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Shuusou Gyoku

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秋霜玉 (しゅうそうぎょく)
Shuusou Gyoku
Shuusou Gyoku.jpg
Developer

Shunsatsu sare do? /
P.B.G / Amusment Makers

Publisher

Shunsatsu sare do? /
Amusement Makers

Released

Full: December, 2000 (Comiket 59)

Genre

Game

Gameplay

Single-player story mode

Platforms

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

Requirements
  • Pentium 166MHz
Official Site

http://ss-do.sakura.ne.jp/game.html

Note: This article is part of the Seihou Project by the Doujin circle "Shunsatsu sare do?".

Shuusou Gyoku (秋霜玉) is the first game of the Seihou Project, produced by Amusement Makers, P.B.G and Shunsatsu sare do?. It is a vertical-scrolling shooter.

The game takes place on Earth in the future. VIVIT, a robot maid, has been sent out to run errands for her master, but she is constantly interrupted by battles. There are 6 stages, and one very difficult extra stage, featuring two characters you already know...

Gameplay

Shuusou Gyoku features one playable character with 3 different modes. Homing missile is good for beginners or people who are too lazy to move. Wide shot is also useful for less movement, and can clear a whole screen of enemies quickly. Laser is great for destroying a boss fast.

The game uses an Evade system to let the players rack up massive scores by constantly grazing. All enemies drop point/power items; their value increases based on the point system and how high you are on the screen when you collect them.

Story

On Earth, the environment had nearly been destroyed, and humanity was on the verge of destruction. However, Cactus Company perfected an energy source more powerful than atomic energy. They used this power, known as Saboten energy, to stop the ruin of Earth. However, this energy was very unstable, and caused large accidents. Eventually, it was controlled, and humanity began to prosper once again.

VIVIT, a robot maid powered by Saboten energy, heads out to do errands for her master. As she leaves, various people fight her, for seemingly no reason. Milia randomly stops her, claiming vengeance for her men, which VIVIT has no clue about. After that, she fights Mei and Mai. After that, she find a huge energy signature, which happens to be Gates, a military veteran. He dares VIVIT to show him her true power, and she does so, defeating him. Then Marie fights her in a gigantic ship, and dares her to go on, for the true terror lies ahead.

However, she is stopped as she goes deeper by her own master. He explains that this errand is to save his daughter, and that her previous enemies were tests. His daughter was sealed in an accident, and VIVIT is the only one who can save her. In one final test, she defeats her master, and goes to save his daughter. As she finds his daughter, she is surprised to see she looks exactly like her. She is suffering, and after a difficult battle, VIVIT manages to save her, completing her master's dreams.

Music

The music of this game includes 20 tracks composed by ZUN in MIDI format for SC-88-compatible synthesizers. Each of the phases in the final boss fight, as well as both extra stage bosses, have an individual theme.

The prototype version of the game, known as Project Gian, had some themes that were replaced in the final game. These include Plastic Space as Stage 1 theme, Inventive City as Stage 2 theme and Fly above Hatoyama at Night as extra stage theme. Hourai Illusion ~ far East was another song planned to be used as the extra stage theme, which eventually ended up to be Silk Road Alice. Interestingly, in the beginning of that theme, the melody plays a variation of Theme of Eastern Story.

During 2001, ZUN arranged the entire game's soundtrack (minus Titled Maid) and published those arranges on his MIDI page. These versions contain additional melodies, phrases and sections. While most of these end in a fade-out, the arrange of Herselves features a slower variation of its last part to close out the song. Plastic Space, Inventive City and Hourai Illusion ~ far East became part of ZUN's Strange Works.

Later, ZUN did further arranges of the game's music that appeared on his music CDs. On Dolls in Pseudo Paradise, Dichromatic Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients was arranged as Dichromatic Lotus Butterfly ~ Red and White to have a more synthesizer-driven sound, and Mechanical Circus ~ Reverie got a slower and more subdued arrange named Circus Reverie. Ghostly Field Club had a version of Magical Girl Crusade, a preview version of which can be found on ZUN's MP3 page. For Changeability of Strange Dream, Illusory Science ~ Doll's Phantom was arranged as Phantasm Machine ~ Phantom Factory. Also, Fly above Hatoyama at Night got an FM synthesis arrange named Fly above Hatoyama at Night - Power MIX on the Perfect Memento in Strict Sense CD, adding a melody which the theme originally lacked. The CD included with The Grimoire of Marisa featured an arrange of Illusionary Sputnik Night.

Some themes from this game was also arranged in the Touhou games, where Marisa's theme in Immaterial and Missing Power is an arrange of The Witches' Ball ~ Magus and Reimu's theme in Touhou Hisoutensoku is an arrange of Dichromatic Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients, both arranged by U2. Marisa's theme in Fairy Wars (Magus Night) was originally meant to be an arrange of The Witches' Ball ~ Magus, but because ZUN had forgotten the theme and only had some impressions left in his mind, Magus Night became a completely different song.

Additional information

Name and Concept

  • The name 秋霜玉 is a Japanese-translated name of a cactus, copiapoa glandiflora.

Trivia

  • In addition to the music, some of the art was done by ZUN as well.
  • In the extra stage, Reimu and Marisa appear in their brand new Windows outfits, two years before Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
  • This game doesn't run correctly on Windows Vista/7, possibly not on XP as well as it has a hard time running in full 60fps on newer PCs. In order to play it, you must run it in Windows NT 4.0 compatibility mode.
    • If the above doesn't work, keep it on Windows NT 4.0 then right clicking the executable get to its properties. In the Compatibility tab turn on the 256 colors mode. Now run the game. Get in the Graphics options in-game. Change the 8-bit colors to 16-bit and then change the FPS to 30fps. That will make it run smooth on any newer (2003+) machine.
    • Option above don't work on some machines. There is another way to run game at full 60fps. Click on Start, then Run and enter dxdiag. Then click on Screen Tab and Turn off DirectDraw Acceleration. Now the game shoud run at full 60fps. Remember to run DDA after playing.

External links