Initial 2 : New Stage

[b][h1]”Despite some flaws, it delivers fun experience for hack-n-slash fan.“[/h1][/b] “Initial 2: New Stage” is 3D hack-n-slash developed by Restory Studio. Follow the core gameplay and style of first “The Initial” with promised various improvement. I review on version 11.9 and point out what’s good and bad for indie title. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Story and Presentation [/h1] Initial 2 is an ambitious indie project of 9 people team. The game set in futuristic world and great war between Philosophia Academy and Scientia Empire. You mainly play as Captain Belvia, first-class Ludex soldier of Philosophia, team up with two companions named Sera and Veritas. The story of fighting against evil forces may sounds simple, but provide clear ultimate goal, supported by interesting lore and world design. The storytelling of friendship and sacrifice feels emotional and extra NPC dialogues make me actually care those characters. It’s enjoyable new story with some references from first Initial. However, there are some stiff animations and lifeless character expression in couple cutscenes. Initial 2 is developed by using Unity engine. Detailed and complex character models. High quality special effects and assets. Academy and some couple levels are great. Unfortunately, the overall design is inconsistent. Some open environments are lifeless and empty. There are also weird interior lighting and clone Ludex NPCs. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Gameplay and Combat [/h1] The highlight of Initial is fast-paced combat. You fight against waves of enemy and move to next section, repeat process, and face the boss at the end of chapter. There are total four weapon types and various chips as active and passive skill which can be switched in pause menu. Each weapon has its combos (ground, mid-air, charge) with simple inputs of light and heavy attack. Light saber is well-balanced default weapon, has most combo, and It is only weapon you can use during EX mode (berserker mode). Greatsword is slow but offer high area-of effect damage and can break enemy’s guard shield. Power Fists provide fast one-on-one combat and knockback of last impact. Falcon Bow is good for damaging enemy from distance or boss’s windup attack, and charge attack like Hanzo. The combat is more responsive and fluid than previous game. You can avoid damage by short-distance dodge or follow-up unlimited sprint to avoid enemy’s long combo/projectile. There are skill chip provide extra moves to experiment such as healing, reset cooldown, blast punch. Lock-on also improves along with targeting system where you dash toward nearest target and change depended on your control which keeps the combat flow. I appreciated the variety of enemy (they had cool designs too) move and boss pattern. It engages player awareness and provides clear telegraph as fair fight even though there are few janky animations. While all weapons are fun to use and effective in boss fight, Greatsword feels underwhelming because of most fast-move and spam boss which against Greatsword playstyle. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Sound [/h1] Initial 2 has a lot of memorable music from main menu to cutscene and boss theme. The composers did great job to deliver quality sound design and some emotional music. The English voice acting features voice actors worked in previous AAA games. It’s good, but somehow lacks emotional expression than Japanese voice. The sound design of weapon feels impact especially power fists. Although, it lacks of feedback sound from common enemy and most heavy charged attacks. Companion dialogue also needs to be toned down when they repeat same line over and over at least it’s only in Story mode. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]UI and Performance [/h1] The game keeps simple UI, but it’s easy to understand and clear visual. The major problem is text arrangement and localization. They are messed and disconnected in game dialogue and skill/lore information which need to be prioritized. In term of performance, the game run smoother and solid along with mouse and keyboard control. Thanks to developers who address issues since first release. However, there are still some issues like one-time long freeze after you defeat first wave of first startup (only happen to me) and some missing textures in Academy last visit. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Extra Contents [/h1] Initial 2 also offers extra mode after story mode is completed. Challenge mode and Limited mode where you fight without NPC companions can provide different experience and challenge. Boss Rush is very fun one-one-one boss fight including extra bosses that are not in campaign. Each bosses have enhanced move and aggressive, but few of them need to be tweaked due to oversized tracking hitbox and boss spam move/dodge make fight become more irritating. [h1]Verdict [/h1] Finally, Initial 2 is not a perfect game. It has flaws and thing to improve. I wish developers add combo counter/rank to keep player engagement and give combat feedback in this game or future project. But it does succeed to deliver what I expect from indie hack-n-slash genre. A fun fast-paced combat with smooth animation and fancy effects. That is definition of this game. [quote][i]If you found this review helpful, please consider and give a thumb up or feedback to improve my review[/i][/quote]

takes all the good from the first game and improves in almost every way, the game did come out badly optimized but seems to run pretty good now after many patches still fps drops from time to time but for the most part runs well now!

