Excave II: Wizard of the Underworld (Nintendo 3DS) Review

There is a bit of confusion and disorientation when Excave II: Wizard of the Underworld is first booted up. Anyone who played the first game could easily believe that the download this time is an error and the first game has accidentally been downloaded again. There is so much recycled content and so many assets from the previous game that it is almost insulting. Considering the price is a very steep $10 and that the game isn't even full of enough content to justify this, the fact that it is comprised of so many leftover scraps from the first title makes it very hard to take it seriously. From the same exact 2D illustrations to 3D models, there is very little original content for this sequel.

In the original Excave, players could chose either a male or female hero, which only have weapon specific equips. The male hero could use great swords, axes, katana, and so on, whilst the female heroine was proficient with dual knives, rapiers, bows… Either of the characters could wear any accessory and the ciphers couldn't level up and being powered up by equipment. Eating food was a temporary means to boost stats, but for an action RPG there was not a lot of growth for the character building and the game's design relied mostly on just getting lucky and finding better loot. All of this gameplay is almost unchanged in Excave II: Wizard of the Underworld. The things that have changed are that magic spells are no longer single use items but have a few charges now and can be repaired. There is also a much quicker and convenient way to use health items or food without having to fiddle around with the touch screen thanks to the user interface overhaul.

Other improvements include the way levels are designed and the inclusion of some puzzle mechanics that do make things a bit more interesting and entertaining. Since the game's flow is more mission-based now, players won't have to deal with the obnoxious tug of war with the resources and having to always escape back to town. The fact that there are shortcut portals to be made now for some of the much longer levels is very convenient, especially since weapons do degrade pretty quickly and consumables tend to run dry fast, plus enemies still do not drop much.

The plot is not terribly different than the first time round, which amounted to two generic nobodies plundering dungeons. The husks are still plundering but there is a very vague framework of a story involving an evil wizard and a few fleeting moments of dialogue with some NPCs that have no bearing on the overall events. Since there is some kind of actual plot this time, Excave II: Wizard of the Underworld has a lot more varied locations, even if they all are built in the same general cookie-cutter way.

Sadly, the boss fights are still painfully lacking but there is some attempt to make them exciting by filling the arena with dozens of smaller monsters, giving somewhat of a bullet-hell quality. It does all run very smoothly, for the most part, and only really slows down when users cast a wide area spell that kills dozens of enemies, however also makes the game lag in a weirdly gratifying way. It is an interesting yet unintentional feedback that's akin to popping bubble wrap.

Excave II: Wizard of the Underworld is twice the price of the first game, yet has the same amount of content and even reuses a considerable amount of it. Although a far better game in almost every conceivable way, that isn't saying much because the first set expectations so low that they were next to dinosaur fossils. Anyone who enjoyed the grind of the original Excave will most likely enjoy Wizard of the Underworld, but even then it's kind of insulting how this sequel, which is almost the same game, is double the price. Forgettable and not recommended.