Here's the story, according to the instruction manual and the
Aleste Wiki:
Year 2065 AD. After the failure of the first Integrated Earth State to advance into the outer planets, a huge mobile weapons army suddenly appeared in the jet-black space. They challenged the Integrated Earth State and destroyed the SDF (Space Force).
"We have taken control of the Earth. Your future lives are forfeit!"
Calling themselves "Moon Child", they conquered Earth and captured a few remaining SDF soldiers who were sent to a colony under construction. While most soldiers are overtaken by despair, some still do not give up hope... A teenage girl and a genius pilot, Ellinor Waizen...
The special fighter GG Aleste, developed specially for her, was secretly brought into the colony by the development team led by Ellinor's grandfather Seft Waizen. Ellinor now heads into the void where the battle awaits, piloting the GG Aleste to save the Earth.
Normal mode is just a normal game. Special mode, however, has enemies shooting revenge bullets at you after you kill them. This can make a no-death run really hard to do. I play on Normal mode for now.
Round 1
The D-Pad lets you fly around in eight directions, while Button 1 lets you fire your weapon. You start out with a single bullet machine gun (or a tic-tac gun, as I call it) and a laser.
There are gray and green cylinders you can shoot down to pick up P Chips. The P Chips will power up your machine gun, but you'll need a lot to go from single to double to triple and then to arrow shot, the last of which fires at a slight angle and does the most damage. There are also six special weapons, and they are as follows:
S: Spread - This fires a shot that flies forward before exploding and sending shots forward. Since it doesn't fire right away, this is the one weapon you'll probably have the hardest time dealing with, even when it's fully powered-up.
W: Wave - This shoots a three way shot that you can use to take out enemies from an angle.
N: Napalm - This shoots out an explosive shot that can take out multiple enemies in its wake.
L: Laser - You start with this one. The laser goes through enemies while hitting them, allowing you to take out multiple enemies in a straight line.
H: Homing - This shoots out a homing shot that chases after a nearby enemy. You can take out multiple enemies at one time once this thing is fully powered-up.
D: Defensive - This places a shield around the ship, and the shield revolves around you. If any enemies or enemy projectiles touch the shield, they get vaporized. You still need to be careful with this weapon, as projectiles still have a chance to get past the shield and hit you. When powered-up, this weapon also shoots beams made out of the shield itself, and these beams can also tear through enemies.
The enemies tend to spawn on the side
Enemies worth mentioning are:
- the the ships that split up into two parts that fly around
- the ships with the green cores that teleport in and fly around in formation
- the small green Gundam-like enemies that fire tiny blue lasers that can get around the shield of the D weapon pretty darn easily
- the enemies that teleport in from the bottom of the screen (H takes care of them)
- all those turrets on the ground
The red circle with a P in it powers up your secondary weapon. Be sure to pick them up; you definitely want a powered-up secondary weapon.
To beat the first mini-boss, stay away from it when it fires at you, then line yourself up with it and shoot it for a second before moving away again. To beat the second mini-boss, line yourself up with it and fire at it with everything you've got. Don't forget that you can shoot down the green fireballs.
The third boss is a wall at the end of the space station. Wait for the walls to stop moving and avoid the bullets, then shoot at the core when they stop. You can shoot down the green bullets, thankfully.
To beat the boss, shoot at the laser cannon at the front when it's moving, and stay away from it when it stops so you don't get blasted. For the second phase, shoot at the face, and watch out for the green bullets and the missiles that both fire straight down. As long as you're paying attention, you can easily dodge those as well as the bullets.
Round 2
In this round, you'll be flying across water and you'll be shooting down a lot of ships. The red ships always come out from behind and shoot out mortar shots that travel downwards if you leave them on-screen long enough. The gray ships that come in from the front will fire at you, but if you have the H or D weapon, you can easily tear them apart.
A submarine will show up as a mid-boss. Shoot the rocket-shaped thing in the center of the submarine to damage it, and watch out for the bullets it shoots that travel diagonally.
From here, you'll be facing a lot of turrets on oil rig platforms and getting a lot of chances to get the special weapon of your choice.
The boss is a collection of turrets on a platform that moves back and forth. Shoot down the turrets when they open up to fire bullets, then fire at the red orb in the center of the platform. The red orb will shoot out loads of green fireballs; the D weapon will protect against them, but the H weapon is also heavily preferred. Once you take this boss out, it's on to Round 3.
Round 3
In this area, you'll be in an underground rail path.
There will be turrets at the far left and right sides shooting at you. There will also be mechs that rise up from the train cars. Wait for them to reach the top of the screen before shooting at them; you won't be able to hit them until then
There will also be force fields encompassing the screen. As long as you shoot one part of the force field, the force field will be disabled.
The tiny Gundam enemies with the tiny blue lasers are the worst, especially if you have the D weapon and you're expecting it to pre-emptively get rid of the lasers...because it probably won't. Get the H weapon and use it to get rid of those enemies.
