Still blessed by the amazing artstyle, movement, shooting and swordplay, but revisiting this classic just to be hit by an awful camera, terrible voice acting and mediocre level design hurt me.
Its still an unique experience and still the best mecha game i have ever played.
Its still an unique experience and still the best mecha game i have ever played.
İyi güzelde sıkıyo la belli bi yerden sonra
YEAAAAAAAH
Shinji get in the VR headset
i would let ken kill me
+unrelenting, fast-paced, grim mech combat from back to front. feels very urgent in its combat, especially since with the higher enemy counts you can get easily overwhelmed if you try to take it slow
+so many amazing particle effects for the ps2, especially in the final boss arena. I think MARS may have added even more? regardless all throughout the game you get beautiful swirling lasers, bursting orange and yellow explosions, bullets spinning in a vortex before flying at you, etc.
+a proper combo system has been added, allowing you to burst cancel any combo and use directional finishers to smack enemies into the environment
+the core gameplay in general has been fleshed out with more varities of enemies, swarms of mini-enemies that you can take out all at once, more subweapons, mines and other traps on the battlefield, faster overall movement and actions, a more dynamic camera, among other positive tweaks
+although I didn't mind the exploration of the first game, this game switches to a linear system that keeps the focus on combat, stripping much of the filler out in the process
+even though the gameplay is relatively simple, the scenario design is such that virtually every section of the game is completely unique in its objectives
+many more boss fights than the first game, and a few of the boss fights have multiple phases in different arenas
+overall this game is noticeably more difficult than the first, and I think it hits a sweet spot for a short action game where it feels pushing through the more difficult sections to get to the end
+the aumann crevasse section is in some ways the peak of what they were attempting with this series, with hundreds of enemies advancing on you and 41 allies in a battle that can last up to 15 minutes
+an older, more confident leo returning from the first game in vic viper from gradius rules... and his boss battle is one of the better ones in the game too
-no japanese dub option, and the english dub is terrible. it's not like the story is amazing anyway, but the dub really makes me want to skip cutscenes on all subsequent playthroughs
-I did praise this game earlier for trying a lot of different things, but there's definitely some misses in there as well. finding taper in the crates sucks, the escort missions aren't great, and being guided by comms through fortress city with few enemies is rather boring
-certain boss gimmicks are a little confusing to understand for a first run-through, especially between the many nephtis fights
-the optional bosses on ng+ are pretty lackluster, and are only worth going for to unlock them for versus play (and to get the trophy)
-while in theory I vastly prefer the anime cutscenes to the ugly cgi of the original, in practice the designs and animation look cheap. it doesn't help that on ps4 the cutscenes are not hi-res, and have possibly been affected by tilt-and-scan to get a 16:9 presentation
-during the sections of the game where the objective is just to move from room to room killing enemies, there's some pretty noticable copy-paste of environments. I think the hd versions of this game are based on the jp-only ps2 special edition, which pad out the game with these sequences in response to complaints of the game being too short
-it seems like the ex missions are mostly scenes from the original game with identical enemies repeated with scoring/a time limit. a little disappointing, as these could've offered a good opportunity to pad out the features
-zoradius is a cool addition (a behind-the-ship 3d remake of the first stage of gradius) but in practice it's tedious to beat. part of it is that I don't actually like gradius all that much, but it doesn't help that it's thrown together with assets from the game to lackluster results, and the control isn't well-tuned. the final boss is a damage sponge and will leave if you don't beat it quick enough, making beating this minigame a bit of a chore
after playing through this one I couldn't stop myself from immediately going for the platinum based on just how fun much of it was. there's certainly flaws, and the controls still will throw newer players for a loop, but it's not a long game and it's worth it for all of the mind-blowing combat throughout the game. there's a japanese tradition of amazing experimental linear action games on playstation, and this game is surely one of the crowning achievments of that era
+so many amazing particle effects for the ps2, especially in the final boss arena. I think MARS may have added even more? regardless all throughout the game you get beautiful swirling lasers, bursting orange and yellow explosions, bullets spinning in a vortex before flying at you, etc.
