Video Game / Luminous Avenger iX 2

Spoilers for Luminous Avenger iX will be unmarked!

Break into the new apeX of 2D action!

Luminous Avenger iX 2 is an installment in the Azure Striker Gunvolt Series and a sequel to Luminous Avenger iX, developed by Inti Creates and released for all major 8th and 9th generation consoles and PC via Steam on January 27th, 2022. It is the second game under the Gunvolt Chronicles banner, a spin-off series to the main Azure Striker Gunvolt games that takes place in an Alternate Continuity.

Following the defeat of Demerzel and the downfall of Sumeragi's reign, the actions of Copen, the Luminous Avenger iX, have ushered in an era of peace to the world. To kill time, Copen doubles down on his research and comes into possession of a damaged, key-shaped gun called a "Blaster Rifle", swiftly setting to work investigating and repairing this strange technology. In the midst of his research, a wormhole suddenly appears and whisks Copen, along with Lola and Kohaku, to a post-apocalyptic world where humans have gone extinct and robots called "Workers" work to revive what's left of the planet, whereupon they are greeted by a friendly Worker named Null.

Several months later, Copen, armed with an upgraded suit and his new gun, the Razor Wheel, sets out with Lola and Kohaku to the Grave Pillar, a massive tower containing the remnants of human knowledge and protected from within by six powerful Workers known as the "Gravekeepers". Rumored to contain a way to link parallel worlds, Copen begins his mission anew to reach the Mother Computer located at the Grave Pillar's peak and find a way to send the three of them home.

This game presents a radical overhaul of Copen's gameplay in the form of his new suit, capable of accessing two different modes: Break-Shift, giving Copen exceptional melee power on the ground through the Razor Wheel and access to the grounded Recoil Dash, and Bullit-Shift, activated by performing a Bullit Dash in the air and momentarily granting Copen limited access to his previous suit's abilities.

The BitSummit 2022 reveal trailer can be seen here.

---

Luminous Avenger iX 2 provides examples of:

• Advancing Wall of Doom: One of the levels is a volcano-themed level where Copen is being pursued by a wall of lava.
• After the End: The world Copen finds himself in apparently suffered some form of catastrophe in the past, with the only survivors being human-built robotic "Workers" tasked with restoring the planet's ruined ecosphere.
• Alternate Techline: This is Copen's theory about the Blaster Rifle's origins, since its technological standards are well beyond what even he's seen (which is saying something, considering Copen turned himself into a Cyborg) and that perhaps a different parallel universe with far greater technology prowess created it. By the events of the Golden Ending, Copen ultimately surmises that The Creator himself sent him the Blaster Rifle, given its compatibility with the Grave Pillar's technology. In the DLC, Jason Frudnick reveals that the Blaster Rifle that became the Razor Wheel was originally owned by Roddy, who was killed in action during the events of Blaster Master Zero II, raising the possibility of the Creator being the same Copen who was a Guest Fighter in Zero II.
• Alternate Universe: The game takes place in a parallel universe where humans have disappeared and robots have been left behind to revive what's left of the planet. By the end, it is revealed that it is likely a post-apocalyptic Earth that the humans were forced to abandon at some point, with this world's Copen leaving behind a version of Lola to lead the Workers and figure out a way to bring the planet back.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
  • The backstory of the Workers states that they were originally designed to help restore the planet to a state that is habitable for Humans, but they have since deviated from that task. The only Workers that still follow their stated purpose are the Gravekeepers, which is bad news for Copen given that their role is to protect the Grave Pillar from intruders.
  • The Mother Computer herself has gone rather rogue due to a combination of crossing the Despair Event Horizon from the futility of trying to revive humanity and missing The Creator, as well as ironically despising the Workers for deviating from their original purposes. The only thing keeping her from going on a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum is the fact she can't go against her stated directive to "protect the environment". Now, if a human were to arrive and give her new orders...
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: You can unlock Kohaku's outfits from Luminous Avenger iX by clearing the boss battles unlocked after beating the game. You can also get Mother's human form as an outfit for Kohaku by earning the bad ending.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • In Gunvolt 2 and iX, the games were never super explicit about what "Overdrive" actually means for Copen; it refers to the Super Mode that activates when the user accumulates 1000 Kudos, although in-game text never states this outright and just assumes you can put two-and-two together. In this game, an actual "OVERDRIVE" icon actually shows up when 1000 Kudos are reached, letting the player know when they can start going ham.
  • The game now offers both Gunvolt 2 Bullit Dash and iX Bullit Dash controls as options. GV2 controls produce more accurate flight while iX controls are less prone to input errors.
