To Crime Nirvana

"To Crime Nirvana" is a short comedic combat orientated RPG about fighting for a peaceful daily life.

After previous CRIME KING (One Piece, anyone?) encouraged everyone to strive for the magical CRIME NIRVANA, multiple gangs have formed. Our protagonist, a former gang member of said king of crime (aka King Crimeson), lost his job because of these gangs and figures it is time to put an end to it, together with his boyfriend and cat companion.

Style and Characters:

Reading on the forums that the game had been inspired by Digital Devil Saga, I could not help checking it out and I was not disappointed. Albeit completely different in tone, the battles are fast-spaced and fluid while the dialogue is both funny and lifelike - you have strong quirky personalities fighting with their own brand of style, and everyone is described in a way that makes you relate to them on some level.

Our characters too, while over the top, are actually quite normal and this makes for a really interesting combination of daily life (worrying about bills, going on dinner dates) and fighting the big gangs around town, just because. And not just any fighting, but fighting as a demon worshipping healer (Kat), a literal cat (Salem), and an incredibly strong "small fry" (Ryuki).
Also, I actually really enjoyed the story of our couple meeting each other. They banter and reflect throughout the entire story, and this made for a really natural sense of progression and flow.

Becoming a leader of crime really is not the most important objective to our characters, and it shows. At times their entire style and approach may sound sloppy, but it also is very endearing at the same time, as you have adjusted to the style. It feels very unpolished starting out, and I feel even with the intentional characters, it still remains so in spots.

Before facing the roller-blading boss, Kat reflects on his earlier days.


It is filled with whimsy and neither regret nor sadness really make it into the story.

None of the enemy boss characters take their reign or defeat that personally, either. No-one really seems to face a serious crisis and life moves on amidst the chaos just fine. And I am actually really grateful for it. It makes for the most lighthearted and cheerful atmosphere, which I did not expect seeing the grey tone of the starting screens. It also introduces to you the cheesiest combination of characters I have seen in games before, too.

In fact, I am very happy the boss areas introduce more colors, as your own room appears drab and depressing in comparison. The game as a whole appears to improve over time in its style (which may be experienced slightly different tho, if you beat bosses in a different order)

Gameplay:

Gameplay-wise you have really only one thing to do - go and defeat the gang leaders so the crime waves stops and you can finally sleep at night (those sirens are loud!).

There are 5 in total and you can choose the order in which you fight them once you left your house. I personally love the artwork for them, and the screen itself is smooth and simply to navigate.
You cannot open any menus, and you can only save at home, before you move out. You are always healed (as you rest at home afterwards), and only face one encounter at a time. (which, usually, if it was advertised as such would keep me from such games, but here it works really well).


This roller-blading shadow CANNOT possibly be Shounen Batto from Paranoia Agent.. right? Kudos.

And that's all you do. Go somewhere, defeat the bad guy, rest up, repeat until you beat all the bad guys and peace returns!


Combat:

Beating those bosses is relatively easy as your party is well-equipped and powerful, but the fact that your numbers are relatively low and bosses dish out a lot of damage (usually area of effect ones, so hitting all three of you) keeps you on your toes.

Combat is fast-paced, animations brief and to-the-point with every character fulfilling a clear role in the game. Only guarding is as always a last-ditch effort. While some may argue it is not truly difficult, to me a combat system of this type is engaging and a lot of fun.


BAM! POW! HISS!

Ryuki is your offensive powerhouse - with strong-hitting spells (the double fist = best attack of the game, period), def-debuffs and a small aid to help Kat, you will try to let him keep attacking.

Kat is your healer of your choice, attacking or buffing defense in the breaks.

Salem is your eternal mp-recovery-machine and also as a good debuffer and attacker - the bleeding effect they can use is strong and the mp generation is a MUST to keep both Ryuki and Kat in business.

Once you have found your rhythm, there is sadly little variation needed, and I cannot tell if my missing debuffs is dependant on the boss or pure luck, but I could use most of these abilities really well.
The only one I found a little bit lack-luster might be the attack-debuff used by Salem, as it never seemed to work and took a lot of mp out of my cat when they are the worst recovering their own mp via their group-mp-spell. (get used to the meow-sounds)

Aesthetics and Music:

Both are really all over the place, with the majority being simple, beautiful and fitting. The tune for the main menu and intro sequence I found the weakest, and I was relieved to find most other tunes were much more interesting.
My favorite tune has to be the one for the knife-bro.

I was glad I played beyond the introduction, as there too, it starts out a little bit too grey. While I appreciate the simple color palette, I was unsure if the entirety of the game would be kept to grey, and I was again relieved to see that this was NOT the case.


The style certainly demanded my attention. REAL problems.

I ended up liking them a lot, even if I took a moment to warm up to the main characters' portraits which are not as fancy as everyone else's.

On an extra note, I actually really appreciated the credits sequence in the end. It felt REALLY well done, and I was really happy to not only see the sources credited (the music was open source), but to specify which tracks or which scripts in particular were used.

All in All:

This game is an incredibly well-focused, well-paced engaging fun game. Those looking for anything with humor, story, or a simple battle roll should give this a try!
Just do not expect a story as serious as the dark and grey may imply. Go for the whimsy.