Great to hear from you as always! Glad things are going well.
Gave Metafight Zero 2 a spin, seems a stronger game coming out of the gate. Opening area is much unrulier and wider-open than the original's, and while the topdown dungeons still aren't stunning, they're much more aggressive with enemies and footing.
There are some really interesting new mechanics, that sound goofy on paper but imo end up working. Weapon/Hover energy no longer recovers automatically - instead, besides the usual blue items, taking hard falls juices you back up. It's a viscerally satisfying effect, and with the aggressively steep terrain, you're routinely slamming down while making your way. The bar also recovers upon damage, obviously not a free lunch... and you can tactically unload everything you've got to enter "Shutdown," losing your abilities as the bar quickly recharges. I guess they're trying to encourage more aggressive play, with it being better to violently blow your load than run off to recharge. We'll see...
The topdown introduces a counterattack button - basically, whenever something attacks, it briefly gets a reticle painted on it. Press the button to nail 'em with an auto-targeted quickdraw. Lashes out with deadly speed and accuracy, leaving you free to evade incoming attacks during, and also stuns the target. Fun and useful, and metered+whiffable to punish spamming.
EDIT: Daww.
The second planet is an extended
Ikki homage. Recently picked up its customarily excellent ACA version, incidentally.
Worth a look - the radar makes a world of difference to the game's camera issues.
Far more importantly than the fanservice, Neo Gonbei is a
much better fight than anything hinted at in MFZ1. Here's hopin'. He teaches you his badass ambush counter afterward - instead of a reprisal quickshot, it teleports you behind the target.
Psh... nothin personnel, kid. As I'd hoped, this feels like a true sequel rather than a retread.
Hey, waitaminute
I know I did
NOT just see a CIS White Male Protagonist whipping a farm-worker POC.
NM game sux deleting now
EDIT2: Good news, Asians don't count!
I'm back in the game with virtue intact!
And holy fuck, I was most mistaken about Gonbei's counter. It doesn't teleport you
behind the target at all. Rather, they're gonna come down with a paralysing, likely fatal case of Takeyari Gut.
Fuckin rad. No good if they're behind a barricade though!
Guess Kane's Zeroesque redesign isn't just for show. Whips, blades, Zero Teleport bayonets, boy's become a regular cyborg ninja.
---
Yeah, thoroughly enjoying this now.
Needed a break from balls-hard arcade stuff, rotating this and Ys Origin is hittting the spot mightily. Sometimes it's good to look back, ie, L2L.
The sidescrolling is smoother than ever, with a welcome increase in both environmental and enemy threats. Piloting and combat are demanding on magnitudes unheard of in MF88/Z1 - not saying much in itself, admittedly. Building on Z1's dramatic QOL improvements, you now have
three dedicated Special buttons, assignable to any of the steadily-building moveset. Currently enjoying the ramming airdash on R1, brutal death-from-above slam on L2, and jump-rocketing spring mine on Square - all three movement options/weapons interacting seamlessly with not only each other, but the Vernier and wall-grip/spring mechanics.
Give me convenience or give me death! DEATH FROM ABOVE THAT IS
As ever with Metafight, simply moving around is entertaining - now more than ever, with the venom and punch of the new tools. Had Z2 merely reheated its predecessors' amiable, unremarkable labyrinth, it would still have entertained. By switching to discrete, distinct stages, the series finally realises its potential hybrid of mecha heft and finesse platforming.
Happily, there is no need for the usual Metafight caveat - the lukewarm topdown has
finally tightened up, delivering hard-hitting action in bitesized dungeons. Between the speedy combat and killer arsenal, what comes to mind most is
Guardic Gaiden - a comparison MF88/Z1 can't dream of. Their dogged sense of airy filler is soundly banished. In an especially canny move, ambush rooms are no longer marked as "boss" encounters on the map, and also lose their bathetic intros - now sporting only a sharp
WARNING as the doors slam shut.
Aesthetically, it's hugely more potent and distinct, the spacey creativity of MFZ1's final Area running wild across its various planets. Meatier enemy sprites - and meatier enemies in general - add welcome oomph to METAL ATTACKER's exploits.
Ohshi, we
PHOENIX FORCE nao. Not only is the lightning-quick ram invincible, strong, and chainable into itself, it also counts as enemy/projectile contact - as long as you hit something, or even just slam into a wall, it'll earn its meter back, possibly even gain some due to its tiny cost.
(yes, that is who you think it is - this game's Sunsoft love is sincere )
The new wall-spring costing zero meter is a minor bit of design genius. Great for quickly gaining altitude for a full-bar slam! Hook a screen-high wall, spring off, hover back on and repeat - guaranteed full recharge.
This game does Sunsoft's FC golden age proud. It's the sort of thing I'd like to imagine them going on to do in the 16/32bit years, had things worked out differently. In the most meaningful, constructive sense, it feels like a sequel designed by fans of the earlier games, for the same: a systematic exorcism of endemic flaws, paired with a commitment to realising dormant potentials. Recommended, it's really quite good.