Returning to regular programming, I have decided to cover a certain series, which also happens to be a personal favorite, but, I can already see you wondering, why am I covering the 2nd game in the series first? You see, I am going to cover this series, in the recommended play order, it isn’t too complex really, just play 2, then Nightmares (1), then Finale, the fact 2 has a remake of Mary Skelter Nightmares makes things far easier, and that’s the one I will be playing next, but I am getting ahead of myself.
So, the Mary Skelter series is an interesting piece of history, developed by notorious kusoge developers Compile Heart, together with and published by the infamous
If anything, this series its when Compile Heart proved that they can indeed make good games.
Anyway, let’s get on with it.
Story & Setting
What was once the city of Tokyo has caved in, consumed by a living Jail which feeds upon human suffering.
Withing the Jail, Marchen and Nightmares reside, the purpose of these creatures, to torture humans in order to satisfy the Jail’s desires.
Not everything is hopeless, as a group of humans did manage to escape the Jail, and make a few small communities, and even, fighting back against the horrors.
Among those humans, is Dawn, a faction dedicated to research the Jail and its creatures, but, not only that, in Dawn exists the hope of fighting back, Blood Maidens. Girls whom are empowered by the blood of the Jail’s creatures, although quite volatile in nature, they are the only hope to escape.
What was once a routine mission of liberating prisoners and looking for more Blood Maidens, turns sour, with a very dangerous Nightmare getting loose and destroying Dawn, massacring most of the human resistance.
Not everything is lost however, among the few survivors, there is Otsuu and Little Mermaid, together with the survivors and Jack a friendly Nightmare, they will regroup, rebuild, and fight back against the Jail.
Things are about to get, quite bloody.
Withing the Jail, Marchen and Nightmares reside, the purpose of these creatures, to torture humans in order to satisfy the Jail’s desires.
Not everything is hopeless, as a group of humans did manage to escape the Jail, and make a few small communities, and even, fighting back against the horrors.
Among those humans, is Dawn, a faction dedicated to research the Jail and its creatures, but, not only that, in Dawn exists the hope of fighting back, Blood Maidens. Girls whom are empowered by the blood of the Jail’s creatures, although quite volatile in nature, they are the only hope to escape.
What was once a routine mission of liberating prisoners and looking for more Blood Maidens, turns sour, with a very dangerous Nightmare getting loose and destroying Dawn, massacring most of the human resistance.
Not everything is lost however, among the few survivors, there is Otsuu and Little Mermaid, together with the survivors and Jack a friendly Nightmare, they will regroup, rebuild, and fight back against the Jail.
Things are about to get, quite bloody.
There is also a prologue novel, its completely optional, even though its events are referenced in-game, unless you feel like getting extra context to some events and relationships, its not necessary.
As to how it connects to Mary Skelter Nightmares, get the true ending and you will see.
Presentation
3D First-Person Dungeon Crawler, which uses a very recognizable (if you have played other games by Compile Heart) anime style for the portraits.
But, there are 3D models for some of the girls in certain moments in which you will have to fight them.
The game is heavily themed after fairy tales and folklore, just with a darker spin on it.
The game also contains quite a lot of fanservice, the fact is Compile Heart should be enough give away anyway, originally, the PC version had the most risque CGs censored (which were tied to a certain mini-game), but, due to backlash, the censorship was removed (although you have to patch it yourself).
The game uses a visual novel style to tell the story, but, it does go out of way to add little movements to the stills, like hair and clothing swaying, blinking, or mouths moving when characters speak, although it does have the issue of all stills having roughly the same size, which makes proportions of some characters look weird when standing beside others, especially for ones which are supposed to be short, its most notable with Rapunzel and Cinderella.
But, there are 3D models for some of the girls in certain moments in which you will have to fight them.
The game is heavily themed after fairy tales and folklore, just with a darker spin on it.
The game also contains quite a lot of fanservice, the fact is Compile Heart should be enough give away anyway, originally, the PC version had the most risque CGs censored (which were tied to a certain mini-game), but, due to backlash, the censorship was removed (although you have to patch it yourself).
The game uses a visual novel style to tell the story, but, it does go out of way to add little movements to the stills, like hair and clothing swaying, blinking, or mouths moving when characters speak, although it does have the issue of all stills having roughly the same size, which makes proportions of some characters look weird when standing beside others, especially for ones which are supposed to be short, its most notable with Rapunzel and Cinderella.
