R-Type Tactics, known in North America as R-Type Command, is a turn-based strategy game/tactical role-playing game released in 2007 in Japan, and 2008 in North America and Europe for PlayStation Portable. The main part of the game consists of two consecutive campaigns, in which the player controls first the forces of Earth, then the Bydo Empire. The game also supports multiplayer combat via Wi-Fi.
The gameplay is structured as a typical mission-based tactical role-playing game, but retains many of the specific traits of the R-Type series.
Gameplay
R-Type Tactics has 58 levels, through which the player navigates an army of R-Type space fighters and support units, fighting the enemy forces of the Bydo.
R-Type Tactics screenshot.
The side-scrolling nature of the R-Type series is preserved in R-Type Tactics. Most levels are structured as in a side-scrolling shooter, with the player's units and the objective on opposite sides of the field. Units cannot change facing, which has an important impact on gameplay, as certain attacks can only be performed in one direction. Like other turn-based strategy games, the playing field is also divided into hexagons with varying effects.
Units
R-Type Tactics features the opposing armies of the Earth Space Corps and the Bydo. The player will be able to access more than 100 different units, including many of the R-series fighters from the other R-Type games. Each fighter has unique abilities such as sub-space movement and a distinct set of attacks. During the game, the player acquires abilities enabling new units and upgrades to existing units to be purchased for his army. Furthermore, new units can be acquired by capturing certain objectives in levels, such as derelict space stations and starbases.
Support units range from large carrier ships to maintenance units as well as the Force units, well-known from other games in the R-Type series.
Force units can either be controlled separately or they can be attached to the R-series fighters. Attached Forces function as a unidirectional shield while providing the fighter with stronger attacks. When not attached, a Force is an independent unit that can be used as a tank.
As in other R-Type titles, the TP-02C POW armor functions as a supply unit. It is also used for capturing in-game locations such as space stations.
The Rr2o-3 has a similar function to the TP-02C, but has the added ability to repair friendly units or to mine asteroids for minerals called Solonium, Etherium, and Bydogen, all of which are needed in the production of new units, especially Forces. Certain units on the human side can also extract Bydogen from Bydo units.
Story
The game's narrative is viewed from the perspective of the player-character, who's an officer in Earth's defense forces, called the Space Corps, in the year MC 0065. Various entries in a journal also flesh out the plot.
- Space Corps
In the initial single-player campaign, the player is a freshly commissioned officer of the Space Corps. Currently, human forces are steadily losing engagements against a mysterious alien race called the Bydo. After completing the initial training above the Earth's atmosphere and Lunar space, the player is ordered to investigate an outpost in Mars that has reportedly lost contact.
Upon arriving, the player encountered a small number of Bydo forces and discovers that an outpost near Jupiter had been occupied by the Bydo. After fighting through fleets of Bydo, the player found that the outpost had been infested with a large Bydo life form known as Dobkeratops and despite its ferocity, the Space Corps managed to destroy it. As the Space Corps fleet advances outside the Solar System, the player is able to recruit more pilots along the way.
After defeating a large force of Bydo, including a Kombiler dreadnought, the player's fleet travels through a warp-gate station outside Pluto, which allows the fleet to access a hyperspace warp called the Tesseract to the Bydo's star system. The player's fleet entered a sub-space dimension known as Dimension 26. After fighting through waves of Bydo forces and destroying another Dobkeratops, the fleet managed to arrive at the Bydo's star system, facing even fiercer oppositions.
In the final battle located in the Bydo homeworld, the player encounters remains of Space Corps ships that were defeated in previous campaigns. The final target is the Ebon Eye which seems to be the mastermind of the Bydo invasion. After a long fight, the player eventually defeats the Bydo's core, but it turns out to be a pyrrhic victory, as the core opens a black hole that grapples the entire fleet and assimilates them in a large surge of slime. The player and their whole fleet assumed to be MIA (Missing in Action) by the rest of the Space Corps after the attack. Completing this campaign would unlock the Bydo campaign.
- Bydo Empire
As the Bydo campaign begins, the player-character awakens from a deep slumber, now absorbed as one of the aliens. As he fights his way out of the Bydo star system, this time against his old comrades in the Space Corps, he begins to further understand the origins of the Bydo.
Humanity
R-Type Tactics common fleet
As previously noted, R-Type Command hosts many of the vessels seen in R-Type Final but with different model numbers.
Battleships
Battleships consist of multiple components and use Hit Points as a damage meter. The ship can only be destroyed by directly damaging the body. The admiral must have at least one battleship in every skirmish.
