Developer: souvenir circ.
Publisher: Nyu Media
Platform: PC (Steam)
Price: $7.99
Release Date: 30th April, 2014
An arcade hack-and-slash. Combine basic attacks, jumping, dashing, and special attack in order to clear monsters as fast as possible. If that’s your cup of tea, you already know you’ll enjoy this game. Ah, there’s cute
girl in it too.
When I looked at this game’s page on Steam, the first thing that came to mind was: The video and the screenshots are all just showing the same action over and over again. Soon upon playing the game, I was able to confirm
that, indeed, my previous hunch was right: You do the same thing over and over again in Croixleur Sigma. The rather repetitive premise of the game is quickly revealed.
Story
The game’s plot is nearly non-existent, but nonetheless it’s still presented when you start the game. Some non-important kingdom is ruled by a queen, aided by two factions, namely the Knights and the Nobles. Those two factions
hold competitions between each other. The two playable characters are both representatives of their respective factions. Both protagonist heroines are racing to the top of a tower full of monsters. You must clear each level
as fast as possible and beat the other to the top. The challenge itself isn’t difficult, the difficulty is in mastering your moves and clearing the game as fast as possible.
Gameplay
Croixleur Sigma will outright tell you that it’s designed to be played on a Gamepad. To play this game, I used my Razer Hydra running on gamepad-mode. Any controller will do fine for this game. If you have a retro-themed
gamepad, this would be a good game to use it on. Upon the first time starting the game, you’ll be prompted to config the gamepad keys. The game does allow you to use a keyboard, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
The game’s movements and attack patterns are all very well polished. Movement, dashing, aiming, slashing. All those actions are perfectly smooth, and I had no problem at all getting used to it. The game’s interface is all
gamepad-friendly as well. In-game options are very limited, however that isn’t an issue because Croixleur Sigma features an external configuration tool.
As you can see, the game is capable of running on respectable 1920×1080 with no issues. There are a handful of other graphical options, but most users should be able to run Croixleur on all-max setting without issues. The config
tool seems to think I am running Windows Vista, when in fact I am running Windows 8, which is something I only really noticed while I was writing this review. On the technical side, Croixleur Sigma ran on my computer without
any issues.
The game is capable of running at 60 FPS, and it’s well optimized in order to do so. It even has the option of showing an FPS counter built-in to the game engine.
However, I found one flaw in this game. If you attempt to minimize the game, you won’t be able to alternate back to it. It’ll just display a black window, and eventually you’ll get a crash. Because of this, I highly
recommend you play the game in Windowed Mode.
Sound
The game is fully voiced. That said, the game’s cast consists of a grand total of two characters. They don’t speak much either, but it was a nice touch. Much of the dubbing consists in yelling in Japanese when hitting or
getting hit. During Story-Mode, much of the chatter is, in fact, monologuing. The game’s sound effects are the standard SFX sounds you’d see in dozens of other Japanese games. Changing and selecting options in the
menu…I recognized all those sound effects from other Japanese games.
The music is grand and interesting, and has a nice potential. It feels a bit wasted in such a rather forgettable game. After a couple hours of gameplay, you’ll realize that it’s repetitive, and that there aren’t enough tracks
in the game, unfortunately.
Graphics
The game’s anime art looks okay. I mean, the girls are cute. What’s not to like?
The 3DCG art is passable at best. The in-game models look like something you’d get in a Dreamcast or Playstation 2 game. Enemy-character design leaves A LOT to be desired. There is a grand total of 4 different types of enemies.
Their recolor variations have crescent levels of strength and durability, but once again, they’re just recolors. I feel like the authors could have put a little bit more effort, specially in having more enemies and better
3DCG for the playable characters. Hell, even if you could cosmetically change their suits would already be a nice improvement, but unfortunately the game’s looks are just as repeated as the gameplay itself.
Downsides
Technically a very solid game. Should run well on most computers, very polished and optimized. The story might as well not exist, character designs are boring, 3D models are subpar, and lacks enemy variations and cosmetic
appeal. The game’s repetitiveness isn’t all that bad. You could probably sink a couple of hours, or maybe even a few days, in trying to get all the accomplishments for this game, but once you’re done with that you’ll never
remember this game existed. Other than getting achievements, the replayability is zero.
Overall
An average hack-and-slash that runs and plays well, but has some serious design faults. The game doesn’t have personality, doesn’t know what it wants to be, and has no clear premise. There just isn’t enough to do in Croixleur
Sigma. If you like collecting game achievements, you might want to check this game though.
Do the achievements and unlock all game modes. Collect weapons and complete the challenges.
Oh, do we have achievements. I myself got roped into getting quite a few after taking that screenshot.
The bottomline here is: Good game, insufficient content.
Pros:
– Cheap
– Great Optimization
– Voiced
– Good Music
– Cute Girls are always a positive
Cons:
– Repetitive
– No Replayability
– Rather Short
– Subpar 3D Models
The Reviewer has given this game a Final Grade of 4/10 !!
