And imo, Azure Striker Gunvolt looked and played better. I played the demo and that was very fun.
Game design is subjective, so I'm not going to insist on this, but a small rant: I was really hyped for Gunvolt, and for me it turned out to be complete trash and one of the biggest disappointments in a while.
-Lightning tagging system feels convoluted and awkward for the sake of being gimmicky. The X/Z series controls just barely remained elegant despite the fact that you often had to hold 2 buttons at once (shot/chage + dash) while tapping a third (jump), but the need to hold on to lightning now adds a third button to intermittently hold while tapping jump and thus plummets the game into the depths of TOO MANY BUTTONS arrgh. Add to that the fact that lightning actually affects your jump arc and you have a recipe for pure confusion.
This might be acceptable except for the fact that the lightning tagging system doesn't really do anything interesting. It doesn't open up new strategies or risk/reward venues or allow you to do anything particularly cool or new...it's literally just gimmicky and convoluted for the sake of being gimmicky and convoluted. It adds nothing of value on top of being a complete pain in the ass.
-Some of the worst level design I've seen in a Mega Man game. It might be an exaggeration to say that
everything was just a series of bland halls filled with the same boring tanky soldier dude and flying probes to impede your path, but it sure felt like it.
-Bosses are some of the cheesiest I've ever seen, and would be almost complete trial and error if not for some of the options the game gives you that make it super hard to die. For example, the telegraphing on Viper/Daytona's slide is so low that it's barely reactable if you don't know his pattern, and that's not even getting into the boss super attacks which are basically designed to be memorizer bullshit. I guess some people like memorizing trial and error bullshit, but I hate it. It's the opposite of what I look for in a good boss fight.
-One good song in the game (the intro stage) and it's pretty much on 30 second loop. Rest is mediocre at best.
-Other things I could mention, like certain control elements being changed from MMX that don't really make sense, or how the lightning tagging system makes your shots feel weak and enemies too tanky (bad idea in an action game), but you get the picture.
hate hate hate