All enemies have 3D models, and, for most areas, they are pretty unique and themed after the area they appear, but, its common to see recolors, and, there are some repeated enemies in later areas, but, nothing too outrageous when it comes to reusing assets.
As for Nightmares, since they take the role of boss for any given dungeon, each one is very unique, each having 2 forms as well.
Dungeons have a theme, underwater, candy, sewer, etc. Sometimes with unique assets for the traps and gimmicks, but, most of the time those assets are reused. For the most part, every dungeon is very unique on how it looks, and those looks really enhance the vibe each one is going for.
As for Nightmares, since they take the role of boss for any given dungeon, each one is very unique, each having 2 forms as well.
Dungeons have a theme, underwater, candy, sewer, etc. Sometimes with unique assets for the traps and gimmicks, but, most of the time those assets are reused. For the most part, every dungeon is very unique on how it looks, and those looks really enhance the vibe each one is going for.
The map does have its moments in which is hard to tell if there is an interception, especially when there is a trap in the middle.
In the sound department, as usual, the English voice acting sucks, so go with the original. Although, since characters like to scream their lines in combat, it can become annoying, specially when you have multiple ones in massacre mode.
For enemies, besides the plot relevant bosses, they all pretty much share the same sounds, either high pitch roars/squeals, or very out of place old man screaming, I am not joking.
The game likes to convey a lot through sounds, but, since many sounds are shared, it ends up not being too helpful.
Now, the strongest part, the music in this game is great, the base theme IMO is the best one in the whole game. The game does have the problem of music going back to the start of the track each time it switches from another track, with some tracks, it can become maddening.
In the sound department, as usual, the English voice acting sucks, so go with the original. Although, since characters like to scream their lines in combat, it can become annoying, specially when you have multiple ones in massacre mode.
For enemies, besides the plot relevant bosses, they all pretty much share the same sounds, either high pitch roars/squeals, or very out of place old man screaming, I am not joking.
The game likes to convey a lot through sounds, but, since many sounds are shared, it ends up not being too helpful.
Now, the strongest part, the music in this game is great, the base theme IMO is the best one in the whole game. The game does have the problem of music going back to the start of the track each time it switches from another track, with some tracks, it can become maddening.
Mechanics
Do you want mechanics? This game has mechanics.
Besides the usual Dungeon crawling, there is quite a lot to cover.
The dungeon is a living entity, therefore it has desires, in this game, it has 3, hunger, sleep and libido, each one is satisfied in different ways, both while in exploring and in combat.
Hunger by hitting enemies’ weaknesses, hitting crits, as well as tossing blood, sleep by not taking nor dealing damage, and libido, by finding items and using the lick command.
When a desire is fully satisfied, you will get to spin the wheel for a bonus, which can vary if triggered either during exploration or combat, for the most part, is something positive, for example, it can fully heal a character, or, it can give a status effect to an enemy, even if said enemy is a boss or technically immune to it, yes its that good.
How quickly the meter fills, depends on the moon, its color shows which desire gets a boost, it also makes the wheel easier to use if you satisfy the desire the moon is enhancing.
The dungeon has a percentage, which means how much it has noticed your activities, the higher it gets, the stronger enemies get, but the better rewards you get, you can satisfy the dungeon’s desires for that percentage to go down, I never saw it get past 70% unless I was deliberately raising it myself (escaping from encounters makes it raise faster).
All characters provide an exploration ability, and, as you progress through the game, dungeons will require you to get creative with those exploration abilities, thankfully, even if a party member is benched, she can still provide her exploration ability to the party.
Besides the usual Dungeon crawling, there is quite a lot to cover.
The dungeon is a living entity, therefore it has desires, in this game, it has 3, hunger, sleep and libido, each one is satisfied in different ways, both while in exploring and in combat.
Hunger by hitting enemies’ weaknesses, hitting crits, as well as tossing blood, sleep by not taking nor dealing damage, and libido, by finding items and using the lick command.
When a desire is fully satisfied, you will get to spin the wheel for a bonus, which can vary if triggered either during exploration or combat, for the most part, is something positive, for example, it can fully heal a character, or, it can give a status effect to an enemy, even if said enemy is a boss or technically immune to it, yes its that good.
How quickly the meter fills, depends on the moon, its color shows which desire gets a boost, it also makes the wheel easier to use if you satisfy the desire the moon is enhancing.
The dungeon has a percentage, which means how much it has noticed your activities, the higher it gets, the stronger enemies get, but the better rewards you get, you can satisfy the dungeon’s desires for that percentage to go down, I never saw it get past 70% unless I was deliberately raising it myself (escaping from encounters makes it raise faster).