The boss is a big train car on the rail track. Stay in the upper corners to avoid the mortar shots, and once it rises up, shoot the green parts. Watch out for the spiders that come out from the sides and drop down. The H weapon will make this boss easier, as it will take care of not only the boss, but the spiders. Once this boss is down, it's on to Round 4.
Round 4
The game starts with a bonus area. Shoot down all the ships in a formation to get P-chips and secondary weapon strength increases. You can only shoot your basic "tic-tac" gun in the bonus area, and enemies don't destroy you if they run into you. The more ships you shoot down, the more points you get at the end, and if you destroy them all, you'll get a perfect bonus of 200,000 points and two extra lives (you earn an extra life every 100,000 points).
Once you're out of the bonus area, you'll be able to fire your secondary weapon again, but you'll also be in danger once again, so keep an eye out for enemies.
Missiles will start flying out from the top of the screen. Be ready to avoid them or shoot them down, as they are fast.
The boss here is some sort of ship that fires off those Gundam robots as well as missiles that come down from the sides. For the first phase, stay in the bottom center when you want to fire so you can damage the center of the ship. If you have the D weapon or H weapon, you can more or less stay in that position for the whole phase, as nothing will be able to touch you.
In the second phase, just stay in the bottom center and keep firing at the same weak point. All the green projectiles will miss you, and you can easily shoot down the middle projectile of the red three-way shot. It won't be long until you are off to Round 5.
Round 5
In this round, you'll be flying across a giant battleship. There are plenty of turrets here. The tube-shaped turrets that shoot off the green lasers are the hardest to destroy. The main thing to destroy is the three-way shot cannon at the top of the ship. Thankfully, those shots don't home in on you. H and D are the best weapons.
Round 6
The round begins with another bonus area that works exactly like the one from Round 4. Once again, destroy all the enemies for P chips and secondary weapon power-ups so you can get two more extra lives.
Once you're back into normal gameplay, prepare to be flooded with all sorts of enemies that have appeared regularly throughout the first round rounds. The homing weapon will be really useful in taking care of them all, especially the turrets and tanks. At this rate, concentrate solely on survival.
For the boss, take out the turrets first, and watch out for the shots that come out of both the turrets and the core. Once all six turrets are destroyed, take out the core. Thankfully, the core's shots neatly fan out as opposed to homing in on your current position upon firing like the turrets' shots do.
Round 7
This round takes place in Moon Child's base, and there are multiple sections to go through while mowing down enemies and floor turrets. At the end of each section is a boss that you'll have to take out before continuing on.
For the second section, take out the four corner turrets first before shooting down the core. Thankfully, dodging the shots for this boss is easier than at the end of Round 6.
For the third section, watch the mortar shots as you shoot at the boss.
In the fourth section, there is a ship that flies from the bottom to the top that fires multi-way shots at you as it moves by. Stay away from the shots and focus on the smaller enemies that are easier to defeat.
For the fourth section boss, take out the two turrets at the top, then move around and shoot at the boss as you do so. Never vertically line yourself up with it so that you don't get shot when it stops.
The real boss is in the fifth and final section. You'll be able to get the D weapon before meeting it; this is the last time in the game you can get it. To beat this boss, stay away from it and its shots as it flies around in a circle before it lands on the door in the center. Take out the turrets before taking out the ship while avoiding the mortar shots that it produces.
Round 8
The final round of the game is nothing but bosses. You'll be able to get any weapon you need (except D) one last time before the rush of bosses begins.
The first boss is some sort of mechanical skeleton. Keep firing at the face. As for the red orbs it shoots, they will bounce around at random angles, but they can be shot down.
The second boss is a series of turrets that fire green lasers. Stay far back and on the center of the screen and shoot the "face" at the top center of the screen. This lets you avoid the green orbs that are fired by the side turrets while taking out the shots from the "face" itself. This works best if you have the H weapon, otherwise; you'll have to avoid the green orbs while shooting down the cannons and avoiding the lasers that come out of the smaller green shots shot by the "face" which split into two when they are are horizontally aligned with you.
The next boss is some machine with two faces: one of a human, one of a wolf. You'll be shooting the wolf face first. Concentrate all your firepower on it. You'll then be shooting the human face. Avoid the red shots that fan out, and when the face opens to reveal the machine gun, keep shooting at the face while avoiding the mortar shots. Hang all the way back for best results. After enough damage, the human face opens up even further. You'll have mortar shots, shots that fan out and blue orbs that home in on you. The blue orbs can be destroyed, but your best bet is to shoot at the face whenever you can. Again, the special weapons make this easier.
After you destroy the four forms of the third boss, you'll fight one last boss, which is some weird cyan -colored baby looking thing. This boss will switch between the orbs: red, green, blue, green, red, green, blue, green, so on and so forth. As long as you keep the pattern in mind, you can easily shoot down the boss as it moves back and forth on the screen. Take out red and blue; leave green alone. Also, never line yourself up with it vertically and keep firing.
Once you beat this final boss, you'll return home, with Moon Child having been beaten once and for all. Congratulations!
