Kamui



A shoot-em-up made by Siter Skain in 1999 and part of The Tale of Alltynex trilogy, Kamui has been described as a more intense Ray Storm clone. The gameplay is slightly different from the "standard" shmup: the ship (the eponymous Kamui fighter) is not a One-Hit-Point Wonder, and it has two special weapons beyond its main spreadshot: a powerful Wave Motion Gun that can cancel bullets and a "lightning storm" weapon that targets enemies below the fighter where its main guns cannot reach. Both run off the same energy gauge, which must recharge after each use. It is short, but very fast-paced and relentless in difficulty, and many shmup fans count it among the best of the genre available on PC, some even consider it being of Treasure quality.

Although one of the earlier games released by Siter Skain, its story actually takes place after several of their other titles: both Alltynex Second and RefleX are prequels to it. During the Time Skip in RefleX, a scientist named Xaffiquel de Panafill drafts a theory regarding "Brain Fusion" technology, which would allow a human's mind to be permanently uploaded into a computer. The theory is deemed inhumane, but the military sees the potential to create superweapons using it. In desperation due to the ZODIAC's battling it out over Earth, eight "Kamui" fighters are created using this technology. Among the humans uploaded into those fighters was Xaffiquel's own daughter, Alice de Panafill. After the destruction of the ZODIAC's, as humanity begins to rebuild, the government plans on using this technology further to increase its power. Enraged at his theory being used in a such a manner, not to mention the loss of his daughter, Xaffiquel decides that humanity has grown too corrupt and must be punished. Uploading his mind into the orbital fortress Adjudicator, he rebuilds the supercomputer ALLTYNEX to aid him in taking over the military's hardware and beginning mankind's destruction. ALLTYNEX has ideas of its own and locks down Adjudicator, rendering Xaffiquel powerless. Now Alice, who managed to escape ALLTYNEX's control, must destroy both ALLTYNEX and the Adjudicator to prevent mankind's destruction.

(Note: the above storyline is based on partial translations and some conjecture. If anyone knows more details, please add to it/correct it.)

This game features examples of:

 * AI Is a Crapshoot: ALLTYNEX
 * Alice as well, though in the other direction: she's fighting for humanity rather than against it.
 * And I Must Scream: The probable fate of those who were uploaded into the other Kamui fighters, after ALLTYNEX took control of them.
 * Brain Uploading: Xaffiquel's big project. The Kamui fighters actually require it to work.
 * Bullet Hell
 * Crosshair Aware: Do not stay in crosshairs. It ends badly.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: The entire soundtrack, basically.
 * Despair Event Horizon: What lead to Xaffiquel's Face Heel Turn.
 * Didn't Need Those Anyway: Bosses often have pieces that you can shoot off for extra points.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: The whole of humanity needs to die to atone for uploading a single girl's mind into a military fighter?
 * Possibly the whole thing starts because Doc didn't like the (fairly typical) misuse of his rather benevolent (if inhumane) research made by the government. And all of that just so they can have more power. Adding his daughter's mind being uploaded into a fighter just added more fuel.
 * Ethereal Choir: The Judge.
 * Fan Nickname: "The Angry Spacestation" for the game's Final Boss, the Adjudicator.
 * Floating Continent: Stage 2.
 * High Altitude Battle: The final fight is in orbit.
 * Lightning Gun: The Kamui fighter's signature armament.
 * Lotus Eater Machine: Alltynex pulls a digital version of this on Alice making her fight against two bosses before breaking loose.
 * Made of Explodium: Many of the bosses make disproportionately large explosions when defeated.
 * Mad Scientist: Xaffiquel.
 * Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Alice de Panafill.
 * Master Computer: ALLTYNEX's core (pictured).
 * Meaningful Name: The name of final boss theme, "The Judge", seems to represent Xaffiquel's delusions as a punisher of man's sins.
 * In addition, his name is clearly derived from Tzaphqiel, an angel who was assigned to record all of history...and, in quite a bit of rabbinical lore, a dark angel. In fact, the idea of a angel over your right shoulder and a demon over your left shoulder, trying to sway you towards good and evil respectively, came from an idea of this being done with Raziel swaying towards good, and Tzaphqiel swaying towards evil.
 * Mirror Boss: One boss is preceded by a fight with the remaining five Kamui fighters.
 * Necessarily Evil: The Kamui fighters were seen as this due to the rampaging ZODIAC's that were laying waste to Earth at the time.
 * Nintendo Hard
 * Roboteching: Enemy lasers love doing this.
 * Sequential Boss: ALLTYNEX summons bosses from earlier (in-universe chronology) games before fighting you itself.
 * That One Boss: "Oukumo, Guardian of Gate 99" the stage 3 boss.
 * Wave Motion Gun: Made of lightning!
 * What an Idiot!: Yes, Xaffiquel, rebuilding a supercomputer that has already gone batshit once before is an excellent idea!
 * Xtreme Kool Letterz: The only explanation for the spelling of Xaffiquel's name.