Azure Striker GUNVOLT 3 Reviews

An amazing game and a return to form for the series after the LAiX spinoffs with incredible gameplay mechanics and fast paced action with a big BUT in the middle that keeps it from being a 10/10 This time around the way you play changesy from the classic gunvolt "tag and hold the button" from 1 and 2 as the tag system stays but focus shifts mainly to melee combat as kirin, however this change doesnt feel awkward or clunky and you will find it more rewarding overall; you can also play as GV himself as a kind of "super mode" you need to charge up an energy bar for, he is incredibly strong and makes platforming and combat a breeze once you activate him, most bosses dont stand a chance against his DPS and skills The stages are enjoyable and fun to traverse with kirin's moveset, they can feel a bit samey at times but are overall pretty solid with the bosses having personality and good fights; the Image Pulse system can be hit or miss depending on your luck and its where most of the replayability comes from if youre planning on getting all of them and upgrading their level, some of them even serve as boss weaknesses. the game is relatively short with not many incentives to replay it other than rankings and image pulse completion BUT As for the story you may have noticed there is a 3 in the title on a series where 1 and 2 have followed a rather lineal story, a thing this game doesnt really do, to the point that it feels like this should be GV4 and there is a whole game missing in the gap; this can bother veterans of the series that wanted to see more of it, specially after GV2's cliffhanger ending, and can make this game feel disconected from the rest of the saga. The game's story by itself is serviceable, mostly self-contained and it introduces likeable characters along the way. to conclude: GV3 is a really really really good game that can fall short as part of the gunvolt series, it feels like it wanted to be its own IP but it wasnt allowed to, i would definitely get it if its on sale

Yet another well made score attacking game from Inti. The long awaited Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 delivered many changes in comparison to the previous title, some of which I did not like. The writing of the story was quite disappointing, leaving us with a cliffhanger from the previous game and some questions. I liked however the inclusion of ally adepts in the story; their dialogues not only tell a whole lot about their person, but being an ally that appears on screen to assist the protagonists in stages felt quite charming in the story, especially since GV only had human allies on the other hand. The gameplay goes akin to the Mega man Zero series with how Kirin moves and attacks, something which synergises really well with the level design, enemy placement and boss patterns. I like how the game rewards you for high skill shots, given that the level design is oriented towards air combat. Should the player wish for it, Gunvolt can be summon on the spot (under the right conditions of couse) and his gameplay feels much like home, minus the fact that he is only temporarily playable due to lore reasons, there are heuristics to patch this but it seems that his inclusion was meant to be just another addition, in comparison to Kirin, I felt like using him quite rarely. Few patches later and the game receives Zed, a newly playable character in his own sequel chapter. He pretty much feels like a slower function of Kirin with a extra jumps to balance his abilities, I don't have much to say about him quite honestly, as I did not dive deeper in his gameplay. I love how the Kudos system felt less punishing in comparison to LaIX and the past games where if you would get hit, the chain goes back to 0 and the muse song goes mute; now in the new system, it felt nice to have the song keep playing while I try to correct my Kudos's debt by chaining combos again. Subroutines are gone and replaced with image pulses, the idea of which felt quite nice to have with all the easter eggs thrown here and there. Though I disliked the gacha system and upgrade mechanics behind it, still, I like how they remedied this in one of the later patches post the PC port where you are guaranteed a new pull that you do not possess each time you clear the stage. The new songs were a welcome touch, since the subroutines are gone now, the game lets you choose which songs to play for both Kudos chains level 1 and 2; though I wish they let me edit the song played in level 3. Speaking of sonor elements, the soundtrack was fitting to the stages, nothing much to say here other than most of it was not memorable for me. I like how, much like Gunvolt 2, each stage soundtrack has its own variation for each playable character. On what concerns the updates, I like how the bonus boss fights were free to begin with, unlike the mistakes that were executed in LaIX 2. I also like how they decided to hide them as secret unlockables with interesting dialogues that give more flavor to the plot. I like the chosen roster as it fits what a fan would desire to see for a matchup. It felt as if this game was made with a focus on the score attacking aspect (Which was really well made with all the improvements from the last games) rather than story telling. I would highly encourage getting this on a sale, as finishing it takes less than a day if your platforming skills are sharp. 7/10!

I really wanted to like this game because I love female protagonist games, pixel games and guns but the protagonist's voice was so cringy and too perky to me, like a college California girl, she also pronounced talismans as talis-MANS lmao. this game reminds me of BlazBlue Entropy Effect which I love. I'm gonna give a thumbs up for effort but I have to refund it.