Gaist Crusher

Gaist Crusher (ガイストクラッシャー, Gaisutokurasshā^?) is an action video game developed by Treasure (makers of famed games such as Gunstar Heroes) and published by Capcom. The story focus on an organization's special force tasked with dealing against a race of metallic creatures known as Gaist. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS on December 5, 2013 in Japan.

The game is the first installment in the Gaist Crusher series and it launched as a part of a cross-media franchise including manga adaptations in Shueisha magazines and an anime television adaptation by Pierrot.^[1]^[2] A sequel entitled Gaist Crusher God was released in 2014, exclusively in Japan.

Gameplay[]

The gameplay is fairly similar to Lord of Arcana, with most of its combat mechanics bears similar to God Eater, although it usually focuses on combos and techniques. Players must explore the mission map, battling Gaist along the way. At the end of the map, a larger Gaist will appear, which the player must defeat to complete a mission. Players can make use of various attacks, as well as using "Gaist Arts" and "Form Changes". When defeating the Gaist down, a special "Crash Chance" appears, in which the player must destroy Gaist's core (which was surrounded with Gaimetal) within a given period of time, rewarding them with a new Gaist Gear once completed.

Form Change[]

In combat, players can change the form of their Gaist Gear to adapt to the battlefield. There are three forms:

Melee Form: The player's default form, usually used in frontal attacks.
Weapon Form: The Weapon Form works similarly to Armor Form, though its appearance and function varies for each Gaist Gear equipped.
Extreme Form: A form that can be activated only for a short period of time. In this form, the player's character will be transformed into the Gaist closest to the Gaist Crusher's Gaist Gear, gaining invincibility, elemental attributes and higher attack power.

Story[]

In the year 2047, mankind discovered a rare metal ore called "Gaimetal", which possesses a huge amount of energy, and mining for this strange metal ore begins all over the world. However, humankind are constantly under attack by the Gaist, a race of metallic creatures whose bodies are encrusted with Gaimetal, thus leading to the rise of the GCG (also known as "Gaist Crusher Garrison"), an organization tasked with dealing against the Gaist. The GCG send out mankind's last line of defense: the Gaist Crushers, humans who can wear a special Gaimetal armor called "Gaist Gear" to dig deep below the earth to battle them.

Characters[]

Humans[]

Recca Shirogane - (Element Attribute: Fire) Recca is a hot-headed character who happens to be quite the glutton, which is quite fitting as his family runs a bento shop. His weapon of choice is a blade.
Hayato Kongōji - (Element Attribute: Wind) Hayato is an intellectual character who excels at using effective strategies in combat. He is one of the smarter characters out there. However, he does seem to have his occasional slips. His weapon of choice is a scythe.
Kurama Shindō - (Element Attribute: Gaia) Kurama is a ninja and is also part of a Gaist ninja organization. His looks aside, he has the mannerisms of a normal boy. His weapon of choice is a claw.
Shiren Quartzheart - (Element Attribute: Ice) Shiren is a lone-wolf type character from a severely cold place, known as Icegard. He remains emotionless even towards any event which would have otherwise triggered a reaction from him. His past remains a huge enigma, and he also has a lot of mysteries surrounding his identity. He eventually became a friend of Recca because they shared the same purpose. His weapon of choice is a bow.
Izuna - (Element Attribute: Thunder) - the villain that appears in front of Rekka and his friends. Izuna is a mysterious Gaist Crusher that uses a dragon-based thunder Gaist Gear.
Rock Vulcan - Vulcan is the director of GCG, and is an excellent leader with vast amounts of knowledge and experience to back up his position. He’s a friendly person who’s known for cracking jokes with those around him, but when things get serious he demonstrates his leadership skills to lead the rest of the members of the team.
Sakura Sango - Sakura is the operator of GCG. She keeps track of any Gaist outbreaks, and provides informational support for combat to the game’s protagonist, Rekka, and the others from the base. Contrary to her young and playful appearance, she’s actually a very serious lady.
Zeke Bana - Zeke is the captain who gathers the battle squad, who goes by the name “Captain Bana”. He wears an artificial Gaist Gear along with his trained body and his indomitable spirit to help fight against Gaist.
Cypher - second-in-command to Omega, leader of the Erasers, a mysterious organization that wreaks havoc. He is a Gaist user that intends to dominate the world. He does not hesitate with regards to eliminating those that stand in the way of fulfilling his plans.
Omega - the Boss of the Erasers. He uses Gaists for violent purposes and in the attempt of world conquest. His face is concealed under a mask and thus everything about him is a mystery.

Gaists[]

Fire Fenrir
Arc Phoenix
Hurricane Djinn
Magical Cait Sith
Maximum Tauros
Bloody Ogre
Tekkou Ryujin
Onmyo Yatagarasu
Wind Garuda
Gaia Orochi
Blizzard Unicorn
Lightning Dragon

Development[]

The game was announced in April 2013 as a cross-media campaign with a Nintendo 3DS "Custom Armor Action" game as the core. The goal was to market the game to elementary school age boys primarily using partnerships with Shueisha, Bandai and Studio Pierrot including manga, toys and an anime. Studio Pierrot had previously made the Power Stone anime series. The initial planned launch window was Winter 2013.^[3]

In December 2013, it was confirmed that renowned manga artists Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda each designed a Gaist enemy and Gaist Gear for the game.^[4] This was part of a collaboration with Shueisha's V Jump and Saikyō Jump magazines.^[5]