Assault Suit Leynos 2

[Iron Draggon]

WOOHOO! I finally made it past the first mission! And not only that, but I made it past the other 6 missions too! I must've really been in the zone!

So here's what happens: Once you finally figure out how to beat the first boss, so you can get past the first mission, the rest of the missions are just a matter of equipping the right weapons for the job. As long as you do that, the rest of the game isn't nearly as hard as the first boss seemed to be.

Now don't get me wrong, the rest of the game is still very challenging, but it's alot easier once you figure out what weapon combinations you need for each of the missions. Of course I had to do this by trial and error, and I still died alot even when I did have the right weapons equipped, but I didn't die nearly as much as I did on that first mission, trying to beat that first boss!

But here's where it gets very interesting: Once you complete all 7 missions, the game starts over again, but this time the missions are slightly different, and even more difficult than they were the first time! So clearly that's where it's all gonna get very hard for me now. I have no idea how many times the game is gonna repeat itself, but I still only have 2 different mechs to choose from, and there are empty slots for alot more than that! I don't think I even have half of all the different weapons yet. So obviously there's still a ton of replay value left in this game, if I can ever get good enough at it to master it.

I also scored very poorly on most of the missions too, so just because I made it past them doesn't mean that I did it right. I saw some ending credits after I completed the 7th mission, but I doubt that it's the best ending that I could've seen, and I know it isn't the real ending, because I still have alot more of the game left to complete first. I think it's cool how it rolls over and increases the difficulty on you though. It was already very difficult, so I'm afraid that it may become impossible for me. I know what to do now, but the details change just enough after it rolls over to keep you surprised. And of course the bosses become more difficult too, so believe it or not, that first boss can and will get even worse the second time around! Great, huh?

The only thing that I haven't figured out yet is exactly how the weapon system works. I have 2 empty slots on the top, 2 empty slots in the middle, and 4 empty slots on the bottom. So I can fill up all the empty slots with weapons, but there doesn't seem to be any way to switch between them all in the game. I still can only use the A button for the main weapon, and the X & Y buttons for the extra weapons. The B button is for jumping and flying, the C button is for the shield, and the Z button switches between manual targeting and auto targeting. The R button is for the dash, and the L button doesn't seem to do anything. I thought it would be for switching the weapons, but if it is, I must not be doing it right. So I'm not sure why I can equip all those extra weapons that I can't even use yet, but I need to know!

I was thinking maybe the extra slots are for what will kick in when whatever you were using before it runs out, but that doesn't seem to be it either. I can still run out of ammo with some weapons, and when I do, that button just becomes useless. It doesn't seem to be very obvious which weapons will be assigned to which buttons when you equip them either. So if anyone else has a full understanding of the way all that works, I'd love to hear it.

Now I don't wanna know which weapon I should use for what, or how all the other systems work, because I'd rather try to figure all those out by trial and error too. It's really amazing how customizable your mechs are, once you finally get past that first boss, so you can change it to your liking. I wasn't expecting that at all, so when I found out that the only reason that first boss was so hard was because I had weak weapons equipped, I fixed that right away! And of course you get more new weapons and upgrades as you go along too, so it's just as cool as it can be. This game totally rocks now!

Unfortunately though, the backup battery in my Saturn is dead, and I don't use a 4-in-1 for playing imports, so I just lost all that hard work and progress, and I have to start all over again from the beginning! But I'm not doing that until I take that dead battery out and get a new one put in there. So next time I'm totally gonna save all my progress, because the last boss is pretty hard! It's not too bad though, so I really think the trick is just getting past the first boss and completing the first mission. The rest of it seemed pretty easy for me, which kinda surprised me because I don't think I'm that good at videogames, but I guess I've just played enough over the years to learn a few of the standard lessons. I'm sure that helped me out alot with this one.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share my accomplishment with everyone here. Now I'm enjoying this game way more than I was before, and I was already enjoying the heck out of it, even though I kept dying on the first boss over and over again! It really is a sweet game, so I can't believe that it was never released here, or at least translated by someone by now. That's the only thing that I don't like about it, being unable to read all the dialogue. It has a ton of it, and I would love to know what the story is, but at least I can still enjoy the rest of it. I may have to try learning how to read some Japanese though. It really is annoying to know you're missing out on a game's story!

