Crimzon Clover

http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/dl/winn.../se481428.html

Crimzon Clover is a rather polished effort for a doujin shmup, with some cool graphics and decent BGM. Your ship has a lock-on shot similar to Soukyugurentai. When the Break meter is full, hit the Bomb button to power-up (think DDP DOJ Hyper without the rank increase) and send the multiplier climbing. A half-full Break meter can be used to bomb if you need it.

This demo has 3 stages, and CC looks truly amazing so far for its version 0.20 release. Danmaku, loads of big multiplier numbers littering the screen ESPGaluda 2 style, mad bosses, and scores in the billions? Check.

Thinking of credit feeding? Not so fast, at least until you save up enough unlock points to buy the continues. :evil: Keep saving to open the Unlimited mode, which WILL kick your ass like Mushi Futari Ultra.

The full version will be coming in... AUGUST. If this goes commercial, it should be worth the money.

Impressive. The title screen music sort of sounds like a rip off of Robert Miles' Children but the in game music is pretty nice and the gameplay's smooth.

This IS impressive.

NeoZ: Not to derail the thread, but speaking of people snagging Robert Miles: I still can't get over the flagrant use of the "Children" melody 52 seconds in on Rock's stage in Mark of the Wolves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYs1NT6OnKI

Yeah, I noticed that one, too, when I first played it.

This game is awesome. It's nice to see a doujin game that doesn't take all its cues from the Touhou titles. The scoring system is a lot of fun and the prerendered, Ibara-esque visuals are very nice. I'll definitely be buying the full game. I wish that doujin developers would look into digital distribution, though. I'll be buying this at Himeya or Palet Web, but I can't help but wish it was on Impulse or Steam.

Also, I love the Mars Matrix style system of purchasing credits and additional modes. Why can't more games do this?

Sounds good! Will try this the next time I boot into Windows.

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

Impressive. The title screen music sort of sounds like a rip off of Robert Miles' Children but the in game music is pretty nice and the gameplay's smooth.

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How come I don't hear any music at all? Anyone else have this issue?

Is it just me or can you not move when you're shooting.

Just you.

Will try thiks, impressions seem good

That's really good, thanks for the heads-up. No way would I have found this without a pointer in the right direction.

Anyone else having a problem getting it to run full-screen? It seems to only want to run in a tiny box in the center of the screen no matter what video settings I choose.

James

Full screen works for me (middle option on the menu)

Is there a Video link of this anywhere?

Gotta have mad skillz to play games like that now adays. I couldn't even see how you can see your ship with all the action...

Well luckily the hit box is very small and shines so it's easy to spot.

I tried the middle option earlier and what it does is puts the image in a giant black square. Same size as windowed, but nothing else behind it. I recently turned off the option on my monitor that stretched images to fill up the screen, because it wasn't doing nice things to some of the older stuff and MAME games.

-edit- Found an option that takes care of both issues. Much better.

James

Crimzon Clover NXL homepage
Crimzon Clover is getting a release on Taito's NesicaXLive platform. This doesn't really come as too much of a surprise, given how damn good CC is. I'm guessing the sprites could be getting a rerender for 1280x720 HD so it looks more like a TypeX2 game and not TX1. The above website claims that it is a 1 or 2 player game while the PC game is singleplayer only, so I wonder what else will be changed. If we get a release of this version for PC/PSN/XBLA, I'll gladly rebuy the game.


A NesicaXLive cabinet in action. This video is old so no references to CC are in it. Nothing we'll probably see here since the NXL system does check for Asian IPs, probably since the publishers get a cut on each credit played.

This game seemed neat from the demo, but the doujin factor has kept me away from it while I have so many other STGs to play. I'd pick up a cleaned up, vertical, high res version of this in a heartbeat.

Here's the official PV from Bouken. This version DOES add a 2P mode BTW, while Tate is still out (didn't think they'd add it anyway, since this is a NXL game).

*crosses fingers for a X360/PS3 release*

The Nesica version is coming to PC as Crimson Clover: World Ignition, and it will be in English.

Video here
:D Day one damnit. Hopefully it's going to Steam with no 3rd-party DRM, or to Playism.
GOTY 2014? This is it.

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Originally Posted by Rancor @ shmupsforum

New modes, new ships, achievements, updated graphics, online leaderboards, tate/yoko support. I'd say that it's better in every possible way.

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It's coming to Steam. Tain and I were all over it on Twitter.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

It's coming to Steam. Tain and I were all over it on Twitter.

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Great. Shouldn't be too much longer if they said Spring 2014. I'll be searching my Steam client daily for CC until it's there.

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Originally Posted by shmups.com via Twitter

CrimzonClover's Steam version: achievements, leaderboards, training mode, 7 languages confirmed. May release.

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Japanese Link

Well established on Steam, Degica will be publishing CC. There should be no need for a Greenlight waiting period. The May release isn't 100% definite but I think there's a good chance we'll see it before the end of the month.

