Tenchi no Mon 2: Busouden

"Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Seima, where we lay our scene..."

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Seima, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

-Apologies to the Bard of Avon for my shameless plagiarism.

In the fall of 2005, Climax Entertainment, the company known for their involvement in 2D game classics such Shining Force and Landstalker burst out onto the at the time fairly fresh PSP scene with an ambitious project. The game known as Tenchi no Mon (Gate of Heaven and Earth), which was later localized to Kingdom of Paradise and Key of Heaven in North America and Europe respectively featured an elaborate plot set in a game world based on ancient China, with an advanced combat system featuring freely player customed combos. Sadly, the game was marred by its low difficulty which made the combo system redundant and distracting, poorly conceived plot elements.

Now, a year from the release of the original, the sequel Tenchi no Mon 2: Busouden has made its appearance on the Chinese and Japanese markets. The location of the game has shifted from the mainlands of Ouka to the crescent-formed island empire of Seima to the far west of Ouka, and the protagonists this time around are a young man, Roh and a young woman, Shunka from rival noble households Liju and Gikyo that have been in a bitter conflict since the aftermath of the ancient war between Seima and Ouka. In addition to the new, alien setting, the game system has been tweaked on many fronts. Gone are the Chi attacks of the Oukans from the original game, and in its place we find a new combat technique for specific characters called the spiritual dance, which features magical attacks with combos that can be managed just like the melee attacks. Also, the main character can now use three different kinds of weapons, the sword, the spear and the knuckle. More significantly, deviating from the linear storyline progression of the original, in Tenchi no Mon 2, early on in the game you join a guild of mercenaries and you are able to sign up for missions, not unlike in the highly popular PSP game Monster Hunter Freedom, and during the first half of the game, the story only progresses through cutscenes after you have completed a certain number of missions.

Additionally, there are four main quest missions that are available from the very beginning that involve the collection of a large number of clay fragments to restore four spiritual temples, four missions of this kind and nine fragments for each mission. Though half of the fragments can be bought at an antique seller's and you will be able to find most of the fragments along the way of doing mercenary quests, or obtained as quest rewards, to miss one would be a massive source of frustration as you CANNOT continue the storyline until you have cleared all four of these quests.

Combat has also received a makeover to a large extent. The player is now able to switch control from one character to another, and this makes the combat significantly more interesting. Also, there are now a number of playable NPCs who can be recruited at the mercenary office who can accompany you for quests, but you may only have two characters in your party at any time. There is a greater variety of enemies compared to the original, and some are remarkably interesting to look at. Also, there are now far more flying and crouching enemies, which calls for better bugei scroll management so you don't end up hitting nothing but air all the time. The bugei scrolls also seem better balanced, as most of the lower level scrolls only contain simple moves and you don't get the incredibly abusive combos until later in the game. Unfortunately, despite the new additions, the combat sequences are still too easy, and the enemy A.I. is far too weak to offer any challenge, specifically for humanoid enemies who are often found remaining stationary after an initial attack. Most ridiculously, this applies even to the humanoid bosses. This is a huge contrast from the first game, where even the first boss fight against a human opponent offered a bit of challenge for some people since the enemy attacked you continuously. Fortunately though, the game still poses some challenge in some of the enemies it pitches at you during the mid to late game mercenary missions, but that is something for the completionist, since it's possible to skip over half of the available quests if you go for the storyline alone.

Since the game is an RPG, the storyline plays a large role on the entertainment value of the game, and I'm glad to be able to say that the plot is a vast improvement over the original. The cast is large and colorful just like the first game, but it would appear that the game designers have put more thought into how to develop the characters and how the characters interact this time around. The game begins with the protagonist, the young military commander of Seima, Roh of house Liju facing execution for charges of an attempted assassination on the Emperor of Seima, and Shunka from house Gikyo rescues him from for the sole reason that she felt his trial was poorly conducted by her brother and wanted to make sure that there injustice isn't done and no shame is brought to her household. Despite the fact that she rescues him from certain death, she finds his brutish personality annoying and Roh is equally repulsed by her constant nagging and somewhat spoiled behavior. This is expressed well through a combination of cutscenes and accessing the diaries of the two main characters through the menu, a feature which I feel was well implemented. Of course, over the course of events in the game, the characters gradually warm up to each other in a predictable fashion, but overall character actions and motivations make a lot more sense than in the original. Granted, its no Nobel prize winning material, but at least the plot is coherent and no mystery is left unresolved this time around.

Graphics and audio both show similarities to the first game. From a technological standpoint, next to games like Tekken - Dark Resurrection and Monster Hunter Freedom, the game engine is no longer the visual pinnacle it seemed to be a year ago. However, what Tenchi no Mon 2: Busouden is triumphant in is the visual designs. Environments varying from the opulent residences of the first class citizens of Seima to the stagnant ghetto of the lower classes and the mercenaries, arid deserts, mysterious ancient ruins, a city devastated by the military, all are presented with great detail. There are also a few moments where the visuals truly stand out, pay particular attention to the scene of the restoration of the ice palace and the travel sequence before the final battle. The music is stylistically identical to the first game, retaining the main theme in the game opening menus. Battle and travel themes are the standard fare of Chinese instrumentals or non-specific whimsical little tunes but the audio does come to life and truly shine during certain dramatic cutscenes. Overall, while providing an appropriate atmosphere, there is nothing truly memorable from the soundtrack.

In conclusion, I would say that the game has improved over the original and is also very much enjoyable by its own merit. I'm disappointed by the lack of improvements and the regression in terms of gameplay difficulty, but every other aspect of the game has improved in terms of fun factor. The mission based plot progression isn't for everyone, but I've found that it guarantees that there are always very clear objectives for the player, which doesn't necessarily take long to resolve, an excellent thing for short bursts of play and is also something that the original lacked. Of course I also simply have to mention that after the endgame you are able to keep playing, and all playable NPCs will be returned to the mercenary office ready for recruitment, all regular NPCs will have dialogue relevant to the post-final battle game world, new entries are added to the main characters's diaries and new missions will be available. Now that's what I call going out with a bang.

Despite lingering issues with the gameplay, I feel that overall the improvements warrant a higher score than the prequel, hence my score for Tenchi no Mon 2: Busouden is a solid 8/10 for good, but not quite up there with the best.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/06