is a 2003 manic shooter by Cave and published by AMI. It is the spiritual successor to ESP Ra.De. and is followed by Espgaluda II. Gameplay Espgaluda is an arcade game which involves firing bullets and lasers at enemies. A shield attack can be used, but it runs on a limited quantity which is indicated by a gauge at the bottom of the screen. The player earns extra lives at 4 million and 14 million points, or by obtaining the "L" extend item in the third stage. If the player collides with a bullet, the guard barrier activates. The automatic guard barrier will consume two segments from the gauge, but will only last as long as one segment would. If the gauge contains less than two segments, the guard barrier will still activate, and whatever remains in the gauge will be consumed. If the gauge is empty at the time of the collision, the player will lose a life. The player will not collect any green gems when enemies are destroyed, regardless of the current gem count. Kakusei mode In Kakusei (Awakening) mode, the gem counter begins to drain, and all enemy bullets become purple. While the gem counter is above zero, enemies and projectiles will slow down. Destroyed enemies' bullets turn into gold, and the player's gem counter is decreased by 10. Each bullet converted into gold carries a multiplier which increases until it reaches "x100". When the gem counter reaches zero, the player goes into "over-mode". In over-mode, bullets become red and begin to travel faster than their normal speed. Red bullets will not be converted to gold. Although the bullet speed changes in Kakusei mode, the rate at which they are fired remains the same. In kakusei mode, the fighter's gender is altered. Chihiro and Black retain their shot modes and cannot enter kakusei. Guard barrier When the guard barrier is engaged, the player fires a powerful laser, and is momentarily invincible. The guard barrier gauge is divided into 4 segments. Tapping the C button will use up an entire segment (one quarter of the gauge), but holding the C button can use up more than one segment depending on how long it is held. The C button may be released mid-segment, which may result in there being less than one segment remaining in the gauge. In this case, tapping the C button will use what is