Gungrave

Overview

Classic run and gun style game full of action and absolutely ridiculous at that. You play as Grave who carries around a giant coffin around with him on his back at all times. He also carries two pistols with him, which deal out a majority of the damage. You start out each level with the objective to fight off wave after waves of baddies through hallways, open areas, maze like areas, staircases, etc. all the while maintaining as large of a combo as possible in order to receive a good rating at the end of the game. At the end of each level is a boss. This repeats itself until the end of the game. No outlandish puzzles to take you out of the action, simple and to the point action game, nothing more, nothing less.

Plot

The story revolves around a mega crime organization called Millennion. Grave was a former head honcho guy of the company and during a coup to take over the company, he was killed by his friend Harry while trying to protect the president of the company.

The game starts with Grave being risen from the dead essentially, and is handed two massive handguns by a little girl, these are your weapons for which you will cause mass destruction in the game.

Along with the little girl, there is a doctor, Dr. T is his name, and giving missions is his game. All 3 of these characters headquarters is a shotty little warehouse where you come after each mission and you can talk to the girl or doctor to get some backstory or extra information and save your game, but other then that, you just use it to get your next mission.

Dr. T assigns you missions to gradually take out high ranking members of this crime organization Grave himself used to help control. As he comes closer and closer to the leader, will he finally get revenge on his friend, Harry, which took his life?

Gameplay

The game is a 3 person action shooter in which you fight wave after wave of enemies. Your main objective is to obtain as much flair as possible by making large combos. Combos can be stringed together by each bullet that contacts with an enemy. In order to obtain large combos you need to constantly move forward in the level, rolling jumping, dodging as much as you possibly can.

When you fill up enough of your special meter with all your flair, you can use that nifty looking coffin on your back (see, it’s not completely useless). The coffin has 4 different special moves called, Demolition Shots. These are: Deathblow, Bullet Dance, Hellhound Roar, and Raging Inferno. The last two’s animations build off the first twos animations respectively.

Theres also one more special move the coffin can pull off, called Graveyard Special. This is only used on a boss’s final form so its not a move you can do whenever you want, so I felt it necessary to give it its own section.

The game also gives you a shield in order to block your body from bullets. Once this shield is depleted you take much more damage to your vitality then you normally would to your shield, after a while though the shield will recharge itself if you haven’t taken damage.

Art

The art style comes from the acclaimed Japanese artist Yasuhiro Nightow. He is most famous for his anime/manga series of Trigun. The similarities grow beyond just similar art styles. The main antagonist, Wolfwood, in Trigun also carries a ridiculously large object on his back wherever he goes that also doubles as a weapon (in Wolwoods case it is a giant cross). Nightow also went on to create the Gungrave anime which has achieved mild success on its own, much like the game.