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Rengoku II is a huge improvement over the original game. The game improves largely by following the rule that most sequels do: more, more, more. You’ll find more arenas, more weapons, and a lengthier quest than in the first game. The gameplay is more interesting, too, although by its nature it will become repetitive to most after a few hours.
You’ll play as an A.D.A.M., a very powerful combat android known to bring an end to wars. In fact, your kind was so good at what it did that there are no longer any wars, so these expensive A.D.A.M. androids are now used for entertainment purposes. In the game, you’ll learn a bit of backstory about your specific A.D.A.M.’s past life, people that influenced it, and so forth. It isn’t particularly engaging— and at times poorly translates—but a fairly decent story nonetheless.
The basic goal of Rengoku II is to fight your way to the top level of a tower that you and other A.D.A.M.s are located in. As expected, each floor has a number of androids just waiting to pick a fight with you. You’ll have to lay waste to a good number of them before moving on to that floor’s sub-boss and later the main boss. Before you each, you can upgrade your character and choose which weapons will be right for the job. You’ll gain additional upgrades and weapons by defeating enemies on the floor. At first, you’ll begin with basic melee weapons but before long, you’ll unlock the more powerful stuff.
As you fight, you need to consider the fact that these weapons will eventually deplete. Should this happen you can try to get back to a terminal to re-up or stick out the fight. In addition to the weapons, you have to keep track of how much heat your character is accumulating from these fights. This may mean that you’ll need a change of strategy—maybe focus on cooler weapons or try to fire off fewer shots. Aside from using these upgrades, you can sell the ones you don’t want for cash, which can be used to increase your health, resistance, and how much you can equip at any given time. With all that said, combat is initially very engaging although you’ll realize a few hours in that the game isn’t changing very much. It’s still quick and sometimes hectic, but very familiar, very quickly.
Rengoku II includes multiplayer for up to four players. You’ll basically run around shooting the other players, which like the main game is initially fun.
The visuals also keep the game from being interesting. The graphics are adequate but very boring. The character models, although fairly detailed, are all very similar to each other. The same can be said of the different floors that you’ll find yourself in. The game still features a lot of pixilation, which is inexcusable for a current PSP title. The framerate manages to keep up with the game though. The audio is a little better thanks to the surprisingly well done techno and rock music that the game uses. It fits the futuristic, robot themes very well. The sound effects are sparse and barely worth the effort of actually having them in the game though.
Rengoku II is a dramatic improvement over its predecessor, although the gameplay is more repetitive than we would like to see. If you can live with those, you’ll get a lot of hours of gameplay out of the game, especially if you’re into collecting the various configurations that the game lets you. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Oct 23, 2006
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