+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