Agarest: Generations of War 2 (PC) Review

It's sad to see a game like this. Compile Heart has shown itself to be one of the few developers out there willing to come out swinging, knowing full well that it is not going to be an AAA company producing amazing games and, in doing so, has allowed itself to experiment around. It will be a long time before another company even tries to consider the dungeon customisation found in Fairy Fencer F or the sheer, enjoyable, parody fun of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 in the AAA industry. Some may say it's for the better, some may say it's for the worse, but both sides will likely agree that, after all that, the company has returned to releasing an uninspired title with only a few changes, whcih is disheartening at best.

As said in the prior review of Agarest: Generations of War Zero, much of the game can be reviewed easily simply by reading the previous article and mentally replacing the names. While Agarest: Generations of War 2 does offer some deviations from this set formula, thankfully, these changes are, sadly, ones that the game suffers for in the end as it strips away much of what made the original at least somewhat likeable and replaces them with a paltry offering of new mechanics that can be considered 'controversial,' to say the least.

The game starts off with the main character, Weiss, slaying the god Chaos. However, the feat (which serves as the tutorial, meaning he needs to be reminded in battle against the god he had been fighting, to reach just how to actually battle against it. It would be kind of funny if it wasn't played dead serious) bestows him with the dreaded 'JRPG hero with amnesia' disease and he wakes up in the home of a girl with no knowledge of who he is. It isn't long before he is met by another girl claiming to be the servant of a god - hijinks ensue.

The game deviates from the last one in several, smaller, ways but the biggest is easily the change in battle system. Last time round, a system of grid-based combat was in place that allowed the player to move about tactically across the field of battle. While it had some shortcomings (like that one annoying enemy who hid in a corner, just out of reach, preventing the A-rank) it also had its charm and a sizeable amount of depth. Getting characters in just the right position to deal careful move combos was key, and the mere act of planning out this placement could make the brain at least function.

However, Agarest: Generations of War 2 has instead opted to go with a new system of combat in which the two sides line up on opposing sides of the field and wail at each other in possibly the weakest attempt at 'turn-based strategy' that didn't default to the line-up of the old JRPGs. In this set-up, characters rely on stringing together a combo-chain of attacks. While such a thing might sound interesting on paper, in reality it's little more of an uninteresting twitch-based combat. While it may speed up the individual battles and may reduce the grinding, the loss of strategy combined with the general lack of depth to the system causes it to come in as underwhelming.

The game also utilises an overworld map with standard random battle encounters, with the option to trigger a battle at will. While this does alleviate any required grinding, ultimately it does not negate that there is both grinding and a general lack of interest, as nothing will stand out to grab the player's interest on said map in any way. It would have been better to stick to the 2D movement and at least offer some interesting visuals than be trapped in a fairly generic and funnelled landscape.

Thankfully, the character art has received a minor upgrade as some movements seem to be more noticeable and the motion, while still lacking on the whole, is at least more present instead of being barely noticeable. It still pales in comparison to what can be done with still sprites, as other games in Compile Hearts library have shown, but it does at least also attempt to improve.

However, this is lost on the characters themselves. Many seem visually uninspired and hold flat and obvious personalities. While this isn't as bad as some other games that do not even try, compared to other works in Compile Heart's library it is still disheartening. Even without the comparison, there is just little in terms of overall interest. Sure, the cute healer girl is sweet, but it stays fairly static on the whole.