty "rank"]] system that punishes players for collecting too many resources or firing too much and [[ViolationOfCommonSense encouraging the player to die on purpose]] to keep the game relatively winnable; as a result, it took an unusally long time for someone to get the first 1CC. However, [[PopCultureIsolation outside of the shmup community where it remains a well-known and frequently talked-about game]], anyone who picks this game up today will scratch their heads as to why this game has that iconic status and why it has such a PolishedPort on [=PS4=] and Xbox One that they perceived to be overpriced and overengineered, due to its RealIsBrown visuals that fail to make the game stand out for casual shmup enjoyer, and the "rank" system seems like it's overhyped and derivative ("Didn't ''VideoGame/{{Zanac}}'' do this ten years prior?") in a genre that's already known for being NintendoHard, plus the proliferation of BulletHell games that have thicker and more intricate patterns of bullets and have more colorful visuals further diminish this game's status as a high-challenge shmup amongst the general audience.
* PolishedPort:
** The Saturn port has been hailed as being [[ArcadePerfectPort arcade-accurate]], allowing the selection of the ''VideoGame/MahouDaisakusen'' [[GuestFighter guest characters]] without a code, allowing resetting of [[DynamicDifficulty rank]] simply by opening the options menu instead of resetting the game, a unique control scheme for experimenting with autofire rates, and last but not least, a choice between the original game soundtrack or an arranged soundtrack. Basically, if you can't get your hands on the PCB, this is the next best option, and some would argue that it's an even better one unless you're an absolute purist.
** The ''Rev.2016'' port for Xbox One and [=PlayStation=] 4 is even better, having been developed by M2 of ''VideoGame/{{Mushihimesama}} Futari'' and the ''3D Classics'' series fame. It has most of what the Saturn has, along with many ways to tweak the game experience such gadgets for displaying important real-time data, a Super Easy mode, a custom mode that lets you change individual elements of the game (such as disabling the DynamicDifficulty system), an ArrangeMode, and ''four'' soundtrack options (arcade original, Saturn arrange, arcade remastered, and 2016 arrange).
* PopCultureIsolation: This is easily one of the most infamous shmups within the shmup community, thanks mainly due to its [[DynamicDifficulty rank]] system that cranks up the game difficulty as the player collects items, fires their weapons, and simply survives, and if not managed ''deliberately'' (through [[ViolationOfCommonSense abstaining from picking up power-up items and intentionally dying]]), the rank can spike to a point where the game goes from NintendoHard to nigh-UnwinnableByDesign. The RealIsBrown aesthetic that was unique at its time, the more iconic boss designs like that of [[ClimaxBoss Black Heart]], and the game being Creator/ManabuNamiki's debut as a game music composer also further establish ''Battle Garegga'' as one of the most iconic shmups, and nearly everyone in the shmup community has a strong opinion on it (whether good or bad). Outside of said community, however, almost nobody has even heard of it. While this can be attributed to the game being largely inaccessible to the Western world due to its arcade release being limited outside of Japan and its only port for almost 20 years being a UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn port that, in addition to being on a system that sold poorly, was released in Japan only, even after the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne ports made it to the West it's still not something that is going to catch the average gamer's eye, not helped by its high price for a shmup at 34.99 USD. Likely, by the time the game got a home port in the West, the lack of pre-existing brand name recognition (like for ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}}''), middling bullet counts (as opposed to the [[BulletHell "dodge THIS" factor]] of games like ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' and Creator/{{CAVE}} games) and lack of colorful visuals made it [[OnceOriginalNowCommon seem like just another arcade shmup from the 90s]].
* ScrappyMechanic:
** You can increase your rapid fire rate by rapidly mashing the fire button. However, doing so increases the rate at which rank increases in the background. The default autofire rate is 8 shots/second, and the maximum is 30 shots/second and which has ''four times'' the rank increase rate. But what truly makes it a Scrappy Mechanic is that the increase in background rank increase is ''permanent'', so if you accidentally raise the autofire rate to 30 early on in the game (which is easy to do), the rest of the game is going to play out very badly.
