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Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Successor of the Skies in Europe) is the Wii sequel to the Nintendo 64 rail shooter Sin and Punishment by Treasure.

The gameplay resembles the original, in that the screen moves along a fixed path while the player moves and maneuvers around it, shooting down everything as they go. But the sequel adds the ability to hover and fly in the air, adding an element of the 2D Shoot 'Em Up, along with the great advantage of Wii remote aiming and two playable characters with different gameplay styles.

The plot isn't as much of a Mind Screw as the original. The story is set in the midst of a war between Inner Space and Outer Space that has lasted for aeons, having escalated in the time gap between the original game and the sequel. Inner Space's outposts are seven Earths, each slightly different, and ultimately presided over by "the Creators" (a fancy way of saying "Gods").

On Earth-4, an alien spy from Outer Space appears. Isa Jo, the son of the protagonists from the original game, is dispatched to destroy the spy using his strange inherited powers. But when he eventually finds it, there's a problem — it's now a "she". It's taken the form of an utterly innocent, amnesiac girl. All she can remember is that her aim was to find out about humans, and that part of her name was "...chi..."

Isa is intrigued and surprised by the girl, whom he dubs Kachi, and decides that alien or not, he's not going to kill her. The Creators aren't especially happy about that. The Nebulox, five devout servants of the Creators with superhuman abilities, are sent to initiate some... forcible persuasion. Isa and Kachi flee, but sometimes the only thing left to do is fight.

Conceived by Treasure not long after the Wii came out, and green lit due in no small part to the sales of the original game on Wii Virtual Console. Sin and Punishment 2 was released, with full English and Japanese voice-acting to boot, in Japan on October 29, 2009, in Europe on May 7, 2010, and in North America on June 27, 2010. So now it's even less of a Quirky Work.


This game provides examples of:

  • Action Girl: The player is given the option to play as Kachi, a young alien girl who is profficient both in martial arts and firearms. The true ending reveals she is actually Achi, the Big Bad of the previous game.
  • After Boss Recovery: Most bosses spawn coins and health recovery items upon death.
  • All Deserts Have Cacti: In the last stretch of Stage 5, and man-eating cacti at that.
  • All There in the Manual: As with the first game, Star Successor forgoes even a proper opening sequence and leaves character introductions and backstory to both the lengthy prologue in the manual and the online prologue from the European and Japanese websites. Good luck figuring out what's going on without it.
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: Ariana wears a mask resembling a raven's skull and has feet that look like talons. She fights by summoning fire birds, and her One-Winged Angel form resembles a monstrous crow.
  • Anime Theme Song: Three in fact. There are two versions of the song "Anokoroe" depending on which character you played as. The third being Isa & Kachi Mode's ending theme "Hakai".
  • Armed Legs: One of the enemy types in Stage 3 is an android with long, bladed legs, which it uses to kick in a wide arc.
  • Attack Animal:
    • Ariana can summon fire ravens.
    • Deko can turn his coat into a dragon.
  • Attack Reflector: Back from the first game, most explosive projectiles can be returned. Hitting enemies this way will yield coins that are worth bonus points. There is one boss that punishes players for relying on the trick this time around though by spawning more action bombs that can't be sent back and are harder to avoid.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: For someone who's ordered to kill you, Armon Ritter is sharply dressed for the occasion.
  • Badass in Distress: In Stage 6, the character you're currently not playing as gets snatched by a crane being piloted by the Hatchling Keeper. You have to raise the crane platform while shooting the Keeper to force it to lift up your partner, or else your partner falls into the lava for a Nonstandard Game Over.
  • Bad Boss: Deko will occasionally use telekinesis to toss his own soldiers at you and compliments you after slaughtering a group of them he pretty much lined up for the purpose.
  • Bait-and-Switch Boss: Towards the end of the underwater portion of Stage 2, the boss theme begins to play as what appears to be the boss, two Moray Keepers, begin swimming towards you. Right before they can attack you, they are killed off by a giant laser from the actual boss: the N5 Barracuda (called Brimstone in the Japanese version).
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: The final stage takes place in outer space. Not only can everyone breathe just fine, but one of the Nebulox can somehow create fire despite the absence of oxygen.
  • The Battle Didn't Count: You fight every member of the Nebulox throughout the first act of the game, bringing their HP to zero, yet they live to come back in the final stage to be killed for real.
  • Battleship Raid:
    • The N5 Molten Echo fight in Stage 6 strongly evokes memories of the original game's aircraft carrier level, this time with a lava submarine.