[h1] Introduction [/h1] Initial 2 is a game with some flaws, but beneath all of them is hidden a real gem. While the game has a lot of faults it still manages to be an enjoyable experience if you go in thinking about it as a budget game which it really is. For a small development team, this is pretty well done and surprise me in terms of how good it actually is. [h1] Story [/h1] The story is good and interesting however most the translations of the subtitles are poorly done so you are gonna have to replace the words that dont fit there with the correct vocabulary in English in your mind. If you can manage to that then you will be able to see that the story is well put together. While most of the game features a lot of uncertainty and weak pacing it does algo have some strong moments that make the story feel real and makes you interested in it. [h1] Gameplay [/h1] Combat is a hit and miss. First, there is no feedback at all in your hits which can leave an impression of your attack being light as a feather and not having any real strength behind them. Second, eventually you get 4 weapons and lots of chips which are either passive effects or activate abilities, yet you will find yourself only using a few of them. On weapons, the katana/light sword is your bread a butter and your jack of all trades while the fists are amazing at filling your EX-gauge which makes you super strong. The heavy sword is too slow and will make you take free damage and the bow is just too slow for it to do any significant damage to the enemy. In chips, you will always need to reserve a space for HP recovery as it is the only way to gain HP apart from checkpoints before bosses, then you will mostly use vortex with whirlind+rewind since those 3 are broken. Vortex will stutter enemies, keeping them in place and usually killing them by itself. Whirlwind is generally a one-shot and rewind just gives you all your abilities back for free by making the cooldown 0 upon activation. You can pretty much use your abilities twice in a row, wait 110 seconds for a third activation and then repeat twice in a row, all meanwhile you use EX during the 110 breaks. The best chip is handed to you in the first mission I think and it's called trust. It gives you 0.5 of EX every second which is insanely good. [h1] Difficulty [/h1] As for difficulty, the game is pretty easy. Kinda wish they would have raised the overall difficulty I guess but that's subjective. Still, you can pretty much fight an attrition battle with EX VS Bosses as well as use bow to chip them little by little(not recommended it takes forever) and their patterns are very simple for the most part. Out of all the bosses, only 4 of them are a challenge with 3 out of those 4 being actually hard to beat. Props for variety though. [h1] Some Notes [/h1] Frames are stable above 60 as long as you have a GTX 1060 6GB(this can be addressed in the future as the development team is still working on the game, adding content and improving optimization) no drops at all and is a fluid experience through there may be some stuttering in some levels but it only last a couple of seconds and it is rare. This game story mode is short ranging at around 4-6 hours but you can replay it in different modes as well as enjoy some boss rush modes and others extras. All being said, I think that the Initial 2 is worth the price if you like hack-n-slash games. The first 2 hours might see kinda underwhelming but the rest of the game is amazing. Once you reach a certain point in the story, it really starts to pick up its pace and it becomes something far greater. So I suggest that if you find the early story lacking, do stick around because it will get so much better. For Voice actors, English is bad. It sounds as if English voice actors can't decide between acting like human beings or robots and they tend to change between both so one scene the characters sound alive and the next they are talking like emotionless robots. I recommend the Japanese Dub as the characters always sound alive and like normal human beings. [h1] Sum up[/h1] + Great combat. Player has the choice between making complex combos with all the tools at their disposal or keep it simple. + A story that is weak at first but gradually becomes better. + Characters design is interesting. Uniforms with the colors black and gold are unusual and the characters are well diversify. + Offers some extra modes to keep the player playing even after beating the story. + Is a major improvement over the first game. - Translation is poor. - English VA can't decide between being an emotionless robot or an overreacting teenager. - Bad optimization. Recommend to play at max on medium graphics. - Has a lot of bugs, they won't make you lose a lot of progress but they can be quite annoying. [h1] Conclusion [/h1] In resume, Initial 2 is not a perfect game and it suffers from many flaws but at the end of the day, it is a pretty good game. For a small team of developers, this is really well-done and they still go to great length to support their game. My only gripe is that they should really fix those English translations in English.