I keep reading this thread title as "Crispin Glover." This game looks awesome, but I think I want Kurisupin Densetsu more.

6/6 is the date as shown on CC's Steam page.
Two weeks and it's here. :D There's also a 3 min time attack mode, beside Boost, Original, & Unlimited.

"Watch your enemies crumble in fear as you turn the tide and fill the screen with your own hellacious rain of firepower!"

Awesome

And the price will be $9.99. Very good.

Here are some changes on the Nesica version, posted by ZeeL at the Steam forum for CC. No clue why ZeeL said "not what we'll have in the Steam release most likely", since CCWI & the arcade one look 100% the same from Steam's pics.

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Originally Posted by ZeeL (Steam discussion forum on CC)

Recap of changes since vanilla game
Ok here's a quick list of the changes i've noticed on the NesicaxLive for those interested and that have played vanilla. Be aware that this is for the arcade version and not what we'll have in the Steam release most likely.

-New ship : Type 3 very straight shot, very fast and somewhat delayed laser lock. Type 1 and 2 are still here and type Z has to be unlocked (by keeping your progress on a Nesica card on game centers at least). It takes roughly 4 million stars to get it i estimate.

-4 game modes : Time Attack ( intense caravan like stage with ♥♥♥♥load of enemies, unlimited lives and 3 minutes to score as high as possible).

Boost mode : By far my favorite and it seems really popular in Japan. It replaces Simple mode but with a sick twist : Your break Gauge keeps growing until you enter break mode automatically. From that point, it gets nuts ! You stay in break mode (no double break tho) until you die or bomb. Rank and bullets speed increase all the time. Oh and yeah...suicide bullets :) A lot of them ! The more you stay in break the more you score. Intense !

Original and Unlimited : Both are still there but with modified patterns, some more enemies etc. Scoring routes are pretty much the same as before but way harder to execute because of the next points ;)

-Break gauge increases slower. Especially on type Z. Exit the nearly instant refill of double break by point blanking enemies with type Z. From what i've seen, type Z gauge grows at the same pace as other 3 ships.

-Break time is shorter. Not much to say here ^^

-No more score extends ! You now get extends with stars (yes still somewhat related to scoring ). from memory : 100K, 250K, 450K and the last (never saw that one ^^) at 750K.

-No extends on stage Bosses. You can get a 1up item on mid bosses but only if you don't have any life left !

-New items on (mid) bosses : We now have a total of 4 items to choose from :
Extend (see previous point for conditions)
Stars like before
Energy : can help in boost mode a lot. Kill the boss at full rank, bomb when the items appear and then go back to break mode by getting the energy and thus lowering the rank.
Bomb Recover : The small separation on the break gauge now increase each time you bomb. Meaning that after a while it will be very long to fill the bomb gauge. That's where this item proves helpful.

- Shield is now WAY shorter : By far the biggest life sink on my first 15/20 credits on Nesica. From a roughly 3 seconds of invulnerability shield when entering break mode and maybe 2 seconds when break ends, we now have something like 500-800 ms of shield. No more time for a safe double full lock while swimming in bullets. Really REALLY hard to get used to when you're used to vanilla. This is for me the most important point with break gauge fill pace that makes the Nesica game way harder.

-Several other non gameplay related changes : game is now beautiful, more polished visually. Plenty of new enemies, patterns etc.

EDIT : Forgot to mention that the multiplier is now doubled : x12.8 max :)

So this is a rough list about what i noticed after something like 150 ish credits during my stay in Japan in April. Tons of fun. Really. If anyone has other stuff to add feel free to do so i'll try to implement them on my list.
Be aware one more time that it's the changes on NesicaxLive version NOT the one we'll play.

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I just bought it and played for about 105 mins by Steam's count. Sure, the scoring is WAY higher thanks in part to the new 12.8x multiplier cap. The break mode shield is definitely shorter and will take a bit of adjusting if you've played the vanilla CC a lot. In stage 2, look for a huge battleship to appear during the stage that wasn't there before. Graphics are generally a bit improved from the original.

If you use an arcade stick, the need for Joy2Key has been eliminated. Regularly $9.99, CCWI will be $6.79 until June 13th (or $9.79 if you buy the deluxe package with the soundtrack).

Actually the joystick support is spotty in my experience. Doesn't work with 360 TEs but it works with a couple PS3 sticks I tried.

I find that odd. I've been using an HRAP 3 from the start, so that's nothing I've noticed. Hopefully a patch can tackle that later on.
The 3 minute Time Attack is a fun addition IMO.

CCWI is more of an improvement over its original than DOJBL makes over DOJ. It's hard to go back to the vanilla version now. At the end of a stage I'll pick the extra stars item, given that the extends come from the star count. I once had a midboss cough out a 1up at death when I was on the last life.

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Originally Posted by Tain

Doesn't work with 360 TEs

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Son of a bitch. I guess I'll try a Saturn pad today instead.

edit: Either it doesn't quite like my Saturn pad, or the pad itself is starting to wear out, because the game doesn't want to recognize down. As if the game needed further challenge...

