Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection – PC Review

Genre: Action JRPG
Developer: Nihon Falcom
Publisher: XSEED Games, Marvelous USA Inc.
Release Date: Oct 31, 2017

After my experience with the first Zwei game, I was not entirely sure how I felt about any follow up to it, as while I didn’t dislike the game, it definitely has had some issues that took away from the experience personally for me. Thankfully, when I jumped into its sequel, I was given some hidden optimism: Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection. Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection is an anime-themed action JRPG, developed by Nihon Falcom in 2008 for Japan, later released by XSEED Games and Marvelous USA, Inc, that while kept many of the unique and interactive features from Zwei: The Arges Adventures, set out to improve upon the overall experience, which shows.

Coming in for a crash landing, the story of Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection comes in swinging, immediately setting up the player in the world with the basis of the adventure right out of the gate. We, the player, focus on the angle of Ragna Valentine, a free-lance treasure hunter, with a side job as a courier, as he is flying into the floating continent known as Ilvard. However, this flight is shut down early as two unknown people riding dragons fly in to cause trouble. Ragna easily shows why he is an ace pilot, but after his engine takes a hit, is forced down onto the island. Ragna wakes up, with minor scars and bruises, which surprises many, including the town doctor, as his plane was split in two. But as Ranga goes to investigate the remains, he is interrupted by a girl sitting on the plane’s wings. The girl states her name is Alwen, a true blood vampire princess who, when Ragna’s plane crashed down, saved his life by making a blood contract with him. While Ragna doesn’t believe her story at first, he quickly gives into it as her request by making him her blood knight seems simple enough: help her get magic power back that was taken from her when her castle was taken from her by some villains, and help her get back her castle. This is far from easy in task and as Ranga, alongside Alwen journey forward, they discover a greater plot is unfolding before them. I will end my synopsis here, as to not spoil further story, but where this game excels in its storytelling, it lacks in personal connection like its origins.

Storywise, I enjoy the overall narrative that Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection provides to the player, however, it does have its own set of issues unique to the story. The main issue I found was an odd lack of personal connection of the characters and their role in the plot. While yes, the first game didn’t exactly have a riveting story, it did allow you to get emotionally connected to the characters as they went on their quest to recover the artifacts. Here, I found that because the story becomes self-contained in the plot with Alwen, you lose the emotional connection factor, as the characters just do what they are told instead of taking on this epic quest for the good of the people situation.

Swinging in combat with the anchor gear front forward, the combat mechanics in Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection is one of the biggest improvements to the game as a whole, adding in new features that enhance the original combat and making needed adjustments to areas I felt were major holdbacks. As per usual, I will be limiting this section to the most prominent changes and additions that added to the game, starting with the bounce mechanic. The bounce mechanic was one of my biggest problems in Zwei: The Arges Adventure, as it was odd and out of place. Here, it becomes a great tool for combat as they adjusted how it worked, and the bounce height. Monsters now fall into a category of one of two weakness: magic or melee, which is how the bounce now triggers, bouncing one-fourth of the original height and acting as a damage increaser while in the bounce. The next feature is the damage scaling, which has seen a much-needed improvement. The scaling now acts based on the monster’s weaknesses, as well as the bounce. Ground monsters do not take much magic damage but do get knocked down quickly by melee, vise versa for the flying. They also adjusted in this where monster in a bounce couldn’t get hit twice, making the combat fairer.

The next mechanic is important, known as arcanum combos. Some spells and melee attacks can be combos together for an additional effect, the effect changing per combo. While there are only seven combos in the game, these combos can make quick work of some enemies and allow for some unique situations in boss fights. The last mechanic we have to talk about is the hunters guild. The hunters guild is a new feature for Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection that allows you to get ranked based on how fast you complete dungeons, which and provide you new items like rare foods and certain accessories to enhance Ragna’s and Alwen’s passive or active abilities. You can also trade in treasures you find while exploring the dungeon here and get penne for them to be displayed in the museum.

Bringing up the plate, the presentation of Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection is a step up, going from traditional 2D to 3D, mixed with the change from chiptune to a more traditional style soundtrack. Visually, I was surprised to see Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection translate so well from the 2D style of the first game to the 3D style of this one, especially in the detail department. The backgrounds have never looked better than here, is spacious with plenty of objects to fill it meaningful to the area it is in and a solid mixture of colors, depending on the area you are in. The character models are a nice setup as well, now being fully fleshed out, instead of tied to the background behind them, and use a fair amount of body, as well as facial, motions to make their feelings known in real time.

Bringing in a welcome change, the soundtrack for Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection drops the heavy use of the chiptune of past, aiming for a more realistic sound with instruments like guitars and more. Musically, I found myself torn here, as I liked the change from the chiptune to bring the game more inline with JRPG’s of the time, but also sad they didn’t infuse more of it into the overall soundtrack. The use of instruments like piano, guitar, as well as winds was a nice fit to the areas you were visiting, a treat to the ears, but I do wish we had seen more chiptune thrown in to spice up that soundtrack some more. The sound effects were also more fleshed out here as a whole, a nice touch as the sounds of the various spells cast was a nice pace changer in some instances.

Overall, I found Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection to be an excellent sequel, as it improved on so many aspects of the games, while keeping many of the original elements intact, but it does not walk without its own set of flaws. The excellently told narrative with solid writing, interesting characters, much-needed changes to combat, fun and creative combo attacks, 3D art style adaptation, fresh and detailed background/character models and additional of voice acting for some characters make this a game a successful sequel in its own right.

Pros:

• An excellently presented narrative with solid writing
• Interesting characters across the board
• The much-needed changes to the combat system
• A fun and creative combo attack system
• The adaptation to 3D graphics
• Welcome addition of voice acting

Cons:

• No emotional connection with these characters
• A lack of retro feel from the first game

DarkLunarDude gives Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection a Drastik Measure 8.5 out of 10.0 (100)

For the price of $29.99 on Steam, I can recommend Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection to those seeking a unique JRPG experience with the food-based leveling system and fun combos to find for more combat potential.