Castle of Shikigami III
Encyclopedia
Castle of Shikigami III (Shikigami no Shiro episode-3 or 式神の城 III in Japan
) is a manic shooter released in Japan in video arcade
s in 2005, the Windows
platform in 2006 and for the Xbox 360
and Wii
in 2007. It is the fourth game in the Shikigami no Shiro series, following two shooters and a spin-off adventure game.
The game was published in North America
for the Wii by Aksys Games
with only an English voice dub. It was released on May 13, 2008.
The official Japanese site features online leaderboards for the Arcade and Windows version.
Each character has a primary standard attack, which is generally forward-shooting bullets. This is activated by tapping the fire button or by pressing auto-fire button. The secondary attack is known as a shikigami, activated by holding the fire button, or pressing a dedicated button on consoles. This attack is often more powerful, but slows or stops the character completely. Each character's shikigami is unique and also comes in two variants that are chosen at the start of the game. Finally, characters have a limited supply of bombs, their effects also unique to each character.
Coins are released by enemies destroyed using normal or shikigami attacks, but not by bomb attacks. Coins are now collected automatically, regardless of whether the primary or shikigami attack was used. When an enemy is destroyed using the players shikigami attack, the coin bonus increases by 10 points for every coin collected (up to 10000 points).
The Tension Bonus System returns, whereby the player's weapons are strengthened and the score is multiplied by up to 8 when the player grazes enemy bullets. Also, the player can expend a bomb to allow for an automatic TBS for a short period of time. When Tension Bonus reaches x8, player's normal shots are fired at increased rate and inflict stronger damage. At the end of the stage, coin bonus collected when defeating an enemy with maximum Tension Bonus is added to player's score.
Hi-Tension Max is introduced in this game, which causes multiplier to stay at 8x, and causes enemy to drop 1.5 times amount of coins when destroyed. High Tension Max is activated using 1 bomb stock.
S3MIX mode: Rearranged Castle Shikigami 2 BGM is used in place of the main soundtrack.
Extreme mode: If the game is played in this mode, enemies and bosses fire faster bullets, and fires additional bullets when destroyed. In the windows, Xbox, and Wii versions, two additional Extreme modes are added, which changes the speed of counterattack bullets.
Practice mode: Allows the player(s) to re-play a selected stage.
Director's mode: Uses readjusted settings.
The Wii and Xbox 360 versions added the Boss Attack mode and the Dramatic Change Mode. Dramatic change mode allows one player to select two characters and switch between them at any time. Story events will change depending on the combination of characters used. An art gallery, music player, and replays of the dialogue cutscenes are unlocked as the player progresses in the game.
The Xbox 360 version also includes online ranking (via Xbox Live) and achievement point features.
The Windows version can be played in higher resolutions (up to 1024x768).
New characters include:, a time-traveler originally from the game Time Gal
., a young noble from Alcaland, where the game takes place., a young schoolgirl with a backpack and "Strider", a pet rabbit., a South Korean doctor, related to Kim Dae-jeong from Castle Shikigami 2., a priest/exorcist hired by Emilio., Fumiko's butler.
also returns, but this time as Kohtarou's new shikigami, replacing Sazae.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
) is a manic shooter released in Japan in video arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
s in 2005, the Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
platform in 2006 and for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
in 2007. It is the fourth game in the Shikigami no Shiro series, following two shooters and a spin-off adventure game.
The game was published in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
for the Wii by Aksys Games
Aksys Games
Aksys Games Localization, Inc. is a video game publisher that specializes in translating and localizing Japanese video games for English-speaking markets. It was founded by Akibo Shieh in 2006. Some of its clients include Namco Bandai Games, Xseed Games, and Atlus USA. Aksys Games is best known for...
with only an English voice dub. It was released on May 13, 2008.
The official Japanese site features online leaderboards for the Arcade and Windows version.
