History VideoGame / RadiantSilvergun

* EasierThanEasy: The console ports have a "Very Easy" difficulty. [[NintendoHard On their own terms, anyway.]][[note]]Yes, this is the easiest difficulty of the game.[[/note]]

* BossSubtitles: Complete with GratuitousEnglish to give nonsensical advice in place of the nonsensical move lists of ''VideoGame/GunstarHeroes''! Considering the Stone-Like's [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish understandable English]], though, the {{Engrish}}y advice is likely [[RuleOfFun intentional]].

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: The events of the game take place on July 13th.

* ThreateningWithShark: Varas, a mechanoid shark.

* KillEmAll: The game '''starts''' with a cutscene showing all of humanity getting wiped out apart from the main characters. [[spoiler:Those die to in the end and are now stuck in a time loop of this happening over and over again. It's like they tried to out-Ideon [[Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon Ideon]]]].

The story is rather bleak and depressing: In July 14 of 2570, a strange crystalline structure called the Stone-Like is found in an ancient ruined city, and then proceeds to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt kill everyone on Earth]]. The player takes control of a pilot in a small crew that escaped the Stone-Like's blast, helming the eponymous Silvergun and returns to the planet to discover the secrets behind the artifact. [[FromBadToWorse Things are just getting worse from this point on]].

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: The dodecagon [=DAIKAI10=], the centipede [=DAN-564=], the walking fortress [=CA2-EKZO=], and Xiga, the ''avatar of divine wrath''.
* [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks Everything's Even Worse With Sharks]]: Varas, a mechanoid shark.

* TurtlePower: Bechew, a boss in the Story Mode version of Stage 6, is a mechanical turtle with turrets build into its unfolding shell.

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%%* AttackDrone: A few bosses have them.

* BossOnlyLevel: Stage 6 (in the arcade version) is nothing but a fight against [[spoiler:Xiga]]. Stage 1 (in ''every'' version) is [[spoiler:a [[HoldTheLine "fight"]] against the Stone-like, where you have to endure its attacks for a full minute]]

%%* ChargedAttack: The ''collect'' type.
%%* ClimaxBoss: Most notably the second boss in Stage 5.

%%* EnergyBall: You and the enemies can fire out these.
%%* EnergyWeapon: Many bosses fire these.

%%* HomingProjectile: You can fire these, enemies can fire these.

%%* ThePhoenix: Ohtrigen, only in the Saturn version.

%%* SinisterGeometry: The Stone-Like.

%%* StationaryBoss: Many bosses.

%%* SuperPrototype: The Silvergun fighters.

%%* TurtlePower: Bechew. It ''will'' [[{{Pun}} bea-chew]] up.

%%* VersionExclusiveContent: The Ikaruga scoring mode is exclusive to the 360 mode, and was not added to the Nintendo Switch version.

%%* WeaponizedExhaust: Penta briefly uses these.

** Most of the boss names also mean something, slyly disguised as random letters and numbers:

* ViolationOfCommonSense: 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.

* ArrangeMode: In the Story mode added in the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn port, instead of choosing from Stage 2 or Stage 4 after completing Stage 3, you do both Stage 2 and Stage 4 in a row. This mode also allows you to access a NewGamePlus mode where the Silvergun's weapon levels are carried over to another playthrough. On the downside, you have limited continues (Or, in the [=XBox 360=] port, none at all).
** The UsefulNotes/Xbox360 port has an unlockable ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'' mode which switches up the scoring system[[note]]sets of three enemies don't have to be the same color to continue the chain, but the combo score {{Cap}} is 25,600 instead of 100,000[[/note]] to more resemble it.

* ScoringPoints: Killing 3 enemies of the same color results in "chain" bonuses, which get higher as you score more successive chains. However, unlike in ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'' (which at least has the mercy to let you change colors between chains), shooting a single enemy of a different color will result in losing your chain. Ignoring this trope is ''not'' recommended, as your weapons need points to level up, and if you are scoring poorly, your weapons will become outdated by the later stages.