All characters provide an exploration ability, and, as you progress through the game, dungeons will require you to get creative with those exploration abilities, thankfully, even if a party member is benched, she can still provide her exploration ability to the party.
A lot of mechanics in this game have to do with blood.
Besides health and SP (mana), characters have a blood splatter bar, when that bar is full, they will transform into massacre mode, which enhances their stats, gives them access to massacre abilities which are very strong and very cheap mana wise, and, when you make enemies bleed, the character will heal and recover some mana. Massacre mode has a random duration, sometimes its 1 turn, other times you can get lucky and have multiple.
But, the blood splatter bar is a double edged sword, a character can become corrupted by receiving too much damage, or having teammates go down, the darker the blood splatter meter gets, the more corrupted the character becomes. When the bar is full, and the character is corrupted, there is a chance she will turn into Blood Skelter instead, which makes her VERY strong, with the downside of you not being able to control her, and she will attack both enemies and allies. Blood Skelter isn’t guaranteed, you can be lucky and not get it when on high corruption, or be unlucky and get it on low corruption, its always a gamble.
You can mitigate their damage, by using the embrace command, which makes the Blood Skelter target the character which used embrace.
In order to cure corruption, we got Jack, he and Otsuu share their turn, you can either have Otsuu/Jack act twice, or switch between them, with the downside of them having a limited amount of turns per rotation. Jack can purge a character to reduce her corruption, and, he is the only way to turn a Blood Skelter back to normal. Jack can also use Nightmare Zone, which is kinda like a very strong stun.
Thing is, Jack doesn’t use SP, and he doesn’t take damage, instead, every command of his, uses his sanity, his sanity works the same as corruption does for the girls, the lower it is the higher the chance of Jack going Ripper mode, which is the same as Blood Skelter, but it does cure itself when Otsuu uses counseling on him, he can also take a deep breath to recover some sanity.
If Jack goes Ripper 3 times in the same fight, you will get a game over. He also loses sanity if characters go down.
Keep in mind that Jack and Otsuu are connected, if Jack goes Ripper, Otsuu will corrupt to the maximum, and, if Otsuu goes Blood Skelter, Jack will get max stress.
When a battle ends, Jack will automatically heal any Blood Skelter (suffering the sanity hit), and, if he is Ripper, he will recover to full sanity. He also recovers sanity when walking around in exploration mode.
You can use the rescue center to reduce how quickly the girls get corrupted, this is where the mini-game is, in the mini-game, you have to massage them and clean blood from their bodies… Make sure no one is nearby so you don’t have to explain things.
Besides health and SP (mana), characters have a blood splatter bar, when that bar is full, they will transform into massacre mode, which enhances their stats, gives them access to massacre abilities which are very strong and very cheap mana wise, and, when you make enemies bleed, the character will heal and recover some mana. Massacre mode has a random duration, sometimes its 1 turn, other times you can get lucky and have multiple.
But, the blood splatter bar is a double edged sword, a character can become corrupted by receiving too much damage, or having teammates go down, the darker the blood splatter meter gets, the more corrupted the character becomes. When the bar is full, and the character is corrupted, there is a chance she will turn into Blood Skelter instead, which makes her VERY strong, with the downside of you not being able to control her, and she will attack both enemies and allies. Blood Skelter isn’t guaranteed, you can be lucky and not get it when on high corruption, or be unlucky and get it on low corruption, its always a gamble.
You can mitigate their damage, by using the embrace command, which makes the Blood Skelter target the character which used embrace.
In order to cure corruption, we got Jack, he and Otsuu share their turn, you can either have Otsuu/Jack act twice, or switch between them, with the downside of them having a limited amount of turns per rotation. Jack can purge a character to reduce her corruption, and, he is the only way to turn a Blood Skelter back to normal. Jack can also use Nightmare Zone, which is kinda like a very strong stun.
Thing is, Jack doesn’t use SP, and he doesn’t take damage, instead, every command of his, uses his sanity, his sanity works the same as corruption does for the girls, the lower it is the higher the chance of Jack going Ripper mode, which is the same as Blood Skelter, but it does cure itself when Otsuu uses counseling on him, he can also take a deep breath to recover some sanity.
If Jack goes Ripper 3 times in the same fight, you will get a game over. He also loses sanity if characters go down.
