Platformer with aesthetics of japanese shonen in a semi-open world filled with lots of side-quests.
Tomba! 2 is a nice platformer supported by an inventory-system with lots of items to interact with. Its world is colorful and filled with pesky pigs, talkative NPCs and small secrets here and there. It's fun to play and explore, but it still has its fair share of problems.
The great part about this game is world exploration and completing side-quests. It's not a true open world like TES or Assassin's Creed, but it offered something close to it on the 5th Gen console with its number of interconnected locations. There are 6 locations in total with distinguished themes/biomes. And being first and foremost a platformer, the game offers enough opportunities to jump, glide, swing and swim. Each location is filled with residents eager to speak, offer a quest or even give a useful item. The said quests entice you to explore the world to find its secrets. Sometimes these quests work like a puzzle - you need to figure out what to do in order to complete them. Sometimes the goal of the quest can be found in a completely different location, but fortunately the game offers plenty of ways to travel the world via expendable and permanent solutions. So it's really interesting to traverse the world, explore its themes and find solutions to the side-quests.
But unfortunately some of the quests rely on dumb luck to complete them. The infamous one being the very last side-quest. Without any spoilers I can only say that you need to make a leap of faith in one specific point without any hint when it was previously established that doing so in any other point of that location leads to instant death. BS if you ask me.
The inventory of the game can be filled with dozens of items used to either aid in exploration or complete a quest. Unfortunately it has its weak part - the equipment. There are lots of useful items you can activate to get any kind of effect, but as for the equipment you just stick to one costume for 85% of the time, the other 15% including time before you get that one costume and time when you are required to wear a different costume to progress further. There is just no benefit in switching costumes other than to do a quest. Same with different weapons. Speaking of which...
The battle system is a bit disappointing. The main way to beat the enemies is to jump on them to grab them and throw them somewhere far away. Additionally you have a weapon that can stun the enemy to make it easier to jump on them. There are lots of different weapons but the thing is that at their core they work the same - stun the enemy (mostly evil pigs). A few weapons have a gimmick to help you in exploration of the world like freezing or setting on fire, but as for dealing with the pigs - you can just stick to one weapon that can be utilized most of the time. And it's not reassuring when most of the secret weapons, which are part of the end-game quest rewards, are completely side-lined in favor of that one weapon that can just help you to travel. Because in the end they are all the same. By the way, the end-game...
As it's fun to complete the side-quests, it's not so fun to see what's at the end of that line. Completion of all the side-quests doesn't change the final act of the game. The aforementioned reward-weapons are mostly useless and the final top-secret reward for one of the most mysterious lines of side-quests just grants you invulnerability. The only reward for the player is the second part of the final cutscene. And don't forget that aforementioned infamous last side-quest. It's like the devs didn't really want you to see that 100% completion. And to add to the frustration, the boss battles are... meh. You can see these boss-arenas where you are supposed to run, jump, swing. And you don't use it. You just stand where you've spawned, wait for the boss to approach and deal with it just like with any other mob: jump on it and throw. Finding the boss-arenas is more interesting than fighting said bosses.
The graphics are colorful. Each location is distinct and their inhabitants clearly belong there. The art design is simply masterful. Overall it really gives off that shonen anime aesthetic like the original Dragon Ball. Maybe because of that I really wanted to replay the game in japanese.
As for the music... it's a bit complicated. When I first played the game 20+ years ago it was the international version. The music for the international version was composed by Ashif Hakik. His music really supports each location having that specific sound associated with the theme, and the contrast between depressing cursed and happy purified location is staggering. As for the original japanese version, the music was composed by Shiina Ozawa. And it is mostly generic upbeat music with a bit of a connection to the theme of the location. Even the difference between the cursed and purified version is barely noticeable - switch them and you won't know the difference. So it disappoints me a bit that the og music is on a worse side than the international one. But I'm grateful to Mr. Hakik for such an enhancement of one of my favorite childhood games.
Overall this is a great game even with serious flaws. Back when I was a kid I couldn't finish the game 100% 20+ years ago (curse you, last side-quest!!). And when I finally did it many years later, I didn't feel frustration and disappointment. For me that adventure mattered, that world mattered, and I was ready to overlook all the flaws, because I still enjoyed the adventure and the exploration. And I can call Tomba 2 one of the best if not the best games of my childhood.