    • The first half of the final stage has Isa staging a one-man raid on the Nebulox's battleship, destroying it piece by piece.
  • Breath Weapon: A lot of the Keeper bosses (Snapper Keeper, Horror Keeper, Sabrehook Keeper, Vulture Keeper, Komodo Keeper) has some form of fire/laser breath to attack with, which usually pursues Isa/Kachi around the screen until it dissipates.
  • Beam Spam: A particularly obnoxious case of it is directed at you from the N5 Barracuda, and frequently occurs with other bosses as well.
  • Beware My Stinger Tail: The Sabrehook Keeper swings around its long hooked tail to attack.
  • BFG: Deko Gekiso can form machine guns and RPGs out of his clothing.
  • Big Bad: Deko Gekiso, the leader of the Nebulox group that aims to kill Kachi. He doesn't show up until the penultimate level, but still establishes himself as the strongest threat across two multi-phase boss fights.
  • Black-and-Gray Morality:
    • The Outer Space... things are trying to corrode Inner Space away for some reason. On the other hand, the Creators, who are defending Inner Space, created humanity for the sole purpose of having a Redshirt Army in their war against Outer Space. They even go so far as to annihilate any strain of humanity that grows too peaceful, because peaceful lifeforms do not make good soldiers. Humans are just caught in the middle, pawns for both sides, and whoever eventually wins will not particularly care about humanity's well-being... or continued existence.
    • It gets even closer to Gray-and-Gray Morality with the information on the European Website. According to it, the expansion of the universe is causing Inner Space to apply more pressure on Outer Space as it grows larger. If it's not stopped then Outer Space will be in serious trouble.
  • Boss Bonanza: The final stage, which has a short opening with two spread-apart boss battles, followed by a battle royale versus all five members of Nebulox in their most powerful forms.
  • Boss Game: Like its predecessor, the game puts more focus on its boss fights than its levels, which every stage bar the opening level having at least three bosses total, many with multiple phases and often placed back-to-back at the end of a level. Even when there are enemy breaks between bosses, they tend to be "popcorn" enemies to build up a multiplier on.
  • Bottomless Magazines: One boss seems to lose the need to reload after you damage it enough.
  • Brain in a Jar: Orion Tsang of the Nebulox turns out to be this, with his boss fight in Stage 1 having been against a puppet body. Despite this, he appears to die for good when his second, stronger body is destroyed in Stage 7.
  • Bullet Hell: Many bosses will scatter bullet patterns across the YZ-plane, requiring you to dodge them as you shoot the boss. Later stages begin to resemble the likes of Radiant Silvergun and DoDonPachi.
  • Bullet Seed: The Swamp Keeper frequently spits out what appear to be large seed-thorns from its mouth, which can imbed themselves into the bridge you're fighting on, exploding after a short time if not destroyed.
  • Bullet Time: Ariana sends out red and blue ravens that change into colored orbs. Touching the blue ones slows down time. Touching the red ones does the opposite.
  • Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": During Stage 6, Kachi rides on a "donkey", which in this setting is a hairless mammal with a raptor-like body shape, hooves, and antennae.
  • Charged Attack: Isa can charge his gun to fire a single powerful blast that explodes in a wide radius, while Kachi can charge hers to fire up to eight bullets spread across all locked-on enemies.
  • Checkpoint: Very prevalent throughout the game, usually after every boss fight. Dying and continuing sends you back to one, but wipes out your score.
  • Chest Blaster: The Horror Keeper can shoot missiles out of its chest.
  • Chewing the Scenery: Ariana is the most dramatic of the Nebulox, infamously so when she transitions to her second form in Stage 4.
    Ariana: "My blood...is on FIIIIIIRRRREEEEEE!"
  • Climax Boss: Stage 6 ends with a sequential climax boss fight against Deko, the leader of the Nebulox.
  • Collapsing Ceiling Boss: Giant/Horror Keeper, the final boss of Stage 3. The beginning of the battle is spent navigating a block maze and deflecting his missiles back at him when he pops up to stop him from harassing you, while the second phase has you staying in one area while the Keeper causes blocks to drop down and fill the screen.
  • Combat Tentacles: Hibaru can spawn them from her clothes and grab you with them if you get too close while they are out. Orion Tsang's ultimate form in Stage 7 has mechanical combat tentacles.
  • The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: The final stage grants you 1,000 HP, but this is hardly necessary as all damage is multiplied by ten to compensate. While there are a few attacks that deal damage in non-multiples of 10, you're effectively as durable as you are in the prior stages.
