2236: Games You Probably Haven’t Tried But Should: Croixleur Sigma

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I’m a big fan of the Japanese doujin (indie) scene’s work and have been ever since I first came across the rather wonderful Recettear by EasyGameStation and its equally wonderful localisation by Carpe Fulgur. Much like the Western indie scene, the Japanese doujin scene is the home of the type of games that men in suits decide “won’t provide a good ROI or conversion ratio” or whatever shit they talk about in boardrooms these days.

Unlike the Western indie scene, however, which has a strong tendency to err on the side of “art games” — works that make use of gaming conventions in the service of telling a story or delivering some sort of message to the audience — the Japanese doujin scene has a strong tendency to make very “pure” gaming experiences that, while they sometimes have strong narratives, are primarily concerned with being fun to play and feeling like classic console and arcade titles from the PS1 and Dreamcast eras.

Croixleur Sigma by Souvenir Circ is one such example. I’ve had the pleasure of following Croixleur’s development since it was first released as a rather simplistic, albeit enjoyable, arena-based brawler a good few years ago now, and over time it’s blossomed into a genuinely excellent arcade-style game with a surprising amount of depth. With its recent PlayStation 4 release by publisher Playism, we finally have what is probably the definitive version of Croixleur, and it’s well worth your time and £11.

As previously mentioned, Croixleur is an arena-based brawler specifically designed to channel Devil May Cry’s Bloody Palace mode, in which the protagonist fights their way through increasingly challenging waves of enemies with a mind to completing the challenge 1) as quickly as possible 2) without dying and 3) scoring as many points as possible. In Croixleur’s case, you take on the role of one of four charming young weapon-wielding ladies and hack and slash your way through various types of monsters, hopefully before the 15-minute timer or your two arcade-style continues run out.

Croixleur initially seems disappointingly simple. Tapping the attack button unleashes a basic combo, but this isn’t altered by moving directions or changing weapons or anything. You can jump and do the same combo, or you can dash.

You can probably make it through the game just mashing the attack button, but it would be very tedious. Thankfully, that isn’t all there is to Croixleur, not by a long shot. No, Croixleur is very much based around being as fluid and elegant as possible; every action is possible to “cancel” into another — in other words, while one animation is going off, you can hit the button combination to do something else and that thing happen a lot sooner than it would have if you’d let the animation finish and set it off from a standing start. Effective fighting in Croixleur, then, becomes a combination of hitting weak enemies with your basic attack, dashing to other enemies to get into position, and using the unique special attacks each of the collectible weapons offer in order to best deal with the situations in which you find yourself. There’s also a “smart bomb”-like ability that has a limited number of uses; this is particularly useful against the stronger, larger enemies that less frequently show up.

There are only three basic enemy types in Croixleur: a goblin thing, a goblin wizard thing and a flying eyeball bat thing. While you might think this would cause the game to lack variety, things are mixed up a bit by a couple of palette variations of each: brown ones are weakest, blue ones take more hits and are more aggressive, red ones are strongest and most dangerous. The advantage of there only being three basic types of enemy is that you can learn their attack patterns and “tells” in their animations and be able to deftly avoid their attacks in order to keep up your own assault; in order to get the best scores — and indeed to survive, full stop — you’ll need to avoid taking damage as much as possible.

Alongside the basic three enemies are a few larger types, too: there’s a big monster thing, a gold knight, a silver knight and a fuck-off massive dragon as the final boss. Having significantly more HP — and usually being accompanied by a horde of the basic enemies — means that you have to deal with these powerful foes is somewhat different ways, zipping in and chipping away at their health before they can wind up a powerful attack, or using a special move to pelt them with magic from afar.

Further variation to the game is added through the weapons that you collect as you progress. You can equip up to four of these when you start a new game, effectively allowing you to customise your heroine’s choice of special moves according to how you like to play. There are also a variety of entertaining visual accessories you can purchase with the coins you collect by defeating enemies, and these all have various benefits to gameplay. Plus they look fun.

Croixleur is not a complicated or long game, but it’s surprising how much depth it has. It’s very much an arcade game, and wouldn’t feel out of place on the Dreamcast, with its large, Sega-style countdown timer, ludicrous scores to attain and wonderfully fluid, 60fps action. Plus there’s a ton of unlockable stuff to uncover as well as the ever-present challenge of besting your own high scores — and those of your friends, too, of course.

Give it a try!

2013: Starchaser

Interesting indie game time? Interesting indie game time.

I’m a big fan of the doujin (independently-developed) games that Playism brings to the West. Japanese indie games have a very distinctive character about them; they’re rarely the most technically impressive games in the world (though there are exceptions, like wonderfully gorgeous shoot ’em up Astebreed) but it’s rare to find one that doesn’t feel like it’s been infused with heart, soul and love. The doujin culture in Japan breeds people who are passionate and enthusiastic about their work; these aren’t people who are making games to prove a point, these are people who are making games because they love making games.

