SCE is celebrating the tenth year anniversary of “Wild Arms” series with the fifth title in the series, “The Vth Vanguard”. “Wild Arms The Vth Vanguard” continues the tradition of three main characters.

Every work in the Wild Arms series is an independent story, but all of them revolve around the same theme – Vanguard. This time, the stage is an alternative world melding fantasy and the frontier of the West. The three main characters embark on a journey into the wilderness to rescue the world from a crisis. The character images are so attractive with true-to-life facial expressions and dramatic performances of the small movements in the limbs enhance the charms of the characters.

Story

The male main character is Dean, a 16 years old boy, who dreams of being a Golem Hunter. Dean takes his first steps towards realizing that dream when he meets one of the two female main characters, Avril, a twenty years old girl, who fell from the sky in the arm of a Golem and remembers only one thing, the mysterious phrase “Johnny Appleseed”. Also joining the main character is a 16 years old Rebecca. You are started off with all three characters together. And the game takes place in the world of “Filgaia”.

Combat System

The Hex system from Wild Arms 4 returns in Wild Arms 5. During combat, the field is split into 5 hexagonal sections, some of which may have special properties. The player and enemies can move to different hexagons during their turn. This time around, the party count is three instead of four. (This change may be a deliberate throwback to the original Wild Arms.)

Exploration

Wild Arms 5 is a third-person console RPG. There is no world map in this game. Intead, the player traverses a world that is scaled like those of Final Fantasy XII and Dragon Quest VIII. Besides walking, the player can travel across Filgaia by employing various vehicles, including a train and monowheel. The field avatar cannot be changed; Dean is always the leader.

Dungeon exploration has two modes:

ACT Mode

The player can jump, slide, and interact with objects. Similar to controlling Jude in Wild Arms 4.

SHT (Shooting) Mode

Dean draws both of his ARMs and can fire them freely. By employing various cartridges, the player can interact with the environment in a number of ways. Some examples include activating distant switches, breaking down obstacles, lighting torches, freezing objects, and grappling up to higher places.

Developer : Media, Vision
Publisher : SCE
Genre : RPG
Platform : Playstation 2
Release Date : JP 14 December 2006, US TBA, NA TBA
ESRB : RP

This time the Prince has to save his kingdom.

In this game, the Prince returns home from the Isle of Time with Kaileena, the Empress of Time. All the joyous feeling of finally undone the damages he had unleashed from The Sands of Time is wrecked when he found his kingdom of Babylon is set on fire by the army of the Maharaja. Their ship is destroyed and the Prince once again found himself washed up ashore (as far as I can remember, having a shipwreck has always been a mandatory since the first Prince of Persia in 1991). Kaileena is taken by the enemies and now the Prince must go to save her (it would be interesting to have the Prince captured instead, and Kaileena takes the role of the saviour here, but heey..).

Graphics

I always consider graphics as the fail-safe insurance or the last justification in considering wether buying a certain game has been a waste of money or not. The graphics in The Two Thrones seem to par my expectation of a PS2 quality, i.e. character details, lighting, structures details, extra bits here and there are well done. It also helps that all these fine details are rendered with almost no loading time, just like Soul Reaver.

Shipwreck: a longtime honored tradition in the series.

Sound and Music

The music is so-so. OK, I admit that I was too busy running, jumping and swinging to pay any attention to the music, except for the fighting mode. The positive note is that I found the music to be non irritating.

The sound effect is well placed, I haven’t seen any mismatch between the sound effect and the gameplay during the platform action and the fighting.

Unfortunately, the voice cast for the Prince is rather annoying, with sometimes his voice sounds and feels like an annoying teenager. It surely doesn’t suit the overall dark surrounding and his serious facial expression. The internal discussion between the Prince and his alter ego, the Dark Prince, is amusing enough, but it was the voice of Kaileena doing the narration throughout the game, “And so the Prince …”, which gives the best impression.

Gameplay

Since our prince is one helluva acrobatic hero, it’s a good thing that the control in this title is non-threathening enough to be able to execute all kinds of the platform actions. As a first time player of the series (the 3D ones at least), I spend some times to accustome myself with the Prince’s bag of tricks. Platform actions like running up a wall, running along a wall, jumping off a wall, climbing a pole, using the dagger to stab on a certain stab-point on a wall, swinging from one stab-point to another, sliding down a curtain, spring-jumping, and others are truly defying the law of physics. But once I get a hold on the control, I really enjoy doing all these stunts. Other not too stunning actions include grapping a ledge and climbing a ladder.

