Nearly 250 Screenshots of Kamen Rider Snipe

FIRE IN THE HOLE!

While investigating the hostile "pallete-swap" of Ex-Aid who attacked earlier, another GamerDriver goes online.

Special guest director- Koichi Sakamoto!

Alright, time to prepare my list of Koichi Sakamoto-isms.

Man, things are really getting interesting now. As I expected, the more Riders join the fray, the better this gets. Taiga really feels like an interesting character. He's got a mysterious past, plays foil to both of the other Riders (and it looks like Hiiro has a particular bone to pick with him) and he also has a personal conflict with Graphite, who appears to have been responsible for the Incident five years ago. Good shit. My guess is that same incident may have given Graphite a chance to steal a Driver and the still in development PMAX Gashat so....hmmmm.

Emu is a damn cool guy, and a good protag. Was surprised he actually lost his Gashat though. Of course it looks like Kujo's getting it back not even an episode later, but still. Speaking of which, excited to see Kujo finally make his proper debut! Having all four Riders should really be something.

Also, holy shit. The Riders fuckin die if their health bars get to zero? That seems like a glaring design flaw. And why is Poppi only telling them this now??? That's some high risk shit. But it does certainly raise the stakes.

I enjoyed this episode a lot. By episode 3 Ghost had already sorta started losing me, but Ex-Aid is shaping up to be very very interesting already. Can't wait for next week.

Also man, I need a Snipe figuarts like yesterday. I wanted to wait until I saw the suit in motion to decide, but yeah. Definitely my favorite Rider design in this show. The colors are just too good.

Snipe's appearance here is giving me some "pouring on the speed" feelings plot-wise, which is disconcerting. Hopefully it's just for the introductory episodes and it smooths out a bit later.

Other than that I still love it so far. There seems to be some good character interaction here, I especially like Emu's firmness with his opinions, something that the last few protagonists either lacked or didn't really get a chance to show off.

Hmm....I am didn't expect Taiga know about Graphite.....

Taiga's past looks very interesting...

In his past, it seems the black Gashat is black version of BangBang Shooting Gashat....

So....they can enter to game location. Hmm...I hope this selecting location with continue in future episodes.....

Awesome fight especially Snipe in this episode

Full explosion much like in Military War PC Game!!!

I am also didn't expect the Snipe actually know invicible Revolve Bugster. Snipe kill the real Revolve Bugster.....

Hmm.....Taiga take Mighty Action X Gashat from M but yeah the next episode...it seems with Kujo's help M will reclaim his personal Rider Gashat.....

Shaky cam: Check
Out of suit fighting: Check
Slow motion shots: Check
Excessive use of Cgi: Check
Cgi explosions: Check
Back explosions: Check
Kalishplosions: Check

Yep, this is a Koichi Sakamoto directed episode.

Watching the high quality raw...does look like Taiga was using the Proto Bang Bang Shooting Gashat during his original stint as a Rider. Wasn't sure with the stream's quality. Kinda hope we get to see what Snipe looked like back then. And maybe it'll get released as a toy sometime...? Unless the PGR Gashat does a lot in the movie I'm probably gonna be whining about which one deserved to get a release in about two months time, let me tell you.

And...huh. Interesting. Unlike the other Riders, whose Level 1 eyes are blacked out on their back faces, Snipe's whole visor thing is actually red. I don't mind it (the way the few bits of red he has contrast with the navy and lime green is one of my favorite things about his suit) but it's an interesting break from consistency. Though then again, I'm not sure if I'm just seeing things but at least on the Level 2 suit it does kind of look like Snipe's entire "face" under the mask is red, just a really really dark shade. Who knows.

Anyway, man do I have to say. I love how much personality the suit actors are able to get across in these suits. It's great. I wasn't paying that much attention when I first watched it, but even while the focus is on Brave and Snipe butting heads, Ex-Aid is just off to the side doing his own thing. His posing, the way he just casually flips the Breaker. I think it's pretty great.

And also, I've said this before and I'll probably say it again, but I love how lean these suits are. They can really get far more movement out of them than many of the suits we've gotten for the past few years, and it makes the fights a lot more fun. Even with his little cape Snipe is doing these rolls and high kicks and shit. It's great.

And I kind of love how in finishing the Bugster both Hiiro last episode and now Taiga almost killed Emu too. Half expecting Kiriya to subject Emu to some reckless endangerment next week as well, just for consistency's sake.

Gonna wait until subs are out to watch the full episode, but man, the action looks incredible. Much better than Ghost. And unlike Ghost, it seems like they're actually going to stick with the video game theme for the fight scenes.


And yes, Snipe is probably my favorite Rider design in this series so far.

I wouldn't really call this a "design flaw" since it's pretty darn helpful to have a bar on your suit that tells you how much damage your body can take while transformed.

That's the thing though, we see both Hiiro and Emu after cancelling their Henshin, and neither looked worse for wear despite both coming to the brink of having all their health depleted. To me that sort of implies it's not a literal health bar monitoring the Riders themselves, but more like...the Rider system itself? Like if it takes too much damage it takes the Rider down with it, even if he seems fine.

I'm probably just overthinking it but...yeah.

It does change things a little though. Typically if a Rider gets beat hard enough they just de-henshin. The way they have it set up with Ex-Aid, they either win, run away, or die. Which is...kinda different?

Anyway, you can already feel the "Emu's health bar gets depleted and dies but they get him a +1 Life and he comes back stronger" twist coming. Or hopefully not, but...