Radiant Silvergun, like it's close cousin Alien Soldier, (another of my all-time favorite games) is what I call a solution-shooter; which is to say, it playfully hides a "correct" playstyle for a boss, or a level, or even a singular piece of a level, behind a slew of various weapon options and possible pathways and approaches. There are many different WORKABLE ways to play, and to defeat bosses, to be sure... but there is almost always, I have found, an EASIEST way--such that, if you study, then uncover, and then string together all of the Easiest Ways through the entire game, it would transform a seemingly impossible, WRETCHEDLY-difficult experience into a surprisingly simply completable one.
For a very primitive example: sure, you could try and grit your way through a boss encounter dodging everything on the bottom of the screen, utilizing your straight-ahead cannon for maximum damage, as though it were a CAVE shmup... but have you tried swooping around and to the left (out of the way, perhaps, of most of the bullet-hell), and utilizing your side-shot instead?
It's this simple mechanism that not only keeps Radiant Silvergun from becoming frustrating, but that makes it feel so awash in fascinating possibility. Like a Soulsborne game, it sheds layers of difficulty upon every death and continue, not because you got better at twitch movement (but, hey, maybe you did), but because you learned stuff that will legitimately help you the next time--and not just simple bullet patterns, but the effectiveness of different combinations of weapons, the value of an offensive or defensive strategy (like Ikaruga, the entire game can be beaten without firing a shot), and much more.
This style of gameplay necessitates countless trial and error runs, which never feel grindy because, again, you're not just attempting to get 'gud' at the game (that is to say, to master its core movement and shooting mechanics); you're attempting to gain knowledge about its design. For this reason, the optimal way to play Radiant Silvergun initially is in a Saturn emulator, utilizing savestates to study every individual encounter. Treasure knew this, and so, while they didn't provide the ability to literally save one's state, they did thankfully include a stage select in the Saturn port that breaks the game up into 20-30 minute chunks. (That anyone could have learned this game in the arcade is mind-boggling.)
I completely understand complaints about the difficulty. The final gauntlet of bosses, especially, is almost hilariously grueling, even after many studious playthroughs. But that's extremely important to the other, major thing Radiant Silvergun has going for it over almost any other shmup that I've played: meaningful narrative stakes.
There's a story here. There's symbolism; there's camaraderie, and sacrifice, and redemption. There's the entire world to save, and the game makes us FEEL that, with a huge orchestral score, and movie-quality voice acting. When bosses are raining hellfire on you toward the end of the game, and you desperately wonder how you'll ever make it, you're doing so in tandem with the game's characters in its story, which feels insanely unique in a shmup, even all these years later.
(If you find the game too difficult to enjoy, I would honestly recommend just watching a Let's Play as though it were a movie, and basking in the sheer visual- and design-audacity of some of these fucking boss fights (ESPECIALLY Xiga)).
As I did with Alien Soldier, I'm putting a 1CC of Radiant Silvergun on my bucket list. It's a game that I'll happily return to, over and over, to find just one more of those Easiest Ways--a new nook away from the bullets, a new weapon strategy, a new ship path, a new boss weakness. I could watch experts and just attempt to mimic them, of course, but to do so would be to miss the entire point, and the ultimate beauty, of this game.
For a very primitive example: sure, you could try and grit your way through a boss encounter dodging everything on the bottom of the screen, utilizing your straight-ahead cannon for maximum damage, as though it were a CAVE shmup... but have you tried swooping around and to the left (out of the way, perhaps, of most of the bullet-hell), and utilizing your side-shot instead?
It's this simple mechanism that not only keeps Radiant Silvergun from becoming frustrating, but that makes it feel so awash in fascinating possibility. Like a Soulsborne game, it sheds layers of difficulty upon every death and continue, not because you got better at twitch movement (but, hey, maybe you did), but because you learned stuff that will legitimately help you the next time--and not just simple bullet patterns, but the effectiveness of different combinations of weapons, the value of an offensive or defensive strategy (like Ikaruga, the entire game can be beaten without firing a shot), and much more.
This style of gameplay necessitates countless trial and error runs, which never feel grindy because, again, you're not just attempting to get 'gud' at the game (that is to say, to master its core movement and shooting mechanics); you're attempting to gain knowledge about its design. For this reason, the optimal way to play Radiant Silvergun initially is in a Saturn emulator, utilizing savestates to study every individual encounter. Treasure knew this, and so, while they didn't provide the ability to literally save one's state, they did thankfully include a stage select in the Saturn port that breaks the game up into 20-30 minute chunks. (That anyone could have learned this game in the arcade is mind-boggling.)
I completely understand complaints about the difficulty. The final gauntlet of bosses, especially, is almost hilariously grueling, even after many studious playthroughs. But that's extremely important to the other, major thing Radiant Silvergun has going for it over almost any other shmup that I've played: meaningful narrative stakes.
There's a story here. There's symbolism; there's camaraderie, and sacrifice, and redemption. There's the entire world to save, and the game makes us FEEL that, with a huge orchestral score, and movie-quality voice acting. When bosses are raining hellfire on you toward the end of the game, and you desperately wonder how you'll ever make it, you're doing so in tandem with the game's characters in its story, which feels insanely unique in a shmup, even all these years later.
(If you find the game too difficult to enjoy, I would honestly recommend just watching a Let's Play as though it were a movie, and basking in the sheer visual- and design-audacity of some of these fucking boss fights (ESPECIALLY Xiga)).
As I did with Alien Soldier, I'm putting a 1CC of Radiant Silvergun on my bucket list. It's a game that I'll happily return to, over and over, to find just one more of those Easiest Ways--a new nook away from the bullets, a new weapon strategy, a new ship path, a new boss weakness. I could watch experts and just attempt to mimic them, of course, but to do so would be to miss the entire point, and the ultimate beauty, of this game.