Gungriffon

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Gungriffon
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Sega (US, Europe), Game Arts (Japan)
Developer: Game Arts, Youmex
Supporting companies: Twofive (audio)
Distributor: Sega-Ozisoft (AU)
Sound driver: SCSP/CD-DA (37 tracks)
Peripherals supported: Video CD Card, Saturn Backup Memory
Genre: 3D Shooting, Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1996-03-15 ¥5,800 (5,974)5,800e T-4502G JP (Satakore) 1998-03-12 ¥2,8002,800 T-4509G US 1996-06-19 $59.9959.99 81046 EU 1996 MK81046-50 DE 1996 MK81046-50 PT 199x UK 1996-07-18 £44.9944.99 MK81046-50 PL 1996 AU 199x FGUN08SSC

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Gungriffon, known as Gungriffon: The Eurasian Conflict (ガングリフォン) in Japan is a first person mech shooter for the Sega Saturn.

Developed by Game Arts, Gungriffon series, similar to Square Enix's Front Mission franchise focuses on realism and authentic real life politics rather than over the top visuals and overly powerful vehicles, as is common in other Japanese mecha anime series.

In the overseas versions, player's unit was changed from Japanese Foreign Legion's 501st Company to US 45th Armored Division, also implying that US joined the war on PEU's side even though this is not the case in the original story. Date of the conflict also bizarrely changed from 2015 to 2075. Reasons for these changes are believed to be the fact that players fight against US forces in the last few missions and Sega of America's belief that a game in which players engage US soldiers would not sell well in United States.

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Gungriffon became a hot topic in Japan as a game that predicted the future, as several missions in the game take place in Russian occupied Ukraine.

Story

Following information is based on a series of articles published in Sega Saturn Magazine before the release of Gungriffon II. Overseas version's narration of events will not be taken into account.

At the beginning of the 21st Century, majority of Earth's farmable land is lost due to conflicts and abnormal weather patterns, causing a worldwide food crisis. United States, suffering from economical problems, abolishes security treaties it had made with overseas countries and instead establishes "AFTA", an alliance of North and South American countries and enters an isolationist stance. Europe and CIS countries band together to form "PEU" while Japan, now without the protection of US security umbrella, forms "APC" with other Asian and Oceanic nations. Several African nations also come together to form "OAU".

PEU and APC are competing for influence in OAU's few developmental areas, due to the loss of American market and tensions flare soon enough. When Chinse-led APC forces in Libya launch a surprise attack on PEU forces in Egypt during a training excercise, World War III breaks out between these two superpowers. When China pressures Japan into sending forces overseas, Japan amends its constitution and forms Japanese Foreign Legion, an expeditonary force consisting of mostly foreign nationals to send overseas and prevent the deployment of Japanese Self-Defence Forces out of the country.

Main land weapons of the conflict are AWGSs, which stands for "Armored Walking Gun System", basically large manned robots with much better offensive capabilities and mobility compared to tanks and able to travel rough terrain. Trump card of the conflict is HIGH-MACS, an AWGS jointly developed jointly by Japan and US before the war. HIGH-MACS is capable of limited gliding and low altitude flight, giving it performance of not only a main battle tank but also limited capabilities of an attack helicopter.

Player is a member of the 501st (and later 504th) Mobile Anti-Tank Company "Griffon" of Japanese Foreign Legion, pilotting a HIGH-MACS.

Factions

Asian Pacific Community (APC)

A military and economic alliance that consists of major Asian powers such as Japan, China, Korea, Thaliand, Australia and various other Pacific nations. Even though Japan brought the alliance together, China is the de facto leader due to its large population and economy. Relationship between members are problematic however, due to China's aggressive and expansionist policies, such as launching an incursion to Vietnam and calling it an APC operation despite the fact other APC members did not want to have anything to do with it. Japan leads the AWGS technology while China's AWGS weapons are copies of French and Russian designs.

Pan-European Union (PEU)

A more militaristic version of European Union of our time with the inclusion of Russia. Germany leads the AWGS development, also de facto leader of the alliance. Russia however, cannot contribute much to economic problems and various independence movements in Siberia. Main antagonists of the series.

American Freedom Trade Association (AFTA)

An alliance of North and South American nations, with United States in the lead. Despite having both technological and military superiority, AFTA refuses to participate the war until much later. AFTA is renamed UAC (United American Countries) in the English version to avoid trademark issues with real-life NAFTA.

