Border Down
===========
Play Manual
by Alan Kwan
v1.3 on 4 Dec 2003
Introduction
------------
This guide summarizes the basic controls and the game system of
(Japanese import) Dreamcast game "Border Down". It is intended
to help players understand the game so as to get fuller and
smoother enjoyment from the game.
This document does not contain a walkthrough, as that is too much
work. And you shouldn't need one, thanks to the "sample play"
feature. If you keep dying and can't clear the game, watch the
sample play, use the "practice" mode, experiment, and persevere.
Do not write me to ask for help. I suck at shooting games, and
you can get better help from the sample play.
The information here has been compiled from the Japanese manual,
the official website, some bulletin boards, and experimenting
with the game software.
G.rev official website:
http://www.grev.co.jp/
This document is intended to be a free aid for people who have
purchased a legitimate copy of the game. If you are playing a
pirated copy (or plan to get a pirated copy to play), stop
reading here and do not print this document and do not save
this document on your computer. Failure to obey these
instructions will cause unhappy consequences to your afterlife.
This document is intended for non-commercial use. An exception
where you may distribute this document for commercial purposes is
if you are a game retailer or distributor, and you distribute
this document together with a legitimate copy of the game, to
your customer who is purchasing the game. In all cases, full
attribution must be given (to me).
This documented can be downloaded from my website:
http://home.netvigator.com/~tarot/Games/Border01.txt
and from GameFAQs:
http://www.gamefaqs.com
Game Modes
----------
Besides the "arcade mode", the Dreamcast version also has a
"remix mode". The remix mode gives you different enemy patterns,
and generally more items and juicier high-scoring opportunities.
With both modes, you can use the practice mode to practice any
stage you have accessed in the normal game. You can adjust the
difficulty, and can warp between areas and freely cause items to
appear. However, you can area skip only to an area you have
accessed during the current practice run. (In effect, the L
button is a quick shortcut for retrying, and the R button is
probably useful only when you have pressed the L button by
mistake.) If you find the "border down" system distracting, the
practice mode is very useful towards getting familiar with a stage,
because here you won't border down when you die, but instead will
just replay the same border. Also, you have unlimited ships.
Practice mode special controls:
L button: area skip back
R button: area skip forward
Y button: generate item
Everything in the option menu is in English. At this point, it's
still not clear to me how to increase the max credits. The very
useful sample play mode can be found in here.
(Note: if you have re-assigned the buttons with "option", any
un-assigned button(s) will automatically have the "generate item"
function in the practice mode.)
Option -> Display Setting:
Indicator Position: If your TV cuts off the top and bottom and
you can't see the gauges, change to "TV1" or "TV2".
Moving Range: If your TV cuts off the top and bottom and your
ship moves off the screen, change to "TV". This reduces slightly
the (vertical) area your ship can move in, so you won't lose
sight of your ship.
Border Rate: Displays on the screen the ratio among the time you
spend in the borders, and the number of times you have cleared
the stage norm. Useful for working towards a specific version of
stage 6.
Basic Controls / Weapon System
------------------------------
The +-key moves your ship. The analog stick is not used.
Press the X button for speed change. Three speed levels.
Unlike many horizontal shooting games, you won't die immediately
even if you touch a wall. But you will die if you keep bumping
into the wall for a while. The faster your ship speed, the
quicker you'll die for bumping into a wall. (Speed 1 is quite
safe.) Thus, while you should avoid running into walls, you
should not be afraid to move around in narrow places when you
have to dodge other enemy attacks. If you are 'squeezed by the
scrolling', you will die immediately (even during break laser
invulnerability).
The A button fires your main shots. Hold down the button for
auto-fire high-firepower forward shots. Tap the button
repeatedly for "full-range" low-firepower homing shots. The fire
rate is low, so you don't have to jam the button too madly.
The B button fires your ultra-powerful "break laser". You can
control the duration of the laser by holding down the B button.
Using the break laser drains your level gauge. The break laser
can pass through most walls.
The level gauge is in the lower center of the screen. When you
fill the gauge, your main shots go up a level (max level 5). The
gauge automatically fills slowly with time. It also fills by
some amount when you destroy an enemy with your shots. (It isn't
filled for partial damage to an enemy: you get the energy when
you eventually blow up the enemy. You do get energy for
destroying boss parts and small enemies released by the boss,
though. You don't get refill for destroying enemies with the
break laser.)
There is only one type of item in the game, carried by some
larger enemies. Each gives you half a gauge. If you pick up an
item when your gauge is full, you get 10 000 points. (Use your
break laser instead. The break bonus is easily worth much more.)
When you fire the break laser, you consume the gauge in
proportion to the duration of the laser, at a rate of half a
gauge for every one second. The minimum charge is half a gauge,
for 1 second. So, if you don't have at least half a gauge above
level 1, you can't fire the laser. When you are firing the
laser, you are invulnerable for up to 4 seconds. The
invulnerability wears off when you cease fire, or after 4
seconds, whichever is sooner.
