When I heard Azure Striker Gunvolt was on its way, I felt bad that it wasn't going to get the attention and acclaim that was given to Shovel Knight.
With ASG behind me though, I no longer feel bad. Shovel Knight deserved all the praise it got, but ASG ... not so much. It's fun at first and has some neat gameplay, but unlike the Mega Man games it feeds from, the gameplay doesn't really evolve. You get new guns, which are mostly not as good as the one you start with and aren't all that different or useful, and a couple new powers, some restorative, some boss-killing. Largely, you're going to spend the game handling enemies the same way, and though a couple levels give you some neat moments, largely they don't have much change-up. I thought Mega Man X prioritized combat over level design, but that's nothing compared to this game's ratio. To compare, while Mega Man X did focus less on level craziness, there was a varied arsenal at your disposal. Here, it's tag enemy, hold electricity until dead, dodge attacks. It does get challenging at times depending on the enemy, but because you only have one method of handling any problem, you're never going to have to try much else.
The boss gauntlet is weird abbreviated (i.e. you only fight some of the game's bosses), and because of the earlier mentioned boss-killing abilities, you may find yourself overwhelmed by the final boss, requiring you to go back and grind a bit. The game expects the player to go back through the levels multiple times for its crafting system, but the benefit this conveys is really to inflate your gained XP. The items aren't that great.
Not going to worry about the story; it's unimportant.
So though the presentation is good, the combat never really evolves, and so in the last levels, you're doing exactly the same as earlier levels, without any challenge differences or what you'd expect from growth in the game's mechanics. The final boss battle reminded me a little of the final boss battle in Mega Man Zero, which I had just finished playing the weekend ASG came out, and that was a much better game.
I don't regret getting this, but I'm hoping Mighty No. 9 doesn't decide to just ape some elements from Mega Man and call it a day. The rest of the game has to work well too.