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Game:       ESP Galuda
Platform:   Sony Playstation 2, Arcade
Developer:  Cave
Publisher:  Arika

Author:     Slateman ([email protected])
Version:    1.1
Date:       13th July, 2004



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                                INTRO / OVERVIEW
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ESP Galuda was released in Japanese arcades in 2003 and was ported to the
PS2 by Arika in 2004.  This is essentially a prequel to ESP Ra.De., created
by Cave in 1998.

Once again Arika has done a marvelous job in the port, adding a number of
fun and interesting features.  Much like their DoDon Pachi: Dai-Ou-Jou port,
this contains a replay DVD with a pair of perfect runs by expert Japanese
players.


Much of the information contained within this document was found in other
locations.  In all instances I will offer sources and credit.  The main
source is the Shmups.com forum and their members.

     http://dynamic5.gamespy.com/%7Eshmups/shmupsforum/index.php


In addition, there are many resources in Japanese, so learn your katakana
in the very least and try out some translation services such as Babelfish

     http://babelfish.altavista.com

The latest version of this FAQ can always be found at the following address:

       http://www.slateman.net/faqs/



Version Info
------------

1.0   Initial Release, still plenty to do!
1.1   Extra Life is on level 3, not 4 + details (thanks to Bern D)
     Updated info about Gold Ingots/Green Gems/Scoring.
     Much overdue update, still plenty to do but I'll be on vacation
     for a while.




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                                   CONTROLS
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Arcade Mode
-----------
X              Auto-fire
Square         Normal attack (hold for rapier)
Circle         Guard Barrier, Guard Barrier Attack
Triangle       Kakusei Mode



Arrange Mode
------------

X              Normal attack
Square         Power Shot
Circle         Guard Barrier, Guard Barrier Attack
Triangle       Kakusei Mode



Pressing the Triangle button once activates Kakusei mode.
Pressing the button again disables it.



Attacks
-------

Each character has a regular attack shot and one called a Rapier Attack.
Think of this as your laser attack from most other games.  As with the
tradition of most Cave shooters, your character will emit a more
powerful and focused attack, however this will slow you down considerably.

You can power up your 4 times giving 5 separate levels of attack power.



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                                     HUD
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This is an explanation of the various meters and counters appearing on-screen.

The first item on the upper left hand corner of the screen is your score.
When playing in 2-player mode, the 2nd player's score is in the upper right
hand portion of the screen.  Simple enough.


Enemy Life Bar
--------------

When fighting larger enemies and bosses, a long meter may appear atop the
screen.  This is their health meter.  This can be broken up into segments, by
depleting their energy in each segment, you can cause individual explosions
and/or break off sections of the enemy.

This is not normally on-screen, only during sub-bosses/bosses.


Lives
-----

Below this you will have several jewel-looking items.  These are called
Spirit Saintly Stones, or quite simply your lives.

On default you begin with 3 and can get an extra one on level 3 or via
point extends.  Additionally you can change your ship stock in the options
menu.



Gem Counter
-----------
Next is a large green Gem with a number to the right of it.  This is your
gem counter and is integral to the game.  This has to do with the Kakusei
mode detailed below.

This meter maxes out at 500.

You lose half of your gems when dying.

It is possible that you receive more gems from enemies when they are
defeated in the top portion of the screen.  This has not been
verified to my knowledge yet though.



Gold Ingot Counter
------------------

The final item in the upper portion of the screen is your Gold Ingot
Counter.By defeating enemies in Kakusei mode (see below for more),
you will collect gold to add to this number.

This meter maxes out at 1000.

By dying, you lose half of your gold

Gold is very important to scoring, see the Scoring section below for
more details.

During boss battles, this meter will decrease at a consistent rate.




Guard Barrier Gauge
-------------------

This meter is found at the bottom of the screen unlike the rest detailed
above.

As with the normal shot, there are 5 different levels of the Guard
Barrier Attack.



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                                  CHARACTERS
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There are 2 players available in the Arcade Mode.  Much like DoDon Pachi and
well, virtually all other games w/ multiple characters, each player has their
own set of strengths and weaknesses.  Therefore, choosing the character best
suited for you may require some testing and ultimately lies in speed vs.
strength vs. wide/narrow shot range.

