Silhouette Mirage

Typical gameplay in the second level of Silhouette Mirage

Silhouette Mirage is an action side-scroller and features seven levels presented in a 2D view.[3] The game's major mechanic is based around the concept of two opposing attributes, "Silhouette" and "Mirage". Enemies are either "Silhouette", which can only be destroyed using "Mirage" attacks or "Mirage" which can only be destroyed using "Silhouette" attacks".[4] The protagonist Shyna automatically changes between these different forms when facing in a certain direction. When facing right she turns red and uses "Mirage" attacks and when facing left she turns blue and uses "Silhouette" attacks.[5] Both Shyna and enemies have health, which is reduced by being hit with the opposite attribute attack, and "spirit" which is reduced by being hit with the same attribute attack. Spirit determines how much damage a weapon does. Since getting on the correct side of an enemy is an integral part of gameplay, Shyna is capable of grappling, throwing and sliding, all of which can be used to get an enemy on the correct side so they can be damaged with the corresponding (opposite) attribute attack.[6] These melee attacks do not damage enemies.[7] Some bosses are able to switch between "Silhouette" and "Mirage".[4]

Shyna also has the ability to triple jump, crawl and dash. Crawling and dashing allows the player to run up walls and along ceilings which acts as both an evasive and defensive technique and also as a means to reach hidden or seemingly unreachable areas.[8] Shyna is also armed with a reflector that allows her to bounce enemy projectiles back at them.[9] Additional weapons/magic known as "parasites",[9] such as "Surosa" (single shots), "Cavitas" (homing blasts) and "Grattoni" (a powerful laser) can be purchased with coins from the Hare Wares vendor at certain points in the game.[5] A small amount of coins are collected by killing enemies;[10] however, more coins can be obtained by mugging them using a technique called "Cash Bash".[11] In addition to being able to save progress, the game also uses a system of continues which was more common in arcade games or games from previous generations. The player only has a single life, but can continue up to nine times.[11][8]

The game's difficulty was increased in the North American version, with weapon prices being increased, enemies causing more damage, and the player's spirit energy reducing as they use weapons. Due to this new spirit reduction feature, when Shyna reduces an enemy's spirit, she now also absorbs this spirit. Most of the initial options are also locked in this version, and can only be modified by completing the game's five paths, upon which a special bonus feature is also unlocked.[12]

The game is set on Earth in the year "2XXX"[13] after a system known as Edo has catastrophically failed and caused the world's inhabitants to be genetically mutated into beings known as either "Silhouette" or "Mirage". The protagonist Shyna Nera Shyna[14] is a creation that is activated by the computer system Gehena. Shyna's purpose is to track down and repair Edo to undo the damage that has been done and unite the two opposed types of beings that were created.[4] Shyna learns that Edo experimented on and created a being called Armageddon who was both Silhouette and Mirage. Due to the polar nature of these attributes, Armageddon was split into two individual entities known as Medigo and Hal, respectively the Silhouette and Mirage leaders.[15] Those that display both of the attributes are known as Proteans, and in addition to Armageddon, Shyna and Zohar are also such beings. Shyna battles through Silhouette and Mirage creatures, including Medigo, Hal and Zohar. She is eventually able to repair and reboot Edo. Gehena then notifies Shyna that all Silhouette and Mirage lifeforms will be located, identified, processed and returned to their original selves. Gehena estimates that this process will take 932,000 hours to complete.

Silhouette Mirage was developed by Treasure.[1] At the time the developer was shifting their focus to the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, and announced that Silhouette Mirage would be their final game for the Sega Saturn.[16] (In actuality, Treasure would go on to make one further Saturn game, Radiant Silvergun.) According to director Masaki Ukyo, the original concept was to incorporate the idea of two different attributes to make a unique action game, and that other concepts such as grabbing, throwing and "Cash Bash" were added later in development simply because "we got all these cool ideas and wanted to add them".[17] The gameplay mechanic of the player's power dropping if the spirit gauge falls was added near the end of development, and was based on a system Treasure used in Guardian Heroes (1996).[17] The character Shyna originally had a more typical fantasy witch design, but producer Koichi Kimura did not feel comfortable with fantasy settings, so gave the setting and character a futuristic design. He decided to use chibi character designs because he was not skilled at drawing realistic characters.[17]

Silhouette Mirage was released in Japan on the Sega Saturn on September 10, 1997.[1] Sega, which had published Treasure's previous Saturn game, Guardian Heroes, expressed a lack of interest in releasing the game in the West.[18]

The game was ported to the PlayStation as Silhouette Mirage: Reprogrammed Hope in Japan on July 23, 1998.[2] Treasure handled the port completely in house with a small team, including the difficult adaption of the 2D view into the PlayStation format.[19][20] The soundtrack was trimmed with the training music being replaced and a few minor background elements were simplified or removed.[12] The Reaper and Geluve bosses are exclusive to the PlayStation version. The game's story was also adjusted to accommodate these new characters, resulting in some more dialogue, a new battleground, and another ending.[21] This version was released as a PS one Classic on the Japanese PlayStation Network on August 25, 2010.[22]

American publisher Working Designs localized the PlayStation version for North America and made further alterations.[12] They increased the gameplay difficulty,[12] and added vibration support and memory card selection. Working Designs discovered that the game used virtual controllers to control enemy bosses, and took advantage of this to make Zohar a fully playable character during the credits.[21] Cutscenes were enhanced to run at a slightly higher resolution.[14] There are also secrets such as a debug mode, more options, and "Super Core Fighter 2",[21] a two player mini-game battle between Shyna and Zohar.[21] Also, the Hare Wares sprites were censored/edited. His cigarette was replaced with a gloved hand, and the burning cross was replaced with a dragon. A preview video for Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, another game localized by Working Designs, was also added to the game.[6] Some character and location names that reference the Bible were also changed.[21]

Treasure re-used the dual attribute damage mechanic of Silhouette Mirage in their shoot 'em up game Ikaruga (2001).[32][11] In Ikaruga, the concept of attributes is known as polarity which manifests as the player's ship being either black or white. Similarly with Silhouette Mirage, damage can only be done to the player or enemies by projectiles of the opposite attribute. While Shyna changes attributes by facing in different directions, the ship in Ikaruga changes attributes with a button press.[33]

• Treasure Official website (in Japanese)
• Silhouette Mirage at MobyGames