[Dire 51]

I tip my hat to you, sir, for you have done something that I was never able to.

[Iron Draggon]

Thanks. I can't believe that I actually did it myself. I didn't think that I was ever gonna get past the first boss. But I sure wish that the battery backup in my Saturn wasn't dead! I can't believe that I spent all that time doing all that work, and now I'm gonna have to do it all over again just to get back to where I was before. I finally stopped after a few tries to beat the level 1 boss again, because I knew I couldn't stop there if I beat it again, and I still wouldn't be able to save my progress if I ended up beating the game, so I'll juat have to wait until next time and start all over again. It'll still be great fun.

But at least I've seen all the levels now, and I must say it's a very impressive game for it's time. Level 2 is very platformer-ish, lots of jumping up to scale the cliffs and lots of falling boulders to dodge, with a big boss at the top. Level 3 was very strange, it seemed to be just a one-on-one fight with another mech. As soon as I killed it, the level was over, so it only lasted a few minutes and I didn't get to explore how big the level was. Level 4 is an escort mission, you have to protect a convoy of trucks from attack. Level 5 is the first space battle, you have to defeat a pretty nasty boss. Level 6 is another space battle, but this time you have to defeat several of those nasty bosses. Fortunately they don't seem to be as mean as they were the first time around though. Then you move on to a large fortress with several ways into it. The important thing here is to choose the right way in, one is very easy, one is 50/50, and one is very hard. If you make it past all the defenses, you go down to fight another mech boss, which was alot more difficult than the mech boss on level 3. After you defeat him, he transforms into some kind of huge battleship type mech, and he flees. So level 7 is just you chasing him and defeating him, but you have to do it within a certain amount of time. The first time you face him, you don't get a chance to change your weapons, but if you continue after that you can equip some different weapons, thank goodness, or else I never would've defeated him.

So I'm very curious to see how much more difficult the game is gonna be the second time through. It was already very hard, but my mech was much more powerful by the time I got back to level 1 again, so the difficulty should be about the same. It may be a little more difficult, but I think that I had all the right weapons for the job by then, and I would've gotten more if I had defeated the level 1 boss again. You usually get some new weapons or some kind of upgrade after each level, and the best thing to do is take advantage of what they give you when they give it to you, because they usually give it to you for a reason. It's also a good idea to equip two or more of the same weapon sometimes. That way when one runs out, you can still use the other one. That's how I killed the mech boss at the bottom of the big fortress, but those weapons ended up being useless against him after he transformed, so that's why I was glad that I got to change my weapons.

I will post what happens next here after I get a new battery installed and can save my progress and start over again. Hopefully I'll get a much better score this time. That's the only reason it doesn't bother me that much that I have to start over, my score was zero for almost all of the missions, and I don't know how I was supposed to get a higher score, because I thought that I was very lucky just to survive them all! Especially without being able to use any of all those messages my other team members keep giving me to my advantage, because I can't read any of them. I still wish I knew what they all said. It's annoying to just have to click through them all because of that.

Anyhow, it took me several hours and a ton of continues to get that far, so thank goodness there's unlimited continues, or I'd still be on level one! It is a very difficult game, even if you choose the right weapons, but that seems to have a very large effrect on the outcome. If you just aren't doing well at all and don't even seem to be getting close to succeeding, you probably have the wrong weapons equipped. I'm not sure what all the devices are for and what all of them do, but I'm sure that they helped alot too. I just used the power boosters, weapon boosters, shield boosters, and extra weapon bays for the whole game, but I still wish I knew how to use all the weapons that I had equipped, because I'm still not sure how that whole system works. I guess I was just "in the zone" like I said. Next time I may wonder how I ever managed to get so far the last time. I sure was a mean fighting machine though! I did much better than I ever did at Target Earth, but then I never got so determined to do well at Target Earth either. Maybe I should play that in the meantime for practice. It couldn't hurt. I may have to dig out Cybernator and Metal Warriors for the SNES again too. Now that I'm finally down with fighting in Leynos, I should be down with fighting in Valken too.

