I would usually have recommended UNI given my (very old) review on CLR. However, UNI2 since launch has been a bit of an upset on several fronts:
--- A full price tag for a game that's effectively an update with three new characters. Value is subjective, but given the following points, I find it hard to want to spend so much, and personally had to consider for a while before I locked in. I understand plenty that the three characters must have also taken lots of time and effort, but it's not like there has been some huge rehash to the existing cast members or animations aside from giving characters new moves. These are welcome changes but it feels like you're going to either fish for customers who are new to the IP or trying to convince the diehard fans to look into all the particulars as an easter egg hunt.
--- Sorely lacking Singleplayer content: yes, Chronicle (story) wasn't there at the start of the console entries, but the natural progression seemed to at least follow with Arcade Port > Story Update > Big Balance Patch > UNI2 with UNI2... not having a story to boot. Yes, this was planned for later on, but there isn't really much to go off with here because of how strange the Arcade storytelling has been in these games, which is normal for this genre.
I personally enjoyed Chronicle plenty and it's where the characters actually managed to be memorable for me, but with all sorts of "new" things implied to be going on in this game and with many places for the story to advance and go, embellishing this game as the "Final Night" feels weird when there's not much in UNI2 that actually makes me feel that way. Sure, the big bad has shown himself, and his theme is based off of the first-ever teaser trailer music - it was amazing to see and hype on release, but now a lot of real life time has passed and now it's like, "now what?" The current arcade modes have sparse writing and stuff we've already seen before, up until the endings where we effectively see what-ifs and nothing concrete. There are interesting ideas, but I can't commit if it feels like the game isn't committing to the plot. Aside from that, no new gameplay modes that weren't there before, and I'd rather treat it as a Training Mode simulator and multiplayer game. It was probably a lot to ask for a game mode like M.O.M, though. I dunno.
--- Lack of "soul" - I'd say this is highly opinion, but at the same time a lot of my gripes with the presentation feels like something people should be agreeing on if they're not huffing copium. The crazy ridiculous "chuuni" nature of the game is toned down. No more walls of text for you to read like easter eggs, apparently GGStrive stole it and ran away with that idea. The UI has been made "clean", and a bit too clean. The Character Selection is not as flashy as it was in UNI1, though at least the training menu is way better. But the gauges and HP bars, logo, the bleak greyness of everything feels so, so sterile that it's lost its charm, almost like they wanted to play it safe and not rely on strange fonts like MS Gothic.
This unfortunately extends to the art style too, which has probably happened due to the lead artist changing styles that seemed much more prevalent when you look at his newer key arts and other promotional material. Looking at UNI2's character art is very disappointing to see, however, and feels too experimental to be stylish. Harsh, black shadows on characters who are otherwise shaded like clay adds some sort of visual clutter I can't explain. The faces become homogenized, and the eyes start all looking samey and non-descript. Take a look at the design sheets of the original games and you'll see that designers made sure to give shapes to the latter and make them stand out. The older art has this softness to it and they still have plenty of shadowing on them to fit the aesthetic of the "night" without losing any visual clarity and pop and uniqueness and whatever buzzword you want to throw in here.
Akatsuki's poor face, oh my god. Also all the older girls have GGST baiken sized busts. ???
It's weird as the cut-in animations are exactly the same as they are in the last games for the existing roster, and continue to remain for the new characters. The arcade story mugshots are also the same, and the new characters (assuming they're not reused assets) are also still in the "original" style. I'm not sure why the style is leaned into in this way when it has to compete with the rest of the art from the character sprites and what's already existing, and for that I think it loses its identity. Hell, it's worse when you notice that there's no Winner Art like there was in the previous games. The new character art is just plastered in all of the menus and that's it. Don't ask about if there's anything new in Gallery.
And on that last note, the music. I've stated before that the music in UNIB was great, not the best that Raito has ever done overall, but had amazing tracks. So, did he do deliver the hype for UNI2?
No, not really, personally speaking. I didn't like 95% of the music in MBTL and I figured that was due to the company French Bread had to work with having certain demands. Here, however, I feel like either Raito was told to just take it easy or just really didn't feel like doing much this time around and saving up his willpower for the new characters. New music only consists of the OP, new ED themes, menu stuff, and the new characters. I don't approve of the menu music, and the character select screen + VS screen music don't hit like the prior tracks did. And then for the rest of the returning cast, they have all received touch-ups to their original tracks, not quite a remix or a remaster, but just *changes*.
Let's just say that from what I've seen, the majority agree that the original masters of the OST were better. As an Enkidu fan, I agree especially when it comes to his theme. These changes didn't have to be made. Other than that, I can't complain too hard when it comes to character themes. I don't really like Tsurugi's theme much, but Kuon's, Kaguya's, and Ogre's tracks at the moment are great - I think in some respects they could be better, but I won't analyze them right now. I'll just say that they do feel like they're not quite like the style of UNI1, perhaps with how far in the future we are now. I'm not sure if we'll get an original like Londrekia's theme again.
Last point about soul: the voice actors and their voice direction. I think it's a downgrade. Some characters just sound more bored now compared to UNICLR. Not all of them, and I'm sure some are just fine or not noticeable, but I have qualms with characters like Linne sounding off and more generic, Nanase sounding tired ... the biggest spit in the face though is with Yuzuriha, the braindead genki sis who makes all the goofy noises in UNI1, who now just sounds like.... like......... she just sounds like some lady. She doesn't have that excitement that made her seem off-the-wall, and while she still yells "ELBOW", it's just not the same. Her voice lines are just delivered plainly now, which is a bit sad to hear... I'm not sure if this is something about complaints with silly anime girl noises, but at this point, it's going to be suicide for a character if the voices don't match up with how we heard them before and what we know about their speech pattern. Or I'm just a nitpicker and should accept the mediocre replacement, I dunno.
--- Damage feels ridonculous. Why can Hyde do that. Also, they did not address over and over how there was a bug that made whiffing Smart Steer in a combo ends up boosting damage scaling like crazy for some reason, activating the two neurons Akatsuki players have left. Changes to the system mechanics make GRD feel way more swingy, which I'm not sure if I like (buff dmg, celestial is a free win gainst newbies)
> Review continued https://backloggd.com/u/Fatih120/review/3062445/ because banned and so i cant extend in comments. weirdchamp
