"Acura's Story" (From The Dengeki Nintendo Magazine)

Inti Creates is no stranger to releasing side-story content for their games. For Gunvolt alone they've released two drama track CDs (with another coming soon), a side-story that was expanded upon every week for a couple months (which is also scheduled to continue), and a short epilogue in the official Gunvolt soundtrack that narrated Acura's fate following the true ending of the first game.

Suffice to say that Inti's been very generous with behind-the-scenes story information, particularly regarding Acura. And surprise surprise, they've recently published another bit of Gunvolt side-story content exclusive to the Japanese Dengeki Nintendo magazine!

Inti Creates Releasing Elise and Merak Drama Track CD *UPDATED*

Inti Creates recently announced that another Gunvolt drama track CD is on the way. This disc, entitled "Lazy Kingdom" will cover the stories of the bosses Merak and Elise, similarly to how the "Justice Rage" drama tracks detailed the story of Daytona. This CD will go up for pre-sale at Inti Creates' "Morpho Super Live 2016" event, Afterwards, it will likely be made available on Inti-Direct and Amazon.jp, among other places.
UPDATE: The official release date has been announced by Inti Creates on Twitter: January 28. They also released the official cover-art for the CD, which you can see above.

Gotta say, the concept of a series of drama tracks focused on Elise and Merak really intrigues me, especially if they center around the pre-Sumeragi stories of the characters. It could be really interesting to see what Elise's personality was like prior to when it got split in two (or three). Honestly, the only other boss that I think would be more interesting to explore in terms of personality would be Stratos. What the heck was he like before he turned into the crazy, half-starved monster we know today?

At any rate, I think we'll definitely be seeing the mean side of Sumeragi in this drama track series for the first time. Gotta say, when I listened to "Justice Rage", I was rather surprised at how calm and rational Shiden and Iota sounded. If I didn't know anything about Gunvolt prior to listening to the track, I honestly don't think I'd have known they were villains. With Elise's background being explored in "Lazy Kingdom", however, we'll likely be getting into really dark stuff. After all, we're talking about a girl who was held prisoner by Sumeragi and treated no better than a lab rat.
In an attempt to draw out Elise's immense septimal power, Sumeragi implanted her brain with a more aggressive personality. This resulted in her developing a split-personality that manifested itself in reality. With the advent of this development, Elise went berserk and decimated the Sumeragi research facility where she was being held.

Yeah... like I said, dark stuff. It should be really interesting to see how Inti explores this story in the drama track. Color me very intrigued!

Source

Embark on a Text Adventure With Gunvolt on DOS! (UPDATED)

So, some of you may remember that during Inti Creates' visit to PAX Prime earlier this year, they gave away some obscure Gunvolt floppy disks to the attendees at their panel. These disks contained an equally obscure"text adventure" wherein you were required to input specific keyboard commands in order to progress through various sequences. Suffice to say that it was pretty basic. Nonetheless, Inti Creates recently decided to make this game available to everyone online by converting it into a browser game. You can check it out in all its broken English (yeah, 8-4's at it again) here:

http://inticreates.com/ms-dos-gunvolt-available-online/

...Oh, right, you do need a code to start the game, don't you? Well... I did manage to figure it out, but you certainly don't expect me to spill the beans, do you? No sir, I'd never go ahead and say that the code is "Gunvolt".

.....

.............

......................Oh snap.

UPDATE: By way of KiwiKamikaze on GameFAQs, I've discovered the second code you need to progress through the "story" of this game. It's "5UM3R461", which is... well, basically "Sumeragi" written in l33t. Go figure! :P
Thanks, Kiwi!

New Gunvolt 2 Info From Portland Retro Gaming Expo

At Inti Creates' panel at the Portland Retro Gaming expo earlier today, Inti President Takuya Aizu showed off some new gameplay footage for Gunvolt 2, as well as a new boss and song. While we're still waiting on Inti to upload this footage online for the rest of the world, I've been doing some research and managed to dig up some additional details about the game. The primary source for this info comes from a Reddit thread that I uncovered, where the TC directed questions from the Reddit community to the Inti guys. One of my associates who was present at the panel, Ryan King, was also kind enough to contribute some info. Check it all out below!

"Justice and Rage" Drama Track Translated

The very cool Eclipse5632 aka "Sensei Hanzo" has just finished translating another Gunvolt drama track. This one's entitled "Justice and Rage" and details the conclusion of Daytona's (Viper's) encounter with Shiden (Nova). As always, it's very enlightening to listen to. You can check it out below!

Thanks again to Eclipse for translating this!

Gunvolt PAX Prime Goods!

Just wanted to take a moment to share a couple cool things I received from my associate Ryan King today. He recently had the opportunity to meet with Takuya Aizu and Matt Papa at PAX Prime for an interview, and was kind enough to pick up a couple sweet pieces of Gunvolt swag for me during his trip. You can check 'em out below after the jump!

How to Make "Cerberus" One of Your Most Useful Weapons

The Cerberus is normally a rather mediocre weapon. It's a good starting bolt, but once you obtain the likes of the Naga and Orochi, chances are you won't be using it ever again. After all, three tags is just too low to suit your needs most of the time.

Did you know that there's a way to make the Cerberus better, though? Mind you, I'm not talking about a minor upgrade, I'm referring to a method that can actually make it one of the most useful weapons in the game. This is all thanks to a certain lens item called Cerberus Sight+. This lens boosts the Cerberus' max amount of tags by a whopping two! It doesn't end there, though. Like all lenses, you can equip two Cerberus Sight+ items and the effects will stack! So, in addition to the three tags that the Cerberus is already capable of, you can add four more, making a total of seven tags! That's second only to the Orochi (which has eight)!