You may notice that there is a male and female version of each character.
When entering into Kakusei mode (more below) your character will change
sex.  Ageha is by default male and Tateha female, however these switch
when entering Kakusei mode.




Ageha
    Shot Width        = Narrow
    Shot Strength     = Strong
    Speed             = Fast

Tateha
    Shot Width        = Wide
    Shot Strength     = Weak
    Speed             = Slow


By Weak/Slow/etc, I simply mean weaker than the other character.




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                                    ICONS
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There are several Icon/Pickups throughout the game.  These are as follows:


Green Gem       Each enemy defeated gives a different number of green gems.
               These are used when initiating Kakusei mode.
P               Power-Up.  You can raise your attack 4x.
MP              Max Power-Up.  Instantly go to maximum attack power.
E               Raises your Guard Barrier Gauge by 50%
L               An extra life.  Found on level 3.
Gold            Gold = points/multiplier.  Maxes out at 1000.


Note:
----

The extra life is part of the large ship towards the end of level 3.
In order to get this, you must destroy the middle of this ship while in
kakusei mode (using a laser?) or with a Guard Barrier attack.

In addition, you must have some green gems remaining, otherwise the
extra life will not become available.


Sources: http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/showpost.php?p=744932&postcount=316
        http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/showpost.php?p=744932&postcount=332





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                                 GUARD BARRIER
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The Guard Barrier functions mostly like it did in ESP Ra.De.

By pressing the circle button you can initiate the Guard Barrier.
Releasing the button yields a powerful attack.  You can also
press and hold the circle button to charge your attack.

Take note of the meter at the bottom of the screen.  This depletes as
you use the Guard Barrier.

This method is invaluable for sections where bullets are too numerous to
dodge.



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                                  KAKUSEI MODE
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This is the main distinguishable feature found in ESP Galuda and
therefore needs a full description.

Each enemy defeated issues green gems which are automatically drawn to
your character.  These will be stored in a counter atop the screen.  This
counter maxes out at 500.  These gems are used to initiate Kakusei mode.

Once entering this mode, your gems collection will decrease.  Douggie
from the Shmup boards suggests this is 10 per second.  Additionally, he
suggests that you lose 10 gems for each enemy destroyed while in
this mode.




Initiating
----------

By pressing the Triangle button once, your character changes into Kakusei
mode.  In doing so, your character will change sex (Ageha -> female,
Tateha -> male) and their firepower increases drastically.

At this time everything on the screen, except yourself, will slow down.
All bullets on the screen will change to purple and, along with enemy
ships, will slow down.  The bullets issued by the enemy will all change
to gold when you defeat this enemy.  The more bullets on-screen when
defeating each enemy, the more gold is received.  How this works into
scoring is detailed below.

This brings up the issue of risk vs. reward.  Can you navigate through
the masses of bullets so that you receive more gold or will you get
hit in the process?  (see more about Auto-Guard below)

While in this mode, your character will have a circle appear around them.
This is a gauge that displays the amount of time remaining.  This can
be a little difficult to see when the screen is filled with bullets, but
it is an alternative to looking up at the Gem meter.


Danger!!!
---------

When your gems run out all the bullets on the screen will change to red
and will also increase in speed!  It's imperative to be ready as this
can become very difficult to dodge!  If you manage to get yourself into
this situation, hit the triangle button again to revert back to normal
mode.

During this time defeated enemies will issue gold, but not very much.
You cannot collect gems, but with added firepower and some sort of
point bonus, it may be worthwhile to stay in this mode from time to time.



Auto-Guard
----------

If your character gets hit while in Kakusei mode, you will automatically
enter Auto-Guard which will save your character with an attack similar
to the Guard Barrier attack.

While this is beneficial, there is a penalty for this.

You will lose 25% of your gold ingot total and 50% of your Guard Barrier
Gauge.

This is a steep price to pay, but in losing half of your Guard Barrier
Gauge, this offers an extra 2 lives if you are in a jam.



Notes
-----

As a final note, this mode can be incredibly useful when overwhelmed by
bullets.  Slowing the enemy attacks can sometimes give you that brief
window needed to evade attacks.  Beginners will find it to be of great
use when there seems to be no way out.