Some bosses and other enemies will fire break laser too. If you
interfere by shooting your laser against it, you will create a
huge energy field around where the lasers meet. The energy
field causes large damage to enemies (about 167% the damage of
the break laser itself). Note that if you want to damage an
enemy with laser interference, you need to actually scorch it
with the energy field. Thus if the enemy laser is horizontal,
you need to move closer (to the right); if the enemy laser is
diagonal or vertical, you need to position your ship so that your
laser intersects its laser near its 'base'. You can deliberately
do the opposite, if you want to spend longer on laser
interference without destroying the enemy too soon, in order to
get more break bonus.
Hit detection:
You will be killed by enemies and bullets only if you are hit
squarely in the center of your ship (just like many other recent
shooting games). However, you will be considered bumping into a
wall if any part of your ship touches the wall.
Border System
-------------
This is a unique system which combines "ships left" with "stage
select". For every stage, there are three "borders": green,
yellow, and red. They are kind of like parallel zones. For
example, stage 2 is about a concerted attack on a space station
by 3 ships. Each ship takes a different route through the
station, and each of the three borders represent one of these
routes. In different borders, you will find different enemies
and often different terrain as well.
The borders also represent your lives. If you die in green, you
"border down" to yellow. If you die in yellow, you border down
to red. If you die in red, it's game over.
Each stage is divided into three areas. If you die in the
first or the second area, you will border down and restart, in
either the current area or the next area, depending on how far
you have reached before dying. If you die in the third area (the
boss fight), you will reappear right there and continue the
fight.
At the beginning of the game, you can select any border to start
in. This not only affects how many lives you have, but also will
affect the starting difficulty "rank". By starting in yellow or
red, you can get more challenge and more high-scoring
opportunities. Note that, the border has a direct impact on the
game difficulty only here in the starting choice. Otherwise, the
red border areas are generally not particularly harder to clear
than the green border areas, but rather, the difficulty rank is a
larger factor on the fierceness of enemy attacks.
When you clear a stage, you may be offered "border select"
depending on whether you have cleared the "stage norm" (par
score). The stage norm is displayed on the lower right corner of
the screen. If you have made the stage norm, you may shift up or
down one border for the next stage. But if you fail to make the
stage norm, you have to continue going in the same border.
Note that since you can intentionally border down any time by
dying, there is no need to use border select to enter a lower
border, even if you want to play a stage in a certain border, as
long as your main concern is to clear the game safely. The game
has a difficulty "rank" as a hidden parameter. When you die, the
rank is lowered. Thus, if you want to play a lower border, you
can enter a higher border and deliberately die, and this will
reduce the rank. Also, the stage norm depends on the entrance
border for the stage, so this way the stage norm is lower. You
use border select to enter a lower border if you don't mind more
challenge, and want more fierce attacks against you so that you
can get more break bonus. Otherwise, you'll normally want to
border up when given the chance, so the stage norm is effectively
a requirement for replacing a lost ship (1UP).
One strategy of keeping the difficulty rank lower is to
deliberately die once per stage, and use border select to get
back up. But of course you need to fulfill the stage norm.
Experts call this the "G-G-GY" route.
Scoring System
--------------
Each enemy has a basic score value. This value is doubled in the
yellow border, and tripled in the red border. (You still get
this multiplier benefit even if you get there by dying and border
down, and even in the middle of a boss fight in area 3.)
However, the basic score constitutes only a very small fraction
of your total score. You can get very high scores through the
two kinds of bonuses.
When you fire the break laser, the number of enemies and bullets
you destroy with one blast becomes the score multiplier. (See
scoring example below.) If you can apply a large multiplier to a
high-scoring enemy (such as the stage boss), this can be a
significant amount. In addition, when you clear the stage, you
receive a "total break" bonus of 5000 points per break count.
Thus, while it is very rewarding to execute a well-planned break
for a large multiplier on valuable enemies, it is nevertheless
useful (and safe) to fire a short break when you are threatened
by a dense stream of bullets. (The total break count is
displayed on the LCD screen on the visual memory.)
When you enter area 3, the boss timer and life gauge appears in
the upper right corner. When you beat the boss, *the closer the
timer is to zero*, the higher your boss time bonus score. The
maximum is 3 million, when the timer is exactly zero.
max bonus = 3 000 000 points
per +1 sec = -60 000 points deduction
per -1 sec = -300 000 points deduction
If the boss timer is below -10 sec, the time bonus will be
negative. The amount will be subtracted from your break bonus
(down to a minimum of zero). If the boss timer is above 50 sec,
the time bonus will be zero.
When the boss timer reaches -30 sec, you'll clear the stage
automatically (and get -6 million for the time bonus).
To get a high time bonus score, you often need to drag out the
boss fight. This means that you have to dodge more of the boss's
attacks, which is more dangerous than just killing the boss
quickly.
Scoring example:
In stage 1-3 yellow, you use the blast laser to wipe out 40 blue
bullets (10 points each) and then blow up the first part of the
boss (5000 points).