* UpdatedRerelease: One of Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show 2010 announcements was an XBLA remake.
** Among other obvious additions, there was an extra option thrown in for those that had [[VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}} Ikaruga's]] XBLA rerelease and got any achievement in it: The ability to use Ikaruga's multi-color chain system instead of being forced to always hit the same color to sustain a chain, although to compensate, the maximum chain only gives you 25600 points per enemy, as opposed to 100k you can get with the normal chains.
** Unfortunately, the Options+ menu (which let you make hitboxes visible or alter the Silvergun's speed) was lost in the mix -- even after ninety hours of play, people haven't been able to make it appear. Another issue is that the game is presented in a 16:9 pillarboxed screen, even on non-16:9 displays, resulting in a significantly reduced game window -- a problem for players who don't have [=HDTVs=] or want to play on a CRT.

* WhereItAllBegan: Two instances:

** A ''broader'' one happens in [[spoiler:Stage 1, where you 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]].

* VersionExclusiveContent: The Ikaruga scoring mode is exclusive to the 360 mode, and was not added to the Nintendo Switch version.

!! Encountered an assailant: '''Example List'''. Be attitude for gains...

''Radiant Silvergun'' is a vertical scrolling shooter by Creator/{{Treasure}}, [[NoExportForYou released exclusively in Japan]] for the arcades (on the Sega Titan-Video hardware) and on the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn in 1998. It was [[UpdatedRerelease ported to]] UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade [[RemadeForTheExport internationally]] on September 14, 2011.

* PlotlineDeath: [[spoiler: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 seemingly incinerated when the Stone-Like is defeated.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Guy and Tengai sacrifice themselves to drive away the Stone-Like at the end of Stage 5]].

* ItsPersonal: Guy has a deeper conflict with the Stone-Like than the rest of the Tetra's crew, as it killed his father along with the rest of humanity.

* SpritePolygonMix: Ships, 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.

* AdamAndEvePlot: [[spoiler:After the complete annihilation of humanity and the Stone-like goes dormant, Creator creates clones of Buster and Reana in the far past to restart humanity once again. His name alone makes the allusion even more blatant]].

* AllThereInTheManual: There's additional backstory in Igarashi's journal, which put more focus on the researchers' findings. As it turned out, in addition to the Stone-Like and Creator's fossilized torso, the prehistoric layer contained what appeared to be ruins that seemed too technologically advanced for the time period. [[spoiler:Coincidentally, the EDA HQ is built ''right on top of it.'']]

The story is rather bleak and depressing: a strange crystalline structure called the Stone-Like is found in an ancient ruined city, and then proceeds to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt kill everyone on Earth]]. The player takes control of a pilot in a small crew that escaped the Stone-Like's blast, helming the eponymous Silvergun and returns to the planet to discover the secrets behind the artifact. [[FromBadToWorse Things are just getting worse from this point on]].

* AdamAndEvePlot: [[spoiler:After the complete annihilation of humanity and the Stone-like having fallen silent, the Creator creates clones of Buster and Reana in the far past to restart humanity once again. His name alone makes the allusion even more blatant]].

* GoOutwithASmile: [[spoiler:The Creator, after having successfully cloned Buster and Reana, is shown to look at them with joy before he finally collapses and shuts down for good]].

* PrimaryColorChampion: The ''Tetra'''s Silverguns are blue, red and yellow, and the ship itself is blue and white.

* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler:Tengai's attempt to destroy the Stone-Like at the end of Stage 5, after Guy sacrifices himself to destroy the beam cannon to save Creator]].

* ChainReactionDestruction: When the core part of the boss goes down, they make sure that they will go down with more than one explosion.

--> 1. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Be Praying]]\\
2. [[OhCrap Be Praying]]\\

** As an example, take the boss [=DAN-564=], which is a giant pillbug. One of the items listed is a move name, "6464-q". The Japanese often use numbers (and letters, here) to represent certain words or sounds: "64" is shorthand for "mushi" or "bug"; "q" in this case means "kyuu" or "ball". You know it's coming, but [[HappyFunBall do not taunt Bug Bug Ball]].

%%* FrickinLaserBeams: Many bosses fire these.

* BadGuyWins: [[spoiler: The Stone-like ultimately succeeds in eradicating humanity, though Creator resurrects the species via cloning in a StableTimeLoop.]]