Ani's DB Analysis Blogs: The flagship of planet Darius, The Silver Hawk rushes into DB!




Just a few things before we start…




It's been a while hasn’t it? Apologies for always taking 3 billion millenia to do something in this blog, life is most definitely a thing that keeps me occupied, but I do admit to liking making blogs despite the time it takes me and just me being overall very lazy. But regardless: no self-deprication in this place, this is a place to discover new things! And I am more than happy to let everyone on my hyperfixations, this time on yet another classic arcade franchise, one that I played not long ago and I just KNEW I had to make a blog on it, I hope everyone finds it fun and who knows, perhaps you can give this series a shot, it is a very fun time. Without further ado! Grab a drink, a snack, and enjoy the blog! I welcome you to the world of Darius.
 

Before that, let's lay some ground rules

(Darius 2 OST - “Olga Breeze”)


So, this is a bit of a weird blog that will require me to specify some things before we start with the analysis portion, I know that this is a first for this blog, but it only feels fair and its necessary to present the angle Im going for with this blog and make it as manageable as possible, so, here are some small pointers to take into consideration in this blog:
 

What are my sources?

Like most schmups, lore and where to get it can be a bit weird, Darius thankfully doesn’t have as many entries as other similar franchises, and seems to contain its convoluted story to the games, only some tidbits are given out in things like developer interviews and some art-books in japanese, for the sake of this blog my main focus will be the Games and their respective game manuals, this is a way to keep it all tidied up and as concise as possible, and besides, Darius thankfully doesn’t have a lot of side material to cover such as anime or manga, so you can say that this is “game version” of the Silver Hawk.


As far as my sources go, they are the following:

-Darius
-Dairus ll
-Sagaia (GameBoy)
-Darius Gaiden
-Dairus Twins
-Darius R
-Super Nova (Darius Force)
-G Darius
-Dariusburst Another Chronicle
-Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours
-A plethora of manuals.

What’s up with the canon timeline and endings?

For those that don’t know, Darius is a very unique type of schmup, where its particular method is that the stages are divided in a tree-like branching path, it is up to the player to decide where they want to go and thus what ending they get. What endings are “canon” are always implied but never actually fully told, the games are very vague about it, however we can give ourselves a decent idea, Dariusburst does present hints and elements of the timeline.

To give out a simple explanation: what’s probably happening is a bit of a Fear & Hunger situation where elements from all the endings happened to a degree or are theoretical events in the series (excluding extremely obvious joke ones), so in a way every ending is “kinda” canon and even if they weren’t, they go out of their way to show and expand on further ideas or concepts that serve as “what-ifs” and don’t deviate much from the lore of the game, for the sake of this blog we will be taking all the endings, only excluding the ones that are obviously meant to be joke ones, and using the official Taito timeline given to us by the time Dariusburst was released.

Which Silver Hawk?


Now THIS is the 1 million dollar question, like most Schmup protagonists, the ships you use in each entry aren’t exactly the same, they tend to be unique versions or upgraded versions of the past entries, this can lead to some issues regarding what abilities or things to give (and the sole reason I have not done a blog on R-Type or Gradius cus lord have mercy on my soul) I would love to say the Silver Hawk is an exception but… it isn’t. We know thanks to Dariusburst that the ships from all the entries (that is Darius 1, 2, Gaiden, G and so on) are different ships and as such it would be weird to composite them into a single one.

However, for the sake of this blog, I'm willing to make a compromise, in this blog we will be analyzing a “theoretical” Silver Hawk, one that possesses the abilities and weapons of all past ones into one singular ship under the assumption that the newest model (the one from Dariusburst) should be able to do and carry all this equipment, it is admittedly a “full” composite (of which I know not everyone is going to agree), and admittedly in some areas it can be quite contradictory, however for those moments I will make sure to specify from which games the different weapons come from as to make it easier to understand and digest.

Still there? Sorry for the wall of runes, but had to lay these things down so the rest of the blog could be understood, without much further ado however, let's get started!


