Video Game / Azure Striker Gunvolt Series

Azure Striker Gunvolt (Armed Blue: Gunvolt in Japan) is a series of 2D Action-Platformers in the vein of the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX games developed and published by Inti Creates with input from Keiji Inafune (of Mega Man and Mighty No. 9 fame). It is Inti Creates' first self-published title and multimedia franchise.

In a World… 20 Minutes into the Future, superpowered beings called Adepts have begun to emerge at a rapid pace all across the planet. With the world unable to cope with the sudden influx of meta-humans, Adepts quickly instigate global destabilization of world order. The only country safe from the Adepts' influence is Japan, whose Adept population is kept in check by the Sumeragi MegaCorp. It is here where the stories of two teens are brought to light, embroiled deep within the heart of the Adept conflict.

Azure Striker Gunvolt primarily focuses on two major protagonists:

• Gunvolt, hero of the series and the titular Azure Striker, an Adept who has dominion over electricity. Rescued from horrific Sumeragi experiments by his father figure, Asimov, Gunvolt is an idealist hero who seeks to bring down Adepts who would use their powers for evil and believes that Adepts and humans can live in harmony. Gunvolt's gameplay is reminiscent of classic Run-and-Gun with puzzle elements, attempting to tag enemies with his gun then electrocute them to rack up Combos. As Gunvolt defeats bosses, he earns new guns with unique shot patterns to wield in combat.
• Copen, second protagonist and rival of Gunvolt. Copen is an Anti-Hero who seeks to exterminate all Adepts with extreme prejudice, believing them to be a danger to the continued existence of the human race. His radical views against Adepts draws him into conflict with Gunvolt on multiple occasions. Promoted to Playable in the second game, Copen's gameplay is highly evocative of an action platformer with Run-and-Gun and Stylish Action elements, mixing up high speed, high flying platforming with aerial shooting combat. As Copen defeats bosses, he learns the attacks of fallen Adepts and uses them as his own.

Compared to other platformers and side-scrolling action games within its genre, the Gunvolt series takes a unique "easy to learn, hard to master" approach. For more casual players, the games can tend to fall on the easier side due to the numerous safety nets afforded to the player, but for experienced players, the game's unique Scoring Points system, Kudos, challenges players to master the characters and level navigation to their utmost limits to achieve the highest scores possible and claim the elusive high ranks. In addition to standard cutscenes, the games offer a unique storytelling experience called "Story Mode+", where characters continue dialogue and communicate with one another during stages, offering an expanded breadth of worldbuilding and characterization without disrupting the flow of gameplay or story.

Gunvolt currently consists of five major installments:

• Azure Striker Gunvolt (2014) — During a mission to assassinate the virtual idol Lumen, which Sumeragi is using to locate and capture Adepts, Gunvolt discovers that "Lumen" is actually a humanoid manifestation of a Septima known as "The Muse" possessed by Joule, a young girl under Sumeragi's control. Rescuing her and taking her into custody, Gunvolt begins to work alongside Joule and his allies at QUILL to take down a league of Adepts controlled by Sumeragi known as the "Sumeragi Swordsmen" while fending off the mysterious avenger Copen.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 (2016) — Shortly after the events of the first game, Gunvolt and Copen simultaneously intercept a Sumeragi airship hijacked by Adepts, where an encounter with Eden, an international Anti-Human Alliance, leads Joule's power to become split into nine Shards. Gunvolt and Copen proceed to hunt down the Shards while simultaneously supressing Eden's "Seven", a dangerous group of Adepts who harbor a deep-seated hatred against humanity.
• Luminous Avenger iX (2019) — A spin-off of the main series under the Gunvolt Chronicles banner. Set an unspecified time after the events of Azure Striker Gunvolt, Copen attempts to free a distant country from the iron grip of Sumeragi and its elite squad of "Falcons", powerful Adepts under Sumeragi's employ, while searching for a mysterious entity only known as the "Butterfly Effect".
• Luminous Avenger iX 2 (2022) — A direct sequel to Luminous Avenger iX. After mysteriously receiving a Blaster Rifle, Copen is suddenly whisked off to a parallel universe where humanity has vanished and androids called Workers are attempting to revive the ruined planet. With the guidance of a Worker named Null, Copen climbs the Grave Pillar, a massive tower containing the remnants of humanity's knowledge, to find a way back home.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 (2022) — The third entry in the main series. After awakening to a power known as "Primal Dragon", Gunvolt is forced to undergo sealing under Sumeragi's watch to contain his unstable powers. Decades later, Kirin, a Battle Priestess of Shadow Yakumo, is deployed to seal away the Primal Dragon. Kirin and Gunvolt join Sumeragi and team up to stop the Berserk Adepts, Adepts corrupted by Dragon Radiation, in the process bringing to light dark secrets of Sumeragi and confronting a mysterious foe that seeks to use that power for their own gain.

Both the first and second Gunvolt games were packaged up together and sold as a Compilation Re-release called the Striker Pack, released initially for the Nintendo 3DS and later ported to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. While the 3DS version was a simple compilation of both games, the Switch and PlayStation 4 version introduces multiple enhancements, such as 60 FPS presentation with HD artworks and all of Gunvolt 2's DLC included with the pack, with the PlayStation 4 release adding an extra song for Lumen.

