Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
Back in 2014, Inti Creates — of Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX fame — made waves in the action platformer space when it released Azure Striker Gunvolt, a clear successor to its previous Blue Bomber work. Although this initial version was somewhat similar to the older Mega Man games, this franchise has evolved far beyond those roots as new ideas and gameplay concepts have entered. Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 represents the next step on this path of new ideas, and while it’s not a revolutionary new take on the Gunvolt formula, it offers a tightly designed and highly addictive adventure that no fan of the franchise will want to miss out on.
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 picks up a few years after the events of the second entry and begins by following a new character named Kirin. Kirin is a brave warrior priestess working for a shadowy organization trying to contain a new septimal threat where some Septima users lose control of their powers and transform into powerful, chaotic dragons. The first dragon Kirin takes down turns out to be Gunvolt himself, who quickly remembers who he is and joins forces with her to neutralize the other dragons and get to the bottom of what caused them to appear.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (docking)
It’s a good narrative, but also a good example of why the “show don’t tell” philosophy is so important in storytelling. The dialogue is often heavy on exposition as the characters clumsily explain concepts, names and organizations to each other and has the effect of emptying any emotional connection one might have to the story. More importantly, the story moves so quickly from plot point to point that it can often be quite difficult to follow what’s going on despite the heavy exposition. Fortunately, a memorable cast helps make everything a little more bearable, each member of Gunvolt’s Bureau of Dragon Saviors is quite different from the next, and the dynamic within the group makes for fun exchanges.
The gameplay feels like an evolution of what came before in the previous two entries, and has you playing mostly as Kirin, while Gunvolt can occasionally step in for her temporarily. Similar to how Copen was treated in the second entry, Kirin plays similar to the basic Gunvolt style with some key differences. Her primary weapon is a melee katana, but it’s not really meant to be used on its own. Pressing the ‘Y’ button repeatedly will cause her to throw talismans forward that ‘mark’ her enemies and make them more vulnerable to her blade. You can then either dispatch them with one move when you get to them, or you can enter a quick input and slash teleport all the marked enemies on the screen in one move.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
In practice, this results in an impressively smooth flow where you run across a stage, throwing talismans all over the place and leaving a trail of destruction as you teleport from enemy to enemy in rapid succession. Several segments of levels can even be completed without ever touching the ground if you’re both quick and accurate with your throws, and it’s amazing once the playstyle finally clicks and you find yourself reacting without having to you think. It’s impressive how Inti Creates managed to create a third style of play that can feel so different, yet so similar to what Koppen and Gunvolt were capable of.
Those of you who preferred Gunvolt’s grab-and-run style of play will be happy to know that he’s still here as a playable character, albeit more of a ‘limit breaker’ than a his own character. Below Kirin’s health is an energy gauge that increases as she takes and deals damage, and once it reaches at least 100% you can switch to Gunvolt. When Gunvolt is out, the energy bar begins to slowly decrease with each passing second, and this also acts as his health bar, meaning he drops significantly more for every damage he deals. Once the power gauge reaches zero, the Kirin turns back on and starts to rebuild it again.
It’s an interesting way to integrate the two different playstyles into any given level, although it does seem a bit odd that the main character of the franchise is now relegated to more of a supporting role. Still, Gunvolt plays just like the previous games, albeit doing a lot more damage for story reasons. Charging enemies with pins and then blasting them with lightning feels just as satisfying as in previous entries, while any semblance of platforming difficulty is immediately obliterated by Gunvolt’s Kirby-like ability to jump endlessly.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
Regardless of who you play, your performance in a given stage is mostly tracked by a scoring system called Kudos, which rewards you for riskier and more calculated gameplay. You get a thank you for every kill you log, but the amount you can earn grows exponentially if you can do more difficult things like consecutive aerial kills or defeating a boss character with a skill. In a notable change from previous entries, you no longer lose accumulated praise if you take damage. Instead, you get a “Kudos Lock” that forces you to earn a certain amount of kudos before you can start adding to your total again. At the end of the stage, your praises are converted with several other factors into a total score, which then determines the grade you receive; “S++” is the hardest to achieve and requires essentially perfect level performance.
An important thing to note about Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 is that it is clear that the main focus of the game is on this ranking and scoring system. If you really put your time into it, this game will only take you about five hours before you hit the credits, but simply playing through the story is only the beginning. The way these stages are designed, you’re expected to constantly complete them and memorize things like enemy placement and boss patterns until you can basically complete a stage without getting hit or even touching the ground. Each level is short and easy to retry as you practice, and it can be amazingly rewarding when you finally manage to get that high rank you’ve been trying for so long. That being said, we’d say that while Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 is probably worth it for those who just want to play it once or twice, you’re really missing out on a big part of the intended experience if you don’t want to grind ranks. This game is really aimed at perfectionist players who like to push the boundaries of game mechanics and aren’t afraid to quickly play through the same levels dozens of times until absolute mastery is achieved.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (docking)
Getting higher ranks doesn’t depend entirely on your own skills though, as there are some RPG-lite mechanics that help make some things easier. For example, you can equip up to four active skills that can call in the help of characters from both this game and past ones, giving you benefits like a temporary shield or a powerful AoE attack. You can also set up passive effects that will give you things like increased experience gain or a longer grace window after taking damage. None of these skills radically change the way you approach a level, but they’re useful at times to cover you when you inevitably make mistakes.
Something that seems a bit more divisive here, though, is that you’re not given much control over which skills you can acquire. Unlike the last main entry, which rewarded you with stage materials that you’d use to craft new gear, here you instead get all your “image boosts” via a randomized gacha download at the end of each stage. Taking more of the collectible image chips per level gets you more pulls at the end, but otherwise it’s entirely up to RNGesus if you get new (or good) skill image pulses.
It’s not a devastating change by any means, but it feels like a notable step back from what was done in the last game, as now you just have to be lucky if you want to do a specific build to make these S++ tries a bit more consistently. You end up building up quite a pool of image pulses to choose from, but we wish this aspect of game design was a little less random, as completing a replayed stage and only getting cheats for your trouble is just plain annoying .
Captured on Nintendo Switch (docking)
Visually, it’s clear that Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 is designed on stronger hardware, as the detailed sprites blend better with the high-quality environmental artwork. Seeing things like an arcade, a Shinto castle, or the in-universe equivalent of an Amazon distribution center set in the distant future, the technologically advanced art style creates some memorable sights that will have you reaching for the capture button quite often. The pixel art is clearly a successor to the work seen in the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX games, and it looks great whether you’re watching on TV or on the Switch screen. We especially appreciated the functionality offered by the art style, as all the spriteworked enemies here have the effect of setting them apart from the background a bit, making them much easier to target and react to your speed bumps.
As for the audio, Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 keeps things moving with a soundtrack that mixes EDM beats with rock music to match the intense and zen-like state of progressing through the stages, while there are some more down-to-earth jazz tracks scattered throughout there to add some variety. This is then supported by almost constant dialogue back and forth between Gunvolt, Kirin, and whatever the level boss is. Most of this dialogue is forgettable, but the voice cast does a great job with the lines they are given.
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