Project Sylpheed

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Project Sylpheed
European box cover art for Project Sylpheed
Developer(s)	Game Arts, SETA Corporation, Anima
Publisher(s)	JP Square Enix Microsoft
Native resolution	720p
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Release date	JP September 28, 2006 EU June 29, 2007 NA July 10, 2007
Genre(s)	Space combat simulator
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	CERO: B PEGI: 12+ USK: 12 ESRB: T (Teen)
Input methods	Standard Xbox 360 Controller

Project Sylpheed (プロジェクト　シルフィード, Project Sylpheed^?) (also called Project Sylpheed: The Arc of Deception in North America) is a space simulation console game developed by SETA Corporation and published by Square Enix. It is acknowledged as the current spiritual successor to the Silpheed video game series,^[1] which were scrolling shooters. Project Sylpheed, however is fully 3D, allowing dogfights in all three vectors of space.

Placing the player at the start of a rebellion in a fictional 27th century, the game has a huge variety of weapons and augmentations to configure the protagonist's starfighter with, providing fast paced action against small enemy fighters and large warships alike. The game also bears Square Enix's traditional integration of a story into the gameplay. Project Sylpheed was received with mixed results, most of its features receiving praise and criticism.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Plot and setting 2.1 Characters 2.2 Story 3 Development 4 Reception 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Gameplay in Project Sylpheed involves flying a series of 16 story missions,^[2] and six bonus missions in the game's star vehicle, the Delta Saber.^[3] A typical mission involves either destroying specified enemies, or protecting allied ships from enemies. Initially, the player takes on enemy fighters while armed with only basic weaponry, but eventually the player will gain access to more advanced weaponry (more destructive, or longer ranged, or with greater fire-control system functions such as overlapping lock-ons and sight homing), allowing the player to take on more dangerous targets, and destroy large enemy warships.

The player has total freedom to fly around in the game world, controlling all three flight angles of the Delta Saber.^[4] The viewpoint can be switched between first person in-cockpit and third person behind-the-ship perspectives. The player can apply afterburner for greater speed, or cut all power to move on inertia alone along the last trajectory. Various button-joystick combinations allows the player to aileron roll, perform 180 degrees turns (half-loops), and match speed with targeted enemies.^[5] Certain moves will expend shield energy, a rechargeable protective shield which absorbs damage before it gets to the craft's armor.

There is a great variety of equipment to customize the player's starfighter in the game.^[6] 55 pieces of equipment fall into categories such as missiles, guns, beams, bombs, and special equipment for the player to choose from, each varying in range, damage, rate of fire, etc. The more powerful, better weapons are generally only unlocked for the player's selection further into the story, or on completion of the bonus missions. There are also weapons which require the player to purchase with points earned from completing the earlier missions.

While flying missions, the player can also attempt to complete sub-objectives. These sub-objectives include protecting specific friendly targets, destroying specific enemies, or completing an objective either within a time limit or without taking damage. After each mission, the player is given points based on certain statistics like number of enemies destroyed, number of objectives completed, completion time, and friendly fire.^[7] The points can then be used to develop new weapons which can be used for future missions. These number of moves might be initially hard to master with the controls.^[8][9] The player is also allowed to customize them.^[10]

Project Sylpheed allows the player to go through the game again with all current unlocked weapons in a New Game Plus mode.^[11] With the more advanced weapons at the player's disposal from the start, the player is better equipped to complete more sub-objectives for each mission.

[edit] Plot and setting

The game takes place in a 27th century where humanity has expanded throughout the stars for the last 500 years. Many worlds have been colonized and are ruled by the Terra Central Government (TCG), seated on Earth. The story is told in a in media res manner, the very first mission placing the player at the outbreak of a war between the TCG and the ADAN Freedom Alliance. The events leading up to this war are frequently told via flashback sequences. The game depicts the TCG as a tyrannical iron-fisted government which ruthlessly suppress any uprisings.^[12] Four star systems band together as the ADAN Alliance, seeking independence from the TCG by political means.^[13] The TCG military responds by destroying the terraforming facilities of a world named Acheron, killing a lot of its inhabitants and causing the world to become inhospitable.^[14] The incident is covered up,^[15] but becomes the key cause for the war.

[edit] Characters

The player takes the role of Katana Faraway, a young pilot for the Terra Central Armed Forces (TCAF). Through cutscenes, Katana's character is evidenced to be brash, and emotional. He possesses a sense of strong loyalty to his friends, and affiliation. The player gets to experience Katana's interactions with many of his fellow soldiers, including the gradual falling in love with Ellen Bernstein, a close friend of Katana who has been with him since their days at the pilot training school.

