ESP Ra. De. is a vertically scrolling manic shooter arcade game developed by Cave and published by Atlus in 1998. Unlike most other shmups, ESP Ra. De. has a somewhat involved story and setting. The Game received 2 prequels in the form of Espgaluda and Espgaluda II.
By 2018, Tokyo has reached its maximum extension, therefore falling prey of common problems such as overpopulation and criminality. For this reason, an artificial island, aptly named Tokyo-2, is created just offshore, thanks to the support of the shady "Yaksa" corporation, led by elusive billionaire Garra Ono, whose ties with the modern incarnation of Yakuza have not been proved. Another source of unstability is given by the rising number of humans exhibiting extrasensory perception, the so called ESPers, who are constantly hunted down by the Japanese Police force.
Unknown to everyone, Garra herself is an extremely powerful ESPer, bent on using her influence over the government and military to replace every living being in the city with clones (disturbingly enough, these ESPers take the form of a 10 years old girl, named "Alice" and implied to originate from Garra's own DNA). Just as her plans begin to unfold, three children are forced to take action, each one for his or her own personal motives.
The story takes place in December, during a 24-hour arc: each character has a specific stage which initiates his/her storyline, then culminating with the final encounter.
Source: Wikipedia, "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP_Ra.De. ESP Ra.De.]", available under the CC-BY-SA License.
