The 2nd Runner

I recently picked up this game while on vacation. I had a few days to kill while my friend had to be at work so I bought a couple of new games. The funny thing was I had purchased the original Zone of the Enders for $4.99 in the used bin at Gamestop, yet when I got home I found that they had put the wrong game in the case and I actually had Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. I have always enjoyed robot/mech type games and anime so this game looked really good just from the game box art so I decided it was worth the $5 to get it.

The Story
As far as I know, this game takes place years after the original Zone of the Enders. Since I haven't played the first game, I can't really comment on that, although from watching the previous story section of the game, I have a little bit of background on it. In the game you play the role of Dingo, a former war pilot for the military regime Bahhram. Betrayed by your former leader, you have now taken refuge on one of Jupiter's moons and work for a small mining outpost. During a routine day, you pick up readings on a large amount of Metatron, which is a very powerful and rare mineral source that humans have discovered. As you go to investigate, a large warship shows up and starts to attack the mining outpost. You stumble upon the source of the Metatron, the massive orbital frame "Jehuty" and the story begins. Jehuty basically looks like a cross between and EVA unit from Neon Genesis Evangelion and one of the Gundams from the Gundam Wing series.

As you go through the first level you find out more information, that Bahhram is back and they are looking for Jehuty and you are also introduced to the orbital frame's advanced AI and battle system called ADA. ADA offers you a tutorial on all of the flight controls, but I'll touch on that later. After a few short battles you eventually end up in the giant battle cruiser where you face off with a few other orbital frames and eventually confront Jehuty's twin Anubis. You find out that the pilot or "runner" of Anubis is actually your former commander and you are treated to a cut scene which sets the stage for the game to begin.

During this cut scene Dingo is shot several times after refusing to rejoin Bahhram and turn over Jehuty. Ken Marinaris, a beautiful female runner, witnesses the shooting and has Dingo surgically intertwined into the life support of Jehuty. These two will develop and interesting relationship throughout the game, but I won't spoil that here. After waking up, Dingo finds out that he is now reliant on Jehuty for his own survival, so he has to do what Ken wants him to do or she will pull the plug. Dingo agrees to help her out and the game begins.

The cool thing about the story in this game is the anime style cut scenes that occur between the stages and at key areas of the game. These are very well done and the voice acting is excellent so you feel like you are really part of the game, almost like a movie or anime.

Game Play
The game play in Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner takes a bit of getting used to, but it is amazing overall. Before you start the game, I highly suggest going through the tutorial on how to pilot the Jehuty. You will get the chance to do this in the 1st stage if you skip it from the menu options, but I found it a huge help to do it before starting the game. Basically in the tutorial, ADA will take you through exactly how to control the orbital frame and teach you how to use all of your weapons and other abilities that Jehuty has in a simulated 3D combat environment.

The controls are pretty straight forward here. You move around with the left analog stick for forward, reverse and side to side movement and you basically have 360 degree control of movement here. Triangle allows you to move vertical and X is to descend. The right analog stick allows you to change the camera angle 360 degrees to look around Jehuty, but the view will always reset to directly behind the orbital frame. Square is your normal attack, which changes depending on where you are in relation to your enemy. If you are at a distance, you will fire a ranged energy attack, but at close range you will attack with a blade attached to Jehuty's arm. This blade attack and be used to execute a combo, which is basically square three times and then either X, triangle or O to execute a "combo smash" attack. ADA covers all of these abilities in the tutorial mode.

You also have a burst and dash button which is R2. Hitting this causes Jehuty to increase speed and this is very useful for avoiding enemy attacks and getting close to your enemy for an attack. You can also execute a close range dash attack by pressing square while holding down the dash button. At long range, you can use the burst mode to fire off a large energy blast that can do heavy damage to most targets. R1 is your guard button, which basically brings up an energy shield that blocks incoming normal attacks. Boss attacks and heavier energy weapons will get through this shield so you can't rely on it for everything.