Gunvolt hit it off enough to be featured in various spinoffs and crossovers, which include:

• Azure Striker Gunvolt: Fleeting Memories: A web novel series that takes place before the original game and focuses on an entirely original cast. Features one season and ends on a Cliffhanger with no word of continuation.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt: A 26-minute OVA based on the prologue mission of the first game, with some adaptational liberties taken. Released for the 3DS eShop and later on DVD via the Striker Pack.
• Blade Strangers: Gunvolt appears as a Guest Fighter and one of the titular Blade Strangers.
• Blaster Master: The saga of a boy, his frog, and his massive battle tank. Zero and Zero II, both developed by Inti Creates, feature Gunvolt and Copen respectively as Guest Fighters, and later Gunvolt games establish the Blaster Master/Metafight setting as a parallel universe to the Gunvolt setting.
• GUNVOLT RECORDS Cychronicle: A Multi-Platform Rhythm Game where players match the control and button inputs to the featured in-game songs.
• Indie Pogo: Another Gunvolt guest fighter appearance among various other indie video game characters.
• PuzzMiX: A Suika Game clone that features Lola (LAiX version), complete with different in-game songs (one original, and one instrumental). The gameplay involves matching the Lola Pods of the same color, each growing large after mixing a certain Lola Pod.
• Mighty Gunvolt: A Retraux Crossover game that brings Gunvolt together with its sister series Mighty No. 9 and Inti's eroge Rail Shooter Widget Series Gal*Gun.

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STRIKE:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The series is set in a world that is very similar to ours except set an unspecified time into the future. iX averts this with a 100 year Time Skip, as does Gunvolt 3 which skips forward several decades.
• Achievement System:
  • The first and second games feature Challenges that reward Gunvolt and Copen for clearing in-game objectives. The Steam version of the first game also has integrated Steam Achievements.
  • iX notably removed Challenges, since Item Crafting was also kicked out and thus there would be nothing to earn from them besides Credits.
• A.I. Roulette: Most bosses and minibosses select their attacks this way. Bosses tend to add two or three more attacks to the roulette when their first HP bar is depleted, and bypass the roulette to do a Limit Break when they reach their final HP bar.
• All There in the Manual:
  • Many gaps in the story (primarily offscreen events and Time Skip details) are filled in by various audio dramas.
  • Every member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in each game has a backstory that is only briefly touched upon in-game. Their full backstory details are typically revealed in promotional material, such as official website profiles.
• Alternate Timeline:
  • As the game's chronology goes, there are two current timelines in existence, with the branch-off being the ending of the first game.
    • The first timeline follows the True Ending where Joule sacrifices herself to save a barely-alive Gunvolt, who kills Asimov in vengeance and stops his plans before they start. This timeline leads into Azure Striker Gunvolt 2.
    • The second timeline follows the Bad Ending where Asimov successfully kills both Gunvolt and Joule and goes through with his plans to make an Adept-only world, taking over Sumeragi and leaving the barely-alive Copen the only one to stop him. This timeline leads into Luminous Avenger iX.
  • Most of iX 2 takes place in yet another alternate timeline due to Copen being Trapped in Another World, although the details surrounding this one are very vague. As it turns out, the Teleporter in the Grave Pillar has the ability to link parallel universes, and in Hard Mode Copen acquires this ability for himself.
• Always Night:
  • Justified in the first game as QUILL is at its most active during night time, and use this opportunity to strike (where operating during daytime will cause them to stick out like a sore thumb).
  • Inverted in its spin-off series Luminous Avenger iX where operations are always set in daytime (the only mission set in nighttime is the Medical Center stage).
• Anti-Human Alliance: In this case, Anti-Muggle Alliance, both Eden and the Sumeragi Institute want to kill all non-adepts to ensure that only adepts are left in the world but with differing goals. Eden wanted to created an adept-only utopia while the Sumeragi Institute believe in adept supremacy.
• Anyone Can Die: Nearly every single boss you fight in the series is Killed Off for Real within a single battle besides a couple exceptions, including the more sympathetic ones. The Bad Ending of the first game sees both Gunvolt and Joule murdered by Asimov, which becomes an entire Alternate Timeline to boot, meaning even the protagonists aren't completely safe. Averted in 3, where bosses survive every encounter.
• Auto-Revive: In all three games, you may be revived by your support character in the event that you die in battle. This is marked by your character respawning on the spot with full HP, a Battle Aura, and kickass music as your support character unleashes her Anthem Septima. This always results in the player gaining a massive power up to give them a huge advantage over enemies, but triggering Anthem in a stage prevents you from gaining any Kudos.
• Art Evolution: Key art for the original game used a sharper style that emphasized details on characters and was overall darker in design. Artwork for the second game onward streamlined the designs and characters became more rounded and stylized as a result.
• Artistic Age: The artbooks reveal that despite their height, they have a confirmed age that makes them younger than their appearance would suggest (Nova and Viper, for example, are 14 and 15 respectively but they are as tall as an average adult male, etc.)
• Back from the Dead:
  • Elise's Septima, Resurrection, can bring back (supposedly) most forms of life, including herself. In her level, the Zombie Apocalypse-style theme of her level is the result of her using her Septima on deceased humans and invoking Came Back Wrong, remarking that Sumeragi "should've been more specific".
