After 30 hours of
non-stop grinding, I'm finally done with
Re;Birth 2. I'm sated and elated and I enjoyed that playthrough from beginning to end. I wanted a heavy-duty bout of grinding and that's exactly what I got—trust
HN games to scratch vigorously any grinding itch a gamer may have. I also wanted a gaming experience similar to my playthrough of
Re;Birth 1; and in that regard, I got much more than I bargained for, because
Re;Birth 2 is virtually a clone of
Re;Birth 1. Apart from a couple of extra characters and dungeons, this is basically the exact same game with the exact same gameplay, the exact same cast of characters and the exact same overall feeling. It's certainly a treat if you enjoy the series as much as I do, but it comes across as a complete rip-off if you're anything less than a die-hard
HN aficionado.
The last stages of my playthrough were a tad anticlimatic, if I have to be totally honest. I level-ground so dutifully throughout the whole game that my party was actually a trifle over-levelled by the time I reached the final boss. Polishing off that ultimate showdown was a mere formality and a matter of a couple of turns, with no major casualties except from Falcom fainting once. For the record, my winning party was made of Nepgear at Lv. 53, Compa at Lv. 51, Cave at Lv. 49 and Falcom at Lv. 47, and I'm immensely glad the game didn't force down my throat a final boss so hard that only a full team of CPUs could have beaten it. And talking about CPUs, I was a bit bummed that the CPU quartet from
Re;Birth 1 joined my party in the late stages of the game. Not only did it make my force a bit too crowded for my taste, but it stole the resident CPUs' thunder in a way that was not to my liking. Neptune, Noir, Blanc and Vert were the undisputed heroes and main attractions of
Re;Birth 1; couldn't Nepgear, Uni, Rom and Ram have been granted the same honour in
Re;Birth 2? At any rate, there was no way I would let the big sister brigade steal the show in my own playthrough, and thus I dutifully stuck with Nepgear, Compa, Cave and Falcom until the very end. These fab four did a stellar job in boss fights, with Nepgear and Cave as the main damage dealers, Compa as the skilled healer and Falcom as the EXE drive gauge refiller/minor damage dealer. I didn't feel like using Uni, Rom and Ram on the long run because their attack ranges, which favoured a healthy distance from foes, made for a tricky positioning that was more a chore than a joy. Sorry, girls—but fret not: I adore the real-life, physical versions of you.
I incidentally learnt that
Re;Birth 2 offers as many as six different endings, some of them boasting insanely arcane requirements. I find the whole thing a little bit pointless, to be honest, because the storyline is clearly not
Re;Birth 2's strongest suit. I unearthed the so-called Normal Ending, which is deemed the easiest of the bunch, and I'm perfectly happy with that outcome. There's no way I'm going to replay the game and try to uncover the five other endings all by myself, be it with an FAQ in hand; I'm playing
HN games solely for the grinding, and I'll get plenty of it no matter which ending I get. Not to mention that trying to tinker with each nation's shares in order to reach the desired requirements for the hardest endings feels like a complete micromanaging nightmare, and I
loathe micromanagement in games.
All in all, this was a gloriously fun playthrough of a game that managed to feel both pleasantly familiar and refreshingly new. It was certainly not innovative by any means when compared to
Re;Birth 1; but that's not what I was looking for in the first place, so this is perfectly fine by me. As a matter of fact, I was so eager to bask again in the glorious feelings elicited by my first encounter with the series that I initially planned to replay
Re;Birth 1 itself; however, I'm glad I changed my mind and picked up
Re;Birth 2 instead, because it treated me to the exact same delightful experience while still bringing something new to the table. Now I can only hope that
Re;Birth 3 will follow suit—although there is little doubt it will, given how hell-bent on recycling the
HN series is. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
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