L2 cycles your target lock on and L1 can be used to cancel the lock on and enter free flight mode. Circle has two uses, at close range you can use it to grab onto your enemy which allows you to use them as a shield or hurl them at another enemy. You can also pick up large objects such as beams and wall plates and use them as weapons or shields. At long range, it will active whichever sub weapon you have selected. You will find subweapons through out the game and these are basically special weapons that give Jehuty new attack abilities. For example, Gauntlet is a short range energy attack that is like a shotgun blast, it damages the enemy and knocks them backwards into walls for more damage. Phalanx is a quick fire machine gun that can be used to wipe out several small enemies at once. You find subweapons through out the game and mostly after boss battles.

The graphics and sound are very well done in this game as well. Basically every world is a 3D fighting environment that you can move freely through out. You do have boundaries on how high and low you can go and you can't go outside the boundaries of the stage, but you still have a very large environment to fly around in. Your environment is also helpful in battle as you can blast or throw enemies into walls for extra damage and you can use objects as weapons and shields.

The 3D combat is amazingly smooth and really gives the game a big fun factor. The stages are fairly large scale and mostly take place on the surface and sky of Mars and also inside of large industrial complexes and battleships. The stages are all very unique and fun in their own way, and each presents a different strategic environment for you. Each level has a techno style music to it and really draws you into the fast paced combat.

The only issue I really had with game play was with the lock on feature. This takes some getting used to. During normal combat, Jehuty will automatically lock on to the nearest target once you get within range. There are threat circles that surround Jehuty once an enemy is within sensor range. These tell you that an enemy is near and also where incoming missile and energy blast attacks are coming from. Once you get into range, ADA will automatically target the nearest enemy. You can switch off of that enemy by pressing L2 but there is really no set way that the targets cycle. It will just take you to the next closest target in view.

This means that if there is a target behind you that is closer or out of view you will have to rotate around to find it. The only problem is that the camera becomes fixed on whichever target you are locked on. Holding down L1 will turn the lock on mode off, but it is easy to forget this during the fast paced combat and sometimes I found myself flying in circles when I was trying to locate an out of view target. The two levels that this really bothered me in was the one level where you have to rescue Ken's orbital frame and carry her out of the stage and the one stage where you are leading the orbital frames to the large battle outpost on Mars and you get attacked by hundreds of enemies. I found it hard to target the friendly orbital frames to repair them while there were also lots of enemies on screen. One other word of warning, on some levels you will have to defend friendly units and it is possible to target them accidentally. You can destroy these units also so if you are locked on to them you have to pay attention so you don't damage or destroy them.

Overall
Overall I absolutely loved this game. Like I mentioned before, I am a huge fan of mech/robot games and anime also. Jehuty reminded me a lot of the Gundam Wing anime(s) where you are basically one awesome fighting machine taking on an entire army on your own. The stages are a ton of fun, fighting multiple enemies in a 3D environment with lots of cool futuristic weapons. The storyline is excellent and the voice acting and anime style cut scenes really add a lot of value to the game. You are also drawn into the relationships of the characters and you get to see the relationship of Dingo and Ken progress throughout various stages of the game which is cool.

The other awesome thing was that the battle computer adjusts to how you play the game and will give you strategic information based on your fighting style. It will also let you know what sub weapons it thinks will be most effective in certain fights and if you are having problems during boss fights, it will give you insight on how to defeat the boss. Also the tutorial on how to use Jehuty was a real life saver and made the game a lot easier to play from the get go.

Once you finish the game there is also a versus mode where you can play with the different orbital frames from the game. Beating the game unlocks several other orbital frames besides Jehuty that you can use to replay the game as well. This is kind of fun because you can go back and play the game as some of the signature boss characters from the game or as Ken's orbital frame, or even the overall boss Anubis. This makes for great replay value as the game is already a lot of fun to play over and over again. The only complaint I really have is that the game was too short. I think it only took me 4 hours to beat it and it left me wanting more in terms of play time.

I hope you have enjoyed this review and I welcome any comments or suggestions. I would highly suggest this game for any fan of the robot/mech genre and also anyone who likes a fast paced button mashing fighting game. Thanks again for reading!