  • Vespa and Autochrome both feature Bottomless Pits as part of their boss arenas (the former creating them as part of her Desperation Attack, the latter having one throughout the fight). In order to prevent any Kaizo Trap scenarios, upon defeating them the game will delay their explosion sequence until Copen lands on solid ground, rather than revoking control immediately as it does with the other bosses.
  • You can now manually select Overdrive music from the main menu, rather than needing an upgrade for it. Instead of an upgrade or item for manually selecting music, you can now buy a (very expensive) cosmetic upgrade that causes the song to cycle every 1000 Kudos, rather than only triggering at 1000.
  • Unlike the previous game, which restricted Kohaku's outfits to time-limited events and DLC, you can earn all of Kohaku's outfits by simply completing post-game content.
  • The Boss Rush on Hard Mode provides an infinitely-respawning 1-Up next to the checkpoint so you do not have to refight Dacite, Hail, and Ace if you die to Brigade Mk. II.
  • For struggling players, the 1.4.0 update added an optional Assist Mode feature to Hard Mode, which grants a whopping 200 extra lives and re-enables Healing, with the only caveat being that it can only be selected when starting a new game.
  • Compared to the previous games, Emblems are much easier to find. Which is good since the nerfed air combos mean you'll probably need them to reach Overdrive.
• Arc Words: "Break". Not only is it in the Tagline, the trailer shows that the Kudos bonuses Copen gets for defeating enemies with melee attacks are called "Breaks", and one of his Stance System modes is called "Break-Shift". The Razor Wheel is also called the "Break Wheel" in the Japanese version.
• Art Evolution: The game features enhanced SP Skill animations, whose previously-static portraits are now fully animated.
• Astral Finale: The Hanging Gardens is implied to be located so far above the world (Kohaku mentions after the normal mode final boss that the Gardens are fixed in space, suggesting a geostationary orbit) that one needs to use a specific teleporter at the very top of the already-very-tall Grave Pillar just to reach it. The final boss also invokes this by summoning a holographic projection of cloudy stratospheric skies during the fight against her hologram form.
• Auto-Revive: The staple Anthem ability is back, giving Lola a chance to resurrect Copen to full health if he falls in battle.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Bullit Dash outside of Overdrive has been demoted to this. You still get the ability to strike from range and move at high speed, but since you only get one dash per jump you lack the ability to get Aerial combo bonuses and thus gain Kudos at a cripplingly slow rate compared to using your ground attacks.
• Background Music Override: Lola songs return when passing 1000 Kudos.
• Bag of Spilling:
  • Zigzagged. Copen has once again lost access to most of his EX Weapons from the prior game, including Stellar Spark, but retains access to Anchor Nexus, the Dash Attack he acquired from defeating Rebellio. Also, while Copen can't use it directly, Lola temporarily activates Darkness Trigger to go berserk when Copen uses CoLoSSAL MAELSTROM. A conversation reveals that after upgrading Lola, Copen found most of them were incompatible with her.
  • Given a Hand Wave in the case of his Prevasion ability, in which he states that he uninstalled the upgrade due to peacetime and is unable to easily replicate it due to lacking access to his normal resources.
  • Enforced in Hard Mode, in which most of the data Copen gathered during the first trip up the Grave Pillar ends up corrupted, preventing him from upgrading his armor and sealing most of his EX Weapons until he defeats the Gravekeepers again.
• Balance Buff: In previous Gunvolt games, the normal untagged attacks were pitifully weak and slow and you were almost never incentivized to use them over tagged attacks. The trailer for this game makes a point of demonstrating that Copen's grounded untagged Razor Wheel combos are capable of actually defeating enemies, and the narration suggests that untagged combos play a role in the Stance System.
• Benevolent Boss: It's stated in passing that Blade took over leadership of Sumeragi in the wake of Demerzel/Asimov's death, and things have been much better off for everyone involved.
• Bittersweet Ending: The normal ending. Copen and Lola successfully ruin the machinations of the Mother Computer, rescue Kohaku, and safely return to their home universe. However, Null is dead, having sacrificed herself to lead Copen to victory and allow her friends to go home, and the parallel universe has been left to rot without the guidance of its Mother. Most questions are also left unanswered, such as how or why Copen was Trapped in Another World and the secrets of the Blaster Rifle.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Copen can purchase a passive ability called Hyper Guard that allows him to reduce damage taken from attacks to Scratch Damage as long as he stands completely still in Break-Shift mode.
• Bloodless Carnage: Gruesomely averted in one cutscene, where Null runs herself through with multiple wires and a massive amount of green fluid is seen gushing out. While it's not stated to be blood since Null is a robot, it's effectively the same thing, as her barely-functioning husk is left soaked in it after the suicidal procedure.
