History YMMV / AzureStrikerGunvolt3

** The PC release launched with an updated version of the True Ending, adding new dialogue that clarifies a critical plot point after the original true ending was an AudienceAlienatingEnding: [[spoiler:After having his uncontrollable powers contained by Radiant Fetters, Gunvolt senses Astral Order's power flowing into him and discovers that Moebius was trying to kill him to prevent the end of the world. Realizing that he must change destiny to avert the path of destruction fated by his "current self", Gunvolt harnesses the combined power of Azure Striker and Astral Order to seemingly reincarnate himself at a new point in time and space, leaving it in Kirin's care while he sets out to save the future. As a result, Gunvolt's fate is given a potentially hopeful future for him, alleviating worries after the original ending seemingly set him up with no chance for a happy ending, and the attempt at a SequelHook for Gunvolt and Kirin's future adventures is seen as a bit more satisfying now with this new context presented]].

** The PC release launched with an updated version of the True Ending, adding new dialogue that clarifies a critical plot point after the original true ending was an AudienceAlienatingEnding: [[spoiler:After having his uncontrollable powers contained by Radiant Fetters, Gunvolt senses Astral Order's power flowing into him and discovers that Moebius was trying to kill him to prevent the end of the world. Realizing that he must change destiny to avert the path of destruction fated by his "current self", Gunvolt harnesses the combined power of Azure Striker and Astral Order to abandon the current timeline, leaving it in Kirin's care while he sets out to save the future. As a result, Gunvolt's fate is given a potentially hopeful future for him, alleviating worries after the original ending seemingly set him up with no chance for a happy ending, and the attempt at a SequelHook for Gunvolt and Kirin's future adventures is seen as a bit more satisfying now with this new context presented]].

* ContestedSequel: The gameplay is generally considered to be a major step up from past installments, with adjustments to Gunvolt's gameplay being very welcome and handily sells the idea of being an unstoppable force of nature (TagTeam mechanic aside), while Kirin's gameplay is a breath of fresh air for the series' traditional RunAndGun roots and a much improved take on melee combat over the controversial ''Luminous Avenger iX 2''. Much of the game's criticism is directed towards the writing; the TimeSkip [[AbortedArc cuts off all plot threads from previous games]], including the SequelHook from ''Gunvolt 2'', the game's villainous faction has fairly bland and generic motives and are otherwise not as memorable as previous organizations, several major plot elements go completely unexplained, and [[spoiler:AudienceAlienatingEnding is in full play due to the story employing SerialEscalation for the universe's PowerLevels rather than fleshing out preexisting conflicts and Gunvolt getting wrung by ''both'' of the game's endings, resulting in a less than satisfying conclusion]].

** The PC release launched with an updated version of the True Ending, adding new dialogue that clarifies a critical plot point after the original true ending was an AudienceAlienatingEnding: [[spoiler:After having his uncontrollable powers contained by Radiant Fetters, Gunvolt senses Astral Order's power flowing into him and discovers that Moebius was trying to kill him to prevent the end of the world. Realizing that he must change destiny to avert the path of destruction fated by his "current self", Gunvolt harnesses the combined power of Azure Striker and Astral Order to abandon the current timeline, leaving it in Kirin's care while he sets out to save the future. As a result, Gunvolt's fate is given a potentially hopeful future for him, alleviating worries after the original ending seemingly set him up with no chance for a happy ending, and the attempt at a SequelHook for Gunvolt and Kirin's future adventures works much better with this new context presented]].

** The True Ending of this game has drawn harsh criticism for veering sharply into EsotericHappyEnding. [[spoiler:Gunvolt survives... but turns into a mysterious azure light and flies off into the unknown, completely denying him of any possible happy ending despite the crap he's gone through for three whole games which drives the ending into AngstAversion range for those who just want Gunvolt to be happy at this point. The world is arguably worse off than it was before the game started with Adepts beginning to go berserk into Primal Dragons world-wide, with the only differences between the two endings being whether Gunvolt lives or dies, Kirin's resolve to face the coming dangers with the other Dragon Saviors on her side until she can perhaps see GV again, and confirming ATEMS has abandoned their goal for the sake of protecting the innocents from the Primal Dragon attacks.]] Many fans feel that this direction was a massive cop-out and that the writers backed themselves into a corner for the sake of a SequelHook; some fans even argue that the ''bad ending'' was better written just because it felt like a conclusive finish and appropriately tragic, even if it just cuts off abruptly with no afterward on how the world is affected. [[SalvagedStory Luckily]], an updated version of the ending gives crucial context for Gunvolt's fate and ultimately resolves his story in a substantially more satisfying way while still leaving the series open for sequels.

