History VideoGame / AzureStrikerGunvolt

* NintendoHard:
** Not really the case when playing normally, but aiming for S+ rank definitely requires a lot of skill and practice. You need to know the layout of the map to be able to get through in a quick time, and the layout of the enemies to know where you can combo kill and to avoid damage. On top of that getting hit makes you lose your Kudos, while using a skill or touching a checkpoint resets them. So basically to get the most kudos for your score you have go through a level untouched without checkpoints and get a perfect against the stage boss.
** The [[BrutalBonusLevel Special Missions]], which feels like the level designers decided to channel their inner ''Franchise/MegaMan''. Every mission consists of a medley of areas from the seven Sumeragi stages, but with updated enemy placement and level design designed to actively screw with the player as much as possible, with an ample dose of CheckPointStarvation to ladle on extra punishment. Hope you brought your Galvanic Renewal!
** Speedrun Mode: Perma-Anthem is nothing but this. You get Anthem at the start of every stage, but this is offset by 90% of the layout being replaced by OneHitKill SpikesOfDoom. Beating the game subsequently comes down to an exercise in perfect play, memorization, and ButtonMashing.
** Hard Mode in general is horribly punishing, especially on a blind run. Despite having bonus damage, you have a capped HP limit of 100, which means 90% of attacks will bring you below half health. In addition, the RPGElements are excised, which means no Skills, no Levels, and no Gear. In fact, it's actually better to tank a hit than to Prevade it, as Prevasion in Hard Mode forces an instant Overheat, and Overheat in Hard Mode lasts a whopping '''30 seconds''', effectively leaving you completely helpless. This means that if you walk into a stray attack, you're running for your life, or in the case of a boss fight, ''it's a death sentence.''

* ObviousRulePatch: Speedrunning stages is a joke thanks to Gunvolt's Prevasion so long as he has a Necklace equipped, which practically allows him to dash through the entire stage damage-free. SpeedRun Mode addresses this by starting Gunvolt with the ''Broken Necklace'' instead, a useless JokeItem which not only does not give him Prevasion, but also caps his maximum HP at 200. [[spoiler:However, it does do something important: as it's derived from the plot-significant Handmade Necklace, it will trigger the mission against the TrueFinalBoss. [[NintendoHard Have fun getting there with subpar equipment in record time, though...]]]]

* ImageLinks/CosplayFanArt: [[https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/561/535/d81194836ac27bbed6014f3f14814f5f_large.jpg A piece of official art]] featuring Lumen and ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'''s Call cosplaying each other was made by Inti Creates artist Yuji Natsume to commemorate ''Mighty Gunvolt''.

* BigDamnHeroes: In the ''Striker Pack'' CD, [[spoiler:Nori rescues Copen before Asimov can fire the killing shot. She later reveals that she stowed away on Copen's spaceship, the "Sabertooth", just in case Copen ran into a spat of trouble while infiltrating Babel.]]
** [[spoiler: Copen kills Elise 2 for Gunvolt before she can revive the others in her 2nd fight. Subverted, as he kills Elise just because she's an Adept, attempting to kill Gunvolt right after.]]

* BreakingTheFourthWall: In one of the tracks of Admiration of Peace, an audio drama for the first game, Moniqa breaks the fourth wall in order to point out that the enemies that Asimov calls ninjas are referred to as "assassins" by the development team.
** AudienceWhatAudience: Asimov than proceeds to ask what the hell the development team is. Moniqa realizes [[NonSequitur she doesn't quite know either.]]

** Before "Hard Mode" is introduced the overall difficulty of the game is easier compared to later games.

* HolidayMode: "Christmas Mode", a mode exclusively for the Steam version that involves collecting falling presents for maximum score. The mode also includes a Christmas-themed UI, and DeliberatelyMonochrome levels with foreground snow and Christmas-themed background music. The ''real'' difference between Christmas Mode and the base game is that it turns ''the entire game'' into a SlippySlideyIceWorld, complete with much-reviled [[FrictionlessIce ice physics applied to all surfaces.]]

* InterfaceScrew: The zombie enemies that hang from the ceiling and spit harmful globs of blood can be killed instantly by shooting the thread they are hanging by. However, this will cause pinkish-red blood to splatter on the screen, obstructing the player's sight.

--> [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY6zaCodul8 "WAGA AI YO!"]]

* JustAKid: One mook in the opening mission says this word-for-word when he finally meets the terrifying Gunvolt and is disappointed when he realizes that Gunvolt's some middle school kid.

