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"Now that it's done....
I've begun to see the reason why we are here."

Radiant Silvergun is a vertical scrolling Shoot 'Em Up by developed by Treasure, released exclusively in Japan for the arcades (on the Sega Titan-Video hardware) and on the Sega Saturn in 1998. It was ported to Xbox Live internationally on September 14, 2011. Roughly 11 years later, a Nintendo Switch port of the HD version was released on September 13, 2022; a physical edition, including limited editions thereof, was available in early-2024 by Limited Run Games. Finally, a PC version for Steam was released on November 2, 2023.

The game-play is rather unique, allowing various combinations of three buttons to fire any of seven weapons at any time, as well as a powerful charged attack. The game eschews Power-Ups found in other shoot 'em ups: instead, weapons increase in strength as you score points with them, and destroying a chain of enemies that have the same color gives higher and higher bonuses as the chain continues. Thus, players will need to use a variety of attack methods to level up each weapon evenly, as well as NOT destroying enemies of other colors as to not break the chain. Failure to do so results in a near Unwinnable scenario against the Final Boss, as under-leveled weapons are ineffective and rendered useless. The game is designed so that there is almost always an optimal weapon for any situation. Like previous Treasure games, Radiant Silvergun concentrates heavily on boss battles that are designed so that they have multiple parts and segments which, if all were to be destroyed before the "core" of the boss, will reward players with point bonuses. Being able to apply the right weapons against any of the game's many bosses is key to obtaining these bonuses. The infamous boss warning screen appears about two dozen times and bosses take numerous different forms to try to annihilate players.

The story is rather bleak and depressing for a Shoot 'Em Up: on July 14, 2520 A.D., a strange crystalline object called the "Stone-Like" is found in the ruins of an ancient city, which then proceeds to kill everyone on Earth. Players take control of a pilot in a small crew that escaped the Stone-Like's explosion, helming the eponymous Silvergun and returns to the planet to discover the secrets behind the artifact. Things are just getting worse from this point on.

See also Ikaruga, the Spiritual Successor to Radiant Silvergun. Not to be confused with Radiant Historia or Radiata Stories.


Encountered an assailant: Example List. Be attitude for gains...
1. In-Depth Document
2. Observe Detail
3. Enrich The Life

