Topic: Gunvolt [New Inafune & Inti Creates game]

[Sakura Leic]

Huh, one of the lenses removes checkpoints?  I'm assuming with the checkpoints gone the Kudos just get added automatically instead of at where the checkpoints would be?

[Hypershell]

I THINK they get added automatically at the end of a stage, didn't pay that close attention.  But they also get added when you use an offensive special skill, same as in the first game (my tendency to use special skills as finishers is what makes it tough for me to notice).

[Zan]

the extra ending is unlocked simply by replaying the final stage after you already cleared it as both characters.

That's just the main end. There's also the double 80% challenge clear special ZXA ending. I'm at 97% on Copen myself, and continuing GV's (25%) today. Almost there!

Copen plays like Beck, Model A, and Model H all rolled into one.  Inti basically said, "hey, let's take the dash-ramming an enemy thing and make it not suck" and made it your lock-on instead of your high score finisher. 

Yeah. Copen's gameplay is great. Only downside is that he can make you literally forget how to play as GV:
"WHY ARE YOU DASHING INTO ENEMIES, ME?!"

Challenges are now always active after your first clear of a given stage, which makes things far more convenient. 

Best thing ever.

(I assume Copen has an equivalent armor upgrade but I've not unlocked them all).

"Perfection Protocol".

[Hypershell]

That's just the main end. There's also the double 80% challenge clear special ZXA ending. I'm at 97% on Copen myself, and continuing GV's (25%) today. Almost there!

I guess that would explain a certain unfamiliar piece of artwork I saw on Miiverse today.  Thanks, Zan, info like that is still hard to come by.  Guess I'll have to jump back in.

Yeah. Copen's gameplay is great. Only downside is that he can make you literally forget how to play as GV:
"WHY ARE YOU DASHING INTO ENEMIES, ME?!"

Yeah, there is that. 

[Zan]

Got the secret ending recently.

[spoiler]It's a little confusingly worded, but I understand Nori helped Xiao Wu visit Mytyl (at the hospital?). He facilitated their merger, then sealed away the muse's power in a pendant.

Since this pendant is said to work similarly to Sumeragi's glaive (and Eden's grimoire)... Will QUILL take center stage as the next antagonist?[/spoiler]

[Sakura Leic]

[spoiler]It's certainly possible......but I think it's more likely Xiao is from a different organization.  Something makes me think that Xiao is another mole/double agent like Zonda was for Sumeragi.

This game does leave some loose ends though, I mean we still don't know why Quinn has special abilities and I feel like Zeno and Moniqa will definitely come back in the next game.[/spoiler]

[Zan]

[spoiler]Xiao is 'former' QUILL.

Plus, this interview makes me thing we haven't seen the last of them:

https://hi-in.facebook.com/notes/100000-strong-for-bringing-back-mega-man-legends-3/the-biggest-takuya-aizu-gunvolt-interview-that-youll-ever-read/1012517185489189

Skybane: Here's a good question from Taichara: "Will QUILL be any part of the plot in GV2? Surely there are other cells -- and Asimov's death is going to cause a mess."
Aizu: Yeah, you can imagine that Quill's in a bit of a jam after the events of the ending of GV1. They're kinda having a bad time, so maybe you won't be seeing them around.

Skybane: Ah, here's a question that I've been wondering about for a long time! What is Gino's septima?
Aizu: Ah! We get this question a lot. That, too, is a mystery! *laughs* Perhaps Director Tsuda or Scenario Writer Tai has that information, but they have never passed it on to me. Maybe it's a matter of them not wanting people to know. Perhaps.
Skybane: They don't even want the President to know? *chuckles*
Matt: We're not sure. Only they know for sure!
[/spoiler]

[Phi]

http://inticreates.com/azure-striker-gunvolt-verison-1-3-adds-japanese-voice-mode/

[Sakura Leic]

Ugh finally, now I don't really have to get the Steam version.

[Hypershell]

I finally tried 1.3 today, the Japanese voice mode doesn't just add the missing dialogue, it retranslates the old dialogue as well.

Got the secret ending recently.

[spoiler]It's a little confusingly worded, but I understand Nori helped Xiao Wu visit Mytyl (at the hospital?). He facilitated their merger, then sealed away the muse's power in a pendant.

Since this pendant is said to work similarly to Sumeragi's glaive (and Eden's grimoire)... Will QUILL take center stage as the next antagonist?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I got the impression they acted more promptly, seeings how Xiao and Nori were in the area when GV and Copen attacked the Garden.  Quinn was the only one who stayed behind.  This is speculation on my part, but I'm wondering if Xiao and Nori's little stunt isn't what broke Mytyl/Joule's memories before she collapsed.

