Overview Progear is Cave's first horizontal shooter, and only game developed on CPS2. In typical cave fashion, there are five stages all ending with a boss with several stages of attack. Progear features a distinct steampunk art-style, with characters and illustrations done by Junya Inoue.
Gameplay General Progear in action 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.
Power Ups There are three upgrades in this game: Power Up, Maximum Power, and Bomb
Power Up
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
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
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 10 10 1 20 10 2 30 10 3 40 20 4 50 40 5 60 80 6 70 160 7 80 320 8 Large Emerald 90 640 9 Diamond 100 1280 10
Story The story takes place in world where the industrial era is in full swing and several inventions have changed the course of history. One of these was the Professional Gear, otherwise known as the "Progear". The ability to turn immortal was also discovered, Though only the elderly elite could afford this new ability. These elderly elite banded together to successfully overthrow the government.
The story revolves around five children whose parents perished in the war against the "elder statesmen". These children secretly developed a powerful extension to airplane called the "Gun Flyer" that is not usable by adults.
Characters Selectable Fighter Pilots Bolt Ring
Ring
Pilot of the fighter plane "Gambler"
Gambler has a spread shot and has average speed
Bolt
Pilot of the fighter plane "Military"
Military has a straight shot and has above-average speed
Selectable Gunner Pilots
Chain
Pilot of the Alpha-type Gun Flyer
The Alpha-type has a straight shot missiles that deal prolonged damage.
Nail
Pilot of the Beta-type Gun Flyer
The Beta-type has a spread shot.
Rivet
Pilot of the Gamma-type Gun flyer
The Gamma-type flyer has homing missiles.
At the character select screen, when selecting Both the fighter pilot and gunner pilot, pressing and holding the start button will give you an alternate costume.
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.
Bosses Captain Bellossum Pench
Pilots the airship Tobiuo
Ambassador Gabriel Hammer
Pilots the submersible unit Hakugei
Secretary-General Jimchuck Spanner
Pilots the ground unit Korogis
General Olsorro Slasher
Pilots the air fortress Kraken
President Leonard Drill
Pilots the mechanical sphere Volvox
Differences between Japanese and English version The English version has most voice acting removed. The English version also has the three opening lines of text absent.
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