I think having the first game as a jumbled mess in my head before playing this one sorta playd out in my favor, as rethreading some elements of the narrative didn't really stick out to me that much. It would be better to say that these "borrowings" were more of repurposing and recontextualization as Nirvana Initiative still manages to stand as its own game, with its own identity, revolving around its own thing and ultimately keeping it in my head as its own separate experience.

Personal note is that I'd say it is better structured than the first game, as it is much easier for me to build the general outline of the "true" story and it will be easier to recall in the future. With the first game I can draw a line from start to end, but the journey itself is absolutely an incoherent mess in my head as of now, perhaps a replay is necessary.

There were a bunch of fumbles in the story here and there, but those are mostly minor and absolutely not to the extent as to tarnish the full picture.

Uchikoshi still manages to marry a lot of science-related concepts with occult stuff and wrap it all in a narrative that can be your main attraction to the game, and keep it cohesive for yer dumb ol' run-of-the-mill player like me, while still providing more stuff to chow into for galaxy brained invested people who do not seem to be uncommon around Uchikoshi's games.

Mizuki my goat
Ryuki my goat
Aiba my goat
Tama my goat + hot af
Date the goat of goats

TL;DR Game good play game

This is a divisive one for sure.
For the many things it does great as a standalone game, it in just as many things let me down as a somewhat dedicated follower of the series.

Kirin is great and fun to play, but shelving Gunvolt himself as they did here was really unnecessary, in both gameplay and story, even though it had its moments.

I hate how it's basically not even a follow-up to 2 plot-wise. Granted, following up 2 would be a tough ordeal, but it's like they didn't even make an attempt here. Characters and plot threads from 1 and 2 have disappeared, never to be seen again. I was really looking forward to what they would do with Morpho/Lumen now that she's back, but they didn't do jack.

Lowkey hoping they hid something story-related in the hard and super hard modes because uhhh
Yeah this wasn't it no matter how I look at it

Gunvolt, my man, you deserve the status of an OG just because how Inti treats you. Dude takes L's on so many levels for so long it's borderline satirical.

For positives, Gameplay as presented is obviously very solid. Audio and visual feedback is top-notch and you'll want to continue playing just because how fun it is play, if you're not into score blasting. The soundtrack does its job but I wouldn't call it too memorable, even the vocal tracks flew by me, but honestly they only didn't for me in Luminous Avenger iX and a couple from GV2.

The amount of optional conversations was a pleasant surprise, cast, as trope-y and for the most part, let's face it, probably disposable, has a lot of interactions that are at least somewhat interesting and entertaining to go through. Nothing groundbreaking, just pleasant fluff.

So, if you're here for the gameplay, absolutely give it a go, the game slaps on a lot of levels.
If you're invested into GV story, disappointment very likely inbound, even though Kirin is awesome.

Gotta wait for them DLCs now