The game's antagonists are the ADAN forces. The most prominent among them is Margras Mason, a close friend of Katana and Ellen. He is evicted from Earth, and witnesses his homeworld's (Acheron) death at the hands of the TCAF.^[14] He joins the ADAN forces, and leads his Night Ravens to exact vengeance on the TCAF.^[16] Commanding the ADAN forces is Doris Egan, the daughter of a prominent anti-government activist who is killed during the TCAF's attack on Acheron.^[17] Like Margras, she is also pursuing vengeance but with extreme methods.^[18]

The character designs are likened to those seen on current Japanese animation, dyed hair of various colors, generously endowed female chests, and pretty boys.^[19][20] Katana's character is typical of most Square Enix games' protagonists - androgynous but deadly, a humorous combination.^[11] It has also been commented that the character designs are very similar to Square Enix's Final Fantasy line,^[19] and prone to being overly emotional.^[8]

[edit] Story

The story starts off in the Lebendorf star system. Katana's squadron is training in their new prototype Delta Saber fighters, and are ambushed by ADAN forces. Suffering one loss, the Delta Saber squadron fends off its attackers, and escapes the ambush with its mother ship, the TCAF ACROPOLIS [sic]. The Night Ravens are dispatched against the withdrawing TCAF, and Katana meets Margras on the battlefield. Margras warns Katana to leave the TCAF or the next time they meet, he will shoot the latter down. After the surprise attack, the ADAN Freedom Alliance officially declares war on the TCG, stating their aim to break away from the TCG's tyrannical grip by use of military force.^[21]

The TCAF withdraws to the planet Hargenteen which is also the next target of the ADAN forces.^[22] To draw away a portion of the ADAN's full out assault, the TCAF sends out a small fleet, the 17th Independent Fleet which includes the ACROPOLIS, to raid ADAN territories.^[23] During the operation, the 17th discovers a large enemy presence gathered around Acheron and moves in to attack. It turns out to be a trap and the 17th flees, leaving behind the ACROPOLIS, which had moved off to investigate the wreckage of Acheron's orbital terraforming units. In the Night Ravens attack on the ACROPOLIS, Katana's deeply respected commander, dies in a collision with a Night Raven while saving him. Katana goes off in a rage, and shoots down Margras, following him down to Acheron's surface. They engage in a small fisticuff, and Margras tells him the truth of Acheron's destruction before being picked up by a fellow Night Raven.

Katana and the ACROPOLIS manage to get back and join the defense of Hargenteen. Their valiant efforts prove useless when the Prometheus Driver is introduced into the battle. The Driver, a Death Star-like superweapon wipes out a majority of the defenders, and turns Hargenteen's atmosphere into a swirling firestorm. The surviving TCAF flees to Earth to regroup. Egan announces the Driver's next target is Earth, a decision Margras angrily disapproves of.^[24]

The Night Ravens move out as the ADAN's vanguard and engage Katana's White Griffons. They are defeated and Margras is captured. He is persuaded by Katana and Ellen to help stop the genocide of Earth. Margras' Night Raven Squadron is resurrected under the TCAF,^[25] and flies out alongside the White Griffons to destroy the Prometheus Driver before it can reach Earth and fire. The TCAF clears a path to the Prometheus Driver for Katana and Margras to go in and destroy the latter's only weak point, its firing mechanism.^[26] Margras sacrifices himself, shielding Katana and destroying all of the internal defences. Katana destroys the Driver's firing mechanism but finds himself caught in the gravity well of the imploding Driver. Margras' spirit reactivates Katana's fighter, and aids it in escaping.

In the post-credits scene, Katana and Ellen are shown in casual clothes standing on a revitalized Acheron. Life has been restored to the planet and the world is again habitable.

[edit] Development

On 5 April 2006 during Microsoft's Xbox 360 conference in Tokyo, Square Enix surprised the gaming industry, announcing they and Game Arts are working on Project Sylph, a space shooter designed exclusively for the Xbox 360.^[27] The game will be a combination of Square Enix's story telling prowess with Game Art's experience from developing Silpheed. Square Enix explained its decision as market diversification.^[28] They wished to support the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the Wii as equally as possible. Project Sylph is their first exclusive title for the Xbox 360 in this endeavour.

