Karous

Karous is a vertical-scrolling shooter video game developed by Milestone Inc. for the Sega NAOMI platform and released in Japanese arcades on November 15, 2006. The game was later ported to the Sega Dreamcast, becoming the system’s last officially licensed title when it was released in Japan on March 8, 2007. An unofficial translation to English was released in 2019.

Gameplay
The weapon system is based on Radio Allergy, but it uses a unique D.F.S. bomb system.

Bombs can be used when SP gauge is full. When a bomb is activated, a barrier surrounds the player, which can damage enemies within the barrier. For the duration of bomb activation, the player is invulnerable. Enemies destroyed by the barrier provide more experience points to the player.

The player’s shot, sword, shield can be upgraded by using experience items dropped from enemies, with a maximum of 100 levels. Weapon levels also act as score multipliers.