Main game
3.67 average rating based on 24 ratings
(Note: Finished twice, once on Novice with 0 continues, another on Arcade with around 14 continues)
I'm not really that great at shmups but Crimzon Clover is a real delight to play. Ridiculously fast and intricate bullet patterns with an awesome encouraging score system. The strategy between breaking and doing just enough damage to cause the own enemy's break is a great ebb and flow that makes the dance between flurries of damage zones more interesting than just a general 2hou bullet hell. Going for optimal score just so you can give a safety net with a life or cruising between double breaks by perfect positioning and minute movement is a satisfying and excellent craze.
The boss battles are all interesting too, ranging from absolute damage areas, slowly weaving around the boss in a clockwork fashion, to entire bullet layers. The secret boss especially comes to mind at the absolute dance I tend to crave from these kinds of games, even countering some of your own strategies.
On top of the gameplay side, it also has a marvelous aesthetic with great art for the enemies, backgrounds, and effects like explosions. The music kicks ass as usual for this genre and …
(Note: Finished twice, once on Novice with 0 continues, another on Arcade with around 14 continues)
I'm not really that great at shmups but Crimzon Clover is a real delight to play. Ridiculously fast and intricate bullet patterns with an awesome encouraging score system. The strategy between breaking and doing just enough damage to cause the own enemy's break is a great ebb and flow that makes the dance between flurries of damage zones more interesting than just a general 2hou bullet hell. Going for optimal score just so you can give a safety net with a life or cruising between double breaks by perfect positioning and minute movement is a satisfying and excellent craze.
The boss battles are all interesting too, ranging from absolute damage areas, slowly weaving around the boss in a clockwork fashion, to entire bullet layers. The secret boss especially comes to mind at the absolute dance I tend to crave from these kinds of games, even countering some of your own strategies.
On top of the gameplay side, it also has a marvelous aesthetic with great art for the enemies, backgrounds, and effects like explosions. The music kicks ass as usual for this genre and it never lets up. In terms of visual clarity, bullets all have very distinct shapes for you to see, to a point where it's very hard to blame any of my deaths on that kind of issue.
It's not perfect for me unfortunately, Novice is so incredibly easy (I 1cc'd it on the FIRST TRY) and Arcade kicks my teeth in too much for me to be satisfied. It goes so hard into almost masocore territory with so many bullets on screen and intricate moving parts that my eyes and head started to hurt after a bit. Even though this isn't really the game for me I can still say it's one of the better shmups to pick up and try. If you're new to the genre there's no reason you can't get past Novice and if you're looking for something ballbusting you've of course got a lot here. (8/10)
First thing's first - Crimzon Clover is FLASHY. Sprites are bright and colorful and the visuals seem expertly detailed. This does make things difficult to see, but is somewhat pleasing to look at.
Crimzon Clover is also one of those shmups where very unique and rewarding systems are utilized but suffer some basic issues that keep it from being the best of the best.
First off, the fun mechanics - the player has a lock-on laser, allowing them to take out pesky enemies that would otherwise be the bane of a single-direction shooter. Break gauge (nay, two Break gauges) that grow from defeating enemies along with other aspects (lock-on multipliers and what not) can be used as a bomb meter that grows in requirement each time a bomb is fired and a special Break mode that's similar to Daioujou's Hyper mode, giving extra firepower. Now with the two Break gauges, it is possible to break during a break, allowing an even more powerful, score-heavy, and fragile mode called Double Break. Using and mastering these are essential to progress.
As for stages, nothing really seems out of the blue or memorable - in fact, in some cases (Stage 3 looks an …
First thing's first - Crimzon Clover is FLASHY. Sprites are bright and colorful and the visuals seem expertly detailed. This does make things difficult to see, but is somewhat pleasing to look at.
Crimzon Clover is also one of those shmups where very unique and rewarding systems are utilized but suffer some basic issues that keep it from being the best of the best.
First off, the fun mechanics - the player has a lock-on laser, allowing them to take out pesky enemies that would otherwise be the bane of a single-direction shooter. Break gauge (nay, two Break gauges) that grow from defeating enemies along with other aspects (lock-on multipliers and what not) can be used as a bomb meter that grows in requirement each time a bomb is fired and a special Break mode that's similar to Daioujou's Hyper mode, giving extra firepower. Now with the two Break gauges, it is possible to break during a break, allowing an even more powerful, score-heavy, and fragile mode called Double Break. Using and mastering these are essential to progress.
As for stages, nothing really seems out of the blue or memorable - in fact, in some cases (Stage 3 looks an awful lot like Mushihimesama), design seems ripped from more notable shmups and the music isn't too catchy. Luckily enough the game looks gorgeous on its own.
Now as for basic issues, these are gonna seem nitpicky but they definitely affected gameplay experience. The ship's speed is a bit too slippery, with even the slowest ship accidentally running into bullet fire and no focus mode to slow down the ship. The controls, interesting as they are, are absolutely hand-cramping in their default configuration and even the one I found least painful. And as for the difficulty well - call me a rookie, but Crimzon Clover is brutal on its "Arcade" mode, which is supposed to pass for a Normal mode but Novice mode feels more like a mode that feels approachable and fair without being too easy (is there even an easy mode, then?) There's also a Boost mode that borrows into the Raizing ranking system but a static difficulty is preferable.
Crimzon Clover is polished fun in the right hands but can be frustrating to deal with - its mechanics are cool to play with but demands some pain on the user-side and can be difficult to follow in both difficulty and flashing, bright colors. What sort of game fires red bullets at a red ship...