Boys and girls. Don’t try this at home. It’s very dangerous.

The Prince’s alter ego, the Dark Prince, has some extra platform skills using his chains, such as extra-far swinging and pulling a certain block on a wall.

Extra far swinging while you’re playing as the Dark Prince.

Power of the Sands

Imbued with the power of the sands, our hero can rewind and slow the time. Each use of these requires one sand point. The time rewinding is especially useful when you happened to fall, sliced by death traps or crashed during the chariot mini-game, and saves you from repeating all the way from the last save point.

Slowing the time can be used to move much faster than your enemies or to prolong a certain door-opening mekanism.

Fighting System

The fighting system gives much room for players in making their own fighting style. There are single-weapon mode and double-weapons mode, each with their own combos. Different choices of weapons give different sets of combo. Some special attacks require stepping on an enemy, running up a wall or swinging on a pole, which sometimes lead to a devastating blow.

Step on your enemy and hop!

My favourite in The Two Thrones is the Speed Kill attack, in which you can kill your enemy instantly by pushing the square button with the right timing, given you manages to sneak up behind the enemy at first. In certain parts of the game, where alarmed enemies can keep spawning their friends, direct assault is a no-go. Instead, you must execute a Double Speed Kill or even a Tripple Speed Kill to wipe a group of enemies without raising the alarm. This can be very difficult, but a successful Speed Kill can give so much satisfaction.

Timed right and the player will be rewarded with a nice Speed Kill animation.

In the other hand, it is far easier to wipe out a crowd of enemies while you’re controlling the more powerful Dark Prince, who’re equipped with a deathly chain. The only drawback is his constanly diminishing life-bar, which means you have to keep killing or breaking to replenish your life-bar (Soul Reaver anyone?).

The Dark Prince has no problem dealing with a crowd, you just have to do it quickly.

My Biggest Frustration

Thanks to the camera movement, sometimes it can be very difficult to control the Prince. One example is when I tried to swing left from a certain stab point. Instead of swinging left, the hero ended up swinging right, which lead to a certain death. Or when facing the enemies, controlling the Prince movement can be a real patient-enduring test (move to the right, the right, god damned you! Aaargh!).

I throwed my controller more than once, thanks to this nauseating camera and control adjustment.

A rather unforgiving chariot race, one of the mini games.

Conclusion

If you’re a long-time fan of the series, then buy this game to complete your collection. And if you’re a first time player of the series and looking for an alternative platform action other than the Tomb Raiders series, then I suggest you to buy this game too. You won’t be dissappointed.

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Genre: Platform Action
Developer: Ubisoft
Release Date (US): 12/01/05

Saint Seiya: The Hades is the follow up title to Saint Seiya: The Sanctuary released in 2005. In this game, player will have to battle against an army of Spectres who begin to claim back their powers after being held for 243 years by the might of Athena.

Pegasus Meteor!

Characters

Currently, w2n has managed to finished the story mode and unlocked 24 characters, which include 5 Bronze Saints in both their tattered and repaired Bronze Cloths, 8 Gold Saints, 9 Spectres and 2 special characters.

The Bronze Saints in both tattered and repaired Bronze Cloths:
Pegasus Seiya
Dragon Shiryu
Cygnus Hyoga
Andromeda Shun
Phoenix Ikki

The Gold Saints:
Aries Mu
Taurus Aldebaran
Gemini Gemini
Leo Aiolia
Virgo Shaka
Libra Dohko
Scorpio Milo
Gemini Kanon

The Specters:
Aries Shion (former Gold Saint)
Cancer Mephisto (former Gold Saint)
Pisces Aphrodite (former Gold Saint)
Capricorn Shura (former Gold Saint)
Aquarius Camus (former Gold Saint)
Gemini Saga (former Gold Saint)
Wyvern Rhadamanthys (Judge of the World of the Dead)
Garuda Aiacos (Judge of the World of the Dead)
Griffon Minos (Judge of the World of the Dead)

Special Characters:
Sagitarius Seiya
Lyra Orpheus

Saint Seiya: The Hades

Graphics

As with other PS2 games, one primary factor in my decision to purchase this game was the graphics. While I don’t expect the graphics to come in par with the likes of Tekken or Soul Calibur series, I’m not disappointed either. The 3D engine has made it possible to depict the zodiac Cloths in sparkling appearance inside the cut scenes, especially for the Gold Cloths and the Specter Cloths. Then again, I still prefer the usual 2D anime style for the cut scenes.

