Black/Matrix II - Part 7/7 - PS2 - ブラックマトリクス II ~ Second Ending

Channel:

Retro Zen

Subscribers:

57,700

Published on January 7, 2023 2:00:23 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKd9_tJgGBo

Game:

Black/Matrix II (2002)

Duration: 4:57:07

173 views

6

Let's say it right off the bat: Black/Matrix II is not as good as its predecessor. The original Black/Matrix was originally released on Sega Saturn, remade for the Dreamcast, and then kind of ported to the PS1. This second game never saw any ports or remakes. At first glance, you'd think the game would play out like most sequels do: some kind of evolution of the game's mechanisms and lore. But B/M II goes backwards.

The graphics are fine. Instead of using pixel art, it uses polygons, which was standard for games that came out on the PS2. However, there is very little voice acting, while the first game had a TON. Why? And the music is typically much worse than it was in the first game. *sad* Second, gone are the minigames. Although they did feel tacked on in the first game, it was still a nice touch. Third, this game feels half visual novel half battles. You go from story scenes to battle to story scenes to battle, but all story sequences are shown in a visual novel style. Barely any in-game dialogue. No towns. No villages. You can only buy stuff from the "shop" menu in between fights.

The battle system remains largely the same, with counter-attack, defense, and avoid stances. You can only equip two types of weapons per character, depending on what you choose. Leveling up is the same. Blood Points (BP) have been heavily simplified, though. Whilst in the first game, you would have to charge your weapons with BPs to make them evolve into other weapons and you had to give a specific amount for it to work, in B/M II BPs act as magic points only. Just fill any equipped weapons with as many BPs as you can and then use them to cast spells or special attacks on the battlefield. You do not need to destroy corpses anymore to gain BPs.

There are multiple branching paths and supposedly five different endings. I showcase two of them in this playthrough. It's really hard to tell what you have to do to get all endings, but it involves choosing battle maps instead of others and answering dialogue choices correctly. I really wanted to get the Gina Rose resurrection ending on my second playthrough, but didn't manage to. There doesn't exist any online guide for this game. Subsequent playthroughs are easier because you get to keep all of your money and items.

Finally, the game is really short. I beat it twice here and it took seven streams, while the first game took eleven just to beat it once. So that's disappointing. And yet, I found myself enjoying the game and really wanting to see all endings. One day I hope to go back to it and see them all. =)

Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjd3BsQQrwAM_mFak0rrMLJWPi2qr_ZGw
Playlist for the first Black/Matrix game: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbPO1AdRPwHuTboNCbA_33bkLLU_bkewI

== LIVE STREAMS ON YOUTUBE OR TWITCH EVERY WEEKDAY!
Mondays & Thursdays @ ~1:15 PM EST -- SUPER MARIO MAKER 2
Every weekday on Twitch @ ~1:15 PM or ~7:15 PM EST -- OTHER GAMES (JRPGs)
== TWITCH: https://www.twitch.tv/retro_zen
== DISCORD: https://discord.gg/gQwxPzcTCW
== TWITTER: https://twitter.com/retro_zen
== SUPPORT: Thank you for watching, liking, commenting, and subscribing! =)
***
#ps2 #blackmatrix #necinterchannel

Other Statistics