Senjin Aleste

HISTORY

Senjin Aleste (戦刃アレスタ "Battle Aleste") is a vertical scrolling shooter developed by M2 ShotTriggers, released in fall of 2021 to arcades in Japan on the ALL.Net P-ras MULTI platform, a multi-game arcade platform developed and maintained by SEGA.

Unlike previous entries in the Aleste game series, which were all home-console releases, this game was released exclusively to arcades. This was initially met with negative reception. It was the first original title in the series since the release of GG Aleste II in 1993.

In terms of visual style, the game is largely similar to previous titles, with the exception of the pilot characters. The scoring system of the game is different from previous entries, likely to accommodate for the arcade platform.

For replay videos, visit the Video Index.

Gameplay Overview

The game is played on a one-stick, 8-button arcade set-up. However, for the purpose of gameplay, only 4 buttons are used. Buttons can be re-mapped to any of the 8 buttons present on the cabinet, and this configuration is saved across machines if the player uses a compatible ID card.

Controls

B1 - Shot: Tap for standard wide shot, hold to slow ship movement and concentrate fire for more accurate targeting.

B2 - Power Up: Enters (or cancels) Power Up mode. This mode slows down enemy projectiles and causes shot down enemies to drop score medals. It depletes a power gauge on the top-left of the screen.

B3 - Rapid Shot: Holding is equivalent to tapping B1. While holding down the button, pressing B1 will override it.

B5 - Blow: Pushes back nearby enemy bullets. Temporarily becomes unavailable after using.

Modes and Configuration

Senjin Aleste begins with a series of options to choose and configure your game.

Game Select

Story: The standard mode with all 5 stages.

Score Attack: Pick a single stage and play for score. Features unique mechanics such as Rank Items.

Game Mode

Novice Mode: Minimal difficulty and a simplified scoring system with no medal counter.

Casual Mode: An easier mode with a fixed, low rank and capped medal counter.

Original Mode: The standard difficulty. Features a rank system and uncapped medal counter.

Expert Mode: Increased difficulty with denser enemy attacks and more item drops.

Dramatic Mode

Dramatic Off: Dialogue and character popups disabled.

Dramatic On: Characters have dialogue in response to game events and character graphics pop up when changing ships.

Assist Select

Manual: Power Up must be activated manually. If hit with full energy, all energy is spent to shield the hit.

Assist On: If hit with full energy, Power Up is activated automatically. As a trade off, energy drain during Power Up (even when activated manually) is increased.

Leader Select

Select one of the four ships to be your leader. You will begin the game as that ship and also gain its corresponding leader skill for all ships:

Type A: Increased energy gain from picking up items

Type B: Reduced time between item carrier spawns

Type C: Increases the firepower of every team member

Type D: Faster recovery time for downed teammates

Characters and leader system

In place of lives, Senjin Aleste features four playable characters, each with their own ship/abilities and leadership bonus. One character is selected to be your starting ship and its leadership bonus is applied to all ships, but all four ships are played within the game. When you take a hit, the currently active ship becomes incapacitated for a short time and the next ship is automatically switched to. Incapacitated ships recharge slowly over time. Swap Items also allow you to you switch ships on the fly, and collecting a Swap Item for an incapacitated ship will reduce its recovery time instead of swapping to it.

If all four ships become incapacitated, the game is over.

Interface

1. Energy Gauge: Displays the current energy level, used to activate Power Up mode. When energy is at 25% or higher, a READY label will display on the gauge. Drains while active.

2. Medal Counter: Displays the current medal tier and counter. Functionality varies by difficulty, see Difficulty Modes below.

3. Rank Display: Displays the current rank (or combo in Casual mode), multiplier, and stage counter.

4. Item Timer: Indicates when the next Swap Item and Bomb Item will appear via the white and red markers respectively. When a triangle reaches the top, a carrier spawns to drop the item and the marker resets to the bottom.

5. Target HP: Displays the last-damaged enemy's health. Most useful against bosses.

6. Team Display: Shows the status of the four ships. ACTIVE indiciates the currently active ship, READY indicates a ready ship that can be swapped to, and a red bar indicates an incapacitated ship which is currently recharging. The team display functions as Senjin Aleste's "lives," with the game ending when all four ships are incapacitated at the same time.

Items

Power Up System

The Power Up system is Senjin Aleste's primary survival and scoring mechanic. Power Up is driven by the Energy Gauge, displayed in the top left of the screen.

While not in Power Up mode, enemies drop P Chips which add a small amount of energy to the Energy Gauge. Collecting a Swap Item also adds a large chunk of energy, unless collected for an incapacitated ship. When the Energy Gauge is filled 25% or higher, a red "READY" label will display over the Energy Gauge indicating Power Up mode can be activated.

Power Up is activated by pressing the Power Up button. Upon activation, the player gains a 3 second shield that cancels enemy bullets. While in Power Up, the Energy Gauge will slowly drain and enemy bullets are slowed down. Shooting down an enemy while in Power Up drops score medals instead of P Chips and also cancels all of that enemy's bullets into additional score medals. Collecting medals reduces the time for the next Swap Item carrier to spawn, visualized by the sparks flying from the player to the item timer on the left side of the screen. Power Up mode ends automatically once the Energy Gauge runs out, or can be deactivated manually if at 50% or greater energy by pressing the Power Up button again. Manually exiting Power Up costs 50% (of max, not current) energy, and thus is primarily used for survival and only when at 75% or greater energy in order to be able to reactivate it for another 3 second shield after.