As for the fighting scenes, the graphics are OK in my book. The characters movement, attacks and special attacks look fine as with the effects of cosmos beam, fire and explosion. The developers also took a special effort to make sure the different zodiac palaces do look different, something that I did not notice while watching the anime (they looked all the same to me). For an extra, the columns will crumble whenever a character being smashed into it, which unfortunately leaves a trail of thick smokes that can disable you to see your character for a moment.

Huge fighting arena

Gameplay

Suffice to say, the control in Saint Seiya: The Hades is quite simple, that it won’t make any difference whether you play the game for a while or a month. The character movement looks great with the quick sideway dash and forward dash. My favorite is the sideway dash, which performed by twice tapping the up or down button. Your character will dash sideway, circling your opponent, and combined with forward dash effectively enable the player to step on almost every spot in the 3D arena.

The basic actions are attack, block and cosmos charge. You can increase your cosmos meter by attacking or pressing the cosmos charge button. Once the cosmos meter is fully charged, you can perform special juggle attacks, cosmos attacks and the Big Bang attacks which is unique for each character (my favorite one ever since I watched the anime is Hyoga’s Diamond Dust).

The game does not come with long chain of complex combos that is a today’s common feature in this genre. Instead, player will only need to rely on simple attack combination plus a healthy amount of sideway dash. In this way the developer has chosen to make Saint Seiya: The Hades enjoyable even for non-fighting game fans.

The sideway dash really looks cool

Audio

Since this game is based on the latest anime of the series, I couldn’t find anything that resembles the tunes of Pegassus Fantasy or Blue Forever, which is a shame because I think it was Pegassus Fantasy that truly represented the anime series. The overall BGM is good, my favourite one is during the character selection screen. The only available voice over is in Japanese, which is great for fans who want to hear the dialog from the original Japanese casts. The subtitle is available in 4 different languages.

Early animation for the Big Bang attack

Overall

At first, it was hard for me to give an impartial judgement since I am a Saint Seiya fan. But after forking out hours of my time playing this game, I was actually enjoyed the gameplay without bothering anymore for the storyline or the fact that this is actualy a Saint Seiya game. So I can say that Saint Seiya: The Hades can be enjoyed by both fans or non-fans of the anime series.

That said, enjoy the game!

Publisher: Atari
Developer: Bandai Namco
Release Date: August 2006
Perspective: Third-Person
Type: 3D Fighting

Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria comes up with many new and interesting stuffs. New elements are added, resulting in fascinating gameplay.

Perform your team combos by tapping on the four main buttons.

Graphic

I must raise my hat (OK, I don’t wear any) to Tri-Ace for the new visual of one of my favourite series. Sure, oppositions abound from longtime fans who yearn for a 2D gameplay. But it was the fruit of Valkyrie Profile team’s hard labour that changed my mind and even made me enjoy the realtime 3D graphic visual.

Gamers will enjoy the beautiful and life-like background combined with illuminating light. More stunning graphic will be available to you once you reach the Valhalla (realm of the gods). The animation is impressive for both background and the characters, paying heed to every small details.

The same details can be seen during the battle mode. Whenever the player strikes a part of the enemy’s body, that part will be glowing indicating a hit. If you’re persistent enough in beating the crap of the enemies, you’ll see their body parts torn to pieces.

Movies are beautifully rendered in real time.

Story

The story of Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria takes place some hundred years prior to the event depicted in Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. In Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria, we meet Silmeria, the youngest and kindest of the three Odin’s Valkyries, who were taken prisoner by Brahms after his last battle with Odin. Brahms finally let Silmeria go, but for some reasons Odin imprisoned her soul into the body of Alicia, a princess of the Dipan kingdom.

Long time has passed when Silmeria soul suddenly awakened, and yearning to become one again with her imprisoned body. And so Odin dispatched Valkyrie Ahly to stop the Silmeria’s final awakening for it will spell a terrible fate for the world.

Odin’s fear come into being when Lezard, a cunning and powerful mage, use Silmeria’a awakening to fulfill his own ambition of becoming immortal and possessing the power of the gods.

Confront other Valkyries.