"Luring" The Chainsaw Enemy to Score Bigger Combos

An iconic enemy in Azure Striker Gunvolt is the big red, grey and white chainsaw robot. It's also a very versatile enemy for combos. You may have noticed that, if you tag this enemy and then run away from it, it'll start pursuing you at super fast speed. This can be a pain at times, but it can also be very advantageous. Since the robot will chase you pretty far, you can often lure it into an area with more enemies to score bigger combos! Just tag it, zap it with your flashfield a bit, and watch it come running after you! This technique is incredibly useful to know for various stages if you're going for an S+ rank, particularly in Pharma Lab (where these enemies come in droves). 

You can see how I utilize this technique below. The first two videos are from Pharma Lab and the third is from Gauntlet 2. The third video's probably my favorite, as I literally lure the enemy into a bed of (unseeable) spikes to score a 4-combo. Too good!

(As always, apologies for the shaky camera!)

On the "Skip-Jump", a Recurring Inti Creates Game Mechanic

Today I'd like to talk about an often overlooked--but nonetheless interesting--game mechanic that's been present in several of Inti Creates' platformers. It's what I like to call the "skip-jump". It's a very simple technique, but can be rather difficult to perform consistently. All you have to do is execute a dash jump, and then press the jump button again the very second you hit the ground. If you do this right, you'll flow into another dash jump, without needing to press the dash button again. You can perform this technique consecutively if you get the timing down. Here's a video of me showing it off in Gunvolt:

I call this mechanic the "skip-jump" because, to me, it resembles a rock skipping across water. As I said above, this technique has been present in several of Inti Creates' platformers. It was first useable in Mega Man Zero 3, and then afterwards in Mega Man Zero 4, Mega Man ZX, Mega Man ZX Advent, and, of course, Azure Striker Gunvolt. I've always found it to be a very interesting feature, even though I only really used it when I was goofing off. It's just such an obscure little mechanic that it fascinates me. I have to wonder if it originated from a bug in MMZ3's programming, as it requires such precise timing that you're normally better off just doing a normal dash jump to get around. In any case, I was really glad to see that the "skip-jump" made it back in for Gunvolt. It makes the game feel that much more like an Inti Creates platformer!

How to Keep an S+ Score in Special Mission 5 (Boss Rush Stage)

Ever since the 1.2 update for the 3DS version of Gunvolt was released, I've seen a fair amount of people wondering how you can maintain an S+ score in Special Mission 5, the boss rush stage. There's no denying that this can be a pretty tricky thing to figure out, what with the true final boss and all, so I've decided to detail the method I use to ensure that I obtain the most amount of kudos possible in the stage.
As a quick note, this post will presuppose that the reader knows how to avoid most, if not all of the boss attacks. With that said, you can read my strategy below.

The Easy Way to Avoid Viper's Special Skill; Unlimited Invincibility Trick

Ever since I started playing Gunvolt, Viper has been the bane of my existence. He's simply the worst boss in the game, with an unpredictable attack pattern, lightning-fast movements, and--his most defining attribute--his catastrophic special skill, Sunshine Nova (aka Refulgence). 

This skill is incredibly hard to dodge normally. In the first phase of the attack, Viper throws a rain of small fireballs down on you, and the only apparent way to avoid them is to move slowly through the small gaps in the attack (and pray that you don't activate your command-dash). This strategy requires very pixel-perfect timing, however, and it's very difficult to get down.
I've always sought an easier way to get around this attack, as, to me, it just seems like the cheapest move in the entire game.
Welp, as of today, I've officially found an equally cheap move of my own to counter it.

New Patch for Steam Version of Gunvolt Released

Inti Creates has just put out another patch for the Steam version of Gunvolt. This update fixes a lot of general problems and that players have been experiencing since the game's release. Hit the jump below to see the full list:

Gunvolt Boss Damage Analysis by Saairan

Have you ever noticed when fighting a boss, that you seem to do more or less amounts of damage at different points in the battle? This is because some bosses are more vulnerable or resistant when they're using certain attacks. I've reproduced a full damage analysis below that speedrunner Saairan compiled some time ago. With Inti Creates' live speedrun contest, Azure Blur, coming up, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to share this information. Might help some people out in the actual competition!

So, without further ado, hit the jump to check it out!

Gameplay Footage of GV in Runbow

My good associate Yoshinator has just uploaded over 90 minutes of Runbow footage that shows GV in action as a playable character. There's honestly not really a whole lot to say about him in this game, but I found it cool how the sound effect used for his double jump is the same sound from Azure Striker Gunvolt. Also, the sound for when you pick him is the selecting sound from Gunvolt. You can check it out for yourself below! And thanks to Yoshinator for sending this to me!

Azure Striker Gunvolt Steam Review

Heya folks! The Steam version of Gunvolt has officially released and, as a result, my team at Get Me Off The Moon just published a review of the game in its entirety. I collaborated with one of my teammates, Yoshinator, to write this review, and I daresay he did a really good job! Almost all of the views that he expresses in the write-up resonate with my own opinions towards the game. You can check it out here. For the sake of convenience, I've also reproduced it below.
Enjoy, folks! Hopefully this will help people who are on the fence about buying the Steam version!

