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).