Radiant Silvergun

Radiant Silvergun is essentially one of the greatest shoot-em-ups ever made, every time I come back to it I am easily reminded as to why it has such a legendary reputation. Released in 1998 in Arcade and on the Sega Saturn from incredible game makers Treasure Software (Gunstar Heroes, Ikaruga and Silhouette Mirage). This modern release features updated visuals, details and resolutions as well as a quality of life features not found in the original release. Your ship starts off weak but will become more powerful with a permanent classic XP based weapon system where your arsenal grows stronger the more you use each specific gun and will remain more powerful for each subsequent playthrough. It’s definitely on the slightly tougher side—don't expect to breeze through it on your first try, but as your weapons become more powerful and additional credits are unlocked you will progress further and further, as your skills increase you will be able you face higher difficulties. Enemies and bosses will attack with new patterns and additional weapons allowing each play through to feel new and different. The presentation is top-tier for its time and even by todays standards among the best around, featuring Super Tight Controls, beautiful Anime Cutscenes, some of the best designed stages and bosses in this genre as well as a fantastic synth-heavy soundtrack Radiant Silvergun is a masterpiece and always will be a must-play.

Hiroshi Iuchi <3 Radiant Silvergun -> Judgement Silversword -> Ikaruga -> Kokuga -> Ubusuna Treasure -> M-KAI -> G.rev -> M2 Radiant Silvergun (Treasure, 1998): The Maximalist foundation. It proved that a shmup could have the narrative weight and mechanical depth of a high-end PC RPG. Judgment Silversword (M-KAI, 2004): The Technical bridge. It proved the "Silver" philosophy wasn't just about high-end hardware; it was about the purity of the code and the aggression of the shield. Ikaruga (Treasure, 2001): The Minimalist apex. It stripped away the 7 weapons for a single, binary choice: Black or White. It is the "Chess" of the lineage. Kokuga (G.rev, 2012): The Tactical pivot. Directed by Iuchi at G.rev, this replaced the fast ship with a heavy tank. It’s the "Patient Gamer’s" entry—slow, methodical, and gritty. Ubusuna (M2, 2025/2026): The Philosophical return. Iuchi’s final project at M2, combining the "attributes" of Ikaruga with the modern standards of the 2020s.

みんなストーリーモードの話ばっかりしてるけど、アーケードモードの話もしよう。自分はこのゲームが大好きなので、過大評価なぐらい誉めそやしてやろう。と言っても2面ルートでようやくALLできる程度の腕前だけど・・・ 本作は2面ルートならそこらへんにある大抵のSTGよりずっと簡単で、クリアもそんなに難しくない。 難しくしている要素があるとすればプレイヤーが立ち向かう意思を放棄していることだと思っている。やれば難しくない。やるまでが難しいのはあるかも。すべてのゲームと比較して簡単かという質問はナンセンスだが、名作とされる数多くのSTGたちよりずっとずっと楽にクリアできるのは間違いない。 とっつきづらさは否定しない。だけど稼ぎのシステムはべつに本質的に理解しなくていいし、たくさんあるショットも全部使いわける必要はない。正しい動きと、その場その場で重要な攻撃だけトレースすればいい。それでもクリアするには十分なスコアが手に入る。一部の道中ステージや、5面のスコアはおまけみたいなもんだと思っていい。てか5面で稼げるならプロだよ。だいたい3Cとか2C、2Eあたりの時点でもすでにクリアに対して過剰にリスキーな稼ぎを要求されてるし、3Dのボスは何回やっても強いし、2Bなんて何回やってもいまだに隔壁に激突する。できないところは無視して、できるところで帳尻を合わせればいい。そもそもすべてを完璧にやらなくてはならないという強烈な思い込みがゲームを勝手に難しくしている。本作の目的は稼ぎルートを完璧につないで極限までレベルを上げることではなく、ラスボスのXIGAを撃破すること（適切に撃破するのに必要な火力を得ること）である。ゲームメカニズムにおけるXIGAは審判を下す存在などではなく、単にプレイヤーのやってきたことを評価する装置に過ぎない。だから稼ぎ場の大トロでしょぼいミスをして武器レベルが低くなっても、XIGAはそれ自体を断罪しない。意味がないからだ。 さておき本作はXIGAを乗り越えたあとの体験が、いやさゲームの締めくくり方がなにより本当に見事としか言いようがない。美しい。ありていに言えば感動する。 満身創痍でたどり着いたステージ1は不気味なくらい静かで、それまでオーケストラ調で荘厳に大騒ぎしていたBGMが無音になり、敵のショットの音だけがやさしくエコーしている。その攻撃は正直言って拍子抜けとしか言いようがなく、ここまできたプレイヤーがこの程度の弾幕でミスすることはほとんど考えにくい。つまり最後の60秒をプレイヤーへの精一杯の祝福と離別のために使い、華麗なまでな幕引きを行ってくれる。クリアのために修練を行ってきたプレイヤーにとってこれは絶頂するほど気持ちよく、そして得難く、忘れがたい体験を脳裏に刻み付ける要因となっている。シルバーガンの1周は静寂に包まれた中に熱烈かつ異常な歓喜をまとうのだ。信者と呼ばれてもよい。これを理解し、体験できたら、そんなに幸せなことはないんじゃないかとさえ勘違いしてしまう。 ACを1CCできたらめちゃくちゃなナラティブがあり、そしてそのハードルは決して誰にも到達できない高みにあるわけでもないのに、みんなその瞬間までたどり着いていないのがもったいなさすぎる。同社で言えば斑鳩みたいな激ムズでわけのわからないゲームは受け入れているのに、シルバーガンが遊べないというのは単なる思い違いに過ぎない。ゲームを選ぶのは本質的にプレイヤーだから、ゲームがプレイヤーを選ぶなんて物言いはしない。世の中にある数多くのゲームより、ずっと「やればできる」ゲームなのだから、やってみて欲しい。ぜひ。

