Wayforward is on the top level when it comes to long-standing indie developers. Sure, not every game is a winner but when they do land, the studio knocks it out of the park. A long history of bangers has made it one of the most respected developers in the game, and one genre it consistently excels in is the old-school beat ‘em’ up. Even with pedigree that includes the highly underappreciated Double Dragon Neon, we were shocked with just how amazing 2019’s River City Girls was, ending up as one of our favourite games in an extremely strong year. Three years later comes River City Girls 2, which continues the adventure of Misako and Kyoko in a strong follow-up that maybe treads too much familiar ground and stumbles a little, at least on Switch.
Right away we’re treated to another gorgeous animated opening, with another cracking intro song from Megan McDuffee. One of the standouts from the 2019 original was McDuffee's fantastic soundtrack, and thankfully River City Girls 2 does not disappoint in that department. Each area of the game brings its own set of tracks, including the return of the vocal tracks themed to each boss, and even ventures into different genres with Mega Ran’s River City Girls Anthem. Luckily, if you liked the first game's tunes a lot, they play throughout this game and are unlockables that can be played in your hideout.
If you played RCG1, you you'll feel immediately at home. Each of the original four characters — Misako, Kyoko, Kunio, and Riki — return with some new moves, but for the most part play similarly to their original incarnations. New to the team is Provie, a young street dancer who incorporates the flow of dance into her battles as she searches for her missing friend, Chris. She’s cool, but the main event is other newcomer Marian, the former damsel of the Double Dragon series, along with her ‘legendary abs.’ While we mainly played as Kyoko throughout this adventure due to her strong and satisfying aerial combos and movement; Marian’s boxing and wrestling-focused moveset won our hearts.
River City Girls 2 takes place moments after the ending of the original; SPOILERS FOR RCG1 — the girls have just launched Sabuko out of a window. She’s picked up by her step-brother Ken, who aims to take over as second in command in the family empire following his sister's defeat. The big boss Sabu, has escaped prison and taken over River City. This takeover extends to the school, of which our heroes are immediately expelled, and spend the next two months playing video games at Kyoko’s house. After traversing out to get the newly released sequel to “Vampire Puncher”, the girls are embroiled in a plot to stop the yakuza takeover of River City. Even if the last two months spent playing video games have (conveniently) resulted in them losing their abilities.
The writing is still as sharp as ever. The back-and-forth between Misako, Kyoko, and their friends/adversaries is still super entertaining. While we prefer the first game’s tale of the girls searching for their missing boyfriends, the sequel's higher-stake affair is still a great time throughout the 8-10 hour runtime. However, one aspect where this is a letdown is when it comes to the extra characters. While you can choose your character and your partner to bounce dialogue off, it feels like the developers intended to have you play as a combination of Kyoko and Misako. There are points where you’ll clearly have characters speaking dialogue intended for those two, like Marian saying “didn’t you go to our school?” despite being a grown adult.
As you venture through River City, you’ll notice that 1) the spritework is still absolutely gorgeous, and 2) a lot of the enemies and areas return from the original. While there are new things for both, such as the great nostalgia-filled Technos area, in the early game it does feel like a bit of a retread. Many shopkeepers return from the original, with some — such as Skullmageddon — taking up bigger roles in the story. This is obviously in line with the Kunio-Kun and Double Dragon games that inspired it, where you would have Williams, Abobo, and Linda show up constantly; so it’s not a huge deal, but everything does feel very familiar.
Similarly to the original, boss fights are a solid time. Earlier ones like Marian are a bit tedious due to waiting out her acid, but as the game goes on the boss fights improve drastically, including smart and humorous ones which we won't spoil here.
New to this entry are the online co-op with crossplay — which sadly, we were not able to try out during the review period as online matchmaking was dead — and four-player local co-op. The latter is seamless, allowing you to drop in or out at any time. Like the original, the option is there to toggle friendly attacks on or off, so for those of you who love pure chaos, there's a little something for you too.
As for the Switch version of the game, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The game opens with a strangely long initial load before the intro even plays, and each area's loading time can last anywhere from roughly five to ten seconds. In a vacuum these loads aren’t too cumbersome, but when you are looking to quickly traverse the map and not hang out in each area, these quickly become tedious. Especially when, in a section towards the finale, the fast travel is locked. It runs solidly with the occasional frame drop in handheld; but the frame rate in docked mode feels a lot more unstable with frequent drops. The addition of extra characters sadly affects the frame rate, too, especially when three or four players are involved.
