YMMV / Radiant Silvergun

• Audience-Alienating Premise: This Shoot 'Em Up has some of the oddest mechanics in the genre — players start with seven different weapons, but is based on a combination of button presses (the home releases, however, have shortcut buttons to these combinations). This can be very confusing for both newcomers and genre veterans, who would likely drop the game long before they can get used to it. The Combo system, which is vital for not only a high score, but for powering up the weapons (lest it be nearly impossible to play) is guaranteed to throw many players off, especially when they have to avoid shooting the majority of enemies and evade them when they can - quite the opposite approach to the genre's conventions, given that's what most players are used to. These factors kept it a niche solely on the Sega Saturn and did not leave the country or system until 2011, thirteen years after its initial release. Fortunately, as the years passed, the game was more warmly received for its uniqueness in the genre, as well as being the predecessor to Ikaruga.
• Awesome Music: The entire soundtrack, as composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto - some examples are songs like "Debris" and "Return".
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Because the arcade version leaves out most of the in-game dialogue and cut scenes from Saturn/Story Mode in the console ports, a number of these moments happen for arcade-specific players. For example, when fighting against the "GEDO-O" in Stage 2 "Reminiscence", everything turns into a pseudo-Retraux-style wireframes complete with beeps. In Saturn/Story Mode, dialogue occurs beforehand where Tetra captain Tengai orders C.R.E.A.T.O.R. to analyze and record the fight with the GEDO-O. The change to wireframe is concurrent with the start of the recording.
• Breather Boss: "Nasu" in Stage 2 is relatively easier after fighting the "Golets" and before the "Daikai10" (see That One Boss below). It mostly just slithers around and can be easily destroyed by firing the Silvergun's Lock-On Spread.
• Memetic Mutation
  • WARNING! NO REFUGE! Data install. Encountered an assailant. (Name of the boss) Be Attitude For Gains...^Explanation The nonsensical advice regarding the best strategy when facing the next boss is not only absurd but is ridiculously Narmy.
  • 1. Be Praying
    2. Be Praying
    3. Be Praying^Explanation The one "strategy" against a certain boss in the entire game most players remember the most because of it being so simple and straight-forward.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Stone-Like destroys all life on the planet and there is nothing the heroes are able to do about it. They come back to Earth after escaping its destruction, and their entire Last Stand was All for Nothing. Repeat ad infinitum...at least until Ikaruga.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The Xbox Live Arcade port, while far from a Porting Disaster, has an issue with aspect ratio: the game runs in a 4:3 window pillarboxed into a 16:9 screen. This layout is then letterboxed if players are using a screen with an aspect ratio taller than 16:9. Given that the Xbox 360 does support composite-input 4:3 CRT televisions and a number of other shmup ports on the 360 do support 4:3 aspect ratios, this is practically an insult to those who wish to play on a 4:3 screen, particularly CRT screens like with the Sega Saturn and ST-V versions. This problem also carried into the Switch and Steam ports, with the latter of which being especially egregious as it is locked to an internal 720p resolution with no video or resolution options whatsoever.
  • To unlock "Ikaruga Mode" in the Xbox 360 port, players need to have played Ikaruga and earned at least one achievement under the same account used to play Radiant Silvergun. Unless players have an acquaintance who has the game, this amounts to a $10 Downloadable Content if they don't wish to play Ikaruga at all or already have another version of it. This is no longer the case for the Nintendo Switch port, where it unlocks after clearing the game once, although now instead of paying for the mode and unlocking an achievement in a different game, players have to put in a considerable amount of skill or time, as they start with limited continues in Arcade Mode and none in Story Mode, with continued play of the former awarding more starting credits and the same with Story Mode awarding more starting lives.^note In Arcade Mode, an extra credit is earned for every hour played, and after 8 hours it unlocks Free Play (i.e. unlimited credits). In Story Mode, Players are given an extra for every hour played on the Xbox 360 version, whereas in the Switch and Steam versions gives an extra life for every ten minutes instead. The Steam port and a post-release update for the Switch version mercifully makes Ikaruga Mode available from the start.
  • Upon collecting ten pink bullets with the Radiant Sword, players have access to the Hyper Sword. However, pressing the command for the Radiant Sword again will trigger the latter, using the entire meter in the process. This can be problematic if players are trying to save the Hyper Sword for a later section (likely to make use of the i-frames or to shear off a chunk of the next boss's health) or they're in a situation where the Radiant Sword is the best weapon to use (such as a section with many different-colored enemies, and thus firing the Hyper Sword will end the player's chain due to indiscriminately destroying everything it touches).
