Konami's combination of its own Parodius and Gradius series. A lighthearted Self-Parody, Otomedius is a Boob Shooter with its own standalone plot. It pulls elements from several of Konami's other properties, including Ganbare Goemon, Busou Shinki, Xexex, TwinBee, Chou Sei Shin Series, Parodius and, of course, Gradius itself.
Anoa Aoba, a second year high school student, is approached by a mysterious organization and offered a chance to pilot Vic Viper. While you might expect a Cool Plane, this one is less a plane and more a flying motorcycle. She's also introduced to the other "Angels" who form up the Five-Man Band.
What follows is adventure. Across the world, across space, across dimensions, involving a lot of bullets, a lot of enemy robots, and a lot of penguins.
If there isn't an Everything Is Better With Boobs trope, there should be, because this series lives in it. How about Refuge in Cleavage?
The series saw two console releases, both for Xbox 360: Otomedius Gorgeous, a port of the original arcade game, and Otomedius Excellent, a console-only sequel. Konami announced a North American release of Otomedius Excellent for 19 July 2011, but it got delayed for quite a while until, ultimately, it came out at 3 November 2011.
Now has its own Character page (Under Construction)
This game provides examples of:
- Action Girl - The entire cast. Emon counts as an Action Guy.
- Designated Girl Fight - Not really, but the basic core of the trope is manufactured here by turning many male or genderless villains into female versions or making them The Unfought.
- All There in the Manual - A lot of information about the characters and setting can only be found on Konami's website, in the game booklet, and in the manga. Hope you can read Japanese!
- More of the world of Otomedius is revealed through the DLC. Also, the relationship between Earth and Gradius - Esmeralda complains about Earth's military in her intro.
- Amazon Brigade - with Emon gone, it really is an all-girl squad.
- Another Dimension - A lot of missions send the Angels to alternate dimensions of Earth. One notable example is a What If? Ancient Egypt progressed into the Space Age, complete with floating sarcophagus gun platforms and mummified penguin robots.
- The manga series is also called Otomedius: Another Dimension.
- Art Evolution - The character designs have all changed in varying degrees between Gorgeous and Excellent.
- Of particular note, the uniforms are now more like uniforms, with cuffs sporting the "G" Organization logo on each sleeve.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space - Fan theories abound, but there's no current official explanation for why the characters have no trouble breathing in space, or don't get cold in Antarctica, despite the fact they are Human Aliens.
- Bullet Hell - In higher loops, there are enough bullets and enemies on the screen to cause slowdown on an Xbox 360.
- Titi XIV's Scarab Core, on any difficulty, is this.
- Calling Your Attacks - Indirectly. Each time one of the girls activates a weapon on their powerup bar, there's a chance they'll call it out after Operetta announces it. Invokes Rule of Cute on more than one occasion.Operetta: "Homing Missile!"Poini Kune: "Misso~"-Operetta: "Aqualaser, Level Two!"Tita Nium: "Waku waku(Exciting).Power Up!"
- Also seen when a character performs her P-Burst or D-Burst attacks.
- Cast of Snowflakes - Despite having an immense cast for a Shoot 'Em Up, they're quite well written and unique without being one-dimensional.
- Child Prodigy - The Otomedius Excellent trailer shows the entire cast in their school uniforms. Colored ribbons are used to differentiate between classes. Poini wears the same colors as Esmeralda and Diol, marking her as an upperclassmen to the rest of the cast despite her apparent age of 10.
- By contrast, Madoka is also a genius, but still a first-year student. Madoka's know-how seems to be limited to engineering while Poini is more versatile.
- Continuity Snarl - The series isn't entirely clear on whether Otomedius takes place concurrently to the primary Gradius timeline (explained as Earth's calendar being roughly 6000 years behind Gradius's, eg. AD 2000 is ~Year 8000 by Gradian reckoning), several thousand years in its past (in which the AD years and Gradian Years match up), or in an Alternate Continuity (probably the most likely explanation).
