Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

"Best game ever. Certain the most beautiful."

I played the original Zone of the Enders, and while it was fun, I wouldn’t have considered it worthy of purchase. The story was painful and the game was too simple—you could beat the entire game by doing nothing but dashing and letting the 4 homing lasers fly. Thus, I didn’t really follow the ZOE2 screenshots or anything until I got the demo from PSMag…the demo, was AWESOME. I HAD to have this game.

PRESENTATION - 10

GRAPHICS –10
The menu system is nice and light blue, like the game itself.
This game…is drop dead gorgeous. Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner is THE most graphically beautiful game ever released. There, I said it. Yes, it beats out MGS2 (in this league for its poly count), The Getaway (in the league for realism), Splinter Cell (lighting), Devil May Cry (visual style), and anything the stupid Xbox claims to be uniquely capable of.
The Poly-Count is equally high and as well-used as Hideo Kojima’s other PS2 masterpiece, Metal Gear Solid 2. In fact, there’s a close visual resemblance to some extent, kinda like a cross between MGS2 and the original ZOE. The mechas look stupendous, nicely animated, appropriately angled like metal skeletons of death.
Shadows area good when present, but this game is all about light. The original ZOE featured dark gray robots battling against a dark sky, but everything in the sequel is bright. As you may know, the graphics are cel-shaded, but don’t expect a cartoon (at least, for in-game play). The cel-shading is lightly done, not nearly as much as in Robotech: Battlecry, and it looks good. Better than the original or any cartoon.
ZOE2 looks like the designers told each other: “You know, what? Let’s throw EVERY SINGLE visual effect the PS2 is capable of onscreen SIMULTANEOUSLY.” Warping motion blurs (the best use thereof-not too overbearing and not screen-filling), white “motion trail” smoke lines, cartoony smoke from struck ground, green explosions, 32 homing lasers streaking out, lasers, light blades, plasma engine exhausts, pulsating veinlights on the orbital frames, and 32 homing lasers streaking out….AT ONCE!
The bosses are especially good, sporting visual effects unique to them like the blurred dash shadow-selves Ardjet leaves behind or Anubis’ red light dot explosion-thingy. My favorite is…well, how do I explain this? Anubis has these red laser attacks that look like the old 3D pipes windows screensaver, and they close in on you.
The regular enemies are also nicely drawn. Every enemy from the first game (except for the 3 giant bosses, and Neith is replaced by the similar Nephitis) returns from the first game, but that’s only half of them.
I should mention that the cost of being the best looking game is occasional slowdown. This happens when your frame releases some if its best-looking visual effects weapon at the same time 3 other enemies decide to do the same. How can I still give ZOE2 the vaunted 10 in this category with such a crippling defect? Well, the slowdown only occurs precisely at the most cinematic moments of the game…it feels more like the game has shifted into slow-motion to SHOW OFF the effects rather than slown-down. Plus, it doesn’t affect gameplay and doesn’t occur much or for more than a second.
Also, I should praise the 1-second load times between stages and 2-second for saving. The screen goes dark for a second, and then the next stage starts. Given the graphical requirements above, that’s VERY praiseworthy.
Note: this game is NOT suitable for anyone suffering from Epilepsy. I MEAN that.

SOUND – 8
The background music is pretty sweet. It’s a combination of orchestral work and techno beats. I like the opening song, which sounds like a mix of Japanese and Indian influence, but my favorite is the melody that plays during the stage right after the last battle with Nephitis’ AI.

STORY - 9
The story is genuinely good. They scrapped the stupid-whiny-boy protagonist in favor of a former soldier who actually knows how to use an Orbital Frame of Jehuty’s power. Also, the story develops via constant 2-minute scenes between every stage, so there’s a lot of story, but it’s delivered in bursts short enough to avoid the MGS2 syndrome. Battle scenes are rendered using the in-game engine (CG would be unnecessary as you CANNOT improve on the in-game graphics), and scenes with humans are done with 2-dimensional Japanese Anime, which looks really nice. The codec-style conversations are handled using this engine, as well.

CONTROL - 9

BUTTON ASSIGNMENT

Left Analog Stick – move the frame
L3 – answer Jehuty’s AI positively, when possible
R3 – answer negatively
Right Analog Stick- control which way you face when not locked-on
[ ] - attack, sword-attack in close, shoot at range
X - descend
/. - ascend
O - subweapon (default: grab)
R1 - Shield, zoom in during cutscene
L1 - bring up subweapon mini-menu (which temporarily pauses game)
R2 - Dash/Charge-up
L2 - disengage lockon, re-engage lockon
Start – bring up map and menu
Select - ?