• Scrappy Weapon: The Homing weapon is often the least-used out of the seven weapons at higher skill levels, since its property of firing orbs at the nearest targets can cause those shots to target the wrong-colored enemies, breaking the player's chain. And as is typical of homing weapons in video games, the damage output isn't really good either.
• That One Boss:
  • Third boss of Stage 3 "Return", "Gallop", who doubles as a Wake-Up Call Boss due to players being forced to effectively utilize the other weapons in the Silvergun's arsenal^note The "vulcan" weapon is ineffective when the Gallop's "force unit" blocks all shots. Gallop also packs an assortment of attacks the previous bosses don't have and will likely throw off first-time players^note Irony ensued when veteran Radiant Silvergun players were surprised the Xbox port fixed an exploit in the Gallop fight where they can't abuse a certain position to grind for points without causing Collision Damage that was present in the Sega Saturn version.
  • Daikai10 in Stage 2 transforms into a cross shape and back, filling one of the two corridors it creates with a laser beam while rotating. At higher difficulties, the beams shoot at the same time down both corridors and rotation speed increases; once it changes forms, it shoots bouncing fireballs that will fill the screen.
  • "17VA-50" in Stage 4 "Evasion" as a result of Marathon Boss: players must engage a series of mini-battles against stationary turrets for the first two rounds, tanks in the third firing bouncing rounds as a result of players being encased in a rectangular force field, laser-firing drones in the next with surprising accuracy and timing (the force field is still active in this round, making space in the field limited) and a giant Wave-Motion Gun-firing turret serving as the last one, reinforced by turrets from the first two rounds.
  • "Ohtrigen" in Stage 6 "Origin" (Saturn/Story Mode exclusive) swings its wings with laser spreads that while avoidable, has little breathing space for room if players aren't careful. At a certain point in the fight, it spreads both wings to shoot in a criss-cross pattern making it harder to maneuver. At higher difficulties, the laser spreads are followed by fireballs.
• That One Level:
  • Stage 4 due to a multiple obstacles and traps intended to throw off players, as well as hard-to-dodge attacks from the bosses. If players are on Arcade Mode, they can simply pick Stage 2 to avoid it, but Saturn/Story mode makes it mandatory after finishing Stage 2.
  • For those who want to get large chains (and probably a necessity for players, regardless, since it's at a point where weapon levels should be as high as possible), part one of Stage 5A "Victim" is the most challenging, as it also takes place during a boss fight. There are tons of drones flying around when players must navigate inside the boss as wall turrets line the surrounding and firing at the player's position. Periodically, the walls will close in, forcing players to take cover as a missile flies through. Eventually, girders slide through the corridor, all the while the turrets keep firing. Later, kamikaze ships appear and home in to players, all the while the boss starts rotating. The likelihood of hitting a wrong enemy and resetting the chain is certain during this sequence, even at lower difficulties. Finally, since this is still a boss fight, time is of the essence, and not destroying the boss in part one prevents the second part (Saturn/Story Mode exclusive) from happening, making players lose the point bonus that can be acquired to help level up weapons.
• That One Rule: Chaining. To elaborate, more points are racked up by shooting down enemies of the same color, and for every three consecutive enemies of the same color destroyed, a chain bonus is achieved. Successive chains yield larger bonuses, upwards to 100,000 points, yet this is a source of struggles for many players and makes the game extremely Nintendo Hard even on "Very Easy" difficulty, because roughly 2/3 of enemies in every stage must be left intact, and enemies will often be firing at players or presenting itself as collision hazards. Destroying so much as one enemy of the wrong color and the entire chain resets unless players are aiming to score the "secret" chain, which requires destroying a red, a blue, then a yellow Mook, and can keep the "secret" chain going like normal chains upwards to 100,000 points. The downside is only yellow enemies can be destroyed after the first successful "secret" chain, lest the chain be reset; furthermore, yellow Mooks are the least common of the colored-coded enemies in all stages. Weapon levels are tied to Scoring Points and it's a requirement to level up weapons to prevent later boss fights from taking too long. Therefore, mastering the scoring for the game is mandatory to survival. The HD versions allow you to use the scoring system from Ikaruga instead, allowing you to change colors between chains at the cost of the chain bonus being capped at 25,600 points, but the game will still demand precision shooting regardless.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: On the HD ports of the game, players can no longer use continues on Story Mode whereas the Sega Saturn version allowed use of them in Saturn Mode, which can make playing Story Mode harder than it should be, especially when players have to play through both Stages 2 and 4. That said, players do get more lives as they play the mode longer, but the lack of continues can certainly create pressure even with all the extra lives.