Raiden V

Gameplay in Raiden V is a mixture combination of the prior installments including Raiden Fighters sub-series/spinoffs, but the plot incorporates real-life locations, with the player craft fighting enemies in New York, the Middle East, France, England, Belgium, and Sweden.

Like the Raiden Fighters series and Raiden IV: Overkill, players have a choice of three aircraft: The Azuma from Japan (the aircraft from the early games), Spirit of Dragon from United States and Moulin Rouge from France. They all have different grades of power, defense, mobility and a sub-weapon of fixed power. Unlike Raiden IV and Raiden Fighters Jet, all aircraft have the same pre-installed bombs.

The story of Raiden V follows the previous games. Raiden V is the first game in the series to have a detailed story. Named characters engage in fully voiced dialogue, along with narration during the story screens. The story fleshes out several narrative elements that had gone unexplained in previous games, such as the origin of the Fighting Thunder project and the Crystals' motives. Depending on the stage route taken by the player, the story changes slightly while not affecting gameplay, as the characters become more aware of each other's true motives the higher the rank of a given stage is.

The game's story takes place 17 years after humanity's war with the Crystals began. The Vanquish Crystal Defense, or VCD, awaits an attack order to launch Fighting Thunder to assist the North American army, who have been decimated by attacks by the Crystals. Aboard the VCD flagship, the Bellwether, commanding officer Richard "Max" Maxwell (voiced by Xander Mobus in English) and communications officer Eshiria Portman (Rina Hoshino) lament that the VCD and the Fighting Thunders are being held back during what they consider a Crystal contamination far bigger than in the past.

Raiden V was released to generally favorable reviews, according to Metacritic, which provided aggregated scores of 75 and 73 for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions, respectively. Destructoid gave it an 7.5, calling it a "Solid and definitely have an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun."