History VideoGame / ProjectSylpheed

''Project Sylpheed'' is a space shooter developed jointly by Creator/GameArts and [=SETA=] Corp, and published in 2007 by Creator/SquareEnix exclusively for the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 as part of their platform diversification program.

* {{Anime}} - Plainly (sometimes painfully) apparent in the art direction, characterization, plot, and combat. Pretend you're in a {{Shonen}} action series and you'll be okay.
* AnimeHair - Surprisingly averted, for the most part. Played straight with Sandra, whose blond-with-blue-streaks-plus-spikes would make [[Anime/YuGiOh Yugi Moto nervous]].
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership - Played straight with everyone except Vice-Admiral Vieira.

* TheAtoner - Margras Mason, after he witnesses the MoralEventHorizon crossed by ADAN.
* BittersweetEnding
* BlackAndGrayMorality - Both sides commit serious atrocities; the TCAF only come out as the good guys because you're playing as one.
* BoringButPractical - You can do some amazing flight maneuvers in this game, involving high speed turns and power cuts. However, the secret to finishing missions quickly is to [[MacrossMissileMassacre equip your missiles and fire them]] at [[NoKillLikeOverkill all of your enemies.]]

* CutscenePowerToTheMax - Averted. Every awesome maneuver Katana and his squad mates execute can be done in game.
* EnergyWeapon - Usable weapon. This is the future, after all.
* EscortMission - Every single mission in the game requires that you keep certain capital ships alive, along with offering bonus upgrade points for keeping other ones alive. Considering that your capital ships are [[{{PointDefenseless}} apparently devoid of any point defences]] and the other friendly fighters focus on destroying enemy fighters instead of the attackers and bombers like they should this becomes even more of a [[{{ScrappyMechanic}} annoyance]] than it usually is.

* GuideDangIt - The sub-objectives. The game barely tells you about them via hints, as you need a guide to find them all. Some of these sub-objectives are so obtuse that, even after five years of this game being released, some objectives are still missing.
* HeroicSacrifice - Margras throwing his own life and his fighter ahead of Katana inside the core of the superweapon, kamikazeing the core itself.
* HotLibrarian - Captain May Crichton is ''fiiine''.
* IdiotBall - In how many ways...

* InNameOnly - Has nothing to do with the ''Silpheed'' ShootEmUp games.
* ItsUpToYou - After pulling the Acropolis and TCAF fleets out of trouble the first time, the White Griffons are called upon to solve every problem in the war. It's starts relatively small: "we're going to destroy this space station, so you fighter pilots destroy their ''cruiser defense line''", but rapidly escalates beyond control.

* MoreDakka - You can mount railguns designed for ''warships'' on your fighter.
* NoKillLikeOverkill - There is a gun that shoots gravity wells. It is twice the length of your fighter.
* OldSchoolDogfight - Played straight sometimes, averted at others. You yaw, pitch, bank, and [[BuffySpeak stuff]], but some maneuvers allow you to do things that just wouldn't be possible on a planet. Like flying ''sideways''.