Keep in mind that Jack and Otsuu are connected, if Jack goes Ripper, Otsuu will corrupt to the maximum, and, if Otsuu goes Blood Skelter, Jack will get max stress.
When a battle ends, Jack will automatically heal any Blood Skelter (suffering the sanity hit), and, if he is Ripper, he will recover to full sanity. He also recovers sanity when walking around in exploration mode.
You can use the rescue center to reduce how quickly the girls get corrupted, this is where the mini-game is, in the mini-game, you have to massage them and clean blood from their bodies… Make sure no one is nearby so you don’t have to explain things.
Enemies drop blood crystals, which can be used for many things, to upgrade equipment (up to a max of +20), to unlock more ability slots, to level down, or to do some honest work (farming).
You can plant blood crystals in the dungeon, and wait for equipment to grow, it slowly grows after each encounter, and you can water the plants with your enemy’s blood to give you better rewards, although its random, the equipment obtained in this manner can go up to +99.
Weapons also have unique qualities, like more criticals, or more bleeding.
In the laboratory, you can unlock new classes for the girls, thing is, you don’t have to switch to another class to learn or use its abilities, as long as you have it unlocked you can learn and use its abilities, including passives, but, abilities from other classes won’t be as effective when used by a different class. Every 10 levels, the character gets 1 point to unlock a class, each girl has 4 classes (Not counting their default nor DLC ones which are free).
When they level up, each character gets points to buy abilities, and the available abilities are from the unlocked classes, and the amount you can equip, depends on how many slots you got.
Some equipment gives abilities, and sometimes you can find blood packs, which you can transfuse to the girls for weaker yet free abilities.
You get new massacre skills, by leveling up your affection with the character, by giving them gifts. This also unlocks events for more characterization, including fanservice events.
Blood devolution is leveling down a character, why would you do that? It refunds their skill points, and, when they level up again, they will get more points to use, and their stats will increase with bigger numbers. Unless you are playing on FEAR (hard), its not necessary, and, all it does is make the game more grindy.
There is also quests, but, I wouldn’t recommend them, they suck, and you can only have 1 active at a time.
When it comes to bosses, this game is special, you see, while you are exploring the dungeon, at any moment, the boss can spawn, chase you, and attack you, the boss is immortal as long as the dungeon core is standing, so you have to run away, or injure the boss enough to stun them and give you time to run away, thing is, when the boss is chasing you, you can’t look at your map, good luck.
But, once the core is destroyed, you get to finally have some payback, doing the boss fight proper, don’t worry, bosses are cowards, once the core is destroyed they will only spawn in a specific area for you to fight them.
There is another thing you can do in dungeons, you can add Jail trials, which are handicaps to yourself for extra bonuses, like getting more exp, or higher chance for items to drop, etc. There is no limit as to how many trials you can have, its only how masochistic you are feeling.
You can also find roulette pieces, which do just that, they allow you to equip certain bonuses to the roulette, and the amount depends on how strong the bonus is, and how much of the dungeon you have explored.
Also, in every dungeon, after you kill the boss and trigger the roulette a few times, you will get an extra challenge floor with some really good items.
Team formations are simple, characters in front do more damage and receive more damage (only applies to physical skills), and the opposite for characters in the back (only applies to physical skills (except with certain weapons)), characters in the middle are more likely to be targeted by enemies (allegedly… The amount of times my caster (Thumbelina/Little Mermaid) got sniped by a boss…)
Characters on reserve can be added as partners to combat characters, which means that there is a chance they will do something extra, like stealing or applying a status effect.
The lick command… You see, in-game, it is said that Marchen and Nightmare blood is sweet, if you see that a character is close to Blood Skelter and don’t have Jack/Otsuu before them, you can have a character lick another in order to clean the blood from them, licking triggers a special ability depending on who gets licked, which are really good. A character can be licked if their blood splatter is at 3 or more.
The game also has critical notice, which means that it is guaranteed that all attacks by that character in that turn will crit, the higher the notice, the higher damage the crit will do.
There is also a traveling merchant, who can just show up like she is a random encounter, she often sells items which are found in the area in which you find her.
These are pretty much the unique ones which aren’t really self-explanatory, the beginning of the game is tutorial hell due to the sheer amount of mechanics.
You can plant blood crystals in the dungeon, and wait for equipment to grow, it slowly grows after each encounter, and you can water the plants with your enemy’s blood to give you better rewards, although its random, the equipment obtained in this manner can go up to +99.
Weapons also have unique qualities, like more criticals, or more bleeding.