Tomba! 2 is a nice platformer supported by an inventory-system with lots of items to interact with. Its world is colorful and filled with pesky pigs, talkative NPCs and small secrets here and there. It's fun to play and explore, but it still has its fair share of problems.
The great part about this game is world exploration and completing side-quests. It's not a true open world like TES or Assassin's Creed, but it offered something close to it on the 5th Gen console with its number of interconnected locations. There are 6 locations in total with distinguished themes/biomes. And being first and foremost a platformer, the game offers enough opportunities to jump, glide, swing and swim. Each location is filled with residents eager to speak, offer a quest or even give a useful item. The said quests entice you to explore the world to find its secrets. Sometimes these quests work like a puzzle - you need to figure out what to do in order to complete them. Sometimes the goal of the quest can be found in a completely different location, but fortunately the game offers plenty of ways to travel the world via expendable and permanent solutions. So it's really interesting to traverse the world, explore its themes and find solutions to the side-quests.
But unfortunately some of the quests rely on dumb luck to complete them. The infamous one being the very last side-quest. Without any spoilers I can only say that you need to make a leap of faith in one specific point without any hint when it was previously established that doing so in any other point of that location leads to instant death. BS if you ask me.
The inventory of the game can be filled with dozens of items used to either aid in exploration or complete a quest. Unfortunately it has its weak part - the equipment. There are lots of useful items you can activate to get any kind of effect, but as for the equipment you just stick to one costume for 85% of the time, the other 15% including time before you get that one costume and time when you are required to wear a different costume to progress further. There is just no benefit in switching costumes other than to do a quest. Same with different weapons. Speaking of which...
The battle system is a bit disappointing. The main way to beat the enemies is to jump on them to grab them and throw them somewhere far away. Additionally you have a weapon that can stun the enemy to make it easier to jump on them. There are lots of different weapons but the thing is that at their core they work the same - stun the enemy (mostly evil pigs). A few weapons have a gimmick to help you in exploration of the world like freezing or setting on fire, but as for dealing with the pigs - you can just stick to one weapon that can be utilized most of the time. And it's not reassuring when most of the secret weapons, which are part of the end-game quest rewards, are completely side-lined in favor of that one weapon that can just help you to travel. Because in the end they are all the same. By the way, the end-game...
As it's fun to complete the side-quests, it's not so fun to see what's at the end of that line. Completion of all the side-quests doesn't change the final act of the game. The aforementioned reward-weapons are mostly useless and the final top-secret reward for one of the most mysterious lines of side-quests just grants you invulnerability. The only reward for the player is the second part of the final cutscene. And don't forget that aforementioned infamous last side-quest. It's like the devs didn't really want you to see that 100% completion. And to add to the frustration, the boss battles are... meh. You can see these boss-arenas where you are supposed to run, jump, swing. And you don't use it. You just stand where you've spawned, wait for the boss to approach and deal with it just like with any other mob: jump on it and throw. Finding the boss-arenas is more interesting than fighting said bosses.
The graphics are colorful. Each location is distinct and their inhabitants clearly belong there. The art design is simply masterful. Overall it really gives off that shonen anime aesthetic like the original Dragon Ball. Maybe because of that I really wanted to replay the game in japanese.
As for the music... it's a bit complicated. When I first played the game 20+ years ago it was the international version. The music for the international version was composed by Ashif Hakik. His music really supports each location having that specific sound associated with the theme, and the contrast between depressing cursed and happy purified location is staggering. As for the original japanese version, the music was composed by Shiina Ozawa. And it is mostly generic upbeat music with a bit of a connection to the theme of the location. Even the difference between the cursed and purified version is barely noticeable - switch them and you won't know the difference. So it disappoints me a bit that the og music is on a worse side than the international one. But I'm grateful to Mr. Hakik for such an enhancement of one of my favorite childhood games.
Overall this is a great game even with serious flaws. Back when I was a kid I couldn't finish the game 100% 20+ years ago (curse you, last side-quest!!). And when I finally did it many years later, I didn't feel frustration and disappointment. For me that adventure mattered, that world mattered, and I was ready to overlook all the flaws, because I still enjoyed the adventure and the exploration. And I can call Tomba 2 one of the best if not the best games of my childhood.