[Iron Draggon]

Well I got me a new backup battery today, so I'm in the process of redoing the first 7 missions now. And I finally figured out how to switch to all those extra weapons that I've been carrying too! For some reason, I never tried the start button, assuming that it would just pause the game. So you can pause at any time to bring up a menu of several options, among which is one that lets you swap out one weapon for another one that you're carrying, if you equipped it. So that extra weapon bay is gonna be a zillion times more useful to me this time around, and so are the other ones that I didn't know how to use. Now when I run out of ammo, I can switch my dead gun for a live one! I knew there had to be some way to reload. So I'm beginning to think that the main reason this game is so hard for most people is because they never figure out how to play it properly. Maybe I should write a tutorial.

Another thing I learned that may not be obvious enough for most people is the way the list of available weapons works. When you get a look at that menu for the first time, there's 6 different machine guns visible, and all the squares below them are empty. But that menu scrolls down, and way down to reveal a ton of other available weapons. So looking at it when you first see it, you might think there's no point in scrolling down, because all the squares below the first 6 are empty, but that couldn't be further from the truth. There's alot more weapons waiting for your perusal below those 6 empty squares, and as the game progresses you'll find even more weapons available to you there. So I'm thinking that alot of people are trying to get through the whole game using nothing but the default mech that was given to them on the first level, which would certainly make it very difficult, if not impossible. Either that or they just aren't learning how all the controls work, or they just aren't equipping the right weapons for the mission they're on.

Anyhow, I'm off to kick this game's ass bigtime now! I beat the first boss on the first try this time, but I still got a score of zero for the mission, so I'm kinda debating whether I should play that mission over again or not. I have my progress saved so far, so I guess maybe I should go back and redo it now, before I start getting further on in the game again. Maybe I'll get a better score. This is gonna be so sweet! Now that I finally know how to control everything, and I already know how to defeat all the bosses and complete all the missions, how can I not kick some ass and take down some names? I'll be back with another progress report later. ASL2, I own you!

[Dire 51]

I'm reminded of the time my Saturn's battery died. I lost all my Radiant Silvergun save files.

Anyway, glad to hear you're doing this good with the game. I remember once referring to it as "hell encoded onto a little plastic disc", which it definitely was to me.

[Iron Draggon]

Well, time to take a little break from it now. I may be doing well enough to advance through all the missions, but my score is still zero, so I'm not doing that well yet! I finally completed mission 4 again. I think that one is one of the most difficult ones. You have to stay totally ahead of it the whole time.

First of all, you have to hurry up and catch up to the convoy of trucks that you're supposed to be protecting. Then you have to stay as far ahead of it as you can, while clearing all the enemies out of it's path. Finally, you get to a point where the scroll won't let you proceed any further. Then a bunch of enemies pop out of nowhere for a final ambush. And you have to kill all of those enemies before that convoy disappears off the edge of the screen, or else it will be destroyed by some unseen enemies that you can't possibly kill because the scroll won't let you continue escorting the convoy anymore.

I'm gonna make sure that I keep a backup of all my saves on my RAM cart now. I don't remember if I ever did that before or not, I'll have to check. I know I kept thinking that I should do it, but I don't remember if I ever did it. Probably not, I'm real bad about that. So I probably lost all my saves too.

I'll continue on through missions 5 - 7 later on today. I had to retry mission 4 so many times that I'm exhausted, and if I keep pressing on right now I'm just gonna get even more frustrated with it, because I'm sure that I'll have to repeat all those alot too. I went through missions 1 - 3 like they were all nothing, but I'm still puzzled about the mission 3 objective. It's just that one mech guy and you in some kind of small battle arena with a number of small platforms that you can jump around on, and it's not hard to kill him at all, but I still couldn't even get a score for that one either! I thought surely I would.

Anyhow, I hope my Saturn and the new Sony battery I got don't get pissed off at each other. I thought that was really funny, putting a Sony battery in a Sega console. Now I know how Sony managed to win the 32bit wars!

[Iron Draggon]

Well I finally got back to playing this one again, and I'm back to where I was now. I went through missions 5 - 7 like they were nothing this time, and I finally got a score again, on the final mission, of all things. So now I've moved up in rank from E to D, which should help me out somehow. There seems to be somewhat of an RPG element to this game, you get exp points for every enemy you kill, and that seems to be translated into how much you have to spend at the mech shop when it's time to go shopping for parts for a mission.

