Grand Cross: Renovation

[Steven]

There are exactly 3 search results here for this game as I type this post. I am surprised that there have been so few mentions of this game, but it seemed interesting, so I tried the demo on Steam and it's definitely interesting. Just about the first thing I noticed is that on the ...loading screen...? for stage 1 it very blatantly tells you to Stick to it believe in your power!, which is pretty awesome.

It's definitely got some of that BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS... inspiration going on. I honestly have no idea what the hell is going on in this game, but I like it. I think.

Anyone tried this game? I've heard it's easy as hell with no difficulty options at all and the demo definitely was easy as hell, but apparently it's got a good scoring system.

[NuclearPotato]

I've only done a "credit feed" of it, but yeah, very fun game. Definitely on the easier side; only needed to continue maybe 4-5 times at most? I'm sure I could get a 1cc pretty quickly if I put the time in to learn it. Scoring definitely seems to be the way to go with this game; the risk-reward aspect with driving up the rank as your shield depletes is very cool. As with a lot of people, I hope the dev comes back to this to add some difficulty options in the future, but it's very much worth a play as-is if whoever is reading this hasn't done so already.

[Sengoku Strider]

for stage 1 it very blatantly tells you to Stick to it believe in your power!, which is pretty awesome.

It's definitely got some of that BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS... inspiration going on.

That one's a GleyLancer quote.

[Jeneki]

Grand Cross was pretty cool for arcade videogame pinball. You could shoot bullets out of the ball with the right powerup, I guess it's shmuppy enough.

[Steven]

for stage 1 it very blatantly tells you to Stick to it believe in your power!, which is pretty awesome.

It's definitely got some of that BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS... inspiration going on.

That one's a GleyLancer quote.

lol I know. I have like 3 copies of it.

[BrianC]

Grand Cross was pretty cool for arcade videogame pinball. You could shoot bullets out of the ball with the right powerup, I guess it's shmuppy enough.

wow. That game had a Varia style power up even before Metroid did pinball. I assumed it was a coincidence, but the same company also made a game named Varia Metal.

[FunktionJCB]

Henteko Doujin has released some interesting shmups on Steam, and I own them all so far.

As for GRAND CROSS: ReNOVATION, it caught my eye after seeing a Shmup Junkie video, and I bought it, but... I admit I'm yet to play it.

Between Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade, R-Type Final 2, Sol Cresta, and both Raging Blasters and Moon Dancer from TERARIN GAMES (the later two I bought around the same time as GRAND CROSS: ReNOVATION), I'm yet to find the time to properly "dive in".

[Steven]

Grand Cross was pretty cool for arcade videogame pinball. You could shoot bullets out of the ball with the right powerup, I guess it's shmuppy enough.

wow. That game had a Varia style power up even before Metroid did pinball. I assumed it was a coincidence, but the same company also made a game named Varia Metal.

In Metroid's case, it's just a poor romanization of what should have been properly rendered as "Barrier Suit"... which I suppose doesn't really have anything to do with anything you said, but yeah.

Anyway, this game is interesting. I'm not sure what to think of it yet, though. It certainly is striking visually. I wish I hadn't missed the Steam sale that just ended a few days ago.

[Steven]

Well, I got this game the other day and I just played through it and...


I have absolutely no fucking clue what just happened. What did I see? What did I experience? I don't know, but it was definitely something.

Was it a good something? I think it was. Yes, it's pretty easy, and there are no difficulty settings. The Sun Blade absolutely annihilates everything it touches in moments: enemies, bullets, bosses. Doesn't matter what it is. I really have no idea what to say about this game. It's just what it is. Try it, I guess.

[xxx1993]

Well, I got this game the other day and I just played through it and...


I have absolutely no fucking clue what just happened. What did I see? What did I experience? I don't know, but it was definitely something.

Was it a good something? I think it was. Yes, it's pretty easy, and there are no difficulty settings. The Sun Blade absolutely annihilates everything it touches in moments: enemies, bullets, bosses. Doesn't matter what it is. I really have no idea what to say about this game. It's just what it is. Try it, I guess.

I have no idea what happened either... But I feel like the game was made easy on purpose, that the creators were intentionally holding back, just like Drainus. But I'm not saying that's a bad thing, though. I've been playing a ton of hard video games, and I wanted something easy for once.

[Steven]

Well, I got this game the other day and I just played through it and...


I have absolutely no fucking clue what just happened. What did I see? What did I experience? I don't know, but it was definitely something.

Was it a good something? I think it was. Yes, it's pretty easy, and there are no difficulty settings. The Sun Blade absolutely annihilates everything it touches in moments: enemies, bullets, bosses. Doesn't matter what it is. I really have no idea what to say about this game. It's just what it is. Try it, I guess.

I have no idea what happened either... But I feel like the game was made easy on purpose, that the creators were intentionally holding back, just like Drainus. But I'm not saying that's a bad thing, though. I've been playing a ton of hard video games, and I wanted something easy for once.

Yeah, I think they made this game with intentionally low difficulty but made the scoring system have a high skill ceiling, and I think that's likely supposed to be the main point of the game or something.

It seems that you can unlock a second ship if you no miss the game. Most of my deaths were because I wasn't really sure what could hurt me and what couldn't, but I was playing very recklessly to see what I can get away with, and the game is not exceptionally punishing. I'll probably go for the no miss next time.

[xxx1993]

I'm glad, though. We need more "breather shmups" like this and Drainus.

[Steven]

Yeah. I think this game is a bit hectic for it to be a "relax and blow shit up" game like Hishouzame, but it is true that not everything needs to be Daioujou Death Label.

[xxx1993]

Even I was a bit intimidated at first. But thankfully I got through it just fine, though. What was with that "To be continued" message, anyway? Will there be a sequel?

[Steven]

New update just added the ship from KAMUI to this game.

[Steven]

Finally got around to trying the KAMUI ship and holy fuck is it broken. It insta-kills every boss in the game in under 1 second. It's completely insane. Visibility in this game is still pretty poor, but with the fullscreen lock-on, the giant laser that insta-kills everything it touches, and the fast recharge speed, there won't be anything on the screen to actually shoot at you.

This is a serious contender for the most ridiculously overpowered player character in anything ever, outside of games where the player can't be killed.

Just look at it. It takes longer for me to overkill the boss than it does to fucking kill it: https://youtu.be/_c7yN5o1ljs

[Zeether]

If you limiter release it can kill even faster and get you tons of tech points/overkills, but one hit and you're dead. Switching it on and off is good for scoring.