First off, Inti Creates hosted an amazing Gunvolt concert at Magfest. In the spirit of a traditional "Morpho Super Live" session, Megu Sakuragawa (voice of Lumen/Morpho) was present to sing the vocals of the Lumen songs in Azure Striker Gunvolt. She was accompanied by the instrumental talents of Ippo Yamada, Ryo Kawakami, Godspeed and Yamajet. The team performed every single vocal track from the first game, a couple non-vocal tracks (such as the opening stage theme, the "Streak" stage theme, Zonda's stage theme, Copen's theme and Joule's theme), and surprisingly, a never-before-heard vocal track from Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 called "Indigo Destiny"! Needless to say, it was an absolutely incredible show. You could really tell that every single member of the sound team (especially Yamajet and Ryo Kawakami) was having the time of his life while performing! Well...you could probably make an argument for the stoic Ippo Yamada, but I like to think that he's just really focused. And hey, what he lacks in enthusiasm, he makes up for in coolness, so it's all good!
If you didn't catch this concert live, I would highly encourage you to check out the replay here (skip to 8:05:30)!
If you didn't catch this concert live, I would highly encourage you to check out the replay here (skip to 8:05:30)!
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| Is it just me, or does that "2" have kind of a "Copen" feel to it? |
Also at Magfest, Inti Creates President Takuya Aizu got together with Comcept's Keiji Inafune to host a panel called "Keiji Inafune & Inti Creates." At this panel, the two showed off some new footage from Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, which featured some gameplay of GV tagging enemies, a conversation between GV and a new female character name "Ouka," and a new female boss (who, to me, kinda looks like Luna from Mega Man Star Force). The footage was accompanied by the new Lumen song that the Inti sound team performed the day before at their Gunvolt concert: "Indigo Destiny." In addition, a new, darker design for GV was revealed (which you may have seen above). You can check out the replay of the Inafune and Aizu's panel in its entirety here (skip to 6:41:31). Or, if you just want to watch the new Gunvolt 2 footage, see this video.
Going back further, WonderFest 2016 took place in Japan a couple weeks ago, and surprise, surprise, a Gunvolt figure was revealed to be in the works! For those not in the know, Wonderfest is a semiannual Japanese event that focuses on displaying and selling garage kits. I'm not exactly clear on when this figure will be releasing, but it looks like prominent Japanese garage kit designer MADHANDS will be heading up the project.
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| See the silhouette in the bottom-left corner? Yep, that's good ol' GV! |
Last but not least, Eclipse5632 aka "Sensei Hanzo" has recently translated the first two drama tracks of the "Admiration to Peace" Gunvolt album. The two tracks are entitled "Recollection" and "Peace" respectively. You can check out the former here and the latter here. As always, uber props to him for taking the time to translate these tracks for us ignorant English-speakers!
And that's about it! Wow, talk about some extremely exciting news! Personally, I am super, super psyched to finally see some new footage of Gunvolt 2!
For more Gunvolt updates, please stay tuned to this blog!
Thanks for gathering all this info here in one place! It's a happy time to be a Gunvolt fan!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, glad that it can be useful! And yeah, my hype has been skyrocketing through the roof for this past week on account of all the Gunvolt news! XD
DeleteOverall, I can't really be hyped yet.
ReplyDeleteThings look too similiar to the original (though part of that is probably due to being an early build_, and we don't really know what the changes are exactly. Has the oft-criticized kudos system been tweaked? Was the lightning ball an offensive skill or something else? Will 8-4 wreck the translation again? And so on.
Plus, Inti still kinda needs to release the Japanese Voice Mode patch on the 3DS version.
Is GV's hair turning blue like Asimov's.
ReplyDeleteYou know... I thought that blue tint was just a glare from the screen, but looking at it more closely, the tip of GV's hair DOES look blue, huh? Interesting!
DeleteReminds me more of Lumen's blue which makes a lot more sense.
DeleteYeah, given the game's true ending, it would make a lot of sense.
DeleteThe gun looks like cerberus but he got rid of it
ReplyDeletemaybe the girl can make weapons
looks amazing
how does he look darker
Just who is the man in the mask
ReplyDeletedid sumeragi extract lumen/joule from GV and put her into a mask so other adepts could use her
or is that GV at thd end of this game
He fighting "Luna" on Firmament?
ReplyDeleteWhy would he be up there?
Makes me wonder if she is the first boss or not. Also she does look like Luna, with a bit of Serenade thrown in.
DeleteGuessing on the background I would think that she is the first boss as Gunvolt dropped Cerberus in Babel which leads to Firmament which is where I think they are.
DeleteWhich begs the question, he came back for the gun?
And why after maybe 2 years?
Why would he be there at all?
Luna
DeleteSerenade
Tornado (hair)
Her name is Lunadeo.
The new Gunvolt looks bad @$$!
ReplyDeleteHe seems to emulate Asimov a lot in my opinion.
I just got Gunvolt two weeks ago and beat it today and I've gotta say everything about the game is great except the story.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong the premise and characters are awesome but the execution just falls flat in my opinion.
