In Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors, you find yourself in the Hell Spire with the job of escorting 7 girls known as “Delinquents,” people who have died before they could commit a crime. To help them get a second chance, you must help with their reformation. However, you were only supposed to have 6 girls. What is going on? Could one of them be a criminal who has landed all of you in jail?

Criminal Girls: Invite Only was the first of this series to be released in the west and it was met with some criticism over the presence of all the censoring for a game with such a risque plot. If you have ever heard of the Criminal Girls game, you probably do not remember it for its plot but rather for its….plot. If you know what we mean, hehe! The fanservice and ecchi gameplay really make the Criminal Girls: Invite Only game stand out and the sequel, Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors, is no exception.

Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors is the sequel to Criminal Girls: Invite Only, playing off the same idea of having the girls redeem themselves to keep them out of Hell. You have a whole new cast of girls and a new main character who doesn’t remember his own past. This new installation of the series features better graphics, no English dubbing, and a whole new cast of girls who you know you want to “motivate”.

The original Criminal Girls: Invite Only was met with criticism for the obscene amounts of censorship. However, in Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors, the censorship is not quite as noticeable in comparison. You don’t have the awkward clouds of pink all over the mini game screen or random glares like more intense ecchi anime. In fact, because the original artist was brought in to redraw the scenes, you won’t notice much except for the fact that the girls seem to be in rather submissive positions without the presence of chains or ropes everywhere. Although these features were taken out, it won’t take too much imagination to get the picture.

Aside from the censorship change alone, the graphics for Criminal Girls 2 has been updated giving users a better visual experience reminiscent of more popular anime designs these days. The motivation scenes themselves are done with 3D animation, but you won’t be cringing like you would when watching anime like Ajin. In fact, the new girls will definitely have you coming back to give more motivation than ever before. The new cast of girls in Criminal Girls 2 definitely appeal to many moe girls of all dere types. Do you want to make that tsundere beg you to whip her? Or maybe you want that kuudere to find the S in S&M? You will find more enjoyment with S&M than you might have considered ever before.

When you are first starting out, you discover that you yourself were signed up to help only 6 girls but there are in fact, 7 girls with you, one of which has landed you and the others in Hell. A big part of the story itself has to do with each of the girls. You start off pretty much hated by most of the girls because they don’t know who you are and you have no ability to really affirm them of your reliability, but over the course of the game, you get to know each other and each girl opens up, revealing their past and why they are delinquents. Outside of learning about each of the girls’ pasts, you also have to figure out your own identity, something you lost before the game and no one seems to know who you are at first.

Let us not forget that you ended up in Hell because there’s an extra girl with you who might just be a criminal. However, you will have to find out more about each girl to even figure out who that might be or if you are going insane, but you are in Hell after all. This adds a touch of mystery to the series and makes it difficult for the girls to really get along, but you will have to manage everyone if you guys are going to have to survive.

The artwork itself is beautiful. It’s a more updated look compared to the original Criminal Girls: Invite Only, and the motivation scenes are a bit more motivational this time around. The soundtrack for the game shares some of the same songs from the original, and can get fairly repetitive as some songs were clearly not meant to play for very long.

The gameplay itself is not very exciting. You will spend a good amount of time dungeon crawling trying to get through to the end and battle criminals who pop up at random like any other dungeon. You can use a total of 4 girls to help you fight, although the fighting style involves either 1 girl fighting or multiple should the option be available. You have to pick through a series of actions that could involve using powers, using physical attacks, or asking for aid from another girl.

Criminal Girls 2 is fairly simple when it comes down to the barebones because you don’t have many choices in the way of dialogue nor moves that each girl can learn. Even if you teach one of the girls an S or M move, you can reset that section and pick again should that be your desire. Even dungeon crawling and grinding is very easy, but when you get to the boss, you may find yourself lacking a bit in ability. Even just the first boss showed a large difference between the dungeon criminals and the boss himself, so be prepared as you play.

Let’s not forget that there is a monetary system in Criminal Girls 2. You gain currency through fighting different criminals, which can be quite easy to collect as you grind. However, the more you want to motivate a girl, the more currency it will take and you will find that you need to grind a bit more than you predicted if you want to help motivate and level up each girl.

One of the most important parts of Criminal Girls 2 is the ability to increase a girl’s arsenal of attacks by “motivating” her. While yes, there is experience gained when you go into battle, motivating involves a different type of experience that goes into learning either an S or an M move, which will result in each girl leaning more towards S or M, although you can have them know moves from both categories. When you motivate a girl, you gain experience points that will go towards leveling a girl up. The better you are about accomplishing the requested motivation, the more experience you will gain in each motivation scene. The more moves each girl learns, the better prepared you will be in battle, although whether or not the option is available for you to use the move is up to the game itself.

Taking a look further into the motivation scenes, they are quite ecchi in many ways, even with the “censorship” that have fans raging before the game is even released. The facial expressions are quite sensual and the motivations themselves require no imagination necessary. We can definitely see these motivation scenes being a hit. However, despite not actually stating that the characters were young, the loli characters leave you with the impression of being a pedocphile due to their obvious youthfulness and childish physiques.

The overall game itself was humorous and amusing for even the most serious gamer. If you’re not a fan of ecchi nor fanservice, Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors is not for you, but if you want fan service, then you’ve got it! We found this game to be enjoyable for the most part even if we did not consider the plot at all, but the plot was a great addition and aspect of the gameplay we did not expect to be quite so enjoyable.

Since this is a role playing game that encompasses the story telling features of a visual novel, the gameplay is quite long and will keep you entertained for a good amount of time even if you are on easy mode. It depends on what you are looking for out of the game, but overall, you won’t find yourself bored anytime soon.

The fight scenes can get rather repetitive if you want to take the time to grind endlessly to gain money for motivation scenes. We would have much preferred a different take on the fight scenes, but perhaps that would have made the fighting too easy, much easier than they actually were.

While most players will be drawn to Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors for the fanservice, the story is good enough to keep people from getting bored. The fanservice won’t disappoint fans who love ecchi. Even this reviewer could not keep herself from taking screencaps!

Overall, Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors is an enjoyable game for those who like ecchi or those who might be looking for a simple dungeon crawling game. It’s not a game changer, for sure, but it is definitely something different. If you are offended by sexual exploitation in this game, don’t play it, but if you’re curious about S&M, it’s one way to explore the world that is S&M.

Boobs, jiggle, and S&M. Is there nothing that this game does not offer? If you’re an ecchi fan or just curious, Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors may just be your cup of tea. We just wanted to share our experience with the game with all of our readers. Sometimes, you just need a game like Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors, but of course, that all depends.

For all of our readers out there, what do you think about the game? Do you think it’s worth checking out? Are any readers excited to actually play the game? Feel free to share your thoughts!