, a bullet hell shooter by Cave

Cave (company)

Cave Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game company, known primarily for its manic shoot 'em ups. Cave remains one of the most active makers of arcade shoot-'em-ups in the Japanese market...

, was released in arcades on October 27, 2006 and is the sequel to Mushihime-sama

Mushihime-sama

is a manic shooter developed by Cave and released by Taito in 2004. It was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2005. The game has an insect theme as all of the enemies resemble various insects such as beetles and butterflies. The game is set in various forest environments...

. On the 21st of April 2009 it was announced at Microsoft's spring press conference in Japan that Mushihime-sama Futari would be released on the Xbox 360 in Japan on November 26, 2009.. Mushihime-sama Futari is often referred to be one of the hardest video games ever made.

Version 1.0

Selectable game modes include Original and Maniac, with unlockable Ultra mode, with each mode increasing in difficulty. The game features five stages, each with a boss and mid-boss. You can select two characters - Reco and Palm, and choose normal or abnormal shot type for each. The main scoring system in this game involves collecting gems. In Original and Ultra mode, the gem counter switches colour from green to blue every 500 gems. You collect more gems by killing enemies with your laser (A button) when the counter is blue, and with your shot (C button) when the counter is green. There is an overall gem counter and a stage counter, which resets to zero every level. In Maniac mode, the C button fills a chain meter, whilst the A button depletes it. Shooting with C increases your multiplier. When the chain bar is full and flashing red, killing enemies with A increases the amount of gems acquired. When the chain meter is empty, killing enemies with A uses the multiplier you have gained. At this point blue gems are released, with each blue gem reducing your multiplier. The maximum multiplier in maniac mode is 9999.

Version 1.5

Version 1.5 replaced Version 1.0 as the standard version of the game. Item and game system was changed as well as modified bullet patterns, particularly on the bosses. Considered easier than Version 1.0(1). Ultra mode unlocked from the start. Gem counter switches colour every 2000 (instead of 500) in Version 1.5 Ultra mode.

Version 1.01

Limited edition release at the 2006 Cave Festival. Contains bug fixes from Version 1.0.

Black Label

A limited edition arcade release of the game. Only 150 Black Label boards released which included the following changes:

• Stages 2, 3 and 5 have a different color palette.
• No shot type selection. The resulting shot type is a mixture of Normal and Abnormal modes from previous games, and is much more powerful than in other versions. Both characters move a lot faster in Black Label compared to 1.5.
• More enemies and enemies fire more bullets.
• Scoring system changes. In Original, the counter changes every 3000 gems, with an added audible warning when the counter changes. Blue gems, worth more points, are awarded when enemies are killed from very close range. When the stage counter is above 9999, gems are shedded off enemies if you are very close to them. The rank (bullet speed) increases when the stage counter is above 9999, in proportion to the overall counter. In Maniac mode, you now gain lots of gems by killing enemies with the C button when the meter is red - the amount of gems is proportionate to how close you are to the enemy.
• God (極弩) mode. Replacing Ultra mode, it uses a slightly modified Maniac mode score system. The maximum multiplier is increased to 30,000. The additional gems gained by killing enemies with the C button at close range only kicks in once the multiplier is above 9999. It has much more slowdown compared to Ultra mode and it is also much easier compared to Ultra mode, some players consider Ver 1.0(1)'s Maniac mode to be harder than God mode.
• A new True Last Boss, Spiritual Larsa was added. She can only be reached by completing God mode without dying. She is considered easier than Ultra mode's True Last Boss.

Xbox 360 version

The Xbox 360 release includes Version 1.5, Novice and Arrange game modes. Black Label can be downloaded for 1200 Microsoft Points from the Xbox Live Marketplace. First print editions included Version 1.01 via a download code. The limited edition release for Xbox 360 came with an arrange soundtrack CD, an Xbox 360 faceplate and either a version A (Reco) or version B (Palm and Aki) telephone card.. A Platinum Edition was later released. All versions of the game are region-free. The player can select between original arcade graphics, and new high resolution graphics. You can play the game in tate (vertical monitor), with numerous graphical options, including scanlines.

Arrange Mode

The Xbox 360 exclusive arrange mode allows 1 player only to play through the game with special rules. If a player is a hit they do not die and instead a bomb is launched on contact (unless the player does not have any bombs), the player is allowed to switch between controlling Reco or Palm, with the non-active character ghosting alongside the active one while shooting, changing also generates a temporary shield. Selecting shot type is NOT available in this mode however.

Characters

An extra character is added to this game. The basic plot revolves around Larsa, the mother of the antagonist from the first game called Aki, going mad desiring revenge on Reco for killing him. Her younger son Palm goes in search of Reco to learn the truth about his brother on his own. Eventually Reco finds Palm lost far from home and the two become friends, with Palm learning what happened to Aki was not her fault, together they aim to travel back to Palm's home and stop the madness of Larsa.

Larsa

The mother of Palm. She is the main antagonist of the story, she seeks revenge on Reco for the death of her son "Aki". Pilots stage 5 boss, Dragon Emperion.

Reception

Japanese video game magazine Famitsu's "Famitsu Xbox360 monthly" awarded the game a score of 8/8/7/6 . Weekly Famitsu gave the game a score of 8/7/7/7. Oli Clarke Smith of NTSC-UK rated the game 9 out of 10.

Soundtrack

The Mushihimesama Futari original soundtrack was released on CD on May 30, 2007 in Japan and was published by Cave. This soundtrack has since gone out of print.

External links

• Cave page
• Cave Xbox 360 page: version A, version B
• Cave soundtrack page
• Mushihime-Sama Futari review