Background


(Dariusburst OST -”Freedom”)


Let me take you somewhere else… to a world much different than our own, to a galaxy divergent from what we know. In a distant world called Amuneria, in the forthcoming of the year 547 at the very dawn of their 21st Century the world found itself in turmoil, an energy crisis had brought with it chaos, forcing the people of the planet to become interstellar nomads, wanderers of the stars searching for new land to thrive and live. This search for land had brought them calm, beauty and peace, but it also brought them enemies and tensions, specifically with another planetary system called the Belsar (or Pelsar, or Blazar the translators hardly decide).

And so, difference brought tension, tension led to fear, fear bred hatred, and hatred gave birth to anger, the two worlds brought into conflict over one of the many moons of Amuneria, the one by the name of Masa. And the people of Masa, fearing the prospect of being conquered, developed a new energy, a source of power so mighty it could wipe planets, they called it “All Nothing” (A.N. from now on). This energy, so puissant by nature forced a peace upon the warring nations, however, little could they know that the very moon that created peace, would be the first to suffer the consequences of war, for they were ambushed, their own creation used against them. And in a flash, no more than a nanosecond in the great cosmic calendar, Masa was gone, and with its destruction the two kingdoms had awakened something worse.

“Deliverers of Death” they called them, the mechanical monstrosities that attacked the moon of Masa, the Thiima, harbingers of doom that in their desire to bring peace to the universe now threatened the delicate balance of life. No nation or their technologies could stop them, but the Amunerians, under a new King, decided to gamble it all on a simple solitary invention. Combining Thiima technology they had gathered and powered by the A.N. they designed a line of spacecrafts that could, if luck was on their side, save them, named after a legendary bird in the hopes it could guide them to Paradise like it did their people many eons ago, the Silver Hawk was born.

The fighter-plane on its own punched through the Thiima armies, destroying them all the way to the source and thus, saving their people, however, one side wasn’t so happy about it, The Belsar, for in their greed of power they stole remnants of the Thiima, and with the hearts of robot-like deities they created their own machine-like demons, seeking to expand and conquer the whole known universe at any cost, bringing forth death and destruction to whichever planets dared to fight back. And so, the people of many worlds would come into conflict with the Belsarian war-machine in the future, especially one titular world by the name of Darius, the new home of the Amunerians after the conflict with the Thiima.

But no matter how large the looming threat, how impossible the odds, how dire the situation, how futile the battle is, the Silver Hawk will always soar through the spaceways, a symbol of hope to the people of the known Solar System. To be the one known to single-handedly repel the Belsarian invasions, one after the other. And perhaps in due time, one planet at a time, a generation after another, the people of the Galaxy can live in true peace, without the threat of war, without the horrors of conflicts, a brighter future freed from the shackles of oppression, finally liberated from the tyrannic mentality of the Belsar.

But until that future is fulfilled, the Silver Hawk and its brave pilots will continue to fly, to fight the good fight until the last ship has been torn to scrap, and their last pilot shot down from the starry heaven.


Equipment


(Darius Twin OST -”Boss Fight”)


An assortment of weapon and defense systems the Silver Hawks have used across their may iterations, being surprisingly consistent when it comes to the entries, the Silver Hawk its unique in the way that it can manually choose to unleash shots and missiles separately or at the same time, in some occasions it can even manually change between missiles and lasers (such as in Super Nova) making it a very versatile fighter unit.
 

Armament




The bread and butter of any schmup ship, an assortment of powerful weapons for the Silver Hawk to use in combat, however, compared to other ships in other Schmups, this one is a bit unique amongst its peers.

How weapons work in Darius particularly is that the Silver Hawk can progressively level up their weapons the more armament orbs they pick (usually red colored) going from missiles to lasers to wave beams, each weapon is not only stronger but might even have some slight differences in properties. These are some of the types of armament the Silver Hawk has used across some of its versions.

Missile: Usually the first weapon at the disposal of the Silver Hawk, depending on the games it can range from a single shot to a line of 3 powerful shots. Strong sure, but fairly weak compared to the rest.

