Happy New Year everyone!
Ended the year and decade on a really high note by finishing one of my favorite games I played all last year, Zwei 2: The Ilvard Insurrection. Just wanted to do a small write up/mini shill, as when generally people think of Falcom they think of Trails and Ys, but Zwei 2 never really got the same amount of love those games do despite being in the same level of quality as Falcom's best when it comes to Trails and Ys.
The gameplay is an action RPG dungeon crawler and those who've played Ys, Trails, and Xanadu (most specifically TX) will probably feel right at home as this game shares quite a bit with those. Fantastic and memorable NPCs with vast amounts of changing dialogue as the story progresses, great dungeon crawling, a lovable and very well developed main duo and overall colorful cast of characters, a charming art style, and a fantastic soundtrack in typical Falcom style.
What makes it so charming though really is the characters, coupled with a fantastic localization by XSEED, specifically back when Nick was still working at the company, as all the dialogue is just so fun, but also very touching when it needs to be, especially as it ramps up towards the end. It's not perfect, there are some issues, especially with a couple floors of one of the late game dungeons, and despite it being a good port I had the game crash on me a couple times (and unfortunately the game is locked to 30). Honestly I could gush about it (and especially the OST) for hours, but I'll just say that if you're looking for a really well done JRPG for a low price, you genuinely can't go wrong with Zwei 2. It's on sale now for $10, but honestly it's a steal even at it's base price of $20. If it wasn't for Cold Steel 2, it'd probably be my favorite of all the localized Falcom games so far.
Edit: Forgot to mention I clocked in about 25 hours to beat it. You could spend anywhere between 20-30 depending on how much of the side content you want to do and NPCs you revisit.
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