Gunvalkyrie

I can't believe I forgot to mention this game already! I was tidying up today and checking which boxes have what games in them when I found this.

At first the game looks pretty simple, but keep watching and you'll see them boosting all over the place while targeting and blasting enemies. You have a meter for your jetpack, very similar to Vanquish actually. It depletes when you dash or fly, hover, etc, but there is a mechanic to get meter back while dashing.

You chain dashes together by performing them in different directions. I'm a little rusty on the rules, but as I remember it, you can only dash either once or maybe twice in the same direction before the meter falls and your combo breaks.

While dashing around you can still attack enemies. It starts to resemble something like a combination between Vanquish and Z.O.E 2.

This is one of the few I could find where the player actually knows how dashing and meter work. It starts off with nothing special but keep watching and you'll see it in action.

I've seen this before, didn't know u could do sick chain dashes.

Do u know of EOE:eve of extinction?

It's a ps2 action game where u have many weapons that u can switch mid combo with n each has a super move u have to draw onscreen to use like okami, also has some qte moments.
I had that as a kid, I've looked it up since n can't say if it is any good, looks a bit jank.

Same developer who did sword of the berserk:guts' rage n berserk millennium falcon arc games.

Make a topic for it.

Gunvalkyrie is pretty much if you could play as bogey in vanquish.
EDF 2025/4.1 has a Valkyrie class similar to this, you have a meter that depletes both flying and gun usage.

I've played one of the old EDFs but I didn't like it. It still had that character and she has a basic boost system. Seemed more similar to Dino Crisis 3.

Ah they did have them in older EDF games,that slipped my mind. It does seem similar to Dino crisis 3.

It finally became Backward compatible on Xbox One/X and Series X|S, and I started playing it and beat the first 6 levels so far.

As you may have heard, the controls can be quite complex and intimidating at first and are a real barrier of entry for most people. I'll admit that even after playing for 2+ hours I don't have a full grasp of the controls, although I got pretty accustomed to them.

Having said that, the controls, once mastered, provide with plenty of maneuverability and agility that not many games have. I'm having a blast with it, and I would recommend everyone here to try it and give it the time to click.

You are shooting by pressing the right trigger, and boosting with the left trigger at the cost of a meter. Once you are mid air, you can dash by simultaneously moving the left stick to the desired location and clicking it. You can also perform quick turns (on foot and also mid air) by simultaneously moving the right stick to the desired location and clicking it. Pretty complicated, but IMO, also feels intuitive and logical once it clicks.

However, I'm a tad worried that it might lack in enemy variety and maybe even level design. It could also be that I was too focused on getting used to the controls and didn't pay enough attention to those, but so far I think I've only encountered 3 enemy types in addition to one boss fight. Level design was fine, but nothing to write home about, despite liking the art style and visual design.

I will share more as I progress through the game. Despite these (potential) issues, the core gameplay loop is really fun and satisfying, and I believe there's so much untapped potential here. A sequel done right, with better enemy variety and level design, and maybe more weapons/abilities could be a top tier action game, but alas, that will never happen.

Already romanticizing a sequel for a game you haven't beat? There are two characters and the loadout for each is progressively upgraded. I remember the second level's terrain as being wildly different and memorable for an action game; it seems more appropriated from a platformer game with all the air swirl lifts, the steep hills you have to boost up on to get over, plus that huge wall at the start to test your boosting skills. Maybe you went a different stage selection path in the game...

Wanting a sequel - good point, but I don't think I have seen anything like it, and I'm also really enjoying it.

Level design - All levels so far (Valley 1-3, civilian base 1+2 and boss fight) were solidly designed and encouraged me to learn and properly utilize my abilities with their focus on verticality. in that sense they are great. As I have said, it's also possible I was too focused on trying to get a hang of the game that I simply didn't pay enough attention to the level design.

I should have been more specific here though and mention that I was only thinking about the map layout. The valley levels had a more linear design, while the civilian base levels had a more interesting map layout which I loved. I guess I missed the mark here, because the levels do encourage you to get accustomed to your abilities and improve your playstyle, and that's the thing that really matters in the end.

Upgrades - I've heard about this, but still haven't got to Kelly 2.

When did you play it? Did you beat it with both Kelly and Saburouta? What's your opinion of it?

Literally right behind you. I am at Civilian Base 2. I thought the game's controls were understandable at level 2 with the Civilian Base I giving you ample room to further understand air controls when it comes to grapplebeaming. The purchasable upgrades definitely have maintained a mysterious appeal at this point being how numerous they are and how some require significantly higher investment costs over others to see what exactly they do. I played it first at stores but maybe you just want to know when I bought it, which was a few years back. There's supposed to be some dramatic difficulty spike coming.

I understood what I have to do by stage 2, bit it took me some time getting used to the controls so I didn't pay as much attention to the level design, I took it for granted. Perhaps you've learned the controls faster than me. How do you like it so far?

GN1 wrote:I understood what I have to do by stage 2, bit it took me some time getting used to the controls so I didn't pay as much attention to the level design, I took it for granted. Perhaps you've learned the controls faster than me. How do you like it so far?

I really enjoy the boosting; GV is one of those critical games to master moving in 3D space. The only odd points, for me, are the indoor levels with low ceiling where bugs are around the corner where it seems unoptimal to engage in chain-attacking.

Read you beat the game in 4 hours. Since it's so short I have been inspired to beat the game before the year ends. (I am not too sure there is much to discuss outside of score attack totals.)

Yes it's really short, and while you can replay levels and attempt higher scores and also play with Saburouta (Which I will do), my initial concerns were justified: Enemy variety is severely lacking, and there's simply not enough to it.

It's a blast to play, just mastering the boosting and movement is so much fun, and I also really enjoy the final boss in particular, it's a great fight that puts all your movement skills to good use.

It's still an 8/10 for me just for how fun it is, but as I've said earlier, it feels like a small teaser for the real game that will never happen. So much untapped potential here...

The indoor levels with the closed ceilings - I kinda agree here, their design is a bit too crowded, but I actually didn't have a problem with them. Make sure to utilize meteor crash to move around and kill enemies and also try to enter mobius state and use it to kill as many enemies as you can. I think it also means you are at the end of the game now, assuming you are talking about  Yggdrasill.

This game looks nuts. I have never heard of it at all. It is only 10 bucks, gonna get it on 360. Wish my ex didn't hate me so I could give her, the switch back in exchange for the series S I bought just for NG2. Oh well. At least I found a bad ass game to play today.


Edit: what it can't be played on 360? dude, what

I just swapped L-stick click to LB, R-stick click to RB, Also Y-invert(in xbox application setting). And boom, it functions like a modern auto lock-on shooter.

I can see that they want to make using two analog sticks at once in a mobility-based shooter at 2002, so I guess that devs wouldn`t use L-click or R-click if there were LB/RB + LT/RT in original Xbox.

LT is used for jumping/jet pack and RT is used for shooting. Don't remember if the black and white buttons were used for something though.

>black and white buttons

I mean that LT/RT is there but LB/RB was not there.

black and white buttons are used for map and time.
So this control scheme is (still hard to learn though) reasonable for that era, Because they really don`t want to hand off from analog sticks.

And so, with backward compatibility, LB functions as white button and RB functions as black button.Map and time is not that important for this game so I swapped it.