I'm still not entirely sure about all that, and how it all works, but it's definitely better to have a higher rank, as you would expect. Hopefully I'll be able to move up again soon, maybe that's what determines whether or not you get any new mechs to choose from. I still only have two mechs available to me right now, so I'm very anxious to see a new one. But at least I have all the weapons that I had before again, but some of them are greyed out, just like they were before. I dunno why it gives me some weapons that I can't use, but I'm wondering if maybe that has something to do with my rank or my exp points too. It could just be that they're too heavy for me to carry yet.

Anyhow, I'm off to learn how to beat the game the second time around, so now I'm back on mission 1 and that huge boss again, with a much better mech than I had the first time I faced it. Too bad it's gonna be alot meaner than it was the first time I faced it too, but at least I made it back to where I left off the first time, so now I can finally find out what happens next! I'll keep you all posted, I'm sure the game is gonna have alot more surprises.

[Dire 51]

You keep posting your ASL2 experiences, I'll keep reading them.

[Iron Draggon]

Well, I made it through all 7 missions again, but strangely enough, it never gave me any new weapons or upgrades or anything the whole time, even though my score was much better for every single mission! And that was even more amazing in itself, because it's twice as difficult the second time through! So I'm wondering if I have to beat the game with the other mech now. I haven't used it yet, because it's weaker, but that would be just like the typical video game formula to double the difficulty on you when you have to use a mech that's only half as strong as the one you used before.

I'm very puzzled by it now, because I beat mission 1 for the 3rd time, just to see if it would give me anything new at the end, but it didn't, so I didn't save it. Now I'm glad I didn't too, because if I'm supposed to use the other mech now, I don't wanna mess up my progress. But I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to do next. There's still a ton of weapons and devices that I don't have yet, a few weapons that I still can't use yet, and apparently alot more mechs that I have yet to unlock. I sure hope that I don't have to do something impossible like get an A rank on every mission. I did get an A rank on the first and last missions, but those are the only ones I've done it on so far. The rest were all E the first time through, and C or D the second time through. So I think it's kinda strange that I have yet to get a B rank also.

Anyhow, the ending wasn't any different the second time through, still the same Japanese text at the end, that I hope isn't trying to tell me what I'm supposed to be doing next, or I may never find out what I'm supposed to do now. I don't think there's any options to change the difficulty, so it can't be that I'm supposed to do it on a harder setting now. The only way I see to make it more difficult is to use the weaker mech, and that's really all that I can think of to do it any differently now, so I'm almost sure that has to be it.

So I'll try that next, but I'm not exactly looking forward to it. That second time through was almost too hard for me to do it, so if it gets very much harder, I may not be able to make it through without a ton more practice. Interestingly though, the 3rd time through mission 1 seemed to be the same difficulty as the 2nd time through it, so that's another thing that makes me think that maybe I'm supposed to use the other mech now. It has to be there for a reason, and I was wondering why they'd offer me a mech that was weaker than the one I was using. So I might have been supposed to use that one the first time through, when it wasn't as hard as it gets after that, but it's too late for that now without starting over again.

If using the other mech doesn't do it, then I guess I have to get an A rank on all the missions, but if that isn't it either, then I really don't know what to do. I would think that maybe the other stuff that I don't have yet is for the other mech, but that doesn't explain why I have some weapons that are greyed out, unless they give you some weapons that only the other mech can use. I guess they could make you use one mech to unlock parts for the other mech, but I kinda doubt that. Maybe they're only for a mech that I don't have yet, that would be interesting, but then that would be the same thing as what I just said I doubted. Who knows what's going on now, it could be just about anything at this point. All I know is it's alot harder now!

Stay tuned for round 3, I'm bound to learn something from using the other mech, but the only weapon that's getting me through all the missions now is the napalm gun. I had to use that for every mission the 2nd time through, so I just loaded myself up with as many of them as I could carry, and then swapped the dead ones out for new ones whenever I had to. I wish that I had some kind of grenades or bombs or something to blow stuff up instantly in emergency situations though, because I sure could use a panic weapon! I don't think it's very fair that the enemy can toss grenades at me, and drop bombs on me, but I can't do either one of those things to them. So I hope those things are among the weapons that I haven't unlocked yet, because this game really needs them! I thought there was alot of slowdown in parts of some of the missions the first time through, but that was nothing at all compared to the slowdown in parts of some of the missions the second time through. The main difference is the enemy just throws alot more firepower at you, but they also increase in numbers in places, so you get into alot of heavily concentrated pockets of them, with all of them firing at you like you wouldn't believe, while you're giving them everything you've got with your own weapons. If this isn't a shmup, then it damn well should've been one!

