4/5 ★ – Hill417's review of Azure Striker GUNVOLT 3.

If there is one studio that doesn’t get enough credit for their consistency and quality, it would be Inti Creates. They have been pumping out a lot of hidden gems and cult classics like the Mega Man Zero series, Blaster Master Zero, Dragon Marked for Death, Bloodstained Curse of the Moon, Mega Man 9 and 10, and of course their flagship series: Azure Striker Gunvolt. Now here we are with the third installment with a new playable character. The story starts with our new protagonist Kirin breaking in to Sumeragi to seal away a Primal Dragon who is revealed to be Gunvolt, but when the seals go haywire, Gunvolt now looks like a dog/Pokemon so he is out of commission. Together Kirin, Gunvolt, and Lumen form a task force to stop any more dragons or rogue Septimas. If that synopsis sounded crazy, that’s because it is. I have replayed the opening level and watch the cutscenes on Youtube and I still couldn’t make sense of what was happening. It is weird because the previous games had straight forward narratives, but at least the gameplay remains tight, but there is a draw back. For 90% of the game you’ll be playing as Kirin who favors close range combat with her sword. She has talisman as a projectile and when they hit an enemy she can instantly teleport straight to them for a powerful slash. It took a while to get use to, but she was a fun addition and I wouldn’t mind seeing her lead her own spinoff series. Wait isn’t this the third Gunvolt game? Don’t we get to play as the titular character? Well yes… kind of. Because of the weird plot thread of Gunvolt turning into a Pokemon he is not playable for the whole level. Instead there is a meter that can fill up to 300%, as long as it is up to 100% then you can switch to Gunvolt at full power. Meaning he is constantly emitting electricity, can perform infinite jumps to the point it was pretty much floating, and he moves faster as he becomes lightning itself. However that meter is constantly draining the more power you use. Thankfully the meter does recharge rather quickly. I mostly used GV to ignore annoying platform segments and to deal with any enemies in his path. It is cool to access god mode on the spot, but it would have been nice to play him without a set of conditions. Maybe as a reward for finishing the game. There is an incentive to replay the levels, for obtaining all the collectibles you can unlock image pulses. Basically chips that resemble previous characters that give you stat and attack boost. I appreciate that the collectibles are not essential to unlocking the real ending, truly I do. Speaking of characters I want to shout out the new supporting cast. We’ve had supporting characters in the other two games, but I couldn’t tell you their names because they were not very memorable. Here we get to recruit some of the bosses to join your task force. Albeit their personalities are pretty cliched and trope heavy (the strict manager, the self proclaimed ladies man and the muscle head), but there banter is entertaining and I at least remember them. Then again it is hard to forget when everyone WON’T STOP TALKING!!! As soon as I started the level Kirin and Gunvolt debrief the mission (even though they already did before I selected the mission) and the conversations go on and on and on and on! They try to add humor, but the jokes fall flat and they are just repeating what we already know. Even when they aren’t talking there a text bottoms that cover up the bottom portion of the screen, and when you are playing a platformer you don’t want the bottom portion obscured. To my further irritation, the dialogue boxes would often take up to much space during boss fights so I can’t really enjoy them, oh and there were only two instances where I beat the boss after they finished monologuing. At the very least the voice acting is good. I never pictured Sean Chiplock as Gunvolt, but he was perfect in the role. Kelly Baskin (who I hope gets more video game roles) shines as the plucky and optimistic Kirin. Casey Mongillo excels as the pompous and self centered villain. Overall, a lot of solid performances for a solid game. At times it feels more like a test pilot for a Kirin spin-off, but still plays like an Inti Creates game that offers yet another superb 2D side scrolling experience.