Tanner Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 (edited) FROM IGN: Denpa Men 2’s combat system will be instantly familiar to anyone that’s played a JRPG in the past two decades: you select an action for each of your party members, then watch as they trade blows with overgrown corncobs, octopus-spiders, morbidly-obese medusas, and other odd hybrids of more traditional fantasy fauna. A handy auto-battle feature makes grinding a breeze when you need to spend a few extra hours getting your party up to snuff, but the option to prioritize healing is poorly implemented, with weaker characters frequently dying before someone gets a chance to save them. Oddly, it usually works out better just to let characters die, because anyone equipped with the common Revive ability can quickly bring them back to full health, without any of the negative status effects they might have had when they died. Sometimes, it takes an extra coat of polish to turn a clever idea into a good game. Such is the case with The Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves, which might as well be a series reboot for all the improvements it brings to its predecessor's core dungeon-crawling experience. If you were charmed by The Denpa Men: They Came by Wave's goofy personality but put off by its limited nature, give Denpa Men 2 a chance; this time around, there's an actual game under all that silliness. For newcomers, a primer: Denpa Men are tiny, androgynous people, dressed in brightly colored unitards, floating all around you. Using your 3DS as a viewfinder, you'll capture them to form a party of adventurers, and because they’re generated by MAC addresses of wi-fi access points in your vicinity, no two are the same. Some are green; others have magnificent mustaches or star-shaped heads. Some are happy to be caught; one accused me of voyeurism and called me a pervert after I captured him. Most importantly, each has a specific elemental affinity and ability, so you’ll want to spend some quality time building an eclectic collection to prepare for every monster and boss you’ll encounter during your adventures. I found my most useful Denpa Men outside the comfort of my home, but just because I was able to capture a character with the “Haste (All)” ability by swinging my 3DS wildly around my mother-in-law's busy jewelry store, it doesn't mean you should do the same. Social niceties, and all. Once you've formed a party you’re happy with, you’ll enter a series of underground mazes filled with increasingly difficult dungeons.Dungeons sizes have been lifted almost wholesale from last year’s Denpa Men game, but once you’ve slogged through 5-10 hours of severely linear, heavily repurposed content, you're free to explore a huge multi-continent world map, complete with over 40 locations to explore and many hours of optional quests and activities to engage in.Denpa Men 2 can be completed in about 30-35 hours, making it an astonishing 4 times longer than its predecessor. A lot of that time is spent grinding, but that happens organically as you travel between the many non-essential activities you'll discover – harvesting plants for stat boosts, exploring optional dungeons for rare loot, fishing at hidden ponds and rivers – so it doesn't feel like padding. There are also a couple of “multiplayer” components, including a Coliseum that lets you upload your team to a server for other players to challenge at any time and a special dungeon that requires you to StreetPass with other Denpa Men 2 players to succeed. Neither are especially interesting, with the Coliseum mode in particular being a letdown because of how easily it is to game the system. Still, it's a good way to see the unique fashions other players have outfitted their characters with, as well as some of the rarer abilities you might not already know exist. In this game, you can use StreetPass, QR Codes, and the 3DS Camera to progress through the game. In the start of the game, you see a "Ook" attack away at the main hero's garden. You then decide to go to the tower. Afterwards, you fight him. If sucessful in fight, the Ooks' leader will attack you. You'll be KO'd, but revived after they take the main hero's family. Afterwards, you decide to hightail them to the cave! Once there, your journey will just have started... In my opinion, this will be loved by turn-based game lovers and dungeon crawl game lovers (kinda). If anybody wishes to PM me a better format of this thread, please do so, as I cannot make good game threads. Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CehsYnOPlwY Edited July 28, 2013 by Tanner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celice Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 I didn't know there was a sequel being worked on. I downloaded the first one's demo months and months ago, and liked how easy it was to get into--studies got in the way of playing any more. I'll have to look into Denpa Men 2 though; thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zera Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Relevant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanner Posted July 30, 2013 Author Share Posted July 30, 2013 bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randoman Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I guess this question is relevant to this thread: Is Denpa Men owned by Nintendo or not? (I'm asking since I'm wondering if Denpa Men may show up in Smash Bros. in one form or another) It's made by Genius Sonority, which I think is a subsidary of Nintendo, but supposedly isn't. On the thread's direct topic, I've never played any of the Denpa Men despite having an avatar/sig of it for a while, but it does seem like a really fun idea: looking for characters to use through your 3DS' camera, then using them to explore randomly generated dungeons. I'm a big fan of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team, so if I ever got a 3DS, this seems right up my alley. There was also news about an upcoming 3rd Denpa Men game on gonintendo if memory serves correctly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanner Posted July 31, 2013 Author Share Posted July 31, 2013 I guess this question is relevant to this thread: Is Denpa Men owned by Nintendo or not? (I'm asking since I'm wondering if Denpa Men may show up in Smash Bros. in one form or another) It's made by Genius Sonority, which I think is a subsidary of Nintendo, but supposedly isn't. On the thread's direct topic, I've never played any of the Denpa Men despite having an avatar/sig of it for a while, but it does seem like a really fun idea: looking for characters to use through your 3DS' camera, then using them to explore randomly generated dungeons. I'm a big fan of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team, so if I ever got a 3DS, this seems right up my alley. There was also news about an upcoming 3rd Denpa Men game on gonintendo if memory serves correctly... A 3rd? Well mkay. Current Update on my progress: Made it to the Hammer Angler, can anybody help? I got a Lvl8-Lvl10 ranked team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randoman Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 (edited) Here's a video of the 3rd Denpa Men game: Edited August 1, 2013 by Randoman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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