Crimzon Clover is a fun, mechanically-solid shoot-em-up. A constantly-filling “break gauge” allows for a screen-clearing bomb, and also a bit of temporary extra power and invincibility if you let it fully charge before activating. Timing these interrupts along with clearly-noted boss phase transitions creates a nice strategic element that helps you survive some of the game’s wilder enemy onslaughts and boost your score. It’s a really fun idea that leads to great climactic moments.

Those exciting, multi-phase boss fights are one of the game’s best aspects. Particularly some of the later ones have some really interesting patterns to deal with, in the bullets and beams they shoot out as well as their movement. They do a nice job really making you move all over the screen at points—danger can come from all directions, but you have the tools you need to fight back. The attack patterns of the default end boss are particularly well-designed.

The main problem I have with the game is that on top of lacking a bit in unique personality, it can feel like a bit of a visual mess. Okay, maybe “mess” is too harsh since it does do a fine job layering important stuff on top and making key threats visible. I actually think its deluge of explosions, different-colored bullets, score pickups, numbers, presentation flourishes, and other chaos is a fine thing for the arcade, since it makes it exciting to pick up and play. But the nonstop explosiveness and visual overload of all the big stuff enemies drop can definitely be too much, even in comparison to the games that inspired this.

The “arcade” difficulty mode is pretty exhausting, especially later in the game where it’s definitely targeted at shmup veterans. Luckily, there’s an easier mode of the standard game which I think is a lot of fun, still challenging, but much more reasonable for a player like me to grind out runs on. Arrange Mode rethinks the mechanics a bit and has a more middle-of-the-road difficulty balance that I find nice, so I enjoy that one.

I do find a few stages run too long, which makes the game a bit tiring for repeat runs, and have the aforementioned issues with the visual messiness, but there’s a good reason I’ve kept playing. It feels good to play and has some fun ideas that really make it shine. Especially impressive as an indie project from a sole developer.