Alternately, expert players may desire to play through portions of the
game in this mode.  With the extra enemy bullets, the challenge rises.

Ultimately this mode offers several enhancements to the gameplay engine
and can be appreciated by beginners and seasoned players alike.




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                                   SCORING
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Scoring in ESP Galuda is based around using Kakusei mode to the fullest.

As detailed above, by destroying enemies you receive green gems.  Max
out at 500 and then instead of gems you get gold.

Destroying an enemy in Kakusei mode will change all that enemy's bullets
into gold.  You can hold up to 1000 gold ingots.

Of course, having as many bullets on screen at once is the key to
scoring higher, but here is how gold factors into scoring.



Multiplier
----------

Each bullet that is changed when defeating an enemy is worth 40 points
(times the multiplier).


Bernard Doria of Beepreying (http://www.shmups.com/beepreying) helped
clear this up for me and credits the following source for this info:
http://arcadeita.hp.infoseek.co.jp/espgaluda/1085398612.html
message #5.  I have taken much of his text verbatim.



The multiplier starts at one when you enter into KAKUSEI mode and
increases by one for each bullet you clear until the multiplier is 100,
the maximum.

The number shown in the gold counter affects how many points you get
for each gold ingot:


Gold Counter   Points per Ingot
000-099        100
100-199        150
200-299        200
300-399        300
400-499        350
500-599        400
600-699        600
700-799        650
800-899        700
900-1000       900


This breaks down as the following:


    (40 * 1 + 40 * 2 + ....40 * Multiplier) + (Gold Counter x Multiplier)

Each bullet is worth 40 points and you will multiply each bullet
separately, raising the number +1 until you hit your multiplier.

Then, check the amount of gold you have in your counter against
the chart above.  Whichever level you fall into, this gets
multiplied by the multiplier


For example, if your gold counter is at 1000 and you cleared your
first 100 bullets in Kakusei mode, the number of points you've earned
is calculated as follows:

Bullets:     (40*1 + 40*2 + 40*3 + ... + 40*100) = 202,000
Gold:        (900*100) = 90,000
Total:       292,000




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                                ARRANGE MODE
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Arrange Mode is a different spin on ESP Galuda.

You have the choice between Chibiro and Black as playable characters
and while Kakusei mode is intact, there is no alternate character
like the main game.

This isn't the main change though.  There are several important
elements that make Arrange Mode so different.

 - Power Shot
 - Lose 100% of Guard Barrier Gauge when Auto Barrier used
 - A LOT MORE BULLETS



Power Shot
----------

Those who played the original ESP Ra.De. will be familiar with the
gameplay.  The point multiplier received is dependent on this attack.

By attacking a foe with the Power Shot, several bubbles will be left
surrounding the enemy.  Destroy the enemy with as many bubbles
remaining and receive a multiplier bonus.

It's really quite simple in theory, but learning the timing is key.



Bullets
-------

Because the number of bullets has increased, the opportunity for
ridiculous amounts of gold rises.  By combining the Power Shot
and the possibility for hundreds of enemy bullets coming at you
at once, you can raise your multiplier and get a ton of gold
all at once.



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                                    CREDITS
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As I mentioned in the foreward, much of the information contained
herein comes from various other sources.  Many thanks go out to
the following people and sites for their assistance in the
creation of this document.


Shmups Forum
     http://dynamic5.gamespy.com/%7Eshmups/shmupsforum/index.php
The Next Level Forum
     http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/
Other Sites
     http://arcadeita.hp.infoseek.co.jp/espgaluda/1085398612.html

  Bernard Doria
  Douggie
  Zakk



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                                 LEGAL STUFF
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This FAQ is copyright (c) 2004-05, Trevor Esposito ([email protected])
ESP Galuda is copyright (c) 2003-2004, Cave
ESP Galuda and ESP Ra.De. are trademarks of Cave.

You may not distribute this for profit.
You may not edit or alter the contents herein without the permission
of the author.

The most current version of this FAQ can always be found at the
following address:

    http://www.slateman.net/faqs/


Hope the FAQ was useful in some form.

Good luck and have fun!

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