One of Playism’s most recent releases is a peculiar little platformer called Starchaser: Priestess of the Night Sky. This is the work of a doujin circle called Nonlinear, and the designer’s philosophy behind the game is an interesting one: he wanted to make a 3D game where the concept of 3D actually mattered. He has a point; there’s a lot of games out there that are presented in 3D, but which actually only practically play in two dimensions at once. Even renowned games like Super Mario 3D Land/World tend to only have the player worrying about two dimensions at a time for the most part; it’s rare you have to worry about the width, length and height of an environment at the same time in a Mario game, and that format works well for its accessible, family-friendly formula.

Starchaser, then, takes a slightly different approach to 3D platforming. Unfolding through a series of levels on both the inside and outside faces of a series of cubes, you control a young girl as she learns to commune with the stars by navigating through several perilous labyrinths of these cubes. The game starts very simple, but it’s not long before it introduces one of its core mechanics: gravity floors. These checkerboard cubes have their own gravitational pull, so if you’re airborne (through jumping, falling or walking off the side of something) you’ll be sucked towards the nearest one if you’re within its zone of influence. This may well be at a completely different angle to where you were standing a moment ago; Starchaser’s levels unfold making full use of all three dimensions, and you’ll have to look around in every direction carefully to negotiate a pathway towards your destination, making quick-witted use of the gravity mechanic and more conventional platform skills in order to survive.

It’s actually a really delightful game to play. It reminds me somewhat of PS1-era puzzlers like Kula World, Kurushi Final and the like. At least part of this is due to its somewhat… functional presentation (it won’t run in 1920×1080, and it won’t exceed 30 frames per second) but even with its (apparently deliberate) technical limitations, it’s a joy to play, once you get used to the peculiar control scheme. It’s a very distinctive, original take on the 3D platformer, and a great game to dip in and out of when you fancy banging your brain against some fiendish environmental puzzles and enjoyable boss fights.

Starchaser is available now either direct from Playism or on Steam — buy on Playism and you get a Steam key for free.

1924: Journeying Ever Onwards

So One Way Heroics Plus has pretty much devoured my soul with its wily ways and new features. I’ve been playing it a whole bunch, dying a whole lot and having a great time in the process.

I made a video of two unsuccessful runs earlier; here you go:

I’m really impressed with the additions to the base formula. In particular I’m excited about the fact that there are a number of new quests involved in unlocking the additional character classes; these quests replace the standard adventure to defeat the Demon Lord (or win in a couple of other super-secret ways) and task you with additional objectives, confronting you with new challenges and powerful foes on the way.

The small additions to the game’s interface are great, too. The hotbar in particular is an excellent addition, even if you only use it to quickly access skills like Awakening (your default “stop time for three turns” ability, which is very useful for getting out of a pinch) and Lockpicking. It’s also great to be able to customise the interface somewhat; it’s still a little cluttered thanks to it running in 640×480 (or upscaled 640×480 now, at least) but simple changes like being able to put your gauges at the bottom of the screen and the minimap up the top make it a lot easier to see where you’re going.

More subtle changes only become apparent if you’ve played both games. The pace of levelling has been considerably increased, but in exchange the “Goddess Statues” at which you can “spend” levels to get numerous benefits are considerably more expensive to use, and no longer provide the same possible bonuses every time. Skill merchants offer the ability to learn new abilities in exchange for stat levels, Iron Hags will make a random item for you (including “air”, which just means you’re out of pocket), benevolent Force practitioners will teach you defensive, utility or restorative spells… the list goes on.

And the game is still absolutely packed with charm and a surprising amount of depth. Most notably — and this was true of the original, too — is the fact that, despite initial appearances, the game does have a plot. Or, more accurately, a number of different intertwining narrative threads that only become apparent if you come into contact with the recruitable NPCs, figure out a way to stop the Demon Lord trying to set fire to you long enough to have a chat or try some of the daily “special campaigns” that add small but significant tweaks to the basic formula. A particular favourite that I had the other day was a world where every normal attack had a massive knockback effect on it, so you had to take care not to fight with your back to the encroaching Darkness lest you get slammed into it by your foe landing a blow. It shook up the way I played a great deal; unfortunately I didn’t quite get far enough to take full advantage of it by whacking the final boss of the Force Knight unlock quest into the Darkness — the main means through which you deal damage to this rather unpleasant adversary — but it was an enjoyable journey nonetheless.

I’m well and truly hooked then. And if you’re yet to discover the fun for yourself, I recommend giving it a look now. It’s just $6.99 and it will keep you busy for a very long time. You can grab it from publisher Playism, or soon from Steam, too. (If you buy it now at Playism, you’ll get a Steam key when that version releases.)

1922: Please Proceed to the Right, Again: One Way Heroics Plus

I’m planning on doing another video on this, but since I’ve been playing it a bunch today I thought I’d talk a little about One Way Heroics Plus.

As the name suggests, this is an enhanced and expanded version of the Japanese roguelike One Way Heroics, which I talked about a few days ago. It’s positioned as an “expansion” but it’s actually a new standalone game based on the skeleton of the original. Mercifully, however, you can import your saved data from the original game — though the conversion process means that you can’t send it back to the original game once you’ve done this, but why on Earth would you want to?

