Keio Flying Squadron

The game is set in the Keiō era during the Edo Shogunate period of Japanese history (1865–1868). Rami Nanahikari, a seemingly typical teenager, has been the Guardian of the Key to the Secret Treasure, known as "Ark", and is really a descendant of aliens who came to Earth in ancient times. She does not know the importance of the Treasure, and her overbearing grandmother does not remember what secret the Key unlocks. The Key has been stolen (while Rami was at the local convenience store), and now she must get the Key back.

Wearing her bunny girl costume,[1] Rami rides into battle on her trusty dragon, Spot, as she encounters various enemies such as tanuki, dogs, cats, monkeys, the Seven Lucky Gods, the U.S. military forces, the Russian Army, and a serpentine dragon, until she arrives at the ship of Dr. Pon Eho, a tanuki billed as the most intelligent creature on Earth with an IQ of 1400, his appearance being appropriate for the thief that he is.

The game consists of Rami riding on top of Spot, who can shoot fireballs at enemies.[2] By earning "Power-Up Items", the player increases the power of the flames to six different levels. The player can also pick up Sub-Weapons and use either the Ground Bombs, the Explosive Throwing Stars or Homing Spot Jrs. (companion fighters) depending on the type of Sub-Weapon Items available. Normally, Spot Jrs. are for covering Spot; however by pressing the "C" Button, they become powerful bullets projected forward. If surrounded by the enemy, the player can use the Kamikaze Attack, sacrificing the Spot Jrs. to do larger damage, only for them to reappear when Spot ceases to shoot.

Japanese names are given in the Western order, given name first.

• Rami Nanahikari - An alien descendant of Noah and the grandchild of an ancient family with the mission of guarding the Key to the Secret Treasure. Rami wears a traditional kimono at the beginning of the game, and later changes into her bunny suit, the formal attire of a Key Guardian. In the Japanese version of the game she is 13 years old, while in the English versions she is 20 years old.[3] Voiced by Miho Kanno (Japanese);[4] Samantha Paris (English).[5]
• Spot Nanahikari - A dragon who has been serving the Key Guardian Clan and the Nanahikari family as a pet for many generations. Although a bit weak-minded and lazy, he is a fun guy and is always loyal to his owner Rami, having no problems with flying and shooting fireballs. He is called Pochi in the Japanese release of the game.[3] Voiced by Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese); Samantha Paris (English).[5]
• "Grandma" and "Grandpa" Nanahikari - Rami's biological grandparents who have raised her from a young age and brought her up to be the next Key Guardian. They were former Guardians themselves, continuing a long line of ancestors in the Key Guardian Clan that have kept the Treasure safe for many generations. Though they know their duty, they no longer remember the meaning of the Key.[3] Voiced by Keiko Yamamoto (Japanese; Grandma), Yusaku Yara (Japanese; Grandpa); Roger L. Jackson (English; both).
• Dr. Pon Eho - A super intelligent tanuki who stole the Key to the Secret Treasure and knows of its significance. His IQ is 1400.[3] Voiced by Jōji Yanami (Japanese); Roger L. Jackson (English).[5]
• Seven Lucky Gods - Obedient servants of Dr. Pon, consisting of Fukurokuju, Ebisu, Bishamon, Shōjō, Hotei, Benten and Daikoku.[3]
• Narrator - Voiced by Yusaku Yara (Japanese); Roger L. Jackson (English).[5]

Keio Flying Squadron was made by a small team of developers; director Yasushi Endo, game designer Satoru Honda, programmer Teruhito Yamaki, and composer Tsukasa Tawada, with art and graphics by Hiroshi Ogawa and Hitoshi Kakumu, and character designs by Hiromasa Ota and Takeshi Honda. Since Victor Entertainment was originally a music company named Victor Musical Industries before its merge with Nihon AVC, they had been developing products that brought out the potential of CD-ROMs. Aside from sales, they were able to offer something quite unique. However, Endo wondered if that would be good for the players, so they decided to make a shooter game that everyone could enjoy.[6] Honda wanted to have the game take place in an alternate version of the Edo Shogunate period where the Keiō era continued for a while, due to finding shooters set in space and the future uninteresting. The Meiji Restoration was just before its date, and he wanted to create a worldview that was like the evening of a festival.[7] While the first three stages were set in the Edo Shugonate period, the other stages were, according to Endo, "like fictional parallel worlds".[6] Endo handled the graphics and animation for the game. He came up with the basic concept on paper in the first place, then converted it onto the console. He took his inspiration for its strange creatures from his love for animation, wanting them to look as realistic as possible, although the game itself was set in the Edo Shogunate period, so in some ways it was based on a samurai warrior adventure, but the actual story was made up by Honda and takes place in the era. At the time, a lot of young Japanese preferred American or English games. In the rest of the world, people seemed to go wild over Japanese animation, especially manga and anime. Endo chose to release the game on the Sega CD because it would have been difficult to fit it on a cartridge, due to the sophisticated sound. Technically, the developers would have been able to produce the game on a cartridge, but Victor was more interested in producing games on CD formats at the time. CD was still an emerging format, so developers were willing to experiment with it.[8][9] For the soundtrack, Tawada wanted to make it more luxurious, so setting aside whether it would suit the game or not, the music was interwoven with classical melodies, and there were also parts that he made so that the music alone could be enjoyed by players. There was also a strong focus on Japanese sounds, with Tawada trying to direct the parts that foreigners could not create.[6] Keio Flying Squadron used a Japanese drum-like sound, but that one had a floor tom sound that was processed to create the effect of two drumsticks being struck with a time lag trigger.[10] The musical instruments used in the game's soundtrack were recorded using two Yamaha SY99 FM+PCM tone generation hybrid synthsesizers, rather than using an Akai sampler.[11]