The developers were quick to stress the quality of the character models and music and both are excellent. Graphically the game is excellent, particularly the particle effects. The combat feels fluid and the different weapon types help break the monotony of combos. StrawberryHill Music have done an excellent job creating tracks that move each scene along smoothly. Beluvia's character model is so well crafted that it seems a shame we can't style her in different outfits, my biggest feature request would be a selection of outfits to choose from for her!

This game is so much better than the first one..if you played first one you will notice how great it became and how much love ..developers put into making this game...you now have 4 weapons to choose..you also have more abilities..and also this is an optional (to choose to play all game alone or together with 2 AI players)..is your choice..but i consider much nice with teammates as they can help you a lot and also can ressurect you if you fall in battle ..also now you have option to choose between english or japanese voice of characters but in my opinion japanese fits the game best :D ..the story is a new one...it dont follow the story from first Initial...but is still an amazing story..that you will enjoy it ...have fun and enjoy !!

Initial 2: New Stage takes place in the same universe as the first game, but it’s not a direct sequel, since only two bad guys from The Initial appears - Kyuya and Ryuzaki - and their role in the storyline are different. This time, the game got English dub. The voices are nice but the repeated lines during the fights get annoying fast. The story mode is longer than The Initial. The first game took me around 2.5 hours to complete. This game is a good 5 hours. The English text is… often very funny and the text warping in the boxes is off most of the time. So, if you are looking for a “perfect English” game, with a deep plot and character development, Initial 2: New Stage won’t meet that expectation. It’s rather a nice and casual hack’n’slash with two cute heroines - Belvia and Sera - plus Veritas. I think Sera’s habit of talking in the third person all the time is kind-of annoying. Anyway, I recommend it with a 50% discount, since its short.

迟到两年的评论。初代在那样的条件下仍能拿出还算不错的成品，加之后期官方的良好态度和不断修正，再加上价格低，对初体计划有了不错的印象，但很可惜这个印象反而让我对这作很失望。 总的来说，二代比起初代不是没有进步的： 有了更精美的建模和环境； 有了一个完整的故事； 有了更多的关卡，意味着更长的流程以及更多新鲜的场景； 添加了更多的武器，还有辅助技能等元素； 动作更流畅了，也更华丽了。 但是，当你玩了一段时间后会发现： 手感相较于上一作，没有提高，甚至更差； 镜头问题依旧很大； 锁定依旧是个问题； 武器虽多，但一些迷之判定，无音效，奇怪的手感让我真的不想用； 一招鲜。 虽然在表面上花了很多功夫，改进明显，但作为一款ACT，真正要下功夫的地方不但没让我看到进步反倒让我觉得是退步了。讲道理我甚至都不要求你做那么多辅助技能和别的武器，但就一把初始太刀，该有的音效做出来，该有的手感做好来，该有的判定做准来，起码做到一个普通act应该有的水平，而不是和一个黄油差不多。镜头的问题虽说强如卡普空也一直都没有一个很好的方案，但你也不能跟你初代差不多吧。初代最后修成那样，起初是看你们是第一次做，还这么点人，没经验，勉强能玩就算了，现在还这样？说不过去了吧？武器攻击的迷之判定加上诡异的锁定机制，打击反馈又不到位，我打没打到人，别人打没打到我，我自己都不清楚，初代这样现在还这样。 初始刀那几个处决动作，你是龙哥的传人？咋和刀锋边缘龙剑的OT这么像？

