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By Winfield & Manuel  Player(s): 1 Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PC (Via Steam) NIS America are the masters of delivering cool new titles, strong entries in long-running series, and re-releases of classics from their back catalog. Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol. 2 falls into the latter camp and brings together the Strategy RPG Makai Kingdom: Reclaimed And Rebound (originally released on the PlayStation 2) and the roguelike RPG ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman (originally released on the PSP). This title is available both physically and digitally on the Nintendo Switch and each game is available individually on Steam. Let's take a look at these games and see if they're something you're going to want to pick up... DOOD! Makai Kingdom: Reclaimed And Rebound Makai Kingdom: Reclaimed And Rebound is a port of the PS2 game of the same name developed by Nippon Ichi Software and published by NIS America. It is a strategy role-playing genre (SRPG) game where the majority of the gameplay is done on a map of your units and the enemy units. What makes Makai Kingdom stand out in the SRPG genre is its take on using something different than a grid battle system. It is a grid-free design where each unit has a limited radius to move per turn. Instead of every unit being confined to one grid cell like with other SRPG games, they can be placed and moved on the map in any position. Like with Nippon Ichi Software’s SRPG games, the battle system can be as simple to learn but has a lot of depth to power level your units to the ridiculous high damage numbers that the company’s games are known for.
Makai Kingdom’s story is based around Zetta, an Overlord, where he tries to save his Netherworld after receiving a prophecy from another Overlord named Pram. Due to his foolishness, he is forced to confine his soul to the Sacred Tome, a book that contains the history of his Netherworld, and has to rebuild his Netherworld from the beginning again. He gets help from a group of other Overlords in other Netherworlds. Since it is a port, the graphics in the game have their own charm to them. If you are a fan of 2D anime-styled sprites, you would not have any issues with the graphics. There are three different kinds of sprites that are used in the game. In the certain cutscenes, there are full hand drawn sprites that are the most representative of the characters in the game. Those are reserved for the important cutscenes, meanwhile the small sprites that you see in the battle maps are used in the rest of the cutscenes. There is a UI filter in the game options that makes the sprites sharper, which may look better.
The voice-acting and dialogue in the game is what you would expect from a Nippon Ichi game. They give a lot of personality to the characters and humanize them even though they are demons. They keep it light-hearted as well as still have emotional moments in the game. Overall, I enjoyed the game and it was a nice nostalgia trip as I played the original PS2 game years ago. If you are a fan of Nippon Ichi’s other games, like Disgaea, the story and characters are really interesting as expected. Since we never got the extra game mode, Petta Mode, from the original PS2 release, there is something new for existing fans to dive into the game again. Now go out, and grind those levels! For More Information On Makai Kingdom: Reclaimed And Rebound & Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol. 2: https://nisamerica.com/nis-classics/vol-2/ Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1732060/Makai_Kingdom_Reclaimed_and_Rebound/ Story: A Gamplay: A Visuals: C (For the nostalgia: B) Music/Sound: B Value: B Overall: B Pros: + Story is good if you enjoy the game from the original release + New story mode adds to the story that was missing from the original game + Voice acting and dialogue really makes the characters more interesting and funny + Interesting ideas on the SRPG genre with the grid-free design Cons: - If you weren’t a fan of the original graphics on the battle maps, the re-release will not sway you as the graphics are untouched A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way. ZHP Unlosing Ranger vs, Darkdeath Evilman ZHP Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman is a roguelike RPG that originally released on the PSP back in March 2010. It stars a nameless main character who takes on the role of the "Absolute Victory Unlosing Ranger" after the previous one is killed in a car accident on the way to stop Demon General Darkdeath Evilman who has kidnapped the Super Baby, a baby who is destined to save the world. The Main Character (who I named "Bacchus" since it was one of the first suggested ones in game) is also killed in the intro while fighting Darkdeath Evilman and is sent to Bizarro Earth to train with the spirit of the previous Unlosing Ranger and Bizarro Earth instructor Etranger in series of missions that also serve to save the lives of people who were affected by the aforementioned world-ending battle back on Earth. That was quite a mouthful of a story to get out quickly, so let's jump into the game itself now! At its core ZHP is a roguelike game which means that it involves randomized dungeons where your level resets to one every time you exit, and dying in said dungeon costs you everything you were carrying with you at the time. This type of game might put off many players immediately but ZHP isn't exactly a pure roguelike and brings a lot new to the genre. One of the core deviations from the standard roguelike design are the permanent stat boosts the Unlosing Ranger can get depending on how many levels you've earned in-game, referred to as "total levels", with even the levels you gained in a run ending in death being added to the total. You can also add to your core stats using a stat-building grid system that takes equipable items and changes them into "chips" to modify stats. There's actually a lot more to these systems but the main takeaway is that this game isn't quite as punishing as other roguelikes. This is a NIS game though so there are lots of other gameplay elements that are harder to describe to a first time player like a Prinny wife who serves as both a way to store items you don't want to lose in dungeons, and a blacksmith who can upgrade/repair items and weapons despite their ephemeral nature. Let's go into what you do with those weapons a bit though.
