Finally got some time to myself, in what seems like an absolute age, to update the blog with a new entry, although part of the issue with the delay in posting this has been the game I’m going to talk about – Battle Garegga. I have actually owned the game for a few years now, but only recently have I actually sat down with it and tried to learn and understand its many intricacies.

During the 1990’s shoot ’em ups under went something of an evolution in arcades with strategies being needed to be more adhered to rather than just blasting away at whatever it was that was in-front of you. Mechanics were put in place to not only make you figure out the best ways to survive, or defeat a boss, but also on how to amass the highest scores. Toaplan’s Batsugun began the trend of creating bullet hell shoot ’em ups, a style that Cave would go on to embrace after Toaplan’s demise, and a technique Raizing would also implement, but with a different style to Cave.

Battle Garegga was originally launched into arcades by Raizing in 1996, before being ported to the Sega Saturn two years later. Garegga was Raizing’s fourth release and is probably the game it is most well known for after Armed Police Batrider. Sadly, Garegga was Raizing’s last shoot ’em up to get a home port (Sōkyūgurentai was released on the Saturn in 1997), yet the mark this game has made can not be underestimated. Today, Battle Garegga is revered by many shoot-em-up fans and frequently can be found at the top of “best of” polls; but it also alienates many with its complex rank system and “invisible” bullets.

The game plot mumbles something about two brothers who start producing weapons for the mysterious “Federation” before they realise the mistake they’ve made as the weapons are turned against the world; and they then set out to stop the Federation and its dastardly plans. You, and a friend in two-player. if you’re that way inclined, get to choose one fighter from a set of four to go out and free the world and kick Federation-ass over 7 stages.

Garegga employs a mechanic known as “rank”. From the moment you begin playing, the game starts to calculate your fire rate, how many power-up’s you are using, how many options you are employing to assist you, how many bombs you have, how many lives you have, and it starts to adjust the aggressiveness of the enemies accordingly, and thus the difficulty level. For example, go into a boss fight with all guns blazing, powered up to the hilt, you are going to face a barrage of heavy enemy bullet patterns that will inevitably end in death. What can make things annoying for some is that there is no way of measuring your rank – no meter, no gauge, no warning. However, there is a way of managing your rank. The obvious methods are collecting less power-up’s, holding less bomb stock and not having auto fire constantly engaged. The other, slightly more “dramatic” way of controlling the rank, and the method that made the game controversial at the time, is to die. Deliberately.

Yes, in most games you not only want to achieve as high a score as possible, but you also want to complete the game on 1cc and no lives lost. In Battle Garegga it can pay dividends to die, and in certain areas is part and parcel of a successful strategy to overcome the enemy. I cannot say I’ve got suiciding down myself yet, but it definitely helps to get the job done.

The rank system is not the only part of Garegga that gets flak. Raizing chose to have enemies fire “realistic” looking bullets rather than the bright pink and orange bullets that were starting to become the rage during the mid-nineties shoot ’em up boom. However, occasionally enemy bullets can get lost in explosions or in the background and you’ll end up dying (unintentionally). This has happened to me a few times, however, I would say that more often than not, I do not get caught out by this so I do not see it as a major flaw in the game by any stretch of the imagination. The Saturn port allows you, through the options, to change the bullets from “normal” to the “energy” type, although not all bullet patterns are converted.

Outside of controlling the rank and dodging bullets, there are countless opportunities to earn huge high-scores, and many of these are hidden or are initially subtle. There is a medal system which increases in value every time you collect one that is dropped, provided you keep a chain going. Miss a medal and system resets back down to the smallest value and you have to build the chain back up again. Medals are also hidden in the scenery, which can be destroyed with your bombs, and collected accordingly. Other ways of clocking up high scores include shooting flamingos (early in Stage 2 if you know where to look), and boss milking; but for the latter you first need to understand how the boss’s attack you and how to counter attack rather than just blast the living daylights out of them. Indeed, Battle Garegga is a very deep and complex shoot ’em up, but very rewarding for those who choose to learn it. There are many other hidden features, and you can even unlock four additional fighters to use from Raizing’s Mahou Daisakusen series; there is much longevity to be had in fully exploring all Garegga has to offer.

The graphics are well drawn and the animation highly detailed with their World War 2 like appearance, and this holds up well today despite the game’s age. The pallet used is perhaps a little too dull and military at times, but I do not feel it detracts terribly from the overall experience. The soundtrack is great, and the arranged version for the Saturn port is one of the best shoot ’em up soundtracks I’ve heard to date. As with most Raizing games I’ve played, the presentation is superb, they clearly thought highly of their product.

Battle Garegga received a direct sequel in 1999 called Battle Bakraid, and although generally well thought of, it does not receive the attention of Garegga; I would assume the lack of a home console port being a major contributing factor and that the PCB is difficult, and expensive, to obtain. Garegga also has strong connections to Raizing’s own Armed Police Batrider, and Cave’s 2004 release Ibara, both of which had Shinobu Yagawa as lead programmer.

If you are prepared to put the time in and learn Battle Garegga so that you can play it how it is intended to be played, the game is immensely rewarding and I would highly recommended it to any shoot ’em up fan looking for a challenge. If you’re more into shoot ’em up’s as a casual player, Battle Garegga is probably best to be avoided as you will not get an awful lot out of it, and neither the Saturn port or original PCB are particularly cheap these days. Personally, now I know more about how the game’s mechanics work, I really enjoy it, and I shall endeavour to put more time into it, and then hopefully, one day, I might actually be half-good at it!

Battle Garegga

Version tested: Sega Saturn (NTSC/J)
Also available on: JAMMA PCB