If you look past the relatively short campaign mode this could be one of the greatest games you have ever played.
The graphics still hold up against more recent titles released on the PS2. The use of color and exquisite texturing on the characters in the game almost give it a surrealistic feel that will totally embrace the gamer within the first hour.
While the anime cutscenes could have benn excluded, due to some bad voice acting and some cheesy dialogue (We have seen this forever in anime-style games).
The controls feel tight and responsive, the moves and combos just pass the button masher test, with the ability to use several interesting subweapons to throw a bit of strategy into the mix.
The music in-game is very well done. It helps draw the player into the game and sometimes you may find yourself just stop playing to listen to the amazing soundtrack.
One problem the game has though is balance, at first the gaem seems slightly challenging, but as the player progresses your mech receives several upgrades increasing your damage and other things (health, speed, etc.) But the enemies don't get any tougher, an experienced player will be able to plow through tons of enemies in several minutes. This is most apparent during a later mission where the player and several NPCs will be assaulting an enemy base and there will be literally hundreds of enemies attacking from every direction at once, filling the radar with red dots, while this is very impressive for its time, It doesn't provide that much of a challenge, even with the added "protect your squadmates" portion of the level.
In short Zone of the Enders 2: The Second Runner is a beautiful game that every action fan should at least play once. It is a game that screams for a threequal to be made.