The reformation program is back and there’s a fresh new set of girls in need of reforming! As the program instructor, it’s your job to make it so they don’t need to go to Hell!
Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors is the sequel to Criminal Girls: Invite Only. You are once again put into the role of a program instructor who must guide and motivate these girls onto the right path so that they don’t end up in Hell. As with the first game, the “motivation” he provides them isn’t just telling them positive messages and cheering them on… it’s by doing sexual types “punishments” with them.
As a game, I enjoyed the first one. I enjoyed the combat system and needing to strategize how I worked things out through the limits of one item per turn, slightly random attack options, and the ability to only change out one party member each turn. All of this returns in Criminal Girls 2, and to me? That’s not a bad thing. The only bad thing is that they also brought back how slow the combat can play out through all the animations that happen. They have, however, vastly improved the graphical view of the battles, all while keeping with the same style of the first game.
Speaking of the graphics, the game has just generally seen a good improvement from the first game. All the character models look crisper, the characters in the cutscenes look better, and even the text boxes got a good overhaul. While the first game had originally been a PSP game, Criminal Girls 2 was built for the Vita ground-up and it definitely shows.
One of the biggest improvements, both graphically and gameplay wise, is in the department of the motivation scenes. The pink fog that had been used to make the first game even be able to release outside of Japan is completely gone. This time around, the motivation scenes will move about as you perform the different motivators. The first one you are given is a “scrubbing” game, and while I didn’t try it with the touch screen, it wasn’t that bad to do the first couple levels with the analog sticks. This can, of course, change, especially since the later levels of each motivator added in the back touch screen to complete them. I am impressed with how they did them this time however, and I can’t really even tell what they censored on them.
One of the new features (that I have encountered so far in my playing) to the combat is the addition of the Coach feature. Using Coach, you’ll be able to provide your girls with a bonus depending on how you’ve trained them so far. Each time you earn a new level in each motivation type, you’ll be able to choose between one of two options – either an S or an M option. You can change these at any time, and while I haven’t really had a chance to explore what other benefits they provide besides the what you learn (if there’s two different options), I do know that it will change what sorts of benefit they get from using Coach. If you’ve trained them in a way that works well with the chosen Coach option they’ll get a bonus to their stats. If you’ve trained them in a way that is opposite to it… well, they get quite unhappy with you and get some stat decreases.
From what I’ve played of the game so far – only through the first area and up to the first save point of the second area – I’m impressed with the improvements Criminal Girls 2 has made over Criminal Girls. I have also already been given the harsh reality the Criminal Girls 2 is harder than the first one, and that one was already fairly tough at times. When the first true boss easily kills me after having killed everything I encounter along the way and not running from anything… Well, I guess it’s time to get to leveling.
Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors Initial Thoughts
Looking forward to what’s to come!
Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors will be released in Europe on September 23rd and in North America on October 11th. You can pre-order the game for PlayStation Vita now on Amazon.
I would like to thank NIS America for providing me with a code for previewing and review purposes.
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