This game has pacing issues and a lot of padding. It isn't a pretty game, it's buggy (not just talking about the things you kill). It's silly. There's a time travel plot. It has slow walking in its story sections, which are very similar to one another. I'm making it sound terrible intentionally.

Because it's not terrible. Look, I'm an EDF fanatic. I just want hordes of bugs/aliens/robots to kill. I want to fly around as a Wing Diver while my brother blasts things on the ground as a Fencer. I want copious amounts of missions. I want to hear NPCs singing. I want to feel obligated to say EDF! whenever my brother says it (this also applies to anybody saying it to me in real life). I want buildings to explode. I don't care that most of the levels look the same. They probably reuse things. Hell, I'm not convinced they didn't just reuse levels from previous games.

The reality is, the B-level quality of it is what has always made EDF one of my favourite franchises, ever since my brother and I rented Earth Defense Force 2017 because we needed a splitscreen co-op game, even though it looked shitty. We were hooked from the moment we shot a rocket and blew up a building.

I do think this game is an improvement in a bunch of ways. The two classes we used were improved. The Wing Diver having another way of attacking, that isn't attached to her core, was a nice addition. I know my brother enjoyed being the Fencer more this time around because there were different movement options. I can't speak to the other two classes because we never use them.

I also kinda dug the story? I wanted to see the explanation for what was going on. I'm not saying it's a Last of Us quality story, but I was invested more than I ever have been. Though I wasn't such a fan of them making us slow walk in a couple missions.

But I gotta tell ya, every time the game announced that "The Earth Defense Force [insert number here] starts now" we cheered. It was funny. So is the next EDF going to be 10?

As for the pacing I mentioned. You don't know what you're going to get mission to mission. It doesn't so much escalate as just kind of throw shit at you. Some missions are more chaotic than others, so it doesn't have the progression that you might expect. EDF has always been this, though.

The only improvement I'd really make is that I'd have more ants. Maybe I'm misremembering previous games at this point, but I remember there being more ants. I know, the ants are the easy enemies, but they're also what brought me to the dance. Every time ants showed up we cheered for that too. We have a lot of love for this series.

This isn't a great review, I know. It's not a deep game with deep mechanics. They've been using the same 4 classes for multiple games now. The truth is, if you're into EDF, this is a fantastic representation of it. It might be my favourite one. If you're not into EDF, then this won't convert you.

Edit: I did some reading after we completed the game and I guess my hunch was correct, they do reuse some missions. It doesn't change anything, I'm just covering my ass here.