An enjoyable beat-em up that I'm glad a friend recommended to me. The cast of characters, from the main cast to the side characters, I found to be quite likable. Loved the game's soundtrack. I appreciated the creative move-sets for each playable character and fighting enemies felt really satisfying. My only gripes with the game were the quiet volume in cutscenes, platforming in certain areas, and navigating the map. I wish the game allowed players to scroll the map to better understand how to navigate certain areas. I enjoyed playing through the game with a friend online. Cross-play co-op worked perfectly fine for us and I like that the game allows players to use the characters they leveled up in their own save file, in other players' save files. Overall, I had fun and would recommend to those that want something to kill time.

I was very excited for this game when it was announced. So much so, that I bought it twice on launch day, one copy for the Switch and another one for Steam.

I ended up beating the Steam version with a friend, but I played a fair amount of the Switch version....And I have thoughts.....

I like this game, but....I feel like this is kinda of a disappointment and a bit of a stepdown from the first game. It just feels like they took a lot of what made the first one work and either removed it, or doubled down on it so hard that they kinda ruined it.

The enemies feel a lot more annoying in this one, specifically the new colored enemies that hit harder and kill you faster. For some reason, those types of enemies were literally UNKILLABLE in the Switch version, and took like a million hits to take down...But then in the Steam version, this wasn't an issue...

Idk if I encountered a bug or what, since nobody else seemed to have experienced that, but it was really annoying and one of the reasons I didn't bother beating the game on the Switch. Another annoying thing between both versions, was the mediocre online mode, since even on the Steam version, trying to play this game online implied playing it with like -15 frame rate and intense lag.

Again, I don't know if these are things that others experienced, or if they patched these issues in later updates or whatever...But they made playing this game absolutely tedious.

Other than techincal issues, I think this game has too many collectables and side missions that it doesn't really need? Like, the first game had the hidden statues that you had to break in order to unlock the secret final boss, but that was it. Here, they want you to take pictures for Godai, or find cats on the street and take them to Mihoko, or tell you to go somewhere and talk to an NPC or get an item, only to have to backtrack like half of the stage multiple times.

Also, Kunio and Riki are in the cover, but they really have no place in the plot. Same thing with Hasebe and Mami, they only show up once in the whole game and I was hoping they would be playable in this one, cuz they were my favorite in the first game...But that's just nitpicking.

I don't hate this game, in fact, there is a lot of stuff I like about it. It feels bigger in scale, I love playing as Marian and Provie, I like that there are recorded voice lines for each playable character in the story and not just Kyoko and Misako; I still enjoy these characters and this game's sense of humor, the bosses are great and the combat still feels really good!

It's mostly the fact that I spent such a significant portion of time troubleshooting the game instead of actually playing it, or complaining about the online lag. It still is a really good game, it's just not better than the first one in my opinion, which was a letdown for me.

I want to replay it and give it another shot. Who knows? Maybe they did fix these issues...Or perhaps I am just a schizo and none of that actually happened.

A really nice beat em up with a lot of different characters that actually feels different.

The ability to both level up and buy new moves makes the gameplay more varied, as the best combos you can make will evolve and sometimes completely change based on what your prefered moves are.

It kind of falls with all the backtracking it forces you to do, which adds 2 or 3 hours of empty gameplay. The enemies are not varied enough to keep it interesting in the streets.

Overall one of the best beat em up I played recently.

Kinda just the first game again but longer. They tried expanding on the gameplay to include more air combos, but I thought they could've gone further with it. The bosses were also kinda worse in this one with some being incredibly annoying. Aside from that though, the stuff that worked from the first game is all still here. Lots of fun presentation with the sprite-work and the music. The combat is also generally pretty fun but does start to get more repetitive due to the longer length. Still ended up enjoying it and Kyoko's room-temperature IQ continues to be a menace.

My issue with this game, besides the pixel art, is that it's River City Ransom. Oh, and with a sense of humor I found pretty annoying. Brevity is the soul of wit and these characters need to shut up.

The gameplay is retro, even if modernized a bit with a bigger variety of moves. But it's basically punch up enemies, get money, level up, etc. 4-player is nice, and the only family member who liked the game besides me is my niece, who I later learned showed it to a friend and played it 2-player with her. But I just lost interest in this and so did she later on.

River city girls 2 (as well as the first one) is the type of game that makes me wish I had played more beat em ups, the references to countless references to the grander kunio-kun franchise, as well as other series like double dragon leaves me wishing I knew so much more about these games and beat em ups as a whole. Its a fantastic romp through river city, and its just as jokey and stupid in the best of ways as the first. If you even have a passing interest in the genre or just love 2D and or Pixel style games RCG 2 is a must play.