This is odd to say, but knowing their deception leaves me more hopeful for where the story is going, as it leaves the door open for Joule to return once Xiao is exposed and/or tips his hand.  Joule is virtually dead otherwise, since both memory and body are gone, with only a vague instinct about GV remaining in Mytyl's body.

Mytyl's ending just wasn't satisfying to me in that regard.  Her "happiness" strikes me as hollow, having no memory of what she ever wanted in the first place.  Then again, maybe it's fitting, that a game where the bad guys are called "Eden" leaves me yearning for knowledge over bliss.[/spoiler]

[Zan]

I finally tried 1.3 today, the Japanese voice mode doesn't just add the missing dialogue, it retranslates the old dialogue as well.

Same as the Steam version.

[spoiler]I got the impression they acted more promptly, seeings how Xiao and Nori were in the area when GV and Copen attacked the Garden.  Quinn was the only one who stayed behind.  This is speculation on my part, but I'm wondering if Xiao and Nori's little stunt isn't what broke Mytyl/Joule's memories before she collapsed.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
Xiao's little stunt sealed the Muse's power in a Glaive-like pendant. She clearly had her Septima all throughout the final battle. The merger of Joule and Mytyl's personality was also still in flux.

Remember, Copen/GV or Zonda always had Mytyl in their sights. It's only after leaving the Garden that she'd be left in Nori's care.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]This is odd to say, but knowing their deception leaves me more hopeful for where the story is going, as it leaves the door open for Joule to return once Xiao is exposed and/or tips his hand.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
Personally, I'd hope the next game strays away from using the Muse as their primary plot McGuffin. They need to venture into unknown territory.[/spoiler]

[Hypershell]

[spoiler]
Xiao's little stunt sealed the Muse's power in a Glaive-like pendant. She clearly had her Septima all throughout the final battle. The merger of Joule and Mytyl's personality was also still in flux.

Remember, Copen/GV or Zonda always had Mytyl in their sights. It's only after leaving the Garden that she'd be left in Nori's care.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Mytyl does not lose her memories until after the battle is over, during which time both muses had already faded.  Without knowing more about what Xiao and Nori did it's unclear how close proximity they needed.  If I remember correctly the ending is Nori delivering the pendant to Xiao, who had not seen it earlier.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Personally, I'd hope the next game strays away from using the Muse as their primary plot McGuffin. They need to venture into unknown territory.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]My concern is more for Joule's character than the Muse's power.  It's very anti-climactic to center GV's story around Joule's recovery only to never pull it off.  Then there is the loose end of why Quinn, a non-adept of all people, can see her.

Some more variety would be nice, yeah, but we can have our cake and eat it too.  All we really need is for a new antagonist to form a unique strategy and [parasitic bomb] to hit the fan with Xiao in the midst of it.[/spoiler]

[Zan]

[spoiler]Mytyl does not lose her memories until after the battle is over, during which time both muses had already faded.  Without knowing more about what Xiao and Nori did it's unclear how close proximity they needed.  If I remember correctly the ending is Nori delivering the pendant to Xiao, who had not seen it earlier.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Nori wasn't on screen during the battle either. So the first possible opportunity would be right after GV/Copen's request to take Mytyl to the hospital. The seal would've happened anytime after (and likely have been accompanied by plenty of butterflies for special effect. In other words, not a very stealthy thing).[/spoiler]

[spoiler]My concern is more for Joule's character than the Muse's power.  It's very anti-climactic to center GV's story around Joule's recovery only to never pull it off.  Then there is the loose end of why Quinn, a non-adept of all people, can see her.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Quinn is likely attached to the Tetrad (4th) or Quinary (5th) Wave if she's able to see a Septima (7th). There's no special powers associated with regular 1st to 3rd Wave Humans other than enhanced physical and cognitive abilities (which would make Copen top-tier of the normals).[/spoiler]

[Hypershell]

Not sure if it's necessary to spoiler-tag Quinn.  Anyways...you lost me on the whole wave thing, some level of backstory that I'm missing/forgot.  Also I could have sworn it was not a given that any Adept can see Joule, but I may be off (been playing as Copen a lot as of late).

