Developer: One-Hand-Free Studios
Publisher: One-Hand-Free Studios
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Waifu Discovered 2 – Review
Back in April 2020, we tried Waifu Uncovered and concluded that the game was a decent bullet hell shooter, with wallpapers of busty anime girls in the background. The further you progressed, the more the cute girl in the background would flaunt at you. We did like certain mechanics, but as a whole, we found the game to be an incoherent mess that wasn’t really worth its asking price. Now, Waifu Discovered 2 has been released and we thought we would find ourselves in the same mess as we did last year. We were actually proven quite wrong, and even though some design choices are somewhat dubious, everything comes together as a more polished whole that bullet hell enthusiasts may come to appreciate.
Story
The story has not really changed compared to the first game. We now find ourselves in a medieval fantasy setting, playing with animal-like creatures, in a shrunken spaceship, shooting alien monsters, trying to protect fantasy girls. Yes, the developers once again tried to embed every possible idea and genre into one package and we’re still not truly convinced by this approach. Everything does feel a bit more polished, and in-between missions you’ll actually have some connecting points with short dialogues and the shop option. Other than that, it’s basically the same plot again, where voluptuous women’s clothes are being affected by a strange virus causing their clothes to magically dissolve.
Graphics
Even with the newly added medieval fantasy theme to the already cluttered mix, we have to admit that the entire game looks like a more coherent whole. The same color tones are used throughout the game, the quality of the enemies, your ship(s), and even the promiscuous ladies, have all received a proper overhaul, and everything blends nicely together. We still find a few choices to be a bit odd, but it feels a lot more natural compared to the first game. While there are still some disproportionate women to be ‘uncovered’, we did see a bigger variety in body types, making the game a bit more inclusive. We very much disliked the menu design, as it feels very tacky and cheap compared to the now-polished rest of the game.
Sound
The sound design has also received a bit of an overhaul. The backdrop sounds decent, the sound effects pack a proper (retro-inspired) punch and the few voiced words and lines actually sound fairly crisp. While there is nothing here that will linger in your head for days, everything sounds like it should.
Gameplay
Waifu Discovered 2 is a bullet hell shooter in which you try your best to repel an alien invasion from undressing lovely ladies. From start to finish, you’ll try and defeat waves of enemies, while collecting money for upgrades, hopefully making it to the next level. The base mechanics are very simple, as you just need to destroy enemies, collect the crystals they drop, and then clear that current wave by collecting enough crystals.
As you plow through the different stages tearing through aliens (and clothes), you’ll unlock more and more artwork of the ladies, eventually even unlocking the uncensored mode. The latter will of course give show you the uncensored naked anime girl. This means that you won’t have to buy the uncensored mode anymore. The game’s difficulty tends to ramp up a lot throughout the arcade mode, so getting some practice in the normal mode may be advised.
You do feel a bit more in control now, as in-between stages you can buy upgrades for your ship for your current run. If you die, or finish the run, the upgrades will of course be gone again. We loved this new addition, in comparison to the random item pick-ups in the last game. Now you can choose for yourself if you want to deal more damage, have a wider bullet spread, fly around faster, and so on. Keep in mind, coins spawn during battles, and accidentally shooting these will decrease their value. You cannot go around mindlessly holding down the shoot button, as you will not collect enough money for upgrades then.
Conclusion
Waifu Discovered 2 is a decent sequel to Waifu Uncovered. We were pleasantly surprised with the amount of polish this sequel was given, in order to make a quality title. While we still aren’t a fan of a lot of the style choices in the game, this is actually a good bullet hell title, with decent artwork. As there is probably going to be another installment somewhere in the future, we do hope things get a bit more coherent again, and that small improvements happen in the menu design and the difficulty options of the game.
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