Organization of African Unity (OAU)

A loose alliance of African nations lead by South Africa. Despite being the least developed continent, it also has potential for most growth compared to the desolate areas in Europe and Asia and therefore is the target of both factions. Considering the majority of its members are dealing with civil strifes and wars, it is difficult to consider this faction an alliance. Mentioned in name only and only made an appearance in the last mission of Gungriffon Blaze.

Missions

	Operation Dandelion Seed
	Location: Kharkov, Ukraine With Russian forces occupy Kiev, Ukraine requests assistance from APC. 501st MATC is deployed in an airborne operation to eliminate PEU forces in Kharkov and use it as a base of operations against furher operations in Kiev.
	Operation Dark Servant (Renamed "Unbound" in English version)
	Location: Kiev, Ukraine While Russian forces approach Kiev from the North and PEU froces from the West, 501st launches a surprise airborne assault on Russian/PEU forces in the city and capture it before enemy reinforcements arrive. Urban terrain makes use of tanks and vehicles problematic so expect mostly airborne and AWGS attacks.
	Operation Foxhound
	Location: Novosibirsk, Russia Defeat at Kiev breaks Russian morale and various territories within the country declare their independence. One such location is Novosibirsk, which asks for assistance from APC. 501st Company is assigned to disrupt the Trans-Siberian railroad by engaging the supply train waiting in Chulym and eliminating Russian, French and German forces there. Snow and dense fog will limit visibility. Expect heavy counterattacks once you have reached the train station. Several heavy artillery units in the southern part of the map will pose a serious threat so enage them as soon as you can.
	Operation Bloodstorm
	Location: Ulan Bator, Mongolia APC suffers a crushing defeat in Novosibirsk, which results in destruction of 502nd Company. Now on the defensive, APC forces form a defensive line near Russian-Mongolia border with Siberian rebels to withstand the onslaught of PEU forces consisting of Russian, German and French forces. Heavy enemy presence is expected to hit your defensive lines soon. Main part of enemy forces are located in the middle of the battlefield while and enemy AWGS reinforcements will reach the battlefield within 10 minutes. You must conserve ammunition until supplies are delivered.
	Operation Chicken Cage
	Location: Datong, China APC is on full withdrawal and retreats all the way into Chinese mainland. A massive PEU force of French, German and Polish forces close in on Datong while assortment of APC nations consisting of Japanese, Thai, Korean, Singaporean, Australian etc. forces attempt to hold the line near the Great Wall of China.
	Operation Shock Wave
	Location: Lianyungang, China AFTA declares war on both PEU and APC. Exhausted by war and run out of supplies, neither faction offers much resistance to fresh and fully-equipped AFTA forces. Two Marine Expeditionary Forces invade Chinese port of Lianyungang while US 101st Airborne Division lands near the strategically important airport. Now reassigned to 504th Company, players must defend the airport until a JASDF C-17 Globemaster transport plane can take off.
	Operation Iron Storm
	Location: Weifang, China What is left of Japanese Foreign Legion, 504th Company and 103th Armored Division withdraws further into Beijing, chased relentlesly by AFTA forces. Passing through a narrow ravine, pilots of 504th must protect allied tanks not only from chasing marine and armored units but also surprise attack by 82nd Airborne Division.
	Operation Aurora
	Location: East Urals, Russia War draws to a close as both PEU and APC surrender unconditionally to AFTA. However a group of PEU radicals capture a Russian missile silo in Eastern Ural Mountains and launch a missile to AFTA-heald Moscow, annihilating the city. 504th Company pilots are temporarily recruited into AFTA due to their skills and ordered to re-capture the silo before another missile attack can occur.

History

Development

During development Gungriffon was known as 3D Robot Shooting (3Dロボットシューティング).

Sega of America originally intended to release the US version of the game under a new title, Iron Rain. Without naming names, Working Designs alludes in its manual of the localised PlayStation 2 sequel, Gungriffon Blaze, that it convinced Sega's Japanese arm to force the name back to Gungriffon so as not to confuse customers with Iron Storm (that and the new title "sucked really hard"). Working Designs were not involved in the Saturn version of Gungriffon, but had a strong working relationship with Game Arts at the time, seeing prototypes of the technology at Winter CES 1995.

