Sol Cresta

Genre: Shmup

Players: 1

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Review:

Sol Cresta, the fifth title in the Cresta series, is a Shmup released in 2022 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. Coming 25 years after the most fourth game in the series, Terra Cresta 3D, Sol Cresta is in a way a high-level fan game, as Devil May Cry and Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya reaching out to the current owners of the franchise out of a desire to create a new game in the series.

The presentation here is very nice, using a mix of 2D and 3D elements while still remaining faithful to elements of the visual style of the original games. This is backed by a chiptune soundtrack made using a YM3812 sound chip from all the way back in 1985, giving this game a great retro sound.

As with other titles in the franchise, Sol Cresta once again uses a multi-part ship mechanic, but once again reworks it to be put to different use here. In this game, these add-ons are obtained via normal power-ups, adding their firepower to your own. However, in this game, separating your ships temporarily slows down time, giving you a bit of leeway to maneuver in a tough spot. However, this isn’t the function’s only purpose – separating also lets you rearrange the ship’s parts, changing its configuration based on the ship in the lead, resulting in a different primary attack. What’s more, you can also hold down the ship separation button to select one of various special attack formations. Oh, that there are also Street Fighter-esque move combinations that let you do different kinds of special attacks. And also…

Yeah, so there are a lot of different game mechanics shoved into this game. I would argue far too many – it’s a lot to keep track of. And having to select the move you want by literally moving your ship into a position can be cumbersome, especially if you’re simultaneously trying to avoid enemies or a wave of incoming fire.

At the same time, players needn’t necessarily engage with all of those mechanics, because Terra Cresta is probably on the easier side of the Shmup difficulty spectrum, which is pretty surprising since the earlier games in the series were very much on the opposite side of that spectrum. Because of this, even if you only understand a fraction of this game’s numerous mechanics, you can still get by well enough, and the solid gameplay and decent level design still make for an entertaining experience. Plus, if you decide you want to go deeper, you have that option.

Overall, I think Sol Cresta is a solid Shmup that bites off more than it can chew with its numerous gimmicky mechanics, but nevertheless ends up being an enjoyable entry into the genre since players don’t have to make use of all of those mechanics, but may choose to do so if they want to master the game. This game has a great retro feel while still being clearly a modern release, and I think fans of the genre and especially fans of this series will find this worth a look.

tl;dr – Sol Cresta is a Shmup and fifth game in the Cresta series, modernizing the presentation and gameplay while still remaining faithful to the earlier games’ aesthetic and core mechanic of its multi-part ship, which is used here to enable different ship configurations and… a whole lot more. Honestly, this game goes kinda’ overboard with its many game mechanics, but players don’t need to make use of all of them to enjoy what is still a solid entry in the genre.

Grade: B

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