Reactivate Majestical Imperial
Reactivate Majestical Imperial 鏈縁霊烈傳 | ||||
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Title screen of the game | ||||
Developer | Trick Nostalgie | |||
Publisher | Trick Nostalgie | |||
Released |
29-31 December 2013 (Comiket 85, trial, v0.01a) 19 March 2014 (trial, v0.05a) 2 October 2014 (full, v1.00a) 14 October 2017 (v1.10a) 19 October 2017 (v1.11a) 2 June 2018 (v1.20a) 9 October 2018 (v1.21a) | |||
Genre | Vertical Danmaku Shooting Game | |||
Gameplay | Single-Player Story Mode | |||
Platforms | Windows XP/Vista/7/8 | |||
Official Site | Trick Nostalgie | |||
Download |
Download from "Freem!" Download from Vector | |||
Len'en Series chronology | ||||
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Len'en
Name and Concept[edit | edit source]
Like previous Len'en Project games, the title consist mainly of five Japanese kanji, plus an English sub-title that relates to the main title without necessarily being a translation. In the title, "Reiretsuden (霊烈傳)" is referencing the amount of spirits that are coming to Mugenri in the game's plot. "Reactivate Majestical Imperial" refers to the resurrection ceremony of Taira no Masakado, a ritual held by Taira no Fumikado to become the new emperor of the capital. The Japanese title was originally "鏈縁霊烈傳", but it was changed to "連縁霊烈傳" in v1.10 in accordance with Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle. Unlike previous games, "Reactivate Majestical Imperial" is officially written in lower-case.
Through the Len'en Maniacs' Quiz, it was revealed that a scrapped Japanese kanji title for the game was "Murasaki Issho" (紫佚書), "Lost Book of Purple". However, it is not clear how, or even if, the title relates to the version of the game that now exists.
Gameplay[edit | edit source]
The game has three playable teams with two team members each, a story mode with 6 stages and an Extra Mode with selectable difficulty – Easy Extra Mode and Extra Mode which can be unlocked by clearing the main game on any difficulty, as well as Absurdly Extra Mode which is only unlocked once the main game is cleared on Unreal difficulty. The trial version is limited to the first three stages and first two teams (Yabusame Houlen & Tsubakura Enraku, Adagumo no Yaorochi & Sukune Katano.)
The game features several new gameplay mechanics. The player can switch between the two members of their chosen team, each of whom has their own attacks, bombs, play style and even power gauge. Team members switch out by activating a bomb or by getting hit by an enemy bullet. The team member that is not currently active is shown at the bottom edge of the screen, and moves to follow the active member. The inactive member can collect power items that fall to the bottom of the screen, as well as ghost items (which can only be collected through this method). Ghost items fill the "Spirit Jar" on the right side of the screen, which provides the player with a brief power-up for a limited time when filled, this power-up varies from team to team.
Story[edit | edit source]
The following is the story teaser for the game from its official website, along with the official translation found in the English version of the website with slight adjustments made:
无現里に訪れた今年の冬は、例年と比べて随分と寒いんだそうな。 |
Winter in Mugenri this year seems much colder than the average. |
Music[edit | edit source]
The game features original tracks composed by JynX that mimics ZUN's style. Similar to the Touhou Project games, the music room doesn't show the names of all the themes from the first time playing and thus requires to select one theme twice if the player wants to listen to the track. There may be a few melodies in most of the tracks that strongly resembles those from the Touhou Project.
Development[edit | edit source]
JynX first announced the development of RMI on 24 November 2013 with only the title screen developed, where they planned to release it at Comiket 85 along with JynX's Touhou arrangement album 現樂団の往古 ~ 束方廻怪綺談 ~.[1] It was developed in about 10 days[2] before being distributed on 29 to 31 December 2013. A second trial, v0.50a, was released freely to the web on 19 March 2014, which did a lot of polishing from the first trial, but also included a new "Jar Zenith" system.[3] JynX had no idea when the full would be released.[4]
The full version of the game was released on 2 October 2014 as a free download.[5] This was planned to be finished 10 months prior, but was pushed back due to motivation, wishing to be done with developing the game near the end.[4] Sometime before 2015, the trial version was no longer publicly available, and JynX admiting to taking them down. The initial full release, however, stayed publicly available on Vector, as it still had importance to the series.[6]
Sometime around the development of Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle, JynX decided to update past games. Thus on 14 October 2017 (after v1.20f release of BPoHC), 1.10a of the game was released.[7] This update rebalanced various attacks in the game, and opened the game's text and image resources to allow for easier translation. It also introduced Suzumi Kuzu as an unlockable fourth team, who actually was intended to be the playable since the very beginning.[8] On 2 June 2018, the game was one again updated, to v1.20a which implemented new "Light Level" mode.[9] The reasoning was that JynX claimed to receive feedback about the game being too difficult still, and made it easier for anyone to experience the harder difficulties.[10] The game was further updated to fix scoring on 9 October 2018, taking it to v1.21a.
External Links[edit | edit source]
Official[edit | edit source]
- Free official download from Freem for v1.21a
- Free official download from Vector for v1.00a
- Trial version for v0.50a (Mirror download)
- Trial version for v0.01a (Mirror download), originally from 現樂団の往古 ~ 束方廻怪綺談 ~
- Game's official webpage (English)
Unofficial[edit | edit source]
- Latest English Patch for v1.00a (See here for more information)
- Latest English patch for 1.21a (version 02c) (See here for more information on English patches)
Additional Information[edit | edit source]
- The title screen of the game features Yabusame and Tsubakura's silhouette, both holding a red spider lily, which are typically associated with death and parting in Japan
- The various menu screens of the game features silhouettes of various characters, the chosen team's members on the stage result screen, Yabusame and Tsubakura on the final result screen, Shion on the Replay menu, Sese on the Music Room and Sukune on the Options menu.
- The general fan community did not have a copy of the trial versions over the many years. The second trial was found in early 2022, which was preserved by the Chinese fan community over the years. The v0.01a trial was preserved by a Japanese anonymous, found and obtained in January 2024.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Unreal Indolence Record: I'll be at the Winter Comiket! (24 November 2013)
- ↑ Unreal Indolence Record: Comiket 85 & Fanwork Guidelines (22 December 2013)
- ↑ Unreal Indolence Record: RMI: ver 0.05a (trial) (19 March 2014)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Reactivate Majestical Imperial: readme.txt
- ↑ Unreal Indolence Record: Reactivate Majestical Impeial is released! (3 October 2014)
- ↑ Interview with JynX (2021): Technical Gameplay Design, Question Q21
- ↑ Unreal Indolence Record: Update to the past three games of the Len'en Series! (16 October 2017)
- ↑ Interview with JynX (2021): Suzumi, Question 265
- ↑ Unreal Indolence Record: Update to the past 3 Len'en games! (3 June 2018)
- ↑ Interview with JynX (2021): Technical Gameplay Design, Question 19
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