• Price: $19.99 USD
• Developer/Publisher: Critical Games
• Release Date: October 16, 2024

Content warning: Murder, characters preventing a suicide attempt in one scene (late game)

Don’t let 8-Bit Adventures 2’s status as a sequel put you off, as this retro-inspired turn-based JRPG can be played without experiencing the first game. As a long time fan of JRPGs, I was excited to check this out, as it’s said to have “everything you love” about the retro games but “with none of the inconvenience.”

The game opens with the disappearance of one of our heroes from the first game; this warrior saved the world with the help of his two companions, a wizard and a thief. (You get to name them.) A new generation of would-be heroes admires them, and a young man named Charlie overhears a conversation about the warrior’s disappearance.

The thief has mentored Charlie, and so he wants to help her find the warrior. Sneaking onto the ship she’s on, he manages to convince her that there’s no turning back for him. They track down the warrior fairly quickly, and that’s when the trouble begins.

I think they did a good job of briefly summarizing the basics of the previous game’s plot and the characters’ relationships. And as the title suggests, it’s time for the trio to save the world again, but with new additions to the team – including the sword-wielding Charlie.

Over the course of the game, you’ll travel around the world, walking, sledding, sailing, and eventually flying from place to place to prevent the antagonist’s latest atrocities. There are no random encounters on the world map or in dungeons; enemies appear on the overworld instead.

By the end of the game you’ll have access to 7 party members, but only 3 of them can actively participate in the turn-based battles. However, the good news is that you can easily swap characters in and out of battle as much as you’d like, and it doesn’t cost you a turn.

I really liked having so many options to choose from – players can choose the party setup that works best for them, with the occasional swap here and there. 3 of the 7 party members are some kind of swordsman, but I think there’s enough variation in their abilities to keep things interesting.

We also have a thief who dabbles with poisons, a wizard, a blind martial artist who’s more than she seems, and a robot. Everyone except the robot can use a regular physical attack, but then some characters have their regular attacks split into different options depending on strength and accuracy.

They all have unique personal skills that don’t cost AP/MP, which I really liked. Kuro’s personal skill, which offers a 50% instant KO rate, was probably my favorite. I greatly appreciated the wizard’s skill as well, as it restores some of his MP for free. 🙏🏻

Next up are the abilities that cost AP/MP. (Again, Kuro has a really neat one that costs 0.) I had fun experimenting with everyone’s abilities to see what setup worked the best for me. They expand on these skills by combining characters’ individual skills into combo abilities, which cost both users some AP/MP.

The robot was probably one of my favorites to use for a while; they don’t use regular attacks or abilities that cost AP. Instead, you equip 3 special commands for them to use, such as an ability that heals the entire party or a flamethrower. The free healing really appealed to me. I did wish that we could equip 2 more commands or so, though – I had about 13 command options by the end.

It wouldn’t be a proper JRPG without some sort of ultimate ability, and they delivered on that front as well with each character’s Omega Burst ability. They gave us a lot of different ways to creatively crush the enemy with our chosen party.

And speaking of choices, they included the ability to equip our party with Augments, which are enhancements that improve character stats and offer a variety of special effects. As you level up your party, you unlock additional Augment slots.

I just really like it when a game lets us decide how we want to play it. While the party does split up a few times to complete tasks related to the main storyline, for the most part you get to choose who to use.

I don’t know if I’d say this is overly challenging, but that could be due to some of the assistance offered at special save points. One of the modern conveniences they included was the ability to save anywhere. But they also placed a sparkly save point in each area to warn you when you’re about to meet the dungeon’s boss.

You can choose to take that warning or not. These special save points also offer to give you some pointers for the upcoming boss, plus the ability to respawn the area’s monsters for grinding purposes.

Grinding isn’t totally necessary, but I enjoy being overpowered in these games so I decided to grind a little bit. The max level is 40, and my party members were between levels 35 and 36 when I beat the game. It’s nice to have a lower level cap! (I was disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be a New Game+ mode to keep those levels, though.)

Players who want more of a challenge can ignore the tips and grinding. But they’re nice for players who are new to the genre, or those who want an easier experience.

The enemies are fun to deal with; I loved their designs, and they also have some silly, entertaining, and/or interesting abilities and attack patterns. I particularly liked the Trickster Fox, which attacks you with objects stolen from other travelers. You can steal its stolen goods to equip on your party members.

I just really enjoyed exploring the world of 8-Bit Adventures 2, battling themed enemies like the fox and learning more about my characters. It’s apparently the same world used in the first game, but it’s a little different due to plot-related reasons.

They incentivize exploring every part of the world, with treasure and secrets scattered across the world map, dungeons, and towns. Once you get the airship, the world opens up to you.

There are quite a few optional side quests that reward you with some of the best equipment and consumable items in the game. One of my favorite “secrets” was the Arena, which had really amusing dialogue. I also liked a side quest in the area surrounding Kuro’s hometown, as you get the best consumable item in the game for making a fairly short detour.

I want to say that there are around 20 (?) or so secrets for players to uncover, which includes some optional end game quests for each party member. It’s not easy to drop new players into a world established in a previous game; we obviously don’t get all of the details from the original, but enough is explained that I felt like I knew the prequel characters in my party.

They tell this story through a combination of flashbacks, changing perspectives (sometimes in a surprising way), and more. There are even some lovely cinematic scenes in the retro art style, and the soundtrack really made me feel nostalgic. The way they animated the character expressions and gestures on such tiny models is fantastic, too.

I loved the writing; I did wish that there was an instant display option for the text, though. Apparently they wanted to intentionally “time all the dialogue to mimic the cadence of a person’s speech.” It’s an interesting design choice – I’m just a really fast reader so the text speed was too slow for me.

There were some kind of deus ex machina moments here and there, and the final battle scenes get a little bit cheesy (which I don’t really mind). But overall I was very happy with the characters and story. They managed to give enough screen time to all 7 party members, and I became fond of all of them. I even teared up during a few scenes.

I really don’t have many complaints about 8-Bit Adventures 2. It’s an amazing love letter to retro JRPGs, but with a modern twist. I think that those familiar with the older games will feel nostalgic looking at the graphics, listening to the “NES-accurate music,” and discovering the game’s secrets.

At the same time, I can also see players less experienced with the genre enjoying this blast from the past, as it limits or excludes some of the features that could put them off playing a more traditional JRPG. With a ~30 hour play time, the game is packed with content but also respects players’ time. At $19.99, it’s more than reasonably priced!

This is one of my favorite games I’ve played this year. I could see where they took inspiration from retro games without it feeling too derivative, and I didn’t expect where they took the story (in a good way). I’d love to see the first game come to Switch someday – apparently the developer has expressed interest in remaking it, and they also mentioned plans for a third game.

9/10