Azure Striker Gunvolt Speedrun Contest Announced by Inti

At Takuya Aizu and Keiji Inafune's PAX Prime panel, Inti Creates has just announced plans to host an Azure Striker Gunvolt live speedrun competition, in collaboration with Games Done Quick and SpeedRunsLive! Named "Azure Blur", this contest will require use of the newly-released PC version of the game and it's unique "Speedrun Mode". Participants will first be required to clear two "qualifying races" and then one "championships race" to determine the final winner. The first qualifying race will take place on 9/12 at 10am PST, the second will take place on 9/19 at 6pm PST, and the final, championships race will take place on 9/26 at 6pm PST. The winner will receive a free trip to Tokyo, Japan (or Boston, MA if the winner is Japanese).

For additional rules and guidelines (and there are a lot), please see the link below: http://inticreates.com/azureblur/

I would participate myself if my computer was more up-to-par, but since it's not, I'll be enthusiastically watching these races from the sidelines! Personally, I'm betting that Japanese player Tori's gonna take the cake with this contest. Anyone who can do a true ending run of Gunvolt in 55 minutes is nothing short of a god amongst men.

- Skybane

"Fire And Water" Drama Track Translated

Eclipse5632 (aka "Sensei Hanzo") has once again graced us with another Gunvolt drama track translation! This one, named Fire and Water, details a fight between Daytona and an unnamed water-using adept who goes around looking for strong opponents to fight with. As usual, the track is full of exclusive story information that you wouldn't find in the game, and it really gives you a better idea of the personalities of the game's characters.

Definitely be sure to check it out! And thanks to Eclipse for translating this track!

Hi-Res Version of Gunvolt Steam Art

Ever since the Steam version of Gunvolt was announced, I've seen quite a few comments from people wishing that there was a higher-res version of the new cover-art on the web. I thought I'd help folks out by publicly posting the full version of the Steam art, since I received it in the press email that 8-4's Mark MacDonald sent me for the sake of promoting the game. Also, I know myself how frustrating it can be to not find high-res artwork. To this day, I still can't narrow down a good resolution image of the Gunvolt 3DS North American cover-art, lol.

So, without further ado, here you folks go! Enjoy! And don't forget that my team at Get Me Off The Moon will have a review for the game out later (which I'll be contributing to).

(Click for full size!)

GMOTM to Interview Takuya Aizu at PAX Prime; Accepting Questions From Fanbase

So, here's something that I thought a lot of my readers would be interested in: My team at Get Me Off The Moon currently has plans to interview Inti Creates President Takuya Aizu at this year's PAX Prime. What's more, we're allowing our followers to submit questions for Aizu-san to answer. If you have something on your mind that you've always wanted to ask an Inti Creates higher-up, just send it in the comments of this post and we may ask it in the interview!
The deadline for submitting a question is Wednesday. I'm really hoping we get some good ones in that time!

Inti Creates Announces Steam Version of Gunvolt!

Welp, my mind is blown.

In celebration of its first anniversary, Inti Creates just announced that a Steam version of Azure Striker Gunvolt will be releasing worldwide on August 28, which is just a week from today! This version of the game will include almost all of the Japanese content that was cut from the EN version, translated into English, in addition to a new Speedrun Mode, Japanese Voice Mode, and the option to choose different templates for GV's two game windows. The Steam release will run you $14.99. Also, if you buy the game within the first month, you'll get a free copy of Mighty Gunvolt!
For more details, check out the announcement video below:

Gotta tell you folks, of all the things I expected Inti to do for the first anniversary of Gunvolt, I didn't expect this! My team at Get Me Off The Moon received some review codes for this game, so be sure to check out the page later to read our hands-on experience with it!

Intriguingly enough, though, it appears that this isn't the only announcement that Inti has planned. My advice is to stay tuned to Takuya Aizu and Keiji Inafune's PAX Prime panel next week, on August 28! There just may be a few more surprises!

Happy First Anniversary, Gunvolt!

Artwork by Kokuka on Twitter

It's officially 8/20 in Japan right now, which means that today marks the first anniversary of Gunvolt's release! There should be some news from Inti Creates themselves later to commemorate this occasion, but for the moment, Japanese fans have been making tons of celebratory fan-art and messages all across the web. Personally, I've been retweeting Gunvolt artwork all day! It really makes you realize just how big of a fanbase the game has over in Japan.

To this day, Gunvolt remains my favorite game on the 3DS, and my collection of GV merch isn't getting any smaller. I sincerely hope that the series only manages to hit it off bigger from here! A very happy anniversary, Azure Striker Gunvolt, and congrats, Inti Creates!

What's Inti Creates Planning for The First Anniversary of Gunvolt's Release?

Over the past week, Inti Creates has been hinting (particularly on their Japanese Twitter) towards a special "something" that they're planning for the first anniversary of Gunvolt's release. It's uncertain what this project will be at the moment, but the official JP twitter has stated at least twice within the past week that they'd like to see an official artbook for the game published, so it's possible that this is related to that.

They also posted a very mysterious-looking tweet a few hours ago, which roughly translates to the following:

"A new melody rises up against horror, the blue lightning descends upon a new battlefield."

Pretty enigmatic, huh? I'm really hoping that this is hinting towards some Gunvolt 2 news that we'll be getting soon! The time definitely seems right for Inti to talk more about the game, as not only is the first anniversary of Azure Striker Gunvolt's release coming up, but Inti will also be attending PAX Prime in about 10 days from now. Incidentally, the overview for the panel on the PAX Prime website states that Keiji Inafune and Takuya Aizu will be giving a "peek at other projects". Maybe one of those projects is Gunvolt 2!

