Surprise Gungrave reboot looks bonkers, Ghostwire: Tokyo's Ikumi Nakamura joins the project
Almost 20 years after the series first launched, the new Gungrave game announced earlier this year has been properly revealed at Tokyo Game Show. The new trailer, which combines a previously released CG cinematic with new gameplay footage, shows off a modern take on Gungrave's third-person shooting. Watch the video above for a look.
Ikumi Nakamura, former artist on The Evil Within games and former director of the upcoming Ghostwire: Tokyo, is also working on Gungrave G.O.R.E, but her role has not been specified.
“This Gungrave G.O.R.E collaboration has been a valuable experience for me,” Nakamura said at TGS, IGN reports. “I played the original Gungrave, so this has brought back lots of precious memories. You can expect more updates and other news from now on!”
The first portion of the trailer really sets a darkly humorous tone, with the main character dropping into a dock filled with bad guys, via rocket-fueled coffin, and twisting a dude's head in slo-mo before whipping out his comically large pistols.
The first Gungrave game released in 2002 on PlayStation 2, a year after Devil May Cry. The series follows Grave, a former member of a fictional crime syndicate, who rises from the dead to exact vengeance on its members and his childhood best friend.
While Gungrave focused almost entirely on third-person shooting, one special thing it had going for it was character designs and a story by Yasuhiro Nightow, the manga artist and author behind Trigun. Look at Gungrave's original PS2 cover art, or any of the game's cutscenes, and the resemblance is immediately apparent in the titular character's weaponry, sharply angled face and clothing, and other characters. The small coffin Grave carries around bears a resemblance to the cross-shaped rifle carried by Trigun's Nicholas D. Wolfwood. The games were quickly adapted into a proper anime series produced by Madhouse. A sequel to the game was released two year later.
The original Gungrave also sported machine designs by Kosuke Fujishima, a longtime character designer on the Tales of… JRPG series and manga artist on Sakura Wars and Oh My Goddess.
It looks like the visual design has been modified considerably, with this new Grave resembling more of a typical grimdark hero, but he's still got a lot of the classic Gungrave accessories. He's packing oversized dual pistols, and the coffin chained to his back lets him slash enemies and do other special attacks including a flamethrower. All that plus a giant robot to fight looks like it'll be leaning into Nightow's overwhelming visual style that was so prevalent throughout Trigun.
Gungrave G.O.R.E. is scheduled to release sometime in 2022. It's being developed by Iggymob, who previously made Gungrave VR and the weird WWII flight combat sim Dogfighter.