  • Continuity Nod: The last phase of the final battle has Isa deflecting and shooting back projectiles while protecting Kachi's soul, reminiscent of Saki's and Airan's stand-off with Achi to save the Earth in the previous game.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Nearly all of Stage 6 is a lava level; for some parts of the level, you are literally less than a meter away from the lava as you fly over it. Despite this, you take no damage from being dangerously close to the lava, and touching the lava imparts a small amount of damage at worst.
  • Co-Op Multiplayer: In "pilot and gunner" form. As opposed to the first game, where the most two people can do is divide movement and aiming, a second player will get to control their own gun and cross hair. Player 2 is presumably the character player 1 didn't choose, assisting the player 1 character from behind. Since having two players doesn't result in a Multiplayer Difficulty Spike, it's effectively a form of Drop-In-Drop-Out Multiplayer.
  • Cores-and-Turrets Boss: Guardian 11, which periodically drops its shield to shoot at you, as all its other turrets are destructible, and Guardian 17, which consists of a number of large columns that open up to fire at you which the main target, a green column, keeps hiding behind.
  • Crucified Hero Shot: In the final level, Deko rips Kachi's soul out of Isa's body. The unconscious girl is shown behind the hero with her arms outstretched.
  • Cultural Translation:
    • The Japanese word for "God" crops up often in the original script. The translated version either replaces it with "the Creators" or removes it altogether in each instance, undoubtedly to avoid religious controversy in the West.
    • Some of the boss names were modified between versions, mostly because the original ones sound either ridiculous or unthreatening to westerners. An armed plane originally called the "Squirrel" is renamed the "N5 Ironbat", and the first Keeper boss, a giant chicken named "Cock Keeper", was renamed "Phoenix Keeper".
    • The Nebulox's Japanese name, "Group of Five Countries", is more commonly referred to in media as "G5".
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: In the intro cutscene to Stage 1, Kachi is shown impaled on a blade, but when she regains consciousness, the resulting wound heals up and she just shrugs it off. If you're playing as her, the stage soon begins proper with the impalement having had no effect on her HP.
  • Damage-Sponge Boss: While it does considerably less damage, the Hatchling Keeper has more health than all but the very last of the end-game bosses.
  • Deadly Walls: Several flying segments contain walls, struts and other structures that will hurt should you crash into them. Taken most literally in Stage 3, where you're chased around by several walls filled with buzzsaw blades.
  • Defeat Equals Friendship: The Gryphon Keeper boss of Stage 5 is impressed by the heroes' strength and agrees to help them reach Mt. Fuji.
  • Degraded Boss: An unusual inter-regional example. In the Japanese version's Stage 4, the fourth and final mid-boss is the Wheel Keeper. In the North American version, not only is it moved to just before the Ninja Keeper (the second mid-boss), it loses its boss status—that is, it doesn't get a Life Meter nor a time limit.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: More like prophets or apostles, seeing as to how the Nebulox are servants of the Creators, but the fact that you do, in fact, literally punch one out and manage to kill them all by the end of the game.
  • Difficulty Levels: Just like in original, there's three difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, and Hard. It's commonly thought that certain segments are cut on the lower difficulties, but in fact the whole game is available regardless of difficulty.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: The Hatchling Keeper can lay explosive globs of lava.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Kachi and Isa have an... interesting conversation on what makes a human "human". Kachi breaks it down into body parts, slowly, With the camera following pointing at her respectively.
  • Dreadlock Warrior: The Horror Keeper has things on its head which resemble dreadlocks.
  • Dual Boss:
    • Master Ninja Keeper and his frog Keeper are the most obvious example; some other boss fights have between two and ten (usually attacking targets to be destroyed).
    • Hibaru's final transformation in stage 7 involves splitting herself into twin swordsmen.
  • Dual Wielding: The Squad Leader in Stage 1, whose swords double as a boomerang when combined.
  • Duel Boss: The fistfight with Deko in Stage 6 strips Isa from hi gear and prevents Kachi from assisting, forcing the player to battle the villain with nothing but basic punches.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The "Creators" are referred to by name in the first game, but the translators handled the word differently.
  • Dub-Induced Plotline Change: The U.S. English version was edited, made crystal clear with the inclusion of the Japanese voice track. Entire lines are cut/changed entirely (including many of the Mind Screwdrivers), and numerous lines aren't even in the Japanese, making it a different plot entirely. Among the major cuts are Isa's Freudian Excuse and outright hatred of the Creators (referred to as "Gods" in the Japanese), as well as casual mention of his origins on Earth-2.