- Cool Plane - Well, cool flying bike based on a plane.
- Custom Uniform - Most of the Angels wear some variation of the same outfit, usually color-coded to match their Ride Viper.
- Averted with Madoka, who wears her school uniform instead. A rare case where a short pleated skirt is the less revealing choice.
- Madoka has changed her outfit. It's still not the default G look, but it's not her school outfit either.
- Even their school uniforms are somewhat customized, decorated with colored ribbons according to their class. Green ribbons are First-Year, Red ribbons are Second-Year, and Yellow ribbons are Third-Year.
- Averted with Madoka, who wears her school uniform instead. A rare case where a short pleated skirt is the less revealing choice.
- Cute 'em Up - With enough Tokusatsu Tropes to stand on its own. The series is also a self-parody to many Tokusatsu series, even including Konami's own Chou Sei Shin Series!
- Downloadable Content - The only way to get Stage 4, Esmeralda, and Poini Kune in the first game. All of the character-specific soundtracks are also DLC.
- In Excellent, Kokoro Belmont and Strarf are DLC, as are the character soundtracks and a lot of extra stages and costumes.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune - The opening theme of Otomedius Excellent, titled "Fly", is sung by Aoba Anoa, Arnval, Strarf, Gesshi Hanafuuma, and Kokoro Belmont, while the ending theme, titled "Otometic", is sung by Erul Tron and Madoka.
- Energy Weapon - A common weapon in the game, always leads to Beam Spam.
- Enfant Terrible: Dark Force's larval form is that of a young girl in black-and-white.
- Excuse Plot: Yes, there is a plot. Yes, it can be interesting. But you don't need to know it to enjoy the premise.
- Funbag Airbag - Poini intentionally uses Esmeralda's chest this way in the Otomedius Excellent trailer. Doubles as a Freeze-Frame Bonus. Esmeralda's reaction is predictable.
- Gratuitous English - Poini Kune's voice actress is well-known in Japan for English dialogue. As a result, Poini has a lot of English dialogue as well as Japanese. It's also used to reflect her Child Prodigy status. It's also freakin' adorable.Operetta: "Homing Missile, level two!"Poini Kune: "Level two~."-Poini Kune: "Drive system switched to normal mode."-Poini Kune: "Ryoukai! Select your route~!"-Poini Kune: "Crush all of them!"
- If some of Poini's quotes sound familiar, that's because she loves to quote Gradius Gaiden's announcer.
- And sometimes, the actual names of stages. When entering Easter Island, Poini occasionally declares "Ruins of Silence~!" She also does this in the jungle ruins stage of Excellent.
- If some of Poini's quotes sound familiar, that's because she loves to quote Gradius Gaiden's announcer.
- Hitbox Dissonance - The player characters all have hitboxes smaller than their graphics. Without this, you would die a lot more often. Bullet Hell and all.
- Human Aliens - Esmeralda, Erul Tron, and Poini Kune are all Gradians, but look exactly like humans. Madoka is also an alien, from planet Mel. Emon Five is from Ebisuboshi. R.B. and L.B. Gofer, Meta Lium, Tita Nium, T.B. Rika, and Dark Force are all Bacterians and are also very human-like in appearance. In Dark Force's case, she actually transforms from humanoid to monster and back, filling in a plot hole: every other Bacterian before them has been a giant, pulsating brain and destroyable free-floating eyes, so it can be assumed now that the others may be able to transform as well (even if they prefer to pilot robots).
- Kaizo Trap - Odin Core features a nostalgic attack pattern where it shoots out huge laser beams, then reflects small lasers off them. If Odin Core is defeated during this phase, it will continue to fire the huge laser beams while it collapses inward in its death animation, sweeping the screen and guaranteeing player death.
- Let's Play - Tons, usually by shows that focus on bargain-bin games, such as Super Playify.
