R Type Tactics II: Operation Bitter Chocolate

Gameplay

Bitter Chocolate features the player as he navigates a fleet of space fighters and support units, as one of three factions - the Earth Allied Armed Forces (EAAF; an evolution of the Earth Space Corps in the first game), the Bydo Empire, and a new human faction called the Granzera Revolutionary Army (GZRA). The side-scrolling nature of R-Type Command's gameplay is retained in the sequel. 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 the direction they are facing, which has an important impact on gameplay, as certain attacks can only be performed in one direction. Although certain missions have the player's units facing right, there are missions in both Human and Bydo campaigns where they will face left. Players can also earn veterancy levels, which improve their units' hit points or evasion levels.

Like other turn-based strategy games, the playing field is also divided into hexagons with varying effects. The game maps are also larger than those found in the first game, with some levels encompassing behemoth space facilities. Some stages are also vertically scrolling.

Players can also customize their avatars under a new profiling system and can also interlink with their old profiles from the first game. The profile from the first game represents the Bydo commander who was forced to leave Earth for good at the end of Tactics. The player will assume this profile when the Bydo campaign is unlocked. However, players with profiles in R-Type Tactics (not Command) can take advantage of this feature. The game also features branching mission paths that can be unlocked based on choices listed in the player's journal. The missions on the other path would be available when the player completes a campaign chapter.

Units

R-Type Tactics II offers more than 200 different units, including many of the R-series fighters from the other R-Type games such as R-Type Final, plus units from other Irem games such as the Granvia-F submarine from In The Hunt. Each fighter has unique abilities such as sub-space movement (called "desynching") 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. The unit's development can also be tracked through a special technology tree. More powerful versions of unlockable units in the game are also available as downloadable content from the PlayStation Network, but unlike the other units, the player can only acquire one of each.

Support units range from large carrier ships to maintenance units as well as the Force pods.

Force units can either be controlled separately or they can be attached to fighter craft. 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.

Aside from mining Solomonadium, Etherium, and Bydolgen, the Rr2o-3 is also capable of building a space station on certain stages featuring core blocks, though at a cost in Solomonadium mined on the spot. The kinds of modules that can be assembled include expansion conduits, docking bays, missile and laser turrets, fixed Wave Cannon turrets, and radar stations. The player can assemble up to 30 modules per stage. Once a core block has been destroyed, the entire station complex is destroyed as well.

The EAAF's arsenal comprises most of the Force-capable R-series fighters seen in the history of the franchise. The Granzera Revolutionary Army (GZRA) has only one fighter with a Force system (the R-90 Ragnarok and the non-Bydo based Shadow Force, respectively), but have jamming support, which can mask units under a fog of war. Sonar can also be used to uncover "desynched" units without having to bump into them during a turn. Regardless of what faction the player starts with, most of the other faction's units can be unlocked later in the game. The player can also exit the mission without having finished it and retain whatever bonus boxes recovered in the level.

The Bydo feature evolved versions of previous units seen in Tactics, such as the Boldo cruiser.

Enemy units that are close to being defeated can be converted to fight for the player.

Characters

For the first time in the franchise, human characters with dubbed voices are introduced in the game, with both the EAAF and the GZRA having male and female characters that act as the player's in-game assistants.

Main Character

The player's alter-ego is the main character, which can be designed according to gender, birthplace, and favorite food and color. The main character's voice can be heard in the journal entries, which also have choices that can affect the campaign and determine the player's rating in a special profile graph. The male character is voiced by Tetsu Inada while the female character is voiced by Yukie Maeda. The assistants will still be available in the Bydo campaign, but no voice options are available for the main character in the journal.

Earth Allied Armed Forces

Granzera Revolutionary Army

Story

The game is set in MC 0074, nine years after the events of Tactics. The Space Corps has successfully fought off the invasion of the Bydo Empire and peace has reigned. However, tension rises when the EAAF resists calls to demobilize and scrap much of its Force-based arsenal as the Bydo no longer pose a threat. Fed up with the EAAF's defiance, a faction based in Mars called the Granzera Revolutionary Army declares war on Earth and attracts many people to their cause.

Over the first two chapters, both factions skirmish within the inner planets of the solar system. They encounter the Bydo in Jupiter and fight to capture the Gail Rose space fortress outside Saturn. Outside Oberon, the player encounters an unknown machine civilization. The factions prepare for an attack on the Glitnir hyperspace station upon discovering that some GZRA members are planning something. Depending on a choice made at the end of a mission to Neptune, the player can swing around Triton to attack a GZRA outpost and mount a side attack on the Utgarda Loki beam cannon in the Kuiper Belt or directly attack the Utgarda Loki before the siege of Glitnir. It is discovered that the GZRA units occupying Glitnir are a new faction - the Solar Liberation League, an extremist wing of the GZRA. After conquering Glitnir, the joint EAF/GZRA force fights the SLL over the Tesseract, wherein they discover that the SLL are fighting alongside Bydo units. It is revealed that the SLL are able to field Bydo units using the so-called Bydo Bind System, a special mind-control system based on the Force pods. After defeating the SLL/Bydo forces in the Tesseract, the player gets word that the Bydo have invaded Earth again. As a result, the player's forces go out of warp space and go back to the Solar System and defeat the enemy (including recapturing the Gail Rose fortress). After driving the Bydo out of Earth, the human forces engage the aliens on another part of the Solar System and defeat the Bydo's Kombiler Lilil flagship.

In the last stage, the player's forces enter a stage with a yellow mist and representations of the Solar System's planets to face the Bydo Core, called the Amber Eye. However, despite defeating it, the player's forces are sucked by the Amber Eye and are all turned into Bydo.

The Bydo campaign sees the player (the player-character from Tactics) appearing in a different region of space, albeit having a rather confused state of mind. The player starts encountering a so-called Unknown Civilization that has advanced technology. It is revealed that the Unknown Civilization was the target of the EAAF at the time of the troubles with the GZRA. Halfway to the campaign, the player takes the fight to the Unknown Civilization's planet, defeating many of its forces. However, the Bydo force simply leave the planet and fly back to Earth once more. There, the player faces the same force of units from the final stage of Tactics (which is apparently teeming with vegetation before taking on a combined SLL/ Bydo force after leaving Earth. A raid into an SLL facility reveals a genetically-engineered Dobkeratops creature, spawning offspring that can unleash particle beam attacks.

In the final stage, the player's forces encounter a massive starfish-shaped battle station called the Solar Envoy. Despite defeating it, the Solar Envoy seems to remain standing, and the Bydo forces decide to fly into the sun.

Multiplayer

The game also supports multiplayer combat via Wi-Fi and also has a co-operative two-player mode available through ad hoc connection and game sharing modes.

Demo

Irem released two demos of the game, with one demo sampling the EAF and the other for the GZRA. Both contain three stages each, with one of them a remake of a classic R-Type stage featuring the alien boss Dobkeratops.

Full version

As a pre-order bonus, a soundtrack disc was included. No announcements have been made for a release outside Japan.

In the PlayStation 3's community-based social gaming network, PlayStation Home, Irem has released a Game Space in the Japanese Home on December 3, 2009 to promote the release of R-Type Tactics II: Operation Bitter Chocolate on the PSP and PSPgo. This is the first PSP title to receive a PlayStation Home Game Space.