In this game you play as Clarino, a Robot Girl capable of arming herself with various weapons called "Applications" at her disposal. Each weapon in the games ranges from beam sabers, homing daggers, a spread gun, flare guns and more. She can also gain new abilities and power-ups as she speeds through several maze-like levels. However, to gain these power-ups and upgrades, you must complete a stage while meeting certain conditions (e.g. clearing a stage under a certain time-frame, scoring lots of points, no damage running a stage). Throughout each stage are littered with all sorts of obstacles and other robotic enemies out to destroy you. Though when push comes to being bombarded by a swarm of enemies, Clarino can throw herself into Burst Mode and let loose some very powerful attacks courtesy of a Doppelgänger Attack at the expense of draining her Life Energy.
A sequel, Lethal Crisis ProtoSphere, was released in 2011. It takes after the events of the first game but its gameplay borrows elements from roguelikes with randomly-generated levels while maintaining the action-platformer gameplay of it predecessor. Trial versions of these games can be found at Daisessen's website here
(Japanese).
The Lethal series was re-released through Steam in July 2023, albeit without a translation for Lethal Crisis and ProtoSphere. An unofficial English translation patch for Lethal Crisis was released by UnexpectGenreShift and it can be found here.
This series features trope example of:
- 100% Completion: If you like replaying levels for rewards you may have missed before, then the first game is up your alley.
- Action Girl: Clarino and Clario Second, E-pise, and Velde.
- Attack Drone: E-pise and Reminisce makes use of these.
- Bash Brothers: In Stages 5 through 7A, Clarino teams up with the second Clarino and kick some ass together.
- The Big Guy: Velde, and she's also sporting a BFG.
- Beam Spam: One Application lets you fire multiple laser beams at once. Some bosses like Velde can do this, too.
- Blow You Away: The Tornado Application, it can tear enemies apart due to its aerial coverage.
- Bullet Hell: The later stages and boss battles of the first game.
- Call-Back: A few to Lethal Application:
- Second wears her ribbon the same way as Lethal Application's Clarino does.
- Several songs return from Lethal Application. Most notably, a vocal version Clarino's leitmotif is the opening theme of Lethal Crisis.
- Reminisce's Super Mode is Over Burst, Applica's Eleventh Hour Super Power from Lethal Application. She activates it with a near-identical Title Drop.
- The Cameo: sora appears as a boss in ProtoSphere, and no it's not that one.
- Combos: Hitting enemies will start one and collecting items can extend your combo meter.
- Charged Attack: Some Applications are the "hold" type.
- Curtains Match the Window: Diska's red hair matches with her eyes.
- Dash Attack: Clarino's air-dash can not only give her a quick burst of speed, but she can also ram into enemies and nullify some projectiles, and home-in on them if she has them locked on. There are also other Applications that can alter how her air-dashes work.
- Dual Boss:
- Stage 8 in the first game has you fighting against Diska and E-pise; Velde joins in on the fight if lasts more than 45 seconds.
- Then again in Stage 13 in the same game, except you're mainly trying to escape from Diska and Reminisce. It is possible to end the stage early by killing Reminisce.
- Energy Weapon: Some of your Applications and your enemies are capable of spamming them.
- Extreme Graphical Representation: Stage 14, complete with Sinister Geometry. Stage 15 also follows this.
- Evolving Attack: Leveling up your Applications not only can make them stronger, but can also give them new properties such as the ability to destroy certain obstacles that were not possible to break.
- Fiery Red Head: Diska is a red-head who can be short-tempered.
- Girlish Pigtails: Diska has very long twin-tails that can reach her calves.
- Guide Dang It!: Since there's no English translation for the game, those wanting to clear the game at 100% will have to make due with HyperGeek's playthough of the game, who has translated the objectives of mission challenges.
- Heart Container: Earned through the game's mission challenges.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Subverted, you can only take a few weapons with you at a time. There are accessories that allows Clarino to assign four Applications to different directional inputs instead of using just one at a time.
- Idiot Hero: Clarino Second becomes one in the first game after the original gets killed off in Stage 9A.
- Improbably Female Cast: There's hardly any male characters in sight in these games.
- Instant Thunder: An Application can be obtain that lets you crush thunderbolts on your enemies.
- Laser Blade: Our heroines can use one and in different variations. So can certain enemies and bosses.
- The Maze: Stage 7A due to having multiple dead-ends, although some stages in general are maze-like.
- Macross Missile Massacre: With the right combination of weapons and use of Burst Mode, Clarino can unleash a swarm of homing projectiles onto her enemies.
- Mecha-Mooks: Many of the enemies you fight are robots ranging between small drones to other gynoids.
- Mirror Boss: Clarino fights Clarino Second in Stage 4, who shares similar abilities of the original although she's also one of the good guys.
- More Dakka: The Twin Shot and Spread Shot Applications, especially in Burst Mode.
- One-Winged Angel: Reminisce in the first game when she invokes her Super Mode.
- Rank Inflation: Each stage have ranking associated with them, starting from D, C, B, A, and finally S. However, unlike most games that ranks players based on performance, each rank are specific challenges that unlocks newer Application, abilities, and even level-up Clarino's maximum Life and Energy.
- Reflecting Laser: Velde's laser beams can bounce of her attack drones.
- RPG Elements: You gain experience points for your Applications the more you use them. Meeting certain condition in some stages rewards you with more Life and Energy.
- Robot Girl: Clarino, both the original and her ditzy counterpart. Some of the mooks and bosses are also robot girls.
- Roboteching: Certain Applications can allow you to Lock-on to an enemy, and using an Application with homing capabilities will make the Application home-in on enemies. Some bosses are also capable of this.
- Scoring Points: And not just points for high score, but also experience points to level-up each of your Applications.
- Spread Shot: Clarino can use one as an Application.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Many things will explode when you destroy them. Clarino and Clarino Second can also arm themselves with explosive weaponry.
- Super Mode: Our heroines can active her Burst Mode at anytime, which will completely restore her Life Meter, grant her accelerated Energy recovery, a Doppelgänger Attack, and faster mobility. The downside: Her Life Meter will steadily drain over time.
- Sword Beam: An Application can be obtained that lets Clarino fire off shockwaves from her blade.
- Sword Lines: Many bladed weapons leaves a visible lines when swung.
- Take Up My Sword: When the original Clarino gets destroyed at Stage 9A first game's story by Kill Sat, players assume the role of Clarino Second from that point on.
- Token Mini-Moe: Reminisce and Applica.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Reminisce uses one during the final battle of the first game.