Conclusion
River City Girls 2 is more River City Girls, feeling less like a full-fledged sequel and more like a RCG 1.5. Switch-related performance issues aside, it was still a great time to return to River City thanks to its phenomenal music and voice acting, sharp writing, gorgeous sprite work, fun new characters, and satisfying combo-based gameplay, but at launch it feels a patch or two away from greatness. If you loved the original as we did, you’re bound to like this follow-up, and we hope the team at Wayforward gets more time and money to really expand the series for a third entry.
Comments 69
I'm going to pass on this. I tried the trial demo of RCG 1 recently and it was one of the dullest, sluggish brawlers i've ever played. I was bored out of my mind.
Will get soon but hope there is a performance patch on the way.
@Zulzar These games are usually best played with co-op. It changes a lot of the dynamic play (for the best) with teamwork involved.
That said the first game scored a 9 so I'm kind of surprised to see "more of the same" get such a lower score 🤔
@Zulzar
Yeah I played through River City Girls when it released, I was not very impressed. Scott Pilgrim, Fight'n Rage and Double Dragon Neon are all way better choices if you want a beat em up on your Switch.
The first game was hilarious, so I'm excited for this.
I just beat the original 2 days ago and absolutely loved it so this is definitely going on the wishlist for future reference. It being considered 'safe' doesn't really bother me at all since all I was really looking for out of a sequel was more of the same deliciously crunchy beat-em-up action that the first one gave me so:
Backtracking still being basically the same is a frustrating annoyance though, definitely not going to lie on that front.
@Bizzyb I've play countless brawlers in my day this is by far one of the dullest i've ever played. 2 players would not make it any better, we would both be bored. This game is all style, zero substance.
I enjoyed the original RCG, so to hear this is more of the same is not necessarily a bad thing for me. However, a 7/10 from NL is not what I was hoping for. Still a day one buy until Sports Story!
Been very much looking forward to it. Replayed the first one the other day so pretty ready for it.
@Expa0 100% agree. Fight N' Rage is how it's done on the Switch. Double Dragon Neon is good but i've been spoiled by Double Dragon Advance.. which I wish they would port to the switch.
I have the game ordered. Can't wait to play it. I'm always down for more beat 'em ups.
@Expa0 I would add Mother Russia Bleeds to that list as well. Great game with a great soundtrack.
@Expa0 I’m sorry but Scott Pilgrim is a far more sluggish brawler.
I enjoyed the first one, but I'm burned out on brawlers. After playing Shredder's Revenge, River City Girls 1, Scott Pilgrem, and Streets of Rage 4, I can see why the whole "go right and beat up enemies, rinse and repeat" was mostly left in the 90s. Great junk food video gaming.
You literally included a screenshot in the article that correctly displays her name: Marian...
The 1st game is, in my opinion, the best beat'em up ever made.
I hope Mami and the Hasabe are unockables.
I will be playing this next year when I get my copy from LRG.
just finished the first one the other day with a friend, we loved it! and wile combat can get a bit sluggish, it was overall a great time, with wonderful characters and art!
Two just seems like the first game, with just more content, which his why I was so reluctant to buy the first one, at such a high price to boot! definitely picking this up when it goes on sale.
@Bizzyb I did consider the original having a 9 with my score. But the performance issues (especially with the new 4 player mode) was too prevalent to bump it.
Basically the game itself I would throw at 8 at but the issues with the Switch port are what lowered it to the 7 for me.
Tried the first one on the trial period and god, it reminded me why I really dislike beat-em-ups most of the time. It was a decent bit of fun in co-op, to my surprise, but by myself it was just such a slog whenever I'd hit a boss that just takes too darn long and just ignores guarding anyway. Having to sit through those admittedly beautiful cutscenes all over again each time just made it a slog that I wasn't willing to put up with... and if this is just more of the same then I'll steer clear. Maybe the genre just isn't for me, and that's honestly fine, I'll admire the artwork from a distance. : P
@Takoda Omg yes, the bosses were so annoying to replay, it wouldn’t have been that hard to just let up skip the whole thing would it? Like goodness.
My copy arrived yesterday from Play Asia. I’m sure that more of the same will be just fine for my son, we had fun with the first one.