• Boss Remix: The final boss theme is a remix of "Igniter", a massive hint towards the boss's true identity.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The full Boss Rush on Hard Mode. Like the standard complete Boss Rush, it is every fight in the game, including the Veschrome and Brigade Mk. II fights, but every enemy uses their substantially-more-powerful Hard Mode movesets and stats, and just like other Hard Mode levels you only get three chances. It's also a Marathon Level by design; expect a single run through to take 20 minutes at least, and that's if nothing kills you.
• Call-Back: During the opening, the first iX game's portrait is used before they were whisked away by a portal. It's only when Copen upgraded his gear that the character portraits have been updated to its current look.
• The Cameo: Blade, Jin, Maria, and Kyota make an non-voiced appearance in the normal (and bad) ending, and in the credits, finally reuniting with Copen, Lola, and Kohaku after having disappeared for several months.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The Grave Pillar menu usually features Null and Kohaku, the chats start out lighthearted (up to including making shout outs and references to other media), and the menu music is upbeat. Come Null's sacrifice and the tone goes for a dark turn (Null's near lifeless husk is now a hub screen), and the menu music becomes more somber and eerie. This is downplayed in "Hard Mode" due to Null being bought back to life.
• Chainsaw Good: The Razor Wheel takes the form of a big energy sawblade during Copen's ground combos and flying energy sawblades when firing at tagged enemies.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: When Copen switches between his two modes his armor will change colour to match. Generally speaking, Break-Shift is close to his usual balance of crimson and white, while Bullit-Shift is almost entirely white, with the exception of his thrusters and backplate.
• Company Cross References:
  • The story opens with Copen acquiring a damaged Blaster Rifle by unknown means, which is all but stated to be the exact same weapon used by Metal Attacker pilots in the Blaster Master Zero trilogy. Said Blaster Rifle is eventually converted into Copen's main weapon, the Razor Wheel.
  • Also from Blaster Master Zero, the Laboratory stage features Wave-Motion Gun cannons whose beams feature identical graphics and sound effects to some of the beam attacks from the Zero series.
  • Gal*Gun is mentioned as one of the video games installed on the entrance terminal at the Grave Pillar. Copen isn't thrilled.
    Copen: What kind of weirdo devel-
  • Kohaku tries to inform Null about how Copen saved the world, which results in Null getting her Inti Creates games mixed up.
    Null: So, on the path to Eden, Quill and the Q-Tron rode the Gunbike while firing Ecstasy Shots...
    Lola: ... That girl's gone completely off the rails.
  • The Vespa and Autochrome Dual Boss fight is one big reference to the Anchus Dual Boss fight from Mega Man Zero 2.
• Costume Evolution: Copen's armor has received a substantial redesign to accommodate his new stance system, capable of transforming itself on the fly between his two forms:
  • Break-Shift is bulky and angular, with his thrusters orienting themselves in a way that lets them serve as additional plating for his shoulders and legs.
  • Bullit-Shift is sleek and streamlined, with several panels opening up to reveal additional thrusters or serve as control surfaces.
• Crossover:
  • Physical copies of the game come with a DLC boss fight against the mascot of Unity Technologies Japan, Kohaku Ootori (also known as "Unity-chan"), based on her appearance in the upcoming indie game COGEN: Sword of Rewind. This rendition of Copen is a DLC playable character in COGEN in turn. Defeating her awards the Ouroboros System iX upgrade, which reduces the EX Weapon Energy cost of Cryo-Flash to zero in exchange for removing its offensive capabilities.
  • Yang Yumo, the protagonist from Dusk Diver series, is also available as a DLC boss. Defeating her awards the D Burst upgrade, which allows Copen to use Bullit-Shift more than once without needing Overdrive. In turn, Lola appears in Dusk Diver 2 as a DLC boss.
  • Jason Frudnick and Eve from Blaster Master Zero 3 appear as the third DLC boss. Defeating them rewards the Parallel Blaster Rifle upgrade, which massively increases the damage of the Razor Wheel's Break-Shift combos while untagged.
  • Kurona from the Gal*Gun series appears as the fourth DLC boss. Defeating her awards the Dark Power upgrade, which causes Lola to activate Darkness Trigger instead of Idol Mode during Overdrive.
• Dash Attack:
  • Dashing on the ground produces a Recoil Dash, which deals minor contact damage and knocks back enemies while momentarily stunning them. It also lets Copen push around and destroy environmental objects. Copen can purchase an upgrade that will give it lock-on properties akin to the Bullit Dash that let him fire homing lasers at the target.
  • Anchor Nexus, Rebellio's EX Weapon, is carried over from the previous game as part of Copen's starter gear. Like before, it lets Copen automatically lock onto a nearby enemy and enable him to automatically home in on them with Bullit Dashes and deal damage on contact. Copen can even purchase an upgrade that boosts its damage.