** The PC release launched with an updated version of the True Ending, adding new dialogue that clarifies a critical plot point after the original true ending was an AudienceAlienatingEnding: [[spoiler:After having his uncontrollable powers contained by Radiant Fetters, Gunvolt senses Astral Order's power flowing into him and discovers that Moebius was trying to kill him to prevent the end of the world. Realizing that he must change destiny to avert the path of destruction fated by his "current self", Gunvolt harnesses the combined power of Azure Striker and Astral Order to abandon the current timeline, leaving it in Kirin's care while he sets out to save the future.]]

** The True Ending of this game has drawn harsh criticism for veering sharply into EsotericHappyEnding. [[spoiler:Gunvolt survives... but turns into a mysterious azure light and flies off into the unknown, completely denying him of any possible happy ending despite the crap he's gone through for three whole games. The world is arguably worse off than it was before the game started with Adepts beginning to go berserk into Primal Dragons world-wide, with the only differences between the two endings being whether Gunvolt lives or dies, Kirin's resolve to face the coming dangers with the other Dragon Saviors on her side until she can perhaps see GV again, and confirming ATEMS has abandoned their goal for the sake of protecting the innocents from the Primal Dragon attacks.]] Many fans feel that this direction was a massive cop-out and that the writers backed themselves into a corner for the sake of a SequelHook; some fans even argue that the ''bad ending'' was better written just because it felt like a conclusive finish and appropriately tragic, even if it just cuts off abruptly with no afterward on how the world is affected. Luckily, an updated version of the ending gives crucial context for Gunvolt's fate and ultimately resolves his story in a substantially more satisfying way while still leaving the series open for sequels.

** The PC release launched with an updated version of the True Ending, adding new dialogue that clarifies a critical plot point. [[spoiler:After having his uncontrollable powers contained by Radiant Fetters, Gunvolt senses Astral Order's power flowing into him and discovers that Moebius was trying to kill him to prevent the end of the world. Realizing that he must change destiny to avert the path of destruction fated by his "current self", Gunvolt harnesses the combined power of Azure Striker and Astral Order to abandon the current timeline, leaving it in Kirin's care while he sets out to save the future.]]

** [[spoiler:Fans who were wondering what happened to the SequelHook from ''Gunvolt 2'' weren't super thrilled about the joke ending reducing a tantalizing plot thread into a gag.]]

%%* ContestedSequel: The gameplay is generally considered to be a major step up from past installments, with adjustments to Gunvolt's gameplay being very welcome and handily sells the idea of being an unstoppable force of nature (TagTeam mechanic aside), while Kirin's gameplay is a breath of fresh air for the series' traditional RunAndGun roots and a much improved take on melee combat over the controversial ''Luminous Avenger iX 2''. Much of the game's criticism is directed towards the writing; the TimeSkip [[AbortedArc cuts off all plot threads from previous games]], including the SequelHook from ''Gunvolt 2'', the game's villainous faction has fairly bland and generic motives and are otherwise not as memorable as previous organizations, several major plot elements go completely unexplained, and [[spoiler:AudienceAlienatingEnding is in full play due to the story employing SerialEscalation for the universe's PowerLevels rather than fleshing out preexisting conflicts and Gunvolt getting wrung by ''both'' of the game's endings, resulting in a less than satisfying conclusion]].

** The True Ending of this game has drawn harsh criticism for veering sharply into EsotericHappyEnding. [[spoiler:Gunvolt survives... but turns into a mysterious azure light and flies off into the unknown, completely denying him of any possible happy ending despite the crap he's gone through for three whole games. The world is arguably worse off than it was before the game started with Adepts beginning to go berserk into Primal Dragons world-wide, with the only differences between the two endings being whether Gunvolt lives or dies, Kirin's resolve to face the coming dangers with the other Dragon Saviors on her side until she can perhaps see GV again, and confirming ATEMS has abandoned their goal for the sake of protecting the innocents from the Primal Dragon attacks.]] Many fans feel that this direction was a massive cop-out and that the writers backed themselves into a corner for the sake of a SequelHook; some fans even argue that the ''bad ending'' was better written just because it felt like a conclusive finish and appropriately tragic, even if it just cuts off abruptly with no afterward on how the world is affected. Luckily, the PC port released an updated version of the ending which gives crucial context for Gunvolt's fate and ultimately resolves his story in a substantially more satisfying way while still leaving the series open for sequels.

