Raiden V

Raiden V (雷電V Raiden Faibu) is the latest entry in the Raiden series, first released on February 25, 2016, for the Xbox One in Japan. An updated re-release, Raiden V: Director's Cut, was published for PlayStation 4, PC and Nintendo Switch by UFO Interactive.

Story synopsis

More information: Timeline of the Crystal War, the story of Raiden V

The events of Raiden V take place 17 years after the war began between humanity and the series antagonists, the Crystals. The game follows the campaign of the Bellwether, the flagship of the Vanquish Crystal Defense (VCD). Headed by commanding officer Richard "Max" Maxwell and communications officer Eshiria Portman, they direct the actions of Raiden, the pilot of one of the Fighting Thunders.

The campaign takes place in different locations around the world. During the campaign, Max and Eshiria learn more about their enemy, and encounter resistance from two human threats: the pirate Valbarossa Hawkeye and head of weapons development at VCD Lieutenant Walter Erick Campbell. A councilor of the International Peace Defense Force, Helga Lindenbaum, Max's superior, orders the VCD and Fighting Thunder to travel to the Crystal's homeworld to destroy the core controlling all Crystal activity on Earth. During their assault on the homeworld, Max and Eshiria learn the true purpose of the Crystal attack on humanity: it was not an alien invasion. The Crystals' true purpose is to annihilate all life on Earth by pollution and controlling their weapons, cleaning everything up, and making the planet habitable again, just as they did to the homeworld.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Raiden V is similar to the previous games, but has changes and new features that set this game apart from them.

Instead of a lives mechanic, the player's craft has a flexible shield meter. The shield can be replenished by collecting special items or, in Director's Cut, from the bonus stages. When the shield is depleted, the player's craft is destroyed, and the player will be asked to continue. Different aircraft can take different amounts of damage.

The Flash Point mechanic, first introduced in Raiden III, returns to this game with improvements over the original. There are 5 levels of the Flash Gauge, which coincides with the scoring multiplier. It starts at 2.0 and maxes out at 6.0. The Flash Gauge depletes during a stage and boss fight; defeating bosses quickly can minimize the loss of the Flash Gauge. Each scene and end of the stages gives 10,000 points per Flash Gauge level left.

Cheer System

New to Raiden V, the Cheer System is a mechanic used in conjunction with the new social features in the game. When players reach scoring milestones, advance through the game, or find secrets, a notification shows up. Players can give Cheers to other players as they receive notice of these achievements. Players can also receive Cheers from others. With enough Cheers (or automatically after a set time), a new skill called the Cheer Call is made available to the player. The Cheer Call clears all enemy bullets on the screen and their craft is joined by another player craft (based on the craft selected by the other player) which shoots out a special weapon until the Flash Gauge is depleted to initial. Using the Cheer Call reduces the Flash Point value to 1.0; it will not increase by any Cheer Call attack enemy kills.

Player craft

When starting a new game, the player is given a choice from three different Fighting Thunder craft. All three craft use the same bomb, similar to the Raiden III bomb used by the Fighting Thunder ME-02.

Country	Name	Nickname	Sub Shot	Miltary
Japan	FT-00004A	Azuma	Homing Rocket	Japan Air Self-Defence Force
United States	FT-00002C	Spirit of Dragon	Awl Missile	United States Navy & United States Air Force
France	FT-00003B	Moulin Rouge	Chase Laser	Armée de l'Air (French Air Force)

Weapons

The weapons in Raiden V are known as the Evo-CWS. After selecting their Fighting Thunder craft, players can select from three weapon types, each with three variations. Each of the 9 total weapons has 10 levels of power.

Vulcan

Wide Vulcan: The classic wide-spreading main gun originating from the first Raiden game. The weapon has the quality-of-life updates from Raiden III onward: it starts as a three-way spread shot, and it has automatic rapid-firing capabilities.
Swing Vulcan: This weapon fires continuously and behaves like Layis's standard shot weapon in Caladrius Blaze. This weapon swings slowly in the direction the player moves horizontally. Due to its continuous firing capability, it has a higher damage output than the Wide Vulcan.
Moving Vulcan: This weapon changes its shot spread width depending on the player's vertical movement. This weapon has only three streams of firepower: a forward shot from the center of the player's craft, and side vulcan streams that change direction. This is considered to be a difficult weapon to use.

Raiden V — Charge Laser in action. This is only at level 5 power.

Laser

Lightning Laser: The classic straight-firing blue laser from the original Raiden. Like in Raiden III and Raiden IV, the weapon fires a straight blue beam continuously. What this weapon lacks in coverage, it makes up for high damage potential. Powering up this weapon increases the width of the laser.
Charge Laser: This weapon releases a powerful wide laser beam when charged sufficiently. Collecting powerups increases the width of the Charge Laser itself.

Reflect Laser: When firing this weapon, a blue crystal is launched from the player's craft, hovering close to the location it was launched. The player's craft fires a standard blue laser that acts like the Lightning Laser. However, when the player shoots the blue crystal, the laser beam is refracted in multiple directions simultaneously, while rotating continuously. Effective use of the Reflect Laser involves placing the Blue Crystal in strategic locations, such as on top of bosses, in order to deal the most damage possible. Powering up this weapon increases the number of refracted lasers from the crystal from 3 lasers, to 4, and finally 5 at full power.

