River Metropolis Women 2 Evaluation – Evaluation

I can’t imagine it’s solely been three years since Kyoko & Misako burst onto the reinvigorated brawler scene, cracking skulls and taking down River Metropolis’s interim Yakuza boss, Sabuko, earlier than discovering their boyfriends, Kunio and Riki. Now they’re again, in a sport that’s larger and higher than its predecessor whereas incorporating key parts of River Metropolis Women Zero, which I appreciated. You may recall that I didn’t take care of RCGZ itself, however was delighted to see that characters from RCGZ have large roles in RCG2. For essentially the most half, RCG2 is precisely what it says on the tin with some new options and high quality of life enhancements that I actually dug.

The sport begins by reminding us that on the finish of the primary River Metropolis Women, heroines Kyoko & Misako punted katana-wielding Sabuko–daughter of imprisoned River Metropolis crime boss Sabu–out a window. She is quickly found by her adopted brother, Ken, who you might bear in mind from RCGZ, and the 2 go to their father, Sabu, who promptly punches a gap in his jail wall and says he’s going to care for issues himself. In the meantime, Misako & Kyoko’s faculty is taken over by Ken and his goons, and so they forcefully expel the gals, who wind up enjoying video video games on Kyoko’s mother’s sofa for six months.

You’ll be able to select to play because the 4 characters out there on the finish of the final sport: Kyoko, who’s secretly my favourite; Misako, who’s the very best brawler (IMHO), or their boyfriends, Kunio and Rikki. I by no means bothered to play because the boys within the first sport, as they didn’t change into out there till beating the story. After enjoying a bit with them right here, I discovered each to be enjoyable characters with simply as many stunning, distinctive animations because the titular women, however I caught with Kyoko & Misako out of familiarity…but in addition it’s their sport.

The primary distinction you’ll discover in RCG2 is that River Metropolis itself is enormously expanded. Possibly too expanded. The city is split into a number of sections (Crosstown, Downtown, Uptown, and many others.), and every of those sections is damaged up right into a dozen or so single areas–what we known as “screens” again in my day. As within the first sport, your troupe will likely be frequently focused by troublemaking mooks, most of whom you’ll acknowledge from the primary sport, and you’ll both simply run away or beat the tar out of them. In some instances–normally tied to finishing missions–a sequence will seem across the display screen’s border, and also you’ll have to scrub a set variety of clocks earlier than shifting on, or beat up a chunk of surroundings till it breaks (or is miraculously fastened) whereas heading off goons.

Whereas every of the 4–finally six–characters has an awesome variety of melee assaults at their disposal, most environments additionally comprise loads of weapons, and the sheer breadth of implements stays astounding. You’ve bought all the pieces from yo-yos to wrenches to monumental fish, previous couches, and all the pieces in between. Every weapon has a sure variety of makes use of earlier than it breaks, and it’ll flash purple earlier than it does–simply sufficient time to toss it at yet one more mook, Breath of the Wild-style. Crowd management is a problem in RCG2, although some characters are higher at it than others. And as earlier than, you’ll be able to recruit a few of these baddies to your trigger, summoning them with a faucet of the L2/R2 buttons. They’re helpful in a pinch!

Provie & Marian have been closely touted within the sport’s PR, however are each unlockable characters tied to particular quests, and you need to beat them in somewhat troublesome battles so as to acquire their confidence. Provie, a Capoeria-centric (Brazil!) brawler who’s enjoyable to play as, is definitely a stowaway from the PC sport River Metropolis Ransom: Underground, however you might acknowledge iron-fisted Marian because the oft-kidnapped girlfriend of the Double Dragon dudes. She’s barely recognizable right here, with white hair and muscular tissues that might put Billy & Jimmy to disgrace, and has an aggressive heavy-hitting preventing model.

As within the earlier sport, Kyoko & Misako are given a lot of subquests in between essential story missions which frequently contain working across the overly-large map, speaking to characters, beating up mooks, discovering or smashing issues, and enjoying entertaining minigames. I have to admit that working across the monumental map did get previous. Regardless of the presence of bus stops (quick journey factors), you’ll be doing plenty of working from place to position, and three issues make this a problem:

1. There is no such thing as a minimap, so that you’ll be going into the map display screen loads.
2. The map’s format isn’t all the time intuitive, as if there are extra screens in a given space than might realistically match onto a single space of the map.
3. There are weirdly-long load instances in between each display screen.

