Tactics Blade: Episode 2

Preamble
Only a week ago I did a review of Tactics Blade : Episode 1. The logical thing to do, after having had my TRPG appetite sated, was to move on to Episode 2.
There were a number of flaws in the first game, but it's natural for a creator to look upon previous mistakes and rectify them in future projects. I anticipated this kind of effort, at least in the slightest, but it turns out the creator, LizardBite, learned nothing.

Visual: 0/5
There's been no change to the graphic resources. Multiple enemies still share the same sprites with no effort to even swap palettes, let alone frankensprite. Melanie is still a male soldier. Imps still have a dragon portrait and gorilla battle anim.
Ordinarily this would constitute a step sideways, making a score of 1 remain 1, but there was some effort to change the battle animations... gone seriously awry. I was pleasantly surprised when Rose's attack was stepped up, and she even had a unique cast animation for her newfound magic spells. It gave me hope to be dashed.
Melanie and the new ally, Leo, have no cast animation for their spells. Enemy attacks have been garbled; some of them I can't make any sense of. The Imp who used to pounce on you now jumps erratically around the screen. I wish I could make a gif of the Mage boss casting because he's..... everywhere. It's a disaster.
And mapping, previously considered passable... well... see for yourself.



Audio: 0/5
No change from Episode 1 here.
At all.
The internet is full of midis; originals and remixes of VG staples alike. I can put "wet T-shirts" into Google and one of the search results will be a midi. Hell, we're in the age of high speed internet. Use 20MB WAV files instead. There is no excuse for not expanding the weak music selection between episodes 1 and 2.

Storyline: 1/5
Looking back at my review of the first episode, you may have detected a glimmer of hope in my moderate commentary. Well, that's gone now. It wasn't more than a few battles in before the plot was shaking, then completely flying off the hinges at the halfway mark.

Rose and Melanie, captured and imprisoned, are being used as science experiments. Okay, that's dastardly. I can live with that. The bad guys are infusing them with magic, making them more powerful. What the hell for? They're busted out of the laboratory by Leo, who was a boss in Episode 1. Making him the de facto protagonist in Episode 2 was about the only clever twist it had to offer.
The story loses focus then. You just kind of go on a disorganized crusade of killing bad guys with the occasional interlude by the demon king talking to his minions.
Whatever.

Gameplay: 0/5
Like the storyline, tactical gameplay elements fell right off the cliff into oblivion.
First off, our heroes were given magic. LizardBite obviously wasn't able to grasp balancing their newfound powers with appropriate challenges, because their magic totally breaks the game. Not only is it ridiculously powerful in terms of damage dealing, but MP is in abundance so you'll have wiped out the entire enemy army before running out. Leo's lightning magic, in particular, can kill up to 13 foes at once.
Worse yet, about 1/3 through the game, you can buy "Armor" for your three heroes. It skyrockets their defense by an astronomical 7 points, compared to enemy types getting an extra 2 or 3 strength per upgrade.
And then. And then!!



Overall: 0.5/5
I rounded up to 0.5.
There's the off chance that Episode 3, if ever made, could be the culmination of tactical RPG design lessons, but since 2 went so far in the wrong direction, I won't be holding my breath for the series finale.