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Advanced V.G. 2 will please anyone that enjoys a fast-paced fighting game with lots of combos And the story mode shines like a gem.
I am a huge fan of the Variable Geo franchise. But oddly enough, I really despise the hentai titles. My favorite games are those who got rid of this feature, like the two Advanced games on PS1. The series were made by GIGA, a japanese company. But the console versions for SNES, Saturn, and PS1 were made by TGL, what is... A division from GIGA, I think.
Advanced V.G. 2 was released in 1998. It takes place one year after the events of the first game. Yuka Takeuchi, the main character, has gone missing, and Tamao Mitsurugi, a young girl who was her fan joined the Variable Geo tournament in hope of finding her idol. But the evil mastermind Miranda Jahana is back, and has some plans for the contestants.
This is a traditional fighting game. You have a cast of characters that expands a bit over the first Advanced V.G. We even have two unlockable fighters for when you finish story mode for the first time.
About newcomers, we have Tamao, the serial killer Saki, the ninja Kyoko and Material (I wont spoil her role). Tamao is like... Well, do you know Sakura from Street Fighter and her relation to Ryu? Pretty much this. She has Yuka's moves, but weaker. Kyoko is a grabbler basically. Saki has some powerful skills, mostly because of her role as a killer.
Advanced V.G. 2 relies a lot in its combos. You have a lot of super moves and special moves that can cause a lot of damage to your opponent. If I had to compare this gameplay with another title, I would say it's somewhat similar to Street Fighter Alpha 3, and that's a very good thing. We have life bars, and special bars for super attacks. Nothing too new, but everything works fine, and overall are a nice improvement over the first game.
But to me, the best thing about this game is the Story Mode. It follows Tamao in her journey to find Yuka. The chapters are divided in fights, visual novel cutscenes, and anime cutscenes. Also, for real, the ending of the story mode has an anime cutscene over 8 minutes long, and it's probably the best thing I ever saw in a story mode for a fighting game. It's just amazing!
The graphics are really well made, and it follows an anime art-style. We are talking about the first Playstation, so don't expect it to be a "Guilty Gear Strive" anime art, but it's very good for it's time. And believe me, some of the scenarios are very beautiful with the animations. The soundtrack has a lot of good musics, I enjoyed Miranda's theme. Yuka's theme is also great.
You can play this game on PS1, but it's also available on PSN. I want to close this review by reminding that Variable Geo will turn 30 years old by 2023, and GIGA/TGL seems to have forgotten about that. It's pretty much the chance to revive this series, but please, no more adult games. Bring us the fighting instead. I would like an anime too.
The good: Amazing story mode with anime cutscenes, fast-paced combos, cool specials, good art style and soundtrack.
The bad: It never released outside of Japan, so all cutscenes are only available in japanese.
RATING: 8.5 out of 10