According to Honda, the story was inspired by Kachi-kachi Yama, a Japanese folktale about a rabbit and a villainous tanuki. However, he believed that just because a rabbit was the main character did not mean that it was just a rabbit. When he thought about rabbits, he thought about bunny girls for some reason, so he chose a bunny girl as the protagonist of the game, naming her Rami Nanahikari. When Honda thought of bunny girls, he still saw them as big-breasted women, but decided to keep Rami a child in order to avoid having the game look like a bishōjo game.[7] Rami was also going to have a slightly mature look with her hair down and fishnet stockings for her bunny suit, but those ideas were dropped, with her hairstyle changed to twintails (when wearing her kimono) and a tomboy cut (for her bunny suit).

The game features animated cutscenes produced by Studio Pierrot. The voices were recorded at Magic Capsule in April 1993, provided by Miho Kanno, Akiko Hiramatsu, Jōji Yanami, Keiko Yamamoto and Yusaku Yara.[12] While Hiramatsu, Yanami, Yamamoto and Yara were all veteran anime voice actors, Kanno was an up-and-coming idol who had made her debut as a member of the group Sakurakko Club on the variety show of the same name in 1992. She was gradually increasing her level of work outside the show while remaining in it as a regular, appearing in television dramas, commercials and gravure magazines, before she applied for the role of Rami out of curiosity. Kanno was nervous about working with the other actors, since Keio Flying Squadron was her first time voice acting, but with her natural cheerfulness, she quickly got along with everyone and had a fun time recording for the game.[13][14]

When Keio Flying Squadron was released in Europe and North America, some changes were made:

• A splash screen for the game appears after the Victor/JVC logo in the Japanese and European versions, but was removed from the North American version.
• In the Japanese version, contact with solid terrain is fatal outside of boss fights, and most enemies flash different colors when hit. In the English versions, touching the ground does nothing, and the flashing-colors-when-hit behavior is mostly limited to bosses.
• An animation and title card at the beginning of each stage wherein a tanuki unravels a scroll containing the title was removed.
• Two "tutorials" by Dr. Pon explaining some mechanics and his minions from the first two stages (Tekkannon, a heavy armored chahakobi ningyō machine, and Victor's dog mascot Nipper, who rides on a tamati) were removed.
• A few extensive monologues from Rami, Spot, Dr. Pon and Grandma before certain stages were cut, with only Rami saying the chapters' names and saying, "Push to start!" being translated.
• The game's title logo was removed from the splash screens for the North American version.
• A cutscene in which Rami and Spot learn about the Secret Treasure's whereabouts from the Old Testament in Edo Castle's library was removed.
• Rami's age was changed from 13 years old to 20 years old.
• Spot's gender was changed from male to female.
• The U.S. military forces were renamed the "U.S. Navy".

The translation and voice recording was done at Watanabe-Robins & Associates, with the voices provided by Samantha Paris and Roger L. Jackson.[5]

Keio Flying Squadron was released in Japan on August 6, 1993, in Europe in December 1994, and in North America on February 5, 1995.[15] In the United Kingdom, a playable demo disc for Keio Flying Squadron containing the first stage was provided by the Sega Pro CD magazine in its December 1994 issue. While the demo ends after the first stage, it is identical to the full version, and the whole game is accessible in the demo disc by using a level select cheat code.[16]

The game was not commercially successful in Japan, but received positive reviews and later attained a cult following.[17]

M! Games reviewed the game, giving it a score of 71 out of 100.[18]

Next Generation reviewed the game, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that "The game received an extra star because a few bits actually made us laugh, but that's it."[19]

The game has appeared on multiple top lists of Mega CD games.[1][20] Retro Gamer included among top ten Mega CD games, calling it "a perfectly acceptable substitute" of Konami's Parodius that features "similar style of horizontally scrolling wackiness and puts the Mega-CD hardware to good use to produce some excellent cut-scenes and a brilliant CD-quality soundtrack."[20]

• Keio Flying Squadron at MobyGames