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Mankind
Earth Allied Armed Forces/Space Corps
In General
The flag unites those who want to take revenge on their enemies.
The Earth Allied Armed Forces, also known as the Space Corps, is the main protagonist organization in the R-Type' series, serving as the player's employer and weapons provider, as well as 22nd century humanity's main line of defense against the Bydo.- Achievements in Ignorance: Downplayed. While 22nd century mankind doesn’t quite understand how the Bydo were created or what makes them tick, they know enough to reverse-engineer Bydo tech, directly incorporate Bydo material into the ships themselves, and even create Force Devices (the Shadow Force and OF Force lines) that use no Bydo material at all.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: The Space Corps, especially by Final and Final 2, is shown as not above resorting to drastic and increasingly dubious measures to achieve victory. On the other hand, its sworn enemy is the Bydo Empire, which is practically run on pure malice and won't stop until humanity is wiped out.
- Blue Is Heroic: While it's up for debate how heroic they actually are, the EAAF is trying to keep humanity safe from the Bydo Empire, who make the former look like an army of saints.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: While the Space Corps has been present in just about every entry in the series, up until Final, it was never formally given a name.
- The Federation: The Space Corps serves as the main "protagonist" faction of the series, leading humanity's war against the Bydo.
- Godzilla Threshold: Tactics 2 shows the Space Corps increasingly abusing this to Well-Intentioned Extremist degrees. Its authoritarian if not unethical measures, including the continued use of Force Devices and other Bydo-based tech, are rationalized as being in the name of defending humanity.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: As the series progresses, they become increasingly authoritarian and unethical in their attempts to fight against the Bydo.
- Properly Paranoid: This is the EAAF/Space Corps' general modus operandi when it comes to combating the Bydo, not taking any chances the moment any such foe pops up. Moreover, the classic Wave Cannon and its myriad variants are all designed to be nigh-overpowered, while its warships are equipped with, if not designed around, enlarged versions of those same weapon systems. Even then, however, it's not always enough.
- Realpolitik: In Tactics II, it's revealed that the EAAF's high command is willing to make concessions with the renegade Solar Liberation League in exchange for resources Earth needs. That goes out the window, however, once General Kisun's real intentions are laid bare.
Granzella Revolutionary Army
In General
There were some brave enough to raise this flag.
Formed in reaction to the continued use of Bydo weaponry long after the assumed defeat of the Bydo at the end of R-Type Tactics, the GZRA is a rebellion turned rival military bloc which controlled the outer planets of the Solar System (the Gas Giants and Pluto) alongside their moons. They eventually end up in an all out war against the EAAF, but are forced to ally to fight off not only the renegade SLL but also a renewed Bydo invasion. Their current state is unknown.- Defector from Decadence: Alongside genuine rebels, much of the GZRA's ranks are comprised of ex-Space Corps members who became dissatisfied with the Earth's gradual moral bankruptcy and defected when the opportunity arose. That's why a lot of the faction's units are identical to the EAAF's.
- Everyone Has Standards: In Tactics II, the Space Corps' persistent use of Force Devices and other Bydo-based tech even after the war against the Bydo was seemingly over was one of the factors which led to the Granzella Revolutionary Army rising up to stop them.
- Green and Mean: Inverted. The GZRA is associated with the colour in Tactics II, but is (for the most part) a genuinely good natured faction trying to fight the tyranny of the Earth.
- La Résistance: Introduced in Tactics II, the GZRA is an alliance of people fighting back against the Space Corps due to their oppressing of the populace and constant use of Bydo-derived weaponry.
- Red Is Heroic: The GZRA uses red in their uniforms and on their flag and are more heroic then the EAAF. Although ironically Tactics II associates them with green.
Solar Liberation League
In General
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Under General Kisun, the Solar Liberation League is all too happy to throw the GZRA under the bus once it's in a position to do so. Even after brokering a deal with the EAAF's upper echelons to cede the outer planets in exchange for resources, it still doesn't stop the SLL from plotting an invasion of the entire solar system even amidst the Bydo invasion.
- Disc-One Final Boss: General Kisun, his remaining SLL supporters and his controlled Bydo are this for the Bydo campaign in Tactics II, before the Solar Envoy shows up.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: The SLL knows how dangerous weaponizing the Bydo outright can be. It just doesn't care.
- Humans Are Bastards: Operation Bitter Chocolate reveals that even with the Bydo invading, radicals like the Solar Liberation League still have delusions of usurping power over all humanity, even going so far as outright weaponize the Bydo to a level that even the EAAF/Space Corps at its worst considers too extreme.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: The SLL is an extremist breakaway faction of the GZRA led by the treacherous and power-hungry General Kisun. Taking Bydo tech to its limits with the Bydo Bind System and trying to take over the Solar System even while the Bydo invade, their intentions are anything but pure.