@Snatcher Honestly, I might've just kept powering through because I was having a decent amount of fun with slight annoyances here and there, but since my buddy isn't often available to play with I figured I'd try the rest of the game alone and nope, those bosses quickly killed off my interest to keep going on my own. Such a bummer too because the first time around the cutscenes are so lovely but every time after they're a curse.
@Takoda Honestly, maybe it’s an unpopular opinion, but beat ‘em up are not meant to be played alone, every single time I had, no matter how good it is, it’s just not nearly enough fun, it gets boring quick.
Man, I so want to love these games. They are exceptionally gorgeous and the presentation, all around, is top notch. As mentioned above, in other comments, they are sooo slow and damage spongey. They feel like a slog. I will go back to playing SOR4....
@Snatcher I can agree with this fully because, like I pointed out, a lot of the points that annoyed me just kind of vanished with a buddy. Too many enemies? Not a problem when you have twice the firepower. Spongey bosses? If you can deal twice as much damage together it goes faster and it's more fun. Co-op can really make or break these experiences... I'll keep that in mind if I ever end up going back to scott pilgrim probably, since I actually bought that one.
@SMcCrae95 Ahh I see. Well, hopefully Wayforward manages to improve its performance with a patch or two.
@Snatcher Yamada and Hibari flashbacks intensify
@Zulzar You don't know what you are talking about. You're just a cat. And I would never trust a cat.
I am over the moon that this is out. I reeeeeally want to order the double pack...just to have a cart.
But yeah, the first was a joy. Can't wait to play through this with my wife.
@Zulzar Fight N' Rage is incredible, but it needs serious help with backgrounds. They're so dull. I hope they make another one. With a background artist this time.
@Takoda Scott pilgrim is really fun! It just sucks how many bugs it has, me and my buddy have yet to playthrough it all, but It definitely got annoying playing it by myself, which is why I stopped lol. Pretty sure these games are balanced with multiplayer in mind, I mean there in the story, there in all the dialogue, it’s intended with a specific amount of players.
@Fizza Yamada was a special kind of he**
I really enjoyed the first game but towards the end it was just beginning to out stay its welcome.
There's only so much that can be done with beat em ups but more of the same isn't what I wanted.
I'm a big fan of beat-em-up games and have played many. I do not tire of the ones I like and can even play the same ones over and over and get the same enjoyment(something like Battle Circuit, to provide an example). Apparently many developers now are fans too and I'm glad to see that. I understand why some find these boring, and that's fine. No one genre is for everyone. I'm far less an RPG guy than many others, with some exceptions. Beat-em-ups are about nice visuals, fun moves and combos, and most importantly, enemy management. For someone like me, good beat-em-ups make for excellent one-player experiences too. Again, these games aren't for everyone and no type of game is. And most games can be boiled down to move to point X and hit buttons along the way. It's the managing of the waves of enemies that is so engaging to me.
I saw and heard some things about River City Girls that gave me concerns when it came out, so I wanted to look into it and wait for a sale to try it. It's tough to tell if it is the sort of game that would suit my tastes.
Haven't played the first, mostly because this type of game isn't for me. I enjoy a run or two, but that's about it.
My contribution to this chat: Kyoko is best girl.
This earned a read purely for the reference to the REAL River City 🏴
@Zulzar
Sure, but I think it's also more refined and calculated. It's a "chill" brawler, gives me time to think, with branching routes, choice of upgrades, and it can be challenging enough at times. I dig the pacing.
I like the other games too - It's just a different experience, and I play the different games depending on what mood I'm in.
Anyway, I ordered the 1 and 2 combo for PS5 off of play-asia. I'm going to platinum both games back to back. I'm hoping the performance issues won't be present on that version. Maybe the combo disc will be worth some money in the future too.
@Jireland92
Slower for sure, but more refined, methodical, and open-ended as well. The series stands on its own, and is renowned for legit reasons.
I liked the first game very much ( i only played a bit after the first boss tho )
Beat the original just yesterday in co-op via the NSO trial. I feel like enemy health pools were a bit too bloated for my liking, and a couple of the bosses were annoying, but otherwise I liked it. Combat becomes MUCH more fun once you unlock it fully via dojo upgrades. Most importantly, it has that WayForward charm that makes series like Shantae such a joy to play.