  • 13 Is Unlucky: The events of the game take place on July 13, 2521 A.D., the year following the destruction of mankind on Earth from the Stone-Like.
  • Action Bomb: Kamikaze ships that hurl towards the player in Stage 5A, not to mention the Silverguns on the Penta after exhausting all of their other attacks on the player.
  • Adaptation Expansion: In the home ports, "Saturn"/Story Mode not only makes the player go through all stages as opposed to a mutually-exclusive choice between Stage 2 or 4 in arcade mode/version, but also expands upon Stage 5 by adding the SBS-33KI boss after SBS-130 and Stage 6 by adding a gauntlet of bosses before engaging the Final Boss, Xiga.
  • Adam and Eve Plot: After the complete annihilation of humanity and the Stone-Like goes dormant, C.R.E.A.T.O.R. 00104 creates clones of Buster and Reana in the far past to restart humanity once again. His name alone makes the allusion even more blatant.
  • After the End: The game begins with the Stone-Like causing the apocalypse, with only four people managing to survive.
  • Airborne Aircraft Carrier: "Tetra", which houses the protagonist and their Silverguns, and its sister ship, "Penta", that has its own Silverguns, serving as a boss in Stage 5.
  • All There in the Manual: There's additional back-story in Secretary Igarashi's journal, which puts more focus on the researchers' findings. As it turns out, in addition to the Stone-Like and C.R.E.A.T.O.R. 00104's fossilized torso, the prehistoric layer contained what appears to be ruins that seemed too technologically advanced for the time period. Coincidentally, the EDA headquarters is built right on top of it.
  • Anachronic Order: The game starts players off on Stage 3 ("Return"); after that, players have the option to go to either Stage 2 ("Reminiscence"), which occurs prior to the events of Stage 3, or Stage 4 ("Evasion"), set immediately after Stage 3. The game continues to Stage 5 ("Victim") and Stage 6 ("The Origin"), culminating in Stage 1 ("Link"), the first stage chronologically.
  • Apocalypse How: The game opens up with a Class 6 example by the Stone-Like. Only four humans manage to survive it, until the end of the game.
  • Apocalyptic Log: All of the ship's logs are this after the ending.
  • Arrange Mode:
    • In the Saturn Mode added in the Sega Saturn version (renamed Story Mode in the later HD ports), instead of choosing from Stage 2 or Stage 4 after completing Stage 3, players do both Stage 2 and 4 in a row. This mode also allows access to a New Game Plus mode where the Silvergun's weapon levels are carried over to another playthrough if one desires. On the downside, there are limited continues (or, in the HD ports, none at all).
    • The Xbox 360 and Switch ports have an unlockable "Ikaruga Mode" which switches up the scoring system to its spiritual successor; the Steam version also has this mode available right from the startnote .
  • Attack Drone: A few bosses are supported by these that can move around freely while firing at the Silvergun. Whether they can be destroyed or not depends on the boss.
  • Big Bad: Downplayed; the Stone-Like is ultimately the prime motivator and obstacle for the heroes, though it is not really "evil" in the traditional sense (see The Scourge of God).
  • The Bad Guy Wins: The Stone-Like ultimately succeeds in eradicating humanity, though C.R.E.A.T.O.R. resurrects the species via cloning in a Stable Time Loop.
  • Battleship Raid: Stage 5, Victim, involves two of these; however, the second battleship is Saturn/Story Mode-exclusive.
  • Border-Occupying Decorations: The HD ports of the game feature decorative wallpapers to occupy the borders of the screen (although these can also be turned into a simple black background by setting the Wallpaper Brightness setting to 0%) and the option to replace original pixel art heads-up display with an HD one that also keeps track of color chains and weapons experience. In single-player mode, the right side of the screen also features an in-game reference sheet for the weapons and their corresponding buttons.
  • Boss Bonanza: Generally speaking, half the entire time spent in a typical play-through is made up of boss fights, but Stage 6 is particularly loaded with bosses.
  • Boss-Only Level:
    • The arcade version of Stage 5 only consists of a single boss fight preceded by a very small level portion, though the fight is a Level in Boss Clothing to compensate. Story Mode adds a second boss to the level.
    • Stage 6 (in the arcade version) is nothing but a fight against the Final Boss, while Stage 1 (in every version) is a "fight" against the Stone-Like, but players only have to avoid its attacks for a full minute. The Story Mode version of Stage 6 downplays this somewhat by making it a full-bodied stage with bosses and regular enemies before throwing Xiga at you, but it's still mostly bosses.
  • Boss Subtitles: Complete with Gratuitous English to give nonsensical advice in place of the nonsensical move lists of Gunstar Heroes! Considering the Stone-Like's understandable English, though, the Engrishy advice is likely intentional.