In any case, we won't have to wait long to find out. The first anniversary of Gunvolt's release in Japan is tomorrow (JP time), and Aizu and Inafune's panel at PAX Prime is next Friday, the 28th, at 11:30am PST. My advice is to stay tuned to the official Japanese and English Twitter accounts, as well as Inti's Facebook pages. You can also keep tabs on this page for additional updates. I'll bring more news as it comes.

Gunvolt True Ending Speedrun in 55:09 Achieved by Tori (Current WR!)

This is admittedly pretty old news, but since I haven't seen anybody else sharing it on the English-speaking end, I thought I'd go ahead and do the honors.
A while back (and by "a while" I mean as early as March 2015), Japanese speedrunner Tori uploaded a video on his Nico Video channel of a Gunvolt true ending speedrun that he completed in 55:09. This time currently stands as the world record for a true ending run of the game, as it surpasses Greenalink's time, 1:01:33, by about six minutes. This is especially impressive in light of the fact that Tori was using the Japanese version of the game, which sets him at a disadvantage because it has more content that needs to be skipped.

Anyway, it's overall just an extremely solid run! I highly encourage everyone to give it a watch!

The video quality's not the best, but it's not the worst either. You can check out the RTA in four parts via the link below. Bear in mind, however, that you need a Nico account to watch videos on Nico.

Source: Nico Video

What Went Wrong With Asimov?

CAUTION: Spoilers from the true ending of Azure Striker Gunvolt ahead. Read at your own risk.

The Mythological References Regarding Gunvolt's Bolts

A while back, I mentioned that most of the weapons in Gunvolt reference creatures from a wide variety of mythologies and folklores. In this post, I'll be covering this topic in more detail, explaining exactly what each bolt (with the exception of the Technos, which, to my knowledge, wasn't named after any mythological creature) was inspired by, and any similarities they share with their namesakes. I'll be going in order from the weapons you obtain first in the game.

Gunvolt to be Featured as Guest Character in Runbow

It's just been announced that Gunvolt will be appearing as a guest character in Runbow, a multiplayer-focused platformer in which players race to reach the end of a stage first. This is an indie game being developed by 13AM Games and set for release in the third quarter of 2015. You gotta love how GV's in the middle of all the other guest characters in the picture above! 13AM Games must certainly think a lot of Azure Striker Gunvolt!
Anyway, you can watch the reveal trailer below. GV is shown at about 0:33 into the video.

The Biblical References in Azure Striker Gunvolt

Gunvolt is chock-full of references to various different mythologies, folklores, and religions. For example, did you know that almost every single gun is named after a creature or character from Greek, Hindu, Japanese, and even Irish lore? What I find particularly interesting, though, are the numerous biblical references that appear throughout the game. This post will cover the main things I've discovered in this regard so far.

Ten Improvements I'd like to See in Gunvolt 2

I don't think it's any secret that I'm a massive Gunvolt fan. From the very second I started playing the game (and heck, even before), I knew it was going to be my favorite title on the 3DS up to that point. And I knew that I was gonna play the crap out of it. And I also knew that I wasn't going to be able to rest until I'd managed to get the highest rank possible in every single stage. It's an absolutely phenomenal game, filled to the brim with fast-paced action, thrilling music, breathtaking artwork, and clever stage design. In short, everything you'd expect to find in an Inti Creates title!

As much as I love Gunvolt overall, though, I won't deny that it has some problems here and there. In this post, I'll be covering ten things that I'd like to see improved in the game's sequel, which is currently in development. Now, bear in mind, these are all just based on my personal opinion, but having played the game for around 300 hours now, I'd like to think I'm as good of a judge as the next guy.

So, without further ado, here we go!

All 40 English Gunvolt Stickers!

So, a while back, I uploaded all 40 Japanese Gunvolt Line Stickers for those of you who don't use Line, or can't afford to buy all of  the English stickers. Well, since I made that post, it looks like Inti Creates has had the same idea. A couple weeks back, they uploaded all the English Gunvolt stickers to their website, completely for free!

For the sake of convenience, I've reproduced them below the jump. Enjoy! And props to Inti for making these available to everyone!

"Those With Glaives" Drama Track Translated

I'm a bit late with this, but Eclipse aka "Sensei Hanzo" has recently finished translating yet another Gunvolt Drama Track. This one details a discussion between Nova and Jota, his right-hand man, regarding the Glaives that Sumeragi Adepts use. It gives you a really enlightening perspective of the personalities of these two characters. I remember that, when I listened to this track for the first time, I was rather surprised by how calm and gentle Nova sounded. If I didn't know anything else about him prior to listening to this track, I don't think I even would have guessed he was a villain. Jota also has a personality that I find interesting. In the game, his theme is "pride", but when you listen to him in this track, he actually sounds like a very humble guy. It's quite an intriguing contrast, to say the least!

Anyway, definitely be sure to give this track a listen! As always, thanks to Eclipse for translating this!

Blue "Lumen" Butterfly Easter Egg in Mighty Gunvolt! (UPDATED)

It's been a while since I last updated this blog, but I just had to share this awesome little easter egg I found out about in Mighty Gunvolt! In the "Train" stage, around the mid-way point, there's a room with one levitating enemy in the upper-right corner and one orange soldier with a flamethrower lower to the left. After dispatching both enemies, go to the platform where the orange soldier once stood. Now stand there and press up on the d-pad/circle-pad. Surprise! A blue "Lumen" butterfly item will appear in the right corner of the room! Touching this item will grant you a whopping 10,000 points without applying multipliers!

