After posting three big reviews on some of the games that I played recently, I want to fill out one more before I continue working on my Crusaders Quest review. Like the two Dark Witch ones that I’ve done, this one revisits another series that I’m well into: Gradius! As you can se from my profile, Gradius is one of the 5 most favorited games that I’m associated with, and there’s a good reason for it. The customization for the infamous bar is fantastic level design, and the replayabillity gets extended by a huge marjin. Just want to play it for the speed? Using Ripple instead of Laster? (or vice versa?) Gradius has a bunch of potential, and mostly every entry is great. For this review, I’m going to be discussing about Gradius Gaiden, the 1997 entry of Gradius released on Playstation in Japan only (although it did see a brief release of the PSP Gradius collection but it’s a worsened port of it), and it has got to be one of the best entries Konami has cooked with this series. Not only taking everything that defined the series, but it turns some aspects into original ideas, to make it seem like the true Gradius IV. The one released after it also called Gradius IV I personally believe that it’s the worst mainline Gradius one to date. I mean, after perfecting the customization options seen in Gaiden, they’d go BACK to the original way of having a set pattern from Gradius II. And the graphics makes me believe that Gradius had the rougher transition to 3D and puts Sonic out of the spotlight. I mean, why? “I remember it being on OK space shooter,” my ass. The graphics look awful, and Gofer looks like a GOLF BALL!!!!!!!!! I almost want to make another review on this game, but I do want to continue working on CQ, so this one will be relatively long but also relatively quick. With that out of the way…

The (anti)fandom says that this game is the first one to incorporate 3D graphics, but I don’t see that anywhere in the game at all. I guess the 3D Graphics is the well done detailed sprites? I seriously can’t find where the 3D comes from. If this game has 3D Graphics, please tell me right away. But for the story, it’s pretty much that it’s Set after the third Bacterion war, the planet Gradius faces a new threat from the Black Nebula, leading to a mission where four hyper-space fighters are sent to confront the enemy. I assume the 3rd Bacterian war is the one featured from Gradius III for this one cause this technically is the game that came right after that one. The ships that it talks about is the Vic Viper, a staple, Lord Biritish, also a staple originally featured in Salamander, and then two new ones to the series: Jade Knight, and Falchion Beta. The gameplay for this game is of course, very similar to the original Gradius, but for Gaiden????
- Missile, Double and Laser weapons can be additionally powered up one level (but will reset once the player dies)
- There are two more shield types: Guard and Limit. Guard allows you to be immune to physical obstacle collisions, and limit makes you invulnerable to everything. And this is overpowering. Why is it overpowered?
- The Slot order can be rearranged however you like. Shield can be first, option can be second, speed can be third, etc. It’s one of the best things that the game has ever introduced, and it’s funny that they have absolutely never gotten though this concept in any of the other entries other than this one. They should’ve made this a golden standard. ‘
- A new level select and free play mode (unlimited credits) that can be gotten by beating the game and having at least 10 hours of in-game time.
This should be everything new that this game has, and what’s exclusive to this game too. Gaiden has got to be one of the best Gadius of all time for the graphics, action, and activity. Remember Gradius II? People think that’s the best game in the series because it improved everything that the original game has done, especially in terms of difficulty. It also even improved Salamander with all of it’s enemies and bosses! Despite being a spinoff, Konami inserts the Salamander series as a mainline game for how much the story relates to the Bacterians and such. It also includes the Vic Viper. Gradius II is also known for how active the game is when doing along with the player. Gaiden takes that and cranks it up a notch with the male (or female!!! That’s also new to Gradius) announcer saying new dialogue everywhere like “Watch your back!” or “Crush all of them!” They have done a great job with the dialogue for this game, and even the enemies also have some of the spotlight. The moai boss, the final boss, and every other boss that speaks. Another thing that goes great with their efforts is the music, and oh BOY do I mean that. The soundtrack is AMAZING!!! Every song even the options is just as heroic and action-packed as what a Gradius game should be! I don't know who the composer is but they need to be ranked as the best composer in all of Konami. The Air battle, SNOWFIELD, and all the other songs that I know are all great. Although this is what I have to say about Gradius Gaiden. A perfected Gradius Game that has to be the best one that they’ve created.

Now let me work on my Crusaders Quest review. This should be the end of revisiting some of my reviews. This one was great, and so as the other ones that I've done.

Its probably easy to forget in an era where the company doesn't produce much besides NFTs, but in the PS1 era Konami was very likely the best third party developer in the world. New franchises like Suikoden, Silent Hill and Tokimeki Memorial were conquering new genre grounds, and classic series were redefining what video games could be (other than Contra which largely floundered post 2D.) Gradius Gaiden comes from this superlative pedigree and absolutely deserves to be held in the same high regard as Metal Gear Solid or Symphony of the Night and its a crime that it wasn't released in the West. A celebration of the series, Gaiden is filled with wonderful callbacks and clever new ideas, multiple ships with totally different weaponry, and some of the best levels in any shoot em up ever. You haven't lived until you've outran a black hole that's tearing up the classic Gradius first stage or navigated through a graveyard of defeated (but still deadly) bosses. A game so good the only way to top it was to get Treasure to make a Gradius (and even then its arguable if they did.)

Now this, this is it. This is the Gradius experience I've been looking for. Gradius is a series I've wanted to love but it's constant stagnant level design, enemy design and visuals just made every game feel almost like remixes of the original. They felt uninspired, stale and though there are flashes of promise they never hit a height to open up that potential. Gradius Gaiden feels like the first true sequel to the original Gradius, it just took Konami 11 years to get there, or 20 for it's eventual Western release. Gaiden takes all the aspects of Gradius and builds or reuses them in fresher ways to make it both exciting yet familiar all at once.

This being a console release immediately made it more accessible for a start. That artificial arcade difficulty has been removed so it's now still challenging without being controller throwing obnoxious. After a cool cutscene you can choose between 4 different ships with their own unique weapons, the Vic Viper, Lord British (a ship from the spin off Salamander series), Jade Knight and Falchion β.

Once the game starts the action doesn't take long to get going and many staples of the series like the Easter Island Statue heads, volcanoes, and flame dragons are there though with some twists. The Easter statues fire giant lasers, volcanoes can now be destroyed before erupting and the flame dragons are used as attack weapons out of a bacterial ship rather than a solar flare in an interesting twist. The new stuff though is more important mixed in with giant snow caterpillars, ship graveyards, crytal levels and many of the bosses are really cool to fight and don't just feel like the same basic ship from every other Gradius game. The game is fun, feels pretty action heavy and stage 8's sequence while hard was especially intense. I loved it.

Visually Gaiden really uses the PlayStation's capabilities with coloured detailed sprites, transparency effects etc. There are some really cool little features like one boss that spins the whole level around you whilst enclosed, or crystals that reflect lasers for example. It is very intricate looking and has a good soundtrack to boot, and I don't just mean music as the vocal narration the series is known for is a lot more pronounced and audibly clearer with my favorite part being the spinning boss mentioned above verbally taunting you during the fight which I've not really seen before in a shoot 'em up. The OST is fantastic with the traditional Gradius theme ramped up but the whole OST is really worth a listen too.

Honestly I don't have much bad to say about this game. It's balanced right, it looks gorgeous, the music is great, it's a blend of old and new in a fresh way and have you seen that cover art?