When The Inital 2 was announced I was excited to see what they'll improve on from the first game. [h1] What They Improved[/h1] [b]More Combat Options[/b] First game you only had a melee weapon and a ranged weapon (which was mostly useless) in this game you have: [list] [*]Default weapon: Good all-round weapon, has the most amount moves compared to the weapons. [*]Greatsword: Slow, but damaging and covers a wide area. [*]Gauntlets: Fast combos, good for hit and runs [*]Bow: Good for dealing damage to the boss during their long windup attacks, compared to the gun from the last game you can evade while shooting, and do a charge attack that shoots an arrow in a straight line and damage nearby enemies as it travels. [/list] You also have skills and chips which are addons to improve your characters. You also have a rage mode which allows you to pummel an enemy and ignore hitstun from enemy attacks. (You'll still take damage in this mode) Guarding was taken out in this game, but you can now evade in the middle of an enemy's combo [b]Combat is Less Lifeless[/b] Last game there were no voices in game and only in cutscenes. In this game there are lines spoken during combat by the main character and her teammates. However the enemies still don't have voices themselves besides the major bosses, also some (not sure if its a bug) attacks from enemies dont have sound effect which is why I say the combat in this game is less lifeless compared to the first. [b]Story[/b] In the last game the story was simple, mostly defating an organization to save their school. This one is a new story and it attempted more world building via dialogue with NPCs and the cutscenes. It's not bad, but it feels rushed on some parts. You also get to roam the academy after missions and talk with other NPCs. But besides that there's not much to do besides traveling to point A to B to proceed with the story. [h1] What Wasn't Improved[/h1] [b]English Localization is still a Messl[/b] [url=https://imgur.com/a/VTzI9ei] Examples here: [/url] Like the last game there were issues with sentence structure and choice of words. This game also had an issue with the font since some sentences were spaced oddly. It's hilarious at times but if they wanted a more serious story the writing and dialouge shouldn't be like this. Instead of doing an ENG dub for this game, maybe they should've hired someone that is proficient in Chinese and English to proofread their script. [b]Animation and Models[/b] Some attacks in this game look odd or stiff like this [url=https://imgur.com/iSJeGJf] one[/url] (strong attack in the air) where the transition into it looked like she turned into a motionless object. Some models don't have a lot of expression in them outside of cutscenes. For example [url=https://imgur.com/iL2yI1b] Viola[/url] here looks pretty dead in her eyes. Overall, a solid indie game for $20, despite the issues I had fun with this game and would like to see The Initial 3 in this game, or more features in this game like in the first one where we get to play the boss characters.

总觉得这个游戏像个半成品，搞了城镇却又没有相应的系统，结果还是和直接刷怪差不多，打击感和操作bug也挺多，拳头那个无线冲刺攻击直接尼玛迷失乐园。 不知道是什么原因，可能是开发组放弃了，可能是没钱了，也可能是其他的。 我觉得初体这个游戏变成这样，已经不单单是这一个游戏的问题了，但是我们不知道开发组背后经历了什么。 但我觉得初体能代表国产游戏的典型失败案例。 有好的想法，开头做的很好，但是做游戏经验不足，导致玩家体验没那么好而且BUG很多，最后要么没钱要么是就单纯的做不下去。 很多国产游戏都是这样，先亮眼一下然后陨落，续作很多还不如原本的做得好。 与其说是游戏做的不好，不如说是国产游戏的悲哀

I just wanna point out that I never really liked the first game "The Initial". But I did like some parts of the first game like the OST the sci-fi tone and liked the game's setting. Although the story of the first game and its hack and slash gameplay was kinda boring and the trash mobs were just a pain in the ass to fight. However, "Initial 2 New stage" is overall very fun to play and its story is much better then its former installment. Its hack and slash Gameplay is 100 times more enjoyable then it too, Music & Audio in this game is really good too, much better then the first title. Even Emi Evans sings one of songs in this game. Even has english dub if thats your thing. Don't pay attention to the mixed reviews of this game. if you're still not sure about spending money on this game, Try it out from a external source for free, if you like the gameplay and story buy it here on steam cause its definitely worth full price imo if you do buy it and get the japanese text on the main menu use the guide here to switch to english text: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1798113704 How does it run? well pretty good actually, I finished the game's story within 5 hours and then tried out the extra modes like its boss rush and this game's version of DMC's Bloody Palace mode. During that time I played it on the highest settings and had a solid 60+ fps with no frame rate issues or gameplay problems whatsoever, The controls are much better then the first game too, heck you couldn't even dream of playing the first game with KB and Mouse however in this one you can and the default KB+M controls are feel great and responsive and I would say the controller would feel the same. This game is as a whole Pretty good compared to "The initial", seriously just skip the first one and play this one instead. its far superior then the first title.