All it took was Yasunori Ichinose directing another MH game to make easily one of the best games in the franchise.

Never did I expect how hard they would work to make both classic(Gen1-4) and new MH(Gen5) meet halfway with all the changes they did. The return of Village and Hub separation, classic Talisman and Decoration system, a combat system that gets very close to how GU felt, a buddy system that's back to classic's albeit not as complex, very well-thought out adjustments for monsters in terms of HP and damage, and a ton of other small stuff that just pile up to collectively make the experience an extremely enjoyable and memorable one.

I'm very very happy that they did away with World's realism aspect and went back to classic MH's playful and comical feel, aesthetics, and humor. Weapon designs are once again back to their expressive and unique designs save for the returning World-introduced monster's weapons. Armors are sadly lacking in count but what we do have are designs that definitely feel like classic MH design-wise but given the graphical upgrade of Gen5 MH.

The maps are back to classic's style of wide open spaces that highlight the fight between you and the monster and it is so god tier how they recreated some of the Gen3 maps so perfectly. These, on top of the new ones that are extremely well crafted, are all very fun to navigate, explore, and fight in which is definitely the type of maps MH should have. Paired with absolutely mesmerizing battle themes and remixed tracks, make for hunts that feel extremely immersing, satisfying, and fun.

Returning monsters in the game were treated very well with moveset updates to make them feel fresh. The new ones are all very cool thematically, being inspired by Japanese youkai, and are very fun fights. But the standouts would definitely be the flagships which are honestly some of the most memorable in the franchise ever and definitely land a spot on my favorites of all time for sure.

I honestly cannot overstate how much they grinded this game for it to be as god tier as it ended up being. After my utter disappointment with World, I already resigned myself to the fact that classic MH was gone but was hoping the next installment would be somewhat at least enjoyable in more aspects. But after having finished the game, I can confidently say that they went way above and beyond that and made me feel like I was back to classic again, and reminding me why this is one of my favorite franchises ever.

First off, this game is a direct sequel set 5 years after the first game and if you're wondering if you're required to play those first (original on vita or the remake, Overdose), you aren't but I would very much recommend at least Overdose because it's a very great game on it's own.

From the synopsis and first look on the game, it's hard to not get the impression that it's going to be the same as the first one but that is shaken early on and even more as you progress the game and notice their big differences. Things like the virtual setting of both games, Mobius and Redo, being completely different in every aspect despite being similar in concept. Or the battle system, while still called Imaginary Chain, is largely adjusted mechanically and has new and great functions added. There is also the music being more consistent quality-wise than the last game, both with the character tracks by various artists (Kemu, Ayase from YOASOBI, KairikiBear, etc.) and Tsukasa Masuko for the rest of the OST. All these elements come together to make old fans feel a completely fresh experience and give newcomers a very unique one.

The characters and plot this time around take an overall more serious tone. While the entire main cast is written in a way that not a lot of people will directly relate to, players will still be able to empathize with them as they get to know them more and find out the circumstances that put them in Redo and their regrets, which is the main theme of the game. A theme that isn't uncommon but, to me, isn't something that has been tackled this masterfully in a way that would definitely leave something for all players to reflect on as they go through and ultimately finish the game.

To end the review, I feel the game has set a gold standard for sequels and JRPGs as a whole for me. Caligula 2 is not only a game that improved on the first games but went over and beyond all expectations for me with how it managed to feel so much like the previous games while being completely different at the same time. A game that will definitely make everyone feel something they will never experience again with any other franchise. I highly recommend the game to anyone interested.

I honestly went into the game expecting maybe minor changes at most from Resurrection while still following the general formula of the first game but I was more than surprised to come out with definitely one of my fave action games ever.

God Eater 2: Rage Burst is honestly one of the most perfect sequels ever with how much improvements it delivers in every aspect from the first game. The main story is a lot more dramatic, convincing, and thrilling this time around as well as the main cast who appear quite one-sided at first but develop into very interesting and lovable characters as you learn about their backgrounds and progress the story and they even made me genuinely like a character who I hated from the beginning. The side cast in the game is quite huge too with a couple of new characters and a lot of returning ones from the first game which gave me a huge sense of nostalgia despite starting the game only a week after finishing Resurrection. Despite the huge list of characters though, they do an excellent job of letting the player interact, learn about, and grow with each and every one of the side cast through Character Episodes which require a bit of grinding sometimes but are honestly some of the highlights of Rage Burst. Some of these include a womanizer who tries to convince you of the importance of women's legs, a very clumsy but eager bazooka-wielder, and even the branch's pet capybara who does nothing but sleep and eat all day and it's easy to get attached to everyone with how fleshed out they all are.

