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Gungrave G.O.R.E is the third main game in the Gungrave franchise created by Yasuhiro Nightow and Japanese developers Red Entertainment, and a long-awaited return after an 18 year hiatus. Niche though this series is, it garnered a cult following, both due to how unapologetic the first two games were with their over-the-top stress-reliever design, and how fantastic the anime adaptation was purely on its own merits. So you can imagine my excitement that something as niche as Gungrave would be returning in glorious fashion.
Despite the game being announced far too early (over 5 years ago), and my apprehension about the creative leads handing development over to overseas studio Iggymob (who might I add, created the terrible VR games), I liked what I'd seen so far, and was willing to meet the developers half-way, come November 22nd. And for better or worse, this is undoubtedly a Gungrave game.
Gungrave G.O.R.E sees the return of Beyond the Grave, an undead hitman who lives to protect his only family; Mika, and eradicate the evil drug SEED and those who distribute it. This time, his enemy is the Raven Clan of Asia.
The story has a decent premise to work with, and enough returning characters to bring a smile to any Gungrave fan's face, but where it falters is its presentation and lack of any true fanfair. Comparing this game to the anime would be unfair, so I'll instead compare it to Overdose, which despite its limited hardware and lower budget, managed to work around its limitations and allow its characters enough breathing room to grow and develop over the course of the story. With the exception of the pre-rendered cinematics, this game's cutscenes look awkward as hell. I would've been fine with the change in art direction from its more cell-shaded anime origins to this grittier, more realistic approach, if the developers made the necessary consessions for characters to properly express themselves and emote during cutscenes, but they don't. The animation during these cutscenes also have the impact of a limp dick on a chopping board, which, coupled with the lack of the main theme to accentuate these scenes, makes the boss-executions so devoid of catharsis or oomph. Doesn't help that the voice acting ranges from passable to bad. Grave, Bunji, Quartz, Big Wushen and Ganpo sound fine, but everyone else forgot to, y'know, ACT. Overdose's English voice acting wasn't perfect, but the quality standard was noticably higher, and they bothered to hire professionals like Quinton Flynn and Robert Atkin Downs.
Moving onto the gameplay, while it has its fair share of bullshit moments and poorly-considered design choices, the core combat is the best it's ever been, and a genuine step forward from Overdose's improvements to the first game. Grave has more moves than before, and while he's still a slow, heavy powerhouse, he no longer moves like a tank thanks to full analogue movement and modernised third-person controls. All the moves you've come to expect are present and accounted for (shooting, more shooting, deflecting missiles with a swing of the coffin, and special Demolition Shot attack after gaining enough beats on an enemy, but now he can use one of four different Demolition Shots assigned to the face buttons, use his coffin to grapple enemies and use them as a meatshield while his own Shield system recovers, destroy shields with either a charge shot or one of three melee combos, and RIP execution attacks that recover Grave's shield in a similar fashion to Glory Kills from the modern DOOM games. Enemies tend to be thrown at the player strategically, so as to get them acclimated to G.O.R.E's mechanics and controls, and despite how typically-button mashy this game is, these mechanics manage to keep the game engaging, and make overcoming most of its challenges rewarding. Grave's moveset, stats and various Demolition Shots can be upgraded in a similar fashion to Devil May Cry, where the currency earned depending on how high your end-level rank is can be redeemed to strengthen the protagonist. Gungrave games encourage the player to keep their combo (Beats) going by constantly shooting enemies and destroying obstacles along their war path before it ends, which not only fills your Demolition Shots, but will help improve your end-of-level rank. My only issue with this is that some obstacles seem obviously-breakable, yet aren't, which is very deceptive. There's no universal tell.
While the game's complexity and skill ceiling aren't comparable to character-action games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, this extra effort goes a long way in turning Gungrave from a simple button-masher to an action game with mechanics that can carry the experience for a longer duration than that of the past two games. It's a welcome evolution of the franchise, and Iggymob deserve credit for achieving this.
Where the gameplay falters, however, is in portions of the level design, bossfights, other playable characters, and inconsistency.
While levels do play to the game's strengths as an arcadey shooter, you'll eventually encounter some frustrating, poorly-considered segments with instant-deaths, such as the moving-train with no room for dodging or manoeuvring and little time to get to where you need to go, awful platforming segments that clearly weren't designed with Grave's (or Quartz') general movement in mind, and a series of laser obstacles that bring the action to a screeching halt.
Bossfights are a mixed bag. While some of them do test the player on what they've learned so far, more often than not they lack in polish. They tend to serve as a trap for anyone who hasn't upgraded their bullet damage (which defeats the point in having options for what the player upgrades), and will inevitably pull some bullshit moves on the player after their health is low enough. The first boss of the game can be disabled based on the parts of its body you target, and the Zell bossfight makes good use of the human-shield mechanic as you use his soldiers to withstand the hales of bullets. So it's a shame that the other bossfights are either standard affair, really clunky in their execution and frustrating at times, or in the final boss's case, downright easy.
And lastly, there are the other playable characters; Bunji Kugashira and Quartz. The game primarily focuses on Grave, unlike Overdose with its three playable characters from the start, so Gore's supporting cast don't get anywhere near as fleshed out. Bunji is a character any returning fan will be excited to finally play as, though in execution, he's passable at best. He's supposed to be a faster, more nimble answer to Grave, with two Demolition Shots based on his affinity with wolves. His dodge-while-firing feels clunky and unreliable, so I ended up just playing him in the most boring, safest way possible. Quartz was even worse. She's comparable to Juji in that her attacks are very melee-focused, but where she differs from Juji is in how fun she is to control and how satisfying her melee attack are; which is to say not at all. Melee attacks have ridiculously short range and rarely feel like they're connecting with an enemy, so instead of feeling like a badass hack'n'slash hero, you feel more like a character from a shitty movie tie-in game. Very disappointing compared to what we got 18 years ago.
Overall, Gungrave G.O.R.E is far from perfect, and in need of more polish, but its pros outweigh the cons just enough that I can comfortably call it a 7/10 game, with my own personal enjoyment fluctuating between 5 and 8. It shows growth and improvement in most areas that matter, while sorely lacking in areas it probably shouldn't. I hope we can see Iggymob or whoever else Red and Nightow choose to develop the next game learn from their mistakes with G.O.R.E, while carrying over every idea they successfully executed. While it's a tough sell to anyone unfamiliar with this franchise, I can recommend it to returning fans who know what to expect.