RIVER CITY GIRLS 2 is a great sequel to a great game

The WayForward team has really hit it out of the park with theirs River city girls Games. The original has quickly become one of my favorite games for its entertaining writing, phenomenal voice work, great music, and sheer fun as a beat ’em up game. The continuation, Girls of River City 2really delivered and maintained the high standards already set in the first game. The sequel was able to really build on what already made the first game great, adding to the fun by allowing more people to join in on the action.

Writing first. Games have always had a really fun sense of humor that breaks the fourth wall just enough to be entertaining without going overboard. This kept it and was really improved with the introduction of more playable characters. Not only do we have the always great lines from Misako and Kyoko, but now with Riki, Kunio, Provie and Marian there are even more personalities to work with.

Speaking of multiple characters, the voice work for everyone is still great. Misako and Kyoko still remain my favorite characters, but I love how good they all play. No one just phoned in about their performance and it really shows. Playing a game like this with such good voice really makes me wish more games could have talent like this. Another funny thing is that the main theme has Kyoko and Misako talking, but none of their voice actors sing. Christina Ve and composer Megan McDuffee they are the singers on the track but they do such good impressions of the characters that I thought it was actually them in those moments of conversation. It really shows the level of talent they’ve got for all aspects of the game.

The music in this game really blows my mind. McDuffee once again proved to be a perfect match for this game series. The fusion of various genres and the presence of different artists makes the soundtrack really dynamic. It does a great job of blending into the game background while you’re playing, but still sounds great when you stop and pay attention to it. It really does a great job of blending those old school soundtrack sounds with modern music. I also like it outside of gaming, listen to it next time you need upbeat background music while you work.

Now for the crux of the matter, how the game actually works. The answer is really well. The moves between the characters are similar enough that switching isn’t a huge task while each one is still pretty unique. By that I mean move combos are done in a similar button sequence with each character getting some unique special moves and combos. While the execution of the main attacks is similar, they really feel different between characters. The team has done a good job of making each character feel distinct even though they likely have similar fighting styles. Misako and Marian, for example, both fight using their fists, but Marian has some bigger punches and is slower than Misako. One of my only issues is really that parrying seems quite difficult to pull off, but I admit this could definitely be my personal issue. There are also some sections where you do something other than combat, for example you have to score high on a dance machine. These little moments help break up the action without being too bulky or annoying.

The game has a new hiding feature which is really nice. Each map has a different hideout that will allow you to switch characters, heal, and adjust your friendly fire setting. You can also choose to respawn in your hideout without losing any money when defeated, which is always a good option. Hideouts also tend to be close to bus stops, so travel distances from them are eased.

I think one of the only things I didn’t love was the Honkr feature. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of fun to have a Twitter-like app on your phone, but important notifications would pop up on your screen during gameplay and if you were fighting enemies you could easily get lost in the shuffle. My personal preference would just be to have the main story objective horns automatically pause the game for you to read through them. The reason this doesn’t lower my opinion of the game is that it’s purely personal preference, you can easily pause the game and go in and read them all yourself just for me sometimes the important ones would get lost in the shuffle so to speak.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this game. If you like a good looking and challenging beat ’em up game, this one is definitely worth checking out. Some of the boss fights are insane but so satisfying when you finally win. And you can have up to four people play, which is always a plus. I give this game a 10/10. You can find the game on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.