Now Playing: Fist of the North Star - Ken's Rage 2

 Oh boy.

 And the disappointment train continues with Ken's Rage 2! Ken's Rage was one of my favorite Warriors game out there, partly because it felt relatively different, partly because it nailed the feeling of the series so well.

 So, where to start? The cutscenes. The previous game had amazing cutscenes that were a treat to watch. They were faithful to the manga and looked really nice. Now we've got seconds long cutscenes like those, and the rest are some very weird, sparsely animated manga-panel like scenes using the 3D models. And they are laughably bad, the character models look fantastic in motion, not in stills, where it comes across as some creepy Garry's mod shenanigans. Who thought that these were acceptable? I hope, HOPE that they only went this route with what the previous game covered, and instead will get proper cutscenes once we get to the Shura arc.

 Then there's the gameplay... it's been sped up. And, usually, I like fast paced games, but in Ken's rage, it made every move have extra oomph, which made it extra satisfying. Also, when using special moves it would freeze the screen and show the aftermath through various still camera angles. That's gone. For whatever reason, jumping is gone as well, which got changed into dodging. And the story mode is a drag, I understand they went for variety, but us Warriors fans want to bash enemies, not go through poorly made stealth sequences that offer no challenge or fun whatsoever.

 And... Yeah, I'm strangely hopeful for the game to get better once I unlock more characters and tackle dream mode. Maybe it's the story mode that's giving me a bad first impression. I hope. I mean, the Meridian chart leveling system was fun, right? Right? Well, it's gone, and now we have some weird scroll equipping system...? What?