Game Play

Retaining the same gameplay with its predecessor, this game treat the players with unique combination of side-scrolling action and RPG. The side-scrolling is used during the exploration of cities and dungeons, each one of them is opened up in a linear fashion for every mission or assignment finished.

The batlle mode requires the player to be active, which means the possibility of attacking or getting attacked depends on your enemy’s or your range. Player will be equipped with AP (Attack Point) which can be used to attack, dodge, use item, or learn magic. AP will decrease each time the player use it and increase when the player moved or get attacked. Battles will be held in arena-like places, with player can use some walk around or dash forward using L3 button.

Weapons come in four basic types: sword, broad sword, bow and staff. As usual, weapons and items can be purchased in every town, while getting a hold on some special weapons is a prerequisite for some special status. For example, if you want to gain a minimum level of 40 before the end of Chapter 3, you’ll need Valkyrie Favor, Dragon Slayer Modified, Bahamut Tear and Splitting Sword Farewell.

Unfortunately, not every purchased weapon or the one you get from slaying a monster will give your characters the ability to perform Soul Crush.

Nibelung Valesti!

In battle mode, you can control up to 4 characters including Alicia. Every character is represented with one of the four main buttons. This way you can perform a team combo by tapping the main buttons for a maximum of three times, depending on the attack patterns attached to each of your characters. When the heat meter reach 100, you will get a chance to perform a Soul Crush.

Every explored dungeon contains a sealed stone that can cast different effects on your characters, the enemies and the dungeon itself. The effects comes into being whenever you put the sealed stone into an altar inside the dungeon.

Characters

The main character in Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria is Alicia, a Dipan princess who carry the soul of Silmeria. As the story evolves you will see the conflict of Alicia’s and Silmeria’s souls inside Alicia’s physical body.

One interesting feat in Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria is the high number of playable characters, including the three Valkyries and Brahms. As a prequel to Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, you can also play both Lenneth and Silmeria before approaching the end, inside a dungeon called the Seraphic Gate.

Plenty of playable characters.

Conclusion

Simply put, Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria is a game that make up to its promises, a game worths of your time, money and your PS2 console. My only cons is the amount of time required to increase your characters level. Other than that, I don’t have any negative opinion regarding this game.

That’s all and have a nice game.

Developer : Tri-Ace
Publisher : Square-Enix
Japanese release : Jun 30 2006
US release : Sep 30 2006

Konami has released the fifth of their best RPG franchise, Genso Suikoden. This is after Genso Suikoden IV, which was good, and Genso Suikoden Tactic which earned praises from several websites although lacks in traditional RPG challenges.

The story of Genso Suikoden V is set 10 years before Genso Suikoden I and 1000 years after Genso Suikoden IV. It takes place in a land called Falena, which is located near Island Nation, which was the setting of Genso Suikoden IV.

Lyon, Konami’s official wallpaper

Story

Like previous Genso Suikoden series, the story evolved around artefacts possessing special power, the Runes. It begins with a failed rebellion in the queendom of Falena. It was Lordlake’s, previously known as the Queen’s loyal subject. The rebellion cost the queendom the Rune of Dawn and the Rune of Dusk, two of the True Runes, the very symbol of Falena. The only Rune left in the palace is the Sun Rune.

Every in-game event is beautifully rendered in real time

The rebellion forced the Queen Arshtat to wear the Sun Rune for fear it will be taken by the wrong hands. This decision put the Queen in risk of being controlled by the Sun Rune. The Queen then punished the city of Lordlake with prolonged draught. Her decision stirs many oppositions from the palace and the people of Falena.

Queen Arshtat, your typical unnaturally-beautiful-and-sexy mother of a 17 year old teenager

Power Struggle

After crushing the rebellion, the Queendom of Falena held a fighting championship to decide the future husband for the princess Lymsia, the future Queen. The contestant can choose to fight by their own, or be represented by a hired champion or slave.

By this time, there are two prominent families in the Queendom of Falena, the Godwins and the Barrows, both of them has been quarrelling for a long time in the parliament and the palace. Both families see the championship as an opportunity to expand their influence inside the queendom.

Each character with a profile face is recruitable

In the end, the champonship was won by Gizel, the sole son of the Lord of Godwin. 15 days after the end of the championship, the Godwin family was invited to the palace to proceed with the engagement. Alas, at the night before the engagement the palace was infiltrated by the Godwin’s assassins. These assassins succeeded in killing the queen and his husband. In the end, the Godwins grabbed the power and took princess Lymsia as a hostage, to be later enthroned as a stooge Queen.