  • Boss Warning Siren: The game has the entire screen taken over with the word "WARNING", as well as the warning "NO REFUGE" and the memetic "BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS" before every boss fight.
  • Bullet Hell: It has its moments, but the pacing is somewhat slower than the typical Shoot 'Em Up of this caliber.
  • But What About the Astronauts?: The crew of the Tetra are barely able to escape to an orbit around the Earth at the end of Stage 2. Stage 3 starts with them returning to Earth after a year because they exhausted their food and energy supplies.
  • Charged Attack: The Hyper Sword is of the "collect" type - after swiping away 10 pink bullets with the Radiant Sword weapon, its next usage is a Hyper Sword attack which sweeps two massive blades across the screen and makes the Silvergun invincible for its duration.
  • Classic Cheat Code: The Saturn version has an unlimited credits cheat by holding down the L and R buttons for Arcade Mode when "Insert Coin(s)" appears on screen.
  • Climax Boss: The second boss in Stage 5, "SBS-33KI" - it only exists in Story Mode, and is the last boss fought before half of the crew dies and the final stage starts.
  • Cognizant Limbs: Most of the bosses in the game have destructible parts such as MIKA-L's weapons, and destroying all of them is required to get the "100% Destruction Bonus" points for the boss.
  • Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: Stage 4B has metal pairs with electric current flowing between them. Shooting them temporarily closes the pair.
  • Color-Coded Multiplayer: Player 1 takes control of Buster and his blue Silvergun, while Player 2 takes control of Reana and her red Silvergun.
  • Combining Mecha: Stage 4 boss "LUNAR-C" is composed of three different parts which join after some time.
  • Continuing is Painful: Continuing preserves player score and weapon levels; however, this will invalidate the score when players go into the ranking screen.
  • Cool Ship: Silverguns are equipped with a total of seven weapons at all times.
  • Cooperative Multiplayer: The game features co-op multiplayer where the second player can take control of Reana's Silvergun.
  • Depopulation Bomb: The game opens with the Stone-Like scouring the Earth in a brilliant white light, annihilating all of humanity except those who happened to be in orbit.
  • Desperation Attack: After the Final Boss is defeated and the Stone-Like travels back in time, it unleashes an enormous barrage of projectiles with an onscreen countdown. Once it runs out, the Stone-Like is defeated and shuts down, but not before it releases a massive explosion that obliterates Buster and Reana, wiping out the last of humanity.
  • Die Laughing: The AKA-O's spastic movements implies that it is laughing at the player's attempt to stand up against the Stone-Like as they encounter it early into Stage 3, and it continues to do so all the way through the boss battle proper. Even after it gets destroyed by the player or it self-destructs, AKA-O is still yakking it up while it's being blown to smithereens.
  • Discard and Draw: The Ikaruga chaining mode in the HD versions lets players switch enemy colors after every three kills, but caps the chain bonus at 25,600 points instead of 100,000 as a counterbalance.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Although Story Mode's Stage 1 dialogue appears to be the memories of humanity heard throughout time, possibly being played back by the Stone-Like itself, it's implied by game director Hiroshi Iuchi that it's intentional symbolism about the video game industry - the meddling between game retailers, developers, and publishers, with hardcore gamers caught in the middle.
  • Downer Beginning: Nothing like the annihilation of all life on Earth as part of the game's backstory and console-exclusive introductory cutscene!
  • Downer Ending: All of humanity dies, and the "Groundhog Day" Loop the Stone-Like enacts is implied to be more of an Eternal Recurrence.
  • Dual Boss: The "Golets" brothers in Stage 2; when flying through tunnels at high speed, the second one will periodically join in.
  • Easier Than Easy: The console ports have a "Very Easy" difficulty...on their own terms, anywaynote . It does simplify or remove a lot of hazards and boss attacks, but a lot of the major obstacles and challenging melee attacks remain.
  • Enemy Summoner: The "Walker" boss at the end of Stage 4.
  • Energy Ball: The Silvergun's homing weapon takes the form of rapid-fire balls of plasma. Enemies frequently fire similar orb projectiles.
  • Energy Weapon: Most of the bosses are made up of mechanical parts and debris, meaning that they all have access to energy bullets and laser blasts.
  • Engrish: "BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS" is but the most widely known example.
  • Evil Elevator: "UE2A-GAL", the boss at the end of Stage 2, has the ability to replace its parts as soon as players destroy them.
  • "Everybody Dies" Ending: The game starts with a cutscene showing all of humanity getting wiped out apart from the main characters, and things don't get any better from there. Those still alive die in the end as the Stone-Like releases another wave of light and worse, they are now stuck in a time loop of this happening over and over again..
