R-Type Final 2 (Switch)

R-Type, it’s an iconic series that has graced just about every platform in some form or another. The PlayStation 2 saw R-Type Final and fans naturally assumed that would be the last but no, this is video games and final usually means the beginning, let’s load up R-Type Final 2.

Granzella the developers of Disaster Report 4 (one of my favourite hot messes) have teamed up with I.P holders Irem to bring players a sequel to R-Type Final and remind everyone of what it takes to take on the Byod Empire. 

First off R-Type is a Shmup, despite getting more tactic based titles on the PSP this is a mainline title and that means aside from the intro and the gallery, the story is non-existent, there is an alien force and you are the only one with the stones to take them down, 1 ship at a time. 

R-Type Final 2 from its very first scene shows you where the focus has gone, into the spectacle of the whole thing, rather than just throwing you into space the game opens with an interactive cutscene introducing you to your ship, letting you salute or nod at a teammate and the eventual liftoff.

Visually R-Type Final 2 is an equal balance of nice to look at and an unoptimized jaggy mess.

The lighting in R-Type Final 2 is brilliantly done and reacts perfectly with the Lazer beams and brightens where they pass, same with the plethora of explosions and many fires that appear within the game. 

The models for the ship look fantastic when viewed in the “Museum” mode (more on that later) but actually in game? So painfully jaggy, you can almost count the polygons. It’s that bad, the same applies with the enemies and it’s really prevalent when in motion. 

The stages seem to take various nods from previous R-Type titles, intentionally or not considering some “homage” DLC is currently being developed. The issue with this is that none of the nods really land and you’re just left with really stale feeling levels, bland visual style and the lack of anything fresh or exciting.

The game has some beautifully meaty sounding explosions and the music isn’t too shabby either, while not quite as iconic as the original game there are a few toe tappers here that you’ll no doubt hear time and time again be it from death or replaying.

If you have never played R-Type before that game is basically a space based shoot em up, one of the first in fact and easily one of the more iconic. Your ship flies to the right of the screen for the most part, you can shoot rapidly or charge it for a stronger attack. You’ll collect various shot enhancers such as additional missiles or different style shots and the game changer for R-Type “The Force”. While not quite like that other series “Force”, this one is a sphere you connect to the front or back of your ship, it acts as an additional shot, a shield and can be fired into enemies for extra damage.

Now most Shmups usually have a few ships with different style shots you can choose from, R-Type Final 2 has around 99 ships you can choose from!. These are unlocked by farming material from completing levels, with passwords the developer are putting out on Twitter or again by DLC. Each ship has a different style of attacking, size, version of The Force and charged beam. 

Something that wasn’t in the classic games is there is now a meter that fills up whenever The Force kills an enemy or absorbs enemy fire, once filled this can be triggered and is usually a room killing explosion, while not quite as handy as the genre favourite bomb it’s still good to help out on tricky sections or bosses if you’ve risked it to build the meter. 

R-Type has always been a tough game to crack and R-Type Final 2 is no exception, there are several difficulties ranging from Practice all the way to “R-Typer” which is considered the premium way to play the game and even changes the boss encounters should you feel brave enough to venture there. 

One hit will destroy your ship and set your progress back to one of the in game checkpoints, this is quite old school but something that has been in all the R-Type games bar Dimensions which had an “Infinite Mode”. While this is a series staple I found that it had a tendency to put me in some really tough, life eating situations, especially when you don’t have the force!. There was a point where I just restarted my run from the beginning as it was frankly soul shattering the amount of continues I’d used just to try and get from just one spot early on in my run. 

The bosses in this title much like the levels seemed a little too average and aside from a few that had some clever gimmicks were either cheap retreads or just flat out bad. The loading times are also quite damaging, from death to start again it’s around about 20 seconds which coupled with the graphics and the areas of slowdown I stumbled across meant it didn’t really feel like the Switch version was ideal aside from the portability of it.

You can walk around a museum with all the ships which is a nice feature, fully customize them and even look at a bestiary of the Byod Empire when you take one of their units down. With the ships to unlock there is quite a lot of replay value and trying to work your way up to “R-Typer” will certainly see you get your money worth.

I enjoy R-Type, wouldn’t say i’m a fan but i’ve spent a decent amount of time on the various ports and landed quite firmly with Dimensions, now I mention this because I have struggled to see the point in Final 2. The game lacks any of the charm of the older R-Type titles with its stale stage design, poor boss fights and feels like a chore to play through, it’s much like a classic band re-recording their greatest hits, sure the songs are the same but the hit is so much different. 

Another point that sticks with me was the amount of stuff that was locked behind Passwords or upcoming DLC, coupled with the performance and visual issues made me feel like I was playing an Early Access title and one that really wanted me to drop even more money on it. 

R-Type Final 2 for me is the very middle of the road for the shmup genre, it doesn’t do anything to entice me to play it more but it was far from a disaster. It’s a shame the developer didn’t hit this one out of the park considering it was already under a microscope with the Shmup community due to several Kickstarter campaigns. If you have exhausted all other options this is a fair celebration of an iconic Shmup series but if you want to dip your toe first or just haven’t gotten it yet, Dimensions does a much better job of proving why R-Type is timeless.