  • Enemy Mine: In the final stage, the Keepers, whom you've been fighting with for most of the game, join Isa in stopping the Nebulox, as they are supposed to be the defenders of the planet, and the Nebulox is not only a threat to Isa and Kachi, but also the planet.
  • Epic Flail: The Horror Keeper will attack with a chain around one his fingers after you knock him down enough times.
  • Exactly What I Aimed At: This happens in the cutscene where Armon Ritter first shows up, with Isa blowing up Brimstone to distract him for long enough to escape above the open ocean.
  • Extra Eyes: Armon Ritter's ultimate form in Stage 7 has a whole lot of eyestalks, which has as mini-turrets.
  • Extremity Extremist: Kachi's only melee strikes are kicks, and Ariana attacks with hand slaps and claps whenever she uses her giant monster arms.
  • Eye Beams: Armon Ritter's first transformation uses a continuous eye laser, and his final form in Stage 7 has dozens of eyes that fire short beams.
  • Fantastic Racism: The Nebulox show no mercy towards beings of Outer Space. Them targeting Kachi sparks the game's main conflict.
  • Flashback: Isa has one in Stage 4. In it, we see that Saki eventually lost control of his Ruffian powers again while Isa and Airan were present, attacking a city and possibly fulfilling Achi's vision to Airan from the first game. It also shows where Isa developed his strong denial of God's existence.
  • Flash Step: Hibaru can do so while flying, and Orion Tsang achieves the effect by teleporting. Ariana can do this in her normal state, leaving behind after images, and moves even faster if you get caught in her red raven orb.
  • Flechette Storm: Deko's monstrous form in Stage 7 comes with a ring of person-sized daggers, which he manages to fling around in the vaccuum of space. He keeps using them in the second phase, where they can only be countered with melee attacks.
  • Flunky Boss: The first phase of Deko at the end of Stage 6 spends most of his time floating stationary while his army of mooks and mechas assault you.
  • Freefall Romance: Isa and Kachi share a tender moment together at the end of Stage 6... while falling towards a volcanic crater filled with lava.
  • Fusion Dance: The Sabrehook and Vulture Keepers in Stage 5 merge together to form Gryphon Keeper, the stage boss.
  • Gaia's Vengeance: The Keepers are artificial life forms designed to defend Earth from those who would try to harm it; Isa explains that they are the Earth's "immune system". The Keepers spend a great majority of the game harassing Isa and Kachi, as if the Nebulox weren't enough of a threat. In Stage 7, when it becomes clear that the Nebulox pose a major threat to the planet, the Keepers strike back against them, working alongside Isa and Kachi.
  • Gameplay Roulette:
    • Most of the game is spent as a third-person Rail Shooter with mostly-free movement, although there are several segments that switch to a horizontal perspective.
    • Stage 5 is part Driving Game, keeping Isa/Kachi stuck to the ground instead of letting them fly.
    • The end of Stage 6 is a brief one-on-one Fighting Game segment.
  • Gatling Good: Some of the tanks the Nebulox uses have mounted chain guns for the soldiers to operate.
  • Giant Spider: One part of the Wheel Keeper can release spiders as big as the player characters.
  • Giggling Villain: Hibaru laughs a lot during her boss fight, fitting with how she's one of the least professional and most sadistic members of the Nebulox. The Japanese version makes Deko laugh during his fight, but this isn't apparent in other voice tracks.
  • Glowing Eye Lights Of Undeath: The Skull Keeper, a skeletal beast, has one eye light.
  • Green Thumb: The Ninja Keepers will make the grass in Stage 4's fields spontaneously grow taller so they can hide in it. Ariana can summon explosive lily flowers.
  • The Hero: Isa is the game's main protagonist, and is a kind, heroic person fighting purely to save someone innocent from the Nebulox and the Creators. However, it's possible that he became an Unwitting Pawn to Achi by doing this.
  • Hero Antagonist: The Nebulox in the American English translation; in the Japanese version, the group are known as G5 and are characterized much more like cackling villains whose power has gone to their heads. Even then though, their goal is no less sympathetic.
  • High-Speed Battle: Most of Stage 5 (everything except the last boss) takes place on fast vehicles running down a desert highway, with Isa using a speedbike and Kachi riding a "donkey". These rides prevent the characters from flying, though they can still roll, and force them to stay away from the edges of the road.
  • Holier Than Thou: According to Airan Jo on the European release site, the inner space Creators call themselves "God" and the outer space aliens refer to themselves as "holy women", with both being in conflict over it.