Laser: The second level on most Silver Hawks, a powerful single or triple laser that can cause some serious harm and when powered to the top it becomes longer and stronger, in Darius 2, at full power, the laser beams becomes a giant ball of energy accompanied by smaller ones that can decimate anything in sight.

Wave Beam: A devastating wave-laser beam that clears an area in front of the Silver Hawk, much wider than the ship itself. In the original it was a green beam of energy and has remained consistent across most if not all entries. However in other entries such as Gaiden the Beam can be leveled up all the way to level 3, summoning 2 smaller wave beams on TOP of 2 mini-silver hawk that shoot even smaller wave beams that home-in on enemies, truly the waviest of the wave beams and the strongest by far.
 

Missiles




The second classic layer of offensive most Silver Hawk possess is a seemingly infinite supply of missiles which the vessel can seemingly rapidfire without issue, missiles usually cover the area around the diagonals of the ship, protecting it from those angels and providing an extra layer of firepower, like the armament, missiles can be upgraded upon picking energy orbs (usually green) and get progressively leveled-up the more are picked, they do tend to vary between games but not quite as much as one might think, these are some unique or interesting variations Silver Hawks have used:

Basic Bombs: Officially called “napalm bombs” in Gaiden, these are many varieties of missile-shaped bombs of varying degrees of power, however what makes them peculiar is that when upgraded, they cover the 4 diagonals of the ship as a way of protection (example).

Homing bombs: Used in Gaiden, these are what they sound like, missiles that once shot will chase enemies around.

Crawling Bombs: Used in Darius 2,  when they touch the ground they go alongside it, destroying whatever they come in contact with, perfect to deal with enemies hunkered down on earth.
 

Lasers




Another form of projectile that tends to be a replacement to the missiles in some of the entries are lasers, usually being shot diagonally from the ship into 4 directions, in some entries like Super Nova the ship can even manually change between bombs and lasers, meaning it can always choose what it needs for a certain situation. Can also be upgraded (or are part of an upgrade) to the ships overall defensive and offensive firepower, with these the Silver Hawk can cover a much wider area and effectively defend at the same time it attacks, they were mostly used in Darius 2 and Darius Twin to great effect.

In Darius 2 the ship can unleash a barrage of 6 lasers at total power, 4 of which go forward in a straight line and destroy everything they come in contact with.

In darius Twin, these lasers are instead similar to energy orbs that recplace the missiles, going in all diagonal directions.
 

Barrier




Affectionately called “Arm” by the game and its fans, the Arm is that, the armor of the ship, usually comes in the form of brightly blue orbs the Silver Hawk can collect, which, if done, will grant the vessel an extra layer of defense, in-gameplay this essentially translates to an extra hitpoint. This armor protects the ship from pretty much all variety of enemy attacks and environmental hazards.

Arm can be stacked up to give the Silver Hawk plenty of extra hits to tank, in fact the more it gathers the colors of the armor change to reflect it going through 3 stages. Normal, Super and Hyper (as shown above). It should be noted that the shield changing color and name doesn’t really change any properties, just the amount of Armor available. Going from Green to Silver to Gold respectively.

Although it tends to vary between games the amount of armor in the classic Darius games usually dwells within the 1-35 range, however in dariusburst the total can go as far as a 98 and beyond if enough blue orbs are picked.
 

Black-Hole Bombs




Appearing for the first time in Darius Gaiden, these are powerful bombs that create localized gravity wells. Though they are never specified in manuals or in-game to be real black holes, making the comparison not so 1-to-1 they do seem to act with some of their basic properties. When triggered they pull weaker enemies to the center and destroy them, even pulling enemy shots to nullify them. Large bosses even if not damaged will still be pulled towards it. To make it even better once the bomb has absorbed enough it will collapse and explode, causing massive damage to anything around. The Silver Hawk can carry up to 5 Black Hole bombs at any given time.
 

Capture Balls




Appearing in Gaiden and G, the capture balls are a specialized type of technology that allows the Silver Hawk to essentially “catch” an enemy vessel and use them for their own. Originally (in Gaiden) these orbs had to be manually shot away from the enemy ship before being picked up, but by G (which canonically makes 0 sense but hey who am I to judge) the Silver Hawk can carry several of these to use whenever it needs too.