  • The Muse Septima can go as far as to revive dead Adepts. This is incorporated as an Auto-Revive mechanic for the heroes.
• Background Music Override: Used with nearly reckless abandon throughout the series, as music is a major element across the franchise.
  • If you're holding onto 1000 unbanked Kudos, the main character gets a Battle Aura and Lumen/Joule/Lola becomes corporeal. During this time, one of several music tracks will play over the normal stage music, which includes the main theme and a selection of various vocal tracks that can be picked at semi-random or with special equipment. In the first game, achieving this in the Boss Rush Bonus Level will cause an English version of the theme song to play instead.
  • Dying and triggering the Auto-Revive will cause Lumen/Joule/Lola to cast Anthem and transition into Muse/Awakened Form, where a song unique to the Super Mode will play: "Reincarnation" for Lumen/Joule, and "Igniter" for Lola.
  • iX also features the song "Beyond Probability" for when Lola activates Darkness Trigger.
  • Whenever you defeat a boss in 3, there is a chance that Luxia will revive them, thus granting them a 4th Health Bar and the song Boundless Myth will play. The chances of triggering it corresponds to how well the player is doing and defeating them in this fashion will grant them an extra Image Pulse as a reward.
  • Theme Music Power-Up is also used gratuitously at key points, up to and including invoking and inverting it in the same game.
• Big Brother Instinct: Both Gunvolt and Copen have loved ones to care for: Joule, an abused MacGuffin Super-Person whom Gunvolt gives her freedom, and Mytyl, Copen's sickly and mute younger sister whom even he keeps the true nature of his one-man war from. Both girls give the heroes something to fight for, and touching a hair on their heads with even the slightest of malevolent intent is the fastest way to incur the wrath of either hero.
• Beware the Superman: The series takes place in a world where meta-humans called Adepts had emerged in huge numbers and destroyed most of it through uncontrolled use of their powers, causing the hatred and contempt of non-Septimal humans who discriminate them to varying degrees. This led to the formation of Eden, a multi-national alliance of young Adepts who seek to take down all ordinary humans so they could live in peace. The Sumeragi group also took advantage of the Adepts to create a systematic plan for the sake of controlling and containing them, making Japan one of the few safe places away from the Adept chaos in the outside world.
• Boss Banter: The series is quite infamous for this. In the first two games, Gunvolt/Copen will always hold a conversation (usually of expository value) with their quarry in the middle of combat, which can take minutes to fully get through, not to mention some dialogue is triggered at certain health thresholds. You can typically finish a boss fight in a fraction of the time it takes to get though the entire chat. iX removed these along with most mid-stage dialogue due to the de-emphasis on story (all of the brief mid-stage dialogue comes from Lola but rarely).
• Boss Rush: A carry-over from its Mega Man influence. Notably, each boss rush is justified due to the presence of an Adept who can either bring the dead back or can create copies with all the powers and even personality of the originals. Each game also features a special post-campaign mission that pits the player against all of the game's bosses in sequence.
• Bottomless Pits: The heroes will oftentimes traverse over precariously placed obstacles, with imminent death awaiting if they fall. Unlike most normal hazards, Anthem can't save you from falling to your death.
• Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: The Steam version of Azure Striker Gunvolt will automatically save you from bottomless pits in Easy Mode. In Gunvolt 3, Gunvolt himself serves as this for Kirin, thereby making all pits Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits (unless your HP is low enough).
• Clothing Damage: This applies to Sumeragi mooks upon defeat. Looking closely on them shows their skintight uniforms being torn and their visors shatter; revealing some of their skin underneath.
• Color-Coded Characters:
  • Gunvolt, the Azure Striker, has... azure clothing.
  • Copen is identified by his white attire and hair with red accents.
  • Kirin is clothed in yellow and orange.
  • Most members of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in each game have an identifying color that is used on their Tron Lines.
• Combos: Gunvolt gains more Kudos for defeating multiple enemies at roughly the same time - up to eight enemies in theory, though more than three or four is usually infeasible. Copen, conversely, gains more Kudos for every enemy he defeats without landing, up to 5x the base value. Kirin is mainly rewarded for staying in the air like Copen, but also gets small bonuses for simultaneous kills like Gunvolt.
• Competence Zone: A justified example.
  • Adepts are comprised mostly of teens or younger due to them being a recent occurence and are a minority population, the only Adept who is an adult is Asimov who is 24.
  • Averted in the iX spin-off games where Adepts are now the majority population and come in all ages, most of the Falcons (bar Rebellio, Isola, and Blade) are adults with the oldest being at the age of 27.
  • Also averted in 3 where due to a several decade time-skip, the Adepts are now as numerous as the non-Adept population and also come in all ages. Apollo (an adult) for example, worked as a supply manager for Neptune prior to his transformation into Primal Dragon and his subsequent recruitment into the Bureau of Dragon Saviors.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • Sumeragi in the first game is a primarily human-led MegaCorp who seeks to use Adepts to subjugate Adepts to preserve the human race and maintain world order (in their own twisted way). Eden in the sequel is an Adept-led organization that wishes to annihilate the human race for their mistreatment of Adepts and create a world where Adepts can thrive.
