Inti’s specialty is Mega Man-type games. While working on Mighty No. 9, they also put out this, a new IP with gameplay that could be considered a successor to their Zero and ZX games. It’s no replacement for me, but has some fun new core mechanics.
The fundamentals of Gunvolt are tagging things with his little gun, and then using his electrical field to shock them. The field also protects him from some projectiles, and is useful for the platforming and puzzle elements in stages. The balancing act comes from the passive dodge mechanic that uses energy to evade attacks, but only when the field is not active. Energy usage is also a factor that must be considered. It all integrates to a fun dynamic that can feel stop-start but with practice develops its own sense of flow.
Much of the Mega Man formula carries through. There’s an intro tutorial stage, then you select from a cast of bosses to take on, each of whose stages has a new gimmick. Then there’s a set of final stages including a boss rush. Several of the bosses feel like retakes on concepts Inti had tried in Zero or ZX games, and for the most part they’re fun challenges that much like with Mighty No. 9 chunk into phases with their health. You don’t gain any advantage from beating a boss though; in fact, the rival character you encounter seems to be the one who’s taken their weapons for himself.
Instead Gunvolt expands his abilities by gaining experience through combat to unlock new super attacks (or healing skills), and by creating equipment items through consumables picked up in stages or by beating challenges (like in Zero 4). You can unlock fun things like double jumps and air dashes, but only a few items fundamentally change his playstyle, so it’s a good thing they developed a strong base for him.
So far so peachy. My main issue with the game is the stylistic choices. The anime stylings have been leaned into haaard; the setting is ripe with cliche and proper nouns. The main characters are edgy superpowered young teens with ridiculous hair and ideologies, and the support character is a shy girl with a vocaloid idol persona. It’s all a bit eye-rolling; yes it’s personal taste but I couldn’t engage with the game on that level. The script has had a lot of localisation work put into it (unlike the Zero games for instance) but goes perhaps too far with its silly made-up future swears and such.
As far as the actual presentation, it’s all very slick and well-done. I also appreciate that despite the game’s difficulty there multiple levels of engagement. You get rankings based on performance, and there are difficult challenges, but it’s all optional and there’s no penalty for failure or even a life counter. Oddly, on death you sometimes get revived with extra boons by the vocaloid singing to you but it’s random chance whether it happens, and then you have to endure her pop song… My main takeaway is that it’s a fun game to play and tries new things with the main character’s abilities, to great success.
