probably the best oneechanbara game to date which isn't a high bar to clear... by any means... but if you're looking for one to play this would be it
I feel like if u pick this one up on sale it can be a great time. i got most of the unlocks but getting a platinum on this game is kinda impossible if you'd like to actually play other video games in your lifetime. treat it like a musou and pop on some music or a podcast while you play-- switch out your characters often, time your xtasy combos, learn the basic mechanics, and its dumb fun. u can easily get this one out in a weekend. combat is nothing to soy over but there's some pretty cool animations here and there, especially with saaya and saki. don't bother learning the combos seriously just mash square and occasionally throw a triangle in there and you'll be just fine
honestly the highlight of the game is the cosmetics which I've seen like no one mention?! every item can be placed anywhere on a characters body and you can even adjust the scale. tbh I just had fun by giving everyone in my party big shoe mode and censoring the xstacy forms with the toast equip. if I can make my guy look funny its kinda hard for a game to be less than a 3/5 for me IDK.

tldr worth checking out for sure if you like musous. entertaining enough if you pick it up on a sale

Whoa, did some actual effort just go into a Onechanbara game? Alright, so maybe that's not fair. The whole point of these "Simple Series" titles was to be made as cheaply as possible, in order to be sold for as cheaply as possible. Seems like this one had a bit of a hike in budget though, especially compared to the other entries that saw a release here in the West. The enemies and stages still look like Unity Asset Store flips, but the character models for the girls themselves are quality and highly detailed. Plus, it lacks the blurry visuals of and features less repetitive level design than the two Bikini outings. Heck, there's even English voice acting accompanied by writing devoid of the bizarre self-seriousness of its predecessors and packing plenty of playful banter between the four ladies. Stuff that goes a long way towards injecting a much-needed dose of previously sorely missing energetic personality to the mix.

These fairly massive steps forward in the presentation department all feel like a push to attract a larger audience to the property than just horny weebs who don't mind jank. It's a nice effort, but unfortunately the thing that will continue to hold them back from that goal is the gameplay, although it's not as if progress wasn't made there as well. The action has undergone a significant, much appreciated upping of pace into faster and more furious territory. A new move lets you cover distance quickly by allowing you to lunge towards the undead with the push of a button and each swipe of your swords sends bright, flashy colors spilling across the screen. A welcome change from the slow, stiff combat of before. Fun secondary weapons such as giant chainsaws and a knockoff Blades of Athena also provide enough initial excitement to distract you early on from the problems of simplicity that eventually become apparent and keep this from ever sitting alongside the Ninja Gaidens and Devil May Crys of the world. Namely basic enemy types that offer no threat, top "V" rankings that can be easily scored through mere button-mashing, bosses you can't strategize against as there's no way to interrupt their attacks, and worst of the bunch being excessive padding in the later stages against brutally lengthy waves of damage-sponge special monsters. Stuff that turns the mindless entertainment into monotony if you don't regularly step away for a while.

There's certainly no depth to this hack and slasher. Although, if you're looking for some cheap titillation it's got that in spades. I've criticized this franchise in the past for failing to live up to its true raunchy potential. Well, that won't be the case here. Our heroines' swimsuit bottoms don't quite provide the necessary amount of coverage in the back (almost as if they're wearing them backwards or something) so there's always a pretty generous amount of butt-crack on display, their new super-powered forms often reveal their full rear-ends to the player, and there are plenty of naughty, naughty optional costumes to unlock. So, you gamers looking a decent cocktease finally have a viable enough option to pull yourselves off of Bayonetta for a minute. I suppose you could count that as another stride towards this property one day living up to the promise it still shows. It's not quite there yet, but it's getting closer. How mind-numbing it can be at points means the Wii entry remains my favorite. I do appreciate seeing that Tamsoft is making some necessary advancements in an attempt to achieve wider appeal, however.

7.3/10

I tried, I really tried to like this game. I was up for some low-brow b-movie hack & slash fun, but this game is way too rough around the edges for me to enjoy. There are far too many issues to document here, just approach this game with the expectation that virtually everything you can think of will be much less refined that you would expect from an indie game, with the exception of the characters models. Also, expect it to be tediously repetitive, even for the genre. Full disclosure, I did not finish the game. I only last an hour or so. Perhaps it gets better later. I'll never know. But this is leagues away from games like Bayonetta.