  • Eden's Seven in 2 is made up of Adepts who willingly joined the organization to exact vengeance on the human race due to their horrible mistreatment by humans, and fight Gunvolt and Copen to the death due to their desire to protect humans. Sumeragi's Falcons in iX by comparison is made up (mostly) of Adepts who are forcefully conscripted into Sumeragi's employ against their will and have no personal qualms with Minos or Copen of any sort, but must fight to the death because of the untold consequences if they don't do their duty.
• Crapsack World:
  • The setting in the Gunvolt series isn't exactly sunshine and rainbows. Adepts across the globe have pretty much destabilized world order, with horrible implications. Ironically, because of Sumeragi's tight leash on Adept activity, Japan has been able to maintain relative peace and societal order, having a society extremely similar to the real world but with Adepts.
  • The setting of iX, however, is an out-and-out straight example, with Sumeragi having effectively taken over the world and killed off most normal humans. The Adepts live in a Dystopia setting while the surviving humans, now called Minos (for "minority"), hide in the slums away from Sumeragi's watchful eye.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Nearly all enemies explode on death, ranging from Mecha-Mooks, flesh and blood footsoldiers (including if you only defeat them with untagged attacks) except that their bodies remain intact (minus their damaged armor, firearms, and helmets), and bosses whose explosive deaths are suitably flashier and have different visuals depending on the game. Even in ASG 3, where Kirin doesn't actually kill bosses, their defeat animations still include bright explosions with the ATEMS knights' being preceded with Pre-Explosion Glow.
• Deflector Shields: Gunvolt's Flashfield doubles as an energy barrier that destroys tangible projectiles like missiles on contact. Copen's Flashshield/Flashfield does the same, but activates automatically and only if his EX Weapon Gauge is full.
• Differently Powered Individual:
  • Superpowers are called "Septima", and superpowered people are called "Adepts" (both are called "Seventh" in the Japanese version). The name is attributed to a Power Level scale called the "lifewave", of which Adepts stand on the highest, 7th tier. Then ASG 3 introduced Octima (called "Eighth" in Japan, which interesting sounds like ace), one step even higher than Septima.
  • In the Japanese version of the Luminous Avenger iX spinoff series, the powers are now called "Septima" like the English localization, but the superpowered people are now called "Septima Holders". Still called Septima and Adepts in the English version, though.
• Difficulty Levels:
  • Starting from 2, games feature alternative options for Kudos: Gutless, Cautious, and Fearless. These don't immediately affect gameplay, but does make Kudos retention easier or harder in exchange for boosting the max Kudos multiplier limit.
  • Starting from ''LAiX, switching up difficulty level also changes the bosses' arsenal, forcing players to adapt.
  • The Steam port of Gunvolt has traditional difficulty options in Easy and Hard flavors.
• Dub Name Change: A tradition for the series is to change the names of some of the named characters, some terminology, and nearly all of the Limit Break names whenever the games are localized. To name a few:
  • The series itself was originally named "Armed Blue: Gunvolt". "Armed Blue" became "Azure Striker", and the name of the titular Septima was changed accordingly.
  • Septima and Adepts are both known as "Seventh" in Japanese. iX shook this up a bit by adopting the term Septima, but then changed "Adepts" to "Septima Holder" while the localization stuck with "Adept".
  • Gunvolt's primary ability, Flashfield, is called "Raigekirin". Copen's derivative version is called "Flashfield" in Japan, so this was changed to "Flashshield" to avoid confusion with Gunvolt's ability. Incidentally, the localization of iX changed it back to "Flashfield".
  • Copen was originally called "Acura", fitting in with the Vehicular Theme Naming convention of the Sumeragi Swordsmen despite being unrelated to them.
  • QUILL was known as "FEATHER" in Japan. Unlike "QUILL", "FEATHER" is not an acronym.
  • As mentioned, most of the SP Skills undergo name changes to ditch the Gratuitous English or altering any particular word-play to fit in English. Starting from 2, all of the SP Skill callouts were also re-dubbed in the original Japanese to fit the localized name in non-Japanese versions.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: A downplayed variant. Protagonists and supporting casts are drawn with a subtle white glint at the side of their irises, and antagonists are drawn without it. The only exception is Copen in 2, who carries over his lack of glint from the first game, when he was exclusively an antagonist, including his incarnation in iX who also lacks a glint despite being much more heroic here. It's played straight for truly deranged or broken characters such as Zonda and the Mother Computer, who have both dulled eyes and expressions. It also becomes subtle Foreshadowing for Asimov's antagonistic role, since if one looks at his eyes behind his sunglasses, he's drawn without the glint from the beginning.
• Easter Egg:
  • In both the first and second games, you can mash the Jump button on the loading screen to interact with it.
  • The first game also featured various collectible Retraux icons in each of the stages that set your Kudos to 1000 when picked up. They can only be revealed by shooting them with the Mizuchi, otherwise considered a next-to-useless weapon.
• Faceless Goons: Sumeragi, Eden, and ATEMS soldiers all wear helmets that completely conceal their faces.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Zig-Zagged. Most of the enemies utilize energy weapons that fire beam or photon shots but they also possess ballistic weapons, such as missiles and bullets (the latter mainly reserved for mini bosses). One of the ATEMS soldier types is armed with an HMG loaded with live ammo, and Apollo's offhand remark that he once deflected a stray bullet implies that even in a several decade Time Skip, ballistic based firearms still exists.