On the 80% ending:
[spoiler]Transcript

Xiao: Thanks for giving me a lift to the Garden.  So the Glaive is...  Er, you made it a pendant?
Nori: It's cuter that way.
Xiao: I didn't expect you to care about cute.
Nori: I'm full of surprises.
Xiao: Um...ha ha?  Anyway, we have what we came for.  Thanks.
Nori: You merged Joule and Mytyl and woke the power of the Muse.  Then you extracted the activated Septima essence.  What are you plotting here?
Xiao: No plot!  It's just...  The Muse has so much power.  Eden shouldn't have it.  And neither should GV.  Plus it would make Mytyl's life miserable.  So by using this Glaive... er, pendant... we can seal the power away and let her live in peace.  Er, don't you know all this?  Isn't it why you helped?
Nori: I need to be sure.
Xiao: Mytyl's father cut out her Septima.  Sumeragi turned her Septima into a living Glaive--Joule.  This damaged Mytyl's physical being as well.  But now, maybe she can start to live.
Nori: You're just telling me what I want to hear.  What are * your* objectives here?
Xiao: Nothing bad, I promise.  You'll know more soon.
Nori: .....

Nori clearly states that Xiao was behind the merger, which happened mid-battle between Copen and GV.  There's a lack of consistent direction in how Mytyl and Joule's memories progress.  When Mytyl first wakes she appears to be reacting on instinct to somebody's defeat (whoever you're not playing as), never moving her body beyond the basic Septimal levitation, and never responding to questions from GV or Copen mid-battle.  After the battle, she gets up, and is coherent, clearly improved from her mid-battle status.  In GV's case she actually refers to him by his nickname even though she's defending Copen.  But after two sentences or so, her memories leave her abruptly.  It is extremely sudden and comes off as a complete 180 from how she had been progressing thus far.

I find that suspect.  We know that Mytyl was damaged the first time the Muse was extracted from her, and that the Muse can assimilate the memories of its host, as it did with Joule when she was shot.  I find it no small stretch that the memory loss is a result of the Septima being extracted.[/spoiler]

[Zan]

Anyways...you lost me on the whole wave thing, some level of backstory that I'm missing/forgot. 

The Lifewave, it is the force of nature which connects all living things in this world. Extensive research has been conducted on the Lifewave for many generations, and it is currently known that up to six different stages of the Lifewave exist, from the Primordial (1st) stage to the Senary (6th) stage. Depending on which stage of the Lifewave living beings are attached to when they are born, they are granted varying levels of cognitive and physical capabilities.

Your average human being or animal will be born attached to the 1st to the 3rd stage of the Livewave, but there are indeed many exceptions to this.

Mystics, soothsayers, psychics; all of the people who possess these kinds of supernatural powers are almost always born attached to the Tetrad (4th) stage of the Lifewave. The most powerful people among this group of supernaturals are sometimes born attached to the Quinary (5th) wave, but these are quite rare. When someone is born attached to the Senary (6th) wave, however, it is considered nothing short of a miracle, and these people and animals are viewed by society as being sacred; no different from a holy person.

The Senary wave was long thought to be the pinnacle of the Lifewave, but unforeseen events have begun to challenge and place doubt on this long held perception about the Lifewave.

http://inticreates.com/azure-striker-gunvolt-fleeting-memories-part-1/

There's a slew of extra material as well, much like the ZERO-series, if you're interested.

Also I could have sworn it was not a given that any Adept can see Joule

Septima / Sevens come in many varieties. As such, it's a given that each power manifests differently. By the plot's insistence on Quinn being a regular human, she'd only have connections to wave 5 and lower. Whereas by virtue of seeing Joule, it'd be wave 4 and higher.

On the 80% ending:

[spoiler]It looks like there's two parts to the equation. Much of which happened on screen.

First, Xiao 'merged Joule and Mytyl and woke the power of the Muse'.
Second, he 'then extracted the activated Septima essence.'

The former refers to Mytyl's mysterious awakening during the battle between GV and Copen (after Zonda's defeat). I'd presume Xiao and Nori acted while Zonda was actively mucking around with reality (and thereby occurred off-screen to the player).

However, the latter can't happen until after the battle. It'd rob Mytyl of her powers.

Thus my questions are:

When did Nori 'give Xiao a lift to the Garden'? Before or after the battle?
Nori changed the form of the Glaive and handed it to Xiao. Was it actually Nori who extracted the activated Septima essence?[/spoiler]

[ViperAcidZX]

Interview with Inti Creates' Aizu and Tsuda on Gunvolt's development and future, scrapped ideas, possibly revisiting Mighty Gunvolt, and interest in a Gunvolt amiibo.

[Hypershell]

http://skybanesgunvault.blogspot.com/2016/10/check-out-official-gunvolt-timeline.html
Timeline from the ASG2 soundtrack.