Legacy

In Japan, the game was followed by Gungriffon II.

Production credits

• Director: 宮路 武
• Main programmer: 浜田 憲一
• Sub Programmer: 金井 秀樹, 増渕 利道, 小山 洋幸
• Game Data Making: 原田 修, 浜田 憲一, 庭野 健一
• Model Animator: 原田 修, 金井 秀樹
• Visual Coordinator: 高橋 秀信
• Texture Drawing: 迫 章久, 里 大樹, 横川 憲太郎
• Background Design: 迫 章久, 横川 憲太郎
• Special Effect Making: 里 大樹
• Visual Designer: 安住 政敏
• Visual Design Assistant: 迫 章久
• Sound System Programmer: 上条 有
• Sound Effect Programmer: 松田 明男
• Sound Treatment & Strategies: 西 隆宏
• TrueMotion S Data Making: 増渕 利道
• Situational Designer: 岡田 厚利
• A.W.G.S. Design: Bee-Craft, 山田 隆博, 阿久津 潤一, 広部 滋
• 3D Modeling: 柳川 渉
• Opening & Ending CG: 株式会社リンクス, 倉澤 幹隆, 平野 善久, 西井 育生, 竹中 隆弘, 斎藤 紀生, 大谷 謙, 名越 輝幸, 斎藤 香, 江崎 達也, 田中 将史, 海亀事務所, 林 弘幸, イクイティ エンタテインメント, 鈴木 慎二
• All Songs Composed & Arranged: 武内 基朗
• Recording & Mixing Engineer: 小林 敦
• Manipulator: 小西 輝男
• Sound Production: Two Five, 溝口 功, 高野 聡
• Narration Recording: ユーメックススタジオ, 猪股 一彦, 加園 稔
• Narrator: 野田 圭一
• Marking Design: ㈲戦船
• Data Research: 長村 琢哉, 柏木 朗, 早川 真吾
• Special Thanks for: 須永 有三, 柏木 朗, 吉田 聡士, 大畑 和幸, 岡野 崇宏, 加藤 孝視, 池谷 昌彦, 松田 充弘
• Sales: 岡部 利香, 菅谷 由美, 小川 陽平
• Producer: 内田 敏幸
• Executive Producer: 宮路 洋一
• Presented by: Game Arts

Source:

In-game credits (JP)

File:Gungriffon JP Saturn credits.pdf

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• Director: Takeshi Miyaji
• Main programmer: Kenichi Hamada
• Sub Programmer: Hideki Kanai, Toshimichi Masubuchi, Hiroyuki Koyama
• Game Data Making: Osamu Harada, Kenichi Hamada, Ken-ichi Niwano
• Model Animator: Osamu Harada, Hideki Kanai
• Visual Coordinator: Hidenobu Takahashi
• Texture Drawing: Akihisa Sako, Daiki Sato, Kentaro Yokokawa
• Background Design: Akihisa Sako, Kentaro Yokokawa
• Special Effect Making: Daiki Sato
• Visual Designer: Masatoshi Azumi
• Visual Design Assistant: Akihisa Sako
• Sound System Programmer: Ari Kamijo
• Sound Effect Programmer: Akio Matsuda
• Sound Treatment & Strategies: Takahiro Nishi
• TrueMotion S Data Making: Toshimichi Masubuchi
• Situational Designer: Atsutoshi Okada
• A.W.G.S. Design: Bee-Craft, Takahiro Yamada, Junichi Akutsu, Shigeru Hirobe
• 3D Modeling: Wataru Yanagawa
• Opening & Ending CG: Links Corp., Mikitaka Kurasawa, Yoshihisa Hirano, Ikuo Nishii, Takahiro Takenaka, Norio Saito, Ken Otani, Teruyuki Nagoshi, Kaori Saito, Tatsuya Ezaki, Masabumi Tanaka, Umigame Jimusho, Hiroyuki Hayashi, Equity Entertainment, Shinji Suzuki
• All Songs Composed & Arranged: Motoaki Takenouchi
• Recording & Mixing Engineer: Atsushi Kobayashi
• Manipulator: Teruo Konishi
• Sound Production: Two Five, Isao Mizoguchi, Satoshi Takano
• Narration Recording: Youmex Studio, Kazuhiko Inomata, Minoru Kasono
• Narrator: Keiichi Noda
• Marking Design: Ikusa Bune
• Data Research: Takuya Osamura, Akira Kashiwagi, Shingo Hayakawa
• Special Thanks for: Yuzou Sunaga, Akira Kashiwagi, Satoshi Yoshida, Kazuyuki Ohata, Takahiro Okano, Takashi Kato, Masahiko Ikeya, Mitsuhiro Mazda, Tomoyuki Shimada
• Sales: Rika Okabe, Yumi Sugaya, Youhei Ogawa
• Producer: Toshiyuki Uchida
• Executive Producer: Youichi Miyaji

