Remember Rengoku? It's back, and it's better than ever!
Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory had a great
concept but a rather lackluster
execution. True, I did have fun with it, but I feel it was the kind of game that would only appeal to a
certain demographic. Rengoku 2 is a more polished game, and what Rengoku 1
could've been.
As with the previous game, Rengoku is a Rogue-like, a genre in which you go through different, randomly generated rooms, and is
usually a challenging game. This game
seems to be a Sequel-dash-pseudo reboot of the first game, you play as an ADAM, an android that has
developed a consciousness, and finds itself compelled to ascend through the tower he is in. The game could be a reboot or take place right after the first game took place, those who played that game will understand why either possibility is
plausible. Regardless, this time around the story has received more backstory, further developing on the playable character and the eight different bosses, plus, a supporting cast found in the ADAM's memories. The story is fairly cliched, and I
never found myself invested in it, but it's leagues above the first game's.
As far as gameplay goes, it remains
mostly the same. You go through randomly generated floors defeating other Androids, which
may drop parts, which you can then equip on your chest and limbs for a total of five parts: Head, Chest, Left Arm, Right Arm and Legs. Each floor has a Terminal that is the only place where you can requip your ADAM, enhance it with Elixir Skin, which is dropped by enemies or obtained by
recycling spare parts, and save your game. Dying in the game means dropping all your equipped weapons and dropping back to floor 1... but this time around, there are 8 different warps on the first floor, so you can simply jump right back to the floor you were in and
attempt to retrieve your weaponry. As for
new features, you can now switch between your different slotted weapons by tapping select and going into the weapons menu, and by pressing different limbs in succession you can use combos. Oh! And now there's four "challenge rooms" on each floor which you must
clear in order to open up the Warp point to the floor's boss. Bosses are now much more varied and come in different shapes than before, plus, the game as a whole felt more
challenging than the first. Lastly, the game now allows you to use the Analog stick for movement, which I
yearned for during the first game... turns out the digital pad works much better for this game, go figure! Movement also feels a but looser, I found myself rolling and sidestepping accidentally more times than I could count, but it never cost me my life, still, a bit
bothersome when trying to cross doors.
As you trek through the first two floors you'll come across
familiar weaponry, but as soon as you hit floor 3 you'll come across new weapons. In Rengoku's review I said that it had a ton of weapons... I was wrong, the
quantity of weaponry in this game dwarfs the one found in the same game by a large margin, and there's all sort of new, fun weapons to try, like the Zero Shift, which teleports you right behind your enemy, Zone of the Enders 2 style! While the first game was very lifeless as far as floors went, this time around there's more interactive objects, accelerator pads, rising columns and more variety in the
architecture. Beating the game unlocks H.E.A.V.E.N. a 100 floor monster dungeon that starts you with no weapons, and dropped weapons equip automatically, and once you deplete the ammo, they are gone for
good. A much
better post-game feature than having to replay the whole game, although it would've been nice to be able to save on any part of HEAVEN, since it is a
portable game and all....
Rengoku was not a good looking game, but Rengoku 2? It finally does the art direction
justice, and the floors now offer different themes, unlike the rather
monotonous first game. The music isn't as fast-paced as the first game's, this time they went for more
somber tunes, but they work well enough.
Rengoku 2 is the kind of game that makes the previous game
obsolete. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from playing the first game that you can't get from playing this one. Basically the same story, but with better gameplay and better graphics.
8.0 out of 10
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