A weapon system and gameplay mechanic first featured in Thunder Force V, the Over Weapon temporarily combines the powers of conventional weapons of the RVR and the CRAW units to create an overwhelming energized attack. the Over Weapon causes proton explosions within the nanomachine layers around each CRAW, releasing a tremendous amount of energy which is then channeled into the conventional weapons.
Over Weapon use is necessarily limited, because excessive proton activity causes the nanomachine layer to break down and the CRAW's radioactive core to be drained.
Thunder Force V[]
The Over Weapon feature takes the "bomb" concept to a revolutionary new level, a controlled blast. This means the special attack duration depends of how much time the player holds the Over Weapon button, but also it depends on the CRAW level, as the blast depletes the "energy" of the CRAW unit, causing it to change its color from blue to red, rendering it useless for a while until it regenerates.
Thunder Force VI[]
Syrinx using the Chain Blast Over Weapon on two ORN Faust-controlled Versuses.
The Over Weapon returns in Thunder Force VI in a different gameplay mechanic, replacing the "controlled blast" from the previous game to the basic "Bomb Format", however this old format was renewed with a new twist, it can be powered up by tapping the button. The maximum consumption of the Over Weapon is of 3 gauges. However, the Over Weapon doesn't depend of the CRAW units, this time, the energy used comes from six energy gauges which act as the "bombs", which can be recharged by picking green particles.
The Over Weapon gauges also plays a bonus part in the game, every full-and-unused gauge gives 100,000 points after each stage, giving a total of 600,000 points each level.
However there are a couple of issues in this new concept. The first one is a negative side-effect on its use: Forced speed reduction. Everytime the player fires the Over Weapon, the game forces the player to fly on the 25% of the ship's speed level. Another problem is the required ammount of particles to fill a single gauge increases as the difficulty level increases.
Trivia[]
Screenshot from the prototype of Thunder Force VI, depicting the RVR-00 "Phoenix" firing a triple powered up Sword on Gargoyle Perfect. (Picture from Meristation.com)
- According to the reports in Thunder Force V, the longest known use of the Over Weapon is of 8.31 seconds, a record set by a reckless pilot (later killed in combat) during an RVR-01 test flight.
- In some screenshots of the prototype version of Thunder Force VI, the RVR-00 is seen using a triple powered up Sword Over Weapon while flying with 50% of it's total speed, which implies a "Zero Slowdown".
- During the Opening and Phoenix "Take Off" cutscenes of Thunder Force VI we will notice how long ranged a Sword Over Weapon could be, since the landmass below the Phoenix Brigandine is South America (Argentine Sea to be exact) and the ORN battleship was located over the Indian Ocean, the beam traveled a distance of around 14.962km from the firing point to the target.