• Fantastic Racism: There are more than a few humans who have a less than desirable outlook on Adepts, and vice versa. This is the primary reason why people like Dr. Kamizono and Sumeragi perform live experimentation on Adepts. Discrimination against Adepts also factors into the backstories of every single one of Eden's Seven (and heavily implied with its founder), motivating most of them to join the group.
• The Ghost:
  • There is an overseas company named Eunos whom Sumeragi has collaborated to develop the Plasma Legion (and later the upgraded Mantis Legion). So far none of their members appear in the game proper.
  • The Governmet which consists of both the Defense Ministry and the Army (whom Jota once belonged to) only show up in an Audio Track set before the first game, and it is unknown what happened to them once Sumeragi took over.
• Have a Nice Death: Most bosses have a unique dialogue that will play should you lose to them in Luminous Avenger iX Duology and Azure Striker Gunvolt 3.
• Holiday Mode:
  • The Steam port of Gunvolt unlocks bonus holiday-themed Arrange Modes when the game is booted up on certain dates.
  • Starting up iX on certain days will grant Kohaku a themed outfit.
• Idol Singer:
  • Lumen is a virtual idol ("cyber diva" in Japanese), whose music is wildly popular across the nation. She is also a manifestation of Joule's Septima, and because her songs have Magic Music properties, she (and Joule) is constantly hunted by people who want to exploit that power.
  • Lola is one in iX, raising the morale of the surviving Minos by uploading her songs to the Under-net.
  • Isola moonlights as one, using her position as a Falcon to use her Septima to spice up her concerts. She also has her own song.
• Indie Game: Gunvolt is Inti's first attempt at one, as it is their first self-published project. The success of Gunvolt has lead them to following up with several other independent titles, such as their Blaster Master reboot series and Dragon: Marked for Death.
• Interactive Fiction: A short text adventure called Azure Striker Gunvolt DOS was released as a promotional item at PAX Prime 2015 on an actual floppy disk (thus making it unplayable on most modern systems). It's loosely based on the first game and uses a lot of Intentional Engrish for Funny. It has since become playable online, but the codewords needed to progress were only revealed at the actual event, and the secret phone number that is awarded at the end of the game (originally made to tease Azure Striker Gunvolt 2) now redirects to a completely unrelated line.
• Intra-Franchise Crossover: Kirin from Gunvolt 3 debuted as a DLC boss in iX 2, making her way over from the main series.
• Kid Hero: Both playable characters are in their teens. Despite this, they speak with baritone voices and have experience well beyond their years.
• Kill All Humans: Eden wants to wipe the human race off the face of the planet to create a paradise for Adepts. Also Asimov's goal before Gunvolt put an end to his machinations. Although in the timeline where he killed Gunvolt, he comes a hair's width to actually pulling it off.
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better:
  • Inverted, ballistic rounds such as missiles, rockets, live bullets (fired from an ATEMS heavy gunner) and grenades can be deflected with Flashfield/Flashshield. It's the Energy Weapons that can go through it, forcing Gunvolt, Copen, and Kirin to dodge them.
  • Zig-Zagged with the weapons system used by the Mantis and Fazent; on one hand their missiles can be deflected, however, when it comes to their gatling cannons, it can easily pierce through Flashfield/Flashshield as the bullet's size (combined with high velocity speed) being too much for GV and Copen to easily deflect.
• Last Girl Wins: Due to extenuating circumstances, Gunvolt ends up with Quinn by the end of Azure Striker Gunvolt 2. Although if Gunvolt 3 is anything to go by, that arrangement didn't last long due to factors out of Gunvolt's control.
• Leitmotif: Most of the more important characters are assigned certain musical leitmotif, and thus astute listener may immediately notice that certain songs refer to which characters, occasionally leading to Musical Spoiler.
• Limit Break: Dubbed "Special Skills" or "SP Skills", they're a staple of the series. Gunvolt's SP Skills in the first two games are managed by his SP Gauge, and casting them requires SP Points. These range from Astrasphere, a concentrated burst of electricity, Luxcalibur, an electric sword that shoots forward, and Voltaic Chains, a screen-nuking attack that covers the screen with electrified chains. Copen and Kirin have multiple SP Skills, but all are functionally Smart Bombs. All bosses also have SP Skills, which are usually triggered when their HP reaches the last 1/3rd of their gauge.
• Magic Music: The Anthem Septima is a recurring element of the series. A rare and powerful Septima, Anthem has the power to drastically magnify the power of Adepts who hear the user's song. It is thus highly coveted by both heroes and villains, even moreso than the titular Azure Striker Septima, and is frequently integrated into gameplay.
• Mecha-Mooks:
  • Both Sumeragi and Eden deploy these, providing assistance to their flesh and blood soldiers. They make up most of the fighting force within the two.
  • All enemies in iX2 play this straight as the entirety of them are Mechanical Lifeforms.
• Multiple Endings:
  • Gunvolt features two different endings, both of which lead into different timelines.