* RankScalesWithAsskicking - Subverted: Vice-Admiral Vieira, commander of the flagship Caliban. Responsible for the defense of Schlos Base and Operation Nebula Blaze. Bravely runs away at the first sign of real trouble. Handled quite reasonably: the good Admiral is [[ReassignedToAntarctica demoted and transferred to the farthest and coldest reaches of space by the end of the game.]]
* RuleOfCool[=/=]RuleOfDrama - The cast are slaves to these rules. Half of the idiocies and deaths in this game are due to these rules. Half of the visuals and cutscenes are due to these rules.
* SceneryPorn - To its credit, when the game is busy ignoring the fact that [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale space is really big]], it fills that space with colourful and beautiful nebulas, clouds, and starscapes. And for some reason, fighter engines leave [[RuleOfCool glowing exhaust trails behind them for hundreds of meters.]]
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale - At times both averted and played straight. In most engagements that involve ship to ship combat you can barely see the enemy warships, and computer guided targeting systems are a requirement to engage the enemy. However, during the defense of Hargenteen (in which the enemy's goal is presumably to occupy the planet), the Terra fleet decides that the best defense against [=ADAN=] is to line up in a row across a tiny area of the planet and wait for them to show up. [=ADAN=] in return decides that the best way of taking the planet is to charge the defenders head on.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism - unlike its expy anime series, Franchise/{{Gundam}}, ''Project Sylpheed'' lies firmly on the idealistic end in spite of being as dark as Franchise/{{Gundam}}.
* SpaceIsAnOcean - Cruisers, Destroyers, Carriers, Battleships, Commodores, and Admirals are all present here. Friction is apparent (targeting ships engines reduces their speed to zero). Very little of any ship to ship engagements involve exploiting the Z-plane. And by [[StealthInSpace turning off your engines and hiding behind an asteroid you are effectively invisible]]. [[spoiler: This is subverted in Mission 11, during which an enemy carrier surprises the Acropolis by flying above it and shooting down at its vulnerable profile. However, this mission takes place ''in atmosphere''.]]
* SpaceOpera - Insomuch that the Franchise/{{Gundam}} and Anime/{{Macross}} series' are also space operas. ''Project Sylpheed'' bears a remarkable resemblance to those two series'.
* StandardSciFiFleet - Fighters, [[CallARabbitASmeerp Attackers]], frigates, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, carriers, ''[[MoreDakka super battleships]]'', [[spoiler:[[ThatsNoMoon horrific doomsday device]]]].
* StupidSacrifice - [[spoiler:Raymond]]. You were obscured by a dust cloud, and your opponent was oblivious to your presence. Why not use your advanced targeting computer to [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim shoot him]], rather than [[spoiler:charging into him at full speed kamikaze style]]?

* WaveMotionGun - Present in many of the warships in both fleets, but most notable on the [[spoiler:planet destroying KillSat]].

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking - Subverted: Vice-Admiral Vieira, commander of the flagship Caliban. Responsible for the defense of Schlos Base and Operation Nebula Blaze. Bravely runs away at the first sign of real trouble. Handled quite reasonably: the good Admiral is [[ReassignedToAntarctica demoted and transferred to the farthest and coldest reaches of space by the end of the game.]]
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership - Played straight with the rest of the cast.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority - Played straight with the rest of the cast.

Please note that there is no project in which a "Sylpheed" appears in this game. Game Arts produced their own space shooter named ''Silpheed'' in 1989 for the [=PC=], and the name remains [[ArtifactTitle as a reference to the company's earlier productions]]. The fighter you pilot in this game is called the Delta Saber.

* AnimeHair - Surprisingly averted, for the most part. Played straight with Sandra, whose blond-with-[[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue-streaks]]-plus-spikes would make [[Anime/YuGiOh Yugi Moto nervous]].

* FrickinLaserBeams - Usable weapon. This is the future, after all.

* AcePilot - Katana's training squad destroys an entire fighter ''wing''. ''And that's only the first level''.

* {{Expy}}: Margras is [[Franchise/{{Gundam}} Char Aznable]] the [[RedBaron Red Comet]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Athrun Zala]], obviously!! The whole story is basically a miniature version of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]], and the gameplay is Anime/{{Macross}}!!

*** Possibly justified, as they're not going for stealth, and you'll mostly be relying on radar anyway.

* MacrossMissileMassacre - You ''can'' track down individual fighter planes and shoot them with nose cone gatling guns. ''Or'' you could simply lock on to all of them and shoot them with missiles.

* PointDefenseless - Averted. Point defense systems ''can'' kill both you and your ship killing missiles.

''Project Sylpheed'' is a space shooter developed jointly by Creator/GameArts and [=SETA=] Corp, and published in 2007 by Creator/SquareEnix exclusively for the [[XboxThreeSixty XBox 360]] as part of their platform diversification program.

Project Sylpheed suffered mixed reviews, with critics citing cliche characters and predictable combat as detriments, as well as the fact that there is a hidden time limit on missions and that the persistently hard to see targets took away from the dogfighting experience by forcing the player to rely on instruments. Alternately, people praised it for being an accurate representation of a space shooter, containing distinctive characters, [[HeyItsThatVoice voice actors]], a deeper integration of gameplay and story, and an ''[[SceneryPorn extremely]]'' [[CoolStarship colourful]] [[{{Bishonen}} design]] ethic. While critically average, it did enough things right for enough people that it went platinum November 1st, 2007.