This game is better than Ikaruga... There, I said it. Not much more I can add. Replayable, beautiful art and music, amazing level design, and the chaining system allow for a lot of care and improv in your routing. Oh my God, don't even get me started on the music. Hitoshi Sakimoto (of FF Tactics fame) completely understood the assignment. He delivers a wonderful score that encapsulates all the colors of the rainbow. I got most of this OST on my playlist, looping constantly. It's SO EPIC, yet personal enough to make you cry. I would recommend this game to ANYONE, not just STG players. It is a tough game, but with it's amazing story and gameplay (and the fact that you get a credit added for every 30 minutes you play, making it easier for beginners too!), it's one that I will be coming back to for the rest of my life.

Pretty unsatisfying port. There are frequent and very noticable hiccups in framerate. This should be as smooth as butter. It's literally worse than playing the game in an emulator like SSF. It may well be just a wrapper around one. The stylish menu of the Saturn version is gone, replaced with something lower effort than most games debug menus. Yikes. And if you've never played before you wouldn't have a clue how the game works. It's very bad at presenting vital information. Giant deadzone of about 30% on the left stick makes the movement controls very unresponsive and this can't be configured. I do feel like there's a bit of input lag. And the game is maybe running slightly too fast? Not 100% on either but it does feel off somehow. It has really bad outdated scaling options. Nearest neighbour or bilinear. No pixel antialias option so any scale other than 100% looks messed up. For some reason the default aspect ratio is distorted (as you can see from the moon not being round) and you have to choose "classic" to view the game normally. Sigh...

This is probably my favourite Treasure game and my favourite Sega Saturn game, and maybe even my favourite shooting game. The levels are stupidly well designed, the bosses are complex and the chaining scoring system is not only a good puzzle like element but also necessary, as it is the only way to power up your weapons. When I bought this I was familiar with the Saturn version (never had an Xbox) and while pretty good it did have a little slowdown at places, this port does not. It even has a hi-res display mode that is pretty good, so it not only plays better but it looks better on an HD screen as well. Recommended 10/10 for any fan of old-school shooting games.

This game runs and looks great on Oled steam deck.

