This is probably the most 5 star 3.5 I’ve ever given, if that makes any sense.
After playing multiple long, content heavy RPG’s back to back, I felt burnt out. I love the genre, but I needed a break. My respite came from Beyond the Grave, in the form a gun slinging beat ‘em up that I cleared in less than 2 hours.
Let’s start off by addressing the story, or lack there of. Sure, there’s a story here but its main purpose to serve the gameplay. Things move fast, characters die, you keep shooting, and before you know it it’s over. The premise isn’t bad, it’s just not fully explored, but it doesn’t have to be. The game knows why you’re here, and it doesn’t waste your time. It gives you just what you need so you have an excuse to mow through crowds of enemies and face the bosses.
The gameplay might be polarizing. It’s extremely simple. You mash square, occasionally dodge, and then press triangle to clear out crowds when you’ve built enough meter. Sure, you have a melee attack but it’s rarely needed. I think I pressed square on my controller more times in those 2 hours than I have in the rest of the time I’ve had it. Is this repetitive? Of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. In most other shooters, the game encourages you to dodge or hide behind cover when fired upon by enemies, but that’s not the case here. The game wants you to stand your ground and style on your enemies and I love it. It feels really cool to watch Grave spin around basically dancing as he clears out an entire room of foes while standing his ground. Grave moves extremely slowly, but this just further encourages you to stay where you are, especially with the shield the game provides you and the iframes demolition shots offer. Speaking of which, the demolition shots are fun to use and also offer unique finishers against bosses if their health is low enough. After I realized that during the 3rd boss, I made sure to do it every time. These cinematics are pretty fun to watch as well and reward you for saving your demolition shots, which isn’t that difficult to do either.
I do have one complaint about gameplay though. The camera really sucks. The camera follows Grave, and you have a button to do a 180, but that doesn’t help much. Sometimes you’ll have to round corners to clear enemies shooting at you, but Grave turns so slowly it’s annoying. What makes it worse is that more enemies will be shooting at your back while you turn to shoot those around the corner. Overall, the game would really have benefitted from using the right analog to control the camera, but I get that it wasn’t common practice yet.
The last thing I wanna gush about is the art style. I really like it. It feels like a comic book or manga page sprung to life. The heavy use of shadows was really pleasant to look at as well. The closest thing I could compare it to would be a mishmash of guilty gear xrd and killer 7 or no more heroes. Between levels you’ll also get these really cool concept art/manga panels that look pretty sick too. The heavy stylization has really made the game age well visually.
All in all, I really appreciated the game for what it is. It was a palette cleanser that reminded me games can just be fun, and that’s good enough. Not every game has to be a GOTY, 10/10, masterpiece that’ll change your life. I really did miss playing these kinds of games. It feels like revisiting the child within me that first started playing video games. I just have to remind myself why I play them every so often, and this time I can thank Gungrave for that.
After playing multiple long, content heavy RPG’s back to back, I felt burnt out. I love the genre, but I needed a break. My respite came from Beyond the Grave, in the form a gun slinging beat ‘em up that I cleared in less than 2 hours.
Let’s start off by addressing the story, or lack there of. Sure, there’s a story here but its main purpose to serve the gameplay. Things move fast, characters die, you keep shooting, and before you know it it’s over. The premise isn’t bad, it’s just not fully explored, but it doesn’t have to be. The game knows why you’re here, and it doesn’t waste your time. It gives you just what you need so you have an excuse to mow through crowds of enemies and face the bosses.
The gameplay might be polarizing. It’s extremely simple. You mash square, occasionally dodge, and then press triangle to clear out crowds when you’ve built enough meter. Sure, you have a melee attack but it’s rarely needed. I think I pressed square on my controller more times in those 2 hours than I have in the rest of the time I’ve had it. Is this repetitive? Of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. In most other shooters, the game encourages you to dodge or hide behind cover when fired upon by enemies, but that’s not the case here. The game wants you to stand your ground and style on your enemies and I love it. It feels really cool to watch Grave spin around basically dancing as he clears out an entire room of foes while standing his ground. Grave moves extremely slowly, but this just further encourages you to stay where you are, especially with the shield the game provides you and the iframes demolition shots offer. Speaking of which, the demolition shots are fun to use and also offer unique finishers against bosses if their health is low enough. After I realized that during the 3rd boss, I made sure to do it every time. These cinematics are pretty fun to watch as well and reward you for saving your demolition shots, which isn’t that difficult to do either.
