Triggerheart Exelica

is a shoot 'em up by Warashi, makers of the Sega Saturn shooting game Shienryu. It was released in Japanese arcades in early 2006. The game runs on Sega's Naomi hardware. It is the last Sega published release for the Dreamcast.

Plot
In an unknown alien galaxy far away from the Milky Way, a war is waging between the human-like people and mysteriously violent robotic vehicles known as the Ver’Mith led by the mysterious young woman Faintear. Two humanoid-soldiers belonging to the Trigger Heart strike team, Excelia and programmed sister Crueltear, were busily fighting the Ver’Mith during an attack when a portal opened and sucked the two young women in. Materializing on planet Earth, Excelia and Crueltear soon made Earth their new home as they had no means of return until a new portal opened and the Ver'Mith appeared. Intent on making Earth their primary fortress of attack, the Ver'Mith quickly make short work of Earth’s Defenses. Earth’s only hope rests on the Trigger Heart sisters.

Dreamcast version
The Dreamcast version added a story mode and an arrange mode. Arrange mode has an increased difficulty level and does not have continues.

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.

Xbox Live Arcade version
An Xbox Live Arcade version for the Xbox 360 was released. It features high definition graphics, new background music, online leaderboards, and achievement points feature. However, story mode and arrange mode are not included.

Online leader board includes 6 boards for each fighters per difficulty setting.

A new ending and new cut scenes based on the arcade version was included.

Xbox achievement feature includes 200 points in 12 categories.

i-mode version
It includes new bosses and stages, score ranking. The game is split into 2 parts.

Early order includes character QUO card.

Downloadable contents include comic, dress-up tool, desktop accessories.

KUMASH!
It is a downloadable mini-game where the player gain points by capturing enemy fighter and throw enemies to panel of same colour. The fever gauge increases by throw enemies to panel of same colour. When fever gauge is full, throwing enemy to gold ingot panel causes massive amount of score items to be dropped.

The game includes 3 difficulty settings with 1 minute, 3 minutes, or no time limits.

Fighters

 * TH60 EXELICA
 * TH32 CRUELTEAR
 * TH44 FAINTEAR: Medium power, high speed, low Gge(?).
 * EXEKUMA: Medium power, low speed, high Gge(?).

Triggerheart Exelica -Enhanced-
It is the PlayStation 2 port of the game.

Arrange mode from the Dreamcast game was not included.

Limited Edition include a Nendoroid (Exelica) figure made by Good Smile Company. Pre-order also includes accessory balloon.

TH44 Faintear is now a player selectable fighter.

Omelet, Triggerheart Backupper C'r_na, Skilltall, originally only part of story concept, now appears in the game.

Other new elements include event CG, story mode and an opening movie. The opening theme is "Gravity Error" by Ayane.

Game play
The game involves playing 1 of 2 anthropomorphic fighters to battle against 5 stages of enemy ships. Exelica specializes in wide area attacks, while Crueltear uses concentrated front shots. Players can fire anchors to catch enemy ships, then use the caught unit as a shield or throw it to inflict more damage.

Fighters
The player controlled units are anthropomorphic fighters in swimsuits.
 * TH60 EXELICA: Wide forward area shots, medium movement, slow anchor traction
 * TH32 CRUELTEAR: Concentrated front shots, fast movement, fast anchor traction
 * TH44 FAINTEAR: Laser worm shot, faster movement, fast anchor traction

Stages
There are 5 stages in this game.

V.B.A.S. (Variable Boss Attack System)
Like 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.

Soundtrack
GRAVITY ERROR was a CD album that includes original and off vocal versions of Triggerheart Exelica -Enhanced- and PSP version of Memories Off opening theme songs.

It was published by Media Factory, Inc.

Drama CD
Triggerheart Exelica Parallel Anchor is an audio drama adaptation by Frontier Works Inc.

Soundtrack

 * Media Factory GRAVITY ERROR soundtrack page
 * 5pb GRAVITY ERROR soundtrack page

Audio drama

 * Frontier Works page

Triggerheart Exelica Trigger Heart Exelica Trigger Heart Exelica トリガーハート エグゼリカ