Game:

ZeroRanger (2018)

Duration: 47:05

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1

0:00 Stage 1-1
2:25 Stage 1-2
6:52 Stage 1-3 first half
11:08 Stage 1-3 second half
15:34 Stage 1-4
19:36 Boss Rush
23:33 Loop 2: Stage 2-1
26:14 Stage 2-2
31:40 Stage 2-3
36:32 Ikaruga and marbles
39:00 Despair
42:20 Escape
44:28 Rank, Credits, and score

ZeroRanger site with demo: https://se-made.com/zeroranger.html
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/809020/ZeroRanger/
Itch.io: https://system-erasure.itch.io/zeroranger

ZeroRanger is really good! I love the music, the look, the levels, the setpieces, the enemies, the weapons, the modes, and the ships. It's difficult, but with modes, continues, checkpoints, dynamic difficulty, and extra lives, it's reasonable to see all of the game (without trivializing it) (although Despair is dang hard). The game is tough but not mean most of the time (for example, you cannot die in the final escape sequence). I kept finding new neat things each time I played, including this time.

Your score in the top left fills up with a slightly different color from left to right as you earn points. It fills faster the fewer extra ships you have. When it fills entirely, the color empties and says "life up," giving you an extra ship. During the final boss fight at 40:37, I lose my last ship, but a shot that I had already fired earns me the last few points I need to get an extra ship and save my life. My heart was pounding after that!

My playthrough is mainly focused on survival, but I still try to score to get extra ships. In order to score well in Green Orange/Normal Mode, you want to kill certain enemies quickly to spawn extra orange enemies, and leave certain enemies alive to bridge parts of the stage that have no enemies (since your score multiplier goes down if you go 2 seconds without shooting something). Leaving enemies alive can be dangerous, so in this run I kill most enemies as quickly as possible. You also get points for hitting bosses, killing bosses quickly, having many lives remaining at the end of a stage, and for collecting SE Bonus items (I skip some bonuses that I find difficult/dangerous to go for).

I picked the default color palette and Type B, flamethrower, charge shot, sword for both loops this run. Type B's shot and flamethrower have good coverage, and its charge shot/shield is really good against 1-3 second half "the boys are back in town" and Despair/marbles. Its sword does a lot of damage in general and has some specific powerful uses: for example, at 36:05, I deflect Grapefruit's spirit bomb attacks, and at 39:49, I parry the final boss' chop attack. Other weapons have other uses: for example, lock-on is really good at maintaining your multiplier and Type C's charge shot pierces through all of the train cars in 1-3, taking them out easily.

I came back to the game to play White Vanilla/Light Mode (my 1CC here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4AIxsu_Iw ), and didn't originally plan to 1CC Green Orange/Normal Mode. When ZeroRanger was new, I didn't like the idea of 1CCing a 2 loop mode, but now I understand and like the idea behind this one (replay the first 2.5 stages with all of the weapons, then the rest is different) from Electric Underground's interview with System Erasure here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1wyPN4DaJE . Also, Despair At Last at 38:15 is my favorite song in the game!

ZeroRanger is exciting to play! Will definitely play Hard Mode/Black Onion when it is added, but I think I might go for higher White Vanilla/Green Orange scores too. Check out this high score Green Orange run from Erppo with caption commentary (1.37 million points) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbzOUNjSEJk ! Check out what Green Orange mode looks like from a fresh save in this 1CC with caption commentary from TripleMoon (different dialogue and a True Last Boss)! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04MecEyzGQ4

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