Philosoma

One of the earliest PlayStation games, it was met with mediocre reviews, with most critics assessing its graphics as dull and its gameplay as primitive.

• Developer — G-Artists • Publisher — Sony Computer Entertainment • Composer — Kow Otani • Genre — Shooter • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — PlayStation

A recently colonized alien planet named Planet 220 reports a devastating attack by an unknown force and requires assistance. Alpha and Bravo teams are called in, but after enemy contact is made, the team fails to respond. The player assumes the roles of D3, a rookie pilot, as well as his commander and Charlie squadron Commander Nicolard Michau. Each are piloting the latest space fighter ships, the F/A-37 Strega, in an attempt to neutralize the unknown threat. However, a horrible secret hidden in the battle awaits them.

Philosoma plays like many scrolling shooters with the noticeable difference of its multiple perspectives. The camera switches several times during various levels from a vertical/top-down perspective to a rail shooter perspective (which is often reversed), to a horizontal scrolling perspective and an isometric scrolling perspective. The player ships have four weapons that can be upgraded thrice as well as side-arms consisting of homing missiles and rockets.

Philosoma was one of the first games announced for the PlayStation. It suffered a prolonged development cycle with its release date being pushed back multiple times, before finally appearing in Japan at the end of June 1995. The game was released for the PlayStation in Japan on July 28, 1995.

In 2001, a sequel was released in Japan only for the PlayStation 2 called Phase Paradox. However, it was only a sequel in terms of it being a continuation of the storyline from Philosoma; the game was in the survival horror genre instead of a shooter genre.