[Iron Draggon]

Well I did this all wrong alright, so I may have to start over from the very beginning AGAIN! I must've been right about having to use the other mech to go through the game again, because the first thing that I found out is that it can use all the weapons that the other mech couldn't use, and it can't use some of the weapons that the other mech could use. So wouldn't you know that it can't use the napalm gun, which was the ONLY weapon I found that was effective enough against all the enemies on the increased difficulty of the second time through, and I'm getting absoultely slaughtered now! So obviously I was supposed to use the weaker mech for all the missions the first time through, and then use the stronger mech for all the missions the second time through. I'm gonna try to find something in my arsenal that will get me through the second time with the weaker mech, but I'm afraid that's gonna prove to be futile. No wonder it didn't seem as hard as I thought it was gonna be with the stronger mech, that one is supposed to be for the increased difficulty of the second time through!

But worse yet, I don't remember when I unlocked the napalm gun with the stronger mech, but if the weaker one can't unlock it too, I'm still gonna be screwed even if I do start all over again, unless I find another weapon or another strategy that works against all the extra enemies on the second time through! So I'm definitely on the right track for unlocking all the rest of the stuff in the game now, but I'm afraid that I really did do it all in the opposite order that I should've done it in. So if you were using the weaker mech the first time through, no wondfer you were having so much trouble while I seemed to be doing so much better with the stronger mech. Of course I did better, that one is supposed to be for the second time through! So this is HARD HARD HARD HARDCORE HARD HARD HARD without a doubt! OMG I can't believe that I'm gonna have to start all over again from the very beginning again! The second time through is just WAY too hard to try doing it with the weaker mech, because I just barely did it with the stronger one! Oh this game is so SWEET, but SHEESH the difficulty of it is just INSANE!

Oh well, at least I know all the missions by heart now, and I know what I'm up against the second time through. So if I do start it all over again, at least I do know what I'm doing, but DAMN, I've already started over once and played through all the missions 3 times now, and I'm STILL not doing it right! I guess it really would help if I could read all the Japanese, surely the manual or something gives you a clue about what you need to do without having to figure it all out the hard way like I have, but then I dunno. I'm pretty sure they made a strategy guide for this game. I would think they'd have to, as hard as it is, so I know that it would tell you the best way to attack this beast. Maybe I'll try to track it down soon, even though I can't read all the Japanese, maybe I could learn something from the pictures. And at least I'd have all the artwork to enjoy no matter what. I know there's a strategy guide for Assault Suit Valken 2, because I found it already, and I've been thinking about getting it too. I was planning to try that one next, as soon as I get a converter for my PSX. And I'm sure that it's just as hard as this game is, if not even worse, since it's a tactical strategy RPG type of game instead of a shmup or a run & gun or whatever the hell you wanna say that ASL 2 is.

Yeah baby, your review of this game wasn't joking at all, Rob. This has to be one of the single most challenging and insanely difficult games that I've ever played, and yet it's so damn addictive I just can't give up on it, because I wanna see what happens next! I just know that it must be chock full of even more stuff, if I can get past all the missions with the first two mechs, but if it gets anymore difficult after that (And I'm sure it will!) then I just dunno what I'm gonna do. I wish that I had what I need to take some screenshots from further along in the game for you, it's just nuts on the second time through. The main difference is that there's a constant barrage of missiles everywhere, and that's what's killing the shit out of me, even with the stronger mech. You just can't keep enough ammo to blast through everything, but you just can't dodge it all either, so it's definitely one of the ultimate 2D mech games. I'm glad I finally got it, but I may never beat it myself, and I've actually learned enough about it to know what I'm doing! Now that is TOUGH, and I don't even think that I'm a very good gamer!

I'll let you know if I make anymore progress with it, but I'm afraid that it's gonna be real slow going from here, unless one of those new weapons that I haven't been able to use before is a miracle worker. I sure hope so! So I'm off to fight the good fight against all those bastards again for now, and I will be back later with another report about all my experiences in combat ASAP!

