Gamesugar

It’s a good snowy day to check in on NIS’ recent demo release for (I’m only going to type the title in its entirety once) Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman! 2 – Time to Tighten up Security!

The demo revisits the expected experience, inviting me in for a nice cup of tea with its superbly simplistic layout and interface, promptly frustrating me to no end with scenarios worthy of NIS serving as the publisher – this isn’t a bad thing, I just have zero patience and need a game like this to remind me to chill out every so often. At times this is slightly soul-crushing, but I believe there’s something important in the lesson.

Part of me would like more time to layout a perfectly planned dungeon, but the game finds its mark in presenting an imperative to dig furiously before the heroes arrive, therein watching well laid plans turn to waste and delivering a slap in the face to think harder while working faster. I’m sure there’s plenty of people providing strategies far greater than the Swiss cheese dungeons that keep failing me, but I’m determined to figure this out on my own.

If you’ve spent time with the original then you’ll be getting more of the antfarm RPG action you know along with the requisite increase and upgrade of monsters and heroes. More than a few people have told me that the sequel phases out the original with a more polished and complete effort, but just in case that isn’t true NIS is including the original on the UMD release as well, you’ll just need a secret code, which I’m told will be available at the official site for the game.

The demo gives a taste of evolution, which shakes up any sense of balance by giving monsters the ability to adapt – breeds of monsters will learn from the death of others from their species following continued starvation or excessive deaths, mutating to change their species on the whole and increase their odds of survival. The player can literally shake the screen up to prevent such mutations, or allow new species to flourish and change the eco-system of their dungeon, at least lessening the burden of balance and encouraging experimentation.

What’s clear from the demo is that the production is an all around slicker affair, with more polished loading screens, level introductions, and a world map where the player selects the civilizations they plan to conquer. There’s plenty more polish to go around, including a localization which hits and maintains a genuinely hilarious rhythm – laughing at dead heroes with Badman is probably wrong, and yet it feels so right. What’s important is the way in which the humor suits the game rather than serving as a crutch for it.

Despite some dissension from others, I still find a lot of charm in Acquire’s visual work for the characters and monsters as well, which strives for a level of simplicity hiding a good amount of depth beneath the pixel surface. And at some point I just run out of words on that note and stress the idea that the visual direction “just works here.”

Of course the joy of a demo report is that you don’t have to listen to anything I have to say at present, instead hitting up the PSN store to get some impressions of your own. Feel free to come back and tell me what you think though.