Onechanbara is a franchise I often remember seeing on the shelf at EB Games when I was younger and always being vaguely intrigued by it (which could have to do with the bikinis but thats besides the point). I had played Onechanbara Origin in 2022 for the Platinum trophy and had a decently fun time with it, so I was down to try Z2 Chaos once it went on sale. I'm definitely glad I waited for it be a cheap one because while it is a fun time, there is a lot of jank to be experienced. The combat is enjoyable but does lack depth, especially once you realize your main combo is the most effective, so why would you use anything else. Story wise, it's an Onechanbara game so don't expect much there. I will say the music is probably the biggest highlight, there is a lot of solid tunes throughout Z2, and the transformation themes are the star of the show. The characters are also pretty enjoyable, my favourites specifically being Aya and Kagura, but its an enjoyable cast for the short time you spend with them. Side note regarding preformance, but the game would crash on two specific fights practically every single playthrough, so that was a bit of a fun killer. Would I ever play Z2 Chaos again now that I got the Platinum trophy for it? Probably not, Origin is much more fun experience, but I do think Z2 Chaos does have enough charm to warrant a playthough if you ever find it cheap.

As fun as this game was the several crashes hurt it really bad

I've played 2 games in this series now and the combat is super fast paced and just fun it's not overly complex but it's always keeps you invested

The story was a bit dull and the writing was pretty cringe but overall a fun and good game to pick up and play a few hrs of

I really wanted to like this game. It's got some B-movie cheese, sexy samurai ladies, and it's super bloody. This game is right up my alley, but there are so many issues that seem to be ever-present that cannot be ignored, and really undermine the entire experience.

1) All the enemies, but especially bosses, are far too damage spongy.

2) Sometimes a boss has set moments/frames where they simply...do not take damage? Even though there's nothing to indicate that they're nullifying damage. Sometimes they're just kinda standing there for a second while you wail on them and no damage is taken by them. It's baffling.

3) You cannot interrupt boss attacks, at all, ever. I'd actually be fine with this is if weren't for the following issue:

4) The window for doing a slow-mo/perfect dodge is seriously screwed up, and almost NEVER lines up with when you think you actually should perform the dodge. So instead of avoiding damage you just take it and wondering why the hell you didn't avoid that attack. For example, one mini-boss has a stomp attack where he jumps in the air and slams onto the ground. Now, normally, you'd think to time the dodge JUST before he hits the ground (and you) right? NO, it has to be the INSTANT his feet make contact with the ground, and even then it only works SOME of the time. It's like this for almost every single enemy attack, boss or non-boss.

5) Zombies with guns. Yes, there are zombies who wield pistols and shotguns. And they LOVE to be just off-screen where you can't see them, so you get to take a lot of blind damage from a random direction because you can't see where you're getting shot at from.

6) The camera is really wonky. If you're locked onto an enemy, it jumbles and jolts around following the enemy 100% instead of being a general focus. And as a result of this, it's all-too-easy to get hit off-screen by something you had no way to anticipate because of how focused the lock-on is. When the camera ISN'T locked on, it does mostly okay, but you kinda need a lock-on system for the tougher enemies and bosses, but with how it's implemented, the camera is going to be a pain whether you use the lock-on or not.

7) The in-game unlockables are pretty sub-par/not that interesting and I just know this is done this way so you are steered into buying the DLC costumes. I don't have a problem with extra outfits/cosmetics as DLCs, but there are a TON of them for this game. The biggest offense here about this is that some of them are even seen in some in-game cutscenes, but you can't unlock them in the game, you have to buy them.

I hate that this game suffers like this. This game is really stylish and fun when the stars align and it works smoothly. The slo-mo you get from doing critical attacks is SUPER satisfying when it happens, and some of the combos are really badass and give you a nice dose of dopamine when the screen lights up in a bloody tornado of limbs, viscera, and samurai ass. Sadly, these nuisances occur far too frequently to be waived off. I wish this game didn't suck.