Welcome too Crioxleur Sigma, a indie or doujin in Japan, hack and slash developed by Japanese company Souvenir circ and published by Nyu Media. In the realm of Ilance, two female prodigies representing the Knight and Aristocratic factions will do battle in ‘the Adjuvant Trial’. The winner will earn the right for their respective faction to hold political and military authority in Ilance as well as the sacred duty of protecting the queen.
The game’s main protagonists are the reckless red head Lucrezia Visconti and the stalwart serious Francesca Storaro. Story mode tells the tale of the two protagonists as they face the Adjuvant Trail, a series of levels that become more difficult as you progress. Story mode is also timed, you have 15 minutes to complete the tower and depending on how quickly (or slowly) you progress different cutscenes may occur.
The Gameplay
Let’s dive right into the core of the game: combat.
Combat is fast paced, it’s all about movement and attacking
The game’s combat revolves around combos, by combining your standard attacks with your weapons special attack you can created devastating combo’s to put down your enemies. Combat is fast paced, it’s all about movement and attacking, if you stand rooted ou will get hit, so ‘hit and run’ tactics are often required.
Movement is helped by dashing, you can dash several times in quick succession until your MP runs out. Similar to RPG’s as you defeat enemies your character levels up increasing HP and MP, the more MP you have the more you can dash around the circular battlefield. The way dashing feels in the game is similar to watching old Dragonball Z anime fights where the characters would have huge movement bursts, then attack, then another burst – it feels very cool.
Score: Ultimately Croixleur Sigma is all about score
Higher scores are achieved by gathering chains. You achieve chains by collecting the coins that enemies drop upon death. However if you get hit once your chain will be broken and you’ll have to start over. Coins also have a dual purpose not only are they required for chains but each character has a powerful special attack once used you need to collect coins to be able to use it once again. It’s best to save this attack for tough bosses and enemies as its hard to accumulate it back.
Enemies: Lacking Variety
Speaking of enemies, there’s not much in way of enemy variety. There are three types of normal enemy, melee, ranged and flying. Enemies are also colour coded to show which difficulty they are for example yellow is the easiest, purple are the hardest. The tougher the enemies, the more HP they will have and thus they will require more attacks to take down. In later levels enemies also get an increase in speed, making it tougher to avoid their attacks. There are also boss occasional boss enemies that are tough to take down, its all about learning their attack patterns and also using your characters special attack to take them down.
Weapons: Plenty of Options
As you progress you will also unlock weapons which vary in design, attack damage and each have a special attack. Once you unlock a weapon you’ll be able to select it when choosing your loadout on the next playthough. There are 20 weapons to collect and several playthoughs of story mode will be required to collect them all.
Crioxleur Sigma has five gameplay modes:
- Story
- Score attack
- Survival
- Challenge
- Dramatic battle (which is the games local 2 player co-op)
Game Controls: Controller Reccommended
The games controls are fully rebindable and using a controller is certainly recommended as it provides the best experience; it’s the easiest to use and to be honest I would argue it’s borderline required to have a fun experience.
Conclusions
Overall Croixleur Sigma provides a fun, fast-paced hack and slash experience.
Though personally I would have liked a longer, expanded and fully fleshed out story mode. I would have also liked more enemy variety, the same enemies -while they do get tougher- don’t change in terms of mechanics. It’s more a case of you getting faster rather than adapting to new tactics.
If your a big score seeker you’ll certainly get your money’s worth. If your’re looking for a deeper, story-driven experience it’s best to look else where.