- Level in Boss Clothing - The final stages in Excellent and Gorgeous are both extremely hard. In true Gradius tradition, Excellent's ends with an
Anti-Climax Boss, though Gorgeous follows its Level in Boss Clothing with a Boss Rush and then the True Final Boss. - Long-Lost Relative: Both Erul and Kokoro are the long-lost little sisters of characters from the series that inspired them.
- More Dakka - As with most shooters. Scarab Core approaches enough dakka in higher loops.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands - In Otomedius, it was suggested that Platonic power is why the characters can breathe in space. In Excellent, if this is the case, Platonic power's purview expands to include protection against atmospheric re-entry.
- Nonuniform Uniform: All the Angels have slight variations on their uniforms. Madoka and Arnval wear outright completely different outfits because they're existing characters ported from different series.
- Portmanteau - Otomedius is a combination of Otome (meaning Maiden) and Gradius.
- Reflecting Laser - Happens all over the place in the Antarctic stage and versus Snowflake Core. Also one of several attack combinations performed by R.B. and L.B. Gofers' tandem fighters, Hugin and Munin.
- Excellent's Red Hot Mine stage includes a branch filled with laser-refracting crystals, and there's an enemy type which reflects lasers back at the player as their only form of attack.
- Replacement Goldfish - Gesshi and Kokoro join the team to replace Emon. His sister finds it callous, despite it being necessary.
- Rule 34 - It didn't take long for artists to notice that Diol Twee has tentacles.
- Schizo Tech - The game is set in what appears to be 21st-century, modern Earth, although it's the 6000s in the Alternative Calendar used by Planet Gradius. But then you have the Riding Vipers, which are flying motorbikes with lasers and missiles. Excellent introduces a massive space fleet and casual Time Travel abilities. It's explained that the really advanced technology was introduced to Earth via the "G" organization, an anti-Bacterion alliance of which Earth is a part (and Planet Gradius being one of the founding members).
- Shoot 'Em Up - While also a Cute Em Up, Otomedius has enough of a plot to stand on its own rather than hiding in audacity and cultural in-jokes.
- Spell My Name With An S - The English release of Excellent changes the spellings for some of the character names. Belmondo to Belmont has a precedent, but Gofer to Gofa and Emon to Eamon, not so much.
- Super Move Portrait Attack - The playable characters can initiate special moves termed P-Burst and D-Burst. After Shouting it out over their portrait, the character burns a P-Burst charge to clear the screen. A D-Burst, by contrast, is a character-specific super attack with a charge time, and is generally a Game-Breaker when used on bosses.Poini Kune: "Blast Orb..!"
- In Excellent, the portraits only cut in during the Bomb-type Platonic Burst, which clears the screen of enemies and bullets. The super attack styled Platonic Break has no portraits, but also doesn't consume a Burst Capsule and can be spammed (cooldown permitting).
- Superpower Lottery - According to official art, Poini can generate gravity wells on her own. The graphic is identical to her Ride Viper's Gravity Bullet weapon, balanced on her fingertip.
- Similarly, official art shows Esmeralda mimicking Jade Knight's Ring Laser weapon with only her hands. Gradians have a terrible power, it seems. In Excellent's art gallery, Esmeralda is shown using a Ring Laser shot like a hula hoop. Erul, being from the Wreek alien race, has telepathy and can interface with compatible machines that way, Diol can turn her hair into Combat Tentacles, and Kokoro's bloodline abilities manifest with her Platonic Break taking the form of a Grand Cross, but Poini and Esmeralda are on another level.
- The One Guy - Emon Five. Lampshaded, as the other Angels don't seem to like him or even know why he's on the team. In the cast photo at the top, he's in the very back and center, holding the long pipe.Diol Twee: "'Big Sis'...? What a rude guy he is!"Emon Five: "This is bullshit! I'm just doin' my job and I'm already in bad air!"Madoka: "Why is there a man among us, anyway?"
- Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe - The first mission that takes place on Anoa's version of Earth takes place in Tokyo.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Dark Force has white hair and is the Big Bad in Excellent.
- O to me di oo su ... Go—orjasu~