  • Humans Are Warriors: Enforced, the Creator gods want humans to be hostile to everything else. Human populations that find a way to be peaceful are exterminated and replaced by a planetary defense system known as Keepers until a sufficiently warlike people are found and allowed to settle the planet. In the last game, the Earth's population was kind of destroyed after they consumed too much food and then saw their efforts to fix the problem sabotaged by something that looked human but was not.
  • Human Weapon: Considering humans in general are treated like tools in this setting, both of the player characters and all five of the Nebulox would qualify as weapons of mass destruction.
  • Iaijutsu Practitioner: Hibaru is quite skilled with a blade.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: In the cutscene to Stage 5, before Isa hijacks one of the vehicles, a soldier takes aim and misses almost completely, allowing Isa to knock out the soldier with a roundhouse kick.
  • Ironic Name: Isa is one of the more prominent names Jesus is known by. In Teutonic and Chamoru languages it is a girl's name.
  • Ironic Nickname: Hibaru refers to the Horror Keeper, one of the biggest and most grotesque Keepers, as "the little guy".
  • Jetpack: Some armored enemies in Stage 5 and 6 have them, which resemble actual jet packs rather than Isa's flying orb pack. The ones in Stage 6 have them built into their power armor.
  • Just Eat Him: The Snapper Keeper can attempt to bite and eat you, though you will eventually be spat out if you have enough health.
  • Kamehame Hadoken: Play around with Orion Tsang and he'll attempt to vaporize you with an energy wave.
  • Kick Chick: Kachi's melee attacks consists solely of kicks, which can send back rockets and knock away the claws of especially large Keepers.
  • Laser Blade: Isa's gun doubles as one. If you have good timing you can use it to stop a lot of physical attacks done by the enemy, even if they are much larger than Isa.
  • Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Some Keepers come in forms that appear to be lava crabs, lava rays and lava beavers. There is even a lava submarine!
  • Lethal Lava Land: Stage 6 takes place at an erupting Mt. Fuji.
  • Life Meter: In Stages 1 through 6, you start each stage with 100 HP. The final stage, when Isa transforms, grants 1,000 HP, but damaged is scaled up tenfold so it doesn't really matter.
  • Light Gun Game: If you use the Wii Remote's pointer to aim, the game is effectively this. The main differences are that the game is in third-person and you can (and have to) move your character relative to the screen.
  • Lightning Gun: The NS Energy Diffuser forces you to weave in between pillars of electricity.
  • Lightning Lash: Orion Tsang forms an electrical chain whip in the fight itself.
  • Magic Staff: Ariana fights by swinging around a staff and casting magic with it, before ditching it in favor of giant arms for her second phase.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: The Moray Keepers can damage you with their screams, and the Gryphon Keeper can send out sonic waves.
  • Marathon Level: All of the stages are exceptionally long by arcade standards (you could watch a movie in the time it takes to finish the game even on one credit and with no breaks), but Stage 6 takes the cake, taking over half an hour to complete despite not even being the last stage.
  • Mecha-Mooks: Many of the Nebulox forces are robots both large and small, particularly in the opening stage and Stage 3's sky fortress.
  • Mêlée à Trois: In the underground city of Stage 1, you will see many soldiers constantly firing their weapons even though you'd have no chance of running into their path, as well as Keepers wandering around with no sense of purpose. Stage 6 reveals they've been fighting each other, in addition to you, though it you look carefully, there are some hints even before then. Even the Nebulox would rather avoid some of the larger Keepers.
  • Meta Multiplayer: This game featured online leaderboards. Unfortunately, due to the server shutdown in June 2013, this feature of the game was axed.
  • Multiarmed And Dangerous: The Horror Keeper has six arms, but it only uses two of them to attack you; the others are used to climb after you as you fly upwards (he has no legs). The Medusa Keeper of the water tunnel uses regenerating tentacle-arms with eyes to block your path.
  • Multiple Head Case: In Stage 4 you fight the Skull Keeper, who dribbles a collection of heads like a basketball to attack. The orb the heads are on is the fight's target, not the Skull Keeper itself.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Hibaru Yaju meets Isa for the first time, immediately checks him out, and if you're playing as Kachi, asks him out for a date "once she's done killing his girlfriend."
  • Nay-Theist: Isa doesn't believe there is a real God, as a real God would not tolerate "the Creators", who he has no respect for as told on the original European web page.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After beating Isa & Kachi mode, it becomes quite clear that you helped Achi, the villian of first game, by killing her opposition!
