Croixleur Sigma is a Japanese doujin game developed by doujin circle “Souvenir Circ” and published by Nyu Media. Its inspiration is drawn from both the Ys and Devil May Cry series with fast and frenetic action over the shoulder of one of two blade dancing heroines being its main dish.

Aside from a rather generic story mode you have access to the regular lineup of Survival, Score Attack, and Challenge modes which add to the re-playability, but aren’t necessarily in the game’s favor.

Sticking closer to the basic formula of Devil May Cry, you are armed with a basic melee combo, canceling attacks and moves, a dodge maneuver, and up to four chainable special abilities as you gather more weapons. You collect coins after killing enemies and build up a chain for a higher score. Taking a single hit afterwards breaks it.

Unfortunately, the weapons you collect do not change anything about combat or your basic moves, their only good grace is that you can combo all of your special skills together which gives you incentive to mix and match the right weapons.

While this sounds like a tactical concept, you cannot save your load outs and most of the abilities do very little damage or have long charge up times that get you hurt, and the coup-de-grace to this idea is that the enemy variety is so poor that you can practically count the bestiary on a single hand.

Adding to the negativity is that there is no ‘parry and riposte’ move like a counter-attack, which one would imagine you’d find in this kind of game. Your only means of avoiding damage are dashing or hitting a monster just as they hit you which negates both parties.

You gain a split second of invincibility when you dash as a monster hits you, but this mechanic doesn’t work very well and makes fighting larger hordes a frustrating struggle.

Many times I found myself getting hit by attacks that I did in fact dodge. At the end of several moves there are dead-zones where you just can’t act and this leads to the breaking of a chain.

When fighting enemies you accrue levels as you fight but don’t be mistaken, these are not saved and they do not add anything to your character. Any enemy can either be one-hit-killed or take quite a beating determined by the floor you’re on.

It’s hard to recommend for replay value based on the above. While the combat itself feels satisfying overall, the enemies do not change between any of the modes and the weapons add nothing to the general fun factor.

The different modes don’t add much and the mystique of the game wears off in the first ten or twenty minutes, afterwards its coat of paint peels away and you’re left with a milquetoast experience that leaves you wanting for far more than is present.

Croixleur Sigma was reviewed using a code provided by Nyu Media. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s reviews/ethics policy here.