* MagnificentBastard: [[WellIntentionedExtremist ZedΩ, "The Golden Trillion"]] is the [[AffablyEvil affable]], [[TheCasanova charming]] and [[MellowFellow easygoing]] leader of ATEMS. First appearing after powering missiles to pierce Sumeragi's barrier and invade Japan, ZedΩ fights the heroes to test their strength before stealing the Binding Brands and making his retreat. Having Grazie turn the UTU Media Tower into his base of operations, the Sunrise Palace, he lies in wait and has the Knights ambush the heroes when they infiltrate. As Gunvolt and Kirin reach him, he reveals that he has found [[EldritchAbomination Moebius]], hidden by Sumeragi, and plans to use the Djinn to control it and take over the world, as [[EvilVersusOblivion the alternative is allowing its awakening to coat the world in Dragon Radiation]]. Upon his defeat, he accepts his loss even when their clash ends up awakening Moebius, and uses his Septima to help Kirin save the day. As the star of the playable epilogue, he manages to secure an Azure Spirit and plans on gathering and researching them to learn how Gunvolt's Azure Striker managed to fuse with Astral Order and learn the root cause of Primal Dragonization, and though he ends up losing them when they accidentally fuse with Luxia, he successfully keeps one, which he hands over to Kirin as a token of goodwill before departing to his home country.

* AntiClimax: Epilogue ATEMS focuses heavily on the Azure Spirits as the PlotCoupon of the week, implying that they will lead to the secrets behind Primal Dragonization. [[spoiler:They wind up losing almost all of them at the very end, meaning that effectively nothing gets accomplished and the plot relevance of the Azure Spirits disappears completely except for the (completely unexplained) FinalBoss. The only notable plot development is Layla giving Kirin the last remaining Azure Spirit before ATEMS goes back home, which appears to be implied to be a SequelHook.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** One of the primary criticisms for the previous games (bar ''[=LAiX2=]'') was that bosses get KilledOffForReal in the very stages that they are introduced in, including those with sympathetic backstories. Here, none of the bosses are killed, instead they are spared; Berserk Adepts are simply rescued and join the team, while the ATEMS Knights make a retreat. [[spoiler:This includes the BigBad.]]
** For ''1'', [[spoiler:not having Viper as the final obstacle when Gunvolt merged with Joule is considered a wasted potential especially since the former happened to be very (over)protective towards her. This actually gets addressed for this game via a DualBoss fight with Jota and Viper where the latter gives a huge WhatTheHellHero moment for Gunvolt's failure to protect Joule. While an illusion, it's a very nice fix.]]
** After ''Luminous Avenger iX 2'' made the rather unpopular decision to prevent upgrades from being used at all in Hard Mode, arbitrarily locking off an important aspect of Copen's gameplay, the Hard and Very Hard modes in this game have been adjusted to allow use of Image Pulses even on higher difficulties. Very Hard still locks Passive Image Pulses, but Skill Image Pulses are still available, giving the player some wiggle room for customization even if limitations are still in place.
** The PC release launched with an updated version of the True Ending, adding new dialogue that clarifies a critical plot point. [[spoiler:After having his uncontrollable powers contained by Radiant Fetters, Gunvolt senses Astral Order's power flowing into him and discovers that Moebius was trying to kill him to prevent the end of the world. Realizing that he must change destiny to avert the path of destruction fated by his "current self", Gunvolt harnesses the combined power of Azure Striker and Astral Order to abandon the current timeline, leaving it in Kirin's care while he sets out to save the future.]]

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The subset of players who liked Gunvolt in the first two games do not like how Gunvolt was handled in this game very much. As a duo, Gunvolt essentially exists as a panic button or a safety net, meaning competent players will almost never use him. When playing as Gunvolt solo (through D-Nizer mode), due to stage and enemy design heavily revolving around Kirin, Gunvolt is forced to essentially play like a better Kirin rather than being a standard RunAndGun character like in past appearances, ignoring that the reason for Gunvolt's new playstyle is because a lot of fans found Copen's gameplay better and is [[MisaimedFandom confused as to why Gunvolt is considered the strongest adept]], hence his moveset was given a huge overhaul to better fit the fast-paced gameplay.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The subset of players who liked Gunvolt in the first two games do not like how Gunvolt was handled in this game very much. As a duo, Gunvolt essentially exists as a panic button or a safety net, meaning competent players will almost never use him. When playing as Gunvolt solo (through D-Nizer mode), due to stage and enemy design heavily revolving around Kirin, Gunvolt is forced to essentially play like a better Kirin rather than being a standard RunAndGun character like in past appearances, ignoring that the reason for Gunvolt's new playstyle is because a lot of fans found Copen's gameplay better and is [[MisaimedFandom confused as to why Gunvolt is considered the strongest adept]], hence his gameplay was given a huge overhaul to better fit the fast-paced gameplay.