With that said, it's not a meaty enough experience that I'd want to spend $30 on it, so I'll be passing on the sequel for a while, more than likely.
there really should be two different scores if you are going to compare/contrast so heavily with the first game. as an RCR fan who didn't play the first RCG, a 7 seems like a really low score, if it's basically "more of the same" 9 star game. Not everyone gets a chance to play every game, something that is understandably sometimes lost on professional reviewers.
Since my dad loves beat em ups (he was played double dragon back in the day) I beat he would like this.
Heck I should get a bunch of beat em ups and play them with him.
(I’ve been spending my money on the 3ds eshop because that’s closing soon)
I've caught some footage of the game on Youtube, and it seems to run at only 30fps now? The previous game was 60fps on Switch. What the heck happened? That's a huge performance drop for a sequel with the same visual style like this.
I got the first one, but this just looks like more of the same.
@DeclanS98 I was hoping for at least one comment like this 🏴
@Ralizah Extremely unrelated but I’ve seen you on this website for years and had no idea what your profile picture was until I finished Danganrompa 1 literally last week 👀
Score seems decent enough; it’ll probably be higher once patches/updates are released to tweak the gameplay. WayForward usually drops top quality games so NL’s score won’t stop me from getting this sequel.
@DeclanS98 Always nice to see new players. How'd you like it?
@Ralizah Probably the best introduction to the Visual Novel genre I could ask for. Really thought it struck a perfect balance of text-to-gameplay.
Haven’t seen many other examples of the genre that were as actively engaging as this.
Loved the story, Lord of the Flies mixed with Battle Royale vibes for me. Voice acting was unbelievable across the board. Yeah, just can’t wait for 2 and 3 to go on sale so I can pick them up!
@DeclanS98 DR2 and V3 are actually substantially better experiences all-around. Some of my favorite adventure games of all time.
If you ever get the chance, I recommend the Zero Escape games as well. You'll notice some similarities to Danganronpa (the lead writers of the two series were friendly, had their respective games published by the same company, and eventually broke off together to form their own development studio), although with less dark humor and more of a focus on science-fiction concepts and mind-bending plot twists.
Probably more accessible is AI: The Somnium Files, which goes on sale for fairly cheap on the eshop. Also from the Zero Escape creator. That one is less Battle Royale and more Ghost in the Shell, though.
@Expa0 IDK about Scott Pilgrim. Played it again when it rereleased on Switch and I have to say it kinda aged like milk. RCG did the whole stats/RPG/leveling thing way better in comparison. At least the OST is still pretty good imo.
@SMcCrae95 This additional clarification on the rationale for your scoring is very welcome. The number isn't everything, of course, but a good albeit safe sequel to a 9 with some new performance issues sounds like a justified 7 in my book. Looks like it will be great for fans of the first game though!
@daveMcFlave I do like it more than Scott Pilgrim. That game copied the River City Formula without understanding what made it work. To this day I have no idea why people like it as much as they do.
@Bizzyb Well, in all fairness, when a game is basically the same as it's predecessor, with nothing new or groundbreaking to shake up the series, people will get bored really quickly. They may even begin to hate it. It's why I largely stopped playing Mario Kart.
Heck, just look at the EA Sports games that come out for the Switch every year. It's still basically the same game from 2017, just with updated rosters and kits, whereas Xbox and PlayStation are getting brand new modes and experiences. As a result, Nintendo Life has given each new entry on the Switch a lower and lower score each year.
@AstroTheGamosian I hear you, although I haven't played River City Girls 2 yet so I don't know exactly what new was added outside of 4 player support.
As for Mario Kart, MK8 definitely brought some new changes to the formula with the whole mobius anti-gravity mechanics. Also they brought over the gliding and underwater segments from MK7.
That said, I don't think every new entry to a franchise has to completely change the game. While I love innovation and new ideas, I'm a large believer in "if it's not broken don't fix it". I'm guessing the next Mario Kart will add onto what made MK8 fun and introduce something completely different in the process.
@Jireland92
Scott Pilgrim had great music and art style, but the combat felt a bit lacking. It's kinda like in those dreams when you try to punch a bad-guy really hard, but it does next to nothing. The "impact" wasn't there. I still enjoyed the game, although it wasn't the "ultimate beat-em-up" or anything like that.
