Dual Orb 2, for SNES

Rating: 7.0/10; Good

Despite the high difficulty it is worth playing for any Jrpg fan. Maybe use a walkthrough to better prepare for the hard parts

Dual Orb 2 is a Jrpg that is more condensed and linear than typical whose biggest claim to fame is a brutal and sometimes unfair difficulty. It does still follow the formula of traveling around an overworld, towns and dungeons with random battles and turn based menu combat. One unusual mechanic is the equipment system. At the beginning you will notice there are only 2 equipment slots; weapon and armor, so no accessories. Armor follows typical Jrpg progression though there is one type of armor that gives extreme magic protection in exchange for 0 physical protection, creating a bit of tactical choice. There are only a few weapons for each character, as low as 1 for some. Instead, each weapon has a + level ranging from 0 to 20 that determines how much damage can be done. Weapons with better levels can be found as treasure and purchased, or you can spend money at the blacksmith to level them up. Cost is the factor that prevents you from making overpowered weapons, with each smith having a certain level they can upgrade to without costing a fortune. There is an optional smith that has the best prices; the closest thing the game has to a sidequest.

Maxed out weapons give access to powerful tech attacks, which can only be performed when the character is at critically low health. A feature that is not mentioned in the game and which is accessible from the 2nd battle menu accessed by pressing "L" or "R", another feature that is not indicated. The difficulty balance of the game goes a bit overboard with the strategy of using basic revive items/magic to keep characters at low hp to use these techs, especially towards the end of the game when you do have access to that ultimate smith. The early to mid game is still difficult, with enemies inflicting big damage and very quickly forces you to learn the advantage of the rows. Front row characters are more likely to be attacked so it is critical to have the tanks with best defense and hp there, but you also have to manage distributing enemy attacks enough to prevent your tank from taking enough attacks to kill him. Other than the standard attack and defend, characters can change row, change equipped weapons, use items and each has a unique special ability; usually magic. Items are fairly standard but the Final Fantasy elixir that fully recovers hp and mp is a thing you can buy at the shop. You know, to help offset that difficulty. They are very expensive though. Magic is clearly described and extremely useful. The healing spells are among the best I have ever seen. The hero starts with a weak one that heals a small amount but the next heals 50% of the target's max hp, and later he gets a heal for 9999 (far more than the characters will have). The mana cost between these spells is not huge and it both makes healing very user friendly and tactical as you can work out the math to see which heal is the most efficient for each casting. The other white mage has a single heal with low cost that scales with her level. The game says it is a random amount, but no it is a fixed amount that increases as she levels up. She also gets a full revive spell, which can still be cast on a living target to fully heal them. The black mage has regen. Yes regen is apparently not white magic in this world. Black magic nukes tend to do far more damage than regular attacks, especially if the enemy is weak against that element. This also applies to the characters though, and enemy black mages are among the biggest threats in the game, to the point of making you want to flee or use status effects to prevent their damage. Too bad status effects are not reliable. There is no audiovisual feedback for when a status takes hold, other than bind making the enemy stop animating. I was never able to get silence or confusion to work, and it seemed like bind either worked 100% or 0% of the time, which leads me to believe that enemies can be flagged as being immune to status effects, or status effects only work on lower level enemies. Buffs have no indication of whether they are in effect other than seeing numbers change. It seems like they last an entire battle but it is not clear if the same effect stacks, like the 3 different spells that boost defense.

There are only a small number of enemy configurations for random battles, which allows you to learn the best way to defeat each but also makes the battles more repetitive. The enemies tend to have unusual abilities, such as multiple attacks, healing and very high damage magic, that combine with high damage basic attacks to make almost every fight an engaging struggle to preserve your resources. Occasionally this goes too far, like with a particular battle in the final dungeon which has 2 mages and a turtle; the mages cast the most powerful spell in the game and get to go first so this battle has a very high chance of wiping your entire party. Other times the battles are easy and you can use the auto battle. The main difficulty with the game comes from the bosses and their sheer damage output. The very first boss for example hits so hard that you need to heal just about every turn to prevent death. Later bosses can easily kill the hero in 2 hits and get 2 or 3 attacks every turn, making it incredibly difficult to survive. I mean damn, was this game even play tested? On top of that there are some bosses beyond points of no return where you no longer have access to shops or smiths. Better hope you are prepared enough or kept a backup save. The worst bosses are just before the end of the game at a time when you temporarily lose your flight so you can't visit the optional smith to max out weapons for the best cost. It is like a sucker punch. The game also features unwinnable battles where you are supposed to lose, even being such a massive dick as to sneak it into one of the final boss forms. This is a trope that I particularly dislike, especially when the player could waste valuable resources thinking it could be won. Just make it a cutscene! I actually thought the very first boss was one of those after seeing the massive spike in damage output from the random battles to the boss, but nope. And that was not the only time I gave up on fighting a boss thinking I was not meant to win only to get game over.

Despite the overly difficult bosses, the rest of the game is enjoyable. The story and characters are well done with an interesting setting. There is a bit of post apocalypse but I found the lack of surface ruins a bit jarring. There are high tech underground ruins and robot enemies, but you will never see anything like those skyscrapers in the opening. The world instead looks like a typical medieval fantasy with grasslands and castles. I think the game would have been better if it looked more like Metal Max or the ruined future in Chrono Trigger. The characters are fairly memorable with interesting interactions, but the hero is entirely silent and it feels wrong to have the other characters talking around him. Normally the silent protagonist is supposed to help the player insert themselves into the story, but you can't even rename him so it falls a bit flat. The plot decides who is in your party, so there is no choice between party members. However those who leave only to come back later do not get any levels in the meantime, so their usefulness is greatly diminished. They will also make off with any gear you give them but at least farming money in the late game is easy.

Dual Orb 2 is a very good looking game, with beautiful overworld and battle sprites/animation, as well as a good soundtrack. It is a bittersweet experience with some excessive combat difficulty souring the otherwise good time.

Pro

• Good story, characters and setting
• Novel weapon upgrade system
• Can switch weapons in battle with no penalty
• Excellent magic spells, especially for healing
• Engaging random battles

Con

• Status effects give no indication and either always or never work
• Weapons are unidentified until equipped with plenty of them being cursed
• A certain character gains magic after a plot event when before he had 0 mana and no spells. His magic is required to win the next boss fight but the game does nothing to show that he suddenly has magic
• Many bosses are downright unfairly difficult, with multiple turns, extremely high damage and hit all nukes
• Some points of no return that have save points and prevent access to shops and weapon upgrading until the next boss is defeated
• Save points
• Mandatory unwinnable boss fights
• Auto battle difficult to turn off