/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I completed the CG set of IM2 short ago and am now pretty much done with the game. First playthrough took over 65 hours, which is a good bit longer than the duration of the other games in the series.

What strikes me the most gameplay-wise, is how much better the dungeons are designed in here compared to the later entries. You have multiple layers, numerous map interactions, hidden rooms, diverse locations and a reasonable walking speed, not long linear corridors with the odd tangent leading to some treasure chest. The battle system is the usual fare, the balance is off though with the enemies being generally too weak for my taste, and it's not like you can avoid grinding when auto-battling is faster than simply escaping from encounters. I did like the adventure interface, manual party stat management and limited inventory however.

What I also mostly liked was the art and its colouring. I thought the "battle cards" and their different poses were especially well done. The party member sprites in dungeons, while moving awkwardly, also look much better than the SD abominations of the later games.

In relation to the first game, the sequel's plot is a lot grander, but also less focused, suffering from pacing issues. Some subplots remain not resolved or only unsatisfactorily so. It's very similar to the way the story developed from GnK1 to GnK2 in that regard.

Were there more choices and branching, independent player initiative in progressing the plot, cutting or editing of the more superfluous text, better pacing, improved game balance, a cleaned up interface, this could be really something. Not that I am holding my breath for the probably inevitable remake. Even if they magically got a new writer, reconsidered IMM's questionable gameplay alterations and all, the stupid retconning they began in the prequels wouldn't go away. After I learnt how some of these past events were originally envisioned, I can only shake my head at the elaborate nonsense they pulled in IM0.