After learning that 2017’s Dark Witch Episode: Rudymical was a spinoff of the second game in INSIDE_SYSTEM’s The Legend of Dark Witch series, I decided to take a little gander at that. But before I begin, I do want to give a small notice: You may have seen me revisit this series a lot recently, but it was mostly just to update the reviews that I’ve made on them since joining this place, to add my new way of reviewing games into account. I apologise if you have consistently seen just this game’s reviews (along with the Gradius Gaiden one coming up), but this will stop very, very soon. I’m working on that review along with the CQ one but on top of all of that, I’m also revising these for the reasons above, and for myself to keep my points about each entry the same, to not touch them again for a while. With that out of the way…

I remember having a little bit of money on me within the 3DS e-Shop when it was still active and stuff. Looking back at my New 2DS XL, the 3ds that I actively use to this day, I remember all the titles I’ve bought from there: Chain Blaster, Fairune, Drancia Saga, some Virtual console games, Magical Whip—a lot of great games that are a splendid blend of obscure and popular. I got Shantae when I was still in the mood for playing the series! But, with me finding out that Rudymical was a spinoff of a game that carried Gradius ana platforming elements, I had no choice but to purchase the game for myself. And I was greeted with the story of the game, just like every other game I know.

It started off with introducing this little Crystal named Syega, and how it’s a tool for humans to use magical powers, using it for many applications, to even then use it for daily use! Its origins remain obscure, but hey, humans finally got a way to compete with the other races at the end. This plot then shows a nation on the west side of The Old Islands (which is surprisingly the setting of the first game!) named Germa. This Germa has been shown to have good research in Seyga, and they have a researching group feared upon many known as the Ich, consisting of the top researchers of the nation. Icke, Kuito, Klinsy, Herbert (the leader of the Ich), Mari, Urken, Litty, and Rudy. Germa decided to cause some naughty activity by sending that said group to Liana, another nation although it’s in the west, to continue their research in private. Why? Cause Franzer is the usual power hungry freak that is defined in most video games. This move immediately Alarms Zizou to go check up on this. She meets up with the 8 members of the Ich to put an end to whatever they were cooking, with some intercations being civil, kind, or just straight up rude. Like, Icke being the little uh…. Tsundere that she is (she got the pony tails!!!!), why is she rude to you??? She just wants to start beef with everyone she visits. I don’t know how and why Herbert would have an indivutial to be within the group if she will be aggressive to anyone that comes in her lab. But then again, Herbet is another one that just wants for you to scram, so that says something to say the least. Mari is also another questionable one, as she’s into the drunky business! Honestly, I assume she’s just there cause the dev wanted to make the Ich not as intimidating as what what the prologue showed them for. Kuito is chill, and so is Urken (but in some way, Urken is also a little mean, just like the others!) Man, if I wanted to work for the Ich, I would just shut down the idea in the first place. Other than Rudy or Klinsy, the others got no sense of respect for the player. Even when playing as Sola (explained later). But other than talking to the eight as Zizou, she then devises a plan to speak to certain indivutials (Codino, Stoj, Blad, and Ri- I mean Pelusa) go inside of Germa and to stop whoever is behind all the research. shes manages to go to the castle and then she counters the one behind everything: Franzer V.

Afte kicking down her first phase, we learn a bit from her that she’s all doing this not only for her own personal benefit, but how Germa’s in fear of Rasil (the country Riva’s a princess in from the first game) becoming strong? I don’t remember much. But then again, like I said, she’s power-hungry because after dealing with Rasil, she wants to be “on the top” amongst everybody else just for Germa to be #1. Kinda her fault. Hell, compared to most of the characters, she looks the palest of them all! This is because she has been using herself to test the limits of Syega just for her and her nation to be the best. What a narcissist. Anyways, you get through her second phase, and then you finish the game as Zizou. What else is next? Sola!

