Here's a game that I find to be quite underrated when it comes to the PS2's anime library. Gungrave is short and simple, with a good art style and decent visuals. The player takes control of Grave, a guy who was killed, and then resurrected to get revenge on those who wronged him. You'll see yourself playing through 6 stages and fighting 8 bosses, all within the length of about 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours. While the gameplay isn't in-depth by any means, it gets the job done and can offer you some fun to be had.
When it comes to combat, Grave can:
- Dodge in 4 different directions (and shoot while doing so)
- Rapidly fire all around him (by rapidly pressing Square)
- Sling his coffin around his body (by pressing R1)
- Fire a Demolition Shot (by pressing Triangle)
As you progress through the game and complete the stages, Grave unlocks new Demolition Shots to use in battle. To use Demolition Shots, you must create a combo by rapidly firing your guns at everything, be it boxes, enemies, barrels, tables, or anything else that can be gunned down. A blue orb will then enter your Demolition Gauge and you'll be able to use a Demolition Shot once it's filled. You can store up to 4 total Shots, which you can then unleash, or if you're low on health, you can trade 1 Shot for half of your health bar back, which allows some slight strategy as you can choose between a room-clearing Shot, or more health to survive. The game has no upgrade system, so the only new moves you'll get on this journey are the Demolition Shots.
The music isn't anything special, but it works well enough for the areas that the tracks are used in. There were only a handful of songs that I enjoyed enough to listen to outside of the game, but that doesn't mean the OST is awful. Once your adventure is over, you unlock Extras where you can view the character models from each stage, which is pretty neat to look at. In the end, Gungrave is a good game that stands out on its own as a niche little PS2 gem.
When it comes to combat, Grave can:
- Dodge in 4 different directions (and shoot while doing so)
- Rapidly fire all around him (by rapidly pressing Square)
- Sling his coffin around his body (by pressing R1)
- Fire a Demolition Shot (by pressing Triangle)
As you progress through the game and complete the stages, Grave unlocks new Demolition Shots to use in battle. To use Demolition Shots, you must create a combo by rapidly firing your guns at everything, be it boxes, enemies, barrels, tables, or anything else that can be gunned down. A blue orb will then enter your Demolition Gauge and you'll be able to use a Demolition Shot once it's filled. You can store up to 4 total Shots, which you can then unleash, or if you're low on health, you can trade 1 Shot for half of your health bar back, which allows some slight strategy as you can choose between a room-clearing Shot, or more health to survive. The game has no upgrade system, so the only new moves you'll get on this journey are the Demolition Shots.
The music isn't anything special, but it works well enough for the areas that the tracks are used in. There were only a handful of songs that I enjoyed enough to listen to outside of the game, but that doesn't mean the OST is awful. Once your adventure is over, you unlock Extras where you can view the character models from each stage, which is pretty neat to look at. In the end, Gungrave is a good game that stands out on its own as a niche little PS2 gem.