That final level is the true killer–we’re speaking five-ten seconds of loading time each time you progress from one display screen to a different. This was my essential criticism about Shantae and the Seven Sirens, too, and I’m wondering if this loading problem is current on the opposite consoles. Not game-breaking by any means, however given that you simply’ll be traipsing round each nook of the map a number of instances, it is omnipresent.

Minigames are new to RCG2, and in just about all cases are unbelievable diversions from the primary curb-stomping gameplay. One early minigame has you enjoying dodgeball towards an entire crew of opponents (which can be simpler to win with extra folks). A later minigame has a enjoyable model of Dance Dance Revolution. In all instances, they’re over too shortly and there aren’t sufficient of them.

Yo’ women nonetheless stage up, however as earlier than, stat will increase are bought in varied outlets. River Metropolis has a wholesome variety of eating places, avenue distributors, boutiques, and specialty shops, all of which promote gadgets that you may both eat, retailer for later, or put on as an adjunct. Any time you go to a brand new food-centric retailer, should you’ve bought the inexperienced, you need to pattern all the pieces on the menu–the primary time you eat any dish, that character will get a stat enhance. Oddly sufficient, books and video video games may also be consumed on this means. You’ll be able to eat the meals proper there or retailer it for later use. My technique was to eat all the pieces instantly, then purchase seconds for boss fights.

Every character should enhance their stats individually, however cash is just not arduous to search out in River Metropolis, and spending even a modest period of time grinding goons will produce a surplus of casheesh. Equipment haven’t modified both: they produce sure buffs and two might be worn at a time. Some are defensive, some are offensive, some steadiness out, and others are ridiculously particular (for instance, do extra injury per cat rescued). The sheer variety of equipment will assist you to discover nearly any mixture to fit your playstyle.

RCG2 seems to be attractive, with the identical 16-bit aesthetic that its predecessor had, however there’s simply extra of it now: extra characters, extra diversified areas, and plenty of eye sweet to ogle within the environments. You’ll need to listen, too–one quest asks you to rescue a bunch of cats, and people little rascals get into the strangest locations. The environments have extra verticality now which is a pleasant change of tempo. It’s not fairly platforming, however I all the time admire environmental exploration in video video games and also you’re normally rewarded in your effort.

One large change from RCG is the multiplayer choices: as much as 4 gamers can soar on regionally, or two gamers on-line. One of many causes this overview isn’t up on launch day is that I wished to check out on-line play, and I wound up fairly impressed. Internet hosting is simple–you can begin enjoying as regular and when anyone joins, they seamlessly seem. I didn’t expertise any slowdown throughout on-line play, though I wasn’t precisely certain what the principles had been for getting into/exiting outlets. Surprisingly, it was native multiplayer that induced a efficiency hit. I used to be solely capable of get two different folks within the room for my sofa co-op experiment, and that induced a framerate dip when all people began punching issues. It wasn’t dramatic (see: Samurai Maiden) however undoubtedly noticeable.

I can’t allow you to all go with out mentioning the writing, which stays hilarious, and the voice-acting, which is extraordinarily good. In my overview of the primary sport (and RCGZ), I heaped reward upon Megan McDuffee’s transcendent soundtrack. When RCG2 was introduced and that McDuffee can be returning, I discovered myself anticipating her new tunes greater than every other RCG part. Nicely of us, the brand new tracks are superb and exist aspect by aspect with tracks from the primary sport. If the theme of RCG2 is “extra RCG,” that additionally extends to the soundtrack, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

So, to make use of some previous online game journal overview lingo, River Metropolis Women followers rejoice! When you favored River Metropolis Women, you’ll most likely like River Metropolis Women 2. It’s principally the identical factor, simply far more of it. The brand new characters are enjoyable, town is way bigger, there are far more quests, and the story has increased stakes. The minigames are an excellent new addition, boss fights are robust however enjoyable, and oh man, that soundtrack.