+a proper combo system has been added, allowing you to burst cancel any combo and use directional finishers to smack enemies into the environment
+the core gameplay in general has been fleshed out with more varities of enemies, swarms of mini-enemies that you can take out all at once, more subweapons, mines and other traps on the battlefield, faster overall movement and actions, a more dynamic camera, among other positive tweaks
+although I didn't mind the exploration of the first game, this game switches to a linear system that keeps the focus on combat, stripping much of the filler out in the process
+even though the gameplay is relatively simple, the scenario design is such that virtually every section of the game is completely unique in its objectives
+many more boss fights than the first game, and a few of the boss fights have multiple phases in different arenas
+overall this game is noticeably more difficult than the first, and I think it hits a sweet spot for a short action game where it feels pushing through the more difficult sections to get to the end
+the aumann crevasse section is in some ways the peak of what they were attempting with this series, with hundreds of enemies advancing on you and 41 allies in a battle that can last up to 15 minutes
+an older, more confident leo returning from the first game in vic viper from gradius rules... and his boss battle is one of the better ones in the game too
-no japanese dub option, and the english dub is terrible. it's not like the story is amazing anyway, but the dub really makes me want to skip cutscenes on all subsequent playthroughs
-I did praise this game earlier for trying a lot of different things, but there's definitely some misses in there as well. finding taper in the crates sucks, the escort missions aren't great, and being guided by comms through fortress city with few enemies is rather boring
-certain boss gimmicks are a little confusing to understand for a first run-through, especially between the many nephtis fights
-the optional bosses on ng+ are pretty lackluster, and are only worth going for to unlock them for versus play (and to get the trophy)
-while in theory I vastly prefer the anime cutscenes to the ugly cgi of the original, in practice the designs and animation look cheap. it doesn't help that on ps4 the cutscenes are not hi-res, and have possibly been affected by tilt-and-scan to get a 16:9 presentation
-during the sections of the game where the objective is just to move from room to room killing enemies, there's some pretty noticable copy-paste of environments. I think the hd versions of this game are based on the jp-only ps2 special edition, which pad out the game with these sequences in response to complaints of the game being too short
-it seems like the ex missions are mostly scenes from the original game with identical enemies repeated with scoring/a time limit. a little disappointing, as these could've offered a good opportunity to pad out the features
-zoradius is a cool addition (a behind-the-ship 3d remake of the first stage of gradius) but in practice it's tedious to beat. part of it is that I don't actually like gradius all that much, but it doesn't help that it's thrown together with assets from the game to lackluster results, and the control isn't well-tuned. the final boss is a damage sponge and will leave if you don't beat it quick enough, making beating this minigame a bit of a chore
after playing through this one I couldn't stop myself from immediately going for the platinum based on just how fun much of it was. there's certainly flaws, and the controls still will throw newer players for a loop, but it's not a long game and it's worth it for all of the mind-blowing combat throughout the game. there's a japanese tradition of amazing experimental linear action games on playstation, and this game is surely one of the crowning achievments of that era
The control works fine when facing enemies in open areas, but camera and targeting are an issue in missions that go beyond killing enemies, missions added to have more variety than its precessor but that does not work as well as the regular ones. The plot and script are awful, and the horrible english dub does not help at all; Konami should have added the original japanese audio. Despite this, the game has aged very well and is still a frenetic and enjoyable arcade
Highly recommended to play at 144hz, the game goes twice as fast, making it a super dumb and zooming mecha action game.
Yeah i played the game like this i dont regreat it.
Yeah i played the game like this i dont regreat it.
Still the best mecha game ever made. Action is smooth and fun with flashy attacks and a variety of useful subweapons to play with. The artstyle remains perfect and hasn't aged at all. Jehuty and Anubis are still some of the best mechs ever designed. The boss fights are varied and the gimmicks never make the fights annoying. The story is cheesy and fast-paced which fits the game to a T and the poorly directed voice acting combined with the strange dialogue is campy and endearing. The soundtrack remains stellar as well. The only problems worth noting come from the shoddy port. While being in Jehuty's cockpit in VR is cool, the limited view compared to 3rd person is disappointing and not being able to see Jehuty in action takes a lot of the cool factor out of the gameplay. The game starts in VR mode and turns on my headset and starts up steamVR before asking if I want to play in VR mode instead of after which was very annoying. The sound is very quiet and only solvable by changing a setting in the volume mixer and going back to turn it off after I'm done playing the game. Vsync also broke the game entirely and performance was poor at the start of the game for no reason. All that being said, ZoE2 is still fantastic.
es mentira que me lo he pasado porque el final boss me da palique, pero el juego esta mucho mas guapo que el primeor jugablemente, eso si la historia sigue siendo una chusta pero nadie juega por eso
A MASSIVE improvement over the first game. There's a reason this got more love and attention from Konami than the first.
A great remaster of the original game that cleans up the visuals to hold up to a more modern scrutiny. Though it doesn't do much to improve the game, it still does enough to make it playable for modern audiences.
When this game is firing on all cylinders it's damn near a masterpiece. Tearing through hordes of robots, that have great designs, with your arsenal while the super unique soundtrack blares in the background feels fucking incredible. Add to that the fact that most of the boss fights are really fun, especially the Vic Viper fight with the Gradius callbacks, and you've got a recipe for a classic.
Unfortunately, this game does not consistently fire on all cylinders. The biggest problem is how the lock on system works. It's fine during encounters with 10 enemies or so, but when you get into big battles you'll often find yourself locking onto enemies a mile away instead of the ones right in front of your face. What makes this even worse is there's a handful of battles that involve friendly AI, and you'll lock onto them by accident instead of the enemies which is frustrating as hell.
A couple other minor complaints - the escort missions kinda suck, a couple bosses towards the end of the game kinda suck, and the camera moves a little too slow for my liking. Also, and your mileage my vary on this, but the English dub is pretty bad which I find very charming but other people may hate.
Unfortunately, this game does not consistently fire on all cylinders. The biggest problem is how the lock on system works. It's fine during encounters with 10 enemies or so, but when you get into big battles you'll often find yourself locking onto enemies a mile away instead of the ones right in front of your face. What makes this even worse is there's a handful of battles that involve friendly AI, and you'll lock onto them by accident instead of the enemies which is frustrating as hell.
A couple other minor complaints - the escort missions kinda suck, a couple bosses towards the end of the game kinda suck, and the camera moves a little too slow for my liking. Also, and your mileage my vary on this, but the English dub is pretty bad which I find very charming but other people may hate.
Kojima