Fuga 2 took everything about Fuga 1 that I disliked and kept it while making other elements of the game worse. The story in Fuga 1 wasn't great but it was servicable, it may be non-existant in 2. The miserable mechanics in the first such as: no manual saves, no healing to full after chapter complete, characters stay injured and depressed until intermissions, and overwhelming combat encounters way early in the game so that you never feel adequately powerful all return.
The thing that got me to stop, a trooper as I usually am, was when I was hit for massive damage by the boss of chapter five and was forced to load a character into the Soul Cannon to be used as a win condition. Knowing what I know about the first game, this is how you gimp yourself of the true ending. In Fuga 2 if you go below a certain HP threshold, this happens automatically. I really, really, really, REALLY dislike this mechanic and after it happening I immediately alt f4'd and moved on. I consider myself patient, but I didn't want to have to micro-manage my HP as hard as I was going to going forward. Part of the JRPG/Tactics charm is hedging your HP against the enemy, that doesn't exist in this game. I was hit for a massive amount of damage by the boss with no indicator, and boom, sacrifice of a party member that significantly dampers my chances for success going through the game. That's bad game design... IMO.
Maybe I'm a stick in the mud or "too young" to understand how unforgiving older games were, but this is a new game, this is a new generation of gamers. It's not fun to the player to penalize them to the degree this game does with its lack of save states and frustrating Soul Cannon mechanics. I enjoy Souls games, I beat my face against a wall playing Sekiro... but I knew that I could lose and get back up again. Here lies Fuga 2, frustrating and a complete unimprovement from its oddly refreshing predecessor.
The sad thing is I liked the risk this game takes with one of its characters early on and there is some serious sauce to the art, the music, and the Slay-The-Spire esque presentation of its routes, but to quote Boygenius: "The way I am, I'm not strong enough to be your man."
I guess if you're into it... play Fuga 2, however I just couldn't keep going on. There are games out there that have me interested far more. Space for the Unbound, Okami, and Street Fighter 6 on my radar to tinker around with until FFXVI.
I'm real glad this was on Game Pass again.
The thing that got me to stop, a trooper as I usually am, was when I was hit for massive damage by the boss of chapter five and was forced to load a character into the Soul Cannon to be used as a win condition. Knowing what I know about the first game, this is how you gimp yourself of the true ending. In Fuga 2 if you go below a certain HP threshold, this happens automatically. I really, really, really, REALLY dislike this mechanic and after it happening I immediately alt f4'd and moved on. I consider myself patient, but I didn't want to have to micro-manage my HP as hard as I was going to going forward. Part of the JRPG/Tactics charm is hedging your HP against the enemy, that doesn't exist in this game. I was hit for a massive amount of damage by the boss with no indicator, and boom, sacrifice of a party member that significantly dampers my chances for success going through the game. That's bad game design... IMO.
Maybe I'm a stick in the mud or "too young" to understand how unforgiving older games were, but this is a new game, this is a new generation of gamers. It's not fun to the player to penalize them to the degree this game does with its lack of save states and frustrating Soul Cannon mechanics. I enjoy Souls games, I beat my face against a wall playing Sekiro... but I knew that I could lose and get back up again. Here lies Fuga 2, frustrating and a complete unimprovement from its oddly refreshing predecessor.
The sad thing is I liked the risk this game takes with one of its characters early on and there is some serious sauce to the art, the music, and the Slay-The-Spire esque presentation of its routes, but to quote Boygenius: "The way I am, I'm not strong enough to be your man."
I guess if you're into it... play Fuga 2, however I just couldn't keep going on. There are games out there that have me interested far more. Space for the Unbound, Okami, and Street Fighter 6 on my radar to tinker around with until FFXVI.
I'm real glad this was on Game Pass again.