- UFCS-05 Jormungandr
- UFDD-02 Nidhoggr
- UFBS-010 Heimdall
- UFBS-011 Tyr
- UFHC-007 Vanargand
- UFHC-008 Garum
- UFWS-004 Egir
Fighters
Most fighters group in squads in 5, except for the OF-1. As the squad's numbers dwindle, so does the overall effectiveness of the squad.
- Rwf-9A Arrowhead
- Rwf-9Abk Arrowhead
- Rwf-9Ac War Head
- Rwf-9D Shooting Star
- Rwf-9DH Grace Note
- RXwf-10 Albatross
- Rwf-9Sk1 Principality
- Rwf-13A Cerberos
- Rwf-13B Charon
- BXwf-T Dantarion
- Rw-11A R-Future
- R-11S R-Seraph
- OF-1 Daedalus
- R-9B1 Strider
- R-E1 Midnight Eye
Support Craft
Support craft also use the Hit Point system. They are invaluable for repairing and resupplying the fleet in the middle of battle, and can also retrieve resources for use in constructing new ships.
Bipedal Craft
These fighters use the Squad System (with the exception of the Hyllus) and are primarily melee attackers, with high damage and accuracy, but short range (again, with the exception of the Hyllus). The Patrocross Avian is also able to change into a Fighter Mode, in which it is equipped with the missiles and Wave Cannon of a standard fighter.
Forces
R-Type Command's Forces differ in many ways from the other games in the series, but the most glaring change is that they are no longer invincible. They function as a separate unit when detached. An attached force does not get a turn, instead altering the weapons of its counterpart ship.
- F-A Force
- F-Ac C Force
- F-D Defensive Force
- F-X Tentacle Force
- F-SkFr Flame Force
- A-ANC Anchor Force
- F-R13B Anchor Force +
- F-BXT Life Force
Other
CPU-Only
The Space Corps only fields these ships in the Bydo campaign.
- UFBS-AE1 Jotunheim
- UFBS-AE2 Muspellheim
- UFBS-AE3 Niflheim
- UFX-Gpsys Aegis
- UFX-PnCr Athenae
- Rwf-99 Waltz
Bydo
Battleships
Only a few Bydo battleships are available to Bydo commanders, but humanity will encounter a greater variety during their campaign.
- B-BS-Cnb Kombiler
- B-Bld Boldo
- B-Blmt Bermate
- B-GrR Gridlock and B-GrB Gridlock
- B-Fnmt Bloom Cruiser
- B-GstNd Gusternet
- BCS-Nth Nozari
- Bydo? Ebon Eye
- Many versions of Dobkeratops
- B-Gmd Gomander
Fighters
The Bydo don't have as many fighters to field as humanity does, but they're no less strong for it.
Support Craft
The Infected Module is a great, all-in-one support craft.
- BxTP Infected POW-Armor
- BXRr2o Infected Module
- B-Rr2o-2 Infected Module Mk2
Other
The Bydo army contains many monstrous craft, about half of which are only found in humanity's campaign.
- B-Inthr Enthrew
- B-Dp Dopp
- B-Nt Newt
- B-Yg Yokegon
- Bh-Bls Belacinth
- Bgh-Brd Baldur
- B-Ld Leidi
- Bg-Pf Pistaph
- B-Mur Moora
- B-Gup Gauper
- Bh-Tb0x Tablock
- Bhw-Gnsx Gains
- B-Rv Rebo
- B-Cnc Cancer
- B-Stbt Strobalt
- B-Stbt Strobalt Bomber
- B-Urc U-Lotch
- B-Mltc Morph Craft
- B-Nsl Nathrel
- B-Md Middo
- B-Gt Geeta
- B-Zd Zoydo
- Giant Thruster?
- Infected Remnants
Forces
The Bydo Forces are nearly identical to humanity's.
Trivia
The default names of the Bydo pilots in this game are all fragments of a sentence - e.g., the three forces, "Not" "Hin" and "Gelse", in sequence, form the words "nothing else". If the player obtains all Bydo pilots and reads their names in the order shown in the pilot list, they will see a few sentences of the Bydo commander's thoughts that would otherwise be missed. In the end, the thought spells out "fell asleep and when you[we] next woke up you[we] were a bydo all you[we] want is now to go back home to your[our] beloved planet earth you[we] can think nothing else".
This is repeated in R-Type Tactics II.
See Also
R-Type Tactics II: Operation Bitter Chocolate