https://youtu.be/5hpSGDAQt0w
NO MORE COPEN! BOOM
NO MORE XIAO! BOOM
NO MORE WRAPPING UP GV2 PLOTPOINTS! BOOM
NOOOOO MOOOOOORE GUNVOLTTTTT BOOOOOOOM

When Gunvolt 3 first came out, I was extremely disappointed with it as a longtime fan. This is because - and this is near-universally agreed upon among fans - the story here is awful. While iX2 had a largely nothing story, GV3 genuinely tries its best to ruin everything that came before it. It took me a long, long time to warm back up to this game because of how it left a bad taste in my mouth.

But it's now been almost 6 months since Gunvolt 3 first released, and while I still think it drops the ball in the writing department, I can't help but appreciate how Inti finally gave us a Gunvolt game with a dizzying amount of content and incentives to pursue it. Seriously, it's kind of crazy how much there is to do and collect and S++ rank in this game, and this system is miles better than the Challenges present in GV1 and GV2. I also think Kirin is super fun in gameplay (even though iX1 Copen still has my favorite core gameplay loop) and Gunvolt, while not super satisfying to use in the base game, is kind of saved thanks to Azure Striker ranks and D-nizer mode.

Level design is something I'm a little more mixed on. The first half of the game is extremely good, but the second half becomes far too reliant on arc chaining over bottomless pits. Prado, Grazie, and the Sunrise Palace stages ALL have this issue, seriously. I don't mind it that much because the rest of the level design is really smart and reminds me a lot of GV1 design sensibilities, but it could have even better.

I finally sat down and played through Epilogue ATEMS while on a flight, and it more or less has the strengths and weaknesses as the base game: very fun gameplay, very bad story. At the very least, I have to give Inti props for doing a strong free update campaign. The additions of Epilogue ATEMS and the secret bosses you can unlock give the game a sort of "Gunvolt greatest hits" feel, which of course is only amplified by the whole Image Pulse mechanic. I'll also probably replay the main game at some point this year.

Will Tsuda and Tai find a way to save this series' story? I have no idea, but honestly I'm not too sad if we never get a true successor to GV2 story-wise. GV1-GV2-iX1 is such a great trilogy (not chronologically obviously, but in terms of story beats) that I'm willing to let Inti experiment a bit until they've regained their footing.

Ok but seriously what the FUCK is Moebius even doing in this story