R-9DP3 Kenrokuen
How fucking hardcore are you? How personal do you like to get with bosses? If your answer to these questions is “fucking” and “fucking”, then this is the ship for you.
With that level of hardcorocity, it’s no surprise that entry Number 36, the R-9DP3 Kenrokuen, is a strong contender for the coolest ship in the game. The reason for his is pure and simple - just check out the discription of its wave cannon:
“There are two Final Wave Cannons: weapons with awesome and terrible destructive power. They are the Giga Wave Cannon, and this weapon.”
This motherfucker’s big gun, the Tesla Pile Bunker H, charges up to four loops. The thing is, for all that charging it isn’t actually a cannon in any normal sense. It doesn’t discharge some incandesant bauble of deadly eye candy, making a grand announcement that its showing off the peak of its power. That would be too flashy and ostentatious, or more simply an act of wasting energy by showing off. The Kenrokuen wants none of this. It makes sure all its charge goes into pure killing.
Firing the beam shot causes a rod to spring from the ship’s body and retract in supremely brutal fashion. It’s a prong of pure kill and is in fact amazingly fucking cool when used properly. What’s really hardcore is the fact that this defiantly physical implement only delivers its intense death-kiss at a range of up to three ship lengths.
This makes the Kenrokuen reliant on its averagely-performing normal shots (Defensive Force DX) and dependant on avoidance or rub kills for the lengthy charging period to make it all worthwile. Even with that against it, it’s still the ultimate rapist of R-Type Final.
Pile Bunker makes large enemies fall like victims taking the swipe of a katana in that style that’s all about kills from the first slash. Really quickly with fountains of blood - even on low charges. Utilising the Pile Bunker’s immense killing power against bosses means fearless control of your craft and biding time for the crucial chink in your enemy’s armour to appear. When that point arrives, it’s all over. It’s a frustrating and difficult ship to master, but the supreme satisfaction from driving home that rod of death and killing or seriously fucking up bosses with one shot (particularly when you’re IN TRAINING on the lower difficulty levels) is rarely matched by other craft. This is hardcore boss killing right here - it’s the sniper that shoots at point-blank range. The Kenrokuen doesn’t announce the unleashing of its maximum destructive power - it just fucks shit up in 15 frames and gets the fucking job done.
Brapbrapbrapbrap!
10/10
I regularly select its parts. Yeah, it is a bit like a penis again.
PS: The name is mixed up in the European version. It swaps with the one before it, the Asanogawa. Dunno why.