Just a few months ago, I shared my final impressions of the first Rebirth game and I thought Compile Heart and Felistelia did a great job fixing all of the flaws from the original game such as having all the goddesses join throughout the story, using battle system from Victory and having improved graphics.
Just a few weeks ago, Neptune Rebirth 2 Sister’s Generation got released, which is a remake of Mk2. This is odd considering that the second game wasn’t nearly as flawed compared to the first. Despite this, since I played 14 hours, it’s time to share my initial thoughts of the game. (Image Source)
Like the first Rebirth game, the second uses the same battle system as Victory (which is essentially an improved version of Mk2’s ironically). The only big difference is that you now have four party members on the field opposed to three in the first. Otherwise, the battle system is pretty much the same: you move your character on the field, reduce the enemy’s guard points until you get a guard break and then unleash the powerful attacks/skills. Like the other games, level grinding is a must. Even with upgraded weapons and equipment, you won’t stand a chance against some of the bosses and stronger enemies.
In addition, the Remake and the Disk system make a return from the first. The Remake system is similar from the last game in that you need to collect project proposals and collect materials to unlock them. Unlike the first game, some items now require a certain Lily Rank with a character in addition to the free space required before you can proceed.
New to Rebirth 2 is Nariyuki’s Dungeon, which features the mascot of this game’s developer, Stella in her own mini RPG. This is one of the ways you can gain new items such as memory sticks required for the Remake system, ingredients and equipment (for use in this mini RPG). The game play is very simple: you select what equipment you use, the dungeon, how far you want her to go and then send her off. If the time elapses and she successfully clears it, you will gain some items mentioned earlier along with equipment she can use. Otherwise, she will lose all the equipment used for that adventure.
As for the story, it’s very similar to Mk2 with a few minor changes so far. While you still have to fight Uni, Rom and Ram in the 2nd chapter, the only noticeable changes thus far are the Makers themselves since Nippon Ichi and Gust are not in this game. Red and Broccoli replaces them (all the other makers from Victory besides Mages in addition to 5pb, Cave and the older Falcom are in this game). Besides these changes, the story is noticeably longer than the prequel from playing Chapter 2. Even after going to Lastation and Lowee, I’m still on the same chapter. I think this is the case since there are more character events and interactions.
After playing for 14 hours, while Rebirth 2 basically feels like Mk2 with a bunch of changes, included DLC and new features, it’s still a joy to play. The graphics are great and smoother than the prequel with the usual references to gaming. I will eventually share my final thoughts of the game once I obtain all the endings (yes, I’m going to have fun getting the Ruler ending aka the Conquest Ending that everyone dreads).
On a side note, I plan on starting Atelier Ayesha Plus, Tales of Innocence R and Noire Gekishin Black Heart (on summer vacation starting on June 26th) in the coming months. After that, I don’t plan on getting more games (except for another Playstation 3 game) until I finish most of what I already own. Just like with anime, I have a bad habit of not completing the games at least once and leaving them unfinished. Even so, I should have Monster Monpiece finished whenever Idea Factory International finally leashes that game to the public.
I necessarily didn’t hate MK2’s Conquest end, but it did seem sort of morbid. Felt bad, man…really bad. As for Monpiece, even though they haven’t set a date yet, I think it might get release Mid-May or early June. It still has some competition this month on the game release calendar.
I think the morbidity of Nepgear having to kill every character is the sad part which I have to deal with once I get there. I plan on doing it with one save file or so since I heard that one doesn’t have to grind for Lily Ranks, but rather its determined by shares (of course the Conquest Ending, you still have to trigger the events, which will get you locked into that arc before Chapter 5). But still, the game overall feels a lot longer considering that there are character events too (some of them are unvoiced though).
But yes, it seems that Spring and Fall tend to be the busy time when it comes to video game releases. It seems that the backlog of games never end with me, but I’m close to finishing Monster Monpiece, so a review will be out around when it actually get released.