There's a lot to like about Gungrave, but I also came away finding things I disliked. The game is a very arcade-y third person action shooter. Levels are mostly wide corridors where enemies jump out from all sides to ambush you. In that regard it shares some elements with rail shooters, but the game also has shoot dodging and bullet time akin to Max Payne. I think it offers a unique blend of gameplay that is striking but remarkably pretty clumsy in its execution. Despite being able to jump in all directions and shoot, the main character Grave still feels stiff on his feet and I found myself spending lots of time eating dozens of bullets from goons trying to get my bearings when Grave leaped in a direction I didn't intend. The game has a quick turn around button but it seems to only work when you're at a complete stand-still which is not a place you want to be with a game as hectic as this.

In addition to his dual wielding pistols, Grave has what's called a Demolition Shot. If you can rack up a combo by plugging enough goons you can increase a meter that will eventually let you unleash a small variety of devastating moves. You also can spend a demolition shot on healing yourself if things get too crazy. I really like this system, it's a small level of a decision making that doesn't feel like it gets in the way of the simple arcade design. The game is also quite difficult, but it has a forgiving checkpoint system and it gives you a couple extra demolition shots everytime you die. As nice as that is though I couldn't help but feel that I was beating boss fights simply but running my head into a wall until I had enough demolition shots to complete it. Maybe I need to git gud, but I didn't feel overly frustrated by it.

The game's story (or lack thereof) left me pretty disappointed tbh. The game only clocks in at around 2 hours which is pretty damn short but suits the arcade feel the game is clearly going for. And it can be argued that the game doesn't need any deep narrative. My criticism lies in that it's written and paced like I'm watching the last episode of an anime. Alot of characters refer to places and people and events that I never get to see or get any kind of elaboration for. Maybe it was to plant seeds for what became the 2003 anime, I'm not sure. But in a vacuum I thought it was kinda underwhelming.

I wanna say upfront that the presentation is incredibly solid. The designs were made in a collaboration between Yasuhiro Nightow (my goat fr) and Kosuke Fujishima and it's a very appealing and striking combination of a gangster flick combined with an almost sci-fi dystopia. There's nothing quite like it that I've ever seen and it's super impressive. All the assets look handdrawn and the black shadows provide a very badass look that doesn't feel like it's aged much since 2002. The music was composed by Tsuneo Imahori who is a personal favorite composer of mine. His work on Trigun, Hajime no Ippo, the Gungrave anime and now this are remarkable and show his talent as a composer. Solemn guitar pieces, funky beats, and exuberant big band jazz help elevate the game's presentation to something truly special.

Overall it's a very unique arcade shooter that you can beat in one sitting, I just wish it had more time to expand on the story and fine tune the controls to push it into goated status. As it is it's good but not great.
(also haha ik this is long winded as fuck if you actually read all this thank you ok have a nice day)