South Korean studio IGGYMOB has acquired the rights to the Gungrave series, as announced on social media. While the intellectual property has changed hands (previously owned by Red Entertainment, the studio that created the series over a quarter of a century ago), it appears that mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow, a pivotal figure in the PS2 Gungrave and creator of Trigun, will be collaborating with IGGYMOB on future titles in the series.
IGGYMOB’s most recent project that comes to mind might be Moosa: Dirty Fate, an action game set in feudal Korea that was featured in the March Xbox Partner Preview. However, the South Korean team already possesses significant, and arguably unparalleled, experience with Gungrave. In 2017, they released Gungrave VR, a PSVR game that served as a bridge between the original installments and Gungrave: G.O.R.E. We previously described Gungrave: G.O.R.E. as “a bargain bin game that continues an iconic bargain bin series,” praising “the way it reveres its legacy, to the point of replicating the gameplay and structure of the PlayStation 2 originals with immense discipline.”
It’s a linear action game because it wants to be, not because it fails to be anything else; you advance through levels eliminating everything in your path, usually in large numbers, and following a giant yellow arrow that ensures you don’t feel lost for a second.
It’s unclear if G.O.R.E. performed exceptionally well commercially, but IGGYMOB certainly poured contagious enthusiasm into the project (purchasing the entire IP is likely a testament to this). Their dedication is so strong that they are already working on another game, Gungrave G.O.R.E: Blood Heat, which is essentially a comprehensive remake of the 2022 title. This new version is being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and aims to address some of the more apparent issues of the original release.
