REVIEW : Death end re;Quest 2 (PS4)
Death end re; Quest 2 focuses on Mai Toyama. After a traumatic childhood that culminated in the murder of her father, Mai is admitted to the all-girls dormitory Wordsworth in the town of Le Chaora which is also the last known location of her sister Sanae. On the surface, Wordsworth seems like a normal enough facility in a quiet town, with Mai having to deal with the normal things one does in such environments. There’s some religion she knows nothing about called El Strain, an overly clingy roommate Rottie and a cruel click of bullies that try to run the dorm. So it’s not exactly paradise, but things could be worse, and they are. The town get overruns by monsters at night and horrible murders can start happening to people in town.
Death end re; Quest 2 is split up into two parts. During the day Mai goes about the day-to-day events at the school, which are essentially just cutscenes. These scenes advance the story and provide background information on other characters and events in Le Chaora and Wordsworth. They are lengthy but don’t seem as excessive as they did in the original. Its the same format we’ve seen in other Idea Factory games where the characters involved in the conversation are shown as static images and come and go as the conversation changes.
Nighttime is different and this is where the game switches into a more traditional RPG mode. Mai runs around in third-person view and does the typical RPG tasks like minor puzzle solving and engaging the local monsters in battle. As the party’s roster expands more abilities will be open in the field. Mai can hack into computers that are haphazardly lying about to see invisible treasure chests or walls that can be walked through. Rottie can reach platforms that regular jumps can reach and Liliana can smash through barriers. Monsters are visible on the map and depending on how battle starts can place the player at an advantage. If Mai and monster just bump into each other the battle plays out just based on everyone’s agility. If the player can “attack” the monster to initiate combat they will get to do all the attacks first, but if the monster sneaks up on the character then they player has to wait as the monsters mercilessly slaughter their party.
Death end re; Quest 2 doesn’t offer the deepest RPG battle system but it does offer a fun battle system. The knockback function of the first game has returned which makes an otherwise typical turned-based battle system entertaining. A party member gets three attacks against an enemy, and if all three connect they can knock the enemy across the battlefield which can have pinballesque results. The enemy can hit other monsters and cause damage to both of them, receive more additional damage by hitting the walls that surround the battlefield or get hit by other party members. Hitting a monster and watching it ricochet across the battlefield appeals to the most basic level of entertainment but does so effectively.
Besides the pinball factor, there are some other noteworthy features about the battle. Each character has a variety of different combat actions and pairing up different ones can lead to unlocking newer actions. Another returning feature is the battlefield is covered with corruption and stepping on them can sometimes have detrimental effects but also can increase the character’s corruption level. Once the corruption level reaches eighty per cent the character will go into Glitch modes, which means a transformation sequence and a temporary increase in attack and defence power. The Berserker does occasionally appear in combat and the best thing to do then is to not end a character’s turn in his red ring of death.
One of the major themes of Death end re; Quest 2 is trauma. Earlier in the review, we touched on Mai’s background and hers isn’t the only one with a traumatic past or present. Many characters eventually reveal their traumatic background and throughout the game, we witness many more traumas, either unfolding for real in the game or as part of one of Mai’s twisted hallucination. The story has a lot of horrors themed elements as well, making for a delightfully dark and twisted RPG. Death end re; Quest 2 does have ties to the original, which to avoid spoilers we won’t go into detail here but watching how they unfold as the game advances are well done.
The graphics are typical of what one of expecting for an anime-styled RPG but the environment and monster designs do stand out. Basic environments like cobblestone villages and rural farmlands are crafted in a way to look nightmarish while the monsters are twisted abominations that seem like they may have once even had a shred of humanity even though such a thing is long gone from them. The music can capture the overall creepy vibe of the nocturnal world of Le Chora.
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