Agarest: Generations of War 2

Full disclosure: I bought this on Steam. I am posting a review on GOG as a warning. The combat system is entirely different from the predecessors. Not small changes for the better, but entirely changed. For better or worse. The problem is that I thoroughly enjoyed the old combat system. It was actually what allowed me to finish through the too-long-drawn-out stories of the previous games. I made it through a handful of combats and decided I do NOT want to go through 100+hours of that! If you are considering buying Agarest 2, it’s because you’ve played the first two games and enjoyed the experience so much that you want another slice. You won’t get it here, it’s a whole different pie. I recommend watching gameplay videos of the combat system before deciding to purchase.

I've played and beaten every member of this franchise from Spectral Souls to Agarest Zero and loved them all. This one sucked. The combat system destroyed everything! All the other games maintained a similar combat feel that really helped with the continuity, going from one title to the next. This one just took the cute character design and game mythos and ran with its plunder in its own direction. Mega suck and unplayable.

The menus are broken. The cursors are broken. The graphics are broken. Every single part of this game is broken. The main menu is even broken. It won't let me hit "quit game". It's insane how broken this game is. Do not buy this.

I won't buy censored media, regardless of reason. If it exists, it must be published. Otherwise, censorship is merely another way of saying something shouldn't exist in the first place, a self defeating con. With very little exception, examples of this are an abomination and likewise a deprivation of literally every human right: you condemn one, you condemn all. Shame on you for selling this.

Resolution settings are mostly for show as graphics remain extremely blurry even at full 4K -- the only assets seemingly affected by this are the hardware button icons which is very funny. It is completely incompatible with a DualSense controller (it messes up the entire game) so unless you plan to play with a keyboard+mouse, you best get an Xbox controller. Otherwise, for a steal of 2 bucks on sale, you can't really go wrong if you're Jonesing for some classic early PS3-gen NIS/Idea Factory slop. It's got all the good bits that you expect from an IF game, including hilariously stupid female character designs, completely shameless and disrespectful fanservice, and a plot so barebones it manages to parody itself and not even realise it. It is all irredeemably aiming at an audience that quite literally was never mature enough to hold a job to sustain the company, which shows nowadays. But beneath it all there is a sense of nostalgia, for a time when these small japanese RPG factories still were at least attempting something unique. For all its flaws, and despite how bad of a port it is, there is an undeniable charm to Agarest 2 if you're an oldschool JRPG fanatic who must try all JRPGs at least once. Catch it on sale and it's absolutely worth a bit of a go!