Lunar Threads

I suddenly remembered some things I read about Elemental Gearbolt which I found very interesting, and this seems like a pretty good place to find people who'd like to hear about it. The game has an unusually complex backstory for a rail shooter - a whole other layer of events which casts the main events of the game in a different light - but it's basically extraneous. According to what I've seen, some other games from the same developer (Alfa System) are tied into the same backstory. These include Gunparade March/Orchestra, Kenran Butousai, and the Shikigami no Shiro series. The Shikigami series is known in the West mostly for how poorly it's been handled outside Japan, and the other two are known because they have related anime series.

The overall scheme of the Alfa System-verse is a seven world cycle. Elemental Gearbolt is set in World 4, Gunparade in World 5. World 6 has a number of subworlds that include Kenran and Shikigami. Other worlds get discussed in various print media, like this tabletop RPG Alfa System put out.

What's interesting as a fan of Elemental Gearbolt has to do with how Worlds 4 and 5 overlap. According to the backstory for Gunparade March, Bel Cain didn't die at the end of Elemental Gearbolt; he was transported to World 5 instead. His daughter seems to be a pretty major character in Gunparade March. Also, Tagami shows up in both Shikigami no Shiro and Kenran Butousai. (Elemental Gearbolt described Tagami as "sexless", but these other games have no problem calling her a woman.)

Does this seem crazy? The craziness of all this stuff has never worn off for me either, but there's a pretty thorough and well-cited Japanese wiki for it all: http://nazomoe.pun.jp/

Huh, I didn't realize the story was part of a larger group of games. To be honest, the game was so difficult that I never finished. One of my favorites though. It was just so unique to have a rail shooter like that with such a storyline. The entire presentation was just so amazing. I even got my dad into it and he hadn't played video games since Galaga was the in thing at the arcade.

I never got anywhere near beating it myself... I'm not good enough at that sort of game. It's too bad because games are rarely so artistic.

Ultimately I used cheats to get the unlockables, which was where the wild backstory information was. I've never played any of those other games (I'd like to get Gunparade March, it's highly regarded in Japan) but I'd imagine that the links between them are subtle.

Tagami is in Shikigami no Shiro? Say what?

I'm a big SnS fan(obviously), and I never knew that.


You mean Freedom Wind from Shiki 3?

I actually did finish it, by the way. On Normal.

You need a Guncon to beat this game. Seriously.


Hard is for robots.

So I decided to research Tagami's appearance in Shikigami 1.

Sure enough, here (s)he is:

I can't believe how eye opening this ten year old thread was for me. I love Elemental Gearbolt, but the story was always so crazy and screamed of nonsense to me. But this makes so much more sense. If anyone ever revisits this thread, thank you for the info! I can't believe it, I had no idea.