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Platform: Microsoft Xbox 360

Region: NTSC-J

Country: Japan

Developer(s): CAVE Co., Ltd.

Publishers(s): CAVE Co., Ltd.

ReleaseDate: 2010-11-25

Players: 2

Co-op: Yes

Plot: After the turmoil caused by the assault on Lunapolis which sparked the "Blissful Death Wars" (as depicted in the previous installment), peace seems to have been restored, with the legendary DonPachi Corps retreating to its HQ in a space-time fold. Six years later, anomalies are detected in the space-time fabric, yet tests reveal nothing out of order, with the portals regularly functioning for both teleportation and time travel; also, the leader of the DonPachi squadron Colonel Godwin Longhener (a descendant of the deranged Schwarlitz Longhener who once commanded the Donpachi Corps like he had) dismisses the matter due to the lack of actual danger. Nevertheless, a technician delves deeper into the anomaly, discovering that something has infiltrated the HQ computer systems and is using the portals to send large quantities of materials and data to the past, spreading out like a virus and quickly evolving. In an ironic twist, the virus is discovered to be the program originally installed in the Element Dolls six years ago, now reaching beyond the DonPachi Corps programming and seeking to annihilate the human race in retaliation for their "enslavement" (after the war, they met a rather cruel demise at the hand of their own human creators) by waging war in the past rather than in the present: unsettled, the Colonel authorizes the last transport ship to time jump in order to fight back the invasion before future changes. However, he states: "Start over from the past... I never thought of that", echoing the ideas of mankind's imperfection which has always been a recurring theme in the series. And once again, the three pilots jump back in time to 2008 and enter the fray, the transport ship being targeted as soon as it exits the portal: the Element Daughters, gigantic evolutions of the Dolls, are awaiting... The bee is still humming. Ending After clearing the game's Ura loop, the entirety of the plot is revealed: one of the Dolls, EXY, interfaced with the enemy computer network at the end of DaiOuJou, managing to shut it down but succumbing to madness soon thereafter. Overwhelmed by the sea of new information, she turned against her human pilot, killing him and herself and becoming the parasitic virtual entity detected by DonPachi HQ; still following her original programming, she created the Element Daughters and the robotic army featured in the game in a desperate attempt to destroy the installation that would start the chain of events leading to the Blissful Death Wars - presumably, DonPachi Corps HQ itself at the time of the elite squadron's birth. Exploiting their deranged plan for salvation, Colonel Godwin Longhener manipulated the Element Dolls/Daughters into destroying order and civilization, convinced of its intrinsic imperfection (much like his ancestor, Schwarlitz Longhener) and aiming towards rebuilding it according to his idea of flawlessness (an attempt already foiled centuries before by the first DonPachi Squadron). Said ambitions come to an abrupt halt with his death and the destruction of the ultimate fighting machine Hibachi. As the pilot jumps back to the future, he comes to finally realize how, instead of preventing the bloody future depicted in the series, Next EXY actually triggered it: he/she is forced to watch, powerless, as Longhener is appointed as the commanding officer of the DonPachi Corps with the rank of General, the Daughters standing beside him - the date being just a few years before the start of the Blissful Death Wars. Realizing that everything had been for nothing, the pilot comes to the conclusion that perhaps the future cannot be changed.

ESRB Rating: Not Rated

Genre(s): Shooter