We still have some heroes left.
Well, for starters, NMH2 was probably one of the best looking Switch games at the time. On the surface it shares the same cell-shaded style as the original game, however, character models have been polished to a sheen, and they added a ton of fancy wavy effects to hair and clothes which look phenomenal, considering the technology it was running on. The overworld was axed completely, now you move from location to location through a list, and while you could argue the overworld added little to the original game... I think it did add to the overall appeal of the original game. Travis looks cooler, and dare I say cuter than before, which goes against what Travis meant to represent in the original game. And while I really like this new set of bosses, most of them aren't as memorable as the ones in the original game. Plus, the whole climbing from the 10th rank up to the first did add an extra layer of spice into the setting, in this game you start at rank 51.... and quickly get to jump between ranks, so you forget what rank most bosses were meant to have, so the ranking has no value and no weight.
A lot has changed, no more entry fees before each fight, so money only goes into cosmetics, beam katanas and upgrades, which is great change, and the minigames were changed, now we get 8 8-bit minigames to grind money with. Most of these games are honestly fun... however... Prices quickly grow astronomical, so you'll have to replay this simple, repetitive minigames over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. What started out as fun and creative quickly became boring and annoying. Using the Asteroid Trash exploit is the best way to make money, and even then it's a chore. Pray you don't get the store bug. More on that later. At least in the original game you had assassination missions which were shorter and more fun since you got to battle enemies using the normal gameplay.
On the other hand, combat is much better. You get a total of four beam katanas, and you can change them at will. Sadly, you can't change mid-combo, having to stay put in order to swap blades, but each beam katana feels very different. The Peony is a slow, orange beam Katana that covers very wide arcs with its swings, ideal for mobs. The Blood Berry is a very strong blade, albeit average in other regards. The Tsubaki mkIII is not as strong as it was in the first game, but it's incredibly fast. And lastly, the Rose Nasty, which is the best all-around blade in the game. It's also a blade/knife dual wield combo that looks really badass. Now you can also combo into melee attacks from blade attacks, heck, melee attacks get combos too. There's also a new super move you can trigger by filling the ecstasy gauge, which is done by landing attacks and not getting hit. All in all, combat feels better than before, with attacks flowing much more smoothly and feeling much faster than the previous game did. While switching beam katanas doesn't offer much depth, I still like having the ability to do it.
Before the game released, being able to play as Shinobu and Henry was one of its most touted features and... they wasted it. You get to play as Henry for a grand total of a single boss fight, not even a proper level, while Shinobu gets two levels and two bosses. I'm not gonna lie, both characters feel a bit sloppy, and it's kind of a slap in the face how bad platforming with Shinobu is considering you absolutely have to do some platforming with her, but I would've liked to be able to play as both characters for more time. Both Shinobu and Henry were really cool, and it feels like they phoned in their sections just to be able to include 'Play as other characters' as a bullet point. Still, something about both characters' animations make me think that they probably didn't spend much time, or had much time, developing them.
The worst part about this game is how bugged the store is. Sometimes, items you purchased won't count as purchased, other times they'll show up in the store again. Protip: If the new clothes don't show up on Travis when you purchased them then they don't count as purchased, EVEN though they took your money away. Pathetic. Sometimes, you'll even lose stuff you actually purchased, at least in the original Wii release.
Well... I still think No More Heroes 2 is better than III, but only by veeeeeeeeery little. While the game does fall apart in some areas, thankfully it mostly has to do with the optional content. And the main element of the game, the combat, is definitely better than NMH 1's. The plot and enemy set is not as memorable as the ones in 1 and III, but, c'mon, this game does have a few standouts like Skelter Helter, Margaret, Captain Vladimir and Matt Helms, so it's not like the game is lacking memorable bosses.... it's just the the other games feature an EVEN more memorable set of characters.
8.5
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