There's a lot of interesting stuff about Copen in there.  Asimov is the one who killed his dad.  The Azure Striker data that Copen is using is Asimov's, not GV's.  And the gun was not the only thing Asimov took; Copen also lost his shield and seemingly never recovered it.

http://inticreates.com/azure-striker-gunvolt-fleeting-memories-part-1/

There's a slew of extra material as well, much like the ZERO-series, if you're interested.

Thanks much.

I see what you mean on the 4th/5th wave thing, but it is still odd that her "psychic" ability is, as far as we know anyway, exclusively the perception of a Septima.  I can't shake the feeling that there is more to her story than we've been told.

[spoiler]
When did Nori 'give Xiao a lift to the Garden'? Before or after the battle?
Nori changed the form of the Glaive and handed it to Xiao. Was it actually Nori who extracted the activated Septima essence?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I share question 2, the dialogue is really unclear on that.  If Xiao literally extracted the essence then he had only a temporary means to store it.  The other possibility is that Nori did it and she is simply crediting Xiao with the plan.

I'll wager the lift to the Garden refers to pre-battle.  Xiao is the one who arranged for himself and GV to travel to the Garden, it is likely that Nori is the connection he utilized to do that.  She probably went along with Xiao's plan out of desperation to secure Mytyl's return, seeings how that's the only thing Nori really gains in all of this.

However that raises the question of how Nori and Xiao know each other in the first place.[/spoiler]

[Zan]

http://skybanesgunvault.blogspot.com/2016/10/check-out-official-gunvolt-timeline.html
Timeline from the ASG2 soundtrack.

I was just about to link that too. Skybane's gunvault has pretty much all the extra material mentioned on that timeline.

Drama tracks from "Justice Rage", "Lazy Kingdom", and "Striker Pack" can all be found on YouTube, translated. Though I've not listened to all of them yet.

The only entries we're still missing are "Azure Striker Gunvolt OST booklet prologue" and "Dengeki Nintendo Short Story - GV and Quinn".

There's a lot of interesting stuff about Copen in there.  Asimov is the one who killed his dad.  The Azure Striker data that Copen is using is Asimov's, not GV's.  And the gun was not the only thing Asimov took; Copen also lost his shield and seemingly never recovered it.

http://skybanesgunvault.blogspot.nl/2016/01/dengeki-nintendo-character-profiles_5.html
http://skybanesgunvault.blogspot.nl/2015/12/acuras-story-from-dengeki-nintendo.html
http://skybanesgunvault.blogspot.nl/2015/05/the-lone-warrior-lives-to-fight-another.html

You can really tell Inti once intended for Copen to become the main playable character.

[ViperAcidZX]

Azure Striker Gunvolt 2's new wave of DLCs just came out in Japan today, but Inti Creates is planning on bringing them overseas sometime in January. The DLCs includes a new song for Joule and Lola, and extra stages featuring returning bosses from the first Gunvolt. A sample of the DLC can be seen in the video below. A demo for the second game is also in the works for those that haven't bought it already and looking to try it out. Full details here: http://inticreates.com/new-years-wallpaper-preview-of-gunvolt-2-dlc/

[youtube]youtu.be/jfVpUbfj-4E[/youtube]

Speaking of the first Gunvolt, I just finished it from the Striker Pack and while I think this one is good, just it does not live up to the vapid "OMG TEH ONLY TREU MEGA MAN SUCCESSOR" circle-jerk caused by Mighty No. 9's failure, especially when some didn't even think it was great to begin with (read: hypocrites). I like the dynamic of the shoot 'em up-styled combat, but the difficulty curve to me feels too demanding in perfecting your technique or else risking losing Kudos big time if you're halfway or near the end of a stage, meaning you'll likely have to start over from the beginning. This sucks even more when trying to do challenges that requires an S rank or better when a stray bullet or annoying enemies manages to hit you. It does feel very rewarding when racking up 1,000-3,000+ Kudos and hearing Lumen sing as you do well is a nice touch, which motivates me to keep trying, so it does do a good job of creating a risk/reward system here in earning higher scores, something that some people overlook in the point of score attack games like Gunvolt or even Mighty No. 9.

[spoiler=Ending spoilers for GV1]I screwed up and didn't realize Zonda's had a Chaos Emerald too, so I ended up getting the bad ending where Asimovs kills both Gunvolt and Joule with Copen's gun. I went back and found it so I'm gonna try again with the pendant Joule gives to Gunvolt for collecting and giving them to her.[/spoiler]

[Mirby]

I've never heard anyone over-exaggerate it as that. Literally.

