By Joseph Walter
When I first played this game as a kid, I never made it past the second level, but I knew that the awesome ships my Dad and I were controlling would eventually breach the atmosphere and take the fight to space. How did I know it? I just did.
There was no indication that the events of Raiden II would eventually lead to space, but it's something that you just knew. It was a feeling. An understood inevitability. Games like this? They end up in space.
It was only within the last couple of years that I finally got to confirm my long-held belief about a cosmic finale. I wasn't surprised, since I had known it in my heart from my very first glance at the arcade cabinet. Raiden games end up in space. Everyone knows that.
What DID take me by surprise, however, was just how awesome the sequence is. It's a truly epic moment, and one that carries a ton of emotional weight. In other words, it's a Shatterpoint!
Before we jump into why it's such a fantastic sequence, and why it's worthy of being considered a "Shatterpoint," let's have a look at it:
Soon, your fighter soars through a series of clouds in order to rendezvous with its carrier. Following a quick landing, one final catapult launch gives your plane the extra power and velocity it needs to jettison away from Earth's gravity and into the embattled sea of stars.
Punching through a thick fog, your last glimpse of Earth is a climactic shot of layers upon layers of clouds, stretching far into the distance, and this reveal is timed perfectly with the music. Moments later, the blue of the sky is replaced with the blackness of space, and the battle begins for the final time.
It's awesome.
Speaking of the carrier, you haven't seen it your initial take-off at the beginning of the game, so its appearance here is particularly special. It's an absolutely fantastic touch that you need its help to exit the atmosphere, and I especially love how things come full circle: it saw you off at the beginning of the game, and now it's seeing you off one more time, as you rocket towards the decisive (and last) battle.
(It's also nice that you get a moment to appreciate the intricate details of your plane's VTOL transformation as you land.)
The moment that you ascend past the cloud layer is exhilarating, breathtaking and beautiful. It's an emotional climax. Uughhh.... and the way those layers and layers of clouds look, and the way the sky suddenly and dramatically clears, and the perfect pacing and timing... exquisite. *wipes tear.*
And the way the music kicks in? *hnnghh* (heart attack sounds because it's just so damn good.)
"Repeated Tragedy" is already an awesome and emotional song that more-or-less acts as the game's de facto main theme, so hearing it kick in for the first time since the first level really stirs up some emotions and, much like with the carrier's appearance, brings things full circle and adds a certain sense of finality.
In short, a lot of what makes this scene so special, and so worthy of being considered a "Shatterpoint," is a lot of what makes Raiden II special: the emotional impact, excellent pacing, and small details.
After persevering through the brutal difficulty to make it this far into the game, this short scene is a perfect reward. It acts as an exclamation point to your great deeds, rivaled only by the ending cutscene.
...you know what? Since we're talking about it, we might as well watch it, too.
Here's the equally-cool "returning to Earth" sequence, which plays after you conquer the last boss:
This beautiful and serene sequence is truly the ultimate reward for all of the hard work it took to get to this moment.
Even so, nothing quite beats the exhilaration of leaving the atmosphere for the first (or hundredth) time. Returning to Earth may be breathtaking, but it lacks the gravitas, impact and game-changing feeling of heading to space to finish off the invaders once and for all, and that's what makes for a good "Shatterpoint!"