What a fantastic sequel! This game went from 2-player co-op to 4-player co-op! It even gave Marian from Double Dragon some awesome character development! The music is fantastic and there was plenty of comedy to go around. There are some boss fights that are annoying. This could be me not understanding what to do. The game is roughly twice the length of the first one. Towards the end of that, I was ready to be done. When I realized I was about to start the end section of this game, I felt like this was the right length. This means they kept the pace going very well.

River City Girls 2 improves on the previous game and I think it's one of the more fun beat em ups I have played recently. There are some minor annoyances that I ran into, game glitched out a few enemies, had them stuck in a wall. I don't like not being able to save anywhere either. It's not that hard, but running to a safe house every time when I need to quit is a bit annoying.

Combat feels good! I really loved Marian's move set. She can absolutely destroy everything with ease.

Story is just as silly as last time. You aren't getting a masterclass of narrative but it works for the game and that's all it needs.

So long story short, I liked the game, hope they make more!

Played Co-op. Not the improvement on the first game I was hoping for. RCG1, while not nearly some kind of original or inventive masterpiece, at least was still charming to me when it first got released. But I still had some issues with it, mostly relating to combat. And with the increased pricetag of RCG2, I was hoping for a much improved game, but that did not end up being the case. The novelty has worn off and I actually had a worse experience with this game than I had with RCG1.

Besides a few balancing adjustments (for example, not losing half your money upon death), there aren't any new additions to the game that added any value to my experience. Mostly it comes down to me that for a beat-em-up, the combat is just not good.

While there is a tiny bit more variety in the enemy AI compared to the first, you still approach and deal with every enemy the exact same way. You can just punch-punch-heavy any enemy and it will knock them down without any risk. Don't face them during their wake-up animation, and just stand below or behind them and do the combo again. Outside of bosses I never changed my playstyle, because this simple combo will just always work.

Bosses are the most significant downgrade compared to the first game. They love wasting your time with overly long attacks/animations where you avoid their attacks and can't hit them. After you've beaten the second boss, the game never gets any more difficult. Even the final boss we beat on our first try, and I was sure another phase was about to happen but instead the credits started scrolling by.

And there are a few more other issues i have, including:
- Basic movement has inertia.
- Throws are useless. You can only do them when enemies are dizzy, and they don't give i-frames.
- Enemies feel like they take much longer to kill compared to most other beat-em-up or belt scroller. And since they aren't really a threat it mostly ends up being boring.
- Enemies will just walk into your attacks, instead of trying to actually break your combo.

I'll keep it at that for the beat-em-up part of my review. They've expanded the RPG side some more. The map feels like it's a lot bigger, and more interconnected. With new sidequests and NPCs that will help you fight in exchange for some money. I ended up never using these much, since they weren't neccisary, but it does add more charm to the game.

The presentation for the game is mostly on par with RCG1. I prefer the OST of the original, but the sprites and other visuals are still pretty nice. Personally I wish the artstyle was more consistent across gameplay and UI, but I understand this is now the 'modern' look people have come to expect from retro-inspired indie games.

The writing is really not my cup of tea. The humor they're trying to go for feels really predictable, cliché and obnoxious. And the main characters feel like they're more settling in their own stereotype than they were in RCG1. Kyoko is now just an complete idiot in this game, and Misako is significantly more hot-headed.


Having said of all that, the new additions like new playable characters, minigames, and some sidequests don't really do it for me. The moment-to-moment experience is just too dull. It's not like if they made RCG3 with more content, and RCG4 with even more content, that eventually I'd give it a 5 star rating. It's not like I'd ever consider some boring Ubisoft sandbox to be a 5/5 because it has a lot of content™. And same here.

more of the same, but also just more in general. having played these games back-to-back, the improvements on the gameplay in this were felt immediately. comboing mobs was so much more fluid and satisfying. there are actual air combos now, and your actions can be more easily linked by super moves on the ground and in the air. fighting and building up the hit count was an absolute blast. also, assists actually work now. for some reason they were super finicky and unresponsive in the first game, but i had no issues with that here.

unfortunately, the guard break feels kind of janky. there's no way (that i found) to work a guard break into a combo because you've gotta stop what you're doing to hold the heavy button and break the flow of combat. it's great for sending floored enemies up into the air, however. on the player side, guarding seems to be useless for the most part. might just be my unga bunga brain using offense as the best defense.

all the charm from the first game is here, including the hit or miss humor. the map is somewhat expanded on and has a few additional areas with a good number of new characters to interact with. there are now player hideouts spread across the map that let you to respawn in whatever part of the city you died in, allowing you to avoid some backtracking.

great game. had a ton of fun turning my brain off and mashing away.