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 components of River Metropolis Women 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 massive 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 could 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 maintain 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 may 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 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 sport, as they didn’t turn out to be 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 lovely, distinctive animations because the titular ladies, however I caught with Kyoko & Misako out of familiarity…but additionally it’s their sport.
The primary distinction you’ll discover in RCG2 is that River Metropolis itself is tremendously expanded. Perhaps too expanded. The city is split into a number of sections (Crosstown, Downtown, Uptown, and so on.), 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 sport, your troupe shall be recurrently focused by troublemaking mooks, most of whom you’ll acknowledge from the primary sport, and you may 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 fastened) whereas warding off goons.
Whereas every of the 4–finally six–characters has an amazing variety of melee assaults at their disposal, most environments additionally include loads of weapons, and the sheer breadth of implements stays astounding. You’ve obtained every part from yo-yos to wrenches to huge 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 pink 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 possibly can 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 sport’s PR, however are each unlockable characters tied to particular quests, and it’s important to beat them in fairly tough battles as a way 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 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 sport, Kyoko & Misako are given numerous subquests in between essential story missions which regularly contain working across the overly-large map, speaking to characters, beating up mooks, discovering or smashing issues, and enjoying entertaining minigames. I need to admit that working across the huge map did get outdated. 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 trouble:
1. There is no such thing as a minimap, so that you’ll be going into the map display screen lots.
2. The map’s structure isn’t at all times 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 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 essential criticism about Shantae and the Seven Sirens, too, and I’m wondering if this loading situation 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 cases are unbelievable diversions from the primary curb-stomping gameplay. One early minigame has you enjoying dodgeball towards an entire workforce 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 shortly and there aren’t sufficient of them.
Yo’ ladies nonetheless stage up, however as earlier than, stat will increase are bought in numerous outlets. River Metropolis has a wholesome variety of eating places, road 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, in case you’ve obtained the inexperienced, you must pattern every part on the menu–the primary time you eat any dish, that character will get a stat increase. Oddly sufficient, books and video video games will also be consumed on this method. You may 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 increase their stats individually, however cash isn’t onerous to seek 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 may 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 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 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 at all times respect environmental exploration in video video games and also you’re often rewarded on your effort.
One massive change from RCG is the multiplayer choices: as much as 4 gamers can leap on domestically, 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 straightforward–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 certain what the principles have been for coming into/exiting outlets. Surprisingly, it was native multiplayer that precipitated a efficiency hit. I used to be solely in a position to get two different folks within the room for my sofa co-op experiment, and that precipitated 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 could be returning, I discovered myself anticipating her new tunes greater than every other RCG part. Nicely people, the brand new tracks are superb and exist facet by facet 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 outdated online game journal overview lingo, River Metropolis Women followers rejoice! Should you preferred 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 far bigger, there are far more quests, and the story has larger stakes. The minigames are an incredible new addition, boss fights are powerful however enjoyable, and oh man, that soundtrack.