Otomedius

Otomedius

Otomedius is a side scrolling shooter by Konami which featured personification of space fighters from various Konami games. The main characters are females, designed by Mine Yoshizaki, with a set of equipments resembling space fighters from the side-scroller games by the same company Gradius, Xexex, Salamander and Parodius. The name is a pun, being a portmanteau of the terms "otome" (meaning "maiden" in Japanese) and "Gradius". The arcade version makes use of Konami's E-amusement service to store player's data.

MMS2nd

In 2008, Konami released a set of figures based on the main characters on the game. These designs use the Konami MMS2nd figure as their base, the same used in their Busou Shinki line. The sets also each contained 2 penguin mascots which are common enemies in the game Parodius.

Gameplay

The game plays similarly to Gradius but with some differences. For starters, the player character already have a force field upon starting and re-spawning. When the character gets killed, they instantly respawn ala Salamander. And finally, they can use a D-Burst attack that acts as a bomb weapon which clears the screen of enemies and bullets.

Even how the stages are laid out are different. Instead of the traditional 6-10 stages that must be tackled in order, Otomedius allows the player to pick up to three stages in any order and set a difficulty for each stage. After playing the stages, the game ends, the player receives an Otome card and the his/her progress is saved to the e-amusement pass.

Characters

Protagonists

• Aoba Anoa, Vic Viper (from Gradius) pilot
• Eru Tron, Lord British (from Salamander) pilot
• Emon 5, Xiel-Viper (inspired by Ganbare Goemon) pilot
• Madoka, Murdoch Viper (from Twinbee) pilot
• Diol Twee, Serenity Viper (Flintlock from Xexex) pilot
• Tita Nium, Big Core Examiner (Core battleship-inspired Viper) pilot
• Esmeralda, Jade Knight (from Gradius Gaiden) pilot
• Poini Coon, Falchion Beta (from Gradius Gaiden) pilot
• Operetta (Operator)

Antagonists

• Eliza (from Gokujō Parodius!)
• Titi XIV
• Yoshiko (From Parodius Da! and Gokujō Parodius!)
• Crystal Core D-X02 (Irene)
• Gofer Sisters
• Meta-Lium

Stages

Stage 1: San Salvador Island

Stage 2: Tokyo

Stage 3: Canadian Rockies

Stage 4: Easter Island

Stage 5: Alexandria

Stage 6: Antarctica

Stage 7: Valhalla/Boss Rush

Bosses

Stage 1: Eliza's Pet Seal (L.B. Gofer appears instead of Eliza in the test version. Demo Video)

Stage 2: Gofer Sisters with Eyegol

Stage 3: Big Core DX-01 (Meta Lium)

Stage 4: Yoshiko

Stage 5: Scrab Core (Titi XIV)

Stage 6: Crystal Core D-X02 (Irene from Xexex)

Stage 7: Big Core, Abaddon Warship/Mayhem Warship (changes between them), Tetran, Viva Core, Space Mambo, Big Core MK II, Rolling Core, Covered Core MK II, D.E.S (Death), Odin Core

(NOTE: In the boss rush section of stage 7, the bosses are chosen randomly. The fourth and final boss is always Odin Core)

Composers

The following is a list of composers who have contributed and/or remixed tracks for the game.

• Motoaki Furukawa^#
• Norikazu "Nories" Miura^*
• Akira Yamaoka^#
• Miki Higashino^#
• Naoki Maeda
• Michiru Yamane
• Motoi Sakuraba*
• Norihiko Hibino
• Shinji Hosoe
• Izutani Takahiro
• Toda Takehiro
• Yuzo Koshiro*
• Metaruyuki
• Kenichiro Fukui
  
• Kouda Masato
• Hideki Sawa
• Takahiro Izutani
• Atsushi Fujio (under alias of すけのみや藤尾)
• Supasuipu*
• Quad (luvtrax)*
• Kentaroh Uramachi (under alias of Uraken)*
• KPLECRAFT*
• naya~n* (composed standard music tracks)
• Kashiwagi Ruzarin* (composed standard music tracks)

^# Former or inactive Konami composer

• Non-Konami (commissionned) composer

External links

• Otomedius official website
• Article about the game's composers