The main thing that stood out to me when playing NGB was just how well designed the game is from its difficulty curve to the way you explore Tairon. NG2, is essentially the antithesis of that, though it's still a really fun time.
Where it's especially fun, is unsurprisingly in the combat. Its so fucking good here, it feels twice as fast as it was in the first game, the UTs got a major visual boost and they're so over the top awesome that they never get old and best of all, the weapons here are even better than in NG1. Most of the coolest weapons from the first game return here like the Lunar Staff and Vigoorian Flails (I wish Kitetsu made a return though) but the new weapons are even better. I love the cc you get with Kusari-Gama and the damage of the Eclipse Scythe especially.
I'm glad they nailed the combat because it's all you do in this game since the RE style exploration is gone in favour of linear levels. It's pretty disappointing since it was one of my favourite parts of the first game but at the very least it allows the game to have a wide variety of locations.
Outside of combat, the game makes notable quality of life changes over the first game. For example, essence will come to you even from long distances now, so killing enemies from far away doesn't feel like a waste. You can swim indefinitely without needing an item for it. Controlling Ryu just feels way better here, especially wall running and you can now hold up to 30 arrows instead of 15 and holy fuck, you're going to need them.
My least favourite boss in the first game was the helicopter because using the bow just feels awkward with a controller and this game has about 4 bosses that can only be damaged in that way. In general the bosses here just suck, the Greater Fiends and the Genshin fights are good but everything else is beyond forgettable from the worm in chapter 9 to the turtles that spend more time turning around than fighting you. It's made worse by the fact that you end up fighting most bosses in this game twice without much changing and it just reeks of laziness.
Another aspect that feels pretty lazy is the amount of enemies the game throws at you. NG1 had you fight 3-4 enemies at most and you really had to calculate your approach on how to fight them. Here, the enemies are easier, so to compensate the game throws a shitload of them at you. It's a pretty cheap way of making the game harder, and it does make the game pretty exhausting. I was burned out at the end of each chapter, but honestly, I couldn't get enough of playing this game. Seeing 10+ enemies on the screen at once all get torn to shreds with the new dismemberment mechanic feels so good and the combat never got old because I was too busy utilizing all the different weapons to see what I like best.
As for story, there's not much to say since it follows the exact same beats as the first game just with different characters. The cutscenes are way more hype here though.
For all its flaws, I can weirdly admire NG2. The game has this confidence to it were it doesn't care about telling a story, having memorable level design or even running well since it slows down all the time with how much enemies are onscreen at once (especially when you use the phoenix ninpo). All the game is concerned with, is having fun and exciting combat and it achieves that in spades but I can't overlook the fact that I feel the game is a downgrade from NG1 in every aspect other than the combat.
Where it's especially fun, is unsurprisingly in the combat. Its so fucking good here, it feels twice as fast as it was in the first game, the UTs got a major visual boost and they're so over the top awesome that they never get old and best of all, the weapons here are even better than in NG1. Most of the coolest weapons from the first game return here like the Lunar Staff and Vigoorian Flails (I wish Kitetsu made a return though) but the new weapons are even better. I love the cc you get with Kusari-Gama and the damage of the Eclipse Scythe especially.
I'm glad they nailed the combat because it's all you do in this game since the RE style exploration is gone in favour of linear levels. It's pretty disappointing since it was one of my favourite parts of the first game but at the very least it allows the game to have a wide variety of locations.
Outside of combat, the game makes notable quality of life changes over the first game. For example, essence will come to you even from long distances now, so killing enemies from far away doesn't feel like a waste. You can swim indefinitely without needing an item for it. Controlling Ryu just feels way better here, especially wall running and you can now hold up to 30 arrows instead of 15 and holy fuck, you're going to need them.
My least favourite boss in the first game was the helicopter because using the bow just feels awkward with a controller and this game has about 4 bosses that can only be damaged in that way. In general the bosses here just suck, the Greater Fiends and the Genshin fights are good but everything else is beyond forgettable from the worm in chapter 9 to the turtles that spend more time turning around than fighting you. It's made worse by the fact that you end up fighting most bosses in this game twice without much changing and it just reeks of laziness.
Another aspect that feels pretty lazy is the amount of enemies the game throws at you. NG1 had you fight 3-4 enemies at most and you really had to calculate your approach on how to fight them. Here, the enemies are easier, so to compensate the game throws a shitload of them at you. It's a pretty cheap way of making the game harder, and it does make the game pretty exhausting. I was burned out at the end of each chapter, but honestly, I couldn't get enough of playing this game. Seeing 10+ enemies on the screen at once all get torn to shreds with the new dismemberment mechanic feels so good and the combat never got old because I was too busy utilizing all the different weapons to see what I like best.
As for story, there's not much to say since it follows the exact same beats as the first game just with different characters. The cutscenes are way more hype here though.
For all its flaws, I can weirdly admire NG2. The game has this confidence to it were it doesn't care about telling a story, having memorable level design or even running well since it slows down all the time with how much enemies are onscreen at once (especially when you use the phoenix ninpo). All the game is concerned with, is having fun and exciting combat and it achieves that in spades but I can't overlook the fact that I feel the game is a downgrade from NG1 in every aspect other than the combat.