Character status

This is the beginning of your adventure, as princess Lymsia’s older brother, to save her and to take back the queendom of Falena from the hand of the Godwin. The game protagonist is the deceased queen’s oldest son. You can name the main character, just like other Suikoden series.

Graphic and Music

The game displays 3D graphics with minimalist background and yet beautiful coloring. Still, the graphics could be better, when we consider the capabilities of a PS2 console. Somehow this results in many slow loading time, which is really annoying.

Beautilful colors

The music retains the tradition of Genso Suikoden. Veteran of the series can recognize the music immediately without looking at the screen.

No complaints here. Wonderful.

Control

The control in Genso Suikoden V forces the player to adjust their view, rather the opposite. Genso Suikoden V employs a birdview camera, which only allow you to zoom in and out. No, you can’t roll the camera using the analog control, so you need to carefully watch for hidden chests or roads. The inability to roll the camera also results in sometimes losing the sight of your character, blocked by a house wall or an alley.

Sometimes the camera view can get annoying …

… sometimes the camera adjusts automatically

The Battle System

Genso Suikoden V lets you see and enjoy the the kind of fight featured in previous Suikoden series. One of the series’ main atraction, the combination attack, is still available. In this game, you can bring along 10 characters on your journey. Only 6 characters are available during the battle, with their formation can be changed. The remaining 4 can enter the battle as substitutes. Every formation has their own strength and weakness to every characters involved.

The battle formation

Combination attack, a Suikoden tradition

The combination attack creates many possibilities during the battle. And you need to be careful in changing the formation, since it has different effects for each characters. This is made possible by the range system, which determines the effect on magic attacks and defense. Character with close range attack won’t be effective if put behind, while character with long range attack or magic should not be put in the front, since they have low HP and low defense.

Duel

Duel mode is still available. This game uses the duel system introduced in Genso Suikoden III. Character status in duel mode can be raised with skill points acquired from the fights. The skill points then can be used to learn special skills like combat, attack, instruction, sword, magic, etc.

The duel system hasn’t changed much compared with Genso Suikoden IV.

Extras

The Genso Suikoden series, which was inspired by the classic Chinese novel Shui Hu Zuan (Outlaws of the Marsh) written by Shi Nai’an, also provides many minigames, from fishing to dragon horse race.

Another tradition of the series is the the public bath scene, in which we have a scene of mixed bath (it’s mild, OK?).

Anyway, there is no doubt that this is a good RPG. Both newcomers and veterans of the series will find this game worthy of their time.

Platform: PS2
Genre: RPG
Developer: Konami

The King of Fighters : Maximum Impact 2 is the second attempt by SNK Playmore to bring the franchise into the world of 3D. The first Maximum Impact in 2005 was a rather dissapointing experience, with its bland graphics, small number of fighters (compared to the 2D series), and cheap combos.

Care for a light, mate?

The second Maximum Impact takes its cue directly from the many shortcoming of the first one. Cool intro movie, more detailed, smoother and beautifully drawn graphics that match the expectation of a PS2 owner, excellent sound, brand new character sprites, moves and customes, a total of 38 fighters (including hidden ones), and less cheap combos.

Characters

There are 5 new characters (including the boss). They are Ninon Beart (Mignon Beart’s sister), Lilly Kane (daughter of Billy Kane), Luise Meyrink (whose moves reminds me to Chizuru Kagura), Nagase (which moves like Hattori Hanzo from Samurai Spirits), and the final boss, Jivatma.

Nagase, one of the new main characters

Other old characters who made their first debut in 3D are Geese Howard, Billy Kane, Kula Diamond, Kim Kaphwan, and Mr. Karate (aka Takuma Sakazaki).

There are also characters borrowed from other SNK series, including Wild Wolf (aka Terry Bogard), B. Jenet, Rock Howard (the three of them are from Mark of the Wolves), Fio (Metal Slug), Richard Myer (the first ever Fatal Fury back in 1991, wow!), and Hanzo Hattori (Samurai Spirits, what is he doing here?).

Graphics

Tha graphics is simply beautiful, as expected from PS2 engine. Those who has played the first Maximum Impact can notice immediately the differences in character details, color, lighting, special effects and bacground animation. The graphics quality can now par with the like of Tekken.

