Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django

"Sunshine in my..... whatever...."

I actually first heard about Boktai when playing Megaman Battle Network 4, since some Boktai characters, mainly the hero, gave a cameo appearance there. I went curious and decided to try the games, and while I did try the the first title first, I just feel like reviewing the second one first.

Plot/Character: 8/10

The story starts with the hero, Django, along with his sunflower companion Otenko, returning to his hometown San Miguel, which is plagued by darkness, which tranforms the city into a place of undeads. Django, Otenko, and many allies do their best to free San Miguel from the accursed fate.

The plot is good, while not really surprising. Especially since there are various characters which help support the plot. Though, this game lacks character allegiances; Everyone who helps the hero is good and everyone otherwise is bad. Well, it's not a bad thing, but it does stop the game plot from being excellent.

Gameplay: 7/10

Boktai is the first ever known game who uses the sunlight to alter the game in a lot of ways. For example, you can replenish your weapon energy, search for hidden items, make new paths appear, and so on. While it's cool to see such effects, sometimes the sun can cause bad effects. Some of your consumable items will become unusable if you play under the sun for long, you may need to reset an area because Django is overheating (clever...) etc etc. Also, in some occasions the sun can help and whack you during explorations, for example, some exploration part requires you to go under the sun and then go indoors at the next second, and this is hard to do.

Speaking of exploration and such, well, Boktai 2 is basically an action-adventure-RPG game (wow, what a mix). You ned to explore places, beating up enemies, levelling up and such. But this game also have a stealth style implemented. Especially in the beginnings of the game, some enemies are too hard to beat face to face, so you may want to lure them somewhere you can hit them without them firing back at you. That, or you can hide from pillar to pillar to get to your destination. Unfortunately though, while it's fun to have a stealth play, sooner or later you will have to resort to RPG play, because after some time the enemies will grow way too powerful, and you need to be just as powerful as well, and that can take a long time. Too bad...

Django starts out with his trusty family heirloom weapon Gun Del Sol, but short enough he will lose it, but fear not, he'll find a lot of weapons for him to use. The idea of using multiple weapons is nice, added with the fact that Django can use some spells as well, including enchantment spells, indirect assault spells, support spells etc. Unfortunately though, since GBA doesn't have that many buttons, you'll have to cycle through your weaponry when you need to use multiple weapons at one time, and this game does force you to use a lot of weapons in a short time, which is rather tedious.

All in all, every part of Boktai 2's gameplay has exactly two opposing sides, which can get annoying. Still, after getting the hang of it, this game can be enjoyable.

Playability: 6/10

This game isn't terribly hard, but it's not that easy either, especially the optional parts. So it's just up to you.

Visual: 7/10

The background graphics for this game is quite fine, nothing too extraordinary, but not bad either. It's the animation that's rather sub par. Like most games, Boktai 2 gives the main characters sufficient animation sprites, but just barely enough for supporting characters. Often, you'll be seeing black screen when the supporting character does something, because they have no sprite for that particular action they do.... sad.

Audio: 8/10

The music is very enjoyable. I myself love the outdoor tune for the first dungeon. Unfortunately though, while it is true that Boktai 2 takes place in a western style location, it's just not enough to justify the excess of western-style music in the game. To make it worse, often the music from the earlier part of the game got remixed too many times it gets horrible...

The sound effect is nice, and the voice acting is quite good except in a few places, so it kinda evens out.

Replay Value: 6/10

When you start a new game, the game will ask you if you want to enter a password from Boktai 1. Sadly, while there are lots of password combinations that will give special features here and there for every password, in the end the game plays the same, so it's not really worth it to replay the game. Couple that with the fact that you start over when you start a new game, and Boktai 2 is just not good to replay too many times.

Overall:

This game is overall good, I admit, it's just that some parts of the game messes it up... Anyway, you can buy this game in case you feel like it. This game is quite fun.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/05