GRAND CROSS: ReNOVATION

Welp, I'm gonna have to recommend you give this one a pass. My first playthru was cool. Very cinematic , very epic, not hard at all to 1cc, yet was engaging. However, each playthru is like 35mins long, and the there's really no rhyme or reason to the bullet patterns and it is very flashy (flashing lights that is), so it took a bit of motivation to get around to a second playthru and try a new ship bc i was afraid of it ruining my experience. So what's wrong with the game.... well, the game has a very heavy risk/reward scoring format but.... there is no online leaderboards smh . This then ties into the , "Why get a high score if I'm not competing?," which ties into the reason it is easy to 1CC the game... your scoring multiplier is tied to your health. Your health is primarily drained by using the Sun Blade laser... enemy bullets do little to no damage so everything falls apart without a leaderboard. Next, I was right. The second playthrough has left a sour taste in my mouth. I tried a new ship that primarily uses swords.... Swords that can't reach certain boss parts ... smh again. So you have to really on these very underpowered homing discs bc u take damage if you are hovering over certain bosses. idk maybe I am missing something with that ship???? Anyways, that 2nd playthru froze up on me. The stage 5 boss kept flashing into a huge floating white square that was basically off screen at the top of the screen... I guess the pixel actor was hitting an invisible boundary that kept "destroying the actor" or some sort of "z-axis battling" (game dev terminology). Then I took a screen pic and the screen went black. Tried to start a 3rd playthru with the 3rd ship, but for whatever reason the change ship button stopped working even after reloading lmao. The game is made with directX9... not sure if you are keeping track but we are on directX12 now so some ppl may have compatibility issues also. The Steam achievements are a big "F U" to Steam fans begging for achievements bc the achievements are ridiculous... like every single one is basically do a playthru without getting touched for 35mins? lol okay. So all in all: You have a special shmup here that is good for a play-through but has some glaring flaws and little replay-ability. And with that it's a Meh rating from me.

hahahahah. god, yes. Yes, yes, yes. A thousand times [b]yes[/b]. It's [i]so[/i] unapologetically cool, man. So exceptionally over-the-top and guided by a downright incredible love for the genre and everything it encompasses. It's not awfully hard, to be sure—although you WILL need a decent chunk of practice if you want to 1cc, rest assured—but that's not even important. It's aware that it's not providing some incredibly difficult challenge. That's not what it's here for. No, what it sets out to do is ensure you're—at the very least—seated for a good 40 minutes to delight in the STG equivalent of a very, [i]very[/i], [i][b]very[/b][/i] striking fireworks show. And frankly, for the price point it's at... those are some remarkably pretty fireworks, I'll tell you. Non-exhaustive list of things I [b]adore[/b]: [list] [*]The Sun Blade itself, naturally. A beast that's iffy to tame for the first couple of stages, but once you inevitably get a hang of it, it makes for a hell of a grin-inducing tool—if you've wanted to [b]become[/b] the final boss of an STG, here you go. Still, wanting to balance things within reason, RAYNEX did give it the fine-print addition of using your Life as a battery of sorts... [*]... which ties perfectly into the game's Risk system. Sure, you can play for survival and be cautious with how much you use your overpowering beam of death, but why would you when minimal health over extended periods of time nets you [i]that[/i] much more score AND rewards you with Tech popups as if to activate your neurons even further? [*]The visuals are distinctly noisy and somewhat JPEG-y at times, which you'd think would be a point that I'd chuck into the cons rather than the pros, but something about that—moreso combined with the game's overall glitchy, vector-y aesthetic—gives it a style that is equally overwhelming and unforgettable. Difficult to put into words, and even more difficult to showcase it in static imagery; very much a "see it for yourself in action" thing. [*]The Radiant Silvergun approach to boss entries is [i]extra[/i] funny because whereas BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS came with notes of a sort—pointers as to how to approach a boss, in a sense—Grand Cross simply tells you which boss you're encountering and then proceeds to, presumably from Nexalts' POV, state that [i]this is not enough.[/i] For you, no challenge is enough. Endless battle could not sate you. GOD, that's awesome. [*]THE SOUNDTRACK. GAH. YOU ATTACH YOURSELF TO A GIANT POWER-UP AND YOU GO FACE TO FACE WITH THIS BIG HUGE JERKWAD WHO GOES [i]"DO YOU PLAN TO DIE WITHOUT EVEN USING YOUR FULL POWER?"[/i] AND NEVER BE SURRENDER BLASTS IN THE BACKGROUND AND IT'S THE BEST <EXPLETIVE> EVER [/list] Cough. So on and so forth. It's times like these that I wish I could super-recommend a game or something, or at least mark it as a favorite. Grand Cross may not have a whole lot going for it in the longevity department by virtue of, again, unarguably being easier compared its peers, and I get that. I also don't care. This is a hyperactive game that absolutely revels in the medium it resides in—and, faced with its contagious destruction-friendly mindset, who am I to say no? I hold its hand. I run by its side. I adore it. [b]Shine bright, and bring light to this world!![/b]

