Let's talk about: Gungrave

So, I finally pulled this one off the top of my pile of shame and took the shrink wrap off. A couple hours later (yes, it is short) and I'm through the game for the first time. Let's talk about it, shall we?

The intro and cutscenes: Oh my god, the intro and cutscenes are unbelievable! Yeah, I know they're pre-renderes, but honestly you can't tell if you are watching hand drawn anime or not half the time. To think that it's all 3D really boggles my mind. Not only is it amazing from a techincal standpoint, but the style and art direction are freakin' amazing! If this was a stand alone anime I'd watch it. Really, really great. Oh yeah, it's Japanese voices with subtitles. I'm pretty sure this was done for budget reasons, but thank you anyway! I for one can't stand dubs. What really gets me drooling about the intros is that real time graphics always catch up to pre-renders eventually. To think that we could be playing that in 10 years.... :)

On to the in game graphics. They keep most of the style of the pre-renders, but a lot is lost. Oh well. It is a great comic book style without being cell shaded exactly. Textures are kept simple and flat, even on backgrounds, and it does wonders stylisticlly. The downfall is the awful draw distance. I mean, really bad. Nothing pops up, but there is black fog everywhere in many levels. It makes it look like light can't travel more than 50 yards in Gungrave's world. Oh well. Indoor levels don't suffer as bad. In the end, it really does look good as a whole, you just get the feeling that the PS2 bit off more than it could chew. I'd love to see a sequel on one of the other two systems.

So... how does it play? Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, dive, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot..... My initial thoughts were "This is it?! This is all you do in the game? ......... I like it :)". Seriously, they don't come anymore straight forward than this one. There's not much dodging to be done aside from the occasional rocket. When being shot at, it's best to just shoot back because your regenerating shield will absorb all of their fire and they will be dead before you actually get hurt. Shield management adds a little bit of strategy, but not much. Stringing combos together takes more strategy, and I'm guessing that's where the replay is. I guess it just comes down to the fact that it's fun to blow stuff up for 3 hours. I've gone through twice so far, and I still feel compelled to go back and do it again. Oh yeah, on the first win you unlock action figures of the character models for your viewing pleasure, complete with action figure cardboard packaging card. It's a really cool extra.

Well, I finally got it on Ebay for $33 last night. Hopefully it will arrive soon. I tried to rent it, but NONE of the stores in my are have it available for rent. :(

I like it a lot, as I've mentioned in other threads.

It screams with style!

Bought it for $50 new, will hopefully be able to play it soon :)
Damn you Buffy and Castlevania HoD, will you two ever end ??
:)

Yeah, Gungrave sat on top of my pile of shame until HoD was overwith as well. I didn't even set out to buy Gungrave when I got it. It was supposed to be just a Castlevania trip. Then the clerk tells me Gungrave was also just released......

Buffy, though an excellent game, will never get my dollars.

I can't stand that comercialized Goth crap.

Back to Gun Grave! I haven't beat the game yet, as I'm stuck on the boss with the huge arms. You, know. The one with a hand on one arm that he uses to punch with, and a wheel on the other arm to ride around on. How the Hell am I upposed to beat this jerk?!

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Originally posted by Chibi Nappa
Yeah, Gungrave sat on top of my pile of shame until HoD was overwith as well. I didn't even set out to buy Gungrave when I got it. It was supposed to be just a Castlevania trip. Then the clerk tells me Gungrave was also just released......

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Yeah, me too. I was out to buy Yoshi GBA and Quantum Redshift, but I just couldn't resist GunGrave :)

He took me a few tries, but it comes down to using the dive button at the right time. If you are too far away from him, he'll just keep throwing crap and sending shockwaves at you. Use the jog and forward dive to get near him. As soon as you get close enough he does that dashing punch. Dive right, do a 180, and jog after him again. Shoot the whole time and use the lock on to strafe as needed. My initial problem was that I didn't even know the jog existed and I was moving too slow. I wish there was a controll option to use the "analogness" of the analog stick. It should be move the stick a little to walk, move it medium to jog, and move it all the way to run. I can't figure out how they came up with the current scheme of moving the stick any degree at all is a slow walk, pushing the stick in and moving it any degree is a jog, and pushing a separte button and moving the stick any degree is a run. You've got an analog stick there, use it! Still, it only took me a few minutes to adjust to the scheme.

Good news about it not being dubbed, now I just have to pray for a 60Hz option but Sega has been good to us so far so I remain possitive.

It took me awhile to get into it too, I was like, damn, this kinda sorry. Then I got into "the groove". You know what I'm talking about. Running about, dodging bullets, plugging the bad guys in style. And suddenly, I loved the game. Reminded me of Rez in that fashion.