• Deflector Shields: The Optic Barrier combines Frickin' Laser Beams with this. In addition to shooting four beams in four directions, it summons a temporary shield on use that surrounds Copen. Getting close to an enemy or destructible projectile while the shield is active inflicts damage and can even be used to destroy weaker enemies on contact (although doing this doesn't award Aerial EX bonuses).
• Demoted to Extra: Prior to the Kirin DLC, Adepts were not featured anywhere in the game and were only passively mentioned in the Group Chats.
• Developer's Foresight: Playing with Japanese voices and English text causes the Japanese dub track to use Dub Name Change callouts for the Limit Breaks, as is standard after Gunvolt 2. However, if you play with English voices and Japanese text instead, the English dub track will voice over the original Japanese skill callouts.
• Discard and Draw: In reworking his suit, Copen downgraded a number of evasive abilities while adding in the potential for greater defense (being able to get the Hyper Guard upgrade, which is an upgrade on the flashfield in many ways from his other playable appearances).
• Do Not Run with a Gun: Played with. Copen can brandish his Razor Wheel anytime to attack enemies, but he must stand completely still while executing his stronger Three-Strike Combo.
• Double Jump: The Whirling Chopper EX Weapon, earned from defeating Vespa, has Copen boost into the air while Lola forms a spinning yellow blade above his outstretched fist, allowing him to gain additional height after a jump.
• Downloadable Content: Crossover boss battles can be purchased as additional content. Each one comes with a boss fight and an unlockable upgrade that is added to Copen's roster upon completion. Physical copies of the game come with the Kohaku Ootori DLC included.
• Dual Boss: Instead of being in the normal Boss Rush, Vespa and Autochrome are fought together in the final levels as a single boss fight. Also, for their Desperation Attack, they Fusion Dance into a Humongous Mecha called Veschrome.
• Dueling Player Characters: The final DLC boss of the game is Kirin, the heroine of Azure Striker Gunvolt 3. Defeating her awards the Sealing Talisman upgrade, which prevents tagged shots from reducing enemy HP below 1.
• Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Applies in Hard Mode, where the levels and enemies are unchanged and simple enough to barrel through, but the bosses can be infuriatingly difficult and take multiple attempts to defeat.
• Eldritch Location: Hanging Gardens, the final level in the game, initially looks like an arcadia with flowery fields, blue sky overhead and pristine white building evocative of Crystal Togas And Spires. On the way to its core where Mother resides, though, the calm blue sky gives way to a rainy purple sky with glitchy diamonds in the distance, on top of the terrain becoming black and unwelcoming.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Grave Pillar, a colossal tower stretching high above the clouds in which most of the game is set. That said, it isn't particularly evil. It was created by the same individual that created the Workers to serve as a test site for possible solutions to the planet's current state, and as such it contains recreations of various biomes that serve as the game's levels.
• Expansion Pack World: In order to prevent a Happy Ending Override the main cast worked hard to achieve, it instead opts for introducing The Multiverse to give Copen another world to save after saving his own.
• Expository Pronoun: Becomes a plot point in the bad ending. Normally, Kohaku uses "watashi", but in the bad ending stinger, she instead uses "boku", the same pronoun used by Mother^note Interestingly, Mother only uses "boku" in the latter parts of her screentime after she's revealed to be alternate Lola (as Lola also uses "boku"); before then, she uses "watashi". This is just one of the hints that Mother has taken over Kohaku.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Ypsilon is a Gravekeeper created by using Copen's data, but contrary to Copen's initial belief that the copy must have been created only recently from scanning him as he arrived near the Grave Pillar, Ypsilon's Worker base was noticeably worn-out and lying outside the tower before it reactivated from Copen's proximity. Later still when Ypsilon goes to report to Mother, it's revealed that she's been asleep for some time before Copen and company first arrived at the Grave Pillar yet she almost casually (after taking a moment to remember who Ypsilon is) remarks that perhaps she was too hasty in scrapping Ypsilon for a past action, meaning there's no way he could have been created anytime recently.
  • The true identity of "Ypsilon" in Hard Mode is heavily hinted at through various gameplay details.
    • His shield is less damaged compared to Ypsilon's, properly showing an "X" when lit up. The "X" insignia is indicative of Copen, while the "Y" version was used specifically for Ypsilon.
    • His Limit Break during the second battle is Stellar Spark, which Ypsilon would not have unless he had the ability to copy the power of the Azure Striker. Considering he was completely depowered at the start of the story and he only gained powers after Copen defeated Gravekeepers...
