ESP Ra.De.
ESP Ra.De. is a 1998 vertical-scrolling bullet hell arcade game originally developed by Cave and co-published by Atlus and Nihon System in Japan. Set in the year 2018, players assume the role from one of the three ESPers to overthrow Lady Garra and her Yaska syndicate from taking over Tokyo.
| ESP Ra.De. | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Cave |
| Publisher(s) | Atlus, Nihon System |
| Designer(s) | Akira Wakabayashi Atsushi Aburano Riichiro Nitta Yūko Nakamura |
| Programmer(s) | Ryuichi Yabuki Satoshi Kōyama Tsuneki Ikeda |
| Artist(s) | Junya Inoue |
| Composer(s) | Masahiro Kusunoki |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, EZweb, i-mode, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Bullet hell |
| Mode(s) |
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Developed in conjunction with Dangun Feveron (1998), ESP Ra.De. began production immediately after completion of DoDonPachi (1997). It was the first project by Junya Inoue as art director at Cave, who wanted it to be a visually attractive shoot 'em up for players taking place in a realistic setting with humans as characters. The game did not see any contemporary home ports due to rights and publishing issues with Atlus until it was re-released as ESP Ra.De. Psi for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2019 by M2.
ESP Ra.De. proved popular among Japanese arcade players and critics praised its unique power gauge mechanic, stylistic presentation, Inoue's artwork and audio design but the scoring system was found to be complex and confusing. The Psi re-release was applauded for its extra modes and character, as well as addressing issues with the original scoring system. The title spawned two spin-offs in the form of Espgaluda (2003) and Espgaluda II (2005).