Staff For US Version

• Producer: Greg Becksted
• Lead Tester: Mark Griffin
• Assistant Lead Testers: Jeff Hedges, Mark Paniagua, David Wood
• Testers: Rob Prideaux, Sean Potter, Al Dutton, Joel Breton, Jeff Loney, Don Carmichael, Lorne Asuncion, Steve Bourdet, Rick Greer, Gene Rivers, Matt Tronside, Tim McKnew, Abe Navarro, Lance Nelson, Todd Slepian, Patrick Walsh, Kenny Robinson, Chris Sur, Roger Somerville-Deforest, Marc Dawson, Jeff Junio, Lloyd Kinoshita, Tony Lynch, Dave Paniagua, Tim Spengler, Daniel Dunn, Fernando Valderrama, Matt Underwood, Richard Krinock, Rey Alferez, David Dodge, Sean Doidge, Howard Gipson, Zenon Thorton
• Presented by: Game Arts Corp.

Source:

In-game credits (US)

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• Producer: Greg Becksted
• Lead Tester: Mark Griffin
• Assistant Lead Testers: Jeff Hedges, Mark Paniagua, David Wood
• Testers: Rob Prideaux, Sean Potter, Al Dutton, Joel Breton, Jeff Loney, Don Carmichael, Lorne Asuncion, Steve Bourdet, Rick Greer, Gene Rivers, Matt Ironside, Tim McKnew, Abe Navarro, Lance Nelson, Todd Slepian, Patrick Walsh, Kenny Robinson, Chris Sur, Roger Somerville-Deforest, Marc Dawson, Jeff Junio, Lloyd Kinoshita, Tony Lynch, Dave Paniagua, Tim Spengler, Daniel Dunn, Fernando Valderrama, Matt Underwood, Richard Krinock, Rey Alferez, David Dodge, Sean Doidge, Howard Gipson, Zenon Thorton
• Manual: Wendy Dinsmore
• Special Thanks: Frontline Marketing

Source:

US manual

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Magazine articles

Main article: Gungriffon/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

PDF

JP flyer

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1996-04: "1996-04 (1996-03-08)" (1996-02-23)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1996-05: "1996-05 (1996-03-22)" (1996-03-08)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1996-07: "1996-07 (1996-04-26)" (1996-04-12)

Print advert in Sega Magazin (DE) #35: "Oktober 1996" (1996-09-11)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 576 KByte (HU) 88 Consoles + (FR) NTSC 91 Computer & Video Games (UK) 50 Edge (UK) NTSC-J 50 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 83 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 78 Fun Generation (DE) NTSC 90 Gambler (PL) 78 GameFan (US) NTSC 93 Game Players (US) NTSC-U 82 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 85 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 78 Joypad (FR) 90 Joypad (FR) NTSC-J 90 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 84 Maximum (UK) 75 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 83 Mega Fun (DE) NTSC-J 83 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 88 Mean Machines Sega (UK) NTSC-J 88 neXt Level (DE) PAL 75 Player One (FR) 92 Power Up! (UK) 85 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 79 Saturn+ (UK) PAL 62 Secret Service (PL) 80 Sega News (CZ) 94 Sega Power (UK) PAL 66 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) PAL 88 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 91 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 80 Total Saturn (UK) PAL 63 Video Games (DE) NTSC-J 78 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 90

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Based on 34 reviews

Gungriffon

Saturn, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc

Saturn, JP (Satakore)
Cover
Spinecard Disc

Saturn, US
Cover
Manual

Saturn, EU
Cover
Disc

Saturn, DE
Cover
Disc

Saturn, PT

Saturn, AU
Cover
Disc

Technical information

Main article: Gungriffon/Technical information.