The Witch And The Hundred Knight 2 Is A New And Refined Standalone Sequel

Getting back into this series I was filled with a lot of questions regarding what direction NISA could take the story, and how they could change things to breathe life back into seemingly overlooked idea that was the first game. These lingering questions were thankfully met with brilliant answers. For the most part NISA stayed true to the first game's formula ultimately streamlining the experience, and adding in only a handful of new features as to not overwhelm those looking to get back into the now established series. Returning alongside the witch versus the villagers theme is the governing and depleting Gigacalories system, the playable Hundred Knight himself, and the base combo centered weapon stacking. That along with the stomach for storage, item rarity, weapon krafting, the mystical dodge, and the overall grind for better loot return in a refined/reinvented manner meant to make all features easy to access. Necessary functions are now assigned to the DPad directional inputs, R1 and accompanying face buttons, the face buttons alone, the OPTIONS button, and the touchpad. New to the game is the continuously alternating story involving a sister named Milm who early on becomes afflicted with the witch disease, her sister Amalie who is her caretaker, and a foul mouthed witch antagonist named Chelka who all become intertwined unwillingly in the current witch wars scenario. A battle now waged between the Rot Branch's Weisse Ritter alliance, their Holy Valkyries, and a couple of witches including the newly awakened witch Chelka.

Along with the key battle system, and plot focus comes a dual command of the Hundred Knight through both Amalie and Chelka. Amalie who is trying to save her sister Milm from the possession or awakening of Chelka is conflicted between solving Milm's dilemma, and being faithful to the Weisse Ritter whom saved both Amalie and Milm from a village witch hunt after Milm had contracted the witch disease, and a resulting third eye. Chelka, on the other hand is out for absolute power, and destruction much like Metallia was in the first game. The plot in itself is made less than linear though through the alternating characters' involvement, and the returning response mechanic which allows for the Hundred Knight to respond with affirmation, question, or refusal when prompted to do so. His response through your control will change the dialogue, and the plot to an extent as it did in the previous game. These interactive story tidbits come between gameplay segments as before, and serve as the underlying purpose of the game. The moral decisions therein. Between the animated character story interactions that occur when the protagonist, antagonist, and other characters of interest meet you will be taking control of the Hundred Knight as he embarks on requested labyrinthine outings which are sectioned off, and made map accessible with the new full and miniature overlay maps. Maps which are accessed via OPTIONS, and the touchpad. The map is no longer obscured, and made visible by travel to each area making the trek from 'Point A' to 'Point B' more straightforward.

The look, and feel of the gameplay sections in which you control the Hundred Knight feel very familiar, but are streamlined both in the display of feature functions, and the functions themselves. Added in is the new third eye ability which fills up through combat. Once filled pressing "TRIANGLE" will unleash the power of the third eye enhancing the hundred Knight's abilities (Speed, Power, Skills) as well as giving an initial damaging burst that will kill off or damage nearing enemies. Also new to combat are skills that unlock as the Hundred Knight levels up through EXP, or experience points. You can assign up to 4 skills to the R1 plus accompanying face button slots. These skills are only available so long as you have the meter to use them. The skills also have a cool down between use, individually. Beyond that you will be able to offset the governing and depleting Gigacalories counter/gauge by fully completing 5 tier combos, and following up with the new "Depletura". Depletura, as it were, is a new combo based mechanic that once prompted for activation via a floating "L1" icon will allow you to press L1 while targeting a weakened enemy, and strike it performing an automated combo finisher which will in turn restore a small amount of Gigacalories based on the combo count landed prior to engaging the Depletura.

As you make your way deep into each maze-like area you'll happen upon some familiar plant-like spires called "Managlands". In the first game Metallia would break these open to corrupt the land, and use them as waypoints. Here they serve as save points for the Hundred Knight, and offer Gigacalorie restoration with the accompanying cage bird that hovers nearby. As with the first game you can also warp between the Managlands if needed. One thing to note is that while the enemies you face and kill off in battle drop loot within the various environments you'll also find treasure chest, and boxes that harbor rarer items as well. There's even a Diablo inspired Treasure Goblin creature that if killed will drop Legendary items. The point in most gameplay playthroughs is to simply fight off lesser enemies to sustain Gigacalories, and loot the place while sometimes fighting off bosses or key characters to advance the plot. It's a fairly simple affair, and only becomes complicated through the introduction of increasingly stronger characters/enemies. That and the need to mind the Hundred Knight's Gigacalories.

The plot which unfolds in intermittent, and sometimes lengthy segments filled with voice acting and textual dialogue is chapter based with both a beginning and end to each given chapter. By completing Hundred Knight gameplay objectives, and forwarding the plot through the story you'll eventually see the game through to it's end. The filler material between plot and gameplay progress is basically a grind about getting the best loot, and upgrading/krafting that loot at the home castle via a Krafting shop. That, and unlocking and upgrading all the skills through experience gain. Before I forget the facets, or Hundred Knight variations, also make a return to the game allowing you to have multiple weapon/armor/charms setups that can be switched on the fly by pressing "OPTIONS", and tapping the L2/R2 buttons to cycle through them. Each of the six facets has different base stats making them perfect for certain situations. Some more defensive, and some more offensive as well as variations between. In tandem with that Toschkas also return allowing you to use said minions to open up the environments more in a puzzle solving sense. Sometimes said Toschkas can also be used as a means to combat enemies. These can be earned through witch petitions later on into the game. In the end there's a lot to do in regards to loot management, character development, and story advancement. How much time you choose to spend with the more tedious tasks will be up to you, but I think there's enough game here regardless to warrant the asking price.

For those of you wondering about the options setup you can choose to have the voice acting done in the original Japanese, or added in English. There's even 3 options for presentation/graphics quality, and it can be taken up to what equates to PS4 Pro level graphics. The graphics do return in a similar fashion as before, especially in the gameplay sections, but are a huge improvement over the original game in many ways. Even the English voice acting is impressive. The fact that the cussing isn't censored this time around may or may not be a turn off for you though.

For those of you looking to refresh your memory of the last game follow this link to my original review. A lot of the features return in this game ...

The Witch and the Hundred Knight (REVIEW) ~ https://thegaminginferno.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-witch-and-hundred-knight-revival.html

The Verdict ...

I was actually pleasantly surprised with how NISA handled this sequel. It didn't stick to the same type of story, but still built upon the established lore as well as some already established mechanics. In fact the Hundred Knight's origin was explained along with a couple of other things that weren't noted in the first game. The additional lore regarding the Weisse Ritter, and the Holy Valkyrie was very interesting in regards to that extended lore. The battle for Milm between Amalie and Chelka was even more so. I particularly liked how the Hundred Knight's duties were split between both Amalie and Chelka throughout the game's chapters. It made for interesting plot twists between said characters along the way. As far as the gameplay goes it felt much more user friendly, and more easily accessible. It was streamlined perfectly, in my opinion. While I loved the first game I think I liked this one a little more, because of how streamlined the gameplay functionality was. The really good thing is, is that if you've never played the first game you can still enjoy "The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2" as a standalone story. Even though some elements are returning it features a different plot, and vastly different characters. Definitely don't miss out on this NISA experience if you like the idea of unique takes on the JRPG genre! It gets the Inferno's "Hell Yeah!!!" seal of approval!