Endocrisis (PS4 - PC - Nintendo Switch)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Endocrisis (PS4 - PC - Nintendo Switch)

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IN THE YEAR 2022... THE TRASH... WILL COME... TO US.


TRASHFALL (PART I)

It's 2022. We're in a new year, and the trash shmup reviews are still going. This time we'll hit the Indie scene again.

Today's review and first review of 2022 is Endocrisis by Arturo Buschmann.



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Is a modern game, but it looks like a blast from the past.

Endocrisis is an horizontal shooter with interesting gameplay mechanics that give a twist to the basics of shooting. To begin with you have to perform a dash-roll near yellow bullets in order to refill the ship's energy bar. This is pretty much like the Barrier Breaker from Risk System, but in Endocrisis you'll be doing this very often since the bar is also the ship's shield. That measure means you have to learn where and when to use your weapons, and another feature reinforces that: The ship's shield. By stop firing, the ship will utilize the shield/energy to protect the ship from unavoidable obstacles and bullets because if a bullet hits you while firing your ship will go down. With only one life, you'll expect some help. Well yes, 'cos this game will grant you not 3, not 5 or 10, but 60 continues to respawn where you left off, but you're also granted the option to "Try Again" and restart the level from the beginning with no continue cost or quit the level.



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The world within the mind.

You can select any stage available within the range of the default unlocked levels, but you will unlock new ones after clearing the "Boss" levels. You can tell the difference because the boss only stages are purple portals and the stages are in blue. Blue stages are focused on clearing a certain number of enemies to obtain a new weapon or a power up (additional fire). What both levels share in common is that you can revisit them as much as you want to practice or until you get the "Perfect" on them.



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The Wicked Maze

The regular stages take their liberties and break with the common concepct of scrolling as we will be facing mazes where the path is blocked until the enemy wave on that part of the stage is destroyed while having free navigation as if it was a large Super Metroid room, so we can say this game is quite of a "Shmuptroid" in some sense, and its good to see the developer pulling experiments like those as if he's trying to explore the boundaries of where shmups could go without losing their original essence.



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Don't expect traditional boss fights, they play with their own "House Rules".

Playing the regular levels is mostly essential when you're going to face the boss on their stages, since they will require to use your newely obtained weapons to destroy obstacles and additional companion sub-shots to get a wider range of fire because they play by their own "House Rules", like the first boss which rotates the combat zone forcing you to use the vertical fire if you have it. Like in Megaman, you can do a "Self-imposed challenge" of using your default weapon to defeat all of them, something you can do by heading to the boss stages without passing the regular levels to obtain the power ups. Doing a "No Powerup" run is obligatory if you're going for its respective trophy.



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You know you are an ace when you survive without a hit.

Like I said before, stages have two objectives: "Complete" which implies the successful navigation of the stage, and "Perfect" which is clearing the stage without getting your armor dropped to zero and/or dying. Something that ranges from "Challenging Fun" to "Rage Inducing" in the later levels, and rage inducing is indeed the best description of the general difficulty of this game.

This skill-based game could be a great game if it wasn't for the problems that plague it. Starting off with that frustrating symbiosis-linkage between your life and the weapons that compromises the whole damn thing. There's nothing more annoying and irritating that being unable to fire because the energy was depleted and that makes you vulnerable to a 1 hit death. To make things worse, your life gauge drops like flies because of the dreaded Turridamage keeping you from recovering after a hit. Also, if you continue there's no respawn invincibility, making you vulnerable as soon as you get back to the game. With the use of bullet hells you expect some small hitboxes, right? Oh, no you don't. Luck is not on your side this time since the hitbox is the whole ship requiring pixel-precise maneuvering, and when you die and continue, you'll respawn right where you are. So if you're in front of a laser stream, you'll be taking damage instantly and dying again, wasting a continue. Is like the AVGN said on his Cybermorph review "Imagine if in Super Mario Bros. you run into a Goomba and die. Okay, then what? Does it start you right in front of the Goomba again?" These flaws make the game look like a rushed product that wasn't fully tested and I'm sure no one cared about that as if the developer was more worried on releasing this thing as fast as possible.



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It's worse than flying blindfolded.

Stages are no exception either. Both "Fear" Stage and Battle levels are the worst of all. In the "Stage" case is almost unplayable since you are pitted on a dark area that can be lighted by shooting a crystal, but that lasts for the first half of the level. The second part is going almost blindfolded, only knowing and guessing your path by holding the fire button as your ship and Gun+ pods give you a hint when their bullets impact with something. For the Battle level (Located on the bottom right side of the "world" area) is a little more tolerable since you can control the scrolling by moving left or right like in a maze.