Alien Races
The Bydo Empire
In General
What seems to be an extra-terrestrial threat from the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, The Bydo Empire is a constant threat to mankind. Their ability to take over anything ranging from organic life to machines and even being able to corrupt space itself makes them a dangerous foe. Even after their perceived defeat during Operation Last Dance, their terrible legacy lives on through simulations and the memories of those who faced them in wartime...- Actually a Doombot: For much of the series, tracking down the Bydo Core, and thus the source of all Bydo, has been mankind's top priority...only for the EAAF/Space Corps to find out that they either didn't finish the job or that the true Core is hidden elsewhere. It's not until Final and Final 2/3 that the real source is destroyed, once and for all.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Bydo, thanks to being a completely malevolent race of Eldritch Abominations that seek to spread themselves all over the universe by assimilating absolutely everything, even empty space of all things. The Bydo are beyond reasoning and compassion because they're incapable of anything positive or kind-hearted, having nothing but sheer hatred towards all non-Bydo life. The worst part? Not only are they created by humans as biomechanical superweapons made to fight an unknown enemy, the Bydo are genetically related to humans.
- And I Must Scream:
- The R-Type Tactics duology's Bydo Campaigns play with this. The Admiral, while initially coming across as half-awake, is convinced they are still human and are just trying to get back to Earth for one reason or another. Similarly to the Bydo endings from Final and Final 2, this suggests that even while fighting against their former comrades, they're unaware of their true nature rather than being forced to fight against their own will. When they do catch on to what they've become, however, they either flee to the void or destroy themselves while they're still conscious enough.
- The Bydo themselves are suggested as being driven insane by their self-awareness of their origin as a WMD and an inability to overcome that original "programming."
- And Man Grew Proud: The Bydo were created as a living weapon system by humanity in the future. Although judging by the fact they survived to banish the Bydo, their civilization wasn't wiped out... unless whatever they were going to use the Bydo against came along and finished the job.
- The Assimilator: The Bydo have the ability to possess and/or transform other creatures into more Bydo. They only tend to do this to really powerful individuals or weapons, though. Most of the time, they'll just kill you.
- Bio Punk: In addition to organic weapons comprised of heavily mutated monstrosities, the Bydo deploy both mechanized units and those that combine organic and mechanical components into unsettling forms.
- Create Your Own Villain: For all their horror and Lovecraftian implications, the Bydo nonetheless were engineered by humanity in the distant future as the ultimate WMD. With Final perhaps suggesting that that the Force Device used by the R-Series pilot sent to the future helped make their creation possible.
- Creative Sterility: Downplayed with the Bydo. They're as capable of manufacturing new war machines and breeding fresh monstrosities as they are of corrupting/possessing whatever humans have. On the other hand, their very nature makes them utterly incapable of creating, let along conceiving, something new that isn't designed with destruction or malice in mind. This would explain both the series' Recurring Boss tendencies, and the Bydo's resentment towards humanity for making them that way.
- Eldritch Abomination: What the Bydo are in essence. While most of them are biomechanical constructs or horribly mutated living creatures, a common trait of all Bydo is that their flesh is in a constant state of flux between solid mass and energy, and the most advanced ones start to get otherworldly. The Bydo Cores seen in Delta and up, in particular, take on bizarre forms (frequently resembling an ovum) in nonsensical, illusionary locations, and often can't be harmed by standard weapons. The Ebony Eye/Obsidian Pupil encountered in Tactics and Final 2's third path is described not as a living creature but a "Thought Singularity".
- Eldritch Location: The Bydo Dimension seems to change radically with each game's iteration, at times even being actively hostile towards outsiders.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The Bydo were deliberately engineered to be utterly incapable of feeling anything positive, compassionate, or kind-hearted, which in turn fuels their mad obsession with eradicating mankind.
- Fate Worse than Death: As if simply dying from a Bydo attack was bad enough, being captured and corrupted by the Bydo and used against your former comrades are much worse. And if you're lucky, you may even retain your consciousness but never realize what you've become until it's too late. This is notably the fate of the R-13 Cerberus in Delta, the R-series pilots in the bad endings of Final and Final 2 and the human fleet in the R-Type Command games.
- Guilt-Free Extermination War: The Bydo pose such an existential threat to mankind and cannot be reasoned with in any way that destroying them is considered the only rational decision.