1cc'd on my second playthrough without firing a weapon. Best shmup ever. Edit: Changing my recommendation to a thumbs up, because this is a really interesting game. I just wish the difficulty matched the gameplay mechanics and the presentation. As it is I'm giving it a mild recommendation, but go into it knowing it's an art game that doesn't pose any challenge whatsoever unless you go score chasing.

This game is a mess. Constant hard lockups resulting in having to reboot your entire computer just to recover. No combination of settings work well. Crashing can happen when switching to full screen or when loading a level, at the menu or in the middle of game play. Steer clear of this glitchy garbage.

I am late to this thing but finally getting to play through it and thensome with some of the extra stuff you unlock after finishing the game once. This isn't a difficult game to clear by any means if you were focused on survival and safety, but this game shines hardest when going all in to maximize your score. The higher the risk you take, the sooner you die at the cost of higher score. It becomes sadistic to a point when everything in the game will kill you in one hit if you're insane enough to keep risk all the way up for 35 minutes. The two main flaws of this game involves screen tearing when full screen meaning you'll need to activate vsync to get rid of it but there's no option in-game for that. The other issue is that there are some real visibility issues in this game amidst the chaos of screen shake and crazy lights everywhere. It will probably take a bit of time to sit down with this game and be comfortable with it. Even if you don't end up doing the whole thing on one credit on your first try, you should definitely credit feed because there is a pretty generous amount of content unlocked after doing so with two well known Doujin shmup ships I won't spoil here that bring their own mechanics to the game for a completely new feel each time. This game's greatest strength is being an absolutely insane powerhouse in visual style and presentation, it is loud and unique in a way that tickles my shmup strings like it's a near damn cinematic experience at times. So while the game isn't the most challenging until you push yourself harder with the risk mechanics, the presentation of this game is completely astounding. It was genuinely amazing seeing the gigantic list of testers, retweeters, streamers and special thanks given to all kinds of people in the SHMUP community in the credits, and I think this game absolutely deserves it's recognition especially with the endorsement of so many other people willing to come on board and help/promote this game. A high earned purchase for anyone looking for a SHMUP uniquely laid back in difficulty but still amazingly powerful presentation-wise. It is a real treat and I wish I knew about it sooner.

音がデカくて鼓膜が破れる！ キーコンフィグできねぇ！ という人はインストールフォルダ(Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Cross Renovation\)にあるKey_Config.exeを起動すれば変更出来ます。最初わからなくて返品しそうになりました。 「(良い意味で)大雑把なシューティングがやりたい」という気持ちで買ったのでぴったりハマりました。

This is the culmination of "What if shmups utilized 3d space more?". Amazing and one-of-a-kind experience. The normal ship can be hard to control with a stick, but it is definitely possible. The other two unlockable ships are EXTREMELY playable with an arcade stick.

你的美术素材和动画表现有一点松散，但是天马行空狂暴肆意的关卡演出，高概念的设计和华丽的战斗编排又很好的弥补了这一点 属于有一点反常规的作品，硬要说绝对的质量，其实比起那些T1T0级别的牛逼作品肯定是差一截的，但是异常对我电波，无论是前面提到的玩法和演出本身，或是PS3时代特有的千禧年日式GUI平面设计，还是这种尽可能极大凸出风格化和优势，无关紧要的部分去死的这种【游戏开发理念】我都很喜欢 我自己也是这种开发者（笑 この作品のグラフィック素材やアニメーション表現はやや粗めですが、そのぶん自由奔放で狂気じみたステージ演出、ハイコンセプトなデザイン、華麗な戦闘構成が見事にカバーしています。 いわば「アンチ・コンベンショナル」な作品と言えるでしょう。絶対的な品質だけで評価すれば、最高峰のSTG作品には一歩届かないかもしれません。しかし、異常に私の電波にハマりました。先に挙げたゲームプレイと演出自体、PS3時代特有のミレニアル・ジャパニーズGUIデザイン、そして「スタイルと強みを極限まで突出させ、どうでもいい部分は切り捨てる」という【ゲーム開発の哲学】まで、全てが好みです。 私自身もそんな開発者の一人ですから（笑）