I do have one complaint about gameplay though. The camera really sucks. The camera follows Grave, and you have a button to do a 180, but that doesn’t help much. Sometimes you’ll have to round corners to clear enemies shooting at you, but Grave turns so slowly it’s annoying. What makes it worse is that more enemies will be shooting at your back while you turn to shoot those around the corner. Overall, the game would really have benefitted from using the right analog to control the camera, but I get that it wasn’t common practice yet.
The last thing I wanna gush about is the art style. I really like it. It feels like a comic book or manga page sprung to life. The heavy use of shadows was really pleasant to look at as well. The closest thing I could compare it to would be a mishmash of guilty gear xrd and killer 7 or no more heroes. Between levels you’ll also get these really cool concept art/manga panels that look pretty sick too. The heavy stylization has really made the game age well visually.
All in all, I really appreciated the game for what it is. It was a palette cleanser that reminded me games can just be fun, and that’s good enough. Not every game has to be a GOTY, 10/10, masterpiece that’ll change your life. I really did miss playing these kinds of games. It feels like revisiting the child within me that first started playing video games. I just have to remind myself why I play them every so often, and this time I can thank Gungrave for that.
The best way id describe this game is a beat em up mixed with a run and gun mixed with an on rails shooter, throw in a raging aesthetic and art design by Nightow (of trigun fame) and you have an absolutely delightful time.
press square. press some more.
Simple and effective. This 3 hour 6 stage game is so much fun. I had recently bought a small CRT and I sat and played this in one full sitting on the PS2. While the game is dated in controls, it does still feel good to play and destroying hordes of enemies in such an arcade style is cathartic.
Simple and effective. This 3 hour 6 stage game is so much fun. I had recently bought a small CRT and I sat and played this in one full sitting on the PS2. While the game is dated in controls, it does still feel good to play and destroying hordes of enemies in such an arcade style is cathartic.
Me surpreendeu muito positivamente, não esperava nem um pouco acabar gostando tanto desse jogo.
Gungrave se sustenta inteiramente no seu estilo e na sua estética, e isso é de fato tudo que ele precisa pra ser um jogo incrível do início ao fim. Todos os elementos do jogo exalam esse estilo de uma maneira ou de outra, seja na gameplay com explosões o tempo todo e uma movimentação constante, ou nas cutscenes que parecem ter sido tiradas diretamente de um anime dos anos 2000. E por sinal, realmente grande parte do jogo parece ter sido inspirada diretamente em Hellsing e eu digo isso como o melhor dos elogios.
Gungrave não tem medo de se apoiar nessa estética exagerada e esse é o seu maior charme, a história é quase inexistente mas a ação é constante e frenética, e o jogo tem a duração perfeita pra que ele acabe antes de que tudo isso fique muito repetitivo.
Único defeito de fato é que ele destruiu o meu pulso de tanto apertar quadrado, mas fora isso, jogasso.
Gungrave se sustenta inteiramente no seu estilo e na sua estética, e isso é de fato tudo que ele precisa pra ser um jogo incrível do início ao fim. Todos os elementos do jogo exalam esse estilo de uma maneira ou de outra, seja na gameplay com explosões o tempo todo e uma movimentação constante, ou nas cutscenes que parecem ter sido tiradas diretamente de um anime dos anos 2000. E por sinal, realmente grande parte do jogo parece ter sido inspirada diretamente em Hellsing e eu digo isso como o melhor dos elogios.
Gungrave não tem medo de se apoiar nessa estética exagerada e esse é o seu maior charme, a história é quase inexistente mas a ação é constante e frenética, e o jogo tem a duração perfeita pra que ele acabe antes de que tudo isso fique muito repetitivo.
Único defeito de fato é que ele destruiu o meu pulso de tanto apertar quadrado, mas fora isso, jogasso.