  • Every 10,000 Points: Extra lives can be earned by scoring a lot of points. By default, the first 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 points afterwards rewards extra lives. The home ports gives players the option to change the requirements for extends or turn them off entirely.
  • Evolving Attack: The crux of the game-play involves leveling up each of the three weapons through scoring and chaining enemies effectively. The weapons and their respective combinations not only deal greater damage, but their unique properties also evolve as they become stronger (e.g. Vulkan's single fire becomes bigger while the rapid shots widens its spread, Homing fires larger bullets, Spread leaves larger explosions).
  • Excuse Plot: Unusually Averted for a Treasure game, though it's still mostly in the background, but the plot is far more fleshed out than those in their other games. How else could it be so downright depressing?
  • Experience Meter: Averted in the original arcade version and its Sega Saturn port as they only display the levels of the player's weapons but not their accumulated experience points on the heads-up display. The HD ports of the game, however, gives players the option of using a new high resolution HUD that occupies the sides of the screen and provides experience meters for the Vulcan, Homing, and Spread weapons.
  • Fake Difficulty: The Xbox 360 version introduced by outright removing credits for its Story Mode whereas the Sega Saturn version previously had them in the Sega Saturn Mode, which also carried into the later Switch and Steam ports. The latter versions however does mitigate this (somewhat) by giving players extra lives for every ten minutes of playtime in Story Mode instead of every hour in the Xbox 360 version.
  • Fireballs: Some of the enemies and bosses can fire these, such as AKA-O, the first boss in Stage 3.
  • Flash of Pain: Enemies, many objects and bosses flash white when hit.
  • Flunky Boss: A lot of the bosses have normal enemies or enemies specific to them accompanying them. The first boss in Stage 5, "SBS-130", has the most of them.
  • Foreshadowing: In the opening animation, two scientists working on the Stone-Like discuss about using clones to speed up their work, which is usually done by Robonoids. It’s exactly how C.R.E.A.T.O.R. manages to resurrect humanity.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: If (or "when", while playing Saturn Mode) players go to Stage 2, the events of game becomes a Flashback to one year prior to the events of Stage 3 (the previously played stage). Somehow, the Silverguns weapon levels and lives remaining go back with players in time.
  • Ghost Planet: Stages 3 through 6, given that everyone except the crew of the Tetra dies when the Stone-Like goes berserk at the end of Stage 2.
  • The Goomba: Drones are small, weak, don't attack much except on "Very Hard" difficulty, and appear on all stages. They're mainly used to get the chain meter high and to collect pink bullets.
  • Go Outwith A Smile: C.R.E.A.T.O.R., after having successfully cloned Buster and Reana, is shown to look at them with joy before it finally collapses and breaks apart for good.
  • Gratuitous English: Used deliberately in the Boss Subtitles to contrast the impeccable English of the Stone-Like.
  • Heroic BSoD: Reana has a breakdown at the end of Stage 5 when Guy sacrifices himself and Tengai rams the badly-damaged Tetra on the Stone-Like.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Guy and Tengai sacrifice themselves to save C.R.E.A.T.O.R. and drive away the Stone-Like at the end of Stage 5.
  • High-Pressure Blood: When Buster was mocking Reana's theory about the identical C.R.E.A.T.O.R. robonoid found in the excavation site as its twin, she responds by clocking him in the nose, with an eruption of blood shooting through his nostrils while he collapses as a result. Buster is later seen on the floor unconscious with a pool of his blood from his injury.
  • Hold the Line: The Stone-Like cannot be harmed at all in Stage 1; players have to survive its attacks for 60 seconds.
  • Homing Projectile: The Silvergun has three types of homing weapons - a standard homing shot that fires very fast, but deals low damage, plasma lasers that lock onto targets and repeatedly electrocutes them, and spreading lasers that strike enemies within range of the Silvergun. While rare, enemies also have access to homing projectiles and they tend to be some of the most dangerous attacks in the game.
  • Hot-Blooded: Guy, to the point where he pulls a kamikaze against a beam weapon the Stone-Like tries to destroy the Tetra and the EDA headquarters with at the end of Stage 5.
  • 100% Completion: When destroying bosses bit by bit, instead of hitting their weak spot first, players can receive an extra "Destruction Bonus" for destroying all parts before defeating the boss.
  • Invulnerable Attack: While launching the Hyper Sword, the player's Silvergun has invincibility frames for the duration of the attack.
