Overview
Silhouette Mirage is a run-and-gun action platformer originally released on the Sega Saturn in 1997 and then ported to the Sony PlayStation the following year. The PlayStation port lacks some of the graphics of the original but makes up for it with a few bonus boss battles. The PlayStation version was also the only one to see a localization (from Working Designs) and was later made available via the PSOne Classics range for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. The Working Designs port made further alterations to the gameplay also, increasing the difficulty.
The story of Silhouette Mirage concerns a post-apocalyptic warzone where Shyna Nera Shyna, an artificial being created by the supercomputer Gehena, must help unite this fractured world by defeating two factions: Silhouette, and Mirage. From there, Gehena can start working on uniting the two disparate halves of these two factions into their correct wholes. Standing in her way are Hal and Megido, the two faction leaders, and another being like her called Zohar who is fought several times during the story.
Gameplay
Shyna has the powers of both Silhouette and Mirage, but can only switch "polarity" when she turns around: when facing left, she turns blue and can use Silhouette attacks; when facing right, she turns red and can use Mirage attacks. She can also switch these polarities at any time, but it costs some of her spirit gauge. Most enemies are only weak to their opposing element, so the player has to maneuver themselves to a position from which they can take them out. if the player damages an enemy with their own element, they instead take spirit gauge damage: this won't kill them, but it will reduce the damage they do with their attacks (and this elemental health/spirit damage system applies to Shyna as well).
The game uses a combination of platforming and shooting for its stages, with a few melee options also. One useful melee skill is the "Cash Bash," where Shyna will literally shake down enemies for additional funds. Shyna can spend this money at merchants, found most places, to upgrade her weapons or buy healing consumables. Shyna can also use a "Reflector" shield to reflect enemy projectiles back to their casters.
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