Ok, I did like this game. Playing as Akira in a level design that was clearly made to play without touching the floor at all was amazing, I'm not good in action games or platforms, but man, just how many times did I reset the same level again and again just to finish it in a more "cool" way playing better and getting a higher rank I can't remember, it is really addictive.
However, apart from the ending, I didn't like the story at all. Akira was very silent, rarely making any shit talk about the Adepts, RoRo did the most dialogues in the game probably, and it is so strange to see a game that is supposed to be a spin-off about Akira putting him in a so "neutral" position. I mean, I did understand why he is like that in this game, but even with the context I just don't know why they should do that with him in his own game. Can't get what they were trying to do with the character.
Talking about the characters, man, just didn't like anyone besides the Blade at the end, they are just so empty, so fabricated, just some kids with the basic kids' personalities, and for the bosses, so forgetful, some voice acting and design was cool but anything besides that probably is one of the worst "villain" cast of the series... I mean, even the last boss was the worst empty version of himself.

Spoiler maybe:
Ok, but maybe, just maybe, one part of it was intentional and the rest was pure shit.
See this; a future, a world, a timeline that everything did go wrong, and those ghosts from the past (Akira and Asimov) are fighting still to force their ideologies, their 各号, in the world, on each other... But their time passed a long ago, but Asimov didn't even notice that and Akira appoints that probably he is defected, all this time we were fighting with a defective version of our villain. And for Akira, what can I say, he sacrificed his body to preserve his mind, but at what cost, he becomes just a moving adept hunter that doesn't even know anymore what he is doing that for.
But again, why
just why would they do that
I just wanted my disturbed Akira killing some adepts just for hate and see that character dissolving little by little, just how they were doing in the Gunvolt 2...

But, oh well, it was just something that I was liking too much at the end of the Gunvolt 2 and probably it affected hardly how I felt about this game story.

Before I go into the (relatively brief) review here, I want to say thanks to my buddy 12thSilverDragon for getting me this as a Christmas gift. Much appreciation from me, thanks for the fun gift.

Now I haven't played Gunvolt 1 or any of the other games so to say that the big story twists at the end didn't mean anything to me would be an understatement. Though the general plot of helping these powerless kids survive while they're being hunted by super powered robot people making contracts with stuff was perfectly fine.

For what it does it's not super special but it's passable for this kind of game.

I will say one complaint I do have is in regards to Kohaku's design. I hate it. It's an incredibly uncomfortable fetishistic design that I really don't dig, and as far as I'm aware this is kind of just a thing that IntiCreates does in the Gunvolt series so that's gross.

The gameplay is pretty fun, focusing primarily on movement resulting in fast paced levels where you bounce up and down and all around. It's inherently satisfying though I didn't find any of the levels to really stand out super well.

I like the Bullit system and how it essentially gives you a resource to manage for the sake of not taking damage as well as being able to do your dashes, and having multiple ways to refill it in order to keep your combo chains is very efficient at keeping the pace.

Really the only other issue I have is that I didn't really bother with the EX Weapons. Outside of the Anchor Nexus which ties directly into Copen's moveset giving you essentially a homing attack, I didn't really bother with the others because they felt incredibly situational. I've been told they're super powerful but... eh, I didn't feel the need to use most of them unless it was required to get a bonus medal or something along those lines.

I didn't really have an issue with the score system, it was alright, and the game wasn't scaling properly to my monitor so the score was always out of sight (which I don't mind I don't care about score related stuff anyway).

The music is great, especially the J-Pop which rewards the player for playing well. The bosses were relatively ok, not a super big fan of the Final Boss but it's whatevs.

I honestly don't have much to say on this game, it's just really solid and easy to pick up and play. Would I recommend it over something like Mega Man X, no, but it's still a good time.

I keep trying these games. There is obviously a lot of polish behind them, but I feel the formula is just mechanically flawed for someone just getting into them. You have to dash into enemies to start a combo and lock on. But in turn you risk taking damage which also ends your combo. It is a bit frustrating but to be fair I think it is a game that wants to be mastered to have the most fun out of it. I still love how it looks, the art direction of its characters and some of the world lore. I just wish it was a normal Mega Man X style game.

So despite the fact I'm giving this a 4 I have some mixed feelings about this one. I actually finished the playthrough I'm using to review this a while ago but I wanted my thoughts to settle for a while before I reviewed it.

Storywise it works alright I guess until the last level which just sends the entire thing to hell in my opinion. like the ending plot twists just ruin it for me because of how stupid they are and all of them being dropped in literally the final stage (damn AU bullshit).

I'm not going to really complain about Copen's character change A. because I like absurdly down to earth and cynical Copen more then rageaholic Copen and B. because of meta reason of making him the protagonist making it make sense to change him as well as the story justifying his attitude adjustment to a degree with the reveals at the ending.

Now gameplay wise is where I'm truely conflicted. Because flying around and bouncing off enemies at lightning speed is a blast especially with speedruning and score attack runs of the levels. Like it's an absolue treat. But recently I made a walkthrough for a couple friends and the moment you slow down you quickly realize how awful the level design is.

Like the majority of them are just narrow hallways where you just bounce from enemy to enemy extremely easily and slowing down to explain everything really shows how little there is to them. The best stages are probably the Radio Tower and the Data Center from GV1 because they have more obstacles to avoid rather then just being there for you to just bounce off walls. With the Data Center having a section where you have to fly over a bottomless pit for a bit which really raised the stakes and the Radio tower having lots of spikes and other hazards on the walls that make you have to consider when to airdash. The rest are just boring and are only really interesting when Emblem hunting which can be fun but does have a couple stages that makes that really annoying due to a couple of weird placements.

So back to the good. They thankfully overhauled the upgrade system to not require random drops from the stages and only needing money to obtain

Alright back to the bad. The Special Weapon balance is absolutely atrocious with Orbital Edge and Anchor Nexus being the only ones you should ever use outside hitting boss weaknesses as they cost so little energy (or none in Anchor Nexus's case) that they make Darkness Trigger which is supposed to be the ride or die infinite energy super mode next to useless outside of some niche cases in boss fights. Like seriously Orbital Edge should cost like half a bar per use not like 1/12 becaue of how much damage it does and its range.

Also on to something neutral. Overdrive isn't handled the best on one hand thanks to Emblems it's not that hard to access. But on the other it doesn't do anything of value until you buy OD abilities which are extremely expensive.

Now don't get me wrong I really like this game. The core movement and gameplay are great. I'm giving it a 4 for that alone. But it just has some really glaring flaws that made me drop it from a 4.5.