''Crimson Tears'' is a

cel-shaded Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimic th ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

beat 'em up The beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, ...

game developed by

DreamFactory is a Japanese video game developer founded in 1995, based out of Tokyo. They are best known for developing Fighting game, fighting and beat 'em up games, such as the ''Tobal No. 1'' fighting game series and the high-profile PlayStation 2 launch ...

and co-produced by

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

and

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

for the

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Plot

The game is set in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

in the year 2049 and revolves around three characters whose home has been destroyed. As seen on the game's front cover, this trio seems

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

; however, they are actually bio-engineered weapons developed by a company named A.R.M.A. called "mutanoids".

Gameplay

The game plays similarly to many

dungeon crawl A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video games an ...

ers except that the combat is in real-time. Unlike in most sixth generation games, the levels are completely flat. A notable feature of Crimson Tears is that the levels are generated on the fly using templates, as opposed to a predefined game worlds that are the same every time.

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews according to video game

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. While critics praised the game's cel-shaded graphics and

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...

s, they criticized the game's repetitive nature.

Notes

References

External links

official pageSpike page
* 2004 video games Capcom beat 'em ups Video games with cel-shaded animation PlayStation 2-only games Science fiction video games Video games featuring female protagonists PlayStation 2 games DreamFactory games Spike (company) games Video games developed in Japan {{beatemup-videogame-stub