TWilight refrAIN

TWilight refrAIN is a 2008 shoot-em-up video game made by AQLOOP, and the sequel to TWilight INSanity.

The game has a drastically different vibe than its predecessor, being less sci-fi and more fantasy themed. That said, just like the previous game, this one still revolves around pairs of twins and plays fairly similarly.

Gameplay

Difficulty Options Just like TWINS, this game features three difficulty modes.
In this game they're called Student, Mage and Master.
The difficulty setting affects your Rank (how hard the game is), and its Adjust Rate (how quickly the difficulty adjusts based on how well you play).

The game is quite difficult even when playing on the lowest option.

Characters Kirishima Twins - One has a spread shot, the other a focused vertical shot.

Mikahashi Twins - Basically the same shot type as the Kirishimas.

Shizukuishi / Shigomori Pair - One has a focused bubble shot which adjusts its angle depending on how you move, the other has spread homing bullets.

Magic Focus When starting a run, you will also be asked to select a type of Magic Focus.
The options are: Attack -> Balance -> Defense.

Attack Magic Focus grants more powerful shots, longer Magic duration, and wider Buzz Radius.
Meanwhile, Defense Magic Focus has cheaper Magic and Auto Magic, as well as a wider Item Draw Radius. Though it comes with the cost of less damage, less Magic duration, and less Buzz Radius. Balance Magic Focus is the middle ground between the two.

If you're unsure which one to pick here, just stick with the default one (Attack).

Mechanics

Spirit, Magic and Auto Magic
Spirit is a very important resource which you can expend to use Magic.
Using Magic will unleash an extra-strong attack, destroys all bullets on the screen, vacuums items, and temporarily makes your shots stronger.
The game will automatically use Magic when you get hit by an attack. This is called Auto Magic, and it's about twice as expensive as using a Magic manually.
This is the system the game uses instead of lives. If your Spirit ever hits 0, it's game over.

Ring & Story Paths Just like TWINS, this game has multiple different endings you can get for each pair of characters.
However, in this game, the paths and endings are much simpler to navigate and attain.

In this game, the routes are decided by your Ring Count.
If you're going for the true ending, you'll want to have the highest Ring Count you can manage. (to get Stage G3, you must have at least 13 Rings)

P-Rate P-Rate (or Corruption) is a value

Buzz
Getting close to a bullet makes the counter go up by 1.

Continue
When you get a game over, you're asked if you want to continue your adventure.
There are unlimited continues in this game, but using any will result in getting a bad ending.

English Patch

Just like TWINS, this game had an English Patch done by Seiha Translations. Later in 2019, two people called 7TC7 and sqrt improved the patch by fixing a crash as well as adding translations for all the bad endings.

Characters

Main article: TWilight refrAIN/Characters

Music

Main article: MELancholy Of DYnast -TWilight refrAIN SOUNDTRACK-

Links

English Patch Patch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M650AzPaxUc