  • 2 had the True Endings be accessible by completing both campaigns and is an extended version of the normal ending, the point of view depending on whether you beat it as Gunvolt or Copen.
  • iX did away with any ending variations, having only one concrete ending.
  • iX 2 brought them back with 3 different endings: a normal ending, a bad ending version of normal, and the True Ending only accessible by beating Hard Mode.
  • 3 has a bad ending, a true ending which was later updated (The unaltered true ending can secretly be found by wearing the GV? Image Pulse for the final battle), and a secret joke ending.
• No-Damage Run: While the conventional type of "no damage" is very easy thanks to the Prevasion mechanic, not triggering Prevasion at all (i.e. not getting hit) is a different story entirely. The latter is vital to getting the best score.
• Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: The Japanese titles of the main series games after the first one have a subtitle related to one of the characters in the game. The second game has "Sou", meaning "claw", and is associated with Copen's imagery in that game. The third game has "Gibs", the Japanese name of Kirin's Septima. The English titles forgo these for standard numbered titles.
• Once an Episode: The main series has a Running Gag with instant ramen, which gets mentioned at least once per game. Joule/Lumen is usually involved.
• Pickup Hierarchy:
  • Primary: Jewels in Gunvolt 1.
  • Secondary: Bolts, Clips (Gunvolt 2), Skills, and synthesized gear for Gunvolt, EX Weapons, Subroutines, and Memory Upgrades for Copen.
  • Tertiary: Healing items, crafting materials, vig.
  • Extra: Points and Kudos.
• Post-Cyberpunk:
  • The first game initially isn't this as it's about a La Résistance vs MegaCorp that goes into Cyberpunk territory. The second game and onwards plays this straight and focuses more on fighting enemy groups to maintain peace.
  • Luminous Avenger iX also follows the first game's theme. Fighting against a MegaCorp that has become a One World Order government. It's only after Demerzel's defeat that it becomes this.
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Most larger bosses explode in this fashion upon defeat, ending with a screen-wide fade to white.
• Power Levels: According to Fleeting Memories, supernatural or supernatural-sensitive entities are graded on scale from Level 1 through Level 7; the lowest level are essentially Muggles, Level 7s are Adepts, and anyone in-between possesses some form of lower power that elevates them above normal humans but are not tangible or accessible enough to be considered a superpower, a la Quinn. The climax of 3 involves going up against an Octima, a power one tier higher than a Septima: essentially a Physical God.
• Power Limiter:
  • The Glaives, a sword-shaped weapon created by Sumeragi that contains an Adept's "Adept gene" that holds their powers in the "septimosome". As a result, Adepts under Sumeragi's employ generally stay in the form of normal humans until they enter combat, upon which they use their Glaives to activate their Septimal power. They can also boost an Adept's power without sealing their Adept gene into it, but the resulting power boost is marginal by comparison. By 3, a new type has been developed that inhibits Septimas in a range around itself without needing to extract and contain the septimosome.
  • 3 introduced Binding Brands, a type of sealing sword created by Shadow Yakumo that serves as the prototypical form of the Glaives currently used by Sumeragi. Like the Glaives, they are also capable of controlling Septima, although due to the advent of Glaives, the Binding Brands have fallen out of use. Unlike Glaives, however, the Binding Brands don't need to contain the Adept gene to fully empower their wielders and can function as a straight-up Amplifier Artifact. They become the resident MacGuffins in the second half of the game, as they are sealing something important deep within Sumeragi's archives that ATEMS wants.
• Randomly Drops: In the main series, players are awarded with random prizes at the end of each stage. In the first two games, you earn materials for use in the Item Crafting system, with more prizes awarded for a higher rank. In 3, you instead earn Image Pulses.
• Randomly Gifted: Having Muggle heritage does not necessarily omit you from gaining Adept powers from birth. Tenjian and Zonda were both subject to this, and their birth parents abandoned them as a result.
• RPG Elements:
  • You gain EXP for defeating enemies, which turn into Levels that award more HP and unlocks new Skills or Memory Expansions. You also have access to a variety of equipment that you can fuse with materials found by completing stages and augment your powers.
  • iX tones them down significantly; EXP and Levels are still a thing, but Item Crafting and Copen's Memory system have been kicked out, with a set list of freely-changeable abilities that you can buy with Credits taking their place.
• Running Gag: In the chats of the Azure Striker Gunvolt games, at least one character per game expresses confusion about how instant noodles work: Joule in the first, Quinn and Joule again in the second, and lastly BB and Lumen in the third. By the third time, Gunvolt, who has heard all three cases firsthand, can no longer muster a verbal reply.
• Scoring Points: The main gimmick of the series is the Kudos mechanic.
  • By dealing damage, defeating enemies, and performing certain stylish actions such as defeating multiple enemies in a row/simultaneously or finding secrets, you gain Kudos, tracked by a counter at the left side of the screen. Kudos aren't points, but by touching a checkpoint or casting most Special Skills, you can "bank" Kudos, converting them into points by multiplying the current value by the accompanying Kudos Multiplier. The multiplier rises as you gain Kudos, encouraging you to hoard lots of Kudos and then turn them into a big score stash at once. The main threat is that if you get hit, even if your Prevasion activates, you lose all of your unbanked Kudos and the points are wasted. In addition, your score at the end of the stage is affected by multiple additional factors, including clear time and (in iX) Difficulty Level. This encourages the player to play fast, efficient, and smart to maximize score and get higher ranks. The exact specifics of the mechanic have varied by game.