In the laboratory, you can unlock new classes for the girls, thing is, you don’t have to switch to another class to learn or use its abilities, as long as you have it unlocked you can learn and use its abilities, including passives, but, abilities from other classes won’t be as effective when used by a different class. Every 10 levels, the character gets 1 point to unlock a class, each girl has 4 classes (Not counting their default nor DLC ones which are free).
When they level up, each character gets points to buy abilities, and the available abilities are from the unlocked classes, and the amount you can equip, depends on how many slots you got.
Some equipment gives abilities, and sometimes you can find blood packs, which you can transfuse to the girls for weaker yet free abilities.
You get new massacre skills, by leveling up your affection with the character, by giving them gifts. This also unlocks events for more characterization, including fanservice events.
Blood devolution is leveling down a character, why would you do that? It refunds their skill points, and, when they level up again, they will get more points to use, and their stats will increase with bigger numbers. Unless you are playing on FEAR (hard), its not necessary, and, all it does is make the game more grindy.
There is also quests, but, I wouldn’t recommend them, they suck, and you can only have 1 active at a time.
When it comes to bosses, this game is special, you see, while you are exploring the dungeon, at any moment, the boss can spawn, chase you, and attack you, the boss is immortal as long as the dungeon core is standing, so you have to run away, or injure the boss enough to stun them and give you time to run away, thing is, when the boss is chasing you, you can’t look at your map, good luck.
But, once the core is destroyed, you get to finally have some payback, doing the boss fight proper, don’t worry, bosses are cowards, once the core is destroyed they will only spawn in a specific area for you to fight them.
There is another thing you can do in dungeons, you can add Jail trials, which are handicaps to yourself for extra bonuses, like getting more exp, or higher chance for items to drop, etc. There is no limit as to how many trials you can have, its only how masochistic you are feeling.
You can also find roulette pieces, which do just that, they allow you to equip certain bonuses to the roulette, and the amount depends on how strong the bonus is, and how much of the dungeon you have explored.
Also, in every dungeon, after you kill the boss and trigger the roulette a few times, you will get an extra challenge floor with some really good items.
Team formations are simple, characters in front do more damage and receive more damage (only applies to physical skills), and the opposite for characters in the back (only applies to physical skills (except with certain weapons)), characters in the middle are more likely to be targeted by enemies (allegedly… The amount of times my caster (Thumbelina/Little Mermaid) got sniped by a boss…)
Characters on reserve can be added as partners to combat characters, which means that there is a chance they will do something extra, like stealing or applying a status effect.
The lick command… You see, in-game, it is said that Marchen and Nightmare blood is sweet, if you see that a character is close to Blood Skelter and don’t have Jack/Otsuu before them, you can have a character lick another in order to clean the blood from them, licking triggers a special ability depending on who gets licked, which are really good. A character can be licked if their blood splatter is at 3 or more.
The game also has critical notice, which means that it is guaranteed that all attacks by that character in that turn will crit, the higher the notice, the higher damage the crit will do.
There is also a traveling merchant, who can just show up like she is a random encounter, she often sells items which are found in the area in which you find her.
These are pretty much the unique ones which aren’t really self-explanatory, the beginning of the game is tutorial hell due to the sheer amount of mechanics.
Final Thoughts
I really like this game, is one of the best dungeon crawlers there is, and its made by Compile Heart of all studios.
There is quite a lot of freedom when it comes to team composition, although each character is limited to certain archetypes, the sheer amount of party members make experimentation possible, from having a hybrid dps, or a magician which hits like a truck, or a physical dps which can crowd control and tank almost anything.
For example, my build was focused on having the physical dps characters be faster and tankier, so the casters can clean up if enemies manage to survive the onslaught, effectively saving mana, and having both casters which can be healers as well available to pick up the pieces, my weakness was having to deal with status effects, but I patched it a little with equipment.
I also like the fact that its quite easy for things to spiral out of control, a bad team can lead to a domino effect once 1 character goes down, a good team can pretty much come back from the ashes. This game really hits the satisfaction of having a well developed team working like a well oiled machine.
The catharsis that comes from finally beating up the boss who has been annoying you since the start of the dungeon is amazing.
The interface can be a little clunky, and menu navigation can get very tiresome, specially when hitting end game, but it isn’t too bad.
The story has some really good moments, and characters are very well written, increasing affection is very easy (just buy furniture and give it to the girls until you hit max), and the affection events really make each one very likable (personal favorites being Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Hameln).