  • Nintendo Hard: The game is considerably longer and more challenging than its predecessor. Funnily enough, its original incarnation was much easier, due to the Wii remote being better suited to the game than Treasure anticipated, and they were told by playtesters at Nintendo to ramp up the difficulty. Satoru Iwata's reaction to hearing this was quite amusing: "Of all things, you told none other than Treasure to make it more difficult?" The difficulty is lampshaded by the game's own Hard mode, which warns the player that "You will be punished."
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After the Infant/Hatchling Keeper is spawned, the heroes take sympathy for killing its mother, the Komodo Keeper, so they spare it. It immediately kidnaps your partner, straps them to a pulley, and slowly lowers him/her into the lava.
  • Noble Bird of Prey: The Cock/Phoenix Keeper and the Vulture Keeper, giant bird Keepers that are defenders of the planet.
  • Nonstandard Game Over: Both of the game's instant-fail conditions are in Stage 6.
    • Staying in the air too long while on top of the trains in the Komodo Keeper fight will result in Isa/Kachi flying off and losing regardless of their remaining health.
    • If you fail to rescue your partner in Stage 6 from the Infant/Hatchling Keeper's elevator contraption (either by taking too long or raising one platform much higher than the other), you're treated to a cutscene of Isa/Kachi being dumped into lava followed by a checkpoint reset.
  • One to Million to One: In Stage 2, Armon Ritter transitions between his forms by disspating into black blobs. Destroying them in the first two phases only helps to build up the score multiplier, but failing to shoot the small amount left after the third form will ruin the multiplier right at the end of the level.
  • Only a Flesh Wound:
    • Many of the robotic Stage 3 enemies will continue to attack even after half of their body has been shot off.
    • In the beginning of Stage 1, Kachi is impaled through her stomach yet when she wakes up, she acts like nothing ever happened. Then she slides herself off the spike from her waist without so much as a prick on her torso, let alone any damage to her clothes.
  • Only Six Faces: There are only six human characters that do not have obscured faces, bringing the count down to four.
  • Our Monsters Are Weird: The last boss of Stage 3, the Horror Keeper, is a biologically engineered, dread-locked monstrosity that chases you down a narrow shaft while launching missiles from its chest and swinging the flaming debris on its arm.
  • Painting the Medium:
    • Lasers have to be avoided by staying away from the spots they are striking the screen.
    • In Stage 4, there are spider enemies who can obscure the screen with their webs.
    • By Stage 6, the gun caliber of the enemy has gotten so high the bullets hit the screen too.
  • Palette Swap: Completing Isa & Kachi Mode unlocks the ability to swap firing modes (Isa has Manual while Kachi has Auto-aim by default) as well as the palette of their clothes.
  • Playing with Fire:
    • A few of the Keepers have fire attacks, with the Wheel Keeper leaving tracks of fire behind it as it rolls.
    • Ariana Shami gains fire-based projectiles during the second half of her boss fight.
  • Powered Armor: Most of your human enemies wear them, but aside from squad commanders, it isn't until Stage 6 that you encounter any that are really threatening to you without largely outnumbering you.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Isa delivers one at the end of the game, but his foe dies on its own before he can finish it, leaving Isa talking to himself.
  • Puzzle Boss: Many of the bosses require you to figure out how to do more than Scratch Damage to them, especially the G5/Nebulox. If you think you can just brute force Orion Tsang, you're going to fight him well past time-out at best and see the Continue screen at worst.
  • Reflecting Laser: Armon uses these while trapping you and himself in a beam box. These also show up on a setpiece of Stage 7, where lasers reflect off a ring of dishes surrounding you
  • The Reveal: In the Isa & Kachi Mode ending, Kachi reveals she has remembered her past identity: Achi, the previous game's Big Bad.
  • Roar Before Beating: After a long chase sequence, the Swamp Keeper in Stage 4 roars loudly before its proper fight starts.
  • Roboteching: Bullets that fire forward and then turn to fly straight at the player are common, especially in Stage 7 where swarms of bullets are spammed in this way.
  • Rolling Attack: The rolling gun machines of Stage 3, which will barrel forward on their tread-wheels, turn around to fire a spread of bullets, and then repeat. The Hatchling Keeper from Stage 6 can curl up for a charging roll, though a properly timed charged shot will flip it onto its back.
  • Sand Is Water: In Stage 5, both the sand worm enemies and the Sabrehook Keeper can glide through the desert's sand smoothly.