* {{Expy}}: Margras is [[Franchise/{{Gundam}} Char Aznable]] the [[RedBaron Red Comet]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Athrun Zala]], obviously!! The whole story is basically a miniature version of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]], and the gameplay is {{Macross}}!!

* SpaceOpera - Insomuch that the Franchise/{{Gundam}} and {{Macross}} series' are also space operas. ''Project Sylpheed'' bears a remarkable resemblance to those two series'.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PAL-Xbox_360-Project_Sylpheed.jpg
[[caption-width:320:This is the ''least'' amount of [[MoreDakka dakka]] you can equip.]]

* [[spoiler:[[SuicideByCop Suicide By Childhood Friend]]]] - Once the MoralEventHorizon occurs, [[spoiler:Margras]] realizes he has made a horrific mistake and becomes notably depressed.

** Katana is [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Kira "Jesus" Yamato]], in that both have the quality of TheMessiah.

* TheMessiah - Katana Faraway.

** Averted at the end with Katana and Margras. [[spoiler:Margras is screening Katana's run on the Prometheus Driver with his shields, but when they go down he refuses to let Katana take over ''despite the fact that shields can regenerate''. He does this because after he realizes he was partly responsible for destroying an entire planet in a fashion similar to Terra's destruction of his own, he lost any will to live beyond his goal of destroying that horrendous weapon. Margras ''[[FridgeBrilliance committed suicide]]''.]]

** Averted at the end with Katana and Margras. [[spoiler:Margras is screening Katana's run on the Prometheus Driver with his shields, but when they go down he refuses to let Katana take over ''despite the fact that shields can regenerate''. He does this because after he realizes he was partly responsible for destroying an entire planet in a fashion similar to Terra's destruction of his own, he lost any will to live beyond his goal of destroying that horrendous weapon. Margras ''[[FridgeBrilliance committed suicide]]''.]]

* {{Expy}}: Margras is [[{{Gundam}} Char Aznable]] the [[RedBaron Red Comet]] and [[GundamSeed Athrun Zala]], obviously!! The whole story is basically a miniature version of GundamSeed, and the gameplay is {{Macross}}!!

** Katana is [[GundamSeed Kira "Jesus" Yamato]], in that both have the quality of TheMessiah.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism - unlike its expy anime series, {{Gundam}}, ''Project Sylpheed'' lies firmly on the idealistic end in spite of being as dark as {{Gundam}}.

* SpaceOpera - Insomuch that the {{Gundam}} and {{Macross}} series' are also space operas. ''Project Sylpheed'' bears a remarkable resemblance to those two series'.

* OldSchoolDogfighting - Played straight sometimes, averted at others. You yaw, pitch, bank, and [[BuffySpeak stuff]], but some maneuvers allow you to do things that just wouldn't be possible on a planet. Like flying ''sideways''.

* GoodLookingPrivates

''Project Sylpheed'' is a space shooter developed jointly by GameArts (famous for the ''{{Lunar}}'' and ''Franchise/{{Grandia}}'' series) and [=SETA=] Corp, and published in 2007 by SquareEnix exclusively for the [[XboxThreeSixty XBox 360]] as part of their platform diversification program.

GameArts released a similar space-combat game, ''Silpheed Alternative'', some three years later for Android mobile phones. It is apparently a prequel to ''Project Sylpheed''.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome - The Dev team. Even if you disagree with the cliche anime storyline and the special effects decisions, this is a well put-together, well-designed space-flight sim. Before this game, the last mainstream space-flight console games were the RogueSquadron series. Before that? StarFox. One had the LucasArts brand, and the other was a glorified tech demo. GameArts had balls of steel to release a space-flight sim.

* DesignatedHero - The TCAF. While a government certainly would do some questionable things to their colonies to keep them in line in the face of a burgeoning revolution, no one but the colonies seem to be bothered that they ''destroyed the population and ecosystem of an entire planet'', until they come close to the karmic retribution when Doris Egan sends the superweapon onto them.

* Heroic Sacrifice - Margras throwing his own life and his fighter ahead of Katana inside the core of the superweapon, kamikazeing the core itself.

* AnimeHair - Surprisingly averted, for the most part. Played straight with Sandra, whose blond-with-[[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue-streaks]]-plus-spikes would make [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} Yugi Moto nervous]].