The best games in the shmup genre always manage to make the player feel powerful, even when they're up against overwhelming odds. It's one of the best things about the genre, and is a crucial ingredient to the push-and-pull of game design that the best shmups manage to execute so gracefully. Grand Cross Renovation goes all in on this player empowerment, with the entire ~40 minute game loop being an insane power fantasy of sun blades, explosions and bosses being melted down to scrap metal in seconds. Although Grand Cross lacks the depth and replay value of its betters, the moment-to-moment experience of playing is extremely gratifying. Watching everything on the screen explode in ridiculous ways while trying to process what's actually going on mechanically is a good experience in its own way, and is one I'll definitely be coming back to every so often.
It's not like Grand Cross is all flash and no substance either. There's certainly some thoughtful design decisions and scoring mechanics here. The sun blade is devastatingly powerful, but using it drains your hp. However; being on low hp increases your risk multiplier, giving the game a risky, aggressive scoring playstyle. Some midboss and boss enemies can also be "overkilled", up to 300 extra hits after destruction, which is both risk vs reward and extremely cool conceptually. The manual aiming of the sun blade gives the player 360-degree shot coverage, which is a simple but effective way of bypassing a problem many "vertizontal" 16:9 shmups face, that being the issue of taking to long to move your shots across the screen.
Grand Cross is a solid game, but sadly also has missed potential. I like to compare this game to the Touhou fangame IKUSAAAAAAAN! (7 a's) - both are Treasure-inspired shmups which rely on conveying a power fantasy through over the top presentation. However; IKUSAAAAAAAN! is both even more over the top and has more engaging gameplay in the long term compared to Grand Cross. With some more adjustable difficulty selections and content, Grand Cross likely would have been able to reach the same heights. That said, GCR is still very much worth checking out just for how cathartic your first (and maybe only) hour of playtime is guaranteed to be.
It's not like Grand Cross is all flash and no substance either. There's certainly some thoughtful design decisions and scoring mechanics here. The sun blade is devastatingly powerful, but using it drains your hp. However; being on low hp increases your risk multiplier, giving the game a risky, aggressive scoring playstyle. Some midboss and boss enemies can also be "overkilled", up to 300 extra hits after destruction, which is both risk vs reward and extremely cool conceptually. The manual aiming of the sun blade gives the player 360-degree shot coverage, which is a simple but effective way of bypassing a problem many "vertizontal" 16:9 shmups face, that being the issue of taking to long to move your shots across the screen.
Grand Cross is a solid game, but sadly also has missed potential. I like to compare this game to the Touhou fangame IKUSAAAAAAAN! (7 a's) - both are Treasure-inspired shmups which rely on conveying a power fantasy through over the top presentation. However; IKUSAAAAAAAN! is both even more over the top and has more engaging gameplay in the long term compared to Grand Cross. With some more adjustable difficulty selections and content, Grand Cross likely would have been able to reach the same heights. That said, GCR is still very much worth checking out just for how cathartic your first (and maybe only) hour of playtime is guaranteed to be.