River Metropolis Ladies 2 Overview – Overview

I can’t consider 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 recreation that’s greater and higher than its predecessor whereas incorporating key parts of River Metropolis Ladies Zero, which I appreciated. You may recall that I didn’t look after RCGZ itself, however was delighted to see that characters from RCGZ have large roles in RCG2. For probably the most half, RCG2 is strictly 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 Ladies, 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 could keep 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 college 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 possibly can select to play because the 4 characters out there on the finish of the final recreation: Kyoko, who’s secretly my favourite; Misako, who’s one of the best brawler (IMHO), or their boyfriends, Kunio and Rikki. I by no means bothered to play because the boys within the first recreation, as they didn’t develop 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 additionally it’s their recreation.

The primary distinction you’ll discover in RCG2 is that River Metropolis itself is enormously expanded. Perhaps 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 referred to as “screens” again in my day. As within the first recreation, your troupe can be commonly focused by troublemaking mooks, most of whom you’ll acknowledge from the primary recreation, and you’ll both simply run away or beat the tar out of them. In some circumstances–often tied to finishing missions–a series will seem across the display screen’s border, and also you’ll have to wash a set variety of clocks earlier than transferring on, or beat up a chunk of surroundings till it breaks (or is miraculously mounted) whereas keeping off goons.

Whereas every of the 4–ultimately six–characters has an amazing variety of melee assaults at their disposal, most environments additionally comprise loads of weapons, and the sheer breadth of implements stays astounding. You’ve obtained every part from yo-yos to wrenches to monumental fish, outdated couches, and every part 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 another 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 may recruit a few of these baddies to your trigger, summoning them with a faucet of the L2/R2 buttons. They’re useful in a pinch!

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

As within the earlier recreation, Kyoko & Misako are given a lot of subquests in between important story missions which frequently contain operating across the overly-large map, speaking to characters, beating up mooks, discovering or smashing issues, and enjoying entertaining minigames. I need to admit that operating across the monumental map did get outdated. Regardless of the presence of bus stops (quick journey factors), you’ll be doing a variety of operating from place to put, 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 rather a lot.
2. The map’s structure isn’t all the time intuitive, as if there are extra screens in a given space than may realistically match onto a single space of the map.
3. There are weirdly-long load occasions 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 important grievance about Shantae and the Seven Sirens, too, and I’m wondering if this loading subject 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 occasions, it is omnipresent.

Minigames are new to RCG2, and in just about all situations are improbable diversions from the primary curb-stomping gameplay. One early minigame has you enjoying dodgeball in opposition to a complete group of opponents (which can be simpler to win with extra folks). A later minigame has a enjoyable model of Dance Dance Revolution. In all circumstances, they’re over too rapidly and there aren’t sufficient of them.

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

Every character should enhance their stats individually, however cash is just not exhausting 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 harm per cat rescued). The sheer variety of equipment will will let you discover nearly any mixture to fit your playstyle.

RCG2 appears to be like beautiful, with the identical 16-bit aesthetic that its predecessor had, however there’s simply extra of it now: extra characters, extra various areas, and many eye sweet to ogle within the environments. You’ll wish 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 respect environmental exploration in video video games and also you’re often rewarded on your effort.

One large change from RCG is the multiplayer choices: as much as 4 gamers can leap on regionally, or two gamers on-line. One of many causes this evaluate isn’t up on launch day is that I needed to check out on-line play, and I wound up fairly impressed. Internet hosting is simple–you can begin enjoying as regular and when any person joins, they seamlessly seem. I didn’t expertise any slowdown throughout on-line play, though I wasn’t precisely positive what the foundations had been for getting into/exiting retailers. Surprisingly, it was native multiplayer that triggered 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 triggered a framerate dip when all people began punching issues. It wasn’t dramatic (see: Samurai Maiden) however positively 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 evaluate of the primary recreation (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 element. Nicely of us, the brand new tracks are wonderful and exist facet by facet with tracks from the primary recreation. 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 outdated online game journal evaluate lingo, River Metropolis Ladies followers rejoice! In the event you appreciated River Metropolis Ladies, you’ll in all probability like River Metropolis Ladies 2. It’s largely the identical factor, simply far more of it. The brand new characters are enjoyable, town is far bigger, there are far more quests, and the story has larger stakes. The minigames are an ideal new addition, boss fights are powerful however enjoyable, and oh man, that soundtrack.