[Iron Draggon]

Well as usual, I'm stuck on mission 4 again, that one is definitely the hardest mission in the game. But at least I did figure out the right combination of weapons to get this far with the weaker mech without having to start all over again. I even slaughtered the shit out of the mission 1 boss this time, I'm getting to where I can beat him in record time and not even run out of ammo or have to change weapons or use anything but one of the gatling guns on his ass, and that's after I've worked my way through everything else on the way to get to him with that gun too! I didn't even have to use the shield to protect myself from him this time, now that is seriously kicking that mofo's ass like the bitch he is! I wish that I could've recorded that battle this time, it would definitely show you how to defeat him and earn the A rank.

But I'm still not getting anymore new weapons or anything at the end of the missions, so I still dunno what the hell I'm supposed to do. I'm hoping that if I can just get through the game with this weaker mech this time that it will unlock at least one new mech to use, surely something has to happen. So now I'm guessing that maybe the reason why I'm not getting anymore new weapons or anything is because all the stuff that remains is for all the other mechs. That has to be it, or at least I hope that's it, because if it isn't them I'm definitely gonna be stuck. But there's still alot more left to unlock in this game for sure, I'm counting 6 mechs that I have yet to unlock, if all those empty squares up there are eventually gonna be replaced with mechs.

So I'm still working on it, but I'm having a devil of a time getting through mission 4 with the weak mech. If I can just get past it, I'm pretty sure that I can get past the last 3 missions without very many problems, and then that should unlock at least one new mech or something, but I may be stuck on mission 4 for a while. It always does give me alot of problems, even with the strong mech and the napalm gun, that mission is just one big pain in the ass. I'm sick and tired of having to protect that stupid convoy! Let it get blown up, why is it so damned important? They sure as hell aren't letting me have whatever the hell is in that tanker that's so vitally important for some reason!

[Iron Draggon]

Well I finally got the weak mech through mission 4 with the help of the laser gun. It turns out that it's quite easy if you use that, and use it properly. I have 2 different laser guns so far. One is much stronger than the other one, but it can only be used by the weak mech, so this is the first time that I've been able to use the strong laser gun. And I must say it's very impressive! But it helps to equip 2 of them, just in case one runs out of energy though, because they do tend to use up all their energy rather quickly, especially if you fire their beams at full strength, which of course is the most desireable. They do very heavy damage very quickly that way. In fact, I think the strong laser is the strongest weapon that I have in my arsenal right now. So I will be using it for missions 5 & 6 also, as I have always been using that for the bosses and mini-bosses on those levels anyhow. The only other weapon that I've used that can kill them effectively is the napalm gun, but the weak mech can't use that gun, as mentioned before. So I'm just toting a gatling gun and 2 laser guns plus a shield right now. I was toting 2 spread guns instead of the 2 laser guns, and the strong missiles, which are another weapon that can't be used by the strong mech, but the laser guns are too heavy to tote a couple of them with more than one or two more weapons while still wearing the strongest armor and carrying 4 devices, which of sourse is also the most desireable thing to do. So it still holds true that as long as you equip yourself properly for each mission, then you shouldn't have very much trouble getting through them no matter which mech you're using. So if you're having alot of trouble getting through a mission, you probably just need to re-equip your mech in a different way until it becomes relatively easy for you. I literally kicked the shit out of mission 4 this time!

So, I'm off to breeze through missions 5 & 6 now, and then I'll be doing some re-equipping again, because the laser guns are pretty much useless againt the mission 7 boss for some reason, or at least the weak laser guns are. I'll try it with the strong ones a few times just to see, but I'm pretty sure that I'll have to rely on the gatling guns for that one, that's how I've been getting through it every time, except when I was using the napalm gun. I really wish that the weak mech could use the napalm gun, because I really like that weapon. It does some very heavy damage very quickly too, but not as much as the laser guns do. The bazookas do some very heavy damage also, but their ammo supply is dreadfully insufficient for getting through a whole mission with them, so they're like the assault rifles, they're really only good for defeating large enemies very quickly when you need to, and then you have to switch back to something else for all the smaller ones. And the same thing goes for the spread guns, they're great for stuff like the mission 1 boss, which you have no choice but to use on him when you first start the game, but other than that they just don't have enough ammo to rely on them for a whole mission. So I use the machine guns for getting through most of the missions, until I get the gatling guns, which are like a supercharged version of the machine guns and thus much more effective.

