It’s time to return to killing fiends in Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon. Fans of the original will find a lot to love in this sequel as Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon brings new content, new allies and new enemies and updated gameplay elements. You must somehow find your lost friend who disappeared after your apparent death and also learn of a means of preventing the endless night from communing to fruition. Defeat the fiends, save your friend and save in this action RPG title known as Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon.

Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon takes place after the events of the first title. Players must once more defeat foes as they team up with other warriors and fiends who haven’t lost their minds with the dawning of the new full moon. Take control of a new female protagonist as she tries to save her childhood friend from a doomed destiny. Time however is not on your side and failure will mean the night never ends. Can you save the world and defeat those who stand in your way? Take up your weapons and enter the battle in Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon!

Agent Aluche of Curia has been given a task of the utmost importance. Aluche’s childhood friend and also powerful priestess Liliana must be guarded as she reaches Curia. Though, when the two friends reunite and make their way back to Curia they both learn a horrifying truth. To prevent the Moon Queen’s wrath, Liliana must become a sacrifice. However, before they can even question a means of going against this order, Aluche dies after engaging in a fight with the Moon Queen and Liliana disappears. Aluche should have died but thanks to a female researcher she has been resurrected using demon blood. Now Aluche must use her new powers to stop the night from becoming endless and find her dear friend.

Back in 2016, long time RPG developers alongside Koei Tecmo released in the US Nights of Azure, an action RPG that was received with rather mixed results. Here at Honey’s Anime, we actually felt Nights of Azure was a solid game despite some glaring flaws and were all too thrilled to see a sequel being released titled Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon. With our PS4’s ready, we installed Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon and began playing as soon as we can. What is our final thoughts on Gust’s sequel title? Find out in our review of Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon.

In case you’ve never journeyed into the original Nights of Azure title—which won’t affect you too much in this sequel—let us first describe the idea of Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon. Players assume the role of Aluche Anatoria a bodyguard for Curia that ends up dying but gets resurrected using demon blood from the first Nights of Azure main protagonist Arnice. You will take Aluche through various locations—some from the first Nights of Azure title—as you hack and slash your way through enemies known as fiends and various bosses that will cross your path. It may seem like a Dynasty Warriors game from the description but just like Knights of Azure, Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon does some interesting things thanks to its RPG mechanics. Let us now discuss how Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon plays out.

Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon fuses action and RPG elements by doing a number of things with its gameplay. Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon uses a multitude of components such as having a secondary fighter known as a Lily—who is controlled by the AI—and up to two friendly fiends known as Servan. Players can actually link up with their Lily partners and use various skills such as Lily Bursts, Double Chase and various stats boosts. The Lily Burst and Double Chase act as special attacks that can be utilized when either near your partner and or when your special meter fills up. These attacks are all different depending on your partner Lily and truly can be pretty impressive to watch and can even change the tides of a losing battle.

Speaking of the Servan—which are actually a returning gameplay theme from the first Nights of Azure title—let us now talk about these summons in greater detail. Servan acts as the third and fourth members of the party. There is a wide variety of Servan that can be taken into your party, each being a different fiend with different powers, attributes, skills and means of helping—some can even turn into weapons such as spears and shields— in terms of exploring some locations that might be closed off. During combat, your Servan warriors can also be used for both special attacks and will fight alongside Aluche and her Lily. This is one element of Nights of Azure that we here at Honey’s Anime are truly happy to see as it gives Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon a nice RPG feel.

When you’re not fighting enemies in Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon you’ll be exploring various areas and completing both missions and side quests in equal measure. The various side quests aren’t too thrilling but they allow a nice change of pace and various rewards if you need a break from the main story. However, in Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon there is a constant clock—indicated by the moon and a timer—that counts down as full days pass and as you go into the field. If the moon gets completely covered by darkness than the game ends but there is a saving grace that allows players to restart either from a save file or restart the current chapter from the beginning. It’s not too hard to avoid the moon from becoming completely dark but if you’re not careful it will happen so make sure to plan out various goals beforehand and dilly dally too often.

Graphically, Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon looks a lot better than the first Nights of Azure title. Characters and the environments look considerably better and the cutscenes are also quite nice in comparison to the first entry in the series. Though what really takes our breath away is the amazing soundtrack. Here at Honey’s Anime we always expect Gust to deliver impressive music—just look at their Atelier series or Ar Tonelico series—but Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon might be one of our all-time favorites. The music works incredibly well to keep combat exciting and various boss fights epic. If there was a significant improvement in Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon in comparison to entry one it would be hands down be the graphics and music.

Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon might seem like a perfect title from our descriptions so far but alas there are some issues that keep it from being so. One of our issues with Nights of Azure was the combat felt stiff at times and began to grown repetitive rather quickly. Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon suffers from the same issues. Our other problem with Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon comes in the form of the fan service which seems to have been ramped up in this sequel. Don’t get us wrong folks, Nights of Azure had a considerable amount of fan service with the cast of characters having rather big chests and various scenes but Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon takes up ten levels with even bigger chests and more fan service in the form of interactions with the mostly female cast. This might be an issue for some but equally it’s not enough for us to not recommend Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon so that’s a positive at least.

Developer Gust alongside Koei Tecmo clearly listened to fans about the original title and have changed several things with Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon. However, while several things have been fixed in Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon, some issues with the previous title remain. Combat still gets repetitive very quickly and feels—at times—stiff, especially considering this is a Koei Tecmo and Gust team up this shouldn’t be an issue at all. Then there is the amount of fanservice in comparison to the original that also might turn some fans off but we’re sure will also bring new fans to Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon in equal measures. Overall, Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon is a fun action RPG title that if you loved the original you’ll find a lot to love in this new entry. For $59.99, there is a decent amount of gameplay—roughly 30+ hours—and numerous branching paths that change the ending.

In the gaming world most sequels are either leaps and bounds better than the previous title or they end up being pretty subpar. Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon fits more towards the former statement thanks to some much-needed improvements in terms of the RPG mechanics, the much-improved graphics and some combat changes that work relatively better. However, Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon does fall short here and there which keeps it from being a perfect sequel. Though if you’re a fan of Gust’s other works and or the previous Nights of Azure, we here at Honey’s Anime feel you’ll want to consider picking up Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon. Are you now excited about picking up Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon or are you thinking of possibly waiting? Comment down below and for all your gaming reviews and news keep stuck to us here at Honey’s Anime and we’ll promise to continue delivering solid articles for you all to enjoy.