The Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves Review

Indeed, exploring the world around you can be an exciting and potentially dangerous experience. After the first few hours, you gain access to a ship. With it, the remainder of the map is yours to explore. But beware: enemies have fixed levels and stats, and it's not hard to stumble into a patch of particularly high-level enemies. If your team gets beaten down, the hero is transported back to his home area of Digitown, and you have to spend hard-earned funds to resurrect other fallen Denpa Men, one at a time. Though the promise of a beatdown might deter some explorers, there's comfort to be found in the game's jump mechanic, which lets you instantly teleport, ship and all, to any landmark that you've encountered along the way. It's a suitable take on the world-map style of exploration for quick gameplay sessions, and a surefire means of escape when you're under threat behind enemy lines.

On the whole, Denpa Men 2 isn't a difficult game when the proper precautions are taken, because, unfortunately, it has a tendency to break the combat system in your favor. The enemies you encounter range from cute piglet-fish to horrible octopus-arachnid hybrids, and while you can typically find relative comfort by fighting easy-to-grind lightweights, there's always a more formidable foe lurking just around the corner. Enemies materialize into view, and combat is initialized only when you make contact. It's possible to outrun some enemies, but others catch up to you.

Be sure to watch your back, because the orientation of the impact determines which team moves first at the start of battle. Combat sequences are essentially a series of rounds, and actions are assigned to each character before the start. When the plans are set, friend and foe then execute their actions in order based on their individual speed ranking. You have the option to assign individual commands, allow the game to calculate actions, or have the entire team attack or defend, but every action is determined before the start of a round; at least they're supposed to be.

The exception to the rule occurs when choosing to auto-assign actions to your entire team. If, mid-round, an enemy kills one of your Denpa Men, any of your Denpa Men that have yet to take their turn automatically cast a revive spell or use a potion to resurrect their fallen teammate. Obviously, neither you nor the computer could have predicted a fallen character, but it's clear that the action is assigned ad hoc, mid-round. While this works out in your favor, it betrays the supposed defined battle mechanics. Perhaps this occurs in the name of player enjoyment, but your skill, or lack thereof, is effectively disrespected in the process. Granted, there isn't always a teammate to lift you off the ground, and some battles leave you begging for mercy, but because revivals occur out of turn and completely refill the victim's health meter, you occasionally get the feeling that you've cheated or somehow don't deserve your victory.

The game’s soundtrack is unsurprisingly built on up-tempo ditties, but the effect is, at times, too strong. The tunes that keep you company while exploring the map and walking around various dungeons can be catchy, but the battle theme will likely drive you to mute your 3DS an hour or two into your journey. It's a maddening cacophony of high-pitched electronic melodies, and the contrast that exists between the overworld jingles and the battle theme is too jarring to overlook.

Games that rehash old formulas are liable to be judged in a negative light, but in the case of The Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves, the tried-and-true pattern of treasure hunting and monster slaying is uplifted by Denpa's charming sense of style and the unique way it uses the 3DS hardware. Despite the child-kidnapping-based plot, and the presence of gruesome monsters, Denpa Men 2 remains a cheerful and upbeat experience from start to finish. It's a refreshingly lighthearted RPG that packs a challenge and a surprising amount of content to explore, and despite its few flaws, Denpa Men 2 gets the moment-to-moment gameplay right. It's enough to make any dungeon-crawling veteran swoon, and the cheerful delivery is a nice change of pace from heavy-handed, dramatic RPG sagas.