Each enemy captured in Darius has specific and unique properties, to go through all of them would be insanity and would clutter this blog needlessly, all that needs to be said is that when an enemy is captured the Silver Hawk has full access to its arsenal, and will keep it under its control until its either absorbed to use an Alpha Beam (as seen in the Abilities section), blown up on purpose to create a powerful screen-sized explosion, or its destroyed by enemy fire.

However it should be mentioned that stronger enemies or heavily armored enemies can resist these orbs, having to tear down their defenses enough for it to properly work, realistically a powerful enough machine should be enough to resist it, as bosses are unaffected by it. It’s not all bad however, as if the SIlver Hawk messes up and tries to capture an enemy it can't, the ball will simply return to it, without losing it. The Silver Hawk can carry up to 6 at any given time.

Misc Items




Various types of explosives that can be set ablaze and special items with unique properties to be picked up by the Silver Hawk during missions, they are usually portrayed as yellow or orange-ish orbs that make a big explosion once picked up (in short a classic “screen-clearing” attack), though not usually named here are some noteworthy ones.

Smart Bombs: Appears in most games. Your typical Orange orb that goes boom, once picked up, anything in the screen will be damaged (as seen in the gif above), usually killing weak enemies and damaging strong ones.

Anobbsium Bomb: Used in Darius Twin, although acting the same as the previous one, this one is specified to have enough power to whipe out “Everything Within a radius of 10 parsecs” (lore momento).

Compressed-Photon Laser: Used in Super Nova a short lived but powerful straight forward beam that destroys anything it touches, the effect lasts at best a few seconds, but it packs a mighty punch, it also helps that while its happening the Silver Hawk is invincible.



Abilities

(Darius Force/ Super Nova OST - “Select Zone”)

Specs




Being a plane does come with some advantages, as the Silver Hawk is a state-of-the-art fighter plane with some peculiar characteristics to it, of course it has the basics, it can fly (no shit), shoot and defend itself of course but it comes equipped with some unique stuff to help it fight the Belsar empire.

For starters the Silver Hawk seems to come equipped with an on-board system for a hyperdrive flight such as in Darius 2, allowing it to fly as fast as possible between planets and even solar systems. At a staggering 65 feet (19.80m) it is a surprisingly large ship, armed to the teeth with bombs and missiles and with the very unique capability of somehow flying backwards! However what makes the Silver Hawk so special is its ability to absorb energy, something that is mentioned in the manuals and material, hence why it's able to upgrade its weapons and equipment.
 

Alpha Beam




Used in G-Darius, the Alpha Beam is possibly the most powerful attack the Silver Hawk has at its disposal, in terms of raw power at least. The Alpha Beam is the product of the A.N. engine and the peculiar ship’s ability to absorb energy and use it for itself. First of all, for its use the Silver Hawk must have an enemy under its control (as seen in the “Equipment” section above) with it the Silver Hawk will straight up transform the enemy vessel into energy, and upon charging it for a period of time, it will fire it in huge Kamehameha-type beam of immense size and energy.

I cannot overstate just how powerful this beam is, its powered by the A.N system within and it says in the manual and I quote “the power to eradicate the universe step by step” the beam is charged by replenishing the ship’s own energy using enemy aircraft and can even grow in size by absorbing enemy beams as well, (up to 4 times its original size!) The power it carries is enough to one-shot bosses, and by itself is so powerful it can even beam-clash with other fully charged beams at the same time and still win.

Burst Engine




The newest and latest in technology, after the Belsar attacked the Darian forces (for the 100th time) they were forced to install new technologies into their vessels to fight the overwhelming disadvantage in numbers, the solution to this was the Burst Technology, a way to swat entire squads of Belsar in a single attack.

