Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord (PlayStation 3) Review

To properly understand for the players who would enjoy Tears to Tiara II, and there certainly are those who will, it is important to state the reality of the game: a vast majority of the time is going to be spent in anime-stills, hitting X to advance the story. In fact, during the first five hours of the game, there are only three battles, all of which resolve fairly fast, meaning for many hours, the 'game' is really just a story the player has no control over.

The battles are standard tactical RPG fare, with very little to differentiate them from any other, which could be good or bad depending on the individual's preference for this type of gameplay. On a turn, the player moves all of their characters at once; attacking one at a time, then the enemy goes. Characters level up typically, getting stronger, and learning new moves, but for the most part they are static, in that the mage will stay the mage the whole game, unlike some other tactics games. Additionally, skills can be acquired and given to any character to further specialise them.

The story deserves much talking about, and beyond just the fact that it is a majority of the game. At its root, the story sounds somewhat simple, with the trite 'evil empire wiped out of poor nation' and the rebels fighting back. Complete are loads of what seem archetypal characters - the old dutiful knight, the hero with a heart of gold, the 'I can't stop smiling' nice teacher, the sadistic sexy evil girl - the story sets itself up to tank, but this is where the surprise is: it is actually amazing.

Tears to Tiara II is a slow burn, no doubt about it, because anyone playing for only an hour would throw the game away in disgust - no battles, and stereotypes blathering on endlessly about the evil empire - but then magical things start happening, characters start showing depth, they start acting nothing like their stereotype, the player actually starts caring about what is happening.

There is a severe pacing issue, which is completely factual and undeniable, but it becomes fun and engaging watching these characters, when the expectation is suddenly wrong, and in subtle ways, not some predictable inversion for the sake of 'novelty.' Our hero, for example, is a loser, who takes his beatings and plays up how dumb he is, only for it to be revealed that he actually acted like this to minimise the punishment his fellow citizens took, and waited for the right time to strike.

The rest of the cast is all very good, as well. A majority of the story revolves around the hero and a goddess girl who is helping him with the rebellion; she especially has a lot of depth and character without falling into tropes. For example, during a dream she appears older to the hero, who comments how much he likes 'her older sister' and this moment leaves her in sad reflection about her personality and if she should change it. Another really great subtlety is the innocent teacher who is actually the leader of the rebellion. He fully admits darkly that he would kill the hero and take the rebellion over himself if the hero doesn't act appropriately. The interplay here is involved and deep, with implication rather than exposition for some subtle aspects, like a really well done part where the sadist sexy evil women is revealed to actually harbour jealously for the teacher because they knew each other - he had the highest military grades and went separate ways from her. This kind of subtlety is often missing in RPGs where stereotypes are ham-fisted and force fed, instead of a slow understanding through nuance of storytelling.

The actual battles unfortunately leave a lot to be desired. There is little here that has not been seen before. Further hurt by the very dated chibi-style visuals, it is a tough thing to overlook. Among the notable new features, is an element system that each turn changes from fire, wind, water, earth and holy, dark, ether, and depending on the element there are slight stat boosts. It is interesting, but does not have much impact and takes too long to give it much thought beyond the small boost or hurt it may give.

A pretty good feature is 'rewind,' which at any point of a battle, the player can rewind to the beginning of that turn, or any previous turns, essentially removing any frustration of surprise critical hit or reinforcements that ruin an hour long battle. It is pretty exploitable, but clearly that was the purpose to not present a battle system that was the focus of Tears to Tiara II, so much as an addition to the visual novel.