** Many players are put off by the [[RealIsBrown realistic bullet colors]], which can [[FakeDifficulty blend in with the backgrounds]]. While some builds of the arcade original, the Saturn port, and ''Rev.2016'' have options to change the bullet colors to more visible ones, whether scores achieved with these should be considered legitimate is [[BrokenBase a very divisive matter]].
* SignatureScene: The fight against Black Heart is easily one of the most memorable parts of the game, due to [[ThatOneBoss the high difficulty]], lack of ways to disable its attacks, the boss theme "Stab and Stomp!", and [[ClimaxBoss being the last boss before the player enters the enemy stronghold]].
* SignatureSong: "Stab and Stomp!", the air boss battle theme [[Level1MusicRepresents that happens to be the boss theme for Stages 1 and 2]] and is also used as the theme of [[ThatOneBoss both Black Hearts]].
* SpiritualAdaptation:
** Of ''VideoGame/{{Zanac}}''. While DynamicDifficulty systems are prevelant in shmups as a way to keep the challenge high no matter the player's firepower and play style, these two games in particular are best known for punishing the player for firing too much.
** The game is also one to ''VideoGame/GunFrontier'', which is officially considered to be the inspiration behind the game's overall gameplay mechanics and also Yagawa's favorite game.
* StoicWoobie: The Wayne brothers. They construct all kinds of awesome military machines as part of a contract with the government, only to discover their precious machines being used for aggressive warfare. Nonetheless, they take to the "leaden sky" and crush what they made for a living, [[OneManArmy by themselves]]. The most they show is some stoic pondering about science and humanity in ''Videogame/ArmedPoliceBatrider''.
* TearJerker: One that will escape most players due to most players [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory ignoring plots in shoot-em-ups]], but it's a little heartrending that the Wayne brothers have to destroy their own expertly-crafted machines because they're being used by the power-hungry government and its military for malicious conquest.
* ThatOneAttack: Black Heart's signature dual SpreadShot sweep. It opens up two cannons that shoot out a spread of bullet streams, and then swivels them back and forth very quickly. Serious precision is required to dodge this attack without getting torn into shreds.
* ThatOneBoss:
** Black Heart, both the original, and MKII. Both of them come back in ''VideoGame/ArmedPoliceBatrider'' and are even harder! Most notably, when you encounter it in Stage 5, unlike the first four bosses which can be picked apart to disable some of their attacks, Black Heart has ''no'' parts that can be chipped off and thus you're forced to bear the full force of its attacks from start to finish. As [[http://battlegareg.ga/ this tribute]] to ''Garegga'' puts it:
---> ''Black Heart represents the negation of all of Garegga’s tirelessly-established principles. Instead of a collection of armaments to pick apart, you have a core and two wings. The wings are invulnerable too, just to rub it in. Instead of phases determined by parts destroyed, you now have phases determined by core health—with them only switching after the previous attack completes. Everything about Black Heart is ruthlessly prescriptive, and comes as a shock in this game which up until now has never told you what you ought to do.''
** The Stage 6 midboss, [[CoresAndTurretsBoss Fortress]]. This is where you find out if you manipulated rank carefully enough in the first five stages, as if you haven't done so, this boss unleashes nigh-unnavigable bullet vomit upon you.
* ThatOneLevel: Stage 6. Your chances of getting through hinge partly on how well you kept rank under control in the first five stages. You'll also need to power up your shot beginning at this stage (as opposed to conservatively powering up in the first five) to survive.
** Said level can also be made easier [[SpringtimeForHitler by jacking rank up high enough that some enemies don't even get a chance to fire.]]
* UnderusedGameMechanic: The widgets you can use in ''Rev.2016'' are all very useful for practice and analyzing runs, but unfortunately most of them are not accessible if you play on a vertically-oriented screen.