ZHP's hub world is the Training Facility on Bizarro Earth where you can hit up all the facilities already mentioned as well as more obvious ones like a general store. It's also here that you various missions from Etranger that make up the game's dungeons. You'll spend most of your time in these dungeons and you'll find a lot of weapons, armor, and more to use and equip. It's cool that all your equipable items appear on your character sprite and are fairly unique, but a little less cool that these items have durability that seems to go down annoyingly fast. This is slightly offset by the sheer amount of items you come across but the durability system means that you can't really rely on any a favored setup throughout the game, or even a dungeon. Like many other NIS titles this game has a "throwing" system wherein you can both throw items that cause status affects towards enemies or hurl useless (or not useless if you're feeling wasteful) weapons at them for a final bit of long-range damage. Enemies are plentiful throughout and while you're going to want to fight most of them to bring your level high enough to beat the dungeon's boss, you're able to skip most fights and make a straight line to the next floor if needed. This is something you might want to do as every movement and action takes up energy that can only be refilled by eating food. This sounds like it could be an annoying in-game element but it really isn't and serves to make you think out each move before making it. Controls are mostly on point but it really needs to be noted that the game operates on a tile system with the camera permanently skewed at a diagonal angle. You can rotate the camera full-circle around but it always locks into a diagonal position, but from a different angle. What this means for controls is that you'll be doing unintuitive things like pressing up to move to the right and so on. This almost broke me when it came to starting up the game but it was something that I got used to fairly quickly. There's also a button that locks you in place and lets you turn your character before moving (a roguelike staple) and you can use this if you're unsure as to what direction you're about to move in. The music in ZHP isn't anything too noteworthy but it really does do the job and some of the themes, like the Unlosing Ranger's for example, are great and will have you humming along. Voice acting is where it's really at in the sound department though and the quirky one-liners and dialogue will really kept you drawn into the game. Some of the pop culture references seem a little dated today, but there is definitely a charm to everything and seeing the occasional curse word or over-the-top joke was refreshing. The entire game is pretty much fully voiced (besides NPC interactions in the Training Facility) and there's even the occasional "Dood!" to remind everyone what kind of game they're playing.
Speaking of entertaining, the game's story also really shines throughout. It's flippant, it's wacky, and it's anything but boring. Every chapter sees you enter a dungeon to meet up (read: fight) someone on Bizarro Earth to help out their Earth counterpart. This can involve stopping a cycle of bullying, inspire people to rejoice being the underdog, and even bring some dead characters back to life. At the end of each chapter you face off against Darkdeath Evilman, ultimately lose again, and return to the Training Facility to jump into the next dungeon. It's a pretty standard gameplay loop but the characters will really keep you invested and there's even little bonus scenes you can encounter if you replay some previously cleared dungeons. With all this praise it must be said that the graphics are probably the weakest part of ZHP It's very clear that this game started life as a PSP title. While this isn't really advertised as a remake or an HD remaster, there's some graphical elements that can really take you out of the game. Some of the background graphics are blurry, and the sprites aren't nearly as defined as they should be or even how they were on the original PSP. It almost feels more like a classic SD game blown up to an HD resolution rather than being properly upscaled. The original release leaned heavily on retro aesthetics though so it's quite as jarring as it could be, and some might not even notice or care but it was the only truly negative point in throughout my playthrough. The art style itself is great though and I the retro RPG stylings used for the Darkdeath Evilman battles are particularly noteworthy.
Ultimately ZHP Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman is a great game that any fan of NIS titles, roguelikes, or JRPGs should pick up. On Steam it's sold individually, and on Switch it is sold together with Makai Kingdom, both as part of the Prinny Classics Vol. 2 collection. In regards to the Switch version I have to mention that while playing this game for review it crashed several times (about 5-6 times within the 10-15 hours I played it) and while this was very annoying, and slightly concerning, it hopefully is something that can be fixed with a patch, maybe even on release. There were no such problems with the Steam version in the handful of hours we played that version. Don't let this deter you though. Grab the game, take up the mantle of the Unlosing Ranger and defeat Darkdeath Evilman! For More Information On ZHP Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman & Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol. 2: https://nisamerica.com/nis-classics/vol-2/ Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1732070/ Story: A Gameplay: B Graphics: B- Sound: B Value: A OVERALL: B Pros: + A great game that moves quickly and has some hilarious, if dated, dialogue that drives the story forward in a fun, quirky way. + Adds surprisingly deep and unique elements to the roguelike genre. + A great way to experience this overlooked PSP title. Cons: - The graphics can be a little rough at times with uneven upscaling. - The difficulty isn't too extreme but everything can go south with a string of bad luck in the later chapters. - The Switch version is possibly buggy as the game crashed several times while playing for this review. A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way. |
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