Enex2

Finding an RPG Maker game that both lengthy and complete is challenging. Developers who ambitiously aspire to make games that take more than a week for players to complete often wind up either going through a stalling point, or just outright cancel their projects as they lose motivation for it. Enrichment’s Enex 2 markets itself well in that regard, because not only is it a complete game, it appears to have the length of a standard retail RPG, while being rich in content. This, however, is the only thing I can honestly commend Enex 2 for, as the game, on my end at least, failed to meet expectations. Still, I can’t deny how proud you were to stamp that green “Completed” tag onto this project, I feel the same way when I complete a project, so it actually irks me a little that I have to ruthlessly tear this game apart.

Before we delve into the nitty-gritty of this game, let me tell you one of the first flaws of this project: its false advertising. The project description of Enex 2 sports this as a “Low Gimmick Vast Fantasy RPG.” To give you some credit, the “Vast Fantasy RPG” part is right. Enex 2 has a pretty fully realized world, with its own back-stories and history and whatnot, and this adventure is lengthy without a doubt. As I am writing this review, I have only found the first orb around the middle-stages of this game. The “Low Gimmick” part is what irritates me. A gimmick, by definition, is a novel aspect or device designed to draw attention to itself, and after playing this game, Enex 2 is FULL of them. So full that this blurb made me laugh at how incorrect it is. These gimmicks in question are the constant forced minigames, side-quests, and crafting systems that happen throughout the game, so often that you might as well consider them part of the main game itself.

Keep in mind, I’m honestly not against gimmicks in RPGs. They can be a fun little diversion from the main game if executed well, but Enex 2 doesn’t execute them well, unfortunately. Before I go into detail on that, however, let’s delve into the game’s story.

The plot of Enex 2 is aptly set a thousand years or so after the first Enex game, with I haven’t played and fortunately I can assure you that you don’t need to play it either to understand what’s going on. You take the role of some swordsman-like kid who sits through a sermon on the creation of the Enex world. After that, you are introduced to your first dungeon after your obligatory obnoxious kid-brother runs off and gets lost. Suddenly, crap hits the fan as your village is burned down and many of the people you knew and loved were killed because you are suddenly deemed a criminal by royal authority. After that, you go on a quest to find a magical tree to prove your innocence (I’m serious), and in the background, the evil god of this world is preparing for his resurrection. Once that tree proves to be completely useless, you then talk to the hero of the first game to find several orbs of… Yeah, you see where this is going, do you?




The plot line of Enex 2 generally strays very little from the Grand List of RPG Clichés. This is forgivable, for as long as you still add some personal touches to the storyline, such as by having an interesting cast of characters, you can easily get past how overused and stale the storyline is. Suffice it to say, Enex 2 doesn't do that.

As far as this game’s cast of characters is concerned, and forgive me as I haven’t played through this game in its entirety, every single member that joins your rag-tag party ranges from one-dimensionally dull to horrifically inconsistent in personality. This is the most evident in the main character you play as, you know, the guy you’re supposed to actually find relation to, or at least understanding of his motives. His dialogue gives you no real clues as to what this character is like, other than how he is determined to prove himself innocent and fights for justice. That “justice” side can easily take a heel-face turn, however, as the same character will also “accidently” slaughter a group of miners to gain access to a cave and leave his friends out in the wilderness just so he could rest at an inn. Is his personality supposed to represent the player’s actions? If so, then this game has failed at that from the moment the hero has opened his mouth, and even harder at events were he behaves like an idiotic jerk, because those moments are typically required in some way to gain access to an exclusive feature or even progress the game!

The rest of the main characters are hardly worth mentioning, either, though they at least show SOME distinguishing personalities by comparison. Farik is your annoying wuss who is there for comic relief; Theo is the guy who has it all together, but has conflicting morals; and Ralla is the one girl in the party who puts on a tough guise but more than likely has an emotional soft-spot that she keeps hidden. It’s the same cast of characters you would get from your average Saturday morning cartoon.

What surprises me is that your kid brother, whom you have to rescue at the start of the game, has no pertinence in the game’s storyline. He received a cutscene, which detailed the legend of the original Enex heroes and all, and even demonstrated how he relates to the main protagonist in this game. I figured he would be important, but nope, after the whole village burning down scenario, you ditch him in a religious town in place of an elf kid… What!?

Now hear me out, from a personal standpoint, I could care less about a game’s storyline. After all, I am playing your game to play a game, not read a book. However, I strongly felt like pointing out how boring and inconsistent the game’s story and characters are, because it very, very aptly fits with the game itself.

The battle system of Enex 2 is typical of a standard RPG. You encounter enemies, mash the “attack” command to win (at least for the early ones) and the process repeats itself. Granted, the repetitive button-mashing only applies to the earlier stages of the game. Later on, enemies become a little tricky and you have to vary your strategies more, though the first dungeon you are introduced to, where you actually start playing the game, has this mindlessness, and it didn't really give a good first impression. This is essentially the default battle system with ATB features, gussied up in that it’s side-view instead of frontal.

While the battle system alone isn't very offensive, it also comes with on-map encounters, where all monsters are visibly seen on the map and will chase you at a given range. Those who aren't a fan of random encounters will rejoice, however, this game does quite a few major things wrong with it.

First of all, even though the “Run” command exists in the battle menu, don’t count on it, because even if you escape, ending the battle scene, that monster chasing you on the map will still be there and challenge to a battle once again. What’s the point in having a feature that doesn't work!?

