The formula does eventually shake itself up somewhat after about thirty hours when the Rage Burst content starts to kick in for real. Given that each boss requires about ten to fifteen minutes of spamming the same attacks, the problem with repetition soon becomes obvious. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that 80% of my playtime was spent performing a single move over and over (the hammer’s R1 and Square attack) and my online buddy playing the campaign with me used his circular scythe spin maybe 95% of the time. Not only that, but enemies require nothing more than some routine dodging, locating their weak spots, and smashing away at them until they run away to recover a bit or die.
It’s especially bad in the beginning - GE2:RB‘s arena environments and most of the enemies are lifted wholesale from Resurrection. Sure, it features a new storyline taking place several years after the end of the original, but since the two titles have many of the same enhancements it winds up feeling very, very samey. Having recently played through God Eater: Resurrection (an enhanced remake of the original God Eater Burst) it’s tough to shake just how familiar GE2:RB is. The team gets chucked into a small arena, destroys the enemies within, and then it’s back to the shop with any bits they can salvage to power up their equipment before heading right back out again. In this case, mankind’s been pushed to the brink of destruction by monstrous entities known as Aragami, and only the God Eaters have a chance of fighting back thanks to their God Arc Weapons – weapons taking the form of massive hammers, pointy spears, oversized swords, and so on. The God Eater franchise falls into the Hunting genre alongside things like Monster Hunter, Soul Sacrifice and a few others.
It’s a shame that the rest of game doesn’t follow suit - not because it’s bad, but because it barely evolves past its first few hours of play, and it’s a long, long, loooooong experience. Shortly after starting, a cute, spunky, and slightly demented hammer-wielding psychopath welcomes the main character to the God Eater squadron by stuffing an Oden Sandwich into their hands, offhandedly calling it a ‘sammich’ or suchlike in the process, and therefore inadvertently endearing herself to me forever. God Eater 2: Rage Burst starts off promisingly. WTF Gil? Gil! That’s not a Glaswegian accent, mate. LOW …which unlocks about thirty or so hours in.