  • It's Personal: Guy has a deeper conflict with the Stone-Like than the rest of the Tetra's crew, as it killed his father, EDA commander Secretary Igarashi, along with the rest of mankind.
  • Knight of Cerebus: The game starts off fairly lighthearted, with the pilots joking around. Once the Stone-Like is unearthed by scientists, the plot quickly turns upside down and it only gets worse from there.
  • Laser Blade: The Radiant Sword, which extends out from the player's ship and swings to the opposite direction of the player's movement.
  • Last Stand: The entire game is one against the Stone-Like. It doesn't work; the best that happens is giving humanity another shot via Stable Time Loop again and again.
  • Lightning Gun: The Silvergun's Homing Plasma weapon (A+B) locks onto two enemies that shoots a chain of lightning to locked targets.
  • Limit Break: Hyper Sword, triggered by collecting enough purple bullets with the Radiant Sword, and then using the sword. It's a pair of BFSes that swing from back to front, doing massive damage to all enemies that they touch.
  • Machine Monotone: C.R.E.A.T.O.R. talks with monotone voice.
  • Marathon Boss: By failing to get combos to score higher points to upgrade the Silvergun's weapons, players will be fighting some of the later bosses, especially the Final Boss, for a long time.
  • Marathon Level: What the game lacks in terms of number of stagesnote , it makes up for by making them very long. For context, Stage 3, the first stage in the game, takes about ten minutes to complete, while the longest stage in the game, Stage 4, takes twice that long.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • C.R.E.A.T.O.R.'s name is both a reference to what it does at the end of the game and that he's an Author Avatar of the game's director, Hiroshi Iuchi.
    • Most of the boss names are slyly disguised as seemingly random letters and numbers:
      • AKA-O - Aka Ō ("Red King")
      • UE2A-GAL - Ue ni Agaru ("Going Up")
      • NASU - Aubergine (Eggplant)
      • DAIKAI10 - Daikaiten ("Giant Spin")
      • DAN-564 - Dango Mushi ("Pillbug")
      • CA2-EKZO - Kani Ekzo ("Crab Ekzo")
      • SBS-133 and SBS-33KI - Space Battle Ship
  • Mercy Invincibility: Between respawns after taking a hit from the enemies or obstacles, the player has a brief period of invincibility as their Silvergun returns to the action.
  • Mirror Boss: Penta and its Silverguns, which use modified versions of the Silvergun's weapons.
  • Mood Whiplash: The opening of the game starts as one would expect some standard Super Robot anime with everyone getting ready for whatever threat they are about to face. Cut to a bright light enveloping the Earth with the narrator stating in a somber tone that all of humanity has been wiped out.
  • New Game Plus: Over the course of the game, the Silvergun's weapons level up as more points are earned. Saturn Mode in the Saturn version (or Story Mode in the HD versions) of the game saves these levels and lets players start the game over again with them. Eventually, one will be able to start the game from the beginning with maxed-out weapons. On the downside, there are limited continues (initially none at all), but more can be unlocked by playing Arcade Mode (the HD version changes this to no continues at all, with playing Arcade Mode giving more lives on a single credit, instead).
  • Nintendo Hard: Oh lawd, is this game TERRIFYINGLY hard. If one isn't a hardcore gamer, setting the difficulty to Very Easy is a must, and even then, the game shows no mercy. In most shoot 'em ups, players tend to use their first continue by the time they reach the second stage. In this game? By the time most players come out of Stage 3, the digit in the score that tracks the number of continues used might already be maxed out! Let's not get started on the chain scoring system...
  • Oh, Crap!: Reana and Buster can only react with ardent terror as the Stone-Like unleashes a new wave of light after surviving their Hold the Line in Stage 1, a terror that only gets worse as they desperately try to outrun it.
  • Out of Order: In-Universe example - in the scene where the Stone-Like's explosion destroys the world, it occurs at exactly 9:38 PM according to one scene in the game. However, in Stage 2 (which takes place on the same day), the player does not reach the beginning of Stage 2E until 9:58 PM, exactly 20 minutes AFTER THE EXPLOSION SUPPOSEDLY TOOK PLACE. The player still has a little ways to go by this point until the end of the stage, too.
  • Outrun the Fireball: After the Final Boss, the Stone-Like once again unleashes the same bright light that annihilated humanity forcing Reana and Buster to try and outrunning it. Unfortunately, it catches up to them.
  • The Phoenix: One of the forms the Stone-like takes in Story Mode's Stage 6 is "Ohtrigen", a phoenix that attacks with bullets from its wings.
  • Pink Girl, Blue Boy: The two playable pilots, Reana (Player 2) and Buster (Player 1), respectively pilot the red and blue Silverguns. Reana also has red accents on her clothes while Buster's clothes has blue.