  • 2 introduced a form of difficulty levels for Kudos, in Gutless, Cautious, and Fearless forms. Gutless prevents Kudos from disappearing at all until you use a Skill, but caps the max multiplier at 50x. Cautious allows two "strikes" before they disappear on the third hit, with a regular multiplier. Fearless functions as it did in the first game, with Kudos disappearing on any hit, but the multiplier scales up much faster. The Striker Pack added these difficulty levels back into the first game.
  • In iX 2, Kudos don't vanish until touching a Checkpoint or using a Skill, similar to Gutless, but the game also does not feature difficulty levels like 2. Hard Mode reinstates the "one hit" rule from the previous games, however.
  • In 3, Kudos no longer vanish at all, but being hit inflicts the Kudos Lock status, where your ability to gain Kudos is frozen until you earn back your Kudos "debt". The severity of the Kudos Lock scales proportionately to the amount of Kudos you have on-hand, with more Kudos leading to a higher Kudos Lock penalty.
• Shared Universe:
  • With Gal*Gun series.
    • It alludes to the existence of the Kamizono^*Represented by Shinobu and Maya from 2, implied to be Copen and Mytyl's mother and aunt respectively and Sakurazaki^*the Gal*Gun games are set in Sakurazaki Academy family, and as well as "Kurona"^*Implied to be Nori in her true form, which is supported by Mytyl's line about a charm that is said to ward off evil spirits, the last one appearing in Copen's Drama CD where she gives Lola a pendant, an item described as being from the "ancient times".
    • Furthermore, the Joule chats mention Aoi (implied to be the very same Aoi Uno) who is now a famous rockstar, suggesting that the main timeline is set just two decade later.
  • iX 2 reveals that the Blaster Master Zero trilogy is canon to the Azure Striker Gunvolt series in certain ways.
  • Implied with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon as one of the ending stingers for Nightmare Mode is of Zangetsu suddenly waking up in the near future where the Sumeragi HQ is visible. One conversation in 3 is about Gunvolt, who is implied to have a run-in with the figure in red before, asking Kirin if she, too, met a samurai dressed in red, only for Kirin to muse that a Samurai in this day and age, outside of cosplayers, would be non-existent.
• Shock and Awe: The titular Azure Striker Septima, considered one of the strongest, if not the de facto strongest, Septima in existence. Gunvolt, owing to his skill and ability to wield the Azure Striker power, is considered The Dreaded even among Sumeragi's top brass.
• Show Within a Show: The "September" series, a series of MMORPGs developed and published by Sumeragi. The first installment, "September Record", plays a significant role in the backstory of the original game for Merak and Elise, later followed by "September Historia", which Joule plays in a chat in the first game. By the time of Gunvolt 3 the series has had so many installments that it's overloaded with subtitles.
• Side-Story Bonus Art: The games' official sites and the Official Complete Works feature art of this sort, mostly made to celebrate some occasion (e.g. Halloween 2014). Many of them depict characters who are canonically mortal enemies palling around with each other.
• Sighted Guns Are Low-Tech: On-foot mooks for some reason seem to fire from their hip instead of from their shoulder. The only characters who aim their weapons are Gunvolt, Copen, and Asimov. The Adept that controls a broken Mantis from Luminous Avenger iX averts this by actually aiming from the gun's sights. And iX 2 completely drops this where for the first time, the robotic infantry now aim and fire from their shoulders.
• Smart Bomb: All playable characters in the series have skills that clears the screen of enemies in suspended time.
  • Gunvolt has his Voltaic Chain in all his appearances
  • Copen's skills have different names depending on the game: Shred Storm (ASG 2), Twin Shredder (LAiX) and CoLossal Maelstrom (LAiX 2). Except for Shred Storm, Copen's skills are Combination Attack with his Robot Buddy Lola.
  • Kirin starts off with 92nd Rite - Divine Ruin Arc, which is later renamed into Hidden 92nd Rite - Divine Ruin Heresy after she recruits Gunvolt. Kirin XX, her alternate form based on her boss self from LAiX 2, has 88th Rite - Pale Mist Refined which has a different animation.
• Spiritual Successor: Gunvolt borrows heavily from Inti Creates' prior games Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX, such as the use of a mission-based format, RPG Elements, and heavy emphasis on story. Ironically, Power Copying wasn't used by playable characters until the second game, and is never used by Gunvolt by himself.
• Spikes of Doom: A common level hazard, although they merely inflict damage instead of being a One-Hit Kill. Eden's gratuitous use of them to create Malevolent Architecture is lampshaded mercilessly by the heroes in 2.
• Spring Jump: Copen gets access to multiple.
  • Twintail Bunker, Desna's EX Weapon, can be pointed at the ground by holding Down while casting it. If done so, Copen will launch into the air in addition to dealing damage to anything near and below him.
  • The Code of Shovelry Subroutine allows Copen to bounce off the ground if he performs a Reload Crush.
  • Rising Cyclone, Bakto's EX Weapon, propels Copen into the air if he is inside the vortex. This also cancels his flight, so be wary if you happen to be over something harmful.