Pretty cool, huh? Man, stuff like this just makes my wanna scour every nook and cranny of Mighty Gunvolt to find out what other secrets lie in wait!

UPDATE: After learning about this easter egg, I decided to go through various other stages in Mighty Gunvolt to see if there were any more secrets to be found. I located a few more blue butterfly items in the process. It's my hunch that there's at least one of these items in every Mighty Gunvolt stage, similarly to the secret icons in Azure Striker Gunvolt. I haven't found them all yet, but I'll update this post as I continue to discover 'em.

Here Are All 40 Gunvolt Stickers!

Joule, you burnt dinner AGAIN?! (OK, no, that's not really what this says)

At the Too Many Games event in Oaks, Philadelphia, Inti Creates released a special series of Gunvolt online stickers created by Yuuji Natsume, the artist responsible for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. This was done in commemoration of their recent achievement of 120,000 downloads for Azure Striker Gunvolt. The company made this set of stickers available on the Line Store for ninety-nine cents a pop. If you'd prefer to check them out for free, though (albeit with JP text), a Japanese gaming site called Gamer.ne took the liberty of uploading each and every sticker to a single blog post. Now wasn't that nice of 'em!

The Easy (But Cheap) Way to Get S+

There's no denying that getting an S+ rank can be pretty difficult to do under normal circumstances. You have to scope out various situations, memorize enemy placements, determine what weapon would be best to snag a certain combo, not even take one hit, and on top of that all, you have to work within a time limit. It's a process that requires hours upon hours of practice, particularly in the Gauntlet stages (I remember spending days trying to get S+ in those).

There actually is an easy way to do it, though, which I'll be covering in this post. Before I get into this method, however, I'd like to reiterate that it's pretty cheap and can potentially take a lot of fun out of the game. You can get some pretty insane scores of out it, but it's much more gratifying to do S+ runs the normal way. That said, here's the lowdown on the method that the folks around the Interwebz like to call "Voltaic Chains Cheese".

"Nova's Memories" Drama Track Translated

Eclipse5632 aka "Sensei Hanzo" has just finished translating the second audio drama track for the "Justice Rage" album. This track details Sumeragi's "Project Gunvolt" tests and their struggle to find a test subject compatible with the electric septima gene. It's a short track, but provides some interesting info, such as Nova's last name being "Tsukuyomi". Also, unless I'm completely off the mark here, I think "Takefutsu" (whom the scientists speak of) is revealed as the real name of the true final boss. It's crazy to hear in this track that Nova's compatibility with the gene was predicted to be even higher than the true final boss, though!

Anyway, in addition to translating this track, Eclipse also provides some intriguing translation notes in the description of the video, so check that out, as well!

"I AM Electricity!"

Gotta say, this is probably one of the best Gunvolt art pieces I've come across thus far (and trust me, that's saying a lot)! This superb picture comes to us from Japanese fan Katagai on Pixiv. The huge amount of detail that this artist puts into the lighting is just super impressive! You have to wonder how Gunvolt isn't electrifying Joule while using his Flashfield, though. :P

Anyway, fantastic work on this, Katagai!

Gaijin Goomba Interviews Inti Creates' Matt Papa

Gaijin Goomba recently had an opportunity to sit down with Inti Creates International Coordinator Matt Papa for an interview at the Inti Creates HQ in Tokyo. Many things are discussed, including the English localization of Gunvolt, the huge focus on action in Inti's games, the company's future, and more. In short, it's quite a thorough interview. If you're an Inti fan, you might wanna check it out!

Gunvolt Speedrun in 49:13 Accomplished by Greenalink

Prominent DS/3DS speedrunner Greenalink from Speed Demos Archive just completed a speedrun of Azure Striker Gunvolt with a total time of 49:13. At the moment, this seems to be the best time on record for an Any% run of the game. And rightly so! Greenalink displays some very clever techniques for shaving off time, such as using the infinite jumps acquired by Lumen's Reincarnation to speed up his ascent through the second portion of Merak's stage.

All in all, it's a very solid run! If I may digress for a second here, I was actually watching one of Greenalink's attempts at speedrunning this game on his Twitch channel a couple weeks back. I wasn't around for very long, but I remember that he was having particular difficulty with getting Lumen's Reincarnation to activate in Merak's stage. Of course, that's perfectly natural if you don't spend much time talking with Joule, but yeah, I'm glad to see that he was able to conquer that RNG in the end and run with it! Heck, I certainly don't think I'd have the patience for that (though I personally think S+ runs are more fun anyway).

The Secret Kudos Bonuses

A while back I discussed the various secret icons that you can find in the seven Adept stages. Today I'll be covering the secret kudos bonuses that the game rewards you with from time to time.

You may have actually gotten these yourself on occasion. Have you ever noticed a "SECRET" caption pop up on your screen while you were playing? That's a secret kudos bonus. The game rewards you with them for performing various different feats. Unlike the secret icons (which just set your kudos counter to 1,000 regardless of how high/low it is), these bonuses are purely beneficial, as they always give extra kudos. I honestly have no idea how many of these there are in the game, but I've discovered three so far:

What's Your Reward For "S" Ranking All Stages?

