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The Jade Knight (in Japanese: ジェイドナイト) is one of the four protagonists of Gradius Gaiden. It is one of the newer fighters created by the Gradius Empire, alongside the Falchion β to assist the Vic Viper and the Lord British in the war against the Bacterians. Unlike the other fighters, which use more offensive and defensive armaments, the Jade Knight concentrates more on strategic factors, and use more versatile weapons. True to its name, Jade Knight's coloring is inundated with green. Gradius Gaiden is the first of the Gradius franchise (with exception of Salamander spin-offs) to play in simultaneous cooperative play, making the purpose of Jade Knight even more efficient.
History[]
Sometime between the events of Gradius III and Gradius IV, the Gradius Empire got into a confrontation with the Bacterians. Unlike previous encounters however, the Bacterians used more advanced technology, making them much more prepared for an assault against Gradius.
Jade Knight (with green coloring and afterburn) with Vic Viper, Lord British and Falchion β
Jade Knight's commission to the world had been a difficult one. Originally conceived and created to assist Vic Viper in its war against enemies, the Gradius-Bacterian War ended in Gradius' victory. Too late to do anything significant and deemed as unneeded, Jade Knight was about to be decommissioned and then ultimately to be disposed of; never having a chance to prove its worth. But then, events in Gradius Gaiden occurred, and Gradius military brought Jade Knight back into service, reformatted it as a fighter and Jade Knight is hurriedly deployed into battle.
Fortunately Jade Knight was not alone; the Gradius Empire deploys not only their champion space fighter Vic Viper to stop the evil empire, but also the Lord British, as well as to newly released sister fighter called Falchion β; each of the four fighters has their strengths and their weaknesses, making them useful for different approaches to stop the imminent invasion. All four crafts travel across familiar and unfamiliar worlds, where they all encounter and defeat various Bacterian troops. Afterwards, they locate the source in the Black Nebula and destroy it whilst narrowly escaping destruction, bringing an end to the Bacterians once more.
Specification[]
| Length | 14.55 m (47.74 ft) |
| Wingspan | 23.58 m (77.36 ft) |
| Height | 6.03 m (19.8 ft) |
| Crew | 1 |
| Maximum Speed | 5.70c |
| Drive | M-3 Antimatter Engine x2 |
Weapons[]
Unlike the Vic Viper and the Lord British, the Jade Knight uses more strategic weapons in battle.
- Impulse Rail Gun - a standard, semi-automatic laser bolt that can deal with smaller Bacterians easily.
- Spread Bomb - fires a single missile that drops at an arc, upon making contact with any surface, the missile explodes, creating a medium-sized explosion that destroys enemies in its radius.
- Round Laser - a new, unusual laser that is unique to the Jade Knight. The Laser creates a green ring around the Jade Knight, which is not only very powerful, but also allows the craft to attack Bacterians from the flanks.
- Pulse Laser - another laser which fires two standard green laser bolts straightforward, essentially doubling the firepower of the Jade Knight, however the bolts are not very powerful.
- Options - creates an orange, orb-like satellite that follows behind the Jade Knight's trail that increases the firepower of the craft by one unit, but does not provide shielding protection; up to four can be obtained at maximum.
- Barrier - creates a shield that protects the Jade Knight by various means, depending on the type of shield the pilot sets up, it will be one of the following:
- Shield - creates two hexagonal gears that protect the Jade Knight from the front for a significant number of hits, but leaves the other sides exposed.
- Force Field - creates a shield that covers the entire craft, but only protects it for about half as many hits as the normal shield.
- Vertical Guard - a new type of shield introduced in Gradius Gaiden, it grants the Jade Knight protection from the top and bottom of the craft, but can only absorb two hits. It also grants the ability to negate collision with terrain.
Trivia[]
- A Yu-Gi-Oh card of the same name exists, and is based on Jade Knight.
- The Jade Knight, along with the other Gradius Gaiden ships, have a kind of hyper-drive system that allows them to travel faster than light for escape of the Black Hole in the Stage 7.
- Jade Knight's original ship name was GrayLayer.