All I can say is that while I respect the reviewer's opinion, I really disagree in some things, specially saying that it's "more like a 1.5 version than a true sequel". The story continues, the map is bigger, the gameplay expands and is refined and new features are added. I have seen many cases of sequels doing less and yet not been questioned at all about being sequels. Also, "more of the same" it's what I expect when I'm buying a sequel.
As for the people recommending Streets of Rage 4 I love that game, but it's considerably slower and less varied in terms of attacks, so I'm a bit surprised that people act as if it was a fast game miles ahead of others in the genre in any way when personally I'd say it's not even the best although is up there. Scott Pilgrim is considerably worse, being probably the most barebones of all of these and having many technical problems. It still has lots of charm and I like it though, but it's just way too inferior to many options out there. Fight N' Rage is definitely a hidden gem and my favourite game after River City Girls.
As for beat'em ups being repetitive, I guess that it's one of the genres that can feel more that way, but most games are repetitive by nature and I think that this is overblown and it's simply a matter of no type of game is for everyone. You play beat'em ups expecting to punch a lot, just as you play a racing game expecting to drive a lot. There's certain elements that will be present the whole game, but it's up to the player to enhance his own gameplay and take advantage of every tool to exploit it's fun factor. You can "cheat" the AI in a fighting game and ruin your own fun or you can actually understand the combat system.
Anyway, that's just my opinion.
I really liked RCG1 - it may not have been as polished as Streets of Rage 4 or as frenetic as Fight N' Rage, but I loved the classic River City RPG elements, the music, and all the sass and personality. I'm glad to hear the sequel offers more of the same!
My copy of RCG2 (technically, the 1+2 pack) arrived from Japan last weekend. After playing a little, something felt "off" and I think after reading the review here, it must be the FPS reduction from 60 to 30. And yes, the load times are intrusive so far. Hopefully they can patch some of the annoyance out, but even as-is I know I can still enjoy this romp.
As soon as I saw the initial trailer I did feel like it was gonna be just more of the same, but I guess it does what it says on the tin, and fans will be into that.
@Bizzyb Even then, though, I still want some quality of life improvements in the Mario Kart series. I want them to remove the cap for how many coins you can collect in a race, as well as the ability to turn items off, like in Super Smash Bros.
Since I don't really play with others, either online or in-person, I'm usually left with having to grind for coins to unlock parts. In Mario Kart 7, you could only get a maximum of 10 coins per race, or 40 coins per cup. And since some parts cost thousands or even tens of thousands of coins, that means I have to play a LOT of races.
But to make it easier for me, I usually play on 50cc Mode, so I end up leading the pack. But that means I end up being targeted by blue shells and lightning bolts, which can cause me to lose coins, sometimes even right at the finish line, so I wish I had the ability to turn those items off.
So, by removing the coin cap and allowing us to turn items off, I can grind for coins much quicker and unlock parts faster.
@Bizzyb for some reason ambition is a requirement. Regardless of how fun a game is, if it's not fresh, new and innovative it hurts the score.
This is one of the reasons i don't like looking at games as art, or high art at least. Games are supposed to be fun escapism first and foremost. I myself look forward to this one.
I love all the self aware and Technos nostalgia references in the first game. Got a lot on my plate, but I look forward to playing the 2nd one.
@Bizzyb "More of the same" is never a good thing though.
A 7/10 is generous in this game's current state. I would give it a 5/10 as its a buggy mess, long load times & 30FPS on a beatemup is unacceptable. Fortunately the devs are working on fixing that. I'd recommend to skip this game for now & wait for the patch, or purchase at half-off.
This review is a joke right?! This game doubles down on what made the first one enjoyable and oozes with style and substance. Guess you guys need to find new writers that actually know what they are talking about 🤣
@Zulzar lol what? what game have you even played? 🤣
@Bizzyb Hey, this Is Nintendolife, what do you expect? It's probably at least 8, 8 1/2.
@Zulzar seriously? I've been playing beat'em ups since the early '90s (Final Fight was my first, then Captain Commando, and then Knight of the Round...), and I think River City Girls Is One of the best I've ever played. So much fun!
@joezilla83 it's not their first questionable review. I've seen many good games receiving a bad or disappointing score from them.
@Takoda I wonder why most beat 'em up games don't just adjust the number and health of enemies and bosses to account for the number of players. Even dynamically adjusting those things on the fly when players drop in/out shouldn't be difficult on modern hardware. Wouldn't that be the best solution?
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