, released in North America and Europe under the title of ''Mobile Light Force 2'' and in some

PAL region The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Europe and Africa, alongside parts of Asia, South America and Oceania. It is named PAL because of the PAL (Phase Alternating Line) television standard traditionally used in ...

s as ''MLF2 - Mobile Light Force 2'', is a 2001

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

developed by

Alfa System ''Alfa System'' is a video game development and planning company from Kumamoto City, Japan. The company was founded in 1988. In their early years Alfa System developed exclusively for NEC consoles with Hudson Soft and other publishers. They later ...

and is the first game in the ''Shikigami no Shiro'' series. It was originally released as an

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

and later ported to the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

, and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. The game was titled for its revised version for Xbox, which was then ported to Windows as . When localized, publisher

XS Games XS Games, LLC was a New York-based publisher of value-priced video games, operating in North America and Europe, that released titles on numerous different consoles as well as one title on the iPhone. The company is still listed as operating and ...

re-titled the game as a sequel to '' Mobile Light Force'', but in reality the games are unrelated. ''Mobile Light Force'' is known as ''

Gunbird is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up developed by Psikyo and released in Arcade game, arcades in 1994. In the US, it was published by Jaleco. It has been re-released multiple times, including on the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Steam (service), ...

'' in Japan, and was not developed by Alfa System. In 2017, Degica Games localized the series, with the first game released on Microsoft Windows via Steam on June 16 as ''Castle of Shikigami''.

Gameplay

When holding down the attack button, the player moves at slower speed, and all on-screen items are automatically retrieved. The player character is invulnerable when a special attack is in effect. When the player character is close to an enemy bullet, the points gained from destroying enemies and retrieving items is multiplied by a factor based on the distance between the bullet and the player character's center. The closer they are to the bullet, the higher the scoring. When destroying enemy in shikigami mode, the multiplier also applies to the number of items dropped by enemy and all items dropped by the enemy are automatically retrieved. The

release adds Practice mode, Gallery, and Replay mode, while the

release adds Practice mode, Gallery, and Side Story modes.

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

includes I.R. mode and vertical screen layout from the arcade game. The North American and European releases of the game removed the screen rotation mode and all in-game plot.

Plot

In July 2005, a string of serial murders take place in Tokyo. All the victims are female and killed by external injury. The killings take place within 20 hours. On July 21, the 31st victim is found. The police force classify the case as special crime #568, and begin to seek investigators from occult sources. On July 23, there is a 32nd victim.

Characters

Playable characters: * * * * * * ???? (Tagami, from Elemental Gearbolt) Bosses: * (Stage 1) * (Stage 2) * (Stage 3) * (Stage 4) * (Stage 5) * (Stage 5-3)

''Shikigami no Shiro Evolution''

''Shikigami no Shiro Evolution'' was released in two separate versions, a version which included a database containing character gallery, trailers, and unused voices, and a version which included developer videos. Both versions have improved enemy AI, new characters, a vertical screen mode, and the new Evolution Mode game mode.

Manga

A comic version was written by Tooru Zekuu (aka Shinji Takano) and illustrated by Yuuna Takanagi, serialized in the monthly ''

Magazine Z was a Japanese seinen mixed-media magazine published by Kodansha, aimed at adult males, but particularly at hardcore anime and manga fans, featuring articles as well as manga tied into popular franchises. Original manga were also featured in the ...

''. Three volumes were published under

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

's Magazine Z KC label.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Shikigami no Shiro'' on their November 1, 2001 issue as being the fourth most-successful arcade game of the month. The PlayStation 2 version received "mixed" reviews according to video game

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

References

External links

Official website (Alfa System)

Official website (Sourcenext)Official website (Kodansha comic)
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shikigami No Shiro 2001 video games Arcade video games Fantasy video games PlayStation 2 games Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists Video game franchises Windows games Video games about witchcraft Xbox games XS Games games Multiplayer and single-player video games Taito games