For the bullets, you get
10 + 10x2 + 10x3 + 10x4 + ... + 10x40 = 8200 points
For the boss part, you get
5000 x 41 = 205 000 points
Since you are in yellow border, the above scores are doubled, for
(8200 + 205000) x 2 = 426 400 points
When you clear the stage, these 41 break will give you an
additional "total break" bonus of
5000 x 41 = 205 000 points
So this use of break laser yields
631 400 points
Compared to using normal shots to destory the same enemies, which
gives
(10x40 + 5000) x 2 = 10 800 points
You can see that good use of the break laser can make a huge
difference!
Game Story
----------
The story takes place in the future, when human has colonized
Mars.
One day, some aliens appeared and wreaked havoc. They are called
"F.A", for "First Approach".
To fight them, "R.A.I.N" (Remote Artificial Intelligence Network
System) was developed. By uploading the pilot's brain data onto
the main system (artificial brain) of the most advanced fighter
"Antares", it has overcome the shortcomings of previous unmanned
or remote-controlled weapons, while enjoying all the advantages
of unmanned weapons.
Now, the system is undergoing testing.
Stage Settings [spoiler]
--------------
The following information has been gathered from the official
website (
http://www.grev.co.jp/) and from the Japanese manual.
Please visit the official website for the original, more complete
and graphically better presentation (in Japanese).
Stage 1:
This is a virtual simulation for the purpose of testing and
training the R.A.I.N system. The simulated situation is that an
F.A has occupied the underground section of the city, taking over
many weapons and machines, and the pilot is to reach and destroy
it. The boss is recreated from data collected during the Vesta
incident (the mining small planet where trouble first appeared).
Stage 2: This is another virtual simulation. This time, three
fighters carry out the mission simultaneously through different
routes. This is a recreation of the Vesta incident, in which
three F.A has taken over the unmanned security system.
Stage 3:
This is yet another simulation for simultaneous operation of
multiple fighters. Three fighters take on the 3rd Fleet of Mars.
Green unit is the decoy which takes guriella action around the
fleet. Yellow unit attacks the battleship directly. Red unit
flies inside the mother ship and destroy its core. The mission
is supposed to end with the destruction of the core, but the
action is too intense and causes the pilot's brain to be
overloaded. The system goes out of control, and the three planes
fight each other. So here the bosses are the two other planes,
which come with illusionary options (attached parts) generated by
the overloaded system. Type "G" has options which fire lasers.
Type "Y" has detachable options which attack in various
formations. Type "R" has 3 huge arms which surround the player
ship.
Stage 4:
Now this is a real operation. The huge weapon "Osiris" is out of
control and has invaded a colony. Osiris must be destroyed in
order to prevent further damage. (The mission plan shows the
colony, and Osiris is a huge ship inside the circular tube.)
Green unit is to enter the tube and chase Osiris. Yellow unit
enters through the center shaft and joins Green. Red unit enters
also through the center shaft and takes another path to get in
front of Osiris so as to encircle it. The boss is the core of
Osiris, taken over by a SEED, with a bunch of attached stuff.
Stage 5:
The enemy has taken over the orbital elevator. The planes have
to blast their way through to the control core and disable it in
order to stop the F.A from using its energy to reproduce.
However, they are supposed to attack the core in moderation,
because too much damage will cause the entire system to explode,
and cause the orbital elevator to collapse. Unfortunately, after
disabling the core (first two steps), the pilot again is
overloaded, and he sees the hallucination of the core continuing
its attack using the methods of previous bosses (third step) ...
Stage 6:
(No data.)
Stage 6 [spoiler]
-------
There are four versions of stage 6. Which version you enter
depends on the ratio among the time you spend in the borders, and
the number of times you have cleared the stage norm. If you spend
over 50% of the time in a certain border color (green, yellow,
red) /and/ you have cleared the stage norm 4 or more times, you
will enter 6B, 6C or 6D respectively. Otherwise, you will enter
6A.
(Special thanks oxtsu and "Mirai no Tobira" website.
http://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/himemako/urawaza/shutting/bd.htm
)
In order to see the ending, you have to destroy the last boss
before time expires. If time runs out (-30 sec), you see the
game over screen instead.
You cannot play stage 6 in practice mode. Also, there is no
sample play for stage 6.
Trivia
------
The very observant may notice that a small detail is missing in
the Dreamcast version. In the arcade version and on the
screenshot on the DC version package, one can see a flock of
birds taking off along with the player ship at the beginning of
the game. The birds are missing in the Dreamcast version.
I have asked G.Rev through e-mail, and here is their official
explanation (posted on their website). They have faithfully
recreated the birds in arcade mode, and by design they intend to
remove the birds in remix mode. But by mistake, the birds got
removed from arcade mode also. Because by then, they have
already finished working on arcade mode and were busy working on
remix mode, they did not double-check arcade mode. And so, the
birds do not appear in the final release version.
Special thanks to G.rev for unveiling the mystery.
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END OF DOCUMENT
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