A sequel that unfortunately doesn't improvement on the first game.
• Combat is well done and very little grinding is necessary.
• Spelling in the dialog has improved compared to first game.
• The story is good and is quite long.
• Great graphics and music.
• Caves are no longer so dark that you can 't see your way around.
• History tab in main menu helps you remember what's going on in the story and what you should be doing next.
Cons:
• Characters are bland and one of the main characters is down right unlikeable.
• No game play clock.
• The story is to predictable and lacks depth.
• Items have strange names and no in combat descriptions, which makes knowing what the item does during combat difficult unless you memorize the descriptions.
• No character combat A.I.
• Pet system is a total waste of time and is an annoying distraction.
The story is not anything new but isn't bad either, being predictable isn't so much the problem either. What hurts the story is depth, the reasons for the characters to do what their doing through out the game seems to bland and generic. Jurio (14 year old boy) and Chris (15 year old girl) are to undertake a coming of age pilgrimage, they are to visit 5 shrines and by using a holy relic called the silver dagger receive visions from the magic mirrors located at each of the shrines. Their visions seem to be linked to the Moonlight Witch, a young woman that 20 years prior was on a pilgrimage on the same route. The Moonlight Witch left prophecies that only now are starting to make some sense. The other thing that hurts the story is Chris one of the main characters, she is totally unlikeable. Her negative and belittling attitude towards Jurio who is a great character makes it hard to believe they would travel together. Furthermore Chris never improves through out the game, many times I wanted to just ditch her in some forest and never look back. Also some of the other characters that are obviously meant for comic relief, but they are not so much funny but more like just stupid. Half of the main character are just terrible and this really kills the flow of the game.
Game play is standard for a turn based RPG. You control the group as they explore cities, forests, caves, ruins and other locations. While at these locations you talk to NPC's and progressing the story, or you fight monsters and bad guys to progress the story.
The combat is very basic turn based, but one thing that I really liked was that the monsters are physically on the screen. This means no random encounters, plus once you become more powerful than the monsters they will try to avoid you. This is good because there is some back tracking in the game and not having to battle the monsters all over again is very nice.
Final thoughts:
The Legend of Heroes 2 has wonderful graphics and music, unfortunately some of the characters may annoy the hell out of you and spoil the story which isn't really bad but could use some more depth. There are some game play elements that needed some improvement and updating but overall not a bad game. Playing the game once has value, but I can't see myself ever playing it again.
Game Play: 7
Graphics & Music: 8
Story & Characters: 5
Value: 6
Score: 6.5/10