  • Plotline Death: At the end of Stage 5, Guy and Tengai sacrifice themselves to destroy the Stone-Like's beam cannon. At the very end, Reana and Buster are incinerated when the Stone-Like is defeated (Buster is vaporized onscreen).
  • Poor Communication Kills:
  • Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Bosses spout fiery explosions and then implode into a tiny ball of light.
  • Pre-Explosion Glow: Before Stone-Like explodes in 2E, it emits beams out from it.
  • Primary-Color Champion: The Tetra's Silverguns are blue (Buster), red (Reana) and yellow (Guy), and the ship itself is blue and white.
  • Recurring Riff: Almost every song in the soundtrack uses the same recognizable motifs; those of "Feel Invisible Matter" and "The Stone-Like".
  • Remaster: The HD ports of the game features optional high resolution mode with true alpha transparency effects, bloom lighting, and a new HUD that also keeps track of color chains and weapons experience. The anime cutscenes in the Story Mode was also remastered using higher quality sources.
  • Roar Before Beating: "NASU", the robotic snake, in Stage 2, roars before battle, while LUNAR-C, a trio of combining mechs, lets out a howl between its three segments.
  • Save-Game Limits: The Saturn/Story Mode of the game only offers three save slots with the option of "NO SAVE" to play without saving their weapon progress.
  • Scoring Points: Killing three enemies of the same color results in "chain" bonuses, which get higher as players score more successive chains. However, unlike Ikaruga and its mercy of allowing a change of colors between chains, shooting a single enemy of a different color will result in losing the chain entirely (unless players are attempting to hit the "secret" chain.note  There are also other ways to earn extra points. Players can graze their ship's hitbox towards obstacles or oncoming fire (indicated by sparks flying off from the Silverguns) that rewards a steady stream of points overtime. Each of the Silvergun's seven weapons have a unique Weapon Bonus that rewards 10,000 points by performing certain feats with the respective weapons (e.g. 200 successful shots with the Vulkan, locking onto the same enemy for 10 seconds with Homing Plasma). Hidden throughout each Stage is MERRY, a hidden dog that rewards extra points of varying amounts (from 10 points to 200,000 points) when discovered by using the Lock-on Spread. Finally, the game grades players based on their ability to destroy the bosses and each of its destructible pieces, with a 100,000 points rewarded for a 100% "PERFECT" destruction rate. Ignoring this trope is not recommended as the Silvergun's weapons need points to level up; score poorly and damage output from its arsenal become underpowered by the later stages.
  • The Scourge of God:
    • The Stone-Like, but it's also very close to a "Gaia's Avenger" because after everyone else dies, C.R.E.A.T.O.R. tells the player that not only is the Stone-Like the guardian of Earth, it is the Earth.
    • For those who think the Stone-Like's actions are hypocritical, keep in mind that it's said to be the guardian of Earth, not the guardian of humanity.
  • Sentry Gun: A few types of enemies are wall turrets.
  • Sequential Boss: Many! There's also different variations of sequential bosses, too. For example, all the components of UE2A-GAL except the core are sequential.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The entire game was all for naught, given the story is nothing more than a Stable Time Loop with Eternal Recurrence in play.
  • Shout-Out: Most bosses in Radiant Silvergun are a reference to something else. It goes hand-in-hand with the Eternal Recurrence and Subtext commentary on the state of the gaming industry; some of these bosses are implied to both be man-made creations from previous cycles as well as other gaming titles.
  • Sinister Geometry: The Stone-Like's particular perfect diamond shape is used to highlight how unnerving it is.
  • Skippable Boss: "W(—)W" in Saturn Mode during Stage 6note ; however, beating it can reward the player with bonus points.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Guy. This bit from the optional cutscene explains it all:
    Igarashi: On other matters, I recall that today is the last day of your tests! Our superiors have placed a lot of expectations on these new models, so please, do your best!
    Guy: *tsk tsk tsk* C'mon, pops, you don't need tests if you've got the guts!
    Igarashi: So, Tengai, just how is my son doing on the tests?
    Tengai: ... Heheh... HE'S THE WORST DAMN PILOT IN THE HISTORY OF THE ACADEMY!
    Guy: *screams in anguish*
  • Spectacular Spinning: The dodecagon DAIKAI10, the centipede DAN-564, the walking fortress CA2-EKZO, and Xiga, the avatar of divine wrath.
  • Spread Shot: A large part of your arsenal.
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix: The Silverguns, smaller projectiles, smaller enemies and lots of background is rendered in 2D while the rest of the background, larger enemies, larger projectiles and bosses are rendered in 3D. In cutscenes, the Silverguns switch to 3D models.
  • Stationary Boss: Most of the larger bosses never move from where they first appear and only aim towards the Silvergun to attack.