Seriously, never heard anyone say it's the true MM successor because it's not and was never meant to be.

That said, I really need to get back to the second game lol

[Sakura Leic]

I actually have heard that multiple times, and yes it is ridiculous.

But yeah that DLC sounds awesome.

[Mirby]

Huh. Well that's on them for overhyping it to be something it's not haha

[Sakura Leic]

I also saw similar things about 20XX and while it's a fun game.......it's barely Megaman like besides asthetics.

[ViperAcidZX]

I actually have heard that multiple times, and yes it is ridiculous.

But yeah that DLC sounds awesome.

I even heard Akira-Hikari say the same thing (something along the lines of "it's the Mega Man game of this generation") during one of Vixy's livestreams, which honestly I do not agree with at all.

Huh. Well that's on them for overhyping it to be something it's not haha

Mighty No. 9 may be overhyped for some people, but Gunvolt is starting to become overrated thanks to the circle-jerk caused by the former and for wrong reasons. Is it Comcept's fault that the anticipation for Mighty No. 9 got derailed or is that people don't know how their temper their expectations anymore?

I also saw similar things about 20XX and while it's a fun game.......it's barely Megaman like besides asthetics.

I've seen this happening another indie Mega Man-ish games (e.g. Metagal, Rad Raygun), and games that play nothing at all like Mega Man such as A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda (which at best resembles the MS-DOS game Abuse), and other crowd-funded games likes Bloodstained and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, despite that they're both also handled by Inti Creates and Matt Bozon himself said on twitter he enjoyed Mighty No. 9. This has gotten to the point of becoming pathetic. Also [tornado fang] the A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda developers for kicking Inafune down for a profit by putting their game on sale just to make a quick buck out of Mighty No. 9's backlash. What a bunch of greedy, selfish bastards.

[Hypershell]

Speaking of the first Gunvolt, I just finished it from the Striker Pack and while I think this one is good, just it does not live up to the vapid "OMG TEH ONLY TREU MEGA MAN SUCCESSOR" circle-jerk caused by Mighty No. 9's failure, especially when some didn't even think it was great to begin with (read: hypocrites). I like the dynamic of the shoot 'em up-styled combat, but the difficulty curve to me feels too demanding in perfecting your technique or else risking losing Kudos big time if you're halfway or near the end of a stage, meaning you'll likely have to start over from the beginning. This sucks even more when trying to do challenges that requires an S rank or better when a stray bullet or annoying enemies manages to hit you. It does feel very rewarding when racking up 1,000-3,000+ Kudos and hearing Lumen sing as you do well is a nice touch, which motivates me to keep trying, so it does do a good job of creating a risk/reward system here in earning higher scores, something that some people overlook in the point of score attack games like Gunvolt or even Mighty No. 9.

Your issues are specific to ASG1.  2 is much better.  Kudos defaults to a loss at 3 hits in that one.  You can change it to 1 hit, or to never.  The more unforgiving your Kudos style, the higher a score multiplier you can earn.

Missions are also handled better (they all activate automatically after their respective stage has been cleared), and equipment descriptions are more detailed/accurate.

Also Copen.  There is literally no point to playing Mighty after playing as Copen.  Dash-ramming an enemy works INFINITELY BETTER as a targeting method than as a finisher.

I've never heard anyone over-exaggerate it as that. Literally.

Seriously, never heard anyone say it's the true MM successor because it's not and was never meant to be.

That said, I really need to get back to the second game lol

I've...actually said that.  About ASG2, anyway, the first one was a bit rough (not unlike Z1 and ZX1; Inti always seems to rush the presentation a little when they start a new series).  Also when I say "successor", I don't mean "replacement".  More like a loving homage.  It's unique enough to stand on its own, but that's what I want.  At the same time, you can't not notice the similarities to Zero and ZX.

I don't accept the "spiritual successor is a replacement" mentality, and apparently I'm not the only one.

From day one, Mighty No. 9 was "meant" to play to the arrogance that being a Mega Man fan automatically made you a fan of Inafune's not-Mega-Man-for-copyright-reasons game.  The public fell for it at first because the Legends 3/XOver/Bad Box Art X Tekken wounds were still fresh, so people wanted to screw Capcom.  But that wore off.  It was no accident that perception of Comcept went down the toilet; it was inevitable as long as Inafune had no substance to back up his nostalgia grabs.  The fact that their communication, development process, and final product all sucked just expedited the process.