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Slayers Royal 2: Review

September 7, 1998: The day after the release of Slayers Royal 2. It seems to be a marked improvement over the original Saturn game - the interface has been revamped, and while many of the icons are the same, they actually make sense now. The richer interface means a lot more potential story interaction, along with a lot more mystery as to what is going on. This isn't as simple a game to walk through as the first game was; the story seems a lot more original and a lot more character interactions are apparent, even from the intro.

The introduction animation wasn't anywhere near as good as the one for the first game, and indeed the half-screen pictures of the main characters in conversation mode have been halved - but you get used to that, once you realize how much has been changed. As in the first Royal game, normal gameplay is interspersed with full-motion video sequences. Normally the game consists of the usual RPG-style interaction, where you speak with various people in word balloons, but when you get to a key part of the game, the characters speak with their own voices - i.e. Megumi Hayashibara for Lina, Maria Kawamura for Naga, etc. - to help you along.

And of course, the battle sequences are back. With the same three-quarters viewpoint as before, the interface here has been tweaked a little more, taking a little bit away from the confusion. There's still an annoying visibility problem that crops up when characters get behind trees and stuff, but it's very minor compared to the misdeeds of the earlier game, not to mention that the programmers took the liberty of switching the stupid AI mode off by default, though if you're feeling particularly lazy or suicidal, you can switch it back on.

On top of all that, the spells and special effects look GREAT now, so it's nowhere near as tedious and boring as the battle sequences in Royal 1 were. The spells, while dim in comparison to FF7 for example, are still pretty neat to look at and more accuraterly represent the actual spell - i.e. the new Flare Arrow looks like something straight out of Diablo, flaming trails and everything.

All in all - I haven't gotten to play Royal 2 much, and probably won't be able to finish it before I get back to the States, but it promises to be much more enjoyable to play than the first game, mainly due to the richer interface and additional features. Not to mention that Naga laughs almost every other line! You've gotta love that, eh? My biggest complaint is that they turned the music too high in gameplay sequences - it drowns out the voices in conversation mode. Bleh. Anyways - if you liked the first one, Royal 2 is a definite must-play.

PLOT: 7/10
ANIMATION/ART: 7/10
HUMOR: 7/10
MUSIC: 5/10
OVERALL: 7/10

For information on the gameplay, continue onwards!

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