  • Scoring Points: Par for the course, but things are done differently from its predecessor. Instead of picking up point items without taking any damage to rack up the highest points, there's a score multiplier that boosts score from enemies and coins, from x0.0 to x16. The multiplier raises as you shoot stuff up, but goes down after taking damage. Also new to this game are special medals that rewards you bonus points at end of the stage for performing certain feats (e.g. killing X number of a certain enemy, parrying certain attacks). Finally, since the game gives you the option to take flight at any time (except in Stage 5 and the very end of Stage 6), you gain points simply for being on the ground; standing still yields a small stream of points, but being in parts where you walk or especially run will earn more points. Should you die and continue, your score resets to 0, much like in arcade games.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The N5 Molten Echo, a lava-borne submarine in Stage 6, attempts to submerge and flee once its main cannon is destroyed (follow a Battleship Raid sequence where most of its other guns are taken out). It can be destroyed before this by performing a melee combo on it after the cannon fight, causing it to split in half and release a medal.
  • Sequel Hook: If the game is beaten on the Isa & Kachi Mode, there's an extra cutscene where Isa and Kachi discuss how their enemies will still inevitably come for them. Kachi's memory starts to return, and she remembers that she is in fact Achi (or, depending on interpretation, this reveals that she was faking amnesia).
  • Shapeshifter Baggage:
    • All beings from Outer Space have no set forms, and can freely shapeshift into any form. That would include humans, animals, rubble, and even entire planets, as demonstrated by Achi in the previous game. The Nebulox claim to have a device that can force Outer Space beings to reveal their "true" form.
    • The Nebulox are all capable of transforming into monster forms, including groups of creatures.
    • Isa inherited Achi's blood from his father, Saki. As such, he's capable of becoming a monstrous Ruffian, and the power could very well corrupt his soul like it once did to Saki.
  • Shield-Bearing Mook: Two of these try to stop your advance in Stage 3 by blocking off a hallway. You can instantly bring it down by deflecting a comically large rocket fired by a third mook.
  • Shielded Core Boss: Armon Ritter's second transformation in his Stage 2 fight is a seahorse-like creature that covers its glowing chest with a square barrier formed by the bulbs on the limbs. Damaging the limbs will prevent them from producing the barrier, leaving the weak spot wide-open.
  • Shock and Awe: Lots of bosses and enemies attack with electrical streams, such as the Hatchling Keeper in Stage 5 and Ariana in Stage 7.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Orion Tsang's name in the Japanese version (Cheng Long Lee) is Jackie Chan translated into Chinese.
    • In Stage 7, the villains watch Isa fight through their ranks via a large monitor, with each subsequent member leaving to face him, much like in the final stage of a previous Treasure game, Gunstar Heroes.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: At the end of the game, Isa says this to Deko, after he calls Kachi "a monster".
  • Sic 'Em: In Stage 7, Deko orders his subordinates to fight Isa one by one, growing increasingly frustrated as each of them are slain.
  • Sky Surfing: Kachi fights aboard a flying surfboard.
  • Socialization Bonus: The game with a second player is significantly easier. Player 2 only shows up as a cursor rather than a second character, which means they're in no danger of taking harm (though this does mean Player 1's defeat means a game over for both players). The game averts Multiplayer Difficulty Spike, so it's perfectly possible for Player 2 to take breaks and still complete the game or for Player 1 to complete 2P mode without the second controller being touched at all (though that's missing the whole point of the mode).
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: Kachi can communicate with the Keepers, artificial creatures that usually resemble animals.
  • Spread Shot: Kachi's (and Isa's, once Autolock has been unlocked for him) shots spread out if not locked onto anything.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: The story begins with the two heroes escaping, already crazy about each other. Their affection for each other eventually brings out Isa's Ruffian powers for the final showdown.
  • Stationary Boss: Brimstone (known as Barracuda in certain versions due to a name-swap) is just a rotating tower with weapons on it.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Everything blows up, even the corpses of fallen enemies.
  • Tag Team: Isa & Kachi Mode, unlocked by beating the game with both characters. Both characters have their own individual life meters and can be swapped at any time, except during the Hatchling Keeper's first phase, since your partner is being held captive, and in Deko's final phase, when you're locked out of switching to Kachi due to her being incapacitated. In Stage 7, you are stuck playing as Isa and thus only have a single lifebar, but you can still switch between the two characters' shot types at any time.
  • Teleporter Accident: Kachi explains that a mistake in teleporting can get one lost in the folds of space and time. She winds up teleporting Isa and herself into someone's dream right after she says this, leading to the ethereal forest of Stage 4. Ariana manages to follow them.
