taisei/doc/GAME.rst

.. _taisei-project--game-manual:

.. role:: strike
    :class: strike

Taisei Project – Game Manual
============================

.. contents::

Introduction
------------

Taisei is a shoot-em-up game. Lots of bullets cover the screen and if
you are hit by one, you die. To make things easier, your hitbox is very
small–much smaller than your character.

If you get hit you lose a life; if you are out of lives, it’s Game Over,
but you get a few Continues to keep playing (without scores).

Difficulty
----------

Taisei is a very hard game, especially for newcomers to the genre. In
many modern games, *Easy* is a placeholder and *Normal* is the easy mode
so people playing it don’t have to feel bad, so you might feel inclined
to start at Normal like in your other games.

This approach doesn’t work for Taisei though. Easy is balanced around
maybe being not impossible for newcomers, so it’ll require some
training. On the positive side it still contains enough bullets to show
you the beauty of all the patterns. ;)

There is no shame in playing Easy. Some say that even the dev who
initially founded the project and wrote this section can’t beat Easy…

Characters and Shotmodes
------------------------

The three different playable characters have different shots. You start out
weak and have to raise your power meter to get stronger.

Try a few modes to find the one that fits you best.

HUD
---

Once you reach the game itself, a bunch of numbers will appear on the right
of your screen (HUD). These are:

-  **Score** Your current score. See `Scoring System`_.
   grazing, and collecting items.
-  **Lives** How many lives you have. The *Next* value shows the next
   score at which you receive a bonus new life.
-  **Spell Cards** How many `Bombs`_ you have. If your *Fragment* count
   goes to 500, you get a new bomb.
-  **Power** How strong your current shot is. Maxes out at 4, but can
   be overcollected until 6.
-  **Value** `Point Item Value`_ at the top of the screen.
-  **Volts** See `Scoring System`_.
-  **Graze** Raise it by getting close to bullets.

Controls
--------

+-------------+------------------------------------------+
| Name        | Default Key                              |
+=============+==========================================+
| Shoot       | ``Z``                                    |
+-------------+------------------------------------------+
| Bomb        | ``X``                                    |
+-------------+------------------------------------------+
| Power Surge | ``C``                                    |
+-------------+------------------------------------------+
| Focus       | ``Left Shift``                           |
+-------------+------------------------------------------+
| Move        | ``Up``,\ ``Down``,\ ``Left``,\ ``Right`` |
+-------------+------------------------------------------+

If you don’t like the defaults, you can easily remap them in the settings.

Using the Gamepad is also supported. See options to set up controls.

Users of non-qwerty keyboard layouts: Don’t worry, Taisei’s controls are
not based on layout but key location.

Focus
-----

While pressing ``Shift``, your movement is slower and the pattern of your
shot changes. It is useful for accurate dodging, but you shouldn’t stay
in this mode all the time.

The white circle appearing in this mode is a representation of your
hitbox. As you can see it is really small.

.. _Bombs:

Bombs (Player Spell Cards)
--------------------------

In a stressful life where all the bullets kill you in a single hit, you
sometimes want something powerful to shoot back with. Thankfully, your character
has magical power to trigger so called Spell Cards. These are essentially
bombs that do a lot of damage.

You can use them to clear out bullets and enemies from the screen.
However you only get a limited amount of them, so they are best used
when you are in a pinch. When used against a boss' Spell Card, it voids
your capturing bonus.

Rumor has it that if you get hit by a bullet and hit the bomb key fast
enough, you can avoid death. This is called *Death Bombing* and people
who master it-- so the lore goes-- will find their bomb meter becoming a
second life meter.

Power Surge
-----------

You can activate a special aura that gives you increased damage and a way to
clear a limited area of bullets. Read more about it in `Scoring System`_.

Items
-----

Now that you can kill enemies you will notice that they drop various amounts of items.
They may look like bullets at first, but they are safe to touch.

These are:

-  **Blue** Point items that increase your score.
-  **Red** Gives you more power. Comes in different sizes, always with a capital P.
-  **Green Star** Bomb. Appears either filled (full bomb) or as an empty
   outline (worth 500 bomb fragments).
-  **Pink Heart** One extra life.
-  **PIV Items** Small yellow ghosts that increase the value of your point items.
-  **Surge Lightning** Will spawn during your Power Surge to provide charge.
-  **Voltage** Spawn after a Power Surge completes and increase PIV (*a lot*), Bombs and Volts.