Later dungeons can take roughly 1 hour… To fully explore 1 floor, sure you can just look for the exit and proceed as soon as you find it, but, where is the fun in that?
Difficulty in this game is more of a “how much do you feel like grinding?” Situation, I wouldn’t recommend playing on FEAR, as having to use blood devolution and the grind attached to it is a must. Normal is just right, since I always had the “can’t save” challenge in every dungeon, by the end I had a team roughly at level 85, with pretty much no grinding (besides doing some annoying quests for the work orders achievement).
I really like the concept of having volatile party members, adding to the challenge of just optimizing team comp.
All in all, Mary Skelter 2 is a great dungeon crawler, although it can be a little difficult at times, if you don’t mind some anime fanservice (mostly skimpy outfits), its really worth playing.
There is quite a lot of freedom when it comes to team composition, although each character is limited to certain archetypes, the sheer amount of party members make experimentation possible, from having a hybrid dps, or a magician which hits like a truck, or a physical dps which can crowd control and tank almost anything.
For example, my build was focused on having the physical dps characters be faster and tankier, so the casters can clean up if enemies manage to survive the onslaught, effectively saving mana, and having both casters which can be healers as well available to pick up the pieces, my weakness was having to deal with status effects, but I patched it a little with equipment.
I also like the fact that its quite easy for things to spiral out of control, a bad team can lead to a domino effect once 1 character goes down, a good team can pretty much come back from the ashes. This game really hits the satisfaction of having a well developed team working like a well oiled machine.
The catharsis that comes from finally beating up the boss who has been annoying you since the start of the dungeon is amazing.
The interface can be a little clunky, and menu navigation can get very tiresome, specially when hitting end game, but it isn’t too bad.
The story has some really good moments, and characters are very well written, increasing affection is very easy (just buy furniture and give it to the girls until you hit max), and the affection events really make each one very likable (personal favorites being Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Hameln).
Later dungeons can take roughly 1 hour… To fully explore 1 floor, sure you can just look for the exit and proceed as soon as you find it, but, where is the fun in that?
Difficulty in this game is more of a “how much do you feel like grinding?” Situation, I wouldn’t recommend playing on FEAR, as having to use blood devolution and the grind attached to it is a must. Normal is just right, since I always had the “can’t save” challenge in every dungeon, by the end I had a team roughly at level 85, with pretty much no grinding (besides doing some annoying quests for the work orders achievement).
I really like the concept of having volatile party members, adding to the challenge of just optimizing team comp.
All in all, Mary Skelter 2 is a great dungeon crawler, although it can be a little difficult at times, if you don’t mind some anime fanservice (mostly skimpy outfits), its really worth playing.
Pros
- + Creative use of Dungeon Crawling mechanics.
- + Massive amount of mechanics with seamless integration with each other.
- + Very likable cast of characters.
- + Many options for customization and team building.
Cons
- - Tedious menu navigation.
- - Weird difficulty curve.
- - Very bad quest system.
- - Characters talk too much to convey simple things.
9
Gameplay
The game got mechanics alright, there is always something to keep you on edge, many things to consider when fighting and exploring, very fun and rewarding to build a good team.
8
Graphics
Really good models, portraits, and dungeon looks and vibe, only losing points for asset reuse, and recolors for stronger variants of enemies.
8
Story
The true ending and the affection events are REALLY good, showing different sides of our quirky girls, all of them lovable on both casual and professional mode.
8
Sound
Great music, with pretty good voice acting, although the screaming can get tiresome, besides some minor hiccups like the music going back to start, and the bad english voices, its fine.
6
Replayability
Highly recommended to replay it after playing Mary Skelter Nightmares to see the references, you can also try different team comps.
8.5
out of 10
Overall
Mary Skelter 2 is a pleasant surprise from notorious Kusoge devs, a game which proves that they can in fact make a good game, a dungeon crawler with a lot of mechanics which although can be overwhelming at the start, they are easy enough to pick up and juggling them becomes second nature pretty quickly, has a great cast of likable character, with some really good and unexpected (for Compile Heart and Idea Factory) plot moments which can hit right in the feels. Combat is fun, and really rewards the attentive player, quickly punishing carelessness. Its also a very good entry point to Dungeon Crawlers in general, even though it has a weird difficulty curve, its never outright cruel with you, and a lot of extra challenge is completely self-imposed. If you want a very fun and rewarding dungeon crawler, and don't mind some anime tropes and fanservice, Mary Skelter 2 is a very solid choice.
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