Yeah, it's super obnoxious. The game is great though, put a few credits in with one of said PS3 sticks. It's actually a bit less Cave-styled than I expected (largely due to the lock-on system and all of the big enemies that clear the screen on death) but it's as tightly designed as you'd expect from being made by one of the world's very best STG players.

It struck me as a mix of RayCrisis and Ketsui from the one level I was able to complete without being able to move properly.

I don't understand how the 360 TE stick doesn't work at all. You'd think the game couldn't tell the difference between that and a standard 360 pad.

Yeah, that's where my confusion's coming from. Funny enough, back in 2010 or so I was working with this one library that could read inputs from a 360 pad and from a 360 TE stick, but not a Hori EX2. It was about as weird as this.

Whatever's going on, this game probably isn't reading inputs through the XInput. JoyToKey exists, and will work, but it's obnoxious as hell.

I'll just be patient and wait for a patch rather than messing with J2K for this. Between this and the new USFIV PS3/4 stick, my temptation to buy another is growing, but ideally I'd put a pat top on that one, which would make it less than ideal for shooters.

Point-blanking large enemies or getting a lot of lock-ons at a time (i.e. enough for 8.0x or better) sure seems to help the Break Gauge.
Midway through stage one where you see a flying donut ship after the large tanks that come out one at a time, I'll turn on Break Mode then take it down with as many lock-ons as possible. Staying fairly near the top to spray down the kamikaze herd seems to build the BG faster- generally resulting in a Double Break Standby. Too far back seems to result in Break expiring. Just watch for the blue "suicide" bullets as they bite it.
IINM, you get more stars if you point blank in Break Mode or DBM.

It is a bummer to lose a DBS when it shows up during the last 5% of Break Mode. Major "D'OH!" moment.

What's the system requirements for this? I'm not sure if those tired old hamsters that power my ancient pc are up to any kind of games, but shmup.

System Requirements

Minimum:
OS: Windows XP/vista/7/8
Processor: Pentium 4 2.80GHz or better
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Graphics: Direct3D support
DirectX: Version 9.0
Hard Drive: 800 MB available space
Sound Card: DirectSound-compatible sound card

Recommended:
OS: Windows XP/vista/7/8
Processor: Pentium 4 CPU 3.40GHz(2 CPUs) or better
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce7900 GS eq. or better
DirectX: Version 9.0
Hard Drive: 1 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectSound-compatible sound card

It might run on my system. I may give it a try.

ahhhh this game rules. Arcade Original is so intense. I've been focusing on using breaks instead of bombs, so that might be holding me back, but it almost feels like Saidaioujou levels of difficulty.

I've started taking the Energy "Gauge up" instead of the Get Star item after a boss battle. Got up to 585B on my last run which ended on the 3rd stage.
Stage 3 does feel a bit harder partially because your Break Gauge fills up slowly compared to S1 & S2 (what that Rate Up Speed means, I guess). IcarusFW is right: The first DBM of stage 3 isn't too hard to get, but after that it's uphill.

Loving this game. GOTY 2014.

CC on Steam has been updated to 1.02. There are some new screen settings, and some bullshit scores have been cleared out of the leaderboard such as a 17 billion score with a Max Break Rate of 110,000 (LOL.... no one legitly gets that high of a MBR, not even the top scorer on Original arcade ). If you get framerate dips, your score will be flagged as "unofficial".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steam CC update

v1.02 Patch Detail:

Screen Settings : The dialog to choose Window/Fullscreen was abandonned. In its stead, a new SCREEN SETTING option is available from SETTINGS menu which allow to more detailed set up of Game Resolution/ Screen resolution to play with maximum comfort.

Vertical Screens: Support of vertical resolution screens added.

Controller: Support for XBOX360 Real Arcade Pro added.

Scoring and Leaderboard:
- Support of Friend score display added
- Display of the total number of score added
- "Unofficial Score" system added : if for some reason (mostly framerate) a score is not judged valid, it is still added to leaderboard as an unofficial score
- Filter for official/unofficial score added
** 3 gauge and the current FPS are now displayed on screen bottom right, should any of these gauge be in the red at the end of a level, the score will be judged as an unofficial score **

Level 2 Boss fight correction for a possible crash bug. (Some replay data might be affected)

Bug when choosing "Replay (this stage)" during the EX boss fight corrected.

Some scores judged wrong were removed from leaderboard.

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This is such a great game. Bought it during the steam sale, and can't believe how good it is even with the utter madness that sometimes goes on the screen.

I circled back to this today, playing with a DS4 instead of the Saturn pad which didn't seem to want to let me go down. Somehow I managed to do worse... My story is that I was using the Type II and III ship instead of the likely more beginner friendly Type I. Between this and Astebreed (which needs a thread), I'm blown away.

Type III is probably what I'd consider to be the best ship, but it's so damn slippery.