Note: This is an outdated picture. My Total Time is maxed out now. :P

This is generally something that's missed by a lot of people, but did you know that there's actually a reward for getting an "S" rank in every single Gunvolt stage? If you are successful in completing this accomplishment, the game rewards you with a massive amount of money. I'm not exactly positive how much, but when I accomplished this feat, I found myself with a max 999,999 vig! And I don't recall having a large amount of vig before then.

"Smoldering Flames" Drama Track Translated by Eclipse

Eclipse5632 of GameFAQs has recently finished translating the first drama track in the Gunvolt Justice Rage album, "Smoldering Flames", into English. The Justice Rage tracks were already covered by another fan on Youtube earlier this month, but admittedly, the translations were a bit on the rough side. There were some lines that just sounded awkward or couldn't be understood at all, which was unfortunate.
Eclipse has thankfully remedied this problem by providing an extremely clear and thorough translation of the first track, however. Personally, I discovered a few new things that I hadn't caught previously, such as the fact that the members of Daytona's gang have a signature handkerchief. That's actually something that has a bit of significance in another Gunvolt scenario. That's the subject for a future post, though.

Eclipse will also be tackling the other drama tracks in the near future. Needless to say, when those come out, you can count on this page covering them!
Major props to Eclipse for taking the time to do this!
Source

What's Gino's Septima?

One thing that I always found strange in Gunvolt was how Gino's septima was never addressed, even in the Japanese version of the game. To all appearances, he seems to be an adept, but he never mentions, displays, or even hints at any specific, unique ability that he has. Not even his official art, which pictures him dual-wielding two guns, gives you any real idea. Why is this? Honestly, I don't know. The game takes care to mention that Monica is one of the only humans in Feather, so you'd think that Gino has to be an adept with some special skill. And yet, even when he's talking to you in the heat of combat, telling you that he'd just dodged an enemy attack by a hair (and so forth), he only jokes around making references to various things in Japanese pop culture.

Who Was The First Azure Striker?

As you may or may not know, in the JP version of Gunvolt, the true final boss (whom we won't mention by name here to avoid spoilers) mentions something very intriguing about the origin of the Azure Strikers in his battle dialogue. According to him, the first adept with that power was discovered long ago, deep in a South American jungle. With their septima, the "Azure Strikers" were able to control electrons at will, allowing them to conjure powerful bolts of lightning to attack, and move swiftly by manipulating magnetic fields. What made their ability most important, however, was that they were able to freely control electronic devices. It was apparently the ultimate power in an age dominated by electronics.

On the Naga and Orochi: My Two Favorite Weapons in Gunvolt

I think these two videos epitomize the usefulness of my two favorite weapons in Azure Striker Gunvolt: the Naga and the Orochi. The first video shows a 5-combo that I performed after shooting a Naga pierce-shot through a row of boxes, and the second shows a 6-combo that I nailed by carefully calculating the placement of each Orochi bullet. (Note: You can't see all the enemies on-screen)

Happy 19th Anniversary, Inti Creates!

This isn't exactly Gunvolt-related, but I just wanted to take a few moments to acknowledge the 19th anniversary of my favorite video game company of all-time, Inti Creates! Yep, on May 8, 1996, Inti was officially founded in Ichikawa, Chiba in Japan, under the leadership of Takuya Aizu. To this day they've continued to develop incredible action-platforming games that've made a significant mark on the gaming industry, and I seriously hope they continue to produce such high-quality titles!

Keep fighting, Inti Creates! For everlasting peace!

The Secret Icons in Azure Striker Gunvolt

Azure Striker Gunvolt is one of those games that appears to be very straightforward from the get-go, but in reality, houses a truckload of interesting secrets that, when found, can (or cannot) be of great assistance to you. I'll give you an example: Do you remember those hovering lights in the dark sections of Elise's stage? The ones that you can push with your electricity? At the beginning of the second part of that stage, you can push the first light backwards into a force barrier for an extra 1000 kudos! There's probably a ton of things like that in the game that players haven't even found yet, because they're so well-hidden. I'm about to cover a specific series of some of these secrets, though, that I like to call "icons".

Inti Unveils 4 New Tentative Gunvolt T-shirt Designs

The official Japanese Gunvolt Twitter and Facebook accounts have just unveiled four new tentative t-shirt designs created by official Gunvolt artist Yoshitaka Hatakeyama. While these are just in the planning stages for now, Inti says that we may see them come around if there's sufficient demand. So hey, sound off on either Facebook or Twitter and let them know which design you think is the best! Personally, I'm loving all of 'em so far!
In addition to the design above, there are also these three to choose from:

"Admiration to Peace" Drama Track Translations

The "Admiration to Peace" drama tracks are more comedic-themed than the "Justice Rage" tracks. They follow various events of the "Feather" ("Quill") members, mostly focusing on Joule. There's not a whole lot of story relevance, but like the Joule conversations, they give you a much better look at the personalities of the "Feather" characters. Not to mention, they're just so dang hilarious! I highly recommend that you all check 'em out!
Also, by way of these tracks, we find out the invincible Gunvolt's one true weakness: have a 13-year-old school girl push him into a stack of boxes. :P

The translations are kinda rough, but they're understandable for the most part. You can find them in 8 parts here:
Reminiscence
Peace
Complication
Prayer
Ninja Arts
Cooking:
Karaoke
Residual Song

Credit to E45LP3 on Youtube for translating these!

"Justice Rage" Drama Track Translations

The drama tracks on the "Justice Rage" album focus on the Sumeragi group. They primarily tell of Daytona's (Viper's) first encounter with Shiden (Nova), his feelings before that fateful meeting, and how he was brought on board Sumeragi. It also contains a conversation between Shiden and Iota (Jota) regarding the "swords" that Sumeragi members use to transform, and lastly, an episode where Shiden thinks back to the past and recalls the "Project Gunvolt" experiments.