Gameplay
The game plays much like its shooter predecessors. As before, there are five levels each in two parts, with a boss at the end of each part. Before major bosses and between levels there are cutscenes with dialogue featuring the character(s) in play. The dialogue is unique for each different pair of characters selected, resulting in, according to the publisher, 55 different scenarios.Each character has a primary standard attack, which is generally forward-shooting bullets. This is activated by tapping the fire button or by pressing auto-fire button. The secondary attack is known as a shikigami, activated by holding the fire button, or pressing a dedicated button on consoles. This attack is often more powerful, but slows or stops the character completely. Each character's shikigami is unique and also comes in two variants that are chosen at the start of the game. Finally, characters have a limited supply of bombs, their effects also unique to each character.
Coins are released by enemies destroyed using normal or shikigami attacks, but not by bomb attacks. Coins are now collected automatically, regardless of whether the primary or shikigami attack was used. When an enemy is destroyed using the players shikigami attack, the coin bonus increases by 10 points for every coin collected (up to 10000 points).
The Tension Bonus System returns, whereby the player's weapons are strengthened and the score is multiplied by up to 8 when the player grazes enemy bullets. Also, the player can expend a bomb to allow for an automatic TBS for a short period of time. When Tension Bonus reaches x8, player's normal shots are fired at increased rate and inflict stronger damage. At the end of the stage, coin bonus collected when defeating an enemy with maximum Tension Bonus is added to player's score.
Hi-Tension Max is introduced in this game, which causes multiplier to stay at 8x, and causes enemy to drop 1.5 times amount of coins when destroyed. High Tension Max is activated using 1 bomb stock.
Life
When the player collides with an enemy bullet or object, the player loses a life unit. If the player's life bar reaches zero, the game ends. Up to 3 lives can be stored at once.Bomb
When player is hit, player gains 1 extra bomb. Bomb stock is replenished by accumulating game score. Players can hold up to 5 bombs.Boss battles
If the boss is not destroyed when the timer reaches 0, an invulnerable 'ghost' will enter stage to chase the player(s). After the ghost appears for a certain time period, the boss is killed.Game modes
Easy mode: Bombs are automatically used when the player is hit, but the bomb gauge does not regenerate, and the game ends after defeating Freedom Wind, the boss of stage 3-2.S3MIX mode: Rearranged Castle Shikigami 2 BGM is used in place of the main soundtrack.
Extreme mode: If the game is played in this mode, enemies and bosses fire faster bullets, and fires additional bullets when destroyed. In the windows, Xbox, and Wii versions, two additional Extreme modes are added, which changes the speed of counterattack bullets.
Practice mode: Allows the player(s) to re-play a selected stage.
Director's mode: Uses readjusted settings.
The Wii and Xbox 360 versions added the Boss Attack mode and the Dramatic Change Mode. Dramatic change mode allows one player to select two characters and switch between them at any time. Story events will change depending on the combination of characters used. An art gallery, music player, and replays of the dialogue cutscenes are unlocked as the player progresses in the game.
The Xbox 360 version also includes online ranking (via Xbox Live) and achievement point features.
The Windows version can be played in higher resolutions (up to 1024x768).
Stage ranking
The player(s) receive a ranking of SS to F and a title whenever completing a stage, based on his or her performance.Characters
Returning characters from Castle Shikigami 2 are:, the hero of the series, a freelance detective., a half-German/half-Japanese witch who is particularly infatuated with Kohtarou., a self-proclaimed "international ninja.", a psychic private investigator.New characters include:, a time-traveler originally from the game Time Gal
Time Gal
is an arcade video game developed and published by Taito, and was released in Japan in 1985. It is an adventure game which uses full motion video to display the on-screen action. The player must correctly choose the on-screen character's actions to progress the story.The game is set in a fictional...
., a young noble from Alcaland, where the game takes place., a young schoolgirl with a backpack and "Strider", a pet rabbit., a South Korean doctor, related to Kim Dae-jeong from Castle Shikigami 2., a priest/exorcist hired by Emilio., Fumiko's butler.
also returns, but this time as Kohtarou's new shikigami, replacing Sazae.