Punishing: Gray Raven

I’ve been playing Punishing: Gray Raven since long before it came to steam and I absolutely love this game. First off, the story is presented as visual novel and starts kinda quiet - world building and setting the scene - but once you hit about chapter 9 it really starts pulling you in. The lore is deep, it’s gritty, and it doesn’t shy away from dark twists. Some chapters get truly heavy, especially around the mid-late game where everything feels hopeless and epic at the same time. It’s not just “fight bad guys” - there are emotional beats, dramatic reveals, and things that actually stick with you as you play through the struggle of humanity against the seemingly undefeatable opponent. The narrative is one of the best I’ve seen in any action RPG that isn’t triple-A console level, and it keeps getting better as you push through. You can play through all of the available story chapters without engaging with gacha system, game gives you demo characters. Now the music might honestly be the secret sauce. The soundtrack is more than background noise - it’s like a trance-fueled adrenaline boost for every fight. From pulsing electronic beats to drum & bass drops that kick in right when you’re slicing through hordes, to ambient tracks that set the mood in story scenes, the audio fits the cyberpunk end-of-the-world aesthetic perfectly. Some tracks hit with explosive trance-leaning electronic beats and soaring synth lines that make every fight feel like it’s scored for a rave-in-space while darker moments are underscored by haunting, atmospheric melodies. Vanguard sound and PGR are a perfect match. Combat is fast, flashy, and stupidly fun - perfect dodges, signature moves, matrix-style slow motion bursts, all synced to pounding beats. They even implemented DMC 5 Vergil and Dante almost with all of their original moves in this game during the collab. Even without newest characters in your roster, you can still clear all of the events/weeklies and earn all the rewards, meta is for competitive players in the leaderboards. And trust me, seeing a perfect rotation of your team’s skills layered over an insane OST hit just hits differently. Speaking of characters - the gacha here is surprisingly kind if you just play regularly. 100% chance of obtaining on the rate up character, all the characters and weapons except for 1 are in standard banners for characters and weapons, you can even select any weapon on the banner and pull for it or just buy it directly in the weapon shop. On the free-to-play front, this game treats players seriously well. If you just play consistently you’ll eventually get every new featured character because income of f2p player is around 15k always which is 1 copy of limited character. That’s pretty rare for this kind of game and makes progression much more chill and satisfying. There are even a few meta-useful characters that are completely free, without temporary time limits, so you don’t feel left behind even as a free-to-play player. Aside from combat and story, there are cool little extras like decorating dorms and building up relationships with your characters, exploring the newest semi open world hub – Babylonia, taking part in guild activities etc

I have been playing this mess since launch. Longer than any tourist who will give it a positive review. The story boils down to random retcons - they characters are also only ever allowed to develop when the main character (you) is present. Hooray, self insert. Combat is just watching ultimate abilities pan the timer. You follow and repeat a basic rotation and enemies don't fight back. This is the ''endgame'' of ''Punishing: Gray Raven''. Characters are unplayable and do not function into these standard rotations as a F2P player. Weapons for them are MANDATORY and patch income just about misses the weapon pity. Did I mention them needing 2 additional copies to be useful? Joy.

Insane combat and character models. This game just keeps getting better and better🔥🦅

They launched the mobile game on PC but didn't adapt the controls, LOL!

未来的某一天，它也会发生在我的身上吗？ 未来的某一天，我也能穿上这样美丽的婚纱吗？ 未来的某一天—— 我也能找到那个彩虹般闪耀的人吗？ 在发现你之前，就把想对你说的话藏在心里好了—— 未来的你，此时此刻，正在做些什么呢？ 虽然不知道你到底在哪里，但我希望，你每天都能开开心心的。 以后的每一天，我都会努力去寻找你发出的光芒。 当我从你的世界路过时，也请你向我伸出手吧。 我的名字是露西亚。 我们，未来再见吧。

Played PGR previously on Kuro's launcher. The story, combat, soundtrack, and character design is pretty good. The animations and cutscenes are smooth too. There were some nice collaboration events as well. Only downside really are the controls, take some time to configure it for your own experience. Playing on a controller was my preferred playstyle.

worst controls for keyboard.

if i could choose neutral i choose neutral, this game has a good side and bad side balanced for a new player Good Side: - there is a lot of resource so you can rolls gacha a lot - there is a free OP character from the get go - for an old game the graphic is decent - fun combo Bad Side; - there is a lot to do and you keep getting interupted by unskipable guide - the story mode is just a lot and some stories is tedious maybe make it like i dont know summary story and get the resource - the graphic/art between recent character and old character is a lot different making you confused is this same person - the control is just bad

just give me the DAL Kurumi Tokisaki collab and I'll take my leave...