The story starts out with a Denpa Man needing to save his family and seven other lucky Denpa Men get to join him in the quest. Denpa Men 2 consists of classic RPG elements with a few modern twists. The AI here are extremely intelligent and can often predict the tasks that need to be done. Also, you have a slew of command features that make life easier in combat were you can tell the Denpa Men to decide what strategy works best or to patch themselves up using quick-battle options. The game features a turn-based JRPG battling system were you can customize your gameplay and your team.
The abilities of the Denpa Men are based entirely on their appearances. What does this mean? Well their resistance to elemental attacks are based on their skin tones and their antennas indicate the magic abilities that character can use. It is a pretty nifty way of telling your character's skills apart and makes gameplay easy to pick up and a lot more fun. Players can also still re-summon those Denpa Men that have perished by using the Spirit Shrine. Basically, if you don't bring a Denpa Man back by the time combat ends then you will have to end up paying a fee to bring him back at the Spirit Shrine. This means you need to stay on top of keeping your characters healed in order to save yourself a lot of headache later.
Denpa Men 2 has seen an overhaul in its overworld interface and now has an actual overworld. The title truly feels like an old Nintendo game and brings back some fond memories of that era of gaming. The warp feature will allow players to travel to almost anywhere as long as they are not currently in a dungeon; however, the feature does not work everywhere, which is one of the many badly designed features of Denpa Men 2.
There are tons of capricious side-excursions in Denpa Men 2 that keep the game refreshing and fun. Players can pick up seeds from battles to spruce up their home or any other place that could use a few flowers. And if you get bored from gardening then you can venture forth to become a master fisherman were you are tasked with catching that one great fish. These entertaining side tasks give you a break from tiresome battles and enemies. Battles in Denpa Men 2 have a large learning curve and are sometimes more difficult then they should be. Although your characters could be perfectly leveled for the area you are fighting in--there always seems to be a few monsters that can still wipe out your party. There may even be times were you lose your whole party and then have to start again from the beginning. These annoying features can have you pulling your hair out and so it is always nice to have a small distraction with fishing, gardening, and battling it out in Coliseum mode. Coliseum mode is a new feature that will allow you to battle it out with Denpa teams around the map which adds a great deal of replayability to the game.
Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves is a charming title that takes place in a bright and colorful world full of eye-catching aesthetics. Denpa Men 2 suffered from poorly designed mechanics which hindered its potential to be a great game. If you can somehow overlook these problems and give it a go--then you might enjoy all the other features the game has to offer.
Game Features:
Game Information:
Developer: Genius Sonority
Publisher: Genius Sonority
Platforms: Nintendo 3DS (reviewed)
Release Date: May 30, 2013