Retaining the special feature from the first Maximum Impact, players can freeze the fight and view their favourite scenes from any angle, zooming in and out. This is especially entertaining during DM or SDM animation.

Iori’s strangulation routine was captured using the camera feature

Gameplay

The featured moves includes the ability to parry, counter strike, super cancel and moving aside. Even though the game is 3D, the feel is still much like the old 2D. The only exception is the new moving-aside, which feel like the old dodge move, except that if timed right, we can now attack the opponents from his/her side.

Just like the first Maximum Impact, players can still easily invoke a long combo. Some short combos can even be performed by tapping a single button (bwa hahaha! eat this!). Fortunately, the damage has been reduced now. Still, a long chain of combos concluded with a Desperate Move can bring so much frustation to the receiving end.

Sound

The Japanese version brought excellent voice casts, with every character has their own long lines of dialog after beating the last boss. Of course, old characters still retain their trademark one-liners, which serve well for long time fans of KoF.

The stage music are top notch. I don’t have sensitive ears, but I can tell that the music feels much better than its 2D predecessors.

Extra Stuffs

Plenty of extra stuffs available to keep players preoccupied with this game. There are Time Attack, Quest Survival, Easy Mission and Extra Mission. My favourite is the Extra Mission, in which player can choose to destroy a car, fight a Metal Slug tank, carving a stone, or blowing up a bulldozer.

It’s Metal Slug alright

Each time a player finish a character story, the character profile will be unlocked, which will will display his/her Stats, Bio and Prologue. The profile mode will also let the player to change costumes, rotate the character model, zooming in and out.

Conclusion

Overall, this game is a beautiful gift from SNK Playmore for every KoF fans. Even if you never play KoF before, this game will serve as a good introduction to the world of KoF.

Format: Play Station 2
Genre: 3D Fighting
Developer: SNK Playmore

A new game by SNK Playmore, this is the sequel of King of Fighter : Maximum Impact.

The last installment was heavily criticized by the fanatical fans of the KoF franchise who strongly against the loss of the trademark tag team battle system, the very thing that had gained so much fandom since the first one of the series in 1994.

And now, the franchise is back, introducing a brand new dodging style (although the old Fatal Fury series had already introduce the concept of dodging moving side-by-side).

This KoF Maximum Impact 2 has come to relieve the dissappointment of the fans, reeling for the ever less number of releases of this genre, and for the failure of KoF 2003, much despised for its terrible graphic and gameplay.

The new installment is a side story of the original KoF storyline. It starts a couple of months after the conclusion of the first King of Fighter : Maximum Impact, with Alba Meira came out as a winner eliminating the last boss, Duke. And now the fighters are invited back to the still-illegal King of Fighters to decide who deserved the title of the strongest.

The graphics in King of Fighter: Maximum Impact 2 is superb with new sprites for almost every characters. The game is repleted with special effects which make the whole display so astounding, as with the choice of colors both striking and beautiful.

In this game, you’ll find 30 characters from all other SNK series as default characters and another 10 hidden characters for the satisfaction of loyal fans. The roster includes all fighters from the first KoF:MI plus Luise Meyrink, Nagase (whose fighting styles reminds me of Hattori Hanzo from the Samurai Spirits series), Billy Kane, and Kula Diamond (now armed with a devastating SDM). The hidden charactes obtained after finishing the game with certain characters are Kyo Kusanagi (classic), Ninon Beart (mirror of Minon Beart), B. Janet (Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolf), Kim Kaphwan, Richard Myer (from Fatal Fury I), Armor Ralf (a much stonger Ralf), Hyena (the host of the first dari King of Fighter: MI), Wild Wolf (Terry Bogart from Mark of the Wolves, lacking of his Round Wave), Lilly Kane (Billy Kane’s daughter), Nightmare Gesse, Fio (Metal Slug 4 and 5), Hattori Hanzo (Samurai Spirit), Mr. Karate (Takuma Sakazaki with a mask), and Jivatma (the final boss).

As for the ending, I’m pretty much satisfied with it even though it still can’t match the Tekken series in terms of revealing of its characters. In KoF : MI2 endings you’ll only find the characters chatting in front of the ruin of the last battle site. Only a handful of characters have their own interesting short ending movie, in line with the game official story.

Overall, KoF : MI2 is a very good game with a decent graphic quality and combos almost in par with Tekken 5. Fans for combo-based fighting games like Tekken will definitely have to try this game.

Have a nice game.