Eureka Seven Volume 2: The New Vision is yet another anime based videogame that relies too heavily on its source material and not enough on actual gameplay. The good news for fans of this anime series about futuristic air boarding and mech combat is that there is actually a decent story being told this time around. The bad news for the rest of us is that the gameplay is simply average and not very compelling in the grand scheme of things.
Eureka Seven Volume II: The New Vision once again focuses on protagonist Sumner Sturgeon, his familiar friends Ruri and Moondoggie, and a cast of corrupt armies and corporate officials. This game picks up shortly after the events of New Wave and prior to the actual anime series it is based on. The game opens with Sumner spending his time as a professional lifter after having faked his death to escape the life of a soldier in the army. Sumner manages to make a name (and considerable profit) in this popular sport, but finds himself longing for his old life as an LFO pilot. As fate would have it, a championship tournament is held and the prize is a very expensive and powerful LFO. Winning this championship lifting event eventually leads the player on a rather lengthy adventure with plenty of well-crafted and expertly animated story and a little bit of action (about 8 - 9 hours' worth of actual gameplay). And therein lies the biggest problem with New Vision - it plays out like a marginally interactive episode of the show.
The gameplay in The New Vision is pretty straightforward. Like the show, players engage in the sport of lifting, futuristic surfing style events where athletes use light particles to propel special boards at incredibly fast speeds. The sport is portrayed as graceful and beautiful in the Eureka Seven anime series, but in this particular game it is anything but. Lifting is simplistic and rather easy to pick up on and master after a couple of tries. Players looking for deep hoverboard mechanics with lots of fancy tricks and high speed maneuvers will need to look elsewhere, because this game just doesn't deliver.
The other major part of the game is piloting LFO's, giant Gundam like mechs that are capable of combat both on the ground and in the air. Much like lifting, LFO's use light to propel themselves at high speeds using a special surfboard. LFO's use melee based combat to take down opponents and come equipped with the ability to transform into giant land-based combat vehicles capable of copious amounts of destruction. While this all sounds very exciting, the LFO combat in the game is pretty straightforward and simple. LFO combat is as simple as locking on to your intended target, strafing and circling, and mashing away at the attack button until your opponent is toast.
The rest of your game time is spent purchasing upgrades for your LFO's or finding new units to pilot, as well as the occasional light conversation with characters here and there in the small populated areas you are thrown into. The interactive parts of the game are not all that interactive, and the real bulk of your time is spent watching an awful lot of animated dialogue sequences between Sumner and his pals. Luckily this is the strongest part of the game and the story is interesting enough to warrant following to the end. Sadly the actual gameplay gets in the way of these well crafted sequences.
Players that enjoy the combat and lifting can certainly take advantage of the additional modes found in the game that focus just on that, stripping out the excellent story sequences in favor of pure unfettered action. Unfortunately the action isn't all that compelling or interesting...
Fans of Eureka Seven Volume I left still wanting more can find plenty to like about Eureka Seven Volume II including improved lifting and LFO combat mechanics and a more focused, fully animated storyline. For the rest of us Eureka Seven Volume II is a rental at best.
