Alright I have something to admit… I have never played the first Afro Samurai (outside of a demo) nor have I read the manga or watched the anime. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I’ve never plopped down the money to do so. That said, I probably wasn’t the best choice to check out Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma because a lot of, well everything, had to be explained to me. If you are a fan of the series, then you’ll be pleased with to know that everyone that was involved with the first game came back to make the sequel which features an all new original story picking up for the events of the last game.
As I was told, this was a labor of love since it brought back the creator of Afro Samurai as well, meaning this wasn’t a shallow sequel or cash grab. What was also reiterated to me was the fact that the developers really listened to the fans feedback from the first game and have attempted to solve the repetitive battles by giving Kuma three different fighting styles to use throughout the game. They really soaked in the feedback and made every attempt to fix the issues people had with the first game which great since clearly a lot worked and didn’t with the first game.
The big difference from the first game to the sequel is that you play as the character Kuma which is the dude with the bear head. Being unfamiliar with the story I can’t really say I know if he’s on the side of good or evil, but he’s who you’re playing as.
The demo I played, which was on a brand new engine, was heavy on the story and being unfamiliar with the game I can’t really say if it improved or not and with it being a beta still the small glitches I encountered aren’t worth commenting on because the likely hood of them being there in the final product are pretty slim. That and every game I touched I seemed to break so it could have just been me (seriously I broke a lot of games).
Overall I think it’s a game that’s really going to please the fans of the franchise. It’s possible that it could pick up new fans since it is an action adventure game and it’s not like you really need a lot of prior knowledge to jump into the game and understand how to play it, you’ll just be a bit lost on the story. I do wish I could remember the engine it was running on since it looks wonderful and with the intentional style from the manga/anime, again making it a good looking game.
It’ll be out next year I believe and will be on all major platforms meaning X-Box One, PS3 & 4 and X-Box 360.