CAMERA – 8
When locked-on, the camera works just fine, facing the opponent no matter where you go. The only time this messes up is when there happens to be a floor separating you and the locked-onto enemy, during which the lockon makes it hard for you to get around the floor and resume combat. This is easily remedied by disengaging the lockon for as long as moving around the obstruction takes.
Also, when not locked-on, the camera is too close to Jehuty for you to get a good look at your surroundings, but this isn’t a puzzle game where that would be important. The camera avoids re-centering itself unless you stop moving for a second, which is a nice touch.

FEEL – 10
I LOVE controlling this game. Between the lock-on, the sword fighting, and the speed, the feel of the game is most similar to Shinobi. Every button feels right, and almost many buttons can be tapped rather than held for a different attack (a slower, stronger shot, for example, or spinning to build up speed when throwing enemies). This game is LIGHNING FAST. You’re dashing around like a true Japanese robot, as well as performing the typical anime moves.
Basically, every problem from the first game has been cleared up. Grabbing, (the only way in the first game to defeat a shield) so slow in the first game, is now INSTANT. Not only that, but now you lock-on to another enemy afterwards, making throwing an enemy at another so much easier. You can now use enemies (or grabbed bulkheads or pillars) as weapons with [ ] or charge them up with explosive energy with R2.
The other control change is that the homing lasers have been expanded from 4 to, like, 32. Holding the [ ] button while dashing lets you highlight that many enemies. The lasers stream out, circle their prey, and land. It’s beautiful, both visually and control-wise.
Zone of the Enders 2 is such a lightning-fast game, it’s wonderful. The super-useful lock-on makes the game easily accessible despite all the visual effects trying to confuse you. Changing subweapons is now fast and easy. Everything happens so fast that your brain will hurt as much as your thumbs after an intense session.

GAMEPLAY- 10
I love this game. Couldn’t you tell?

MECHANICS – 10
Destroy your enemies. That’s it, basically. This is a linear game. Jehuty will be shuttled around to the proper stage, take out the proper enemies, and get a new subweapon to play around with. Rather than having individualized ammo gauges, all subweapons are governed by a hybrid subweapon gauge under the NRG (get it, energy?) gauge. You get more subweapon ammo by defeating enemies or getting the healing Metatron. Unlike the first game, Subweapons now count. A lot. Jehuty also levels up during the game, but these developments are rather pointless; you have to defeat the same enemies as everyone else playing the game ANYWAY and you can’t go out of your way to defeat more, so leveling up midgame is automatic.
This game is pure action. No key hunts, no puzzles, just fun. So...unexpected from a modern day videogame.

LEVEL DESIGN- 9
Level design is awesome, far improved from ZOE1. In ZOE1, along with the fact that the controls gave you no real options and the subweapons were useless, every level was mindless find-this-object by killing everything in a world. You could go into the overworld, but you still had a pretty linear game with levels that looked virtually identical.
ZOE2 is far greater. The game is now strictly linear, and each level looks unique and beautiful, with vibrant colors. Also, each level tries to get you to use Jehuty’s abilities in a new way. This is far preferable to the way most games offer variety, through minigames. The first few levels will be destroy-all-enemies, but then you’ll be doing cooler things. In one level (my favorite stage musically), you must rescue a falling ally by grabbing the mech and putting it on a destructible ledge. Meanwhile, you must fight off waves of enemies and keep making sure the ally doesn’t fall into the lava when the ledge she’s on blows up. Another level has you trying to destroy a protected train that’s speeding along. And the boss battles, oh, the boss battles!

ENEMIES – 9
The enemies are cool. Especially the bosses.
No longer can you dash around waving the homing lasers at them, occasionally crossing swords just for fun. No. Now, even the token Raptors block successfully when you do that. Many of the enemy types even a commander-type, who will unite the mechas into formations and attack patterns until it is destroyed.
And the bosses ROCK. You’ll die a couple times on each learning their attack patterns. Now, subweapons will make the difference between victory or death.

VALUE – 10
Sure, it’s an 8 hour game, but does every game need to be Vice City? It’s a fun, genuinely replayable 8 hours, said by someone who usually sells his beaten games.
As well as at least 20 extra missions, this is almost like Zone of the Enders 2: Substance without the yearlong wait and Xbox port.
As you’ve heard, one of these is Zoradius, a 3D corridor shooter based on the classic Gradius game. Yes, it is very fun, it’s in survival mode so the goal is to just go for as long as you can. Also, there are the typical assortment of Konami secrets to discover from Gamefaqs.com and then try out and then brag about that you saw even though your friend really wishes you would shut up because he hates you wait what are you doing with that gun noooo!
This is the best game available for the Playstation 2 right now. If you own a PS2, you must have this game (and Devil May Cry, and GTA: Vice City, and Hitman 2). Trust me, it totally excuses Kojima for ZOE1 and the MGS2 debacles.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/19/03, Updated 03/19/03