* AccidentalInnuendo: All over the place. Especially from Tita, which might not be so accidental. Diol just makes ''intentional'' innuendos.
* AmericansHateTingle: At the time of its release, this series was ''thoroughly despised'' by a lot of American ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' fans and critics for its HotterAndSexier approach to the series. However, [[VindicatedByHistory this has cooled down]] a lot in the decade since the game's release and it's now considered a CultClassic, with most of the remaining complaints being about the gameplay.
* AngstWhatAngst: Castlevania is dripping with it, but Kokoro is pretty cheerful and upbeat.
** And that's also in spite of her possible big brother, Julius, disappearing from her life before she was even at elementary school age, and she won't even know he survived until she's about forty. [[TearJerker Geez.]]
* AntiClimaxBoss: Compared to her previous forms, Dark Force's final form is quite easy to fight. But then again, this is still ''Gradius'', so it comes with the territory.
* AudienceAlienatingPremise: This game is a Gradius parody game which exchanges the spaceships with scantily-clad females showing off their bosom. This is just too weird for those looking for a Konami-styled shmup, and the series became a tiny niche afterward.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** The game has ''eight'' soundtracks to choose from. From original, orchestrated music to high-energy remixes of older Konami favorites, there's something for everyone.
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKuUuVi_kgc boss]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBjvuzIyuBQ music]] deserves special mention, though.
** As does [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZeQglmVtSo Smash The Bomb]].
** Following tradition, the sequel has a total of ''eleven'' soundtracks to choose from, with many notable tracks that appeal to nearly every musical taste, from orchestra to techno to rock and roll. Nearly 30 musicians from all over the world did work on ''Otomedius Excellent's'' soundtrack.
* BestKnownForTheFanservice: This game is best known for being a 'sexy flying bikers' clone of ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}''. Oh, there's a little something about guest stars from Life Force/Salamander, ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'', and ''Toys/BusouShinki'', but when all the promo posters for the game shove the protagonist and her twin 'fuel tanks' in the audience's face, there's only a couple of things that will stand out for them.
* CultClassic: Getsu Fuuma Den was... obscure, and yet gets a prominent reference in Otomedius in the form of Gesshi Hanafuuma.
* FandomRivalry: Some ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' fans seem to hate Otomedius for "What Konami did to Gradius". The same goes for fans of anything else the game references. Even ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'' (and that game had assistance from Creator/HideoKojima) gets less hate than poor Kokoro does from the Castlevania fandom.
* FanficFuel: Fan theories for what an ordinary human girl like Shiori is doing with a piece of Bacterian military hardware. Her dialogue even [[LampShade lampshades]] it.
--> '''Shiori:''' Surprised? Here I go! Good luck!
* GameBreaker:
** Many of the D-Burst attacks can make very short work of most bosses.
** Esmeralda's Pulse Laser is [[GoodBadBug unintentionally]], ludicrously overpowered. It ignores the damage caps obeyed by all other weapons in the game. Placing an Option inside a boss (easily done with Esmeralda's Whip options) and holding autofire will, essentially, cause the boss to die ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csP9afjTpCo instantly]]''.
** In ''Gorgeous'', Gravity Bullet (as used by Poini) was quite broken. In ''Excellent'', it's even nastier.
* {{Moe}}: Poini's said to be the lovable little sister of the entire squadron.
* HilariousInHindsight: ''Otomedius'' took ''Gradius'' plane design and turned them into flying bikes, and the games can be described by some as ''Gradius'' meets ''Franchise/KamenRider''. ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'' borrowed the flying bike ideas from ''Otomedius'' more than a decade later.
* ScrappyMechanic: To get new weapons added to a character's selection, you need to either make money or hope to unlock the weapon card for the first and second game respectively. This effectively forces numerous replays just to get a decent selection. The second game is better about it as weapon cards apply to all characters that can use them compared to the first game where you had to grind for each character. This is often a point of complaint in fan written reviews and articles.
* ThatOneBoss:
** Big Core DX. [[MeaningfulName The DX is the face you make when it appears]]. There's just something incredibly intimidating about a Big Core gunship with ''six Options''.
** If Meta Lium's Big Core DX doesn't trip you up, Titi's Scarab Core ''definately'' will.
* TheissTitillationTheory: There is almost no way the {{Stripperific}} outfits that barely cover the breasts of some of the characters can stay on when they are flying.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: At no point is it ever addressed that both Erul's brother David and Kokoro's brother Julius have been missing for a long time (with Erul discovering what happened to David in the first game), and not only do they never commiserate about it, the two girls don't seem to interact at all outside of group gatherings. We could have at least gotten a manga chapter, an anime short or a ''[[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Contra Returns]]''-style game about them bonding or something.
* ValuesDissonance:
** The name "Poini Coon" is clearly because she's meant to resemble a raccoon, much like Diol looks like a catgirl. However, her last name was changed to "Kune" in the English release as "coon" is a racial slur that the developers likely hadn't been aware of.
** This game was very controversial in the States at the time of its release (2007) due to its {{Fanservice}}y nature. Nowadays however, the game's fanservice feels downright ''chaste'' thanks to Konami's later title ''VideoGame/{{Bombergirl}}'' which is widely considered to be far more provocative than this game. This, along with increased Western awareness of ''Sexy VideoGame/{{Parodius}},'' has made some newer ''Gradius'' fans wonder what people were getting so worked up over.
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