Senjin Aleste

***Senjin Aleste*** (戦刃アレスタ, *War Blade Aleste*) is a sequel for the *Aleste* series, released in 15 July, 2021. It was initially released on the Sega's ALL.Net P-ras MULTI Ver. 3 Arcade service, marking the first time an Aleste game is released for Arcades, with no console ports confirmed at the moment. The game is also part of M2's ShootTrigger series.

## Story

The year is 20XX. The encounter with extraterrestrial lifeforms has finally happened. It wasn't the visit of the alien civilization that people once dreamed of, but the encounter with a few grains of tiny seeds.
The plant has become known as 'μ'. It brought great benefits to human civilization, just as it was reaching the period of extinction.

It gave birth to a wide variety of new materials. Those were used for evolution of the microdevices, which have allowed birth of advanced automated AI etc.
It has ascended to an indispensable resource for humankind, but before long... It turned into a disaster.

Strangely enough, on a planet far away that no one knows, the name given to the flower is also the symbol of disaster. Due to the disturbance of the new automated weapons created from μ's technology, the army groups of each country, that even lost the means of resistance collapsed in the blink of an eye.
Humans were forced to retreat out of the urban areas, as it only cared about enlargening its habitat.

...A few years have passed.

Those who have barely survived the war are preparing for their final rebellious operation. Their new aircraft are equipped with the Tactical AI Wise-N. The pilots have been chosen. The aces of the entire operation. They call themselves "Aleste". Now it's time for humanity to reap the fruits of their labor. The strong sharpened blades are ready to take off.

## Gameplay

Senjin Aleste features a new gameplay system compared to previous titles, with the player having access to four different ships and being able to swap between them during gameplay, with each ship having its own unique weapons. Lives are tied to the ships, with each ship counting as one life, the game ending when all four ships are lost. Downed ships are revived over time, however, indicated by four meters at the bottom corresponding to each ship.

The game features four difficulty levels: Novice, Casual, Original and Expert, with each difficulty changing the amount of bullets fired by enemies and the respawn time for downed ships.

## Characters and Ships

* Yuri Kunugi - FX-02 Muramasa
* Ratna Francis - YF-X12 Bothrops
* Tanya Yaezakura - SUS-07 Metel
* Huang Kexin - SJ-03D Tian Qiong
* Wise-N

## Development

The game was initially announced in February 2020 at the JAEPO 2020 event, with the working title of *"Senjin"*. In a live stream in 31 January, 2021, M2 confirmed the game's full title as *Senjin Aleste*, showing the first screenshots of the game.

M2 has confirmed that they have plans to bring the game to consoles, but have stated: "[...] but releasing it without adding anything to the original is not our intention, as of now."

## References

1. ↑ https://www.ndw.jp/senjin\_location/
2. ↑ https://www.4gamer.net/games/551/G055104/20210201060/
3. ↑ https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20200207097/
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/M2\_game/status/1355800766980648963
5. ↑ https://nitter.net/BimboFortuna/status/1706972009157304604#m

## External links

* Official site
* Sega APM page