Gee, It's beginning to sound like I should write a strategy guide of my own for this game now, isn't it? I still wish that I had some kind of grenades or bombs though, and whatever kind of missiles the enemy relies so heavily on for the second time through the game. I don't know what kind of missiles they are, but they're some damn good missiles, and the enemy seems to have an endless supply of them. If I could just fire off nothing but a constant barrage of missiles like they're doing now, then I could kick their asses easily, but at least I do have much better guns than most of them do, so I guess it's a fair tradeoff. The most powerful weapon the enemy has besides all the missiles is a type of mech that uses something like the gatling guns. Those bastards will kill you dead in a few seconds, even if you're at full strength with no damage, so whenever you see those guys, you'd better let 'em have it with all you've got immediately, because that's exactly what they're gonna do to you. And worse yet, the auto-tracking for your weapons will always lock onto airborne enemies and projectiles before it locks onto any ground based enemies, so defeating those gatling gun mechs can be a real problem if you're using the auto tracking. Sometimes I switch it off when I see those guys, especially when there's a large cluster of them like there is throughout mission 4, but then you run the risk of getting killed by all the missiles and bombs raining down on you all the time, which is also constant.

You know, I really love the amount of strategy and tactics in this game. No other shmup that I've ever played has ever relied so heavily on strategy for defeating the enemy, no matter how many weapons and special weapons they give you to choose from, so it's really cool to see such a dramatic difference in the outcome of the missions depending on how you've equipped your mech. I'm really glad that the menus for all that stuff are in English, because if I didn't know what I was doing with that aspect of the game, it would be impossible for me to do as well as I'm doing and ghet as far as I've gotten. I wonder if there's any Japanese players who can't read any English who are totally lost as to what to do because of all the English in those menus? Surely they must hate trying to play this game because of that, because it would be just like me trying to do well if all those menus were in Japanese. I'd still be on mission 1, the first time through, going what the hell am I supposed to do? So we really lucked out that at least that much is in English. All we're really missing out on is the story, so I hope that I can find a translation for it or translate it myself someday, because I'd really like to know what all the dialogue is saying. It looks like a pretty good story.

This is what I've pieced together about the story so far: Mission 1 is just alot of talking back and forth between the main characters of your team during battle. Mission 2 is more of the same, until you get to the main enemy. He says something to you, but I dunno what it's about. Mission 3 is some sort of arena battle against another main enemy the first time through, and the second time through it's the same thing but then you have to defeat a second main enemy. Mission 4 is the dreaded convoy escort mission, and most of the talking besides all the banter of your team members is the constant whining of the truck driver, crying about how he has hardly any weapons and hardly any armor, and the enemy is determined to wipe him out at all costs. He really gets on my nerves. Every time I turn around, he's bitching about how I'm not protecting him enough, and he's about to get blown up. Sometimes I just let him get blown up on purpose, because he pisses me off. I do the best I can, but if he thinks that I'm not getting my ass kicked too, then he's crazy! Next time he should drive a truck that has some decent weapons and armor on it, like what I carry on my mech. But then that's why he relies so heavily on me to protect him, so I have to babysit his pathetically underprotected ass, the poor helpless little baby. Mission 5 is mostly your team members talking to you again, with the exciting addition of the mothership pilot for your missions in space. She makes you want to come home in one piece for sure, so she should've been the truck driver. Anyhow, there are some surprises here when the main enemy from mission 2 returns, apparently much to the dismay of you and your team members, who must've thought that he was dead when you killed him the first time. I wish that I knew more about what this part's about, because it looks interesting. Mission 6 is more of the same, but this time you don't seem to be very surprised when you run into that same main enemy again. The surprise comes later, when you run into the other main enemy from the arena battle in mission 3 again. This is when you discover the enemy's new ultimate weapon, which flees from you, with you in hot pursuit. Then it's on to mission 7, where most of the dialogue is between you and the mad doctor behind it all, or whoever he is. After you kill him, your mech loses all it's power and radio communications, and appears to be falling helplessly in space, due to the force of the huge blast from when you blow up the enemy's ultimate weapon. But much to your happy surprise, this effect is only temporary, and you regain radio contact just in time to recieve all your congratulations from your team members before the credits start rolling. But that's all that I know about the story so far. I'm sure there's alot more to it.