The translations are kinda rough, but they're understandable for the most part. You can find them in 6 parts here:
Smoldering Flames
Shiden's Reminiscence
Sword Holders
Flame & Water
Justice & Rage
Daytona's Ignition

Credit to E45LP3 on Youtube for translating these!

"Streak" Stage Dialogue

"Streak" Stage Dialogue:

[Briefing]

Ashimov: I will confirm the mission objectives again. GV is to break through into the reclaimed island and take care of their visible defense forces. Meanwhile the rest of us will jack the controls of the orbital elevator. Once control of the orbital elevator has been obtained, GV can be sent up to space with the elevator. This operation will be called "Cyber Diva Rescue".

Gino: Nihihi! Tha' sounds good to me! We're going to go rescue the target that we were to eliminate the other time?

Ashimov: ...The battle over the Cyber Diva that began that day, we shall settle it with our own hands. Good luck!

Inti Creates' Love For Long-Collared Overcoats

If you've been a fan of Inti Creates for as long as I have, you may have noticed an interesting design aspect that the company has applied to their game characters rather frequently in the past decade or so: long overcoats that extend from the waist down to as low as the character's shins, and usually with a long collar--like the one that Gunvolt famously wears on missions:

The Lone Warrior Lives To Fight Another Day

Pretty cool Copen art, huh? This piece was drawn by official Gunvolt artist Yoshitaka Hatakeyama for the first Gunvolt soundtrack. What's even cooler about this art is that it has a story behind it, though. The Japanese text on the left of Copen gives a short epilogue to the true ending of the first game, which explains Copen's beat-up condition in the picture and hints at the possibility of him returning in a future title.
Once again, we have Eclipse aka "Sensei Hanzo" to thank for the English translation!

"At the base of Babel, a figure enters the elevator after Moniqa and Zeno left. Copen, the boy clad in white armor, pushes his wounded body and finds the object he was looking for lying on the floor of the elevator that had just returned to Earth. It's a revolver, a memento from the father that was taken from him. He curses his own weakness, and apologizes to his father in heaven. The gun is stained with a dark red liquid: the blood of the accursed man who attacked Copen and stole his gun. Blood that carries the genes of the ultimate septima, the Azure Striker."

Wow, talk about intense! I really do hope to see Copen again Gunvolt 2, though. He was definitely one of my favorite characters!
Translation Source

Azure Striker Gunvolt Press Kit Review

Heya all! This is a video review I made a couple months back for the Azure Striker Gunvolt Press Kit I received from 8-4 Play's Mark MacDonald back when the game had just recently released. It features a Super-Famicom mock-up cart and instruction manual for the game. While the cart is essentially useless from a non-collector's standpoint since it won't play in a real Super-Famicom (heck, I don't even think it has a computer chip inside it, lol), an eShop download code for the game is located on the label of the item, which I thought was a really cool idea!
This video's old, but as I haven't seen any other video reviews showcasing this extremely rare item, I thought I'd go ahead and post it here anyway. Enjoy, folks!

A Spark In The Dark

Man, is this some amazing artwork or what? I'm really loving the hand-painted style that the artist applied to this picture! Seriously too cool!

Huge props to Nurinaki on Deviantart, who made this art!
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"Azure" Stage Dialogue (True Ending) *Major Spoilers*

"Azure" Stage Dialogue              

[Carrera Fight]
Gunvolt: I don't have time to be dealing with you.
Carrera: Hahahaha! Come now, no need to be so reserved.
Carrera: Try and defeat me -- if you dare!
Gunvolt: Whatever you want.
Joule: *GV...*
Joule: *As long as my song is protecting you, you can't lose.*
Carrera: Hm? From whence doth that woman's voice come?
Carrera: You fiend! Thou art not alone!
Gunvolt: ...
Carrera: Well, it matters not. I like the look in your eyes!
Carrera: That is what I desire!
Carrera: The value in victory comes from defeating a strong enemy!
Carrera: O heavens, grant me the strength to defeat this demon before me!

"Idolatry" (Firmament) Stage Dialogue *Spoilers*

"Idolatry" Stage Dialogue:

Nova: Heh... It looks like he's come to save the captured princess.
Nova: See, Lumen?
Nova: Or should I say, Joule?
Joule: ...
Joule: *GV...*

"Spintronics" Stage Dialogue

"Spintronics" Stage Dialogue:

Zeno: Your target's the main server in this facility.
Zeno: If you can destroy that, then this place is done for.
Gunvolt: Got it. I'll try to find the server.

Gunvolt: This looks like a magnetic lift.
Zeno: Magnetic, huh? That means you can pull it to you with your Flashfield.
Zeno: It's time for the electro middle schooler to do his stuff!
Gunvolt: What?
Gunvolt: I mean, I am in middle school, but what does that have to do with anything?

"Conflagration" Stage Dialogue

"Conflagration" Stage Dialogue:

Asimov: I've just sighted helicopters full of Sumeragi soldiers heading to your location.
Asimov: Looks like they noticed you.
Asimov: I'll shoot down what I can from here, but I can't get all of them.
Asimov: Some of them will probably make it onto the train.
Gunvolt: These missions can never just go smoothly, can they?
Gunvolt: Guess I'll just have to take out all the enemies I see.
Asimov: Luckily, this is a self-driving train.
Asimov: Even if you take out everyone on board, it will still take you to the plant on its own.
Asimov: Good luck, GV.

