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TH Exelica

This is Exelica, i will deploy now. Roger, Good Luck!

This article is about the game, for the eponymous character, see: Exelica


Triggerheart Exelica (トリガーハート エグゼリカ Torigāhāto Eguzerika, also spelled Trigger Heart Exelica and TriggerHeart EXELICA) is a shoot'em up by Warashi and the primary focus of this Wiki. It was released in Japanese arcades in May 29, 2006. The game runs on Sega's Naomi hardware, and was later ported to the Sega Dreamcast, becoming the system's penultimate licensed title when it was released in Japan on February 22, 2007— only two weeks prior to Karous.

It was ported later to other consoles with slight improvements.

Plot[]

In an unknown alien galaxy far away from the Milky Way, a war is waging between a group of human-like people called C.H.I.L.D.A. and a mysterious race of violent robotic vehicles known as the Ver’mith. C.H.I.L.D.A. employed their elite squad consisting of humanoid weapons known as Triggerhearts, two of the Triggerheart units, Exelica and her programmed sister Crueltear, were busily fighting the Ver’mith during an attack when a portal known as "Gate" opened and sucked both Triggerhearts in.

Materializing on planet Earth, Exelica and Crueltear soon made this planet their new home as they had no means of return, and losing their reasons to fight as they were also uncapable to know the outcome of the Interstellar Wars.

Some time later a new portal opened and the surviving Ver'mith forces appeared. Intent on making Earth their primary fortress of attack, the Ver'mith quickly eliminated the majority of Earth’s defenses. As the destruction spreads, the once buried fighting instincts within Exelica and Crueltear re-awoke. The final battle against the Ver'mith has begun, but this time the Ver'mith have their own version of a Triggerheart unit known as Faintear.

Outnumbered, but with their fighting instincts awoken, and with a reason to fight once again, the future of planet Earth and the entire galaxy rests on the Triggerheart units.

Gameplay[]

The gameplay involves playing with 1 of 2 selectable characters to battle against 5 stages of enemy ships. Exelica specializes in wide area attacks making her appropiate for beginner players, while Crueltear uses concentrated front shots, which makes her perfect for average and expert players.

Players can also fire the Anchor Unit to catch enemy ships, then use the caught enemies as a shield or throw it to inflict more damage. Like many other shooters, the game features a Bomb to clear the screen of bullets and damage or destroy some of the enemies on-screen.

Triggerhearts[]

The player-controlled units are humanoid fighters in leotard-like outfits called Spec Suits.There's two available Triggerheart units to play with:

  • TH60 Exelica: Wide forward Spread Shot, slow movement, slow Anchor traction
  • TH32 Crueltear: Concentrated front Linear Shot, fast movement, fast Anchor traction

V.B.A.S. (Variable Boss Attack System)[]

Main article: V.B.A.S.

In a similar fashion to Compile's game Zanac, this game dynamically adjusts difficulty based on the player's in-game performance. It affects the difficulty of game bosses. If player collects more score items, the harder the bosses will be to defeat.

Dreamcast version Features[]

Along with the original arcade game, the Dreamcast version added a Story Mode and an Arrange Mode. The "Arrange Mode" is an increased difficulty version of the original arcade version and does not have continues if the player loses all his/her lives.

There are two distinct versions being released: a regular version and a limited edition, which includes a soundtrack and guide book. Early orders from Sega Direct also included a phone card, and poster.

Although officially released only in Japan, it can be enjoyed by players from other countries because most of the menus are in English with Japanese subtitles. However, a Dreamcast boot disc will be needed to play it on a non-Japanese console, since the disc is locked to the Japanese region.

Nintendo Switch Release[]

Triggerheart Exelica - Crowdfunding Project

First Announcement of the Crowdfunding Project

On July 5th, 2023, Cosmo Machia announced a crowdfunding campaign for a Nintendo Switch port of Triggerheart Exelica under the name "17年以上の時を経て始動!「トリガーハート エグゼリカ」復活応援プロジェクト!" (17-Nen ijō no toki o hete shidō! Torigāhāto Eguzerika Fukkatsu ōen puroshiekuto [lit. "Started 17 years ago! Triggerheart Exelica's Revival Support Project"]. The initial goal of the project was to reach 3,000,000 Yen ($ 21,163.28 Dollars) to release the game on Switch with multi-language support, considering to release it on other consoles sometime later and maybe working on a sequel. The Crowdfunding ended with a total of 6,300,420 Yen ($ 44,445.84 Dollars) and a total of 745 supporters, doubling the original goal on August 5th, 2023.

Based on the screenshots on the teaser image and the campaign site, it is implied that the game will be based on the Dreamcast version. Cosmo Machia has scheduled its release date before the end of 2023 with multilingual options and even the possibility of a sequel.

On August 8th, 2023, new screenshots of the game were shown on a Gamer.ne.jp article implying the release will be based on the XBOX Live Arcade version. This was confirmed on Konami's Tokyo Game Show where gameplay was shown confirming the reutilization of the XBLA port, but also the inclusion of the Story and Arrange Modes from the Dreamcast version.

Curiosities[]

  • According to MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator), Triggerheart Exelica has a 4096 color palette, the same as Capcom's CPS-1 and CPS-2 boards and the SNK's Neo-Geo Multi-Video System hardware.
  • The arcade flyer features screenshots of the prototype version of the game, depicting multiple differences from the final version.
  • The weapon-speed configuration of the Triggerheart units can be compared to the Mosquito ships from Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting. Exelica's slow speed and use of a Spread Shot would equal those of the Mosquito 01, while Crueltear will be like the Mosquito 02 with her fast speed and Linear Shot combination. You can call Triggerheart Exelica "Mars Matrix with Girls" if you want to.

Links[]

Warashi's game page (Backup from Internet Archive's Wayback Machine)

Sega's arcade game page (Backup from Internet Archive's Wayback Machine)

Cosmo Machia's official site

TV Tropes article about Triggerheart Exelica

Arcade Longplay with Crueltear

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