    • Lastly, the identity of The Creator is all but stated to be a parallel version of Copen. Put two and two together, and...
• Food Pills: It's stated that the Creator left behind a large stockpile of nutrient bars that are safe for human consumption, have apparently never gone bad, and have not been touched by the Workers since they have no need to eat them. Kohaku apparently finds them delicious, and Copen believes that they could revolutionize food if they were brought back to his original world.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the battle against the Mother Computer's Idol Mode if one's paying attention you may notice one key detail about the latter's eyes. They're purple which is the exact same eye color as the original timeline's Lola.
• Fusion Dance: During the rematch against Vespa and Autochrome, when both opponents are reduced to a single life bar, they briefly combine into one very powerful armored robot and use a Special Skill that unifies their abilities into an intense assault.
• Gatling Good: The Gatling Blitz EX Weapon, earned from defeating Brigade, summons a large gatling gun behind Copen that continuously fires in the specified direction until EX Weapon Energy is fully depleted or the player presses the EX Weapon button to turn it off. If an enemy is tagged, the gatling gun will automatically fire towards the tagged enemy.
• Golden Ending: After successfully climbing the Grave Pillar a second time, Copen is bequeathed a program from The Creator that allows the Razor Wheel to download the teleportation program that Null killed herself to save, resurrecting Null in the process. Copen goes on to storm the Hanging Gardens, destroy the Mother Computer, and rescue Kohaku, and in turn frees Mother's soul to join The Creator in the afterlife. Null reveals to Copen that the teleportation program freely links parallel universes, upon which Copen and Lola invite Null to return home with them to find a new purpose for her "infinite possibility".
• Guide Dang It!:
  • The method to evade Seraphic Ruin isn't immediately obvious, unlike most Desperation Attacks, making it seem like an unavoidable screenwide attack. You must hit the orbs that represent each Gravekeeper with its corresponding weakness before they transform into wings. Using Cryo-Flash during the attack makes the process significantly easier.
  • Unlocking Hard Mode. The Bonus Emblem requirement is straightforward enough and is heavily hinted by the game. The problem lies after you collect all the Bonus Emblems, as the game does not inform you that there is an extra step. You need to find a hidden passageway in the final level (helpfully marked by the one bottomless pit with a cliff overhanging it), which contains a door with a Bonus Emblem insignia on it. If you have all the Bonus Emblems, the door will open and Copen will end up finding a teleporter that warps him outside the Grave Pillar, forcing him to climb back up to rescue Kohaku.
• Gravity Screw: The Space Block is a simulation of the Moon and allows Copen to jump higher than usual.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: The melee attack from Copen's Razor Wheel can bisect enemies, including bosses.
• Hand Wave:
  • Bag of Spilling is explained away as Copen uninstalling or replacing upgrades used by his old suit. Lola lost most of the EX Weapons acquired from the Falcons due to a system upgrade that rendered most of them unusable.
  • Null and Kohaku being able to follow Copen to the Grave Pillar is explained by a "special weapon" that Copen built for Kohaku, which promptly never gets mentioned again.
  • The option to turn off Background Music Override when reaching 1000 Kudos is addressed in-universe by the cast, which confuses even Lola herself since it is explicitly canonized as a Magic Music ability. Kokahu gives the fantastical theory of "the real song was in your heart all along".
  • The teleporter that warps Copen out of the Grave Pillar heavily corrupts most of the data Copen acquired during the first trip up, preventing him from using upgrades or any of the EX Weapons he obtained from the Gravekeepers.
• Hard Light: The Razor Wheel uses this for most of its attacks, compared to the Divider's photon laser shots. Given that it is a heavily modified Blaster Rifle, this is par for the course.
• Heal Thyself: One of Lola's new abilities is "Healing Mode", which allows her to heal Copen to full health whenever and wherever for no cost. However, its usage banks your Kudos like other Skills do, which will kick you out of Overdrive if you have it. This ability is disabled in Hard Mode, meaning Copen will need to master dodging and recognizing attack tells if he wants to get anywhere without this as a crutch.
• Hitbox Dissonance: The flying bombs that Veschrome summons have much smaller hitboxes than their explosion sprite. This is key to evading the attack as there is almost no safe room for Copen to stand.
• Invocation: Averted for the first time in the series; A Limit Break now only consists of an animated portrait of the character executing them and the Limit Break's name.
• Killed Off for Real: Generally averted unlike the previous games, since the bosses are robots and can be rebuilt even after they're destroyed. This only kicks in once Copen destroys the Mother Computer and severs her connection with the rest of the world's remaining Workers. The "Hard Mode" ending averts this as the Hanging Gardens are still operational, thus enabling the Workers to function. Even then, Ypsilon is notable for playing this straight, as unlike the other Gravekeepers he doesn't appear at all in Hard Mode while they return.
