After one month and 140 hours (a lot of that is idle time though), I finally completed Tears of Tiara 2. To be frank, this was one of my least favorite RPG experiences I ever had. There were several times when I had to force myself to finish the game.
Before I dive into the negatives, I will say not all is bad. The SRPG gameplay is pretty solid. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it works. You get units of different classes such as sword users and mages, buy equipment and upgrade it and give them different skills to boost stats. Barring a few maps when I thought it was unfair, it was a nice balance between being fun and being challenging. The characters are also charming and loveable. Although the majority of them lack heavy character development you would see in the gerne, they’re enjoyable for the most part and I don’t really dislike a single main character throughout the game, you can sense a tight bond with them despite the cast does grow pretty large at 15 characters. The music with the vocals is also pretty solid and the artwork in the CGs is great.
However, the biggest complaint I have with Tears of Tiara 2 is the game is just too long for its own good. I love a long epic tale but only if it’s engaging the entire time. TT2 is an 80 hour game with 13 chapters and I strongly believe the game should have ended in just six chapters if the story had better condensation. The game has some really serious pacing issues and a lot of scenes just get dragged out for little reason, especially in the earlier chapters. The pacing is so slow I would think the majority of players would struggle to even complete chapter 1, let alone the entire game.
Another reason why I think the game should have just ended at chapter 6 is because chapter 7 onwards has to be some of the most ridiculous plot writing I have ever seen in a game and I do not say that in a good way. At least the earlier chapters felt focused enough with clear goals and believable enemies. But after chapter 6, The game’s plot just becomes an unfocused jumbled mess all over the place. It’s really frustrating how the game, later on, treats death like it’s merely a plaything rather than a permanent outcome and a natural process afterlife.
I won’t spoil details but the abuse of revivals and fakeouts ruins and cheapens some of the most emotional scenes in the game in hindsight. Between that and the excess amount of Deus Ex Machina, it feels like the characters pretty much get everything they want with essentially 0 consequences in the long run. Considering this is a warm setting that is about overthrowing a divine emperor, the main cast dealing with 0 consequences on their side just cheapens the true effect of war with this obsession of the game always writing them as coming out at the top no matter what. And that just doesn’t feel believable to me.
Other issues I have is the ability to not save during the VN cutscenes, which is awful and I don’t like a game that doesn’t respect my time. I had to stay up all night multiple times just to reach a save point. And a lot of the overall writing is very repetitive. Not a major flaw but I do notice Tears of Tiara 2 like to recycle the same jokes and gags with the same characters. It’s amusing and funny at first, but it gets quite stale near the end of the game since it long lost its novelty.
Overall while Tears of Tiara 2 has a strong cast of characters with solid gameplay, it’s a hard recommendation to make to even the most diehard RPG fans due to its overall issues in pacing, length, and plot. Especially since I played better RPGs that essentially like Tears of Tiara 2 such as Fire Emblem Echoes. If you have an extreme amount of patience with the story and you’re looking for another SRPG to play then TT2 may be a fine game to play but otherwise, it's just really hard to recommend this game to nearly anyone personally.
Before I dive into the negatives, I will say not all is bad. The SRPG gameplay is pretty solid. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it works. You get units of different classes such as sword users and mages, buy equipment and upgrade it and give them different skills to boost stats. Barring a few maps when I thought it was unfair, it was a nice balance between being fun and being challenging. The characters are also charming and loveable. Although the majority of them lack heavy character development you would see in the gerne, they’re enjoyable for the most part and I don’t really dislike a single main character throughout the game, you can sense a tight bond with them despite the cast does grow pretty large at 15 characters. The music with the vocals is also pretty solid and the artwork in the CGs is great.
However, the biggest complaint I have with Tears of Tiara 2 is the game is just too long for its own good. I love a long epic tale but only if it’s engaging the entire time. TT2 is an 80 hour game with 13 chapters and I strongly believe the game should have ended in just six chapters if the story had better condensation. The game has some really serious pacing issues and a lot of scenes just get dragged out for little reason, especially in the earlier chapters. The pacing is so slow I would think the majority of players would struggle to even complete chapter 1, let alone the entire game.
Another reason why I think the game should have just ended at chapter 6 is because chapter 7 onwards has to be some of the most ridiculous plot writing I have ever seen in a game and I do not say that in a good way. At least the earlier chapters felt focused enough with clear goals and believable enemies. But after chapter 6, The game’s plot just becomes an unfocused jumbled mess all over the place. It’s really frustrating how the game, later on, treats death like it’s merely a plaything rather than a permanent outcome and a natural process afterlife.
I won’t spoil details but the abuse of revivals and fakeouts ruins and cheapens some of the most emotional scenes in the game in hindsight. Between that and the excess amount of Deus Ex Machina, it feels like the characters pretty much get everything they want with essentially 0 consequences in the long run. Considering this is a warm setting that is about overthrowing a divine emperor, the main cast dealing with 0 consequences on their side just cheapens the true effect of war with this obsession of the game always writing them as coming out at the top no matter what. And that just doesn’t feel believable to me.
Other issues I have is the ability to not save during the VN cutscenes, which is awful and I don’t like a game that doesn’t respect my time. I had to stay up all night multiple times just to reach a save point. And a lot of the overall writing is very repetitive. Not a major flaw but I do notice Tears of Tiara 2 like to recycle the same jokes and gags with the same characters. It’s amusing and funny at first, but it gets quite stale near the end of the game since it long lost its novelty.
Overall while Tears of Tiara 2 has a strong cast of characters with solid gameplay, it’s a hard recommendation to make to even the most diehard RPG fans due to its overall issues in pacing, length, and plot. Especially since I played better RPGs that essentially like Tears of Tiara 2 such as Fire Emblem Echoes. If you have an extreme amount of patience with the story and you’re looking for another SRPG to play then TT2 may be a fine game to play but otherwise, it's just really hard to recommend this game to nearly anyone personally.