What is your honest opinion on each of these games?
Or just one of them if you've not played the other
Gungrave
Landon Baker
Jacob Scott
Never heard nor have I played them, but those are some sick ass covers.
Michael Rodriguez
I played a bit of Overdose and enjoyed it.
Ryder Gray
The second game is still severely underrated by "anime is better than the games" apples-vs-oranges comparisons but inferior to the first in a bunch of ways. Some bonus points for letting you know when when your style score goes up, no pointless "keep a button pressed to run even though you should always be running" element, more satisfying use of destructible environments + Billy being a great character though. But beyond that, a lot of inferior elements. For example barely any use of music and the framerate being trash.
The slowdowns in the first game, whether intentional or not, actually helped the experience the same way slowdown in a Cave game does. I suspect it was at least semi-intentional because there is a "slow" mode that has the same effect occur more often. Meanwhile Overdose doesn't have slowdown, the framerate just goes to shit far too often getting in the way of the fluidity of the combat.
Jeremiah Parker
Loved them both. Gameplay was kind of clunky, but still fun.
Leo Ross
Meanwhile the first game is possibly the most misunderstood game in the history of the PS2 and barely any of the people who played it got what it was doing. Both the fans and haters are wrong.
This is the only good post about it I've seen in the history of Sup Forums. No one could effectively counter it.
Jack Foster
>watching that cringe inducing faggot thor
Really Sup Forums ?
Michael Foster
I kinda disagree; I think the controls are almost as perfect as God Hand's. The only thing keeping the first game back is the normal, non locked-on jumping being a little off (though you'll rarely find yourself jumping when not locked on at all), the lack of a minimap and the "keep a button pressed to run" thing which is by far the biggest flaw with the game.
I did say the second was inferior in some ways but the controls were better simply because running was the default.
I think the behind-the-back camera and tank controls with strafing of games like this and God Hand are superior to the camera angles in other PS2 games that get far less shit for their camera like Yakuza 2 or Devil May Cry 3. And I love those games too.
Juan Allen
And on the rest of the internet, this is the one other post I could find that understands the first Gungrave's gameplay, from the HG101 forums. Nonetheless the dude's ass kissing of the review is wrong as the HG101 review was fucking terrible and said things as retarded as "the first game is exactly like a classic arcade game: non-stop action and zero depth".
Beyond that though, this post is spot-on. Anyone who moaned about the game being "too easy" should read this.
Daniel Green
The type of difficulty the first Gungrave was going for has little to do with games like Devil May Cry, which is what people mistakenly associate it with & say it "failed" at that kind of difficulty. Those games also have arcade elements, but they have a much, much higher barrier of entry. Gungrave is more easily comparable to certain arcade-style games you can find on Steam; games like Astebreed or Mecha Ritz.
Meaning, games that are easy to complete if you abuse continues, but will majorly fuck up your score if you do that. And if you hate scoring for whatever reason, Gungrave goes even further in giving you ranks for things like time, combos, total kills and style and then rewards you with demolition shots based on how well you did.
It's a game that wants to be fun and easily playable to casuals while giving replay value to perfectionists.
Joseph Butler
BURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON
HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEATUUUUUUU
Austin Butler
Za Guravu
Beyond za Guravu
Dominic Morales
Just pirate them and play them on a modded PS2 or emulate them; I assume you have the means for at least one of those two choices these days. Expect a game that's short and easy to play yet hard to get perfect ranks in.
The art, story & whatnot is the work of Yasuhiro Nightow, the creator of Trigun. The game's presentation is great and had some really good anime staff working on it; Takeshi Koike (Redline, Trava Fist Planet, the World Record short in Animatrix) was in charge of the protagonist's animations. They're great and fluid while at the same time not intruding with the gameplay.
He also drew this promotional pic for it.
David Ward
i like the first one the battle with gunji is suberb
Gabriel Richardson
The environments are also much better than in the sequel. One of the concept artists for them was Osamu Kobayashi; if you associate the guy with his mediocre Gurren Lagann episode, don't and watch the actually-good shit he did like Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad.
He drew the picture on the lower-right of the left page here. I can tell because I have animator autism.
