Mighty Gunvolt Burst - Back Again

So awhile back I played Mighty Gunvolt. I knew of a sequel but as far as I knew it wasn't on Steam.  Well now it's been on Steam for quite awhile. While I have issues recording Luminous Avenger iX at least this game is playable by my potato of a desktop.

Story 

So this pretty much has a story of Beck, Gunvolt, or Ekoro (And a cast of DLC characters) are trapped in a VR Simulation and they don't know. They only clue they have to go on is some random dark figure that looks like an edgy dark version of a different character says that they need to go through the game and reach the end.

You fight 8 bosses then one of the other characters. Once that's finished, the real mastermind reveals himself as Teseo (Which I think he's from Azure Striker Gunvolt 2). Teseo says you're never getting out of the VR space and he's using the character you're playing as to make Youtube videos and Twitch Streams (While it's not specifically Youtube and Twitch where else would he stream to?). So you work together to put a stop to Teseo.

Teseo reminds me of those Youtubers/LiveStreamers that are talked about all the time. The ones where they do something horrible but only get a slap on the wrist for it.

Teseo's speech is pretty much all internet leet speak. At this point some of this statements are outdated but this game is a few years old at the time I'm playing it. After you defeat him he decides to cut his losses and reset the VR world trapping your character in it. Which at that point they get saved by someone else. And that's pretty much the game.

Well someone has to be. I don't hate you Beck but man support for you is minuscule at the moment.

This is an action platformer so I don't expect much of a story. Just a reason as to what you're doing and some sort of purpose to keep going.

Gameplay

The gameplay is borderline hard. It's using the 8-Bit style of old platformers but rather loosely. It doesn't use super hard jumps where you have to stand at the very ledge to even hope you make it. It does have the classic knockback mechanics, where taking damage in the wrong spot means death.

There's also a customization option. So you can edit how you attack with each character.  Honestly I feel like I needed this option to finish the game. Playing it with default settings felt near impossible at points. You can just go through each level with a default loadout (And there's an achievement for that), but you're in for a bad time.  Or maybe a good time if you're that type of player. I do appreciate that such a challenge exist so that a player doesn't have to say "Oh this game is too easy."

I honestly felt like the game was near impossible cause of some of the cheap shots Mighty Gunvolt Burst takes at you. Even with customizations a no death run felt too hard. I gave up doing a no death run at the last stage where it's essentially a boss rush + 3 more bosses. I have to bring up the customizations. You can customize your character a lot but the problem is you have to unlock them. Some of them are unlocked by clearing the stage a few times. Others you have hunt for it. So with the stages here's what I did.

1 - I pulled up a guide that shows all the hidden item locations
2 - I ran through each stage and collected all the hidden items
3 - Customized my character with all the unlocked customizations
4 - Run the level a 2nd time.

This made things SO MUCH EASIER! There was still frustrating parts that hung me up but thanks to customizing my stress levels were kept in check.

All the characters play generally different from each other. And there's tons of customizations for each of them.

Beck - Controls a lot like Megaman with an air dash.  You can also customize how each weapon fires. From trajectory, damage, elements, speed, etc.  Even a charge shot.

Gunvolt - Gunvolt gets his abilities from his own game.

(DLC from here on)

Ekoro - Fires arrows and can hover. She can also activate an invicinbility mode.

Call - Can hover and air dash, She can also use a barrier to nullify attacks. Call gets little robots called Patches and they attack in a different manner depending on which one you used.

Joule - Uses her songs to attack enemies.

Ray - Fights up close and has attacks depending on burst gauge. She also slowly loses health. But she can regain it by attacking enemies. (WHY COULDN'T IT BE THIS WAY IN MIGHTY NO.9?!)

Copen - Fights with an assortment of bullets, Can dash in any direction, and has Lola to use various special attacks.

Kurona - fights like Ekoro but with a spear. She can also pierce enemy shields.

Tenzou - Fires beams from his VR Goggles like he's a wannabe Cyclops. When he activates his Doki Doki mode he'll pull out a special gun with different effects even stopping time.

So there's a lot you can do for this game. I seriously appreciate the customization options. The problem does arise that once you find the right one you never want to go back and obviously some customizations are better than others. I tried making Beck have Megaman X customizations.  Making each elemental weapon do different things and having a charged version.

Music

So from what I can tell. The music in this game is essentially 8-bit renditions of Mighty No 9's OST. I like it. But it also makes me think of how I could never hear the OST in Mighty No.9 at all. Anyway the style of this game is supposed to be retro.  I can't help but wonder what it would be like if it was modernized.

Graphics

The graphics for this game are pretty good.  I personally enjoy the chibi-fied versions of the characters along with the 8-Bit Sprites. And while the animations are simple they work. I didn't find any problems with it.

Overall

This is an enjoyable game. And the DLC adds quite a bit more fun. Wish I had more time to play the game...or well less games so I could easily come back to this game.