I never heard of this series until I looked at it on Nintendo's games list and since I needed games to play and review for Switch and this looked like it might be fun from a combat perspective I thought I'd give it a go. However, as Scott and I said before we don't receive review copies, so with the Switch version being placed number one in my GameFly queue and PS4 being number 2 it was the PS4 version what was sent to me and played on a PS4 PRO.

STORY:

"Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon takes place in a fictional, demon-ridden Western European city towards the end of the 19th century. The story focuses on a knight protector named Alushe and her two childhood friends – Liliana, a kind-hearted priestess, and Ruhenheid, a holy knight of the Lourdes Order. While guarding Liliana, Alushe is ambushed and killed only to later awaken as an artificial half-demon at the hands of the New Curia, a religious organization with dark ties. In the company of a variety of unlikely allies with their own pasts and agendas, Alushe’s strong desire to save Liliana gives her the strength to scatter the shadows shrouding the world and motivation to uncover the shocking truth behind the mysterious Queen of the Moon."

I didn't play the first game as I said before but it's not needed to understand this story and there are returning characters. Is it necessary? Well..now that I know who they are in a way I kinda of wish I played it first but I would say just give it a good YouTube look and you would probably be good unless you really have to play the first game.

The one thing this game does do is make a few, not a lot, of choices in the game where you can pick up Human companions and Servans (who are Fiends (villains of the game) but for reasons explained your are buddy buddy with in the game) but if you miss the chance you can totally never pick up those Servans. There is also the opportunity to save or not save someone in the game however the game doesn't really spell it out for you, a serious flaw. It just says you can do this but it's kinda left up to you do it it, no hand holding really. I fucked up. I guess I'm use to Western games. And you have your 2 possible endings so if you screw up play it again or YouTube.

The characters do play well off of each other and it would have been nice to see them run off and do a legit loyalty mission Mass Effect style which you don't get. They try to balance the impending doom with light heart flirting, nostalgia and hope for a better future and boobs. Lots and lots of boobs I mean look at the gallery I put up to prove it. This game puts the same amount of effort into boobs and boob physics that EA does into loot boxes and finishing a review of Horizon Zero Dawn and going straight into this, I wonder if these devs had done Horizon if Aloy's boobs would be jiggling all over the place too?

GAMEPLAY:

HACK n' SLASH! So you know what you're getting. Button smash then when your special builds up unleash hell on your apposition with a tag team move. You are out there with a human of your choice and 2 Servans.

The more you team up with your partner the more of an affinity you have with them and better your team work becomes. I don't think it affects the storyline any which is a shame. This is why this game makes a good proof of concept though. You meet all these characters. They join your team. You can go out with them to fight. Build up affinity with different ones but you're held back on the amount of time you have because of the bullshit timeframe which I'll get into later. If you just had the ability to Mass Effect this game. You pick up a new member of the team and then you can go out and do a legit loyalty mission with them with a long meaningful storyline it would do so much for the game instead you get a side quest that says. "Oh, I ate to much chocolate I need some exercise" or "what is a swimming pool?" which really is another excuse to get her in a bikini.

The map system comes in handy most of the time just don't forget you have to hit square when you're on the map to view it in both views to see where you really are. It's better than a shit Bethesda map though.

The biggest downside to the gameplay is the bullshit time limit on the hunts. Which is what every stage is called. Until you start leveling up your character and you start selecting that upgrade (it's on the right hand side) you have that to contend against and you have the eclipse to deal with. After every mission you have to go and rest when you do the moon gets closer and closer to a full eclipse when it reaches a full eclipse GAME OVER. The only way to stop this is to defeat a difficult boss and it'll wind back the eclipse 1/4 or more and then it's back to play a stage and then a part of the moon with get covered again.

The variety of stages you play is extremely bare. Not showing spoilers I've shown the ones you play over and over again. This is it. For 8 hours. Enjoy.

SLIGHT SPOILING WARNING: Also there is a total bullshit warp zone stage leading to the boss stage at the end. Just a warning.

GRAPHICS:

Also you can only save your game after every hunt when you go back to Hotel Eterna which is you HQ.

I would say these are about mid-tier. I don't they were trying to blow anyone away but were going with a more anime look to begin with so they didn't have to push any system hard. However there are some spots that look just dreadful. When someone is laying on their bed and the camera pans across and you see pixels galore behind them. Shit like that needs to end this generation. Not to come off like Digital Foundry but damn, dude, it's not like I zoomed in 300% to see if this actually 4K or not.

SUMMARY:

Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon was a nice palate cleanser. Legit laugh out loud moments at times, fun characters and their interactions left me saying, "I wish you would have done more with these character in the game so I could have spent more time with them." However a bogus timed mission system that can only be turned off in new game plus and repetitive stages and miss missed opportunities for missions with your companions. You have side quest in the game but you only complete them you take that person out and it really just happens by you doing that mission it's nothing special. No story to it. All of these holds the game back. With a little more direction and more in development it could have been something really stellar.

FINAL VERDICT:

SCOTT AND PAUL SHOW: RENTAL

STANDARD: 7

REVIEW BY: PAUL