A rhythm game spin-off based on a property known for its great music usually ends up being a fantastic idea, so GUNVOLT RECORDS: Cychronicle pulling from the Gunvolt series library seems like a good fit! However, a small track list that omits some songs to sell later as DLC and rudimentary design with four difficulty levels can leave it feeling a bit lacking.
There’s no overarching story or attempt to provide some excuse for Lola, Lumen, or Luxia taking the stage in GUNVOLT RECORDS: Cychronicle. Rather, it jumps right into teaching folks how to play before sending them into a concert mode to go through variations on 15 songs. There are four types of note indicators to hit in songs. The horizontal bars can appear as single hit or held notes, with the ones on the left side of the screen tied to the left triggers and action buttons on the switch and on the right to the right side. You can hit all of these, even ones that take up only half the lane, with any of those keys. (I exclusively used the L and R buttons.) Flick notes offer a fairly generous window in which to flick either the left or right analog stick, depending on which lane (or lanes) the indicators appear. The final type are yellow circular indicators that mirror the rings on the screen. For these, you must hit the initial note by flicking the analog stick at the right time, then continue to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise as indicated.
This input execution means that I found GUNVOLT RECORDS: Cychronicle to be one of the less challenging rhythm games I’ve played. The only notes I had an issue with her the gold ones that involved “hitting” the indicator by timing my analog stick press with a direction in the ring, then moving at the right time around the ring to complete the circular motion, since you might not exactly be sure of the positioning and speed due to it being more precise than the general “flick” actions. As a result, even the Hard difficulty versions of some tracks didn’t feel that much more challenging than Normal. Only the Expert options would really get to me.
While the execution is fine, I’m not the biggest fan of the character models for Lola, Lumen, and Luxia in GUNVOLT RECORDS: Cychronicle. Yes, they all look like the characters. It’s something about the way the faces and outfits look for these adaptations that made them look a bit off to me. The models look a little too rudimentary. It’s like instead of the actual Muse and songstresses, we’re getting the Temu versions accompanying us through songs instead. These look better on the menu screen than in the songs proper, at least.
But more importantly, I’m pretty disheartened by the song selection. Inti Creates composed some fantastic music for the Gunvolt series. So the selection fo tracks is strong. The problem is there are only 15 tracks here. The developer attempted to pad that out a bit by having some songs being snippets that must be played to unlock the “full” version. I get this is only a $14.99 title, which would put it into the budget category. However, these are songs from the series and company. To only have 15 in there and pay about $20 more for 20 songs spread across five more song packs is really frustrating. Especially since some of those songs do come from Azure Striker Gunvolt and Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX and aren’t from supplemental sources like the anime adaptation or other soundtracks.
The fact that this is a budget sort of game does mean it’s a bit rudimentary in terms of what it offers. You get the Concert mode, which involves playing through the tracks. The Music Video section allows you access to a jukebox function with the Music Player or a Movie Player that lets you watch the music videos that would play if you were going through the tracks in Concert. The Gallery is a bit of a misnomer, as it is really only a place to see your personal records, revisit the tutorial, or see the game’s credits. Still, the Concert mode is what most will probably use and it works fine, and the Music Player works fine.
The Gunvolt series has fantastic music, and GUNVOLT RECORDS: Cychronicle feels like a natural spin-off. It also plays pretty well. I’m just disappointed in Inti Creates excluding so many tracks to sell separately and the final 3D model designs for the three heroines. If you enjoy the series’ songs, it’s probably a good idea to check the tracklist to see if ones you enjoy are in the base game and maybe pick it up if they are.
GUNVOLT RECORDS: Cychronicle is available for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.
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