Caladrius Blaze

Genre: Bullet Hell Shmup

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Caladrius Blaze is a Shmup released on PlayStation 4 in 2016, ported to PC in 2017, and brought to Nintendo Switch in 2019. This game has players taking the role of one of various anime-style characters as they… honestly, the plot is incomprehensible, I have no idea what’s going on here.

However, while the story makes zero sense (and I won’t even attempt to try to describe it here), the rest of the presentation is fantastic. This game uses 3D backgrounds and character models for the vehicles, filling the screen with different kinds of bullets (as is the norm for the genre), and with nice, detailed anime-style characters on the borders. This is backed by energetic music that fits the game well, lots of sci-fi gunfire and explosion noises, and the frequent Japanese-language outbursts of the various characters in the game as they babble at one another or shout out after taking a hit.

The gameplay here offers players a wealth of options. Players can choose from 8 different ships, each one having a different primary fire, three unique secondary weapons with offensive and defensive capabilities, and unique bomb and special attacks. What’s more, the game can be played in three different gameplay styles, each allowing for some different nuances in the aforementioned special attacks. In addition, both primary and secondary weapons can be upgraded over the course of the game.

I should note that players will need to acquaint themselves with all of these different weapons and gameplay elements, as this game is tough as nails even within a genre that is known for being tough. In particular, players will need to learn to make good measured use of defensive weapons to protect from gunfire that would otherwise be impossible to dodge… but not rely so heavily on this secondary weapon that they drain its power when they need it most.

The game does thankfully allow players to continue as often as they like, but players wanting to try to work their way through the game “fair and square” will find the challenge level here to be daunting.

There is one other issue here that might ward away some players – this game advertises a “shame break” system that has your character portrait gradually getting parts of their outfit ripped off as they take damage. I feel like the game would have been better off without this for multiple reasons – firstly, it draws attention to the game’s silly plot, one of the game’s worst elements. Second, more reserved players will no doubt find this a distasteful and exploitative element that has nothing to do with the gameplay. And more pervy players will no doubt be disappointed to discover that the “partial nudity” advertised in this element of the game is highly exaggerated – if you’re looking for titillation, you will be sorely disappointed here.

However, while the game’s challenge is on the high side and some of the game’s presentation elements simply do not work, on the whole this is a wonderful Bullet Hell Shmup that gives players an absolute wealth of options to tackle its challenges, and ensures that more skilled players will want to learn all of those options to properly overcome those challenges without resorting to repeatedly reaching for the “Continue” option. If you’re a fan of Shmups, this is definitely one to get.

tl;dr – Caladrius Blaze is a Bullet Hell Shmup with an incomprehensible anime-style story, a (mostly) solid presentation, and an absolute wealth of options to tackle the enemy forces. However, you will need to make good use of those options, as the difficulty level here is particularly high. Some players might also find the game’s highly-touted “shame break” system to be distasteful and unnecessary (or alternately, disappointingly reserved). However, despite these flaws, this is a solid Shmup and fans of the genre would do well to add it to their collection.

Grade: B

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