If Power Up is activated with a full Energy Gauge it will drain slower for that activation, effectively creating more Power Up time from the same amount of energy. With a full Energy Gauge and assuming no extensions, Power Up will last for 19 seconds.

If "Assist On" is selected on game setup, getting hit with a full Energy Gauge will block the hit and automatically activate Power Up. If "Manual" was selected instead, getting hit with a full Energy Gauge will block the hit but empty the energy gauge without activating Power Up. Note that with "Assist On" selected, energy drains faster during Power Up, even when activated manually. With Assist On and a full Energy Gauge, Power Up will last 12.25 seconds.

Scoring

Scoring in Senjin Aleste involves shooting down enemies up close to for more energy for bigger medals, keeping rank high, and being in Power Up as much as possible and maximizing energy extension while within it.

Medal Counter

Senjin Aleste features a running medal counter displayed in the top left of the screen. Every medal collected increases it by one (higher tiers seem to increase it by more, investigate?), with medal type upgrading at certain thresholds. The counter slowly drains while outside of Power Up, and when Power Up ends (or is manually exited) a percentage is cut off of the counter. When you get hit, the medal counter drops to zero.

Note that the medal type maxes at gold medals, which means platinum medals can only be attained by Close Killing (see below).

The exact mechanics of the medal counter vary per difficulty:

*Gold with all ships active, silver with one ship incapacitated, bronze with two or more ships incapacitated

Close Killing

Shooting down an enemy up close causes its dropped items to "size up," dropping larger P Chips outside of Power Up and dropping the next medal tier up from what the medal counter displays while in Power Up. Sized up medals are displayed with a purple glow. Close killing is the only way to acquire platinum medals, dropped by close killed enemies while the medal counter is at 750+.

Since close killing increases score gains while in Power Up and gets you back in faster while not, playing aggressively and getting in close for the kill wherever possible is key to scoring in Senjin Aleste. The Blow ability can be used just before a larger enemy is destroyed to safely get in close and cash in the close kill.

Rank

Rank is displayed in the top right corner of the screen in difficulties that feature it. Rank increases game difficulty but also increases the score multiplier, shown directly beneath the rank display. Effects of the multiplier are unknown, but appear to affect the rolling stage counter that drives boss kill bonuses?. Rank increases by 1 whenever a Swap Item is collected while in Power Up, and maxes at 50 with a multiplier of x9.0. Rank is reduced when getting hit (investigate details, saw -1 on Emergency Evasion during Power Up in Expert mode?).

In Novice mode, rank is disabled. In Casual mode, rank is replaced with "combo" which maxes out at 5 and resets to zero when Power Up ends.

Rank affects enemy bullet patterns, with higher rank creating more bullets and denser and/or more complex patterns (presence or absense of additional affects such as bullet speed unknown?).

End of Stage Bonus

Todo

Strategy

On top of close killing and raising rank, the primary goal of score-oriented play in Senjin Aleste is to maximize time spent in Power Up while minimizing the amount of separate Power Up activations in order to have your medal count cut as few times as possible. This is accomplished by aiming to collect Swap Items primarily while in Power Up when routing allows for it, which also has the benefit of increasing rank. A Swap Item can also be allowed to sit onscreen for a time before collecting it, so the next Swap Item spawn will occur sooner into Power Up activation to extend it.

General strategy notes are as follows:

Choose "Manual" assist mode

Close kill wherever possible, using Blow to get up close to larger enemies and bosses right before they're destroyed

While in Power Up, allow enemies to fill the screen with bullets before killing them for bigger medal cancels

Aim for big cancels when collecting Bomb items

Allow the Energy Gauge to fill to max before activating Power Up when possible, as doing so grants a longer Power Up duration

Try to collect Swap Items outside of Power Up mode as little as possible to maximize rank and minimize separate Power Up sessions

Avoid getting hit to keep rank high and earn the end of stage no miss bonus

Strategy

See (Template Page)/Strategy for stage maps, enemy and boss descriptions, walkthroughs, and advanced play strategies.

This section details some particular strategic information about the game and its gameplay, such as hidden 1UPs and some basic scoring tricks. For anything particularly deep or highly complex, you can probably leave it in the Strategy page.

(Currently evaluating whether or not this specific section should even include information outside of the separated Strategy pages. Worth thinking about as a community.)

Story

Opening

The opening story plays during the attract loop.

Trivia

Senjin Aleste's config file includes a "language" setting that can be toggled between Japanese and English, complete with separate versions of the text bitmaps marked as "English" that are swapped in, however they contain the same Japanese text and the setting functionally has no effect. This suggests that an official English translation and potentially even a wider release of the game was planned but abandoned somewhere in development.

One of Senjin Aleste's graphic files contain a series of cat sprites, which appear to be unused in-game.

Gallery

See (Template Page)/Gallery for our collection of images and scans for the game.

References & Contributors

Research done by Yakkers

Other information from translated instructions bezel, in-game tutorial, and mode/option descriptions