Croixleur Sigma (PlayStation 4) Review

On the surface, everything looks fine with Croixleur Sigma. The models look good, and the fighting system seems stable and customisable enough to serve. Until the very moment the game starts, one could be forgiven for thinking that they will get a good and deep take on the arcade part of the hack 'n' slash genre. However, once it's time to swing steel, that opinion will also start to swing.

Let's start with the positives, though. Croixleur Sigma comes with beautiful models and a lot of different weapons that are kept relevant by one means or another to keep the experience ever-changing and engaging. To add to the replayability that is much-needed in this genre due to how short one sitting usually is, there are several game modes, which mostly come from the two core modes introduced in the main story. One of these is a traditional climb to the top of a tower, having few other mechanics and mainly being about raw performance, and the second is more akin to a dungeon crawler, with weapons that get destroyed and an ally who helps throughout. These two modes make up the backbone of the game and the experience, and that could've been enough.

This is where the biggest problem of Croixleur Sigma kicks in: the lack of encounters that feel different enough. The sad fact is that if you're making a game that is made to be "beaten" in 5-15 minutes, that game must be enjoyable to repeat, which can be done in several ways. In arcade games, this is done in two ways mainly: challenge, or surprise elements added in each new playthrough. This is where Croixleur Sigma fails. The content is neither challenging nor changing enough to keep players interested in taking more than one or two goes at the content it delivers, making it a mediocre and dull experience that gets repetitive way ahead of when it should.

It is very regrettable that Croixleur Sigma is such a short-lived game, because during the short lifetime it will have it delivers a lot of entertainment. The battle system is simple yet extremely satisfying to slay hordes of enemies in, and the humour will hit home with many anime fans in the (very) few cut-scenes the game delivers. There is nothing wrong at all with what's in Croixleur Sigma, it is just a case of more being needed to keep the game alive for longer.