Famed demon slayer Raikoh returns from his grave (not for the first time) to save Japan in the sequel to the beautiful Otogi: Myth of Demons.
Otogi 2 kicks off directly after the first game after five warriors take their own lives to resurrect Raikoh so he may help them to rid the capital of demons again. This time Raikoh is joined by the warriors who resurrected him. Kintoki: a hulk who can pick up enemies and throw them, Tsuna: a half-man half-dog and a fierce fighter, Sadamitsu: a nimble but weak scythe wielder, Suetake: a strange no-armed guy who can jump forever and attacks with a wheel on his back (no, really) and last but not least Seimei, who can cast the best magical spells. The characters play differently, which is good, and are all upgradeable. You can buy all manner of things to enhance their different attributes, different spells and weapons.
All of the missions involve you ‘purifying’ the levels of demons, which basically means kill them all. But your character needs to have a certain affinity to actually complete the mission, which sometimes means you won’t be able to use your favourite character. Because the characters are so varied you can play the same mission again in a totally different style because you’ll be able to reach different platforms and defeat enemies differently.
You don’t have many moves on offer; you have your jump, strong attacks, normal attacks and magic. Even with limited moves you will still end up with big combos, but the gameplay consists mostly of just hitting Y and jump for much of the time. Y is your strong attack button that sends the enemies flying and smashing into anything they hit. Talking about smashing things, just like the original Myth of Demons you can smash just about everything you come across into rubble. It looks spectacular when you send an enemy into a house and it just explodes. You can even send the enemies flying to the ground leaving a crater!
As a side note to the main missions there’s also a place you can visit to do little challenges like destroying 100 gates or going through gates without touching the water. You unlock these challenges as you progress through the main missions.
Again like the previous game, Otogi 2 excels in the graphics department. Highly detailed characters, great looking effects, wavy clothes and hair all add to the visual splendour. All of that combined with the entire level destructing before your eyes really makes a treat for your eyes. The frame rate does get a bit choppy with about 20 enemies on screen and buildings falling down with particle effects flying all over the place, but this is soon forgiven.
The sound is where I think the game suffers. The voice acting is average and the sound effects are decent enough, but it’s the music that lets the game down for me. It consists of traditional old Japanese instruments, which sound like they’re being played by a thousand-year-old. While it may be authentic, and not inappropriate in its own right (considering that the game is set in ancient mythical Japan), it just doesn’t add any atmosphere or excitement to the on-screen action.
So overall Otogi 2 has the same faults as its predecessor, it’s just too samey. They’ve done well adding the different styles of character and the awesome graphics really are a treat, but the game just doesn’t provide enough excitement, and once completed it didn’t pull me back for more.
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