Every rose has its thorns / Bullets enough for a world war to adorn
Ibara is a Bullet Hell Shoot 'Em Up by Cave. Teresa Rose announces the creation of a massive Rose Garden with the power to take over the world, so two "negotiators", Bond (Red) and Dyne (Blue), must stop her and her daughters.
It received a sequel named Pink Sweets in which the bosses of Ibara (except for Teresa Rose) are now the playable characters. They must rescue their mother from her ex-husband Big Burn and his maids.
The game series as a whole is notable for being programmed by S. Yagawa, who also worked on many 8ing/Raizing games such as Battle Garegga and Armed Police Batrider.
A region-free port for Pink Sweets for the Xbox 360 was released in a double-pack with Muchi-Muchi Pork.
Ibara contains examples of:
- Announcer Chatter — Announcing all pickups in Ibara
- Arrange Mode — The PlayStation 2 port includes an arrange mode that has Rank, now displayed on a meter, increase and decrease faster, and allows you to switch between them different option types and formations at will. It also gives bosses lifebars, decreases the size of the player's hitbox, and implements a new rank-based multiplier that increases the score of rose items, which can be obtained by bombing or completing a boss phase. Ibara Kuro: Black Label is similar to the PS2 arrange mode, with the omission of option formations, and the addition of a select screen where you're able to select both planes and their 4 types, and a ring that appears when holding the shot button that increases points for grazing bullets. In addition, when not firing, all collectible items are magnetized to your plane.
- Pink Sweets has an arrange mode that reintroduces score-based extendsnote , separates the Rose Cracker into its own separate button and reintroduces the Hado Gun, which uses a Rose Hip when used. In addition, a score multiplier is introduced that increases every time an enemy is killed or an enemy bullet canceled with the Rose Cracker. This multiplier in particlar makes this arrange a successor to Battle Bakraid.
- Art Shift — The character designer for both games remained the same, but the backgrounds and enemies changed significantly. In the first game, everything was designed to look like steampunk-esque contraptions with rose-like designs. For example, tanks had rose-shaped blades instead of treads or wheels. In the second game, the backgrounds are made of simple geometry and the enemies look like candy and colorful blocky toys.
- Calling Your Attacks — Especially in Pink Sweets
- Charge Attack — In Ibara this is how the hadou gun is used. Each playable character can do their own charge attack in Pink Sweets. The X-box 360 arrange mode of Pink Sweets uses both the original charge attack and the hadou gun on the same button.
- Chinese Girl — Uni Ulysses from Pink Sweets
- Creator Cameo — Bond* and Dyne* from Ibara are voiced by staff members.
- Dynamic Difficulty — This game series has Rank, just like the "Bat" series, thanks to programmer S. Yagawa.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita — Especially Kasumi Rose.
- Evil Counterpart — The Rose sisters were not exactly good, but Big Burn and his candy maids are even more evil, with each one corresponding to one of the Rose women. Big Burn is a fatherly figure to each of the maids as well, corresponding to how Teresa was the mother of the Rose daughters in Ibara, except that all but one of the maids of Pink Sweets were borne by other women. Big Burn is also this to the heroes of the first game, since he can do the hadou gun just like them.
- Fanservice — There's hardly any reason for the bosses (and in Pink Sweets, also the playable characters) to look or dress like they do, since they are seldom seen outside of their ships.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All — True to the game's spiritual roots, it has medal chaining.
- Hot Teacher — Teresa Rose was originally a professor.
- Humongous Mecha — Many of them in Pink Sweets
- Infinite 1-Ups — If you get a 1-up at 5 lives in Pink Sweets, you'll be granted infinite lives.
- Macross Missile Massacre — In Ibara this is the result of equipping three rockets or homings. In Pink Sweets, "Viper missile, where?"
- Marathon Level — Pink Sweets stage 6 is extremely long compared to the previous five.
- Meaningful Name — The word "ibara" means thorny rose. There are many flower motifs throughout the game, to say the least, and mechanical objects are also purposely designed to look like they have thorns or are rose-shaped.
- More Dakka — In Ibara this is the result of equipping three gatlings or 5-ways.
- Navel-Deep Neckline — Teresa Rose in Ibara and Socie Soar in Pink Sweets have outfits that expose cleavage and midriff.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni — The two player characters of Ibara.
- Restart the World — The goal of the Rose Family in Ibara.
- Say It with Hearts — Socie Soar speaks like this in Pink Sweets
- Sexy Backless Outfit — Shasta Rose in both games.
- Sexy Secretary — Lace Rose, especially in Pink Sweets
- Shock and Awe — Lace Rose's shots in Pink Sweets: "Lightning Laser..." "Thunder Storm..."
- Shout-Out — Shasta Rose is named after Mount Shasta, a real place in California
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Spiritual Successor:- The gameplay, bullet patterns, stage transitions, and other minor aesthetic touches (such as displaying the song name in the bottom-left of the screen) are all heavily based on Raizing's "Bat" seriesnote . It helps that all of these games were programmed by the same guy, S. Yagawa.
- Pink Sweets gives further nods to Armed Police Batrider by having the playable characters be slightly visible and riding on flying machines, and having stage 6 be longer than the previous five stages combined. In addition, the gameplay of Pink Sweets is based on Recca, with the chargable Rose Crackers, the ability to change speeds, and the Rose Hip firing being a separate button. The Arrange Mode of Pink Sweets rounds out the "Bat" trilogy by featuring a scoring system akin to Battle Bakraid. There's a 64x multiplier cap, and both dying and using a Rose Cracker pauses the multiplier chain timer.
- Steampunk
- Stripperiffic — Especially Shasta Rose.
- Tank Goodness — Goes with the genre, notable because they have spiky wheels instead of treads.
- Updated Re-release — Much like other Cave games, these two have received Kuro/Black label editions that make rank visible but makes them play more akin to normal Cave games.
- Versus Character Splash: Whenever a boss is confronted in Pink Sweets.
- Wave-Motion Gun — The result of holding down the bomb button, and it is literally translated as "wave motion gun" (hadou gun). Then in Pink Sweets, Shasta Rose can do SHINING BEAM! Big Burn can also do the hadou gun from the first game.
- You Shall Not Pass! — The bosses of Pink Sweets say many variations of this
- Zeerust — The enemies of Pink Sweets are strongly influenced by 50's science fiction
