Beat in slow motion mode. It was very similar to Startropics 1, with non combat top down jrpg areas separated by Zelda 1 style dungeons, and seemed more like a SNES game than NES. Movement was in 8 directions this time, allowing for diagonal attacks and jumps, but this removed 1 type of puzzle. It was still a little delayed though and most enemies moved faster than the player so I often took contact damage. The jumping blocks were replaced by tiles that highlighted when they could be jumped on to reveal something. Instead of a yoyo the main weapon went from stone axe, to bronze dagger to katana. Better weapons for sure but it made no sense how they were thrown with infinite ammo. The longer ranged life based attack was a separate weapon to switch to. It was needed to defeat certain undead enemies and I overall liked the tactical variety. Temporary weapons were less prominent and generally well designed to compliment the main weapons at the time. The end game seen me swapping between the katana, full screen length magic shot, and temporary tri spread shot. There were a lot of creative enemies, bosses and puzzles, and I overall found the game easier than the 1st. The 1st boss gave me trouble because I immediately killed the boar it was eating. Ignoring the boar allowed me to kill him before he ever attacked. The most difficult boss was the 2nd phase vampire when he blew wind to knock me into the spikes and shot a flurry of projectiles. The boss gauntlet at the end was easy with the full range shot, though I still used the tri shot for the dragon. The final boss was quite difficult with plenty of shots to avoid. Overall the combat was fun. The story was about time travel and I had a bit of fun guessing what would come next. It went stone age, Cleopatra, Sherlock Holmes, Wild west, Leonardo Davinci, Dracula, King Arthur. I guessed there would be wild west, medieval Europe, age of sail pirates, and high tech future. I did not like the the premise of finding tetris pieces though it was interesting how ths ending showed how they fit together. That could have been a tough puzzle. I also did not like some of the irreverent ahistorical notes, such as Cleopatra ordering a pizza from Caesar's hut in Rome. Silly.

I enjoyed the game about as much as the 1st. It was better made but lacked the charm of the original. Overall I rate them the same.

8.0/10