Welcome to World Zero - Reviews for the hardcore gamer

The Divine Comedy has been the basis, or at least the inspiration, for a handful of titles throughout gaming’s history. However, few seem to be as inspired by Dante Alighieri’s epic as much as the Rengoku series has. Rengoku II: The Stairway to H.E.A.V.E.N. is probably the most heavy handed, pretentious dungeon crawler to date. The plot combined with the game’s own genre essentially makes this game a niche within a niche, and is quite clearly not for everyone.

Rengoku’s tale exists within a post war-torn world where A.D.A.M. units (unaware beings built solely to fight man’s wars) are placed in a physical tower of purgatory, forever fighting each other for the amusement of man. The original Rengoku revolved around the story of a single A.D.A.M. unit becoming conscious and thus realizing his existence is a hell of infinite battle contained within a massive tower that he cannot escape. The sequel is too ambiguous to be a blatant continuation of the original tale, but it further fleshes out the story of a sentient A.D.A.M. unit; whether it’s the same unit from before is something you’ll have to uncover for yourself.

The tower of Rengoku was identified in the original game as purgatory, but once your A.D.A.M. unit gains awareness in what is apparently the same purgatory in the sequel, you soon realize you are being guided by a woman named Beatrice, who apparently has control of over the tower in some form. These parallels suggest this Cantica of The Divine Comedy is perhaps not actually purgatory at all, but paradise. Beatrice guides the A.D.A.M. through the nine spheres of Heaven as The Comedy plays out, but as the A.D.A.M. unit’s artificial intelligence cannot come to terms with the fact that he is a monstrous weapon of war killing indefinitely. Combined with the realization that the titular H.E.A.V.E.N. stands for Highwire Enigmatic Automatic Violent Endless Nightmare, this take on The Divine Comedy is not going to be as straight forward as a simple retelling. Rengoku’s ambiguous, sci-fi take on The Divine Comedy is a very thought provoking journey, especially considering video games rarely take such a direction.

When you begin your search for answers that may or may not lie at the top of the tower, you are completely unarmed and defenseless. As you journey through the maze-like dungeons that make up the tower, you constantly encounter other A.D.A.M. units, stuck in their own purgatory of infinite combat. Each face button on the PSP corresponds to a section of your A.D.A.M.; Square utilizes your left arm, triangle represents your head, circle makes use of your right arm, and square is your torso. Combos can be linked together only by a subsequent body part; for example you can chain a combo together via your left arm, then your right arm, then your head, but not your left arm followed by your left arm. When you slay an A.D.A.M. unit, they slowly collapse to the floor. During this time you can unleash a combo, referred to as an overkill. The higher the combo damage you inflict during an overkill, the higher the chance you can disarm the various body parts from the defeated A.D.A.M., which in turn can then be picked up and equipped on your own A.D.A.M.

Rengoku II consists of hundreds of unique body parts used to replace your arms, torso, head, and legs. These parts can range from a plasma sword protruding from your shoulder, to a massive chaingun jutting from your forehead, to a retractable chain which can extend from your chest to grab distant enemies and pull them within melee range. All of these collectable parts are used to build your own unique A.D.A.M. in a very unrestricting, customizable fashion. The different parts are extremely varying in execution; attacking with a hand made from an axe feels completely different than burning enemies with a head-mounted flame thrower--as it should. Knowing that each room you enter can potentially award you with a new item that can completely change the feel of combat is a very addicting and rewarding mechanic.

When your own A.D.A.M. gets defeated, he drops his equipped gear and gets sent to the bottom of the tower, in true old school dungeon crawling fashion. Luckily, the bottom floor has a warp point for each of the eight subsequent floors above it, leaving your “corpse run” to be less of a headache than it sounds on paper. While it seems a little annoying at first, this is really a blessing in disguise as it forces you to try out new parts (at least until you retrieve your dropped equipment). It’s easy to fall into a pattern; using certain weapons types you prefer or have grown attached to, while ignoring others. While you actually level up each individual part via use on the battlefield, higher floors eventually force you to find and use the successively more powerful items due to your foes becoming increasingly dominant. In addition, defeating enemies, breaking destructible crates, or melting down unwanted weapons all generate Elixir Skin, an item used to level up your A.D.A.M.’s individual statistics and increase your ability to equip reserve parts (which you can switch on the fly if the battle calls for a different tactic, or use as backups in case you run out of ammo). The game is customizable to an extent that seems overwhelming at first, but by the end of the first floor, the progression of your A.D.A.M. becomes very fluid and almost second nature.

It should be brought to light that Rengoku II rectifies many of the problems the first game had. While the controls of the original were unwieldy, the sequel lets you control your A.D.A.M. with ease. You now have the option of using either the analog nub or the directional pad for movement, along with the ability to strafe and turn on a dime. The game handles more like a streamlined, traditional third person shooter despite it actually not playing anything like one. Rengoku II has also restructured its overkill system allowing it to be more intuitive and user friendly than before. Although some weapons are still much more useful in achieving overkills than others (the rapid fire of a machine gun is easier to build up combos than a single hit of a sickle), it’s still possible to create A.D.A.M. builds which don’t necessarily have to revolve around overkills--something the original nearly forced you to do if you really wanted those end game weapon drops. All in all, fans of the original will most likely be astounded by how much work has been put into improving the way the game plays over its cumbersome prequel.

Rengoku II unquestionably succeeds as a deep dungeon crawler with a near excessive amount of customization, but that is all it is. It focuses on the story arc’s infinite combat and infinite combat alone. There are no towns to visit and no NPCs to interact with. While each floor of H.E.AV.E.N. looks significantly different from the last, they all are simply maze-like dungeons at their core. No large open spaces or outdoor environments here. Because of this, Rengoku II is an extremely focused dungeon crawler. It the same vein, it’s necessary to go into Rengoku II knowing it will be a very concentrated dungeon crawling experience with absolutely no RPG conventions in order to enjoy it fully.

Rating	The rating scale in detail
8.5	+ Meticulously detailed characters and environments, fantastic texture work, and gorgeous cut scenes.
8.9	++ Outstanding soundtrack full of fitting techno, industrial, and even orchestral tracks. The reoccurring theme played after a defeated boss is epic. - No voice acting whatsoever.
8.0	++ Insane customization and tons of weapons, all of which substantially change the way the game plays. - Some of the weapons feel a little unbalanced. Rapid fire weapons make chaining combos together too easy.
9.0	++ Beautiful yet simultaneously dismal sci-fi interpretation of The Divine Comedy. Does a fantastic job of portraying an overwhelming sense of hopelessness confined within a very alien environment. ++ Flawless, delightfully bizarre creations from Suemi Jun. - The detailed design and epic plot are both restricted by the limiting format of the PSP. This series desperately needs a proper, fully fleshed out incarnation on a more capable format.
8.0	++ Ridiculous amounts of dungeon crawling. When the game looks like it’s coming to a close, it actually reveals you’re not even a halfway done. -- The very nature of the game is tedious.
8.1	+ Deep dungeon crawling done right, but this a definite love it or hate it affair due to its limited, oftentimes repetitive focus solely on combat.