I pay the toll of fandom with R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos
You. Yes you. Are you dreaming of blasting off and striking at the heart of the evil alien empire, but your aging reflexes cannot keep up with the high-octane action? Are you not 1CCing Ikaruga like you used to? Then we have the alternative for you: R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos! Yeah, sorry about the name. We don’t know how that period got stuck up there either. Anyway, you can now enjoy the shmups of yesteryear in turn-based format. All of the space action, none of the excitement!
But first, a history lesson.
The original R-Type is from the old school of arcade shmups and the eighties. Its defining feature is the Force, an indestructible shield that can be moved around to block and attack. The antagonists are the Bydo, a vaguely defined menace full of biomechanical horrors like mechs and whatever they could steal from H. R. Giger.
After a few games, R-Type Final came out in 2003. The developers decided to go all in and create 101 playable ships, each with its own quirk. It was, and still is, very cool. R-Type Final is another shmup, but every ship has its own pseudo-history and combat role. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good fake military naming convention: the AWACS have names related to the moon, the bipedal units (mechs) are named after Greek heroes, and the fire-based crafts are named after orders of angels.
In 2007, R-Type Tactics came out for PSP (R-Type Command in North America). R-Type is now a turn-based tactics game, with units and hexes and everything. Some of the 101 ships are back and are now playing their actual role. The supply craft is an actual supply unit. The AWACS has a radar to detect the enemy. The interceptor fighter can perform hit-and-runs. If you don’t understand how this could be considered nerd Christmas come early, why are you even here reading this? There was then a Japan-only sequel in 2009 with the amazingly awful name of Operation Bitter Chocolate. (“Sir, our remaining scientists have built one last craft to launch at the endless alien horde. How should we name this operation?” “We shall call it… Operation Chicken Strip.”)
Out of the blue in 2022, a Kickstarter campaign was set up to remaster both games, plus a brand new third campaign. It was scheduled for release in 2023… and came out in 2026, with an extra six months delay for players outside Japan.
Was it worth the wait? In my memory, R-Type Command was pretty good. What could go wrong?
Okay, the main menu is frankly fantastic. Every time you develop a new ship, it gets added to your increasingly massive 3D armada. You have one happy nerd right here. Can you spot the Strider bomber and the Achilles bipedal unit?
Now that I’m replaying it almost twenty years later, I see that R-Type Tactics’ biggest strength is its commitment to turning a shmup action game into some kind of coherent military doctrine.
FROM THE SPACE CORPS HANDBOOK:
– Charge shots They’re your big-ticket attacks. They take 2-5 turns to charge automatically, but once unleashed, they wipe out everything in a wide area. Taking down a capital ship and its escorts with one well-placed charge shot you’ve been holding in for multiple turns never gets old. The downside is that fighter crafts are fragile. While not every hit is fatal (unlike a classic shmup), a single tick of damage will reset the charging process. Also, in true old-school fashion, units can never change their orientation and can only fire their charge shot accordingly. The good guys always face right and the bad guys always face left, as it should be. Some missions are designed around clashing while facing the wrong way, so you’re stuck firing missiles at each other’s rears.
– Forces Forces are no longer indestructible, but they pack a mean ramming attack. They’re sitting ducks when alone, but are a deadly threat with even 1 HP left. Forces need to attach to a fighter craft to actually get anywhere, but both units can move and act independently. Crafts can only use their stronger laser attacks while connected to a Force. Hey, just like the powerups in the other games!
– Capital ships Obviously, having direct control of capital ships wasn’t a thing in the R-Type shmups. Here they work sort of like aircraft carriers, with the bustle of ships coming in and out for repairs and rearming. The bigger ships can take multiple turns because different sections can fire independently. The battleship also has the biggest, most satisfyingly destructive charge attack. Eat positrons, aliens! (The capital ships have names based on Norse mythology, BTW. Good on them for keeping the naming conventions consistent.)
Clearly, R-Type Tactics is not going to win any awards in terms of scope as a space strategy game, but that’s not really what it’s aiming for. It’s a space strategy game as viewed through the lens of a 2D side-scrolling shooter, and that’s a neat thing to be. Some of the levels from the original games have even been recreated wholesale, including the gigantic trick boss at the end. You can even play as the Bydo. Whereas the human units are well-rounded, Bydo units have limited abilities and range from completely useless to ridiculously strong. At least it makes you develop a sense of empathy for the alien horde once you’re the one in charge of the misshapen cannon fodder.
Anyway, just when you thought you could maybe show this game to your serious wargaming friend, a chirpy anime adjutant shows up. “Ooh, what are your orders senpai admiral?” Thankfully, you can disable him or her completely. It saves some time as well. Turn off those excruciatingly long 3D animations too while you’re at it.
I guess there’s no escaping it, is there? Even with all the animations turned off, R-Type Tactics is a very slow game. The best strategy is usually to stick close to your capital ship, which moves at a miserable two hexes per turn, only one if there’s terrain interference. Moving too far out of radar coverage tends to be suicide anyway. In that sense, four minutes of intense shmup action have been turned into an hour of shuffling units about. Occasionally, a mission requires you to slowly move your entire armada in a one-hex wide corridor or a meandering tunnel. The result is total gridlock. It’s less like a sweeping tactical manoeuvre and more like a labored bowel movement. This krieg is not blitzing, is what I’m getting at.
I saved the kicker for last: R-Type Cosmos only lets you play the (previously unreleased in the West) R-Type Tactics II after you complete the first game. The first one takes a good thirty hours to beat, mind you. And, just to be clear, you’re not touching the new third campaign before beating both.
What a betrayal.
Of the two hundred people who still remember what R-Type even is, the fifty people who played the PSP version, and of the twelve who were looking forward to the remake, there are maybe three of us gaijins who were actually waiting for the Western release.
Can’t the developers just throw us a bone?
You know what, I am not a quitter. So I beat the first game again, only to realize that the second game sends you back to the bottom of the tech tree and introduces the same units even more slowly than the first game. It’s such a tease too, because it has three times as many ships, maybe even my entire 101 lovely ships, all frustratingly locked behind progression.
What have I done to deserve this?
I’ve persevered until a specific mission in the second game. This mission is apparently so dreaded that beating it awards its own achievement. It goes without saying that it’s another mission with tight corridors. That one is like a full colonoscopy on your birthday. I mean that in a good way, obviously. It’s a decent challenge. But there are more and more and more missions after that.
So that’s where I’m at. I’m not sure how much farther I can go on. Is there even a light at the end of this tunnel?
R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos
Rating:
PC
A very fast shmup turned into a very slow tactics game
