Racking Up A Higher Score In Azure Striker Gunvolt Changes The Stage Music

Azure Striker Gunvolt has a number of interesting mechanics in place. We’re going to look at a couple more of them today. Let’s begin with this gameplay video:

The first half of the video demonstrates Gunvolt’s Skills and Psychic Abilities, and shows Asimov explaining the latter to him. After the halfway point, you’ll notice the music in the background changes from the stage music to an actual song. This is actually a gameplay mechanic related to your performance.

Azure Striker Gunvolt has something called “Kudos,” which are points that rack up as you inflict damage on enemies during a mission. Kudos are reset to 0 if GV is hit by an attack or an enemy, but if you manage to avoid being hit for a period of time, whatever Kudos you’ve acquired will be converted into bonus score points when you touch a Save Marker, clear a mission, or use an Attack Skill.

Bonus Kudos can be earned, too. You can earn bonus Kudos by destroying multiple enemies at once, destroying an enemy with a Level 3 lock-on (either on the ground or in mid-air), destroying an enemy with an Attack Skill and in other ways as well. Once your Kudos reaches 1,000, the mission soundtrack changes into a song by Lumen, which will continue to play as long as you stay above 1,000.

Moving along, at the 3:25 mark in the video, you see Gunvolt get killed by an enemy, following which he’s promptly brought back to life by Lumen. This won’t always happen, though—it depends on your relationship with Joule.

During Azure Striker Gunvolt, you’ll occasionally have conversations with Joule. Every conversation with her needs to be played right in order to create the circumstances for resurrection. Once resurrected, Lumen will temporarily provide GV with unlimited energy, and you’ll be able to use his Afterimage ability without losing any EP. And yes, Lumen will break out into song upon resurrection as well.

Inti Creates say that, despite Azure Striker Gunvolt being a download title, they’ve included two different songs in the game that will play upon resurrection or achieving 1,000 Kudos. They use CRI middleware to achieve this.