I went into kuro 2 with high hopes given that the previous entry was a pleasant surprise and a departure from the absurdist hacky writing of the cold steel games and thankfully kuro 2 manages to hold itself together.
For the most part I had already some idea on what to expect It was a direct follow-up released in a year after the previous game and so I was keenly aware that this would be on the cheaper side of things, And while that assertion was true I think I and many others kind of dismissed this game as simply filler, However this game did surprise me as despite that assertion kuro II felt more like the missing second half of the first game rather then being its own entry its more like a duology if anything its continuing character arcs mechanics and general gameplay to the letter and that I feel works incredibly well for this.
For starters while they didn't revamp the mechanics entirely I feel that the new additions really do help revamp some of the sore spots, In particular the new shard skill UI is much cleaner and easier to read and the addition of cover shield being far easier to achieve and some re-balances I felt the shard system was overall a lot cleaner and easier to wrap my head around, No longer did I feel as if I was extremely limited with my options in fact I found myself actually building other characters I rarely used which definitely spells out to me that the slight revamps were much needed.
The plot is fairly interesting albeit I found there was way too many moments where the outcome was way too obvious it never quite got to the point where I felt the writing was actively disrespecting my intelligence or destroying its own intentions which the previous saga was very guilty of but there was a few moments that I felt if they were placed into the context of the CS games would not be nearly as endearing or charming.
I do have some criticisms for the patch I used however its not technically finished at this point so I expect it'll be cleaned up later (quite a few spelling errors and outright wrong item descriptions just to name a few) but aside from that I found it was acceptable even in its current state.
Despite all this my only major criticism I suppose is how dull the middle point can be, Its pretty much a repeating set of chapters with the only difference being the variables and characters change but the general outcomes are all the same and honestly I could have done without them.
Given all that I honestly do recommend kuro no kiseki II especially with its nature of basically being the continuing half of the first game good companion piece and i'm looking forward to kai no kiseki whenever that drops.
For the most part I had already some idea on what to expect It was a direct follow-up released in a year after the previous game and so I was keenly aware that this would be on the cheaper side of things, And while that assertion was true I think I and many others kind of dismissed this game as simply filler, However this game did surprise me as despite that assertion kuro II felt more like the missing second half of the first game rather then being its own entry its more like a duology if anything its continuing character arcs mechanics and general gameplay to the letter and that I feel works incredibly well for this.
For starters while they didn't revamp the mechanics entirely I feel that the new additions really do help revamp some of the sore spots, In particular the new shard skill UI is much cleaner and easier to read and the addition of cover shield being far easier to achieve and some re-balances I felt the shard system was overall a lot cleaner and easier to wrap my head around, No longer did I feel as if I was extremely limited with my options in fact I found myself actually building other characters I rarely used which definitely spells out to me that the slight revamps were much needed.
The plot is fairly interesting albeit I found there was way too many moments where the outcome was way too obvious it never quite got to the point where I felt the writing was actively disrespecting my intelligence or destroying its own intentions which the previous saga was very guilty of but there was a few moments that I felt if they were placed into the context of the CS games would not be nearly as endearing or charming.
I do have some criticisms for the patch I used however its not technically finished at this point so I expect it'll be cleaned up later (quite a few spelling errors and outright wrong item descriptions just to name a few) but aside from that I found it was acceptable even in its current state.
Despite all this my only major criticism I suppose is how dull the middle point can be, Its pretty much a repeating set of chapters with the only difference being the variables and characters change but the general outcomes are all the same and honestly I could have done without them.
Given all that I honestly do recommend kuro no kiseki II especially with its nature of basically being the continuing half of the first game good companion piece and i'm looking forward to kai no kiseki whenever that drops.