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GAME: Kamen Rider Battride War II




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AmuroNT1



Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 3:01 pm Reply with quote
One minor correction: The game's DLC, Zangetsu Shin and Gaim Kiwami Arms, are actually free DLC rather than paid. I know that doesn't matter much in the scheme of things but it's worth noting.
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Wayne.No



Joined: 08 Apr 2014
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 6:46 pm Reply with quote
Great review, David. It's too bad that the game is kinda blah. This is the kinda game I'd pick up just to have if I could get it for under $30 but seeing as it will never be brought over here the chances of that are almost none. I just wanna play as Fourze and beat up some badguys.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 12:23 am Reply with quote
Quote:
As is an ongoing and unfortunate trend in Bandai/Namco character games, this game has been released in two editions: the standard edition and the “premium sound” edition, which costs about $30 more. The premium edition features all the original theme songs from the TV shows as performed by the original artists, and the regular edition, which we received, has... nothing. You get dull, generic filler music for the entire game.


That is ridiculous and just boggle my mind. Quick question, what would happen if not a lot of people buy the premium edition. Would the music company not want to work with game developer again?

Quote:
It's understood that there are rights issues and fees to be paid when using the original artists: Super Robot Wars has always used instrumentals for this reason. Excising the theme music in any form, on the other hand, is clearly just a cynical move to punish the fan who doesn't pay the extra $30. One could, of course, argue that being made to pay $100 for this game is a punishment of its own.


I can see why Justin Servakis always said the Japanese music industry mystify him. The more I'm reading this, the more question I want to ask the Japanese music industry.

Quote:
There's a general lack of polish throughout, of which you'll certainly see a few examples: enemies getting stuck behind invisible walls, a mission refusing to end as Rider and sidekick repeat the same lines at each other (“Great job!” “I'll protect everyone's smiles!” “Great job!” “I'll protect everyone's smiles!”), and of course the way the assist Rider will always charge in a straight line, often directly past the target you intended him to attack. At one point I caused the player character to freeze in place forever by merely pausing at the wrong time.

And that's not all! There are even crash bugs: pick Fourze in Rocket States and behold as the game crashes and informs you that your save data's been corrupted! It hasn't been, your save game is safe, but this is absurd. It's embarassing that the game shipped in a state where simply choosing the wrong character crashes it. This is clearly a case where Eighting's bosses told them to just ship the damn game already. The first Battride War game came out just over a year ago.


If I was reviewing this game I might give the presentation an F instead of a D from what you said about the glitches and crashes.
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EastN3



Joined: 19 May 2012
Posts: 149
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 10:52 am Reply with quote
Every time I go past this article, I think it reads: Kamen Rider Buttride War II.

......yeah Confused
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Lynx Amali





PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 11:47 am Reply with quote
Quote:
It's understood that there are rights issues and fees to be paid when using the original artists: Super Robot Wars has always used instrumentals for this reason. Excising the theme music in any form, on the other hand, is clearly just a cynical move to punish the fan who doesn't pay the extra $30. One could, of course, argue that being made to pay $100 for this game is a punishment of its own.


I recall hearing the first game had a Custom Soundtrack option (never bothered using it myself) and that the only reason to get the Premium Sound version is that you get properly looped tracks. I'm assuming this is the same.

The only case where this didn't apply was Full Boost in which you get additional tracks as well, by default.
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Levitz9



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 1022
Location: Puerto Rico
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 1:13 pm Reply with quote
Wow. This game sounds like such a downer. I mean, how can they suck the fun out of being Kamen Rider this badly? Don't they care about the dreams of children?

I just wanted to play as my hero...
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 1:40 pm Reply with quote
EastN3 wrote:
Every time I go past this article, I think it reads: Kamen Rider Buttride War II.

......yeah Confused


your comments make me laugh when I read this. Laughing Laughing Laughing
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 2251
Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 2:45 pm Reply with quote
Looks like the only things that really changed from original Buttride War are the story, the cast, and the items system (for the worse). That's rather unfortunate, because I thought the first was a fun little time-waster with a surprising amount of depth.

An interesting way to look at the Premium Edition is that where other games that would charge $30 to let you play the in-game music elsewhere, KRBW2 is charging you $30 to play the out-of-game music in the game.
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AmuroNT1



Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 6:36 pm Reply with quote
Joe Mello wrote:
Looks like the only things that really changed from original Buttride War are the story, the cast, and the items system (for the worse). That's rather unfortunate, because I thought the first was a fun little time-waster with a surprising amount of depth.


They did change a few more things, with gameplay tweaks like combos being a lot more forgiving and every character having the ability to cancel their combos (as opposed to just nimble characters like Double and Kiva). Also, the returning characters start with all their forms and skills unlocked from the start.

As someone who owns both games, I would definitely say that BW2 plays better and is more fun, but as Dave's review says, it's still not an amazing game. I don't know if I'd even recommend it to a hardcore Rider fan unless they were also a fan of the Musou aesthetic.
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