• Language Barrier: Because Copen and Yang Yumo both speak completely different languages (Japanese/English and Mandarin Chinese respectively), miscommunications occur between the two and they both throw down.
• Laser Blade: Copen's new Razor Wheel has the ability to project a Hard Light from the barrel to execute his melee combo, ending with a laser sawblade that deals multiple hits of damage.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • Copen's Cyborg nature was a major reveal in the previous game, only found out between the two stages of the Final Boss. Here it gets brought up at the end of the opening stage, when Copen notes that the Grave Pillar's barrier seems to only respond to humans, deactivating in Kohaku's presence but not his.
  • Jason and Eve's appearance is one big spoiler for the ending of Blaster Master Zero III.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Volcano Block, which, unusually for this setting, is one of the first levels in the game. Features loads of fire-themed enemies as well as Advancing Wall of Doom and Rise to the Challenge sections with lava.
• Lighter and Softer: After the very bleak and disheartening first game, this game is a little bit gentler and happier.
  • There are more endearing moments to diffuse the sad reality, especially if the player seeks the True Ending. While there are dark moments like Null's sacrifice as seen in Cerebus Syndrome, the Big Bad is still a lot more sympathetic than Demerzel.
  • In addition, the enemies fought (and killed) are robots rather than actual humans or adepts, and the bosses "slain" by Copen's hand can be fixed up no problem. In the occasion that Copen does face flesh and blood opponents, they are simply incapacitated rather than killed outright.
• Logical Weakness: Most wood and plant-themed enemies are weak to the Doomsday Charge, which shoots a fireball.
• Loose Canon: The canonicity of DLC boss fights is fairly ambiguous, although in Jason's case he does drop an important lore tidbit that is very likely to be canon, and Kirin points out, during her pre-battle dialogue, that this is one of the potential worlds Moebius is looking for.
• Marathon Boss: The final boss on Hard Mode is two fights back-to-back with no healing in-between. Both fights are fairly long; the first fight changes its weakness to Anchor Nexus, preventing you from using effective weaknesses without unwanted risk, and the shield gimmick forces you to reapply tags every few seconds. The second fight has its HP massively increased compared to the normal route, with both Mother's hologram and Mother herself having much beefier health bars. At best, you only have enough time to shave off 1/4 to 1/3 of each of Mother's HP bars every opening you get, and you have to fight the hologram again between stun phases. Also, neither Mother's hologram nor her true form on Hard Mode have any EX Weapon weakness.
• Market-Based Title: Weirdly, the "Gunvolt Chronicles" title was kept in the English name despite the Japanese title dropping its Engrish equivalent ("THE OUT OF GUNVOLT"), thus making it just "iX of the White Steel 2" in Japan.
• Mecha-Mooks: All of the enemies faced are this, rather than the mix of organic and mechanical foes seen in prior entries.
• Money for Nothing: Averted again, except now upgrades are even more expensive and more grindy than in iX.
• Multiple Endings:
  • The normal ending, gotten by beating the game normally. Copen successfully destroys the Mother Computer, rescues Kohaku, and discovers the true identities of Mother and the Creator. With the help of Null's sacrifice, Copen, Lola, and Kohaku find a wormhole that transports them back home, where they reunite with Blade and the other Minos.
  • The hidden bad variant that you can earn depending on your performance in the final fight, but you will likely have to deliberately go out of your way for it (and thus qualifies for Earn Your Bad Ending). If you damage Kohaku in the final boss battle enough until she stops flashing from damage, you'll get an extra post-credits scene where Copen and Lola notice something is amiss with Kohaku; while they only have their suspicions, it's revealed to the player that Mother's consciousness has permanently taken over Kohaku's body.
  • The "special" scene, which is not technically an ending but concludes the Normal Mode of the game and unlocks the path to the true scenario, Hard Mode. By collecting all of the Bonus Emblems and finding a hidden room in the final level, Copen will happen upon a teleporter that transfers him back to the desert outside the Grave Pillar, forcing him to climb back up if he wants to rescue Kohaku.
  • And the hidden Hard mode ending. The mysterious person dressed like Ypsilon and replaces him is revealed to be The Creator and Copen's counterpart and a ghost, and he uses the last of his physical power to repair Null and transfer the teleporter program to Copen's Razor Wheel. Afterwards, Copen puts Mother out of her misery, allowing Mother and the Creator to find peace in death. Lastly, Copen invites the now-restored Null to join him and Kohaku to live in their world.
• Multiple Life Bars: Unlike in previous games where the boss' health is represented with a single long bar segmented into three, the boss' health in this game is represented with a smaller life bar that changes color from purple to yellow to red as the fight drags on.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Copen winds up using his Recoil Dash to push large, metallic crates and destroy rocks in various levels.
