I've played a good dozen games in this Game Pass PC binge. Let's keep the train rolling while I still have time to play. BACKGROUND:
I played River City Ransom for the original NES through the Switch Online emulator, and it ended up being one of my favorite classic beat-'em-ups. River City Girls naturally caught my attention both as a new entry of the franchise, the fact that it's developed by WayForward, and its eye-catching presentation. PLOT: Kyoko and Misako are two seemingly unassuming high school girls. During a stint in detention, they learn that their respective boyfriends Riki and Kunio (the protagonists of the original River City Ransom) have been kidnapped. The duo break out of school in search of their loves, scouring the entire city beating the absolute shit out of everybody in their way. The plot is as ridiculous as it sounds, and it's complemented by all the over-the-top characters with bombastic personalities. The dialogue between characters is delightfully silly, and the game's sense of humor is highly entertaining. There were a good amount of lines that got a good laugh out of me. Nothing about the story is particularly deep, so it's more for people who are just looking for a fun, silly time and not so much folks who want complex narratives. PRESENTATION: The game has a strong anime/manga art style, with beautifully drawn character art, super expressive facial expressions, flashy anime cutscenes, flashbacks presented like a manga (but with added visual flair), and vibrant UI elements. There's even a straight up opening cinematic that feels 100% like an anime title sequence. The gameplay itself takes on a 16-bit aesthetic, but the anime vibe is still very much evident in the sprites. The characters are super expressive despite the seeming limitations in the graphics, and the animations are incredibly fluid. The level designs all look great, and capture the vibes of various elements of a typical city really well. The soundtrack is phenomenal, with all the tracks having a super catchy synthpop vibe. A number of tracks have full vocals, and while they have a relatively more chill vibe compared to the regular tracks, they still fit the game's action well. Though the music is fantastic overall, my absolute favorite still seems to be the theme song that accompanies the opening cinematic. It's just a goddamn bop. Outside of the music, aspects of audio like sound effects and voice acting are also well done. The former embraces the retro aesthetic of the game and go all in on the chiptune. The latter is excellent as well, with a strong cast bringing life to pretty much every character (even the regular enemies with no actual speaking lines). My personal favorite voice is the one for the cyborg enemies, because they do the fucking ridiculous Arnold Schwarzenegger "impersonation" everyone does. It made me laugh every time I heard it. GAMEPLAY: Much like River City Ransom before it, River City Girls is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up. It plays pretty much like any other beat-'em-up; move through the areas, beat the shit out of everybody, move to the next area, repeat. What sets River City Girls apart from other beat-'em-ups is that it has basic RPG elements. Defeating enemies drops money that you can spend on consumable items, equippable items, and the dojo (where you can learn new moves). You also get XP, and when you level up, your stats increase. You could certainly grind through the game if you want, but there's little reason to; completing quests rewards you with a decent amount of money and XP that you can get by simply dealing with the required fights. The equippable items have pretty negligible buffs for the most part, and you'll probably find more use in the consumables. Annoyingly, the game doesn't tell you what items do until you buy them, and I see absolutely no reason to obfuscate such information. River City Girls is also different in terms of its level structure. Whereas most other beat-'em-ups have you constantly moving forward in a linear fashion, this game lets you move across areas and explore each section freely (as you do in River City Ransom). There's not a lot to explore, and backtracking can feel a bit cumbersome (because enemies respawn), but this is an element I really enjoyed when I played River City Ransom; I like the idea of exploring the city to find answers. Other people may feel differently about this element. In terms of moveset, you have pretty standard stuff, like a quick combo, a bunch of heavy attacks, grab moves (that you can only unfortunately use on stunned enemies), dash moves, and jump-in moves. Kyoko and Misako have unique movesets, but the difference is mostly in terms of animation. You can also block incoming attacks, and if you time it right, you can perform a parry. In practice, blocking is kind of pointless; I found it effective to just beat the shit out of enemies instead of baiting a parry, and it's straight up worthless against certain attacks. There are only a small variety of enemies, but they have a good amount of depth in terms of their movesets. There are six bosses total, each with fun set pieces and attacks that are a bit of a pain to deal with. A few of them can be a pain to deal with because of quick movement, super fast wakeups, and/or the ability to block even your quickest moves. Blocking is easily the most annoying thing any enemy can do, because there's no way to punish them for doing so (plus, they can act out of block faster than you can react). Occasionally, beating the shit out of an enemy causes them to beg for mercy. While you can be a cruel bastard and continue the ass-whooping, you can choose to recruit them instead. Doing so gives you a sort of assist you can call in at anytime (after a cooldown). Each regular enemy has a unique assist attack, so it's worthwhile to try and recruit different enemies to see what they can do. You can only have one assist at a time, and your assist can take damage (if they take enough, you lose the assist). I didn't find myself using it all that much, but I thought it was neat. Dying is a little more lenient here than in other beat-'em-ups, as the only penalty is throwing you back in the last room you were in and taking a fraction of your money. This makes the game a bit more casual friendly, but it's still not a pushover when it comes to the actual difficulty of fights. The game is incredibly stingy with healing item drops (forcing you to grind for cash to buy healing items), so if you get your ass kicked, you're stuck with low health until you manage to find a shop or, more likely, die. You can also pick up various weapons to bludgeon enemies with (alternatively, you can chuck them at enemies. Some have unique properties (like the boomerang, which functions as you'd expect when thrown), while others (like the fish) are just hilarious. There are a few optional things you can do like side quests (of which there are a handful), breakable statues (which serve as the game's collectible), and a bunch of fun secrets. Despite the game's relatively small size, there's a good amount of stuff to find and do. Beating the game unlocks New Game Plus and a pair of new playable characters, so there's a bit of replay value as well. VERDICT: River City Girls is a fun beat-'em-up that takes all the elements of the original River City Ransom and gives it an eye-popping coat of paint. Though there's nothing really groundbreaking about the gameplay itself, and there are a few qualms I had with some of the choices they made, I still enjoyed beating the shit out of people, and I still liked the RPG elements they brought back. What elevates the experience for me is the vibrant art style and amazing soundtrack, and the humor and voice acting really amused me. If you're looking for a silly time with a relatively simple beat-'em-up with an anime flair, this is worth checking out. And like every beat-'em-up, I highly recommend playing through the game with a second player. Check out the game on Steam: River City Girls on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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July 2024
Derryck
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