Otomedius
| Otomedius | |
|---|---|
 Promotional Flyer | |
| Katakana | オトメディウス |
| Rōmaji | Otomediusu |
| Developer | Konami |
| Publisher | Konami |
| Designer | Mine Yoshizaki |
| Composer | Hiroki Koga |
| Release date | 15 October 2007 |
| Genre | Shooter |
| Control | 8-way Joystick, 3 Buttons |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Arcade hardware | e-AMUSEMENT |
| Display | 1280x1024 |
Otomedius (オトメディウス) is a horizontal shooter developed and published by Konami in 2007. Otomedius is the first game of the Otomedius series, and the only game of the series released in arcades. Otomedius was ported to the Xbox 360 in the form of Otomedius Gorgeous.
The game borrows heavily from Konami's other shooters, such as Gradius, Salamander and Parodius. All the playable characters are modeled after a ship in an earlier game. The twist in this game is that all the playable characters, and most of the bosses, are personified as girls riding an RV (with the exception of Emon 5, who is male).
The female characters have been described as "rather off-putting, especially for those outside of the otaku audience."[1]
Otomedius employs the e-AMUSEMENT system to track players' progress and unlock extra weapons and characters.
Characters
- Aoba Anoa (Vic Viper, Gradius)
- Erul Tron (Lord British, Salamander)
- Emon 5 (inspired by Ganbare Goemon)
- Madoka (TwinBee)
- Diol Twee (Xexex)
- Tita Nium (Big Core, Gradius)
Gameplay
Players control their characters using the standard joystick and buttons through the majority of the game. When a player uses a special attack, they must tap the screen to select which enemies to attack. The menus are also navigated using the touchscreen. If you poke a character's breasts enough times during character select, she will yell at you.
Gameplay is extremely similar to Gradius; the same power up bar system is used. Players can outfit their ships with weapons that are unlocked by advancing through the game. Players, however, cannot change which slot a particular weapon is in. Each character has a unique power up bar.
For example, Aoba Anoa's power up bar is outfitted as:
Speed - Missile - Double - Laser - Option - ?
While the player can decide, for instance, on which Laser to equip her with, the player cannot place the Laser in slot 2; for Anoa, the Laser will always be in slot 4.
The ? when cashed in gives the player a large refill on their special attack instead of the more traditional shield. Players begin with a force field already activated; once depleted, it cannot be restored.
Players respawn at the point of the miss instead of returning to a checkpoint. In this way, it is more similar to Salamander than Gradius.
Players can play three stages per credit, though there are more than three stages in the game. Players may freely choose which stages to play and in what order to play them. Players also choose the difficulty level per stage.
There is also a crude elemental system: the four elements are Water, Fire, Earth and Wind. Enemies drop elemental medals. As the player picks up the medals, their offense and defense are altered. The characters also have a predetermined elemental affinity, as do the stages. Void elemental characters and enemies are completely unaffected by the elemental system.
Multiplayer
Up to three players can compete head-to-head in a race to defeat a course of enemies in the fastest time while achieving the highest score. In this mode, players are given infinite lives and an eight minute time limit to defeat five bosses. The first four are selected at random, although all players will fight the same bosses. The fifth boss is always Zelos Force Fortune. Each boss is preceded by a standard Gradius dogfight to get capsules and power up your RV. After Zelos Force Fortune is defeated, or eight minutes have elapsed, the game ends. Players are then ranked from best to worst to determine a winner.[2]