BODY: Two forgotten corners of Japanese shooting-game history are about to collide. Granzella has announced that its horizontal shmups R-TYPE FINAL 2 and R-TYPE FINAL 3 EVOLVED will receive a free crossover ship at midnight on July 23, 2026 — one built as a tribute to a game that turns 42 next year.
The DLC, "R-9Aix Extra Arrow," takes its design cues from the variable humanoid weapon "Xpeler" (イクスペル), the transforming mecha at the heart of FZ: Formation Z. In classic R-Type fashion, the crossover isn't a straight cameo — the source machine is reimagined through the series' signature Bydo-fighting silhouette, folding another franchise's DNA into the R-9 lineage.
The pricing is the easy part to love: it's completely free for owners of either title. R-TYPE FINAL 3 EVOLVED launched as an expanded, current-gen evolution of the FINAL 2 formula, and Granzella has kept both games alive with a steady drip of guest fighters drawn from across gaming history.
For the uninitiated, Formation Z is a 1984 Jaleco arcade shooter — later ported to the Famicom and released in North America as Aeroboto — in which players pilot a robot that shifts between a walking humanoid and a high-speed jet. It's a genuine deep cut, the kind of reference that rewards players who've been tracking Japanese arcade lineage for decades.
The insider take
Granzella is largely staffed by ex-Irem veterans, the very people who built R-Type in the first place, so these crossovers read less like marketing and more like curation by fans who lived through the era. Reaching back to a modest Jaleco title from 1984 — rather than a safe, marquee franchise — is exactly the sort of move that endears the studio to Japan's hardcore shmup community, where obscurity is a badge of honor rather than a liability.
Originally reported by 4Gamer.net − 最新記事 (Japanese).