Introduction
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Taiyou no Yuusha Fighbird, or Brave of the Sun Fighbird, was the second anime
of the Brave series. This was a sequence of series made by Takara after the
cancellation of G1 Transformers. The shows don't really connect directly to
each other, but they share a lot of similiarities in terms of art and story.
The most famous entry is probably King of Braves GaoGaiGar.
Brave of the Sun Fighbird was released in 1991 and ran for 48 episodes. The
plot finds Earth being menaced in the year 2010 by Drias, an energy being bent
on destroying the planet, and Doctor Jango, a human scientist who is aiding
the being. It falls to Yutaro Katori, a Space Police officer, to stop Drias
and return peace to the world by transforming in the Fighbird. He is joined by
a young Japanese school boy named Kenta Amano, who grandfather serves as the
team's resident scientist.
The game is a vertical scrolling shooter. You have two pilots and five
vehicles from which to choose as you journey through the game, although they
are not as widely different as one might expect from this genre. What is
unique, however, is that you can pause the game and switch between the five
at any time. You can also eventually upgrade to the Fighbird proper.
Stage 1-1
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Stage 1-1 finds Drias dispatching his henchmen Shura and Zol in a large
centipede to steal oil from a desert location. Your goal as you fly forward
is to destroy six bombs (that appear as a green circle with a B in the middle)
by shooting them. You only have about three minutes to do this, but clocks
will also appear as you progress that will add an additional three minutes to
your time. If you snag them, you probably won't come even close to running
out of time. Once you destory the last bomb, the stage will end.
The enemies you will face in this stage are Death white fighters, green mecha
tanks, and larger green ships. None of these enemies really resemble Drias'
cannon-fodder in the show though. The fighters fly straight toward you
shooting periodically and swoop back upwards if they reach the bottom of the
screen. The tanks will roll towards the center of the screen and fire in a
circle around themselves. The larger green ships will cut across the screen
horizontally and fire as they pass.
Stage 1-2
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Stage 1-2 takes place over an ocean. This time you just need to make it to the
end of the stage and defeat the centipede from the opener. Mostly you face
the white fighters again, although a variation of them that now hover in the
middle of the screen to fire will appear as well.
When you reach the shoreline and enter another oil refinery, you are about
halfway through. Dodge the fire that spews out from the broken oil lines as
you progress forward. At the end of the stage the background will fade out
and the centipede will attack. It will hang towards the top of the screen
before lunging forward. Shoot it as it moves to align with you, but then
quickly dodge to the left or right to avoid the charge. It will also sometimes
fire three shots from the back, one forward and two of each forty-five degree
angle from its face. Be sure to dodge these too. It does not take very many
shots to destroy the boss, so do not feel a need to rush.
Stage 2-1
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Drias now launches an attack against the City of Edea. You launch to get there
through an erupting underwater pass. Dodge the fire that erupts from the ground
and note that you can fly anywhere on the screen without worrying about dying by
crashing into the scenery. You once again need to collect five bombs, only this
time they look like red canisters with no lettering. You need to fly over them
this time instead of just shooting them.
The enemies are different this time as well. You'll face green stingrays, green
submarines, green eyeballs, red lobsters, and red salamanders at the start.
The green stingrays are just like the white fighters from the first stage. The
submarines will open up their fronts as they enter the screen and fire a host
of shots directly in front of themselves. Shoot them before the shots get to
you. They can only be hurt while their fronts are open, so if you miss their
first pass, then just ignore them and let them go off screen. The green
eyeballs will simply fly from top to bottom of the screen and pass on if they
make it all the way down. The red lobsters charge vertically as well, but they
will periodically stop to fire shots at you. The red salamanders behave the
same way.
You'll eventually emerge from the water and face white fighters and green
mecha tanks again. Just keep picking up the red bombs and you will clear the
stage as you begin to enter the underwater path again.
Stage 2-2
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Stage 2-2 sends you back through the underwater pass. This time you just need
to make it to the end again and defeat the boss to move on. The boss is a
purple mecha beast. It will fire lasers from its four arms and bubbles from
its mouth. Stay in the center and shoot the head. You can shoot through the
bubbles, so just fire away and finish off the boss in no time.
Stage 3-1
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Drias now attacks Starbase Orion. This time you need to fly over yellow pads
that will drop an antigravity generator. You need to drop six of these to
complete the stage. Make sure again you grab the clock when you see it as you
will definately run out of time if you don't.
You face green flying saucers, a redrawn green mecha tank, and a white mecha
tank. The green flying saucers loop down and back up. The two tanks behave the
same as the originals.
Stage 3-2
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Stage 3-2 takes you to space to fly off to face Drias. The white fights return
to stand in your way. There are also asteroids, whihc ou cannot destroy, you
simply need to dodge them.
About halfway through the stage a mini-boss will appear. It is a green orb that
will move left and right in the center of the screen firing randomly. You can
only hit it when it opens to fire. Dodging the asteroids should remain your top
priority, just keep firing as you do to eventually take it out.
After the mini-boss goes down you can transform into Fighbird and enter another
space station. Work your way forward through the tanks to another mini-boss.
This one will fly in a sinewave pattern and fire. Just open up to take it out
and move to the main boss.
This time it is a large dragonfly. The boss will move vertically, either firing
a single large shot or about five smaller ones. You need to shoot it in the
mouth. Hang towards the left or right until it fires one or the other, then
move in and hit it once. Move back out and repeat this until it goes down. It
takes a lot more shots than the previous bosses, so do not get discouraged if
it takes a little bit.
Stage 4-1
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Stage 4-1 is inside Drias' fortress. He taunts the heroes with his own Dark
Fighbird. Avoid getting crushed by the walls as you move forward. Stationary
rotating turrents are your only new enemy, although both the green flying
saucers, green mecha tanks, and white fighters return for one more round.
When you make it to Drias himself the screen will fade out one last time for
the final fight. Drias can fire two small shots from his shoulder cannon, he
can swing his sword to fire a single larger shot, he can launch his shoulder
plates off in an arch around himself, or he can fire a spinning fireball at
you. All of these attacks except the last one will go straight in front of him
so use that to your advantage. The last one will home in on your location when
he fired so make sure you move out quickly. His shots will absorb yours, which
is probably the most annoying thing about this boss. Focus on dodging and fire
when you can at his chest. A hit anywhere else won't count. Focus and Drias
will go down in no time.
Copyrights
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Taiyou no Yuusha Fighbird is (c) Irem