  • Starfish Language: When the Stone-Like appears in-game for the first time, its "speech" is portrayed as a series of unintelligible noises.
  • Super Prototype: Despite the Silverguns being experimental fighters, they still prove highly powerful with their wide weapon variety.
  • Tank Goodness: Large tank mini-boss in Stage 2.
  • Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: The whole soundtrack has a recurring motif in almost all its songs.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Every boss in Radiant Silvergun (well, maybe except for the first boss) is preceded by a warning screen with three pieces of cryptic advice. The advice for the Final Boss is to simply pray, repeated three times.
  • Threatening Shark: "Varas" in Stage 6 is a mechanoid shark.
  • Time-Limit Boss: Bosses will self-destruct if the player spends too much time fighting them, resulting in less points. See Hold the Line for an inversion.
  • Transforming Mecha: Second Golets can be seen transforming from a high-speed vehicle into a wider one. DAIKAI10 seems to change itself between being a cross or being a dodecagon. There are also other bosses which change their shape.
  • Unwinnable: If you don't power up quickly enough in the early stages, don't expect to be able to win without exhausting all of your continues. If your weapons are low-leveled at the end, you'll just have to survive as long as possible against the bosses until they self-destruct, especially the Final Boss.
  • Updated Re-release: The HD versions of Radiant Silvergun features the ability to play the game with the original ST-V/Saturn graphics (in nearest-neighbor scaling or bilinear filtering) or the remastered HD graphics (with optional bloom lighting) as well as using either the original mesh transparency effects or true alpha blending effects, an alternate HUD that keeps track of weapons experience and color chains, remastered anime cutscenes, a new Training Mode where players can practice previously cleared stages, online multiplayer, online leaderboards with shareable replays. In addition to the above, the Xbox 360 version also features ability to play the game with the scoring system used in Ikaruga if the player has at at least one achievement unlocked in that game on the same account; the Switch versions also has it as an unlockable for beating the game, while the Steam version has it available from the start. The Steam version also offer the ability to play the game in either "CLASSIC" (11:7) or "MODERN" (4:3) aspect-ratios. Unfortunately, the secret Options+ menu (which let players make hitboxes visible or alter the Silvergun's speed) was lost in the mix. Another issue in the HD versions is the game being presented in a 16:9 pillarboxed screen; even on non-16:9 displays, this results in a significantly reduced game window — a problem for players who don't have HDTVs or want to play on a CRT.
  • Violation of Common Sense: Common action game logic would dictate you kill every enemy you see. Not so in this game, where due to the system of rewarding destroying enemies of one color, you'll have to let roughly half of the enemies live in order to optimize your score and weapon levels. However, if playing with Ikaruga scoring, the player can destroy most enemies due to being able to switch colors after every chain, but they still need to be careful since they have to shoot groups of three same-colored enemies.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: Gallop in Stage 3C is the first boss where the player has to use weapons other than the basic Vulcan weapon, because its frontal pod blocks attacks from the front.
  • Warmup Boss: The first boss, AKA-O has relatively simple attacks, has relatively little health and is on a shorter timer than most other bosses. However, when playing on the hardest difficulty, in which case it's a Wake-Up Call Boss and can easily kill any unsuspecting player.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Many bosses have huge beam cannons whose shoots can cover a good chunk of the screen.
  • Weaponized Exhaust: Penta, a massive carrier ship, uses the fire from its engine jets as an attack partway through its fight.
  • Whole Episode Flashback: Stage 2 takes place one year prior and covers what happened leading up to the Stone-Like wiping out all of humanity.
  • Where It All Began: Two instances:
    • The return to the Earth Defense Army Headquarters during Stage 5, where the Stone-Like unleashed its Depopulation Bomb in Stage 2.
    • A broader one happens in Stage 1, where the protagonists are sent back in time 100,000 years by the Stone-Like. Not so coincidentally, this is roughly when modern humans, genetically speaking, first appeared.

 
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Video Example(s):

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Radiant Silvergun (Stage 1: Link)

Warning! No Refuge! Data Install. Encountered an assailant. "The Stone-Like" Be attitude for gains...
1. ERROR
2. ERROR
3. ERROR

How well does it match the trope?

5 (5 votes)

Example of:

Main / HoldTheLine

Media sources:

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