Plasma

Bend Plasma: The iconic lock-on plasma laser introduced in Raiden II. This weapon locks on to an enemy, dealing continuous damage. The laser can lock on to additional targets, damaging all affected targets at once. Unlike in Raiden II, the Bend Plasma starts in its lock-on form. Colliecting powerups increases the width and the damage potential of the weapon.
Catch Plasma: This weapon locks on to enemies like the Bend Plasma. However, the lock-on heads of the weapon only attach to enemies that come within the range of them. When firing the weapon, the lock-on heads remain a fixed distance and position from the player's craft, requiring the player to approach their target. It is possible for multiple lock-on heads to target the same enemy, dealing increased damage to them. This weapon is similar to one of Noah's elemental weapons in Caladrius Blaze. Collecting powerups will increase the number of lock-on heads and the distance they hover from the player's craft.
Homing Plasma: A weapon that shoots out multiple plasma rays that chase down targets on the screen. This weapon behaves similarly to the Aegis II-c's Laser weapon in Raiden Fighters 2, as well as the homing lasers in Caladrius. Collecting powerups increases the number of rays shot out at a time, as well as the weapon's rate of fire and damage potential.

Miscellaneous items

Other items appear during gameplay that the player can collect.

Bomb: Like the Raiden III bomb, it instantly deploys, clearing the screen of enemy bullets and damaging all enemies. Players start with 3 and can carry a maximum of 7. Remaining bombs in stock are worth 5,000 points each at the end of a stage.
Miclus: This blue monster is hidden in a location in each stage. It is revealed by shooting its hiding spot. Collecting it will award bonus points and trigger a Cheer milestone for other players.
Fairy: The fairy is hidden in various parts of each stage in the game, which appears when the player shoots the correct location. When the fairy is obtained, it will help the player when the craft is getting damage more than 50% of the shield, by replenishing 25% shield gauge. Collecting the Fairy will trigger a Cheer milestone for other players.
Sol: This is a tower hidden underground in a specific location in each stage. The Sol is revealed by hovering over its hiding spot, marked by a small pyramid on the ground. Destroying it when it is fully revealed will award bonus points and trigger a Cheer milestone for other players.
Medals: Medals appears as a shiny golden orb. Higher score medals appear as winged orbs. As in the previous Raiden games, only the accumulated total of medals influence the end-of-stage bonus (along with remaining fighters and bombs). However, medals will reset to 0 when a player loses a life, so a player is required to maintain their ship as very long until the end of a stage in order to have any collected medals count.

Characters and organizations

Main characters

Name	English voice actor	Japanese voice actor	Home country
Richard Maxwell	Xander Mobus	Kanehira Yamamoto	United States
Eshiria Portman	Rina Hoshino	Ayaka Imamura	Romania
Valbarossa Hawkeye	Sarah Anne Williams	Rika Kinugawa	Portugal
Walter Erick Campbell	Erik Scott Kimerer	Kenichi Inoue	United Kingdom
Helga Lindenbaum	Laura Post	Amano Mami	Germany

Organizations

Name
The Crystals
International Peace Defense Force
Vanguard for Crystal Destruction
SHIFT

Stages

Like Raiden III, there are eight stages that are played through once per run. Unique to this game, there is stage branching that takes players to different versions of the levels past the first one. The true final boss, Divine Rampart, can only be encountered when the player fully powers up their Vulcan, Laser, and Plasma weapons to level 10 before reaching Humpty Dumpty in Stage 8.

Stage	Name	Boss	BGM
1	Manhattan, New York City	Platon	Unknown Pollution
2	Crystal Mine, Middle East	Great Horn	Secret Cave
3	Port Michel, France	Kraken	Apostle's Maraud
M1*	Medal Mission 1	Sea Carrier	Hide-and-seek in a Sea
4	LHC Facility, France	Spice Birds	Intellect and Intelligence
5	Valbarossa's Pirate Ship	Blow of Hornet	Its Name Valbarossa
6	SHIFT Weapons Facility	Messiah	Fortress of Philosophy
M2*	Medal Mission 2	Sky Carrier	Tag in the Sky
7	Esrange Space Center	Angel	Far Journey
8	The Mother Planet	Humpty Dumpty Divine Rampart	Crystal of Abyss

* Medal Missions are exclusive to Raiden V: Director's Cut

Gallery

Videos

Raiden V - Teaser Trailer

Xbox One 『雷電V』 OP

External links

Raiden video games
Raiden series	Raiden ● Raiden II (DX) ● Raiden III ● Raiden IV (Overkill) ● Raiden V (Story)
Raiden Fighters series	Raiden Fighters ● Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive ● Raiden Fighters Jet (text transcript)
Compilations	The Raiden Project ● Raiden Fighters Aces ● Raiden Legacy
Other Seibu Kaihatsu/MOSS shmups	Stinger ● Scion ● Air Raid ● Viper Phase 1 ● Caladrius (Blaze)