Gungrave Game Sample - Playstation 2
31Now is a great time to be a fan of Gungrave, the lovechild of renowned mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow (of Trigun fame) and Kōsuke Fujishima (of "Oh My Goddess!" and "Sakura Taisen" fame)! Originally a video game franchise, its popularity spawned an anime series (which required fans to watch as well as play the games to get the whole story) as well as a sequel, "Gungrave Overdose", between 2002 - 2004 before quietly fading into obscurity... but this wouldn't be the last of Brandon Heat and his battle with the Millennion syndicate. The franchise has recently risen "Beyond the Grave" (rimshot) with not one, but TWO games: a 2017 PS4-VR game (Gungrave VR, which is slated for an international release) and a PS4 game currently in development (Gungrave G.O.R.E., a proper follow-up to the teaser that is Gungrave VR). To celebrate, I dug out these oldie-but-goodies from the top of my closet to shine a little light on the franchise again.
Gungrave was presented in 2002 by the prolific and cool folks over at Red Entertainment (best known for their involvement with "Tengai Makyou", "Sakura Taisen", " Chou-Genjin / Super Bonk", "Thousand Arms", etc.) and developed by Positron and Ikusabune Co. (who also developed the sequel), and the game can only be described as a cheesy, over-the-top arcade-style action fest. It was published by Sega in the U.S. / JPN and by Activision in Europe. The game is extremely repetitive, not very deep, pretty easy for the most part, and fairly short (with six levels), but sports great visual style, replayability to beat your top scores / ranks and unlock the few in-game unlockables, and it's a game that knows not to overstay its welcome. It's not gonna win game of the year by a long shot, but it was a nice teaser of a new IP to help setup "Overdose", which improves on a lot of the issues this game had while releasing at a great budget price (Between $15-$20). Little touches like his coffin scraping the walls and exploding fire hydrants are great, and while the game does suffer slowdown in spots, it almost adds to the whole tough guy immersion (but seriously, less slowdown would've been nice).
It borrows a little from Max Payne and Devil May Cry and A LOT from John Woo (Note: these are all good things), but otherwise puts its own little spin on the genre with "Beats" to rack up power for deadly "Demolition Shots" (you earn new ones based on overall performance after stages) and "Graveyard Specials" which help you defeat the more powerful bosses after the introductory stages with style. Players run around shooting literally everything in sight and are ranked on five metrics: Beat Count, Kill Rate (%), Clear Time, Remaining Life, and Artistic Ability (making poses, dodging and shooting John Woo style, Demolition blasting, etc.). The game controls well, though the set-up is a little cumbersome at first, and the game compensates by giving you a barrier before you lose actual health, making you nearly invincible since you gain plenty of Demo Shots.
The music for cutscenes, movies and non-combat areas is great, but the stage music is only so-so and very repetitive... this isn't a problem anyway since you won't hear it the vast majority of the time over the ROAR OF CERBERUS (Grave's guns), which is probably why the sequel almost completely did away with stage music (more on that in the follow-up video), but Tsuneo Imahori's style is clearly present. You have brief intermissions between stages where you can save and talk to your few allies.
A little about the plot: In an unknown city, the Millennion crime syndicate rules with an iron and super-human fist. At the top was "Big Daddy", the founder and leader who was (mostly) respected by his subordinates due to his desire to protect his city and mob family. At a young age, Millenion scouts two small time criminals and friends, Brandon Heat and Harry McDowell, who join the syndicate after unfortunate events drive them to a true life of crime where they quickly rise through the ranks showing natural talents as sweepers (trained assassins). During their climax, Harry betrays Big Daddy, kills him, kills Brandon, and and takes over Millenion, and now seeks to wipe out every trace of Big Daddy's legacy, including his daughter (Mika Asagi) and anyone else who stands in his way.
Unbeknownst to him at the time, Brandon is revived through "Necrolyzation" (where the dead are brought back as powerful zombie-like beings) by a genius scientist, Dr. Tokioka, who is still loyal to Big Daddy and his lineage, which sets the stage of the game without spoiling the finer details of the plot.
The games aren't terribly expensive right now, so grab them if you like what you see. This is a game going till about the third stage illustrating a few things and the attraction. Enjoy.
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