Castle Shikigami 2 Game Sample - Playstation 2
0Hoping someone else would've localized the second Castle Shikigami outside of Japan other than "Play It!" or "XS Games"? Tough luck again I'm afraid. While the European release is said to have removed all the story and absurdity of the game, the U.S. release actually isn't so bad because you can see that XS Games at least "tried" this time around. Don't know much about the PC release. Generally all the features of the Japanese release are here and the story was not only left in, but translated and with spoken English dialogue for absolutely hilarious results.
Interestingly, while the dialogue sounds like utter nonsense, it's stated that the Japanese version was every bit as unusual with its script, only that XS Games translated it "too literally". While I am somewhat emphathetic towards this, it's hard to believe them when they did a copy-n-paste job of the character's profiles in the manual without so much as updating their circumstances (and call the special attacks "Mobile Light Force 3" attacks), making me wonder just how "literally" they handled the rest of the plot. Still, if nothing else, it actually BOOSTS the playability imo.
The game is still nothing to write home about in the audio/visual department, but things are much cleaner this time around and the music is more inspired. The English dialogue seems to drift in and out in terms of volume. If it was more stabilized, it would be a little better, but I can't complain as-is ("purists" will likely cringe at the dialogue). The game retains its extras like the Art Gallery and even the ability to use TATE, should you feel the need.
The gameplay was largely untouched. Some characters have been tweaked and they now bear two Shikigami modes for even more diversity, but the general components are the same. You fly around blasting everything and can take advantage of its "Hi Tension" system if you're a risk-taker. Of all the budget releases XS Games has put out, this is easily one of their best-- they even retired the "Charlie's Angel" folks, opting to use the official artwork.
This video shows the demo on how to play as well as the first level. XS Games would not go on to publish "Castle of Shikigami 3". Enjoy.
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