  • Tennis Boss: As in the original game, an important part of dealing high damage and racking up points is using melee attacks to reflect explosives at enemies, which usually bypasses their defenses. A non-explosive example happens for Ariana's second form in Stage 4; she starts calling upon boulders that fill most of the screen while getting a lot of invincibility, and the only way to defeat her is through chip damage or by pushing the boulder right back into her using a full melee combo
  • Time-Limit Boss: Unlike the original game, only boss battles and certain enemy encounters are timed. Should the timer reach zero, your score multiplier diminishes. That said, most of the boss timers are extremely lenient, often encouraging you to grind points on them by shooting incidental enemies. If you kill a boss with just a hair of time left, you get an "On the Buzzer" score bonus.
  • Tired of Running: In the true ending, Isa resolves to leave Earth and search for somewhere safe for him and Kachi, instead of staying there and having to keep hiding and fighting.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The Squad Leader from Stage 1 can sword his swords like a boomerang, which has an impressive sweep across the ground but can be shot back by the player.
  • Traintop Battle: In Stage 6, you run atop a train shooting down tons of foes. However, the true objective is to detach the train carriages as you go along so that the Komodo Keeper behind you runs into them.
  • Transforming Mecha: In the area before the Komodo Keeper in Stage 6, there are enemy jets that unfold into mechas that can fire bombs and charge right at Isa/Kachi.
  • Tripod Terror: A few in the third stage, appropriately enough. They are more sensibly designed than most examples as far as mobility goes—weapon placement, not so much.
  • Turned Against Their Masters: After Isa's ship is shot down, one of the robots in it goes haywire and attacks.
  • Under the Sea: Stage 2, which mostly consist of going through an undersea tunnel in the ocean floor.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change:
    • The first part of Stage 3 plays much like a Horizontal Scrolling Shooter.
    • Stage 5 is entirely grounded till the very end, as Kachi rides on an animal while Isa hijacks a hover-speeder.
    • At the end of Stage 6, it turns into a 2D fighting game in which you have only one combo and are handcuffed to the boss, which both serves to prevent you from rolling away too far and allows the boss to yank you in at his leisure.
  • Video Game Flight: Added to this game, you can usually fly anywhere as long as the environment allows it, though limited within the boundaries of the screen. If you're playing for score, you get an ongoing bonus if you stay on the ground, and in the Traintop Battle in Stage 6, you get a Nonstandard Game Over if you stay in the air for too long.
  • Villain Teleportation: Kachi does not like to teleport, as she believes it is dangerous. The Nebulox do it much more liberally.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Armon Ritter's power is to transform into various monsters that resemble sea creatures. Some of his forms include a giant stingray, a sea horse and a pod of dolphins.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss:
    • Orion Tsang, the Stage 1 penultimate boss, serves as a warning that the Nebulox are not going to go down so easily.
    • A few early bosses (like the aforementioned Tsang) are much harder to defeat if you don't use your melee attack. Hibaru Yaju, the Stage 3 penultimate boss, on the other hand, is the first boss that is impossible to defeat if you don't use it.
  • Walking Tank: Many of these to go around the Nebulox's army. There are even machines that can tread across lava, one of the few instances it is treated like the non-Newtonian fluid that it is.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Deko, for whatever reason, takes his jacket off while fighting Isa with Good Old Fisticuffs.
  • Wall Crawl: Happens with the crab Keepers underwater and the torsos of androids in the sky fortress.
  • Weaponized Animal: During the Komodo Keeper fight in Stage 6, the Nebulox's army continues to fight by sending out bomb-toting dogs atop the train cars.
  • Weaponized Exhaust: Orion Tsang's ultimate form in Stage 7 has an exhaust-based attack, but it only uses it when faced at an angle where its other parts can't be hit.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Nebulox/G5 want to kill Kachi as a suspected spy from Outer Space so that the humans on the new Earth will have more rights than before.
  • Wham Line: In The Stinger for Isa & Kachi mode: "Long ago, I wasn't called Kachi. I was known as... Achi." This is only really a Wham Line if you've played the first game, in which Achi, ostensibly an ally, turns out to be Evil All Along.
  • Wolfpack Boss:
    • The Moray Keeper in Stage 2. Only the yellow-eyed Keeper has a health bar, with others popping out in a whack-a-mole style alongside it.
    • Guardian 17 in Stage 3. The main boss is a pillar that hides behind a circle of weaker pillars with their own attacks. Killing every pillar creates one of the stage's medals.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: The Unexpected Gameplay Change in Deko's third phase of Stage 6 allows him to pull off a number of brawling and wrestling moves if he can catch Isa vulnerable.
  • You Killed My Mother: The Infant/Hatchling Keeper tries to murder your partner as revenge for you killing his mother.

My tropes...are on FIIIRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE!!

Alternative Title(s): Sin And Punishment 2

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