If you fly near to the top of the screen, all the visible items will be
picked up (shown as flying towards you).

Bosses
------

Taisei has 6 levels (called *stages*). Each stage has a boss and a
midboss in some form. They are much stronger than normal enemies and
have different attacks with time limits. There are different types of
Attacks:

-  **Normal**: A signature move every boss has. They are a break between
   the other, more fierce attacks, but don’t let your guard down.

-  **Spell Card**: This is where the Bosses concentrate their powers
   (resulting in a background change) and hit you with really hard and
   unusual patterns. They give a lot of extra points and 100 bomb fragments
   when you *capture* them. That means shooting down the HP within the time
   limit without getting hit or using bombs.

   You can revisit spellcards you have encountered in the *Spell
   Practice* mode to get better at the ones you frequently die on.

-  **Voltage Overdrive**: Collect enough `Voltage`_ to
   unlock these at the end of the boss battles.

   These are tricky unique spells that will take some creativity to dodge.
   Due to the extremely ionized Danmaku conditions, your Bomb and Life
   meters are malfunctioning. You can’t be hurt, but you can’t use your
   bombs either.

   One boss seems to be especially attuned to these surroundings and awaits
   you with about the strangest spell in the game. If you capture it,
   it may unlock something nice.

-  **Survival Spell**: Rarely, a very strong boss can invoke a Spell Card
   that makes them completely invincible. You are on your own here. Try to
   survive somehow until the timer runs out.

   You might want to use *Spell Practice* to perfect one of them.

Scoring System
--------------

Scoring might seem like something important for the adept pro player only. The
lowly easy mode player just cares about surviving, right? Not necessarily!
In Taisei, you are rewarded with extra lives as you score. So while the statement
from the beginning is true to an extent, knowing the basics of getting a good
score (and the non score-related benefits you get along the way) is helpful for
everyone.

.. _Point Item Value:

The amount of score you collect is not a flat value. It depends on
different factors you can influence to maximize the amount of points
you earn. Point items for example give more score if they are collected
higher up on the screen. If you go up beyond a certain point, the game
will also auto collect all items on the screen.

Auto collection is also triggered by other events such as bombs, and
the items collected in this way will always count as collected at the top,
so it is beneficial for your score.

The base (full) value of a point item is referred to as Point Item Value, or PIV.
It's displayed on the HUD next to the blue point icon. It can be increased by
collecting small Value items that usually spawn when bullets are canceled, but the
best way to increase it is through the Voltage system. PIV also affects some other
values, such as spell card bonuses.

.. _Voltage:

The most visible part of the scoring system is the Power Surge mechanic.
While Power 4.00 is the maximum your shots will put out, you can overcharge
your Power meter up to 6.00. The surplus Power (and also the rest, if
you are in a bind) can be used to start a Power Surge (see `Controls`_). By default
a Power Surge is also activated automatically once your Power meter reaches 6.00;
this can be disabled in the settings.

While a Surge is active, all point items are collected at their full value regardless
of where they are on the screen, your damage is boosted by 20%, and your effective
Power level is locked to the value it was before activating the Power Surge.

To keep the Surge going, you have to maintain two charge meters, represented by a
ring around your character: the Positive (orange) charge and the Negative (blue)
charge. The positive charge starts at 100%, and the negative at 0%. Both gradually
deplete at different rates. The Surge will abruptly end when both charges are at
equal level. Both charges can be replenished by collecting lightning items, which
appear instead of mini-power items when you graze bullets; regular power items also
replenish charge levels.

Your Surge becomes more powerful the longer it's maintained, represented by a growing
sparkling aura around your character. The more negative charge you currently have, the
faster your Surge grows.

Once the Surge ends, all of it is released in a blast that damages enemies and
clears bullets. The damage and area of effect of the blast depends on how much power
your Surge has accumulated. You can manually cancel the Surge to trigger the blast at
the right time.

All enemies and bullets hit by the blast will spawn special Voltage items, which
greatly increase your Point Item Value, give you 1 Bomb Fragment each, and add to your
Volts meter. If your Volts meter reaches the Breakdown level shown in the HUD, you
unlock a special Voltage Overdrive spellcard at the end of the stage.

More info
---------

Knowing this much should help to get you started!

If you want more tricks and hints on how to *“git gud”*, check out
resources on how to play *Tōhō*, the game Taisei is based on.

Enjoy playing, and if you want to contact us, visit us on Freenode IRC
#taisei-project or on `Discord <https://discord.gg/JEHCMzW>`__.