Tactics Blade: Episode 2

Introduction

I honestly admit to finding myself a bit hesitant to write a review for this game since I feel like a lot of my issues were already covered by Dyhalto's review. As such this review might feel a bit like an echo of an opinion that was already given, and I apologize for that. Though much like Dyhalto I find the sequel to be a much weaker game then the original. In fact, I'd go so far as to argue that the original seems like a master piece in comparison to this game.

Story

On the story side of things the game starts off on a decent footing. Utilizing Rose and Melanie as test subjects is diabolic idea and depicts the enemies as doing something bad so I want to punish them for it. I can even get behind them enhancing Rose and Melanie's powers as long at it's combined with a little brainwashing as well.

In my opinion the story starts to go of the rails when it reveals that Rose is an artificial humanoid. I'm just not sure why this plot point was included or what purpose it serves. Maybe if the third game had been made this twist would have made more sense, but as it is feels completely unnecessary. To make matters worse the game also includes divine possession as well as mentions that reality itself is being warped by the presence of demons.

And to make matters worse the game suffers from a lot of cut-off text issues much like the first game, but unlike the first game where the text felt minor or insignificant. In this game it feels like I'm losing important chunks of the dialogue. As such a lot of the explanations that could have helped make the game more clear and easier to understand are simply being lost as a result of carelessness on the part of LizardBite.

Gameplay

To save on time, all of the issues that plagued the previous game are still here, but to make matters worse the main cast now has access to magic. It's clear from the way this game plays that LizardBite wasn't able to properly balance out the inclusion of these new abilities. Though the biggest offender by far has to be Leo whose most potent spell allows him to attack up to 13 enemies at the same time. Albeit I was usually only able to hit four to six enemies at most. Still, his attacks easily cut most enemies health in half and made them easy pickings for the rest of my teammates.

On the other hand Rose's ultimate fire spell while more powerful was also rather useless in my opinion. This is because the spell had a rather large area of effect and I always found it difficult to place my units in a way that would prevent them or Rose from getting hit by it. So much so that I rarely used this spell despite it's ability to clean house when I did use it. On a side note one of the bosses had a spell with a similar area of effect and managed to take himself out with it.

Graphics

On the graphical side of things the game seems even more prone to graphical glitches then before and also suffers from rather questionable mapping. While, I understand the developer was trying to give the maps the feel of reality being warped. It just didn't work in my opinion.

To make matters worse the graphical issues from the first game are still here as well. Such as Melanie's sprite still being a man to the shameless reusing of the same sprite for multiple types of enemies.

Conclusion

Tactics Blade: Episode Two is a terrible game in my opinion. And, if I could give a game and even lower rating then 0.5 then I would definitely award it here. As such I'd suggest for people to stay away from this game and play more worthy turn-based strategy games like Real Tactic Package before even thinking about this one.