[Iron Draggon]

Well, I got through the rest of the missions with the weak mech now, and still nothing new! That's right, I've completed all 7 missions with both of the available mechs now, and I've unlocked nothing new at all since the first time that I completed all 7 missions! So my guess is that the secret to unlocking some more new mechs must be hidden in all the text that appears at the end of the game before the credits start rolling, but I'll be darned if I know what it says, so I really need some help from an ASL2 expert now! I think I've learned just about all that I can learn without learning to read Japanese.

I even found out that the laser guns are effective against the final boss, and in fact they're probably the most effective against it, or at least the strong laser gun is! The weak laser guns didn't seem to have any effect at all on the final boss, but the strong laser guns kicked it's ass way better than any other weapon that I've used against it! The only problem with using the laser guns on it is that you have to destroy it before it gets to the magnetic field, or whatever it is that you eventually get to if you take too long to defeat that boss. If you really take too long, you'll just die for no apparent reason at all, but otherwise if you reach that magnetic field, you can still use your laser guns, but they won't be able to recharge. So naturally this renders them useless, and if that's all that you have equipped, then you're just gonna die. Anyhow, maybe that's why I thought that the laser guns were useless against that boss before. I must've just waited too long to try using them. Plus the damage that they do to that boss isn't always readily apparent, as he takes a ton of hits. He's literally a giant flying fortress of all different kinds of firepower, so you really have to fight him a long time, no matter what you use against him, but you'd better stay as close to him as you can, or you'll never defeat him before you get to that magnetic field and your game ends!

Anyhow, it seems that I've gone as far as I'm ever gonna go without some sort of code to unlock some more new mechs. Unless I have to get an A rank for every mission, or finish the game with an average of the A rank, but I don't really think that's it. I guess that could be it, but I'm not gonna play all the way through this game again trying to do that. I'm ready for some codes now. There has to be some way to unlock some more new stuff, because there's obviously still a ton of stuff left to unlock, but it must be hidden in all that text at the end of the game. I didn't see anything that looked like a series of button combinations though. It's all kanji, except for what looks like the names of two different new mechs, which is what leads me to believe that they're trying to tell me something about how to unlock them. So I'm just lost. I've gone as far as I can figure out how to get, I've mastered the shit out of the game thus far, but there are no more rewards for me. All I can do is repeat what I've altready done over and over again.

So, if anybody reading this has any advice at all for unlocking some more new stuff in this game, please let me know. The language barrier has me totally stumped now, and I can progress no further without some sort of codes or instructions as to what I'm supposed to do next. I know there's alot more to this game, because I can see all the empty squares where more stuff that I'm supposed to unlock goes, but I'll be damned if I know how to unlock it.

HELP! I wanna keep going in this game, but I have no idea what to do now!

[Dire 51]

Cripes - if I ever get ASL2 again, I know who to go to for tips. Nice work here.

[Iron Draggon]

Well you'd better get it again someday! I still need alot of help with figuring out how to unlock more mechs! I'm completely lost on that! No idea at all!

[Dire 51]

I'll have to get a Saturn and converter too... we'll see.

*grumble* Dammit, I'd like another copy of Radiant Silvergun while I'm at it...

[Iron Draggon]

UGH, Radiant Silvergun has gotten way too overhyped for it's own good. There's a sealed one on ebay right now, over $200, and the reserve STILL hasn't been met! Utterly ridiculous. It's not even rare! I'm so over the hype...

[Dire 51]

I snagged a copy of RS originally before I really knew what it was about, I just thought it looked cool when I saw it sitting in the local EB (back when EB used to sell import Saturn games). It wasn't until much later on that I found out that it was so sought after and demanding insane prices on eBay.

I really enjoyed the game, and I would love another copy - but now I may have to go the eBay route at some point in the future to get it. *sigh*

[Iron Draggon]

Yeah, it SUCKS, because I could've gotten it at EB also, and the guys tried to tell me that I should get it or I would always regret it, I should've listened!

[Dire 51]

At least - if I never do get it again - I'll have my memories. And what sweet memories they are. *sigh*