On 7 July 2006, the game was renamed to Project Sylpheed to recognise its predecessor,^[1] and was later listed as playable for Tokyo Game Show 2006.^[29] Impressions of the journalists, who played the game during the show, were of a space shooter with nice and sharp graphics, and gameplay leaning more towards an arcade nature.^[30][31] Despite Game Arts' presence on the team, the true developers are the Ikusabune team in SETA Corporation, who were former Game Arts employees and had previously worked on the Silpheed series.^[2] They are also the ones who brought up the concept for Project Sylpheed to Game Arts' attention. The team chose to make the game fully 3D for a full freedom of movement instead of a rail shooter with better effects, a decision influenced by the power of next generation hardware. Instead of Square Enix, the game's story and artwork were handled by the CG studio, Anima.

While Square Enix published the game in Japan on September 28, 2006, it was Microsoft who published it for the rest of the world, releasing it for Europe and North America roughly nine months later in 2007.^{[32][33][34][35]} The time difference was spent on localizing the game for the English-speaking market, bringing in voice actors known for their work in the Western anime industry. Vic Mignogna, known for his work in Fullmetal Alchemist and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, was brought in to voice Katana. Kari Wahlgren, whose numerous works include Blood+ and Final Fantasy XII, voiced Ellen.

A demo of the English version game was available on Xbox Live on June 14, 2007, which featured an escort mission and a full tutorial, along with several weapons available for the player to try out.^[36][37] Various press releases by Microsoft soon followed, detailing the background, controls, and features of the game.^[38][5][6] Free downloadable content was available for Project Sylpheed from July 25, 2007 onwards.^[3][39] The update adds six bonus missions with online leaderboard support to the game. The missions are played separately from the standard story missions. Completing each bonus mission will also unlock a new weapon.

[edit] Reception

Project Sylpheed's reviews are mixed, with scores as high as 7.5/10 and as low as 2/5. The average of these scores as measured by Metacritic and Game Rankings would classify the game to be rated as above average (~65%). Criticism and praise of the game's features are just as mixed as the scores given for it.

Reviewers are split on Project Sylpheed's graphics. While Gaming Excellence said the ships were "intricately detailed",^[49] Hooked Gamers decried a lack of details on them.^[50] GamesAreFun talked about how captivating it is to see the "missile contrails and thruster wash streaking across the stars",^[7] but IGN claimed the explosions looked like "bloody snot".^[42] All of the reviewers however agree that there are slow downs in the framerate when a lot of ships and details are on screen, though their opinions vary on how much this affects their game play experience.

The integration of a story into the game was to make Project Sylpheed stand out amongst the other space shooters, and has succeeded to a degree with reviews which called it "absolutely the best part of the game".^[8][42] It was even called mature, presenting moral ambiguity in a well told tale.^[7] On the flipside, the story has been called just as cliched as the characters,^[19][45] especially to those who have viewed lots of science fiction action anime series.^[43][11] ZeroTolerance however states even though the material is cheesy, the presentation is engaging and well done to the point where the player might care about it.^[51] The cutscenes are also considered intrusive to reviewers who are more partial to the dogfighting.^[52] While most reviews consider the voice acting to be adequate or good, Gaming Excellence found them to be most annoying, saying they only assume perky, excitable, or imperiled tones.

Project Sylpheed's gameplay was praised for its intense dogfights taking place in space. However the A.V. Club and G4tv, says the small distant targets force the player to constantly focus on the instruments, taking away the feeling of being in a dogfighting spacefighter.^[53][45] Likewise the time and effort needed to be master the controls could turn away some gamers. Reviewers from AtomicGamer, G4tv, GamersHell, and GamePro have also found the gameplay could be reduced to a repetitive "find target, lock on, shoot and kill, resupply, find target..." sequence,^[8][54] which is not helped by what TeamXbox calls a one-dimensional mission design.^[8]

The hidden time limits garnered the most negatives among the reviewers, with several reviewers calling it the "most frustrating part" of the game,^[46][49] as they failed their missions, after being given only a short time frame to chase down the last remaining objectives. Most of the reviews were united in being critical of Sylpheed lacking online content, and even though this is slightly mitigated by the free downloadable content later, there is still a bit of disappointment, succinctly summed up by the Armchair Empire's preference to "blow up my friends over Xbox Live than just have rankings and downloadable content".^[55] Despite the mixed reviews, Project Sylpheed has sold enough copies to make it into Xbox' Platinum Collection on January 11, 2007.^[56]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Project Sylpheed site
• Official Project Sylpheed Japanese site
• Project Sylpheed at the Internet Movie Database
• Project Sylpheed Official Soundtrack site