Collection essentials #476: Espgaluda (PS2)

Here’s the game that perhaps has the most weird-to-pronounce name of them all!

I’ve talked plenty about arcade-style “shoot ‘em ups” before, those games where you fly around with your finger holding down the “shoot button”, collecting power-ups most of the time, dodging a series of bullets headed your way, with just one hit capable of taking away one of your lives. 

There’s a certain style of shoot ‘em up called “bullet hell”. As the name implies, these games often have a LOT of bullets on the screen at once, sometimes dozens. Of course, there are design principles behind it, and it’s not simply about the screen getting spammed with a ton of projectiles. These games may seem extremely daunting at first glance, for superhuman players only. They’re not quite THAT crazy, though. For one thing, the clouds of bullets in a good bullet hell adhere to some kind of pattern, which makes them more manageable to navigate. Also, your character/ship will have a very small “hitbox” which means it’s easier to dodge them than it looks. A “hitbox” refers to the part of your character that a bullet needs to touch in order to register a hit. In some games, including other shoot ‘em ups, any part of your character at all can be touched in order for an enemy attack to deal damage. But in a bullet hell game with a tiny hitbox, you might see a very small differently-colored circle in the middle of your character’s sprite, and this represents the only area that is vulnerable to actual damage. Meaning, in Espgaluda, if a bullet touches the arm or leg of your character, you will be totally fine.

Espgaluda is developed by Cave, a company that is usually recognized as the kind of “bullet hell” shoot ‘em ups. There was a window of about 18 years, from the ‘90s to the 2010s, where they regularly pumped out high-quality arcade bullet hell shoot ‘em ups. Cave games usually have a certain look and style to them so that you’ll know them when you see them, such as the aforementioned tiny hitbox, and the way they color their bullets brightly and distinctly (although imitators exist so “fake Cave” might fool some people). In the ‘90s up until now, a lot of times video games will have a score, but it comes off as something optional only for certain types of gamers to worry about. But Cave makes games that are truly meant to be played with score in mind. The scoring systems of their games are often very well-thought-out, and clearly not simply thrown in for the sake of having a token video game trope.

So what’s the deal with Espgaluda in particular? Well, the main gameplay gimmick here is the ability to slow down time, which is super cool. As you destroy stuff, you will accumulate a resource that lets you do so with the press of a button. While time is slowed, said resource will drain. This is great for a shoot ‘em up because it gives you a way to get a leg up on those particularly difficult waves of bullets that you have the most trouble dodging. There is also a cool risk/reward mechanic with the gameplay too, because if you let time slow long enough to the point where you can’t keep it going anymore, time will temporarily be made FASTER, and the bullets will change color to indicate this…but the player will earn more points than normal during this time!

I really admire Cave’s work and think that their games are super cool. However, I tend to not really indulge in most of them. To really experience a Cave game to its fullest is a big challenge, and requires a lot of dedication and practice. And so, similar to fighting games, I tend to respect them from afar while not really wanting to put in the large amount of time and effort to really master and get the most out of them…maybe because I fear I’ll wind up “hitting a wall” before I’m satisfied and just get frustrated. So I own most of Cave’s games, but a lot of them won’t make my list simply because I don’t play them a whole lot.

Espgaluda, though, is definitely one of my top favorite Cave games, perhaps because it’s one of the most fun to play casually. Yeah, I admit it…I guess I’m a filthy casual when it comes to these games! Oh well. 

Back in the day, Espgaluda was one of the games that made me want to get a Japanese PS2 (to get around the region lock). I saw people mention it online, and my late friend Brian Castleberry made an early YouTube video about it. I never mastered the game or anything, but over the years it’s always been a good time whenever I’ve fired it up. It’s a great example of Cave’s brilliance and…I guess I could call it an “Espssential”!