Progear

CAVE's first shoot-'em-up to use third-party arcade hardware (and their first side-scrolling shoot-'em-up). It is known for its distinct steampunk aesthetic and its "Gunflyer" supporting ship mechanic.

Arcade

Overview

Progear (known in Japan as Progear no Arashi, loosely translated to "Storm of Progear") is a 2D historical-fantasy side-scolling shoot-'em-up developed by CAVE and released by Capcom for arcades (using CPS-2 hardware) worldwide on January 17, 2001.

The studio's first shoot-'em-up to have horizontal scrolling (as opposed to their usual vertical-scrolling ones), Progear features a distinct steampunk aesthetic and a "Gunflyer" mechanic (where players choose supporting ships, known as "gunflyers", that orbit around the player's fighter plane). In addition, players can toggle a special "gunner mode" at any time, sacrificing their fighter's speed and direct firepower to let their gunflyers lock onto enemies.

The game's story takes place during the Industrial Revolution in the fantasy country of Parts, which prospers due to the invention of the Professional Gear (or "Progear"). However, five elder elitists who have discovered immortality banded together and declared war on the government of Parts. While many have perished against this force, a group of five orphans take to the skies (along with their secret weapon: a powerful airplane extension known as the "Gunflyer") to challenge them.

While the game has not received a console port nor a sequel, it is planned to be released on the Capcom Home Arcade plug-and-play device. It also received a limited-time pay-to-play mobile port for certain Japanese services in 2004.

Gameplay

General

The game is a bullet-hell shmup that requires the player to survive through five levels. The game functions on two buttons, A and B. Pressing and tapping the A button makes you go into "fighter mode" which causes your fighter plane be the main source of fire power and causes enemies to drop rings. Pressing and holding the A button switches you to "gunner mode" which lowers your fighter plane's mobility and fire power, but at the benefit of having your gunner lock on and have increased fire and aim at enemies making them drop stones. B releases a smart bomb from your initial stock of three that deal damage to enemies and that turns all enemy bullets into rings. The C button can also be enabled on the arcade test menu which trigger auto-fire mode; pressing and holding C button in this mode is the equivalent of tapping A button.

Also at the character select screen, the formation between the two gun flyer units and the fighter plane cane be selected. The default formation is selected by simply pressing A or B. Having one gunner on top and one on bottom is selected by pressing both A and B at the same time. Having both gunner units in front is selected by pressing the other player's start button and pressing A and B.

Fighters & Gunflyers

Each player chooses one of two fighter planes and one of three gunflyers prior to starting the game. Each fighter and gunflyer is piloted by specific characters (which have an alternate costume when the start button is held down during selection).

Fighters

TYPE-A "Gambler" - Wider shot spread. Slower movement speed. Piloted by 14-year-old Ring Reed.

TYPE-B "Militant" - Narrower shot spread. Faster movement speed. Piloted by 15-year-old Bolt Boyer.

Gunflyers

TYPE-α - Armed with missile barrages that are fired in a narrow spread and explode on impact (dealing area-of-effect damage). Slower turning speed. Piloted by 14-year-old Chain Cherot.

TYPE-β - Armed with cannonball barrages that are fired in a wide spread. Faster turning speed. Piloted by 12-year-old Nail Nellows.

TYPE-γ - Armed with slower-firing homing missile barrages. Piloted by 17-year-old Rivet Rivera.

Power Ups

There are three upgrades in this game: Power Up, Maximum Power, and Bomb

Power Up

Upgrades both the firepower of your fighter plane and gun flyer by one level. Your weapons can be upgraded for a total of four times.

Maximum Power

This upgrades all of your firepower to the max. Maximum power only appears after you have lost all of your planes and have used a credit.

Bomb

Gives you another smart bomb if you do not have three. If you get this power up if you have three bombs, you get three effects until your next plane.

Jewel Counter is increased by 1000

Base Jewel Class is increased for every extra bomb you collect (up to class 9)

Inflicting enemy damage and level clear scores are doubled

Score System

The score system revolves around collecting the stones and rings that come out of destroyed enemies, enemy parts, and enemy bullets. While all enemy bullets near exploding enemy units are turned into jewels, if the enemy is destroyed in gunner mode, all enemy bullets near enemy bullets that are going to turn into jewels are also converted. While possible to collect the jewels as they are free falling, the player can collect all the falling jewels on screen by switching between fighter and gunner modes.

The types of jewels that can come out are dictated by the jewel class the player currently is in. A player can increase their jewel class by collecting a ring of the higher jewel class, which are found by converting a high amount of bullets simultaneously. Since this can be done only with rings, it is not possible to increase your jewel class in gunner mode. There a three ways you can decrease your jewel class. These three ways are: the use of a bomb, switching to fighter mode when there is a gem on screen or collecting a gem, and the loss of a life. Note that losing a life also comes at the cost of losing a quarter of your jewel score.

At the end of each stage the player's performance is further measured via "gunner relationship". Thie is measured three ways. "Active" is the measure of the amount of stones and their value that was converted using gunner mode. "Safe" is the measure of the time not losing any planes. "Lovely" is the average of Active and Safe. A higher Lovely rating: increases how many points your smart bomb gives you, the difficulty of the next stage, and your ending.

Jewel Class	Ring Score	Gem Score	Jewel Level
Small Amethyst	10	10	1
Medium Amethyst	20	10	2
Large Amethyst	30	10	3
Small Ruby	40	20	4
Medium Ruby	50	40	5
Large Ruby	60	80	6
Small Emerald	70	160	7
Medium Emerald	80	320	8
Large Emerald	90	640	9
Diamond	100	1280	10