Inti Creates will release “Azure Striker Gunvolt 3” or “Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 Chain Ring” In Japanese for Switch on July 28, 2022. This title is the third installment in the Azure Gunvolt series, and in addition to providing players with exhilarating and dynamic action, it also features full voice acting and Idol singing when you continue playing in a stylish manner, thus inheriting the selling points of its predecessor.
Azure Striker Gunvolt tells a story in the near future, when humanity awoke to a new power known as “Septima”. Humans with this power became known as “Adepts,” and steadily increased in number as new adepts were born. Soon they tried to secure supremacy over the world through establishing the “Eden” organization, but the blue warrior “Gunvolt” was always there to stop them in their tracks. In the process, he acquires new terrifying powers, and that’s why the new protagonist Kirin has to stop him by sealing him with her own Septima, Radiant Fetters.
Included in this article, are the most important tidbits from the interview with the developers of the game: The producer Takuya Aizu, The Director Yoshihisa Tsuda and Keiji Inafune, the executive producer and action supervisor of the game. Translation is by the author of the article. Refer to the original article here.
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 – The past and the future
- The original plan was to produce 3 more games after the first game, and reuse older assets.
- The actions of the new playable character Kirin was born after the longest period of Trial and Error in the history of Inti creates, and lots of things have been reworked from scratch.
- Mr. Inafune was heavily involved in the action production this time.
- For the new action concept: Chain Ring (Or Radiant Fetters), which has the ability to seal other Septima powers, the Bloodstained direction, Mr. Hiroki Miyazawa was hired, so the team could spend more time on the worldview and the characters.
- The new starting plot was a priestess character who uses a sword. The choice of the female gender was a deliberate one, and because of the changing environment in the industry, Mr. Tsuda decided to include a female character. He also made sure to incorporate her into the story and the world without any sense of discomfort for the players.
- The World of “Azure Striker Gunvolt” is mostly Western-influenced, but there are a lot of Japanese elements as well, such as the Rival organization, the Sumeragi group, and the new sinister organization, Shadow Yakumo, which appears as a counterpart to the Sumeragi. Kirin, the new protagonist, is a new war priestess in this organization, to give the conflict another western-eastern layer.
- Kirin has her own reasons for coming into conflict with Gunvolt, which acts as a nice homage to the first game. The director did not elaborate further on the matter.
- The goal of the action concept was to make people get involved in using Kirin’s charms or talismans. Sword fighting is cool but it’s not difficult or complicated to use, and also it has its own advantages and disadvantages, such as warping inside the enemy’s own area. The aim is to encourage using the Thunderbolt chain to reach the stage without landing on the ground, such as portrayed in the video here.
- When you start the game, you will play with Kirin only, but a bit later you will be able to change freely into Gunvolt.
- In addition to Gunvolt’s various powers, his new “Image Pulse” ability allows him to summon the images of his friends and rivals he met in the past and activate their abilities. There are two main types of Image Pulse: those that can be equipped and those that can be invoked. There are more than 150 image pulse abilities to be found in game.
- The Kudos system has been adjusted to make it easier for players who are not good at action games to accumulate points and unlock Morpho’s singing.
- It’s still unknown if the series will continue, but Mr Tsuda might retire before he is able to work on the fourth game for another six years.
- The game was created with the utmost detail because it will only be released on one platform. A number of store perks will also be included.
- The series is made to retain the brilliance of the NES and SNES era of Japanese games, but with a world view and details in tune with the current era of gaming.