We have such an interesting world and characters but there is nothing present in the game which really makes you get emotionally invested in the characters which is such a disappointment as I wanted to get to know and grow with the characters.
I get that it is a short game but that is no excuse for sloppy writing.
I mean that ending.
Seriously.
It was a twist not even M Night Shyamalan would do.
I mean talk about an unexpected twist.
Well not unexpected but more like stupid and uncalled for.
You want to bring to your best your first game that you want to make a series out of.
I just feel that Gunvolt fails to deliver on the story telling and emotional level which leaves me disappointed.
I mean the only real explanation for Asimov's betrayal is poor writing which leaves me with poor expectations for the rest of the series. As from the trailer of the sequel the game looks exactly the same game play wise I find myself extremely underwhelmed by it.
Two of my friends who bought the game day one and sing it's praises are a bit disheartened with one of them calling it part two of Gunvolt 1.
I just hope Inti can pull themselves together because in my opinion the only reason to by a sequel with almost identical game play to the first is for the story.
Which quite frankly and unfortunately is not the game's strong point.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate all the extra effort that they have put know into the characters with the drama tracks and bios and everything but it's like crying over spilt milk as most of those characters are in a casket.
For good this time.
They should have released that info somehow before the game not now to try and cover up their horrible writing with exposition.
In all honesty I couldn't be less hyped for the game which is a crying shame considering it's potential.
If someone can please give me a reason not to condemn this game's sequel even though all signs that I know of tell me to.
Well, if you played the 3DS English version, it's worth noting that like 75% of the original text from the Japanese version was cut out, so that may be why you found the story horrible. The fact is that the English story -is- horrible. And this is because you barely have enough text to make you emotionally invested in the characters. Also, for what text there -was-, the translation was botched up by 8-4. I would highly encourage you to play the Steam version of the game on "Japanese Voice Mode," which retains all the original script from the Japanese version, and in addition, is translated in a very faithful manner.
DeleteAs for the ending, did you unlock the true ending? You can do that by collecting all of the jewels in the Sumeragi stages, talking to Joule, equipping the item she gives you, and then beating the final stage with the item equipped.
I actually have played the steam version and on Japanese voice mode and unlocked the secret ending.
ReplyDeleteIt would be hard not to get the secret ending as the post credit scene literally blurts out what you have to do which breaks emersion in my opinion.
I vastly preferred the discrete way it was done on the 3ds version that my friend showed me.
While I do appreciate the interaction during the levels which added a little more to the characters than the 3ds version as my friend constantly reminds me about as he waits for the 3ds update I feel it barely scratches the surface of what could and should have been done.
It adds a little more to the characters personality and gives us a small window into there reactions with each other but it does little more than intrigue me into the characters and hardly at all wants to make me invest with them on an emotional level.
This little intrigue though falls mute as none of the characters really interact in a realistic way or have any real part in the story.
The talks with Joule were a nice way to see them interact but it was not necessary for the story.
And the mission talks added a little world building but on the person GV ends up talking to is nothing but a minor character who tries to make it seem like GV had a family in Quill but falls short as we end up knowing very little more about them.
I would dare say that the bad ending intrigued me a little more as to what would happen next than the good ending which was a cop out where leader of the good guys was bad but no one knew and main character saves the day leaving both the good and bad organizations in ruins.
I hope they actually have a proper story planned out for this series as I've said before the premise is excellent but the execution falls flat.
I don't know, I honestly don't really feel a character's text HAS to be story-related for a person to feel emotionally tied to that character. The way I see it, a large portion of a character's appeal lies in their personality. If their characters are expanded upon a great deal, they don't necessarily have to do anything special for you to sympathize with them. Also, what the Joule conversations lack in relevance, I think they make up for in charm.
DeleteGranted, that's only as far as Joule in concerned. I fully agree with what you say about Asimov and how he should've been more fleshed-out prior to his betrayal. I actually wrote a whole article on how bad I thought that whole plot twist was executed (which you can find under the "Speculations" tab of this page), lol.
I agree that personality has nothing to do with story relevance but the characters that GV are interacting with were important people in his life and deserved more relevance than they got. I understand what it is to like a character like I find Zeno to be an outstanding character but the fact that he does little or nothing despite his supposed prominence rubs me the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteI also the Joule conversations certainly more than outweigh their irrelevance with charm.
I agree with you on that.
In fact I was looking for more of that.
Imagine the how much more emotionally invested we could have become in these characters if a similar feature was implemented where we could randomly talk to members of Quill or if there was a interactions with Joule where she finds GV lost in thought and they show us him reminiscing of his past with Quill and give us dialogue of flashbacks to his time with Quill.
I mean he spent his life up to that point with those people I find it hard to believe that he could walk out on them like that and if he was not invested in them I see no reason that we should have to.
I believe this game is good but falls short of greatness which is even more disappointing in my eyes than a bad game.
And about Asimov's betrayal it seems like drama for the sake of drama but I'll see what you had to say about it and check out your page as I haven't read it yet as I am new to your site.