• Strictly Formula: No two games in the series have the exact same structure, but all of them feature one or two prologue stages to introduce the gameplay and story, one or two waves of main stages that can be tackled in any order ala Mega Man, and four or five final stages covering an assault on The Very Definitely Final Dungeon and the story's climax and conclusion, and featuring a Boss Rush and at least one Boss-Only Level. Every game except 2 also has an intermission stage after half of the main stages that ends with a fight against a rival who will be fought once more in the final stages. In 2, the first fight with your rival - the other playable character - is a miniboss in one of the main stages instead.
• Super-Empowering: Even before the start of the first game, Sumeragi has been tinkering with ways to implant Septima into otherwise normal humans. The most relevant of these is Project GUNVOLT, an underground project that seeks to impart the Azure Striker Septima to normal people. The titular Gunvolt is a survivor of the project and was compatible, while Nova attempted the transfusion but was unable to manifest Azure Striker powers. Also, Blade is subject to this in the Luminous Avenger iX timeline, becoming the new Azure Striker in Gunvolt's place.
• Superpower Lottery: Being an Adept doesn't automatically translate into you being super-human for real. The Septimas of most Adepts are too weak or too non-practical for combat use, making them no different from regular humans. Even if an Adept happens to have a Septima that is indeed practical for combat, some Septima types are significantly stronger or more versatile than others, and even within those brackets an Adept might be stronger because of they are more well-trained/pro-efficent than another in using them. Being a stronger Adept however, comes with its drawbacks; people will discriminate you if they find out, especially if your Septima is too similar to those from a known criminal, and Sumeragi might declare you a public threat and capture you for experimentation (which often makes things worse, but at least those crazed and unstable Adepts are hidden from public view).
• Theme Music Power-Up: The game's theme song may sometimes play when Anthem is activated after reaching 1000 Kudos. 2 also inverts this spectacularly, when the theme song kicks in... as the True Final Boss activates his Auto-Revive. Cue the true True Final Boss.
• Theme Naming: The bosses in each game follow specific naming schemes.
  • Azure Striker Gunvolt: Vehicular Theme Naming.
  • Gunvolt 2: Missile defense systems.
  • iX: Science fiction movies.
  • iX 2: Bikes and motorcycles.
  • Gunvolt 3: The Primal Dragons also use Vehicular Theme Naming.
• Tiger Versus Dragon: The loading screens in 2 makes several references to this in describing the relationship between Gunvolt and Copen.
• Utility Weapon: A recurring theme with games that star Copen, as one of his EX Weapons in each game will have a secondary function of breaking color-coded box scattered throughout various levels, each one typically hiding something of great value. In Gunvolt 2, this function goes to Prism Break, while in iX, it goes to Orbital Edge, and in iX 2 it goes to Gatling Blitz.
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Drawing heavily from its Mega Man inspirations, this is one of the main hallmarks of the series alongside the basic gameplay loop.
  • Gunvolt actually plays with it. Instead of directly getting powers from the boss, he acquires a new Dart Leader gun type for every boss he kills, which lets him shoot Darts in new ways. However, these have nothing to do with the bosses he kills whatsoever, he just gets them when he beats one.
  • Played straight with Copen, who gets a new ability every time an Adept or Gravekeeper dies. Note that he doesn't necessarily have to kill them, they just have to be dead first, as seen in the first Azure Striker Gunvolt when Copen copies the powers of the Swordsmen that Gunvolt kills. In all games where he's playable, Lola gathers data on the defeated foe and uses it to fashion an EX Weapon for Copen to use. EX Weapons aren't exactly like the boss powers for the most part, but are closely inspired by them.
  • Averted by Kirin, who instead creates new sword techniques inspired by her enemies after facing them in combat.
• Video Game 3D Leap: Cychronicle is the first entry to feature 3D graphics in any capacity. While the music videos released on Inti Creates' YouTube channel have previously featured both 3D and live-action performances, this is the first time they have been properly featured in-game.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: As stated in supplementary material, Gunvolt killing Asimov, partly to stop his Kill All Humans plot but mostly to avenge Joule's murder, didn't make him feel any better, mostly having the inverse effect. Gunvolt later tries to teach this to Copen during the True Final Boss fight with little success (Copen's not much of the "listen to his enemies" type).
• The Wall Around the World: The Kamishiro Barrier is a defense system which protects Japan from external threats (such as invasion or missile strikes from foreign powers), preventing entry or exit without a tedious process (unless employees are registered as part of Sumeragi, such as the Eunos Inc engineering corps). This is mainly to protect the technology behind the Glaives' creation (which is highly sought after by foreign companies and governments) and continue on monopolizing them. As a side-effect however, this caused an untold amount of plane and boat crashes due to its operators not being able to see the barrier until it's too late. There are two instances where the barrier was disabled (both of them being re-enabled after the situation was cleared).
• Wall Jump: A basic ability for all characters. Notably, the game uses Mega Man X-style wall jumping where holding against a wall and repeatedly pressing the Jump button allows the character to scale it. Characters cannot normally press against the wall to slow their descent, unlike the Mega Man games, but the Elise Image Pulse in 3 allows Kirin and Gunvolt to gain this ability.

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