One Way Heroics Plus follows the same fomula as its predecessor in that it involves you, the Hero, attempting to save the world from the ever-encroaching darkness, represented by the screen that scrolls every turn, regardless of whether you’re actually moving “forwards” or not. Get pushed off the left side of the screen and you lose. Die and you lose. Beat the Demon Lord, who shows up after 400km of travelling on the easiest difficulty and at regular intervals on the other levels, and you win. There are also some other means of winning, but I won’t spoil those for you now.

So what’s new? Well, a few things. Firstly, the interface has had an overhaul. The original game didn’t have a bad interface — although it was rather cluttered thanks to the game running in 640×480 — but doing things like repetitive actions was a little cumbersome. The addition of a customisable hotbar alleviates this issue by allowing you to set a series of items and abilities ready for quick access at any time. Other little tweaks have been done here and there, too; items now glow, tough enemies pulse red, there’s a clear indicator when an enemy spots you, there’s an XP bar that appears when you can XP, there’s an auto-move function (with a customisable filter for whether or not it should automatically stop when enemies are nearby) and generally, the whole thing is just a bit slicker.

There are some new character classes and Perks, too, including some “negative” perks (or disadvantages, I guess they are, really) for those who want to make things a bit more challenging. There’s also supposedly an expanded metagame involving collecting “Dimensional Coins” throughout your travels and using them to upgrade a castle, but I haven’t explored this aspect of the game at all yet. Supposedly this unlocks new characters, quests and mechanics — I’m quite interested to see what it offers, as this is, from the sound of things, the most major addition to the game.

It’s the same game at its core, though, and that’s no bad thing, as the original was really solid. What One Way Heroics Plus does, however, is take that solid foundation and build an even more interesting, challenging and replayable game out of it; I’m very much looking forward to exploring it a bit more in the coming weeks — and at some point in the next few days, I’ll post a video showing some of the new features in a bit more detail, too.

For now, though, I have to mourn my journey from earlier today, where I successfully travelled for over 850km and reached experience level 76 before making the ill-considered decision to swim across the ocean to a small island and rescue a little girl; sadly, my swimming skill was too low to allow me to outrun the creeping Darkness, and I, along with the little girl and Queen Frieda, who had been accompanying me for some distance (and gradually revealing her surprising backstory in the process), were swallowed up by oblivion, never to be seen again… at least until I hit the “New Game” button again.

1910: Please Proceed to the Right – One Way Heroics

I’ve been revisiting a game I reviewed a while back: One Way Heroics from Japanese indie developer Smoking WOLF and localisation specialists Playism.

I made a video, even.

For those disinclined to watch a complete 40-minute playthrough of the game (the first time I ever beat it, fact fans — lucky I was recording, eh?) I shall also use the power of written words to explain what’s going on and why you should give this game a shot.

One Way Heroics is a sort-of roguelike crossed with the auto-scrolling levels from old Super Mario Bros. games. If that sounds strange, you’d be right, but that’s what makes the game interesting.

The concept is simple: the Darkness is swallowing the land a bit at a time, and it’s up to you to track down the Demon Lord supposedly responsible for this whole mess and punch him in the face until he stops being such a rotter. The encroaching darkness is represented by the scrolling screen — every move or action you perform causes it to advance slightly, and if you fall off the left side of the screen, you die. Naturally, this opens up the possibility of getting “trapped” in places, so you have to plan your movements pretty carefully to make sure you don’t get stuck.

There’s a selection of different character classes to play, each with their own distinctive pixel-art appearance and base stats. They can be further customised by choosing “Perks” at the outset of the game, which give you skills such as lockpicking, swimming and mountain climbing, or simple bonuses to your base statistics. Each class has its own starting equipment and skills, too, and you’ll have the opportunity to unlock additional skills and abilities as you progress.

This is a game in which you shouldn’t get too attached to anything — the town you just visited, your character, your equipment — and should instead keep pushing onwards. As you progress, the path your journey takes will see you finding new items or upgrading your existing ones with scrolls you discover. Eventually, the basic weapon you start the game with can become something like what I had by the end of the video above: a high-quality sword that is difficult to break, sets things on fire and confuses enemies.

Although your characters and the worlds they explore are inherently “disposable”, there is a degree of persistence in the game: completing a run, whether or not it was successful, rewards you with “Hero Points” that can be spent on purchasing new perks and character classes or expanding your Dimensional Vault, allowing you to carry items across into a subsequent playthrough.

There’s also some interesting online features. Every day, a specific random world “seed” is set aside as one for online play, and while you don’t directly adventure alongside other player characters — it’s not “true” multiplayer — you get updates on how other people are doing and may occasionally run into the ghosts of those who were less lucky. If you successfully complete the game, you’ll be told how many people got there ahead of you and you’ll have the opportunity to compare your performance with them. It’s a simple, subtle and unobtrusive use of online features, and it works very well in the context of the game.

I’ve really enjoyed revisiting this game recently, and was delighted to hear the news that it’s being kind-of remade for Vita by Spike Chunsoft as part of their Mystery Dungeon series. As you’ll know if you’ve played it, this game would be perfect for handheld play, so I’ll absolutely be there when it releases!

For now, I’ve got a Demon Lord to punch in the face.