The overall combat system also gets a big improvement through the addition of several very interesting features. The addition of Blood Arts add a lot of depth and versatility to the once limited-feeling arsenal that make it feel very fresh and different from the first game in terms of melee combat. And on the other hand, we also got Blood Bullets which heavily encourages making use of all 4 diverse gun types and also incentivizes everyone to make their own bullets through the Bullet Editor, which admittedly I did not care for at all in Resurrection but soon found myself spending hours just messing around with creating a handful of funny and devastating bullets. And even after all these still comes one of the most fun power up systems I've ever seen in an action game, the Blood Rage mechanic. I honestly don't wanna get into detail about it since the excitement of activating Blood Rage in a battle is one of the most addicting stuff that will never stop feeling like the best thing ever even after your hundredth use and every player just has to experience it for themselves.

For every action game, I'll say the combat is just as good as the enemies to unleash all these on and Rage Burst is home of some of the best Aragami in the franchise. They've added a lot of really well-designed and fun to fight Aragami as well as some of the most difficult ones ever and it really just shows the improvements in their game design as the series progressed. Some of the ones worth mentioning are the Marduk, Chrome Gawain, and especially the Mukuro Kyuubi which are definitely the fights to look out for as they really showcase how good the Aragamis in Rage Burst are. Paired with some really nice new maps and especially an absolutely godlike soundtrack, it's very easy to just find yourself stuck on the very fun and rewarding combat loop which, funnily enough for an MH clone, actually has almost negative grinding for materials. The upgrade tree for weapons is very small which initially weirded me out but upon realizing how they pretty much did away with the MH stigma of "endless material grinding for upgrades" I found it very fun with the zero hassle it gives and just really lets players focus on progressing the story first and foremost.

Overall, Rage Burst is honestly just nothing short of being the perfect follow up to the first game and really solidified this franchise into being one of my all-time favorites. Took me 69 hours to finish the whole thing because it's chunkier than the first game even with all 3 arcs combined. I'd say skipping directly to Rage Burst is fine or maybe watch the anime as a substitute for the first game if you want some more context (it's a god tier adapt too). Looking forward to coming back to this after 3 and doing the endgame.

Was pretty hard swallowing the pill on how very NOT-good this game is especially after saving it for last on my hunting game run.

Game starts off quite fun and really interesting with how the world is setup as well as making you really feel the burden of all the restrictions set on you as a low rank prisoner and in turn the feeling of having that weight off your shoulders when you do get the necessary permissions to do more things or do old annoying things faster/easier.

The fun quickly fades when you realize it's easily the most unfinished hunting game in the entire genre and suffered so hard from never getting an expansion like pretty much every other series. The worst offender being that the story straight up cuts just as things finally started actually happening and this is after one of the worst fights I've ever done in my life.

That said, it's hard to hate on the game too much when it really did try to be one of the most experimental hunting games out there and sadly failed to deliver despite how promising it was. I really liked the customization and clothes options in the game a lot and how cool the dismemberment system was. The combat itself was fun for a bit but would've been 100x better if it actually came out on a system that allowed for an aiming-heavy game like this to be played without wanting to bash your skull in. The partner AI system is really cool too and so are some of the tracks in the game, especially the vocal ones.

I do hope the Studio TVT game thats a spiritual successor of this actually manages to come out and fix all the issues this one has.

God tier characters and story, really cool albeit somewhat repetitive visuals on the stages, great OST, and an overall wonderful presentation that just oozes with soul. Sadly the whole thing is topped off with fairly boring gameplay which honestly did ramp up for me sometime midway through the game so I still ended up having a pretty enjoyable time in that aspect. Definitely worth picking up if you're perfectly fine with jank in your games and want a crazy emotional rollercoaster of a ride.

Also Nanana best.

I didn't expect too much from what's essentially a Gen2-3 MonHun clone but what's there is honestly really interesting stuff. Less weapon choices and overall complexity to their controls but they make up for it with all the really fun and interesting micromanagement during combat and broad loadout customizability players are given through Gun types with the extremely convoluted but cool Bullet crafting system, different types of Shields, Skill Install, and Predator Styles which is definitely the best addition to Resurrection among others. It definitely took a while and a really good youtube guide for me to get a proper feel for things and get into the main groove of the game but before I knew it, I was pretty much stuck on the really fast and entertaining gameplay loop.