Justin Howard
I fucking LOVE that battle SO MUCH and this brings me to the next point of my "please play this game" rambling: the soundtrack in the first Gungrave is goddamn amazing. It could have so easily gone for just non-stop over the top tracks, and while it has quite a few of those that are good, it's on the whole surprisingly understated for an over the top anime action game. And yeah it's done by the guy who did the soundtrack for Trigun.
How many over-the-top stylish action games would have this as a track for a badass yet subtly depressing boss encounter with a guy that used to be a dear friend, and that you mentored in your past life? youtube.com
How many games would create atmosphere inbetween levels by having the hub area be a small building where you hang out and have melancholic conversations with the only two allies you have in the entire game, with this track playing on a lo-fi radio? youtube.com
How many games would have a bizarre, dark, ambient track play during the surreal final level to give it a creepy and otherwoldly vibe? youtube.com
But if you want action tracks, here's one that plays as you break into a bar and murder everyone in it: youtube.com
Evan Barnes
I remember the first being way too easy and way too short, did I do something wrong?
Jace Long
Just wanna say cheers for the rants m8, I love reading posts like yours about niche games. Its always cool to see someone so passionate and knowledgeable about less well known cult classics.
Downloading 1/2 right now to try them out myself.
Chase Sanchez
Also, the entire story (at least game-wise) is hugely inspired by the somewhat obscure 1936 Michael Curtiz/Boris Karloff film The Walking Dead.
>organized crime story
>protagonist is a shambling, barely-able-to-emote zombie brought back from the dead by a scientist (the two scientists even look similar!) on a quest for revenge against the organization that killed him
It's not a ripoff though, because Gungrave has one big difference - the mob you're going after are a group you used to be a part of. So everyone you kill in the game used to be your friend.
This is not TOO surprising given the huge fascination Yasuhiro Nightow has with western media.
Justin Morris
Yeah, but you're not alone; most people didn't really get the game's approach. Read my tl;dr posts. But if they are too tl;dr, just do this:
-Play it on the highest difficulty setting
-Play it not just to survive (which is easy) but to get a good score & good ranks (which can be fairly challenging, because you're not allowed to use continues as it resets your score & screws up your ranking)
The game gives you a final rank at the end. If you sucked it even gives you an outright insulting one like "The Dunce" or something to that effect.
Carter Jones
To add to the Nightow-appeal elements in the game, the unlockable character model viewer is fucking amazing because you get to view everyone as action figures in boxes.
This is charming as all hell because if you read Trigun volume 1 you know that Nightow is a massive toy collector.
I'm rambling mainly because I'm gonna put these together into a video. But I'm glad that I got someone to try it.
Jack Rogers
...
Blake Hall
Basically the game is anime as hell and full of stuff that was popular at the time, but it's also really honest and full of shit that the creator earnestly loves. I'd compare its characters, universe & overall presentation to those of Guilty Gear in that regard.
Matthew White
Also if you are playing & trying to do your best there's a surprising amount of depth in there and there are various skills required to do a truly great job with combos, time & whatnot:
-split-second reflexes
-projectile avoidance
-target prioritization
-strategic use of your environment & enemy locations (there's a TON of environmental destruction and taking note of that mixed with enemy spawn points is crucial to keeping a huge combo going)
-knowing how to balance speed, combos & style points to get perfect ranks
There's some stuff I had NO IDEA you could even do before watching this "perfect score" playthrough on Youtube: youtube.com
For example, in the Chinatown level, enemies spawn out of a tram. I never considered that you can use a demolition shot on the tram early on and blow it up and cancel a ton of enemy spawns, therefore allowing you to finish the level much, much faster.
Robert Gray
The second game has a LOT more content, but it also feels less polished. Gungrave is an arcadey game; short yet well-planned, with all the enemy encounters being carefully choreographed. The second is more like a typical console game where I often thought "okay, having that enemy spawn THERE was pure bullshit"
M capped post here got it right, level design that has you always going forward works much better for this series than level design that has enemies spawning from all over.
Camden Myers
Its always nice when they give you multiple ways to handle a situation.
Blake Ortiz
Also, Bunji's design in the second game is clearly a reference to Ken Ishikawa.
Sebastian Roberts
The best thing about the sequel is you get to play as a guy named "Rocketbilly Redcadillac" who uses a guitar as a weapon.