One of the things about long-running series is that as they change over time, pockets of fans will form that prefer one particular era over others. Some of those fans will outright reject different takes, while others will quietly pine for more of the exact recipe they liked best. Sometimes, some of those fans grow up to make video games, and that’s when dreams can come true. Well, that’s the hope at least. In practice, making games is pretty tough work. Dark Deity, a tactical turn-based RPG that pays heavy homage to the Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games, was a decent attempt but one with lots of room for improvement. Let’s see if Dark Deity 2 can deliver on that potential.
I think the original Dark Deity had a lot of issues, but if I had to simplify things, I’d say it came down to two points. First, it was trying too hard to be like the Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games, which both kept it from building its own identity and led to it adopting some of the weak points of those titles. Second, it didn’t do anything quite as well as the Fire Emblem games it was inspired by. Inviting comparisons is always a risky tactic, because that’s just what people will do. Nevertheless, I think Dark Deity was a solid first outing for developer Sword & Axe LLC, provided you kept in mind that it was indeed just that.
Dark Deity 2 is immediately a more confident game in many ways. It’s set twenty-five years after the events of the first game and follows the descendants of that game’s heroes as they battle a fresh evil empire. There’s always an evil empire. Don’t expect much from the plot here, as that is one respect where it remains very content to be like the object of its affection. Well, that’s fine. Not every game needs to be Final Fantasy Tactics. The characters, at least, are fun, though only a handful really get to say much of anything. Anyway, the story set-up works for both those who played the original game and newcomers. If you’re the former, you can enjoy the links sprinkled here and there. If you’re the latter, this game largely follows its own story and cast.
The gameplay mixes things up a little, and while I can see some people preferring some aspects of the first game, I think Dark Deity 2 is a better game for it. The four-weapon system of the first game is gone in favor of a single weapon, but you’ll still have plenty of gear options to customize your characters as you see fit. There’s a three-tier class system here, and you get enough characters to really play around with it. Each character also has their own ability they will carry with them regardless of class, which feels more like something out of a standard RPG than a tactical one.
By and large, the maps are tighter this time around, and I again see that as an improvement. I found some of the maps in the first game to be too large for what they contained, which ultimately just dragged things out more than necessary. From a purely mechanical standpoint, I enjoyed both the character-building options and encounter design here much more than I did in the original game. I felt a lot less locked-in with my choices, and the battles were far less prone to being beatable with a single tanky character. Now you might need as many as two tanky characters. Well, up to a point anyway. The difficulty does eventually ramp up, and there are lots of options available here if you want to make things easier or harder.
Speaking of options, I really appreciate the many campaign modifiers included in Dark Deity 2. You can randomize tons of aspects of the campaign and adjust many others, which gives the game a huge amount of replay value if you’re into what it’s laying down. That’s pretty cool! It doesn’t change the maps themselves, and you’re still more or less following the same story, so it’s mainly here for the battle fiends. Sure, you might get some narrative juice out of a second playthrough just to see what the other narrative choices bring you (spoiler: not much), but I think most people will get their fill even before the end of their first run.
I found the first half of Dark Deity 2 to be a lot stronger than the second half. The plot just kind of peters out, and the character customization gets less interesting as you start to lock in. The tension doesn’t ramp up as much as it needs to in order to fill that gap. Basically, if you’re not in love with the nuts and bolts, Dark Deity 2 might start to feel like a grind well before its end.
In terms of presentation, Dark Deity 2 carries itself well enough. The battle animations are the star of the show here, and they look great. Lots of fun little touches that give characters added personality, and the big hits look extremely cool. Outside of that, it’s fairly standard. Some decent portraits for the dialogue scenes, maps, and map sprites that evoke the Game Boy Advance nicely, and music that does its job without doing much beyond that. The voice acting is… fine. Could be better, could be worse. The initial load can be pretty long on the Switch, but I’m sure we’re all used to that by now. The good news is that once it’s past that, the game runs fine.
Dark Deity 2 is a better game than the original, doing a little bit more of its own thing without losing its passion for a particular era of Fire Emblem. With plenty of character-building options and a bevy of campaign modifiers, this is a game that has plenty to offer those who like to tinker with gameplay systems. The biggest letdown comes from the story, which starts off reasonably well but peaks early. Indeed, that’s an issue with Dark Deity 2 as a whole. A strong improvement, but there’s still room to grow here.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch
Review Copy Provided by indie.io
