rom the moment you turn it on, the second installment of the Otogi series is dazzling. Heavily shrouded in the myths and sensations of Japan, the visual presentation is top notch. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed sitting through loading screens and scrolling through menus as much as I did here. Lotus blossoms float gently down the screen while native Japanese instruments pluck out meditative strains. Everything looks fantastic. Then I started to play the game, and that’s where the trouble began.
I’ll start with the most egregious offender: the camera. I define a good gaming camera by how much I have to think about it. If it does what I want and moves where I like it, then it doesn’t take me out of the action. That’s a good thing. Let’s just say that I found myself thinking about this camera an awful lot. I won’t share most of those thoughts, as they are generally unfit to print. Suffice it to say, the camera ticked me off. Zeroing in far too close to the character, I never seemed to be facing the right way to make attacks, and I was constantly blindsided by enemies I wasn’t even aware of.
This leads me to the combat. Though by no means bad, much of the action here was about destroying absolutely everything I came across by pressing random buttons as quickly as possible. The most hilarious situations involved areas where I was trying to protect a shrine or some such holy site from demons, and the only way to destroy the hellspawn was by completely decimating the building myself. There’s very little skill connected to the combat scheme, and not even the mind-boggling particle effects and blinding explosive flashes can hide it.
The most significant addition from this sequel’s predecessor is the inclusion of multiple playable characters – each with their own weapon and combat style. While I really liked trying them all out, I didn’t enjoy the wild guessing that went into figuring out which one to use on any given stage. Also, while there are power-ups to be purchased between levels, getting enough money to do so almost certainly involves replaying levels you’ve already beaten.
The stages themselves maintain the unrelenting beauty of the rest of the game, filled with dojo-style buildings and graceful oriental arches. Of course, these architectural wonders are doomed to an early grave as you blithely destroy all in your path. In addition, the level objectives are often frustrating, and many of them will take more than a few attempts before satisfactory completion.
No one can argue the deep visual and aural allure of this title. But personally, I found myself frequently resisting the urge to throw down my controller in frustration. This wasn’t my cup of tea, but I can’t help but admire its dramatic artistic sheen.