* ALighterShadeOfGray: Regardless of how [[spoiler:Asimov]] exposes himself as a madman at the end and there are crazies like Merak or Elise running Sumeragi, it doesn't mean every other member of these groups are strictly out for Adept or human blood. The [[spoiler:non-Asimov]] members we've seen of QUILL have the right intentions, and Sumeragi's actions were ultimately [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned extremism]]. It doesn't help when [[spoiler:Nova frequently [[VillainHasAPoint makes points that aged well throughout the games]].]]

* LocomotiveLevel: The intro level and Conflagration (aka Biochem Plant) is this.

* NoDamageRun: There are a few achievements for completing certain levels without taking damage. Also note that netting a lot of Kudos mandates taking no damage, because it resets to zero every time you get hit (even if your Prevasion chain blocks the actual damage).

* PoliteVillainsRudeHeroes: Especially between [[AffablyEvil Nova]] and [[GoodIsNotNice Gunvolt]]. Well, Gunvolt is as rude as the game and his age would allow, anyway.

* SkywardScream: [[spoiler: Gunvolt, when Joule dies.]]

* SpiderTank: The "Mantis" robots, and a MiniBoss in the Biochem Plant (at the end of the locomotive part).
* SpikesOfDoom: Littered a lot in stages. Unlike in ''Franchise/MegaMan'', however, spikes here only does damage rather than killing you... unless you have Lethal Lavaliere pendant equipped.

** During Carrera's stage, Zeno at one point will refer to Gunvolt as the [[Anime/ACertainScientificRailgun "Electro-Middleschooler" and "Biribiri".]]
** When discussing a mission taking place in a haunted facility Zeno tells Gunvolt he should bring a [[Franchise/GhostBusters proton pack.]]

''Azure Striker Gunvolt'' was succeeded by a direct sequel, ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt2'', in 2016. A second sequel, ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt3'', was announced at [=BitSummit=] Gaiden 2020; you can watch the "first look" trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjYTwG2_mI here]].

* GenderNeutralWriting: The game used the pronouns "xe" and "xem" for bigender Zonda. Complaints arose from both sides of the debate, and thus they no longer have any specific pronoun in the Steam release.

* DifficultyLevels: The February 2016 update for the Steam version added these, in Easy and Hard flavors. Easy grants extra boons such as Prevasion while Flashfielding, the ability to proc Anthem if you fall into a BottomlessPit, and stronger Flashfield, while Hard drives into the realm of masochism, including turning certain hazards such as spikes and lava into {{One Hit Kill}}s, decreasing Gunvolt's HP and disabling Special Skills and Level Ups, and disabling Anthem entirely, but [[HardModePerks it also gives him]] bonus damage and a Kudos accumulation rate boost as well as a black PaletteSwap.

* InnocentCohabitation: Joule starts living with Gunvolt after he rescues her from the Sumeragi Group.

* SystematicVillainTakedown: In the game, the protagonist's main mission, aside from protecting Joule, is to defeat the Sumeragi Swordsmen, a part of the Sumeragi group that is led by Nova and his direct underlings, the Sumeragi Seven, a group of Adepts who had their powers physically extracted into swords known as Glaives, with the intention of controlling and weaponizing Adepts. Each of the game's seven major missions is about finding and taking down the Sumeragi seven in each mission, with the final one going after Nova. [[spoiler:It's revealed that the Sumeragi group could clone the Sumeragi Seven, so there's a BossBonanza in the game's final missions, defeating those seven bosses again. Nova also turns out to not be the FinalBoss of the game, with a TrueFinalBoss after him in the true ending.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The last levels of the game can count as this for GV. [[spoiler: After Merak kidnaps Joule, Gunvolt rushes after him, taking out everything in his way, including 4 Mantis Legions, Merak himself, and Stratos, Jota, Viper, Elise, Copen, and Nova, all in a presumably short timeframe. After Asimov kills both Gunvolt and Joule, he revives thanks to Joule fusing with Lumen and using Anthem, proceeding to kill both Carrera and Asimov as well.]]

** [[spoiler: Copen kills Elise 2 for Gunvolt before she can revive the others in her 2nd fight. Subverted, as he challenges Gunvolt to a fight right after.]]

** The 3DS translation

** The 3DS (8-4) translation is notorious for using fake swearing that are essentially thinly hidden swear words (i.e. "Jitt" and "Gack"). Also that version also lacks dialogue during missions (except for Copen's spin-off).
** The same above translation has Gunvolt refer to Sumeragi Group as an "Energy Syndicate" (read: criminal organization).
** Even with the re-translation, the word "braindead" is used on two occasions something that is no longer used in ''2'' and onwards.

** Not counting its spin-off game that focus on Copen, this is the only game where Gunvolt is the sole player character. You cannot play as another character with a different playstyle.

* SpiritualSuccessor: [[VideoGame/MightyNo9 Yet another one]] to the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series, particularly the ''Zero'' and ''ZX'' games, which Inti Creates previously developed.