Raiden V

Raiden V is a shoot 'em up video game in the Raiden series developed by MOSS. It was released in Japan for the Xbox One in February 25, 2016, with a director's cut version being released worldwide for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows in 2017.

Gameplay
Gameplay in Raiden V is similar to its prior installments but the plot incorporates suggestions of real places, with the player craft fighting enemies in New York, the Middle East, France, England, the Mediterranean and Sweden.

Like the Raiden Fighters Series and Raiden IV Overkill, players have a choice of three aircraft: The 'Azuma' (the aircraft from the early games), 'Spirit of Dragon' and 'Moulin Rouge'. They all have different grades of power, defense, mobility and a sub-weapon of fixed power. Unlike Raiden IV, all aircraft have the same bomb.

Another change with Raiden V is the introduction of a shield/energy bar, allowing the player to take a number of hits before being destroyed. However, only one ship ('life') is provided, thus on destruction the player will lose any score and be asked to 'continue'.

'Flash Point' returns since its introduction in Raiden III. There are five levels of Flash Point gauge, with the chain score challenging players to make it to the online leaderboard. Killing enemies rapidly will fill the gauge more efficiently thus improving the score multiplier.

Raiden V also introduces the 'Cheer system' whereby online players can 'cheer' each other to unlock the skill Cheer Call. In tight situations, using Cheer Call will cancel all enemy bullets at once and allow players to greatly boost sub-weapons for a short time until the Cheer Call gauge is depleted. Boosted sub-weapons cause heavy damage and instant attack speed. The Cheer Call gauge can increase slowly by progressive play and rapidly every time the player presses "Cheer" to other players who get any achievement, such as destroying a certain number of enemies or defeating a boss without taking damage. Players who receive many cheer counts will increase the cheer call gauge slightly faster.

Reception
Raiden V was released to generally favorable reviews, according to Metacritic, which provided aggregated scores of 75 and 73 for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions, respectively.