[h1]A Colossal Disappointment[/h1]
I went into DERQ 2 (Death end re;Quest) expecting answers from DERQ 1, perhaps some gameplay improvements and another compelling story to boot. DERQ 2 has none of that. It is written nothing like DERQ 1 and gameplay suffers from most of the same issues as DERQ 1. Which is to say, this game is tortuous to play. Monotonous gameplay, nothing burger story + characters + everything. The game does add some plot points for DERQ 1, but it’s literally less than an hour of content, you’re much better off reading the wiki, watching a YouTube video, save yourself the time commitment and money.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Story[/h2]
This game is written NOTHING like the first. DERQ 1 had characters which engaged with their own story, the world they were in, they felt authentic and not a generic trope dialed up to 11. In contrast, DERQ 2 feels like it was written by a COMPLETELY different person with absolutely no care for the original source material.
You play Mai, she kills her dad and moves into a town to find her lost sister. You get two whole party members. Your goal is basically to investigate the “fishyness” of the town and that’s it, which is to say, the plot is entirely aimless for its entire run time. Nothing happens until the final chapters. The interim is filled with repetitive “slice of life” with side characters that are as one-note as the main cast. It’s all girls who repeat “OH EM GEE, YOU SO CUTE” or overly pleasant “oh my dear maiden” scenes over and over and over again. Interim scenes building up to the final chapter are just scenes [spoiler]of these girls dying[/spoiler].
Characters question nothing. LITERALLY NOTHING. The first nightfall in the game, the town goes all spoopy and your main character is just fighting beasties of the night on day one, setting up camp with a mysterious shopkeeper. The game progresses, you even unlock your glitch forms. Does she question or react to anything about this? NOPE. She just casually murders beasties of the night like it’s just a thing she does every morning on a stroll to the supermarket. There’s no mention of how she can fight them, use magic spells, transform into her glitch form, why she or her scooby gang have buggies. None of her two forthcoming party members even question this either. It’s almost as if the gameplay portions don’t even exist in the context of the story. DERQ could’ve got away without mentioning this either, since it’s in a literal video game world, but they engage with it. DERQ 2 takes place in the real world as far as the characters are aware anyway. The best reaction you get from any character is usually “oh mer gerd, what is that thing. Man knew this town was funky”, THAT’S IT.
Beyond them questioning nothing, they’re also personality-less. Despite having only 3 characters there’s no meat on the bones of their backstories. Your main motivational friend, Rotten (fitting name), boils down to every interaction being “I LOVE YOU MAI”, “Oh, you reject my love so”, “Hug me!”. Basically, imagine a typical girl in a harem after a dude, only it’s for a girl instead. I’m not even kidding when I say every interaction is her being jealous, ignored by Mai or lovey dovey. No nuance, no variation, no nothing. Lilliania is your other companion, she’s just boring. A pleasant, formal girl who is shy, frail and scared, sees Mai as a mother figure. That’s it. She plays the “awkward 3rd wheel” friend between Mai and Rottie very well, which is to say, why is she here!? All 3 characters have zero chemistry. Even side conversations at camp are mundane, empty “banter”. These aren’t even given dedicated VN sections, just tiny auto-scrolling text boxes that even start to loop after a bit.
Returning DERQ 1 characters play very minor roles, however they have all taken their fair share of plot stupidity pills. All of them going to this suspicious town one by one, taking no one with them. All lining up like ducks crossing the road, one by one, waiting for a car to run them over before the next duck gets in line. Some characters are wildly out of character. Take Iris for example, she meets Shina and given how Iris literally wanted to end the world for her, they act as if they don’t even know each other. I’m sure you could riff your way out of this saying “the degrade made it so it never happened”, trivialising even more the events of the first game.
There are some positives at least. This game feels more “finished” than DERQ 1. Death ends, of which there are few, are mostly voice-acted and have unique CGs which are nice. There are no “I eat frog and I die” death ends which end the game in two seconds. They’re still fairly stupid though, usually “I see a pit of sharks. Jump in!? Yes/No”, you see the death end a mile away.
DERQ 1 had this too, but they still have this looney tune “CONK” sound effect. They play it during emotional scenes??? People die in scenes with this sound effect or get majorly hurt and it feels like they’re being hit with a squeaky hammer. Bizarre.
All in all, not worth your time. Most of the story is inconsequential to the events of the first game, even more largely so because the characters don’t even acknowledge it.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
Probably the most improved part of the game, with some more unique problems. It is largely the same as DERQ 1, only a lot more polished. Menus look nicer, you have more abilities, more quests (they’re still mundane though). There’s even small QoL like you auto-sprint now, you can press left or right to go through pages of saves, death ends have a “return to last decision” option, the camera doesn’t look 180 degrees AWAY from the enemies by default. Good stuff.
However, the gameplay is still trivial. Most battles end in 1 turn, the ping pong system of knocking enemies across the arena is still present, which contributes largely to this problem. In DERQ 1 you could use all your SP in one turn, in this game SP costs have been reduced DRAMATICALLY. Skills only cost 2 to 10 SP per move on average. Mai recovers some of your SP after each battle and battles last one turn usually, so that just means SP management is irrelevant now. DERQ 1 had some damage sponges, they weren’t that bad though, but DERQ 2 takes this to the next level. Enemies with 1 MILLION HP popping up at like chapter 4, taking forever to kill, you have zero risk of dying, boring.
They added a fun instant death enemy that can randomly appear in fights that makes a massive red AOE where if you're in it at turn end, you die. It seems this guy DOES NOT disappear. It makes fights extremely un-fun, since a good 60 percent of the area is just a moving instant death zone that wastes your time. I found myself just running from these fights since it wasted so much time.
Equipment is a downgrade. The shopkeeper frequently has straight up linear upgrades to weapons. Money is never an issue. Which gives load-outs no brainer decisions, at least when it comes to weapons. They do still have accessories and bracelets which have unique stat distributions for some build-diversity and decision making.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Exploration[/h2]
Largely the same as DERQ 1 again. Character abilities in the world are still stiff. Environments are more uninspired, you’re stuck in a town or a forest. They’re all highly linear corridors, even more so than DERQ 1.
They added an extra fun instant kill enemy, you touch it, you die. Yes in addition to the in-battle instant kill enemy. So that basically means you need to run around and wait for 15 seconds until it disappears. Or risk losing all your progress until your last save. Very fun.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
Conclusion? Just don’t. It’s bad. Really bad. There’s not one part of this game worth playing. It’s just a bit of homework to get some broader context for the events in DERQ 1. Which is better sought by reading the wiki or watching YouTube videos.
[hr][/hr]