Fear Boss on the other side, is a perfect example of how the game can easily go out of control. With never ending falling rocks that don't allow you to catch a breath, the slamming hand and those annoying laser fingers will burn most of your continues unless you find a way to be between the falling rocks and stay away from the range of the laser stream of the firing fingers. Boss fights are most of the times based on finding blind spots and forced-requiring the upgrades and power ups. This is very notorious when you're doing a "No Powerup" run focusing on the boss fights. No matter how good you are, you will ran out of continues or use at least 50 of them in the best case scenario. Now it makes a whole lot of sense that bewildering amount of 60 continues.


TUTORIAL: DEFEATING FEAR BOSS

Fear is perhaps the worst of all the game's bosses, but there's a secret to defeat him without any fear of being killed in the process.



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It's all on getting between the rocks.

The main key to defeat the first form of Fear is learning the attack pattern, but there's a way to stay between rocks and damage the boss without getting hit. This will require to place the ship between the rocks and avoiding any hit from both of them, something very difficult due to the whole-ship hitbox. Once you get in position, it's all about dodging the hand attacks and rolling to recharge your weapons.



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Lesson 2: Dodging the murderbeam laser fingers.

Part two is a follow up of the first step. As you remain on your position dodging things by moving vertically, you have to go up without touching the ceiling everytime the boss fires his finger-beams. You just have to repeat as many times as necessary, especially if you're doing the "No-powerups run".



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Rock dodging is much easier right now.

The final form involves firing rocks from below that makes an arc leaving enough safe-space for your ship. Don't be teased to make a full energy reload by rolling to the yellow bullets on both sides of the screen, just wait as your energy slowly reloads. It will definitely take some time, so don't get desperate on defeating him quickly, there's no timer or bonus points waiting, only a "Perfect" clearing if you do things right.



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CONGLATURATION! YOU'VE COMPLETED A GREAT GAME.
AND PROOVED THE JUSTICE OF OUR...Oh, nevermind. You're dead.


After all of your troubles and defeating Mind, your technological maiden dies after gaining freedom. Way to go, that's the reward you've get for "Playing Hero". Another reason to add insult to injury after all the efforts of finishing the game. At first I thought that was because I used continues and didn't finished with all the Perfects, but guess what, Even with all the perfects, things end like that: She's deactivated, but for a while she felt like a human, following orders is not life, roll the credits. The End.

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Thanks for shutting her up, Shizuka.

Finishing Endocrisis is one of those titles where winning is the same as losing.



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We accept comments and suggestions.
Call 01-800-BAD-GAME


After the credits, the developer invites you to e-mail him. ¿Want to tell Arturo Buschmann his game needs to fix A LOT of things?, Do it.



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Retro-Modern Neon Lights.

The audiovisual section is the best part of the game, starting off with the graphics, which are a nod to the 80's with the grids and techno-punk based on that decade. However, if we compare it with Star Hunter DX, most of Endocrisis is on dark tones that makes it like it tries to be more like R-Type than an homage to the 80's. Also, the 80's homage is left aside on some stages of the game as we have the classic dark caverns and storm clouds.



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Sleeping Beauty Technopunk Edition

The cutscenes involve the premise of becoming self-aware and defying the system in order to gain freedom and feel "human". A classic topic of Science-Fiction stories involving Artificial Intelligence, but in the shmup perspective, it is kinda like Blazing Star and its Remulian "Awoken" Demons premise.



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Mattel's unreleased N-TEK character for Max Steel.

This is the protagonist of the game, a woman who we don't know her name, how she got into all that trouble or how cybernetic she was. The game doesn't bother to explain those basic plot aspects which comprise (at least) some of the game's lore (if there's one).
While the graphics are 80's based, the music is more of the 2000's with all the rapid techno beats that are the common standard of indie and major commercial shooters nowadays, the only exceptions are "Negation" and "Mind" which are the good ones due to the fast pace that fits on a space battle and in Mind's case due to it's Dr. Wily-esque influences.

On a curious note, Fury (the dragon) makes sounds that resemble more of a horse neigh rather than a roar. Still, a dragon neighing makes more sense than a Giger-esque creature making (roar-blended) hawk screeches (That goes for you, Dobkeratops).


ENDOCURIOSITIES
- The bosses are named after human feelings and behaviors.



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That's what Endocrisis (and most trash shooters) deserve: To be incinerated.

Endocrisis tries its best on being a sucessor of Risk System and a love letter to the 80's with those neon colors, grids and digital landscapes but falls on both aspects due to the horrible gameplay mechanics and flaws that makes the game frustrating and nearly unplayable. If you can get all the trophies, then lucky you. But honestly, you'd prefer to avoid this game.



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If "Good Experiences" means good shooters, then you're right.

At least after being shut down, there's a little thing to learn: Learning the meaning of a true life where freedom of thought and choice are what makes us human, along with the "Good Experiences" in our life.
Right now, I need more good experiences like good shmups, I'm growing sick of playing trash shooters. But you know what's worse. Our pal Buschmann is working on "Part Two": Endocrisis Hyperactive. God Help Us.



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I'm sorry Lea.
The Trashfall has just began and its gonna get worse.
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