Despite the fancy paragraph above, the Burst system is fairly easy to explain, think about it like a weaker but much more versatile Alpha Beam, the basic type of Burst (and the one used by the mainline Silver Hawk in Dariusburst and thus, the one we will use) works in a fairly simple manner, whenever the ship does damage to enemies it fuels up on energy, this energy can then either be expelled in a single beam-like blast from the front of the ship or can be placed in a stationary position, unleashing a smaller and weaker but continuous beam that can be moved manually and that goes on until the energy depletes or is stopped.

Either way the Burst is used, it is a fairly powerful blast, it can completely destroy weaker enemies in the dozens and nullify enemy shots completely (even from bosses), in fact if timed properly it can even counter the enemy Burst attack similarly to an Alpha Beam tho on a smaller scale. However it does come at a pretty significant downside, the energy depletes very quickly and continuous damage needs to be applied to keep it going for longer, meaning that it cannot be reliably spammed.

Feats

(Darius Gaiden OST -”INDUCTION”)

Overall



  • -In its first outing held back the Thiima awakening.
  • -Has been under the command of many of the best pilots across generations of conflict.
  • -Successfully led the people of Vadis back to their home planet of Darius.
  • -Has stopped Belsarian invasions for literal centuries.
  • -In due time, freed the entire galaxy, and brought peace to the universe.
 

Strength




Speed




Dura




Scaling

The Belsar Army



(Darius OST -”BOSS SCENE 7”)


The titular enemy of the Darius series, a brutal and mysterious force that seeks to control the galaxy for reasons unknown, all of the Silver Hawk models have fought against the mechanical sea-life of the Belsar in one way or the other across all of the series, defeating many of their strongest machines and monsters. Because of this they should be more than comparable, especially taking into account weapons such as the Alpha Beam, Burst and Black Hole bombs. I wouldn’t like to mention every single boss in the series, however I would like to mention noteworthy feats performed by these bosses that the Silver Hawk could reasonably scale to.


The Thiima


(G-Darius OST - “A D A M”)


Canonically the first enemies the Silver Hawk faced in the Darius timeline (and even face them again by Dariusburst), robot-like beings of immense power that seek to bring balance to the universe (tho they later accepted humanity and just kinda let them alone) the first Silver Hawk is able to fight the Thiima machines on even ground and even destroy their leader, the Embryo, even matching Thiima weaponry with their own, so the scaling should be reasonable.


Weaknesses


(Darius Twin OST - “Game Over”)


Despite its amazing power, the Silver Hawk is not without problems, despite its shields and feats of durability, it has been shown to be a rather fragile machine, in fact it has been shown to be destroyed multiple times (Example 1, Example 2), hence its reliance on dodging and absorbing rather than tanking hits. Its weaponry, despite being fairly wide is not as extensive as one might believe, and despite the power its resources are limited, meaning that every fight the Silver Hawk engages in is a delicate dance of when to use the right tools. One error could cost the machine and the pilot inside its life, and thus, the Silver Hawk always finds itself in this intricate act of having to juggle multiple things at once, meaning that a sufficiently resourceful opponent could outlast it until they force a mistake out of them, or exhaust their shield so they are more easily destructible.

Before we go…


And with that, we’ve reached the end of yet another blog! This one is most definitely a wild one, it was a fun time, and I hope it was for you too the reader! Before I head out I would just like to extend my gratitude to 3 people, Shulk, Kiwi and Bang, they helped me proofread this blog through its stages and without them it could of not come out as cleanly as it did, I tried to do something different with this blog, be more visual and put all of my effort into it, so Im glad that they gave it the thumbs up and I would be happy to know if you guys liked it as well!

Most of the footage you see here in terms of gifs and screenshots and edits are actually done by yours truly! It was a huge endeavor to get most of the footage, however some of it I couldn’t so I would like to extend gratitude and the credit to the YT channels and pages which these sources belong to, the rights to their videos goes to those incredibly talented players.

I would like to thank al my friends for always being there, to support me, you know who you are, love every single one of you. And finally, as always, I thank you, the reader, for taking your time to read this, I hope to have another blog soon, and I mean that! And it's sure to be one hell of a time. In the meanwhile however, stay safe, stay healthy, love your fellow man, and drink water.


See you next time! Have a wonderful day.

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