  • Kohaku and Null often propose these kinds of suggestions for using the EX Weapons that Copen copies from the Gravekeepers. Some of them aren't bad (Null suggesting Whirling Chopper to be used like a fan) and others would be Awesome, but Impractical (Kohaku's suggesting Rolling Ripper could be used to grab a remote if you didn't want to leave a warm bed, but Copen noting it would only work if you didn't mind the remote being chopped in half).
• Mythology Gag: One of Kohaku's dialogue lines on the home menu has her telling Copen that she wants to say "Are you... an angel?" to Null, echoing the words that Joule said to Gunvolt at the start of Azure Striker Gunvolt.
• Nerf: A lot of Copen's tools from the previous game have been taken away from him. He no longer has the ability to Prevade or Flashfield, and his flight is severely restricted outside of Overdrive; he can only air dash a short distance before he needs to touch the ground to recharge, and he no longer has Bullits that enable him to air dash multiple times. Flashfield's replacement, the Hyper Guard, is even more effective than either Prevading or Flashfielding, but requires Copen to be doing absolutely nothing in order for it to activate, limiting its effectiveness. Overdrive, conversely, gives him a limited duration of unlimited air-dashing per jump to compensate for his lack of flight in his base form, but Overdrive requires 1000 Kudos to activate as before and is thus not always or immediately available.
• The Nicknamer: Null mentions a Worker whose sole job is to give monikers to other Workers. Kohaku suggests that it might give Copen an even better nickname than "Luminous Avenger iX", but Copen declines to find out.
• Nintendo Hard: Playing the unlockable Hard Mode becomes this. Copen is locked to level 1 (200 HP), healing mode and upgrades is disabled (including Hyperguard), getting hit will drop Kudos to 0, Copen only has limited lives before being booted back to the Mission select screen, and bosses now utilize modified movesets and different weakness.
• Offscreen Start Bonus: Similar to the previous game, going left at the start of the prologue mission reveals a Bonus Emblem perched atop a cliff.
• Our Souls Are Different: Lola ends Hard Mode wondering if machines like her can have souls, as the heroes watch the Mother Computer's soul (visualized as her "real" Idol Mode) departing to the afterlife alongside the ghost of The Creator.
• Out of Focus: As the game is set in a parallel universe where the main enemies are expies of Reploids called Workers. Adepts do not make an in person appearance (outside of being mentioned).
• Punny Name: Once again, Copen's Limit Break. This time, it's called "CoLoSSAL MAELSTROM", which combines the "Co" from "Copen" and "Lo" from "Lola", symbolizing its Combination Attack properties. In the Japanese version, it is called "XRoSS STROM", with the "X" standing for "iX" and "Ro" from "RoRo".
• Revisiting the Roots: With a desert setting, a non-human protagonist, a sole human companion, all the enemies and bosses beings robots, melee and ranged combat, and the ability to bisect opponents in half - this game harkens back to the Mega Man Zero series of games that feature the same setup.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: The Gravekeepers, as well as the new heroine Null, all have distinctly human-like appearances. Justified, as they were designed to restore the planet to a state suitable for humans to live in, and they have therefore adapted themselves to use human infrastructure.
• Rise to the Challenge: There are some areas where you must quickly dash to the top before magma or poisonous liquid drowns you.
• Shout-Out:
  • There are a number of them to the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man X series, with the latter referencing Inti Creates work, when they were still employeés of Capcom.
    • The introduction level starting with Copen roughed up in a wasteland is similar to how the second game begins.
    • The volcano level has a few rising lava sections, from which one directly references Mega Man X2's Flame Stag Stage, with it's own raising lava section, including the placement of items.
    • Copen can use his Razor Wheel to perform a Three-Strike Combo, an ability Zero is known for.
    • Being able to visibly slice enemies is a feature seen in both Zero and Mega Man ZX series.
    • The siblings Autochrome and Vespa are dead ringers to the Anchortus brothers. Especially on your second fight against them both.
    • How the unlockable Hard Mode does things is akin to the series (where you had so many lives to do a mission) and the limitations are an Inti Creats tradition started in the first Zero game.
    • Ace's fakeout clones and ninja design are copied from Hidden Phantom's moveset and shinobi motif.
  • One of Null's chats has her mentioning a movie that Kohaku showed her where humans fight a tornado of flying sharks with a chainsaw.
  • The teleporter that warps Copen out of the Grave Pillar ends with a quote from another game that involves climbing a tower to rescue a girl. Given that Hard Mode is basically a second trip up the Grave Pillar but more difficult, Hard Mode could be seen as a literal "Another Tower".