A Proper Introduction

Heya all, and welcome to this little corner of the Internet that I like to call "Skybane's Gunvault"!

In case you don't know who I am, I generally go by the screen name "Skybane_Zero". I'm an uber Mega Man fan, Inti Creates enthusiast, no-damage speedrunner, etc. Among the things I'm notable for, I won a Mega Man 10 speedrun contest that Capcom-Unity hosted a couple years back by clearing Solar Man's stage the fastest among everyone. I also run a Mega Man Legends Facebook page called "100,000 Strong For Bringing Back Mega Man Legends 3" (aka "GetMeOffTheMoon"), which has garnered some considerable support since the MML3 project was unjustly cancelled in 2011. We've done some pretty cool stuff over the years, such as launching a full-fledged MML3-themed rocket as a publicity stunt, making a sweet MML3 Concept Album (which you can download in two parts here [remixes] and here [originals]) with the help of our members, presenting neat gifts to the Capcom-Unity team, and, the project that I'm proudest of, developing an actual Mega Man Legends 3 Prototype 8-bit game with the help of our JP branch! Seriously, check that game out because it's incredibly sweet!
Anyway, mainly thanks to my position in this cause, I've had the opportunity to meet and interview such people as Inti Creates President Takuya Aizu, "The Father of Mega Man" Keiji Inafune (who even drew Mega Man for me when I met him!), Mega Man Legends singer Reika Morishita, and Mark MacDonald of 8-4. In short, it's been a pretty wild ride ever since I got involved with GMOTM!

But cutting more to the chase, what you may or may not have known about me if you only followed GMOTM, is the fact that I'm a massive, massive, massive Gunvolt enthusiast! I've been a fan of Inti Creates since they put out my absolute favorite series of all-time "Mega Man Zero" for the GBA and I also loved the Mega Man ZX series, so you can imagine my delight when I first heard that Inti was developing this other incredibly fast-paced action game called "Azure Striker Gunvolt"! I pretty much couldn't have asked for anything more. While it was true that, at the time, Mighty No. 9 had also just been announced, I was still way more psyched for Gunvolt because the gameplay looked so similar to the Zero and ZX series', both of which were near and dear to my heart. Like, seriously, I'd played those games so much that I was able to do no-damage speedruns in them. And man, the artwork looked so cool, too! I was just too pleased.

Fast-forward to today and I've now S+ ranked every mission, gotten some insanely high scores, and accumulated quite a sizable collection of Gunvolt stuff:

(My Gunvolt Collection. Pictured above are the four Gunvolt soundtracks "The Armed Blue Gunvolt Official Soundtrack", "Justice Rage", "Azure Phosphorescence" and "Admiration to Peace"; Level Up Studios' Gunvolt T-shirt; the Gunvolt Super Famicom mock-up cart (PR exclusive); my 3DS XL displaying the amazing Gunvolt 3DS theme and game; and last but not least, pictured in the middle, a Gunvolt print that I had signed by Keiji Inafune, Takuya Aizu (Inti Creates President), and Yoshihisa Tsuda (Director of Gunvolt).

So yeah, I'm pretty much a Gunvolt super-fan--which is why I decided to make this fan-site! As the description below the site's header notes, I will be using this blog to cover any and all Gunvolt news, cut dialogue from the English version of the game, merch reviews, gameplay tips, etc. I've already created sections for the cut Joule/Cyan conversations, cut stage dialogue, and drama tracks, which I'll be expanding upon in the near future. You can find tabs for those categories just below the header of this site for now.
Anyway, I guess that's about it. I hope you all are looking forward to the content I'll be posting!

Please enjoy your stay, and thanks for checking out my site!
- Skybane_Zero

Cut Joule/Cyan Conversations *Updated*

UPDATE: As of August 28, 2015, all of the Joule conversations have been translated by Inti Creates for the Steam version of the game, which I guess renders this post useless now. Still, for those who like to compare translations (such as myself), I'll be keeping this up for future reference.

Heya all! This post covers most of the Joule conversations that were in the Japanese version of Gunvolt, but cut when the game was localized for us English-speakers. They featured full voice acting and covered many subjects that couldn't be found anywhere else in Gunvolt, such as the fact that GV and Joule go to school, GV wears glasses normally, Joule's a horrible cook, etc. They really bring out the personalities of the characters and, in short, they're just so fun to read!
These were mostly translated by a super dedicated fan named Starky100 on GameFAQs. His thread was unfortunately archived due to inactivity, but you can still view it here. For the sake of convenience, I've reproduced all the conversations below. Enjoy, folks!
______________

Even though it's late at night, there's still a light on in the kitchen.
When I go into the kitchen to have a look, Joule is standing in the kitchen.
Joule: "A little bit of soy sauce..."
It seems that she's following a recipe on her smartphone that she found on some cooking site.
Joule: "A dash of Mirin... A dash? What's a dash? How much would that be...?"
I feel like teaching her everything myself, but being overly protective is a bad thing...
I pretend I didn't see anything and return to my room.

---

"Abyss" Stage Dialogue

"Abyss" Stage Dialogue:

Gunvolt: I've infiltrated the base. That was almost too easy...
Moniqa: It might be a trap. Be careful.

[First enemy]
Gunvolt: An enemy!
Gunvolt: They must've noticed me.
Moniqa: We don't have a choice now. You'll just have to take it out.