Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon

I always find it fascinating when a game can change so little in terms of its game mechanics, and in the process change the feel of the gameplay entirely. That's what happened with Nights of Azure 2, and I think overall it was for the better. Though I'll get into more details on that in a minute, I think it's important for anyone who has only played the first to know going into this one.

The game is about an agent of the Curia, an organization who fights against the fiends, and how she is told to lead her childhood friend to become a sacrifice to seal away the Moon Queen. And in case you are wondering, yes, this is, in fact, the plot of the first game. And if you played it, you begin to notice the sequels biggest problem, and that is how it is mostly retreading ground from the last game. The basic outline of the game is largely the same, with additions that are both good and bad.

When talking about this game, know in advance I've only gotten one of the three endings, so there is a chance another ending has addressed some of this. But there are some oddities that come up with just how useless some of the games additional organizations are. I speak of The Lourdes Order, a group whose leader can supposedly see into the future, and claims that by sacrificing The Bride of Time they are actually giving the Moon Queen even more power. Come games end, we have no confirmation of this, your friend Rue who joined the Order is helping you get Liliana back anyway so she won't have to be sacrificed, from the games beginning you never planned to go through with the sacrifice anyway, and you never even work with The Lourdes Order. It feels largely pointless that they were even included in this story considering they have no impact on it.

The game does, however, focus more on the rest of the games cast then the love interest between Aluche, the game's protagonist, and Liliana, the Bride of Time and main love interest. And the cast of characters is by and large very interesting. There are some fascinating twists involving the process that turned you into a half-blood demon, the stories I watched unfold with the three characters I maxed out affinities with were fun, charming, and touching, and this is where the game mostly shines from a narrative point of view.

I say mostly because, and I will be giving a minor spoiler on how to get the games second ending here, you need to max out two specific people to view the 'good' ending as it were. And those two are Liliana and Rue, your friend who joined The Lourdes Order. And the problem is they just aren't that interesting, Liliana more so if you played the first game as she just feels like a repeat of that games love interest.

Things get a bit more muddled when you get some definite romantic vibes from some of the other characters as well, and overall the love story that is driving your actions in the game just isn't as strong when compared to the first. So the game suffers a bit because of the main plot and the addition of The Loudres Order, but the better-rounded cast of side characters makes up for it a bit.

Now for the gameplay, and now to get to what I was talking about earlier. See, in the first Azure Nights, you would create groups of Serven, fiends you could recruit, and swap between them in battle. While an action RPG, your use of your Serven was more important than your actual reflexes and actions, so much so it didn't quite feel right to call the game an Action RPG (Though I don't know what else you would call it). This time around you don't get that, you can only take two Sevren with you at a time, and one of your Lily's, the characters that all join you. While you still have abilities you activate with your Sevren, they don't play the massively crucial role they did in the first game. Instead, your reflexes become more important, and the ability to build up two different gauges to activate special attacks with your Lily takes front and center stage. Both systems require strategies, but entirely different kinds.

And on a whole, I prefer this games set up, as it feels a lot more natural to the control scheme than the previous title. I like them both, but this one does edge it out in terms of the gameplay. Each map still has plenty of secret items and fiends to discover.

The game, while largely fine, does feature a bug or two. Be wary going into really tight spaces, because you can't walk through your allies if they cram in behind you. It took me nearly five minutes to get out of a small nook in the map, and in a game with a time limit on levels, that is not good. It only happened once, and easy to avoid if you know it can happen.

Aside from needing a second playthrough for the final ending, you are given plenty of time to clear out the game's objectives. Each Chapter you only have so many nights to complete it, with the ability to restart chapters from the beginning if you fail, so there is a lot of managing what you want to do. Once you realize that each chapter is a set time frame, you can just make sure to clear the final story objective on the last night to maximize your time. I was able to do every singe non-character related side mission, max out three characters affinities (Including doing all the missions to do so), nearly max a fourth, and raise up a few hearts in all the others. In hindsight, I probably could have gotten a bit more out of it, but you have more than enough time to do everything.

Though there is an issue that comes up with this, and that is you will be constantly revisiting the different areas of the game and playing through them. Going back for submissions, time limit running out, as good as the areas look you will be seeing a whole lot of them. The game can get a bit of a repetitive feel going for it as a result.

And as with the first game, everything in this game looks gorgeous. It's one of those things I don't think to bring up too often, as even good games generally fall around average looking and sounding, and really you can just look at some screenshots to know if the art style is for you. But games like this come around and I feel like the visuals have to be brought up. From character designs to special attack animations (The best one I won't share as the character is a bit of a spoiler) this game just looks astounding beginning to end. Even if other things were lower in quality, this game may still get a high rating from me (If I did ratings anyway) just because of the visuals.

Overall I find it more enjoyable than the last game. While the main plot is a bit lacking and some elements feel like a waste, the great cast of characters and improvements to gameplay sell me on it. Definitely worth checking out.