Second, none of the enemies you encounter on the map respawn after you defeat them, except for one or two different enemy types on specific maps. Why is this a bad thing? Take this instance: You need to clear a cave that comes just before a powerful boss, one that is very good at whipping your party’s butt (In game, this is that one knight who keeps chasing after the player, and he is notoriously difficult). The amount of EXP you gain from enemies is fairly low, which means you need to fight a lot of monsters to gain a single level and improve stats. However, because no enemy respawns (not even leaving the map will do it), you have a set amount of monsters to battle against. In Enex 2, you’ll gain only one level at most from clearing the entire map of enemies, with minimal stat improvements. This means that when you get to face that said boss, you actually have about as much chance as winning as the guy who just ran through every encounter in the area. While I can understand that it keeps the game challenging, it still feels like you went through many risks for little reward. At least there are a few maps where certain enemies respawn, but overall this game rarely gives you the option to grind even if you really want to. Some enemies also drop crafting items you can use, but since they don’t respawn, then what are you supposed to do!?

The gameplay flaws don’t end there. In fact, those points about the battle system are trivial compared what I think disproves that this game is a “Low Gimmick” RPG: The minigames. Just about every chapter contains around 4-5 puzzles and sub-games, to which I feel like most of them are there just to make me forget about the bland battle system. Some of these are fun and creative, like pulling a switch to alter the terrain of a dungeon or that one game where you dodge jellyfish. Others range from being completely pointless and clunky (like the tile shifting puzzle in the Eros temple) to being absolutely unfair. I have a gripe with the unfair ones in particular, and just generally how a majority of “puzzles” are handled in this game. A good dungeon puzzle would start off slow, introducing the player to the basic aspects of that puzzle, from its controls to its mechanics and whatnot. Later on, that puzzle can be expanded upon into something more complex, to challenge the player. Enex 2 doesn’t do this at all. It throws everything and anything towards you right off the bat. Most of the “puzzles” in this game give you no hints as to how they should be solved, or even approached, like that switch puzzle in the castle walls of Carille, resulting in puzzles that really don’t feel like puzzles, but trial-and-error obstacles. I would pass these off as being “boring” and nothing more if not for one fatal flaw: Some of these trial-and-error “puzzles” will actually KILL you!




That’s right, there are minigames that throw you in the hot waters and punish you with a Game Over screen for losing. This is tolerable to a degree on the minigames that take some skill, but everywhere else, it feels like the game is sticking its middle finger at you.

To name specific examples, there is a passageway in the Great Tree forest area where you have to walk through “safe” tiles to avoid waking powerful beasts who will kill you instantly. The creator at least did somewhat of a good job indicating which tiles would create “noise” and which wouldn't, by common sense you wouldn't walk over a huge pile of leaves or tree roots. However, the game flicks that finger I mentioned when after standing NEXT TO a large flower, one of my party member sneezes and I lose instantly. How am I supposed to know that will happen, especially since every other obstacle triggers the death sentence only when standing ON the tile, not next to it? That is terrible game design.

Another one involves an ice-sliding puzzle. Generic, I know. Except this time around, the punishment for your errors is DEATH! There are spikes placed in specific spots around in the ice-sliding room. This said room is large, and while you are sliding with no control over your character, a spike that was out of your view will welcome you to the Game Over screen. I would mark this game down further for these blunders had the creator choose not to put save screens directly before these death-puzzles. Regardless, losing a game should never be required to beat the game. It completely ruins any sense of accomplishment as I feel like I overcame each obstacle through sheer luck rather than skill.

Getting past the bland storyline and the gameplay, which fluctuates between, mediocre to terrible, Enex 2 at least has some redeeming qualities, right? I’ve already mentioned that this game is complete and it really feels like it’s complete, too. There is a lot of different things to do and the game rewards exploration, as mentioned earlier. The visuals are nice, too, but even in that regard, there are some problems.




While each map looks pretty as a stand-alone screenshot, playing the game will reveal one major design flaw with a lot of them: lack of direction. Most outdoor maps, most notably Carille Plains and the mountain area next to Salinry, lack any roads or indication as to where you need to go to get from point A to B. This, and the fact that the maps are huge, means that you will very, very easily get lost in this game, and not to a fun degree. The game’s map design also struck a nerve with me as it seems many object tiles are arbitrarily impassable. For some reason, you can walk right over a player-sized rock with a flow stubbed on it. However, you can’t walk over a single pink flower used for decoration on a field map. Some of these impassable tiles are inconsistent between maps, too. There was a square clump of leaves that I couldn’t walk over in one area, yet in another map I could. This makes navigation through this game very clunky, if not mildly annoying. That annoyance becomes amplified when you’ve got that and the lack of direction with the game’s map design. Without a doubt, You will become bored and agitated getting around the field map while playing this game.

The aesthetical inconveniences don’t end there, you also have to constantly work with a slowly animating menu screen throughout the game, making even something as simple as navigating through your inventory an absolute chore. Tileset glitches are scattered about and numerous, making it pointless to point all of them out, and even some character portraits have their transparencies messed up. One would think a completed game would at least be polished to a high degree.

In short, part of me really wants to like this game. I’m serious. The game offers a complete world to explore and offers a few interesting ideas amongst its generic drivel. As a whole, however, Enex 2 just barely makes it over the line of “mediocre/below-average” in quality. Had this game not contain so many flaws in its core design, and generally not be so egregiously boring all around, this would have been a great game, but this is what it is.

The Verdict:

2.5/5

Mediocre