Gunvolt Records: Cychronicle

Genre: Music-Rhythm

Players: 1

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Review:

Gunvolt Records: Cychronicle is a Music-Rhythm game released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, having players tapping to the beat of 15 songs from the Gunvolt franchise.

Yeah, I’m gonna’ need to unpack that a bit. These songs come from various entries in the Gunvolt franchise, including CD-only tracks and the anime adaptation. And yes, there’s only 15 tracks here, which seems oddly limited since there have been 5-6 games in the franchise with soundtracks to pull from. By comparison, Voez costs only $10 more than this game and when you include free DLC it has over 250 tracks. And sure, that may be a somewhat unfair comparison as Voez is something of an outlier, but it’s another Music-Rhythm game on the same platform, which I feel makes it fair for comparison. However, if you want something more evenly comparable, Aaero: Complete Edition is the same price, and has over 20 licensed tracks, and with far greater variety too.

However, let’s put all of that aside and assume you’re a series fan who’s fine with the limited selection of songs (which you can expand with paid DLC packs that are about $1 per song). How is the game itself?

The presentation here is mostly pretty good, with the game’s menus featuring 3D anime-style characters, and the gameplay taking place in front of those same characters dancing and singing with the song in pre-recorded video performances which cut away at times to gameplay from the 2D pixel art games, which is an odd combination of elements. In any case, this isn’t bad, but I do think it often gets so flashy that it makes it harder to see and pay attention to the actual gameplay.

That gameplay has players tapping in time with bars falling down the screen in two Guitar Hero-esque tracks on either side – one representing the left half of the controller, and one representing the right half. Players are free to use any button they like for either of these, so long as it corresponds with the correct side of the controller. In addition to these, there are occasional prompts for directions to flick the two analog sticks, as well as semi-circle paths indicating the player needs to move the corresponding analog stick in the arc indicated.

While all of this gameplay is mostly solid, it is this last element that is the cause of great frustration here. The semi-circle does a poor job indicating the speed and timing that you’re meant to move the cursor with the analog stick, and to even attempt to do it correctly, you’ll have to draw your eyes to it, which the game clearly doesn’t want you to do because while you’re working on that, the second track can continue on, presenting you with more notes to hit. I feel like this sort of multitasking the game is demanding of the player is really unreasonable, and if they really wanted to try, they should have done better about indicating speed and timing using an element you could track out of the corner of your eye while you’re looking at something else.

As a result of all of this, what could have been a really enjoyable spin-off Music-Rhythm game ends up being a disappointment. Cychronicle’s gameplay, while mostly-great, has this one poorly-conceived element that ruins everything, and that’s on top of presenting an anemic package that’s horribly lacking in content unless you’re willing to pay extra. I think that makes this game something that only the most die-hard of Gunvolt fans will want, and even then you’d have to be a pretty forgiving fan.

tl;dr – Cychronicle is a Music-Rhythm game featuring songs from throughout the Gunvolt franchise… but only 15 of them unless you pay for DLC. What’s more, the gameplay is marred by one poorly-conceived gameplay element that forces players to multitask without giving them a proper indication how to perform correctly. I cannot recommend this release to anyone except the most die-hard of Gunvolt fans, and even then they’ll need to be pretty forgiving fans.

Grade: C-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Overpriced

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