While Sola isn’t as deep as Zizou’s, she still got a well done side of the plot, which I believe this happens either during or right after the events of Zizou’s story. But in short, Sola is looking for her parents, and it’s up for the player to find them! I know that I don’t really care much about this series on a community perspective anymore, but as an indie dev, I think that Sola could’ve done a bit more justice, and I just wanted to share some of the thoughts that I had for her: Instead of meeting the same people you meet in Zizou’s route, how about having a completely new set of characters to choose and fight with unique technical skills to go along with them! Imo, just making them speak to the Ich when their relevance isn’t as strong as it was with Zizou kinda makes them just fit in for Gameplay purposes. Although I don’t want to completely get rid of all of them, I thought about keeping Klinsy, Blad, Codino, and Urken into the mix. Why her? Just because. Out of all the Ich, she gets barely any attention from not only NAN-A but the fans aswell, so why not. It’s good to have not so forgettable characters sometimes. After looking around the world for her parents, she even eventually meets Zizou and due to how she was in the first game, she immediately accuses Zizou of doing something in relation to Germa’s leader and lashes out for it, even without context of what happened. So I guess that this did take place during the story of Zizou’s route. I guess. But other than that, she returns home, and her parents finally arrive for them to be remembered and kept forever. This story perfects the prequel's story in every way possible. To just be a simple story, to something that’s simple but yet more complex than its predessor. A true sequel to what other people say.
Moving on to everyone's favorite aspect: the gameplay. The game takes what the first installment offered, addressing both its strengths and weaknesses, and immediately corrects the errors. What was once an infinite use of spamming Linear Shot/Comet/Punishment/any other of those weapons now is limited with the slot that goes above the Gradius Slot. This applies to the skills you get from bosses, too although they take up a lot more than the Gradius Slot. The only thing that I ctirisize about this game in terms of it’s gameplay is HOW EASY THE GAME IS!!!!!!!!!!!!! This game has got to be the easiest game that I have ever played in my entire life. There’s a review on this site written by @LordIce5 that does a good and simple job explaining the issues with this game. They say and I quote:

“Level design is extremely bland. You can become overpowered very quickly. Bosses are forgettable.”

While they were a significant upgrade from what the first game had with troll moments and weird enemy designs at the wrong moments of the level, this game turns that down a notch to the point that even on Expert can make the game feel too easy. Extremely bland is the right word for it, just look at Kuito’s stage! You can complete that stage without pressing left. Which I absolutely loathe. Back during my 3.0 scratch days, they would feature quick platformers people would make that I would roast them hard due to them having almost every stage being completable without pressing right, and the only thing that gives them the featured treatment is just because of how great (but bland to my eyes) the game looks. Someone made a near complete port of Asteroids, and that hasn’t gotten featured. Simple stages don’t make the game fun, even if there’s a bunch of replay value to it. I want the stages to be balanced, along with the boss fights. Not to mention, Papelne Trade allows access to Express, an upgraded speed feature that makes you extremely fast, further reducing the game's difficulty.

With LordIce’s second point being that you get extremely overpowered too quickly, both as Zizou, AND has Sola. Zizou has Punishment, which is already too powerful on it’s own. With careful planning, you can cheese the bosses faster than you can say… anything. Pair that with the ability to use a Revenge Attack (Hyper Dark Arm (Zizou)/ Churros Scramble (Sola)/ or Princess Strike (Riva, Steam only), AND have the boss technical skill weakness and you’re all set, the Ich and the folks at Liana are no more. Sola is a bit different, but there’s one word to describe how OP she is: Mastery. With this, she unlocks everything within the Gradius slots, for free. Everything. Game breaking…. I mean it isn’t bad when you’re playing Lunatic but STILL!!! This goes with his last point: The boss fights are forgettable. Due to the game being so easy , the bosses attack patterns don’t mean much to you cause all you want is to just kill them to advance through the story. If they had a bit more elbo grease (or you’re playing on Lunatic), then the bosses won’t be forgettable as such. A

While DW2 definitely has it’s flaws, this game is not really bad when you put it into the perspective that it managed to do everything that the first game failed to do, and the game is pretty solid on it’s own. Thanks for tuning into this review! :D