    YOU ZAP TO...
  • The rematch with Brigade mentions on how Dacite taught him CQC before engaging Copen. Fittingly, one of his attack even has him draw a pistol and aiming while holding his knife in a reverse grip like Snake.
  • When discussing about "Gatling Blitz", Null blurts up "Let 'er rip!" towards any suspicious looking objects.
  • The entire setting of this game brings in mind Mega Man Legends: A world where humans have long since gone extinct and been replaced by Artificial Human/Ridiculously Human Robots (though when this fact is revealed is different), a super-powered authoritative robot bent on destroying these not-humans (though for practically opposite reasons), and a long-gone "last human" that has since become Shrouded in Myth.
• Significant Double Casting:
  • Ypsilon shares Copen's voice actor, since according to previews he is a Worker created from Copen's data to mimic him.
  • The Mother Computer shares Lola's voice actress, since she's the parallel world counterpart to Lola. Likewise, the blue "Ypsilon" in hard mode also shares Copen's since he's Mother Computer's master and thus the Copen of the parallel world.
• Special Effects Evolution: The explosions are better here than in any of the previous games, with parts flying everywhere (which is carried over to Azure Striker Gunvolt 3). And in a first, the mid-stage bosses actually get an explosion, instead of just dissappearing in a white flash.
• Suicide Attack: After Vespa and Autochrome are defeated in their Dual Boss battle, instead of dying immediately, they fly offscreen before flying into the arena from both sides, colliding on impact and producing a large explosion that kills them.
• Time Master: The Cryo-Flash EX Weapon causes time to slow to a crawl for everything except Copen himself, as well as deal damage over time to enemies on-screen. If used on a tagged enemy, it instead completely freezes them in place and renders them vulnerable to attack. Naturally, some enemies are immune to this weapon.
• Time Rewind Mechanic: Kohaku Otori's Desperation Attack, Ouroboros System, activates after her third health bar is fully depleted. Her weapon, ExeBreaker, rewinds time to the point right after when her second health bar is fully depleted. The only way to prevent this from happening is to finish her off while she is disarmed of ExeBreaker.
• Timed Mission:
  • One of the puzzles to get a Bonus Emblem in the Arctic Block involves using Doomsday Charge to light a furnace that opens a set of doors separated by a large platforming section. The door stays open for 10 to 35 seconds depending on how much you charged the shot, requiring Copen to rush to the Emblem before the door closes.
  • Brigade's Terminal Detonation attack in the rematch gives Copen one minute to defeat him or else suffer a Non-Standard Game Over. When fought in the main campaign, the countdown does not stop after he's dead, forcing Copen to escape the room with what time he has left before it blows up.
• Transformation at the Speed of Plot: Despite Mother's Grand Theft Me plot being described as urgent in the normal route, in Hard Mode she is no further in progressing her plan despite Copen having to climb the Grave Pillar a second time; the only difference is that when Copen gets there, Mother has already possessed Kohaku's body and immediately states her intention of ending the world instead of first telling Copen about her reason.
• Trapped in Another World: Copen becomes stuck in a desolate world where robots reign supreme, and must climb a tower and fight powerful robots to return home.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: You can attack Kohaku during the second phase of the final boss, though doing so before you deplete said boss' HP is rather difficult thanks to her unrelenting attacks. Hit Kohaku enough times, and you will get yourself a bad ending where Mother successfully bodyjacks Kohaku. This, however, is the only way to unlock Mother outfit for Kohaku.
• Video-Game Lives: Introduced in Hard Mode, where you start with 3 lives at the start of a mission. Retrying due to death or via the Retry option depletes one life, and if you die with 0 lives remaining, you are booted back to the Mission Select. Some stages have a 1-Up you can collect to pad out your life counter.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Being robots, the Workers and especially the Gravekeepers can be repaired and pushed out good as new no matter how badly they were destroyed. Counting Hard Mode, which is canonical to the scenario, Copen fights and destroys the Gravekeepers (save Ypsilon) four times throughout the adventure and they come back fine each time. That said, Mother seems to reserve the right to "discontinue" a line, as she scrapped Ypsilon and threw him out of the Grave Pillar to rust until he reactivated on his own with Copen's arrival, and in the normal and bad endings Mother's destruction shuts down the facilities that repair the Workers.
• Wham Line: Jason's introduction in his DLC battle, which singlehandedly ties two universes together.
  Jason: Also like you, I carry Roddy's Blaster Rifle. They must have brought us together...
• Wham Shot: The ending of the final boss battle, where just as Copen rescues Kohaku with a Bridal Carry, a destroyed Lola pod falls out of the Mother Computer before it goes up in explosions.

---