The story is quite simple, humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction for a while now because of constantly evolving monsters called Aragami and God Eaters exist primarily to hunt them, but what's interesting is seeing how the main cast lives in the said world. Like how Soma finds it hard to forge camaraderie when he's had dozens of old teammates die in the field, or Alisa dealing with her PTSD, and Kota having a family who he set out on this path to secure a good life for. The first and main arc is nothing deep or new, but it definitely does a good job of setting up the world and making it a believable one and ends on a really good note on top of all the character developments for the main cast. What really made me like GE1 a lot is the section that follows right after, the Burst arc. It introduces a really great character and has the best story in the game despite being a really short section. It mainly focuses on this one character that felt like he got left out of the game in the first part and does some super good stuff with him and then ends with the best boss fight in the game. Sadly the final arc, Resurrection, drops the ball so hard that I just wanna pretend it doesn't exist or risk liking the game less. It's about as short as Burst but the mission lineup is about 90% multi-hunt quests which are a huge pain to deal with and the story felt really unnecessary but neither good nor bad. At the very least, the action cutscenes really peak in this section and the final boss is pretty fun but I really would not recommend playing this section personally.

Monsters are quite varied for me. Some of the earlier ones are alright (Kongou, Gboro-Gboro) except for Chi-You which is definitely my most hated type out of all. Most of the bigger and harder ones though get pretty fun once you finally get the rhythm of how to fight them properly and my favorite types would probably be Vajras, Borg Camlanns, and Quadrigas (literally gigantic biological tanks). The deusphages are alright, kind of the equivalent of Elder Dragons where they're bigger and crazier monsters but a lot of them definitely have sick designs, Venus fight really owned me but it's definitely my favorite and you can definitely see the improvement with the monsters as you go which I really appreciate.

Overall, if you wanna check out some MonHun clones or maybe just more of SHIFTs games in general then it's definitely worth giving a shot. It's jank but it has a lot more going for it than just the combat (which I still enjoyed anyway) to still make it an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed going through. Though again, I would honestly recommend dropping it after Burst arc unless you wanna see some super cool action cutscenes in Resurrection.

The MH Clone that definitely lacks the most in terms of the overall gameplay loop and other mechanics in exchange for focusing on the story and presentation which it makes up for immensely.

SSD basically presents everything through you the player, navigating a talking book to start missions, change your loadout, read enemy lore and everything else. This is also how it tells it's depressing tale on an unnamed sorcerer and his partner's descents to madness in a completely bleak world, split through multiple chapters where said sorcerer crosses paths with fellow sorcerers of different beliefs and their very unique predicaments that really get you attached to them by the end of your very brief meetings.

All the monsters are also these grotesque monstrosities that are all named after legends, mythical creatures, and fairy tale characters like Red Riding Hood, Unicorn, and Jack O' Lantern to name a few, which add a lot to the overall uniqueness of the game. Fights are then fought by using Offerings which work like spells of different kinds like charging your arm into an axe or donning an armor of stone, some spells you can even combine which make for the most unique combat system in an MH/Clone game for sure.

As for it's faults, the game definitely lacks in terms of the base gameplay loop and there's really not much to do after doing all the story chapters which can take about 40 hours. Add this to the extremely RNG Essence system which is basically your carved materials every time you kill a monster which you only get 1 of every kill, makes for a very frustrating and unfun grind when you want to get very specific things. Building a character can also get quite frustrating especially midway through the game once things get spongier if you really don't have an idea what you're doing even with grinding the games level system. I managed to actually decimate things by the end of the game after realizing how loadouts and builds should be done but it can definitely get a bit grating to feel like swinging pool noodles at monsters for 20 minutes.

All these said, it's an extremely good game and for sure one of the most unique experiences not even just by MH/Clone standards but by games in general and it's definitely sad to see it die on the vita. Definitely play it if you're able.

Best video game ever. All the updates and additions to the gameplay bring it to its utter peak as it addresses all of the miniscule issues with the first game (too much enemy forced evasions, no party member swap in-battle) and adds a ton of new systems (SP regen post-battle, Assist System, multi-target finishers, player Forced Evasions, etc.) while still keeping it fairly challenging. More playable characters, more areas, more bosses, a dozen assist characters, and just kino all around that makes people who enjoyed the first game unable to catch their breath with how much epic the game throws at them one after the other. Absolute Kinology/10.