- Human Subspecies: The Bydo, as much of an Eldritch Abomination as they are, are still genetically human. Albeit, stripped of any remotely positive traits and emotions, combined with millennia of evolution making them nigh-unrecognizable.
- It Can Think: The Bydo are shown throughout the series as capable of higher-order thinking and long-term strategy, even if these are almost solely aimed at the destruction of humanity and the assimilation of life into more Bydo.
- Inscrutable Aliens: Any attempts to communicate with the Bydo have ended in failure. The Tactics games show that the Bydo see both humanity and other species as this as they cannot communicate with them.
- Join or Die: The closest thing the Bydo Empire ever gets to "negotiating" with humanity is for the latter to either allow themselves to be assimilated or be eradicated and possibly assimilated anyway.
- Killed Off for Real: In Final, it's implied the source of all the Bydo was finally found and destroyed. The Bydo you fight in R-Type Final 2/3 are simulations based off historical battles, including the ones where they were wiped out for good.
- Mecha-Mooks: The Bydo are also fond of throwing these against humanity Cancers
, for instance, are a recurring basic enemy unit which are one of the first weapon systems they ever created. - Taking You with Me: The Bydo does this more often than not.
- In R-Type III, Mother Bydo tries to take down the R-9/0 Ragnarok as it tries to escape.
- In Delta, the Bydo Dimension itself tries to trap the pilot before they could find a way back to Earth. Unfortunately, the R-13 doesn't make it.
- In Stage F-C of Final various Bydo attempt to wipe you out as you go into the future.
- In Stage 7.2 of Final 2 the Bydo Core/Obsidian Pupil tries to absorb you in a final attempt to save itself, only to fail thanks to a Heroic Sacrifice.
Alien Civilization
A powerful alien race which are encountered and fought in the Bydo Chapter of Tactics II. Not much is known about them other than how their technology is superior to mankind's.
Homage Stage Factions
Major
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Major is a rogue AI originally created as part of a space colonization program called Project Paradise.
- Alternate Universe: It's the main antagonist of R-Type Leo.
- Bio Punk: Major's central core is revealed to be an organic biocomputer encased in metallic plating.
- Taking You with Me: Once defeated, Major decided to initiate Eden's self destruct instead of allowing humanity to reclaim it.
MUDDY
- Adaptational Badass: In Mr. Heli's Great Adventure, "Mr. Muddy" was just a generic villain. In the R-Type timeline, however, it's reinterpreted as a threatening renegade AI that the Space Force had to take down.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: MUDDY is a rogue AI that, much like Major, seems to have been intended for a similar space colonization program, only for the project to go awry.
- Canon Welding: MUDDY was originally the main villain in Mr. Heli's Great Adventure.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Despite looking somewhat cuter and goofier than other enemies, MUDDY's Mecha-Mooks are no less dangerous
Dark Anarchy Society
- Canon Welding: The Dark Anarchy Society, like the Granvia submarine, hails from In the Hunt, with Final 2 suggesting that the game's events also happened in the R-Type timeline.
- Hot Sub-on-Sub Action: As the DAS mostly operates around Earth's oceans, many of their weapons are naval craft, from miniature submarines to modified mecha.
- Humans Are Bastards: Stage Z2.0 in Final 2 suggests that the DAS isn't above terrorism and weaponizing ancient relics if it means getting the upper hand... even while the war against the Bydo is still in full swing.
- Take Over the World: DAS' stated goal amounts to this, and wiping out anyone standing in its way. Even to the point of using weaponized ancient artifacts.
Unknown
The Solar Envoy
A mysterious black/dark orange spacecraft found near the Sun.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's left unclear if the Solar Envoy, introduced in Tactics 2, is genuinely alien in origin, a creation of the Bydo or something cooked up by 26th Century Humanity.
- The Dreaded: Whatever the Solar Envoy actually is, it's suggested to actually instill fear among the Bydo.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Solar Envoy appears to be the first enemy in the entire franchise to be from a distinct alien species, having no prior intel in humanity's database.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Hinted to be pulling the strings of at least the Bydo campaign, with you being inexplicable drawn to it at end of the game.
- Mook Maker: The Solar Envoy can mass-produce insectoid mechanical spacecraft known as "Solar Envoy Guards" for both combat and scouting duty.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: While its true nature and purpose is still up in the air, its colouration gives off a very foreboding impression.
- Resource-Gathering: It can recycle anything it targets and use the harvested material to create new units.
- That's No Moon: The Solar Envoy is a massive black spacecraft/entity that bares a resemblance to a star.
Phenomena
Bydo-like entities found in Amber Space. They are encountered in R-Type Final 3 Evolved.
