MercurySteam has released a brand new dev diary for their upcoming asymmetrical shooter Raiders of the Broken Planet today. The new video focuses on the role of the antagonist who can join a game to try to derail the four raiders. Since the antagonist lacks the same potential levels of cooperation as the four raiders, the antagonist has the benefit of choosing their class last, allowing them to pick one that can play to the weaknesses of the enemy team. The antagonist has a wide variety of tactics available to them, whether it means putting constant pressure on the enemy team to wear out the players or sabotaging their objectives.
While the antagonist plays alone, the gameplay does not feel lonely. The antagonist has an entire army of AI supporting them. An intelligent, adaptable human mixed with hordes of AI provide a rewarding challenge for the raiders.
MercurySteam accompanied the announcement with a brand new web comic introducing Lycus Dion, the legendary gun slinger. The comic can be found at the official blog.
https://youtu.be/jCdlqMbUHXI
Unfortunately for the player character, the battle at Yokohama was a losing one and ten years have passed since that turn in the battle and now the Oni have destroyed large portions of the world during “The Awakening.” Although the professor and her mechanical partner are more than willing to help the player travel to the nearby Mahoroba village it doesn’t take long to realize that the player is suffering from amnesia that has left them with no knowledge of the events before the battle took place.
Toukiden 2’s storyline is something of a mixed bag as the core story does trip itself up more than a few times and often can feel rather generic but the cast of characters that you end up spending time with are a delightfully interesting bunch that you’ll be happy to learn more about while slaying the Oni in this now open world title.
Fans of the series will immediately feel right at home when it comes to the battle system in Toukiden 2 as the company knew that they already had managed to develop a satisfying system though they also have added a number of new mechanics as well. Players will find that there are now new weapon types such as the chain whip and sword and shield to use alongside all of the previous returning weapon types to take down the various Oni that roam the open world.
Combat remains as fluid as before and the Oni you battle against have been expanded as well. While there are still smaller Oni to fight against as well as the large Oni that require team work and purification rituals that are needed to prevent limbs from regenerating to take down, there are now medium Oni as well that serve as a much needed in-between in difficulty and help make certain encounters feel a bit more varied. It is worth noting that one element that helps make Toukiden 2‘s combat system so fluid is not only the refined combat styles that vary with every weapon type but also the new Demon Hand.
Although combat is a major highlight and thankfully the player character moves at a brisk pace in the open world, Toukiden 2 is unfortunately a bit lacking in actual open world content. While there are plenty of side-quests to accept, these almost always simply involve gathering items, slaying certain Oni, or destroying miasma spewing elements and while there are fun elements such as messing with the machine that can gather resources for you or raising Tenko, much of this feels like busy work and while these various customization options do extend the various options available to the player, they feel rather lackluster.
It is worth noting that Koei Tecmo has chosen to release this game in the West with only the Japanese voice track accompanied by English subtitles. This is a fairly fitting choice as there is a heavy Japanese aesthetic to the game’s overall design and the translation is handled well, though there are some minor areas that aren’t given subtitles such as party dialogue in the open world where things end up a bit disappointing. The soundtrack for the title is quite good as players will be able to enjoy a collection of tracks that range from soft music while exploring towns to more intense tunes while fighting the Oni.