Today, I review the second game of a trilogy! Why the second game, and not the first or third, you ask? Because that's exactly what you'd expect me to do, I reply.



The Katsugeki Kidan trilogy, by Gatling Cat, starts the tengu Momiji Inubashiri. Yes, even when she was just a midboss with no official art, Momiji was getting her own games. Several from these guys in fact, they were enormous fans of hers. All three games are pretty basic plot-wise - Momiji has to go resolve an incident, which involves platforming around a variety of levels (with a different level setup each game), and thus having to fight her way through an army of youkai and several Touhou characters. The stages are a mix of "specific Touhou locations" and "generic levels", usually depending on which character if any you're going to fight.



Each game has the same basic setup - several basic moves, several SP-using special moves, and the abilities to jump and dash, the latter of which can cancel bullets and is vital to surviving many of the more aggressive boss fights in the game. Momiji's special moves run the gauntlet from as basic as an extra jump in the air to as complicated as a series of several strikes she can perform in a row, but they're all generally designed for one of three things: advanced movement, extra damage, or screen clearing. In the second and third games, you even get to customize which special moves you have at a time! The games also have a level up system, involving Momiji gradually increasing HP, SP, and her maximum attack as she overcomes ever-higher experience needs.



Katsugeki Kidan's stages are okay, and its gameplay is solid if nothing special. However, where it really shines is the bosses. In each game, bosses have multiple phases, several unique patterns, and are clearly the point where most of the game received its work. In 2, each boss has a damage meter that slowly fills up the more you hit them (as well as over time) and whenever they fill it up, they unleash a super move. All of the bosses have various screen-filling bullet attacks and unique boss themes, but one of the best parts about the bosses is how they can easily be learned. All you've gotta do is focus and concentrate and work your way through, learning how to handle each boss and taking them down one by one.



Unfortunately, Katsugeki Kidan is the opposite of yesterday's Dangerous Patchouli. Whereas that game had very good stages but forgettable bosses, this game's stages are the relatively easy to ignore parts. Stages are uniquely designed, but they all start to blend together thanks to only really varying in enemy variety, not having that many unique features and generally serving as a prelude to the more exciting and interesting boss fights. 3 improved on them, but we're talking about 2. As a result, playing most of the stages in this game just feels like killing time and grinding until you finally get to what you're really here for.



But hey. This game shows true dedication of Touhou. See a girl you like who doesn't have any dialogue or art? Just make an entire game trilogy and at least five other games with her! (Gatling Cat really, REALLY loves Momiji.)

THE VERDICT

Katsugeki Kidan 2, in my opinion, is truly the Dark Souls of sequels midpoint of the trilogy. It improves on the concepts introduced in 1, but has yet to reach its full complete form as seen in 3. This would probably be more effective if I had reviewed 1 and 3, but that's just motivation to play them yourself! While the stages aren't a highlight, the bosses (and there's ten fully-developed bosses) are more than enough to keep your investment, and to get you to keep chipping away until you can beat every single one. Even if you have to reach level 150 to do it! I give this game four Reimus out of five.

i forget which ones of these i've played but i can confirm that the third game is lit
these games also have a bizarrely in depth combo system if you're into air juggling the shit out of everything
i guess that's why they put so many weak loser enemies in your path, to make you learn combos?

I've never heard of these games. I don't think its exactly my thing but I still appreciate it for what it is.