While I do like the original game on Sega Saturn, I think this port in particular is a mixed bag so it's more of a lukewarm / neutral review. [b]Pros[/b]: It's Radiant Silvergun and it's on PC. One of the best shmups there is to date. With animated cinematics and interesting story that is well-intergrated into gameplay with characters occasionally commenting on what is happening thoughout your adventure into a rather unexpected post-apocalyptic crisis. [b]Cons[/b]: - Windowed mode stops working completely as soon you as you try to drag the window and the game goes fullscreen. So, instead of 'windowed' you get fullscreen borderless and can't go back to windowed even when the option (windowed) is enabled. Eh? - Whoever designed the menu that allows you to change controls - please, if that person is still somehow working in your company - fire them IMMEDIATELY. This is arguably one of the worst ways to change controls in a videogame I've ever seen. Instead of simply pressing 'Enter' and then typing the key you want to use for [X] input, not only you have to SCROLL LEFT-RIGHT THE OLDSCHOOL WAY THROUGH AN ENTIRE F*CKING KEYBOARD to choose the key you want, as soon as you stumble upon a keybind that is already occupied, it changes another key to the next one on the list which means by the time you finish changing your first key - chances are ...at least half of your entire layout layout is completely F*CKED. Man, how can you make something so basic and simple as changing controls so convoluted, time-consuming, and... infuriating!? - However, what makes absolutely ZERO sense is the fact that you now have [b]ZERO[/b] CONTINUES in Story Mode and you can't even earn extra lives every 1000000 / 3000000 / 5000000. NOTHING. You get 1 extra life at the start of the game (new Story Mode session) for every 30mins~ spent playing the game and that's about it! Again, NO CONTINUES. IN STORY MODE. Why is that weird? Because you can choose how many lives you start with and how many points you have to score before you get an extra extend in the... ARCADE MODE. I think you got the wrong idea for 'Story Mode' which in this day and age is something that allows you to complete the game, enjoying the story. However, here to 'enjoy' the story you have to either be a pro, grind Stage 1/2 non-stop a couple of days... or open the game, leave it on for a couple of days and then finish it by starting with '99' lives. Come on, what were you thinking!? I'm all pro games being accessible and I don't think the original had this issue since you also gained extra continues per certain amount of time spent playing the game. In this port this is not the case. Just...wow. - The main menu + options menu look like a generic MAME options menu with an ugly font. It's outright unpleasant to look at and hard to navigate. Was it really that hard to just recreate the options menu from the original Saturn verision? Instead we get Comic Sans + Black Screen instead of a beautiful menu we had in the original. Man, what a let down. The game itself is fine. I'm an average Radiant Silvergun enjoyer, I don't feel any 'input delay' here, nor did I feel any input delay playing the original Saturn version on an emulator. So, if the difference is almost non-existent, why would you want to buy an official Steam version? > English subtitles You can finally play the game with english subtitles which is a majoy 'yay' for all those who don't understand jappanizu jibbereshu. However, if you only care about 'the game', you'd be pretty much fine playing the original. In fact, if you're a newcomer (casual shmup player), I'd heavily recommend playing the original first because not only it has better presentation, but it is more generous when it comes to lives and has extra continues so you'll be able to complete the game much faster without the game gatekeeping you until you spent X2-X3 amount of time playing it. It's an 'okay' port of a fantastic game that doesn't improve on the original in any meaningful way and one might even say it's worse than the original in many aspects which is a shame. The only '+' is the addition of english translation (subtitles) and... yep, that's about it. Still, a great game and probably the only AAA-shump we've ever seen.

A prime example of a game where it's depth comes from mastery. It does what almost no shooter does which is lets you have all your weapons at all times. It makes the game easier right? NOT REALLY! death is inevitable and frequent until you achieve mastery. In a similar fashion of metal slug, the game has beautiful moments, but also will destroy you for just the smallest of mistakes. The main part that confuses me about this game is how it gives you more lives for 1 run of the game based on the amount of hours clocked on your save file. I suppose they're trying to encourage people to not 1 and done then refund the game? But whatever the reason I just paused the game and left it running overnight a couple days to max out the credits counter. I'll worry about mastery later...

I have to say, 15 years ago I could have never imagined this legendary Sega Saturn shooter would be available in an easily accessible form that doesn't require you to shell out $100+. Radiant Silvergun is a game with a ton of hype, pedigree, and ambition behind its name. Treasure, a studio known for its experimental and bombastic action games, tried their hand at making a wholly unique experience with this game and succeeded in spades. It's a game where instead of a typical shot and bomber, you have six weapons at your disposal and a sword that can absorb bullets and unleash giant, screen-clearing swords with a few seconds of invincibility as a nice bonus. With all this firepower, you're expected to learn how each weapon works and know when to use each one effectively, much like their earlier work Alien Soldier. To make things more interesting, the game also has a level-up system where you can make your weapons stronger depending on certain actions made during gameplay. In arcade mode, this is an incentive to engage with scoring mechanics, in Saturn mode, you can save your stats after each run, giving the game a shockingly forward-thinking approach to game design that wouldn't be seen until most modern indie titles; if you're struggling with the game just keep playing and leveling up until your weapons are strong enough to carry you through the toughest bosses! The scoring mechanics also utilize a color-based chaining system: every enemy is color-coded, and blowing up three similar-colored enemies in a row adds to the multiplier and boosts your score if you commit to it, but some might feel the color chaining is too strict, so a more lax Ikaruga style mode exists for all you Ikaruga fans out there. There are plenty of bosses with unique setpiece and mechanics and each one has a multitude of parts to destroy, with a bonus for smart and quick players who destroy each piece of the boss individually before they self-destruct. The bosses of this game are some of the most memorable parts of the game, it's not an outright boss rush like Alien Soldier, but there's more bosses in the game than there are stages, it's close in structure to Gunstar Heroes, and with two branching paths to pursue, there's plenty of thrills for players to go back to. Also the plot of the game is surprisingly in-depth? The arcade mode doesn't have any story save for ab abridged ending, but the Saturn mode has full voice acting and cutscenes that depict a dark, desperate struggle of three pilots and their support crew searching for answers behind the destruction of mankind as they fight hordes of robotic enemies that have seemingly taken over the entire planet. There are plenty of twists, along with a shocking ending that's sure to make you ponder it for a bit; when you consider that Ikaruga is a continuation of this, it makes things even more interesting lorewise. If you like shooters with tons of cool weapons, spectacle, a mysterious storyline, and strategic depth, Radiant Silvergun may live up to its legendary name.