River City Girls 2

Introduction

River City Girls 2
River City Girls 2 title screen

River city girls 2 is a sequel to the 2019 game River City Girls. WayForward developed River City Girls 2, and Arc System Works published the game. River City Girls is a spin off of the Kunio-Kun series. The series was localized in the US in form of Super Dodgeball, and River City Ransom for the NES.

Overview

River City Girls featured Misako and Kyoko fighting their way to save their boyfriends. The sequel, River City Girls 2 starts where the first left off. Sabuko, the daughter of a Yakuza boss, and is shamed when she is bested by Misako and Kyoko. Now our heroes are back at school, and they are late! To our heroes dismay the school has been infiltrated by the Yakuza.

Gameplay

rcr2 char select screen
River City Girls 2 character select screen

River City Girls 2 is a beat em up where you get to choose from 4 characters. You can choose between Misako, Kyoko, Kunio, and Riki. All of the characters seem to play very similar to one another. They have different moves, but have the same stats when you start with them. The list of moves you can do can be accessed from your cell phone menu.

Fighting my way through town

You will have to fight your way through town, and you have the ability to explore the town freely. You will come across certainly places that are locked, but they will become accessible as the game progresses. As you explore the town you will come across different items you can use as weapons. My favorite so far is the bike. You pick up the bike and can take down most enemies in a few hits.

When in doubt hit them with a bike

Another fighting mechanic is recruiting enemies to be support characters. Occasionally an enemy will beg for mercy and your char has the opportunity to recruit them to your support team. You can assign up to two support characters at a time. This mechanic is useful if you find yourself in a tight spot.

Graphics

Moving manga panel

This game looks very crisp, and moves very fluidly. It has a great anime/manga aesthetic to it. River City Girls 2 uses this manga aesthetic in the beginning of the game to tell the story of how shame came to Sabuko. The character animations let the characters move smoothly, and they are always moving, and displaying a number of expressions.

Sound

The soundtrack to this game is really good, very catchy. The characters have really fun dialog, and the voice actors convey it very well. The game has lots of humor in it and you will undoubtedly find yourself laughing out loud at some point while playing.

Story

Your team at the Hideout

The story in the game is pretty simple, but you will get different objectives as the game progresses. You have to fight your way through a series of panels on a map in order to reach your destination. The voice acting does a superb job of conveying the story.

Controls

The controls in River City Girls 2 are very good. The control scheme makes it very beneficial to utilize the different moves you have equipped. I would go as far to say that you will struggle when first starting out if you just plan to mash buttons. The one mechanic of the game that I still have a hard time with is the parry. During a fight your character can block or parry an incoming attack, having you press the “R” button. This will stun the enemy for a split second. The problem I had was getting the timing right.

Value

I think you can get a lot of playtime out of this game. Each time I go through the area around my hideout, the encounters are slightly different. As a result, you can play through the game using the four different characters so the experience will be different depending on which character you are playing. As of release day this game is retailing for $39.99 USD on the Nintendo eShop. If you were a fan of the last installment, or are just a big fan of beat em up games, this will provide a lot of value for you. If you are on the fence on whether or not to pick this game up, try the first installment, and see how much you enjoy it.

Conclusion

River City Girls 2 is a very well fleshed out beat em up game for the Nintendo Switch. You can purchase it on the Nintendo eShop for $39.99. The game has crisp graphics, great music, lots of humor, and combat will keep you engaged for hours. I would like to thank developer WayForward and publisher Arc System Works for the review code.

Summary
River City Girls 2 is a very well fleshed out beat 'em up game for the Nintendo Switch. You can purchase it on the Nintendo eShop for $39.99. The game has crisp graphics, great music, lots of humor, and combat will keep you engaged for hours.
Good
  • The background music is very catchy.
  • Characters have funny dialog.
  • The game looks very crisp
Bad
  • Some players may be put off by the difficulty
8.4
Great
Graphics - 8.5
Sound - 9
Gameplay - 8.5
Replayability - 8
Value - 8
Written by
My interest in handheld gaming started when I was in high school. I was obsessed with getting a Game Gear. I was so excited to have a relatively high quality gaming experience (for the time) with me wherever I went! As I became an adult, handheld gaming always maintained an important part in my life. I was thrilled to take my handheld gaming to the next level when I got a Playstation Vita, and later a Nintendo Switch. My go-to genres are arcade racers, and RPGs. While I don’t really like games like Minecraft, the Dragon Quest Builders series compelled me so much. I spent over 200 hours between the two entries.

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