4/5 ★ – TNGLiam's review of Densetsu no Stafy 2.

Platform: Game Boy Advance (+Emulated) Total Time Played: 18-20 hours Status: Beaten (+True Ending) As another path in my journey to playing all the Japan-exclusive Starfy games I would have loved to play as a kid if they had come stateside, with the help of my friend sitting by my side and translating the text for me, Densetsu no Stafy 2 improves upon the first entry in multiple ways while still not straying too far away from it. This time around, instead of having singular large levels for a single world, we have four to six shorter levels that encompass entire worlds, allowing for a much grander story with more well designed set pieces and characters. Taking place directly after the previous game, Ogura manages to escape from his sealing jar on his own, and creates ten offspring in the process, all named Pucchi Ogura, causing havok throughout the sky, sea and land once again, while having also kidnapped Starfy's mother along with scattering all of Pufftop's treasure throughout the land. So once again, Starfy and Kurosuke (Moe) set out to collect the treasure, defeat Ogura and his children, and save the Queen of Pufftop, Starfy's mom. Not to mention that the intro cutscene is animated in much more detail, making it more intense and impactful, allowing it to be much better than the first game's. Gameplay-wise, Stafy 2 is pretty much the first once again, with a new move or two added in to spice things up. All the vehicles from the first game are essentially back, which in all honesty isn't a good thing. The hot air balloon was great in the original, so I didn't mind that. The catfish boat from the original has now become a swordfish skidoo, but plays exactly the same. The polar bear from the original's postgame is now a koala bear, it looks the exact same, plays the exact same, controls horribly, and of course is used the most. Lastly, we have a baby dragon, which is an auto-scrolling flying segment, which was fine in the first game, but the slow input for his attack and seemingly poor layout for its rooms bog it down a lot. In all honesty, they could have easily been so much better, because at the very start of the postgame, the first thing you do is get upgrades for all of your vehicles, turning the air balloon into a rocket-powered balloon, it gives the swordfish skidoo a double jump, it allows to dragon to shoot fire (although its an exact copy of the witch's broom vehicle from the original), and it turns the koala into a traditional Japanese delinquent crocodile that has his own music that replicates popular Japanese rock n' roll delinquent music. All of these are massive improvements upon the originals so I just wish you could have used them throughout the entire game, as not only would it set this game apart further from the original, but it would've made the gameplay more fun as well. Besides that, the only bad gameplay choice when playing as regular Starfy in my opinion, is the rock pushing mechanic in World 7. It was the worst designed part of the original, and it was used very minimally, but now they have almost an entire world designed around it, and it was very annoying to get through. In terms of boss battles, the things I remember most from these games from watching videos of them as a kid, I barely recalled any of the bosses from this game, and for good reason. All of them are extraordinarily easy and simplistic, I never struggled with any of them. Not to mention that all of them look uninteresting. Practically all of the bosses at the end of each world are one of the ten Pucchi Oguras joining forces with some random enemy, and you have to fight them. Probably the most interesting one was when you got to fight the Pucchi Ogura one on one, but still not much to mention. Everything I said above were the most major complaints, but all of them combined with the main story would most likely warrant it a 3.5/5, but the final world and postgame really pulled through at bringing this game up a notch. The final world, World 11 - Ogura's Castle, is truly great. It features multiple, shorter yet challenging levels that make you feel like you are at the end of your great journey, and the final two levels do not hold back. Throughout the world, you a given hints towards a history between Starfy's father and Old Man Lobber (the tutorial character) and that they were the first heroes to defeat Ogura long ago. Eventually, this side plot comes to a climax when Starfy is forced to fight Ogura only for him to lose, with Old Man Lobber coming in to save the day, with an epic anime-esc fight breaking out between Lobber and Ogura. This is then quickly followed by a three phase battle with Ogura, which was really cool and climactic. This ending along brought the game up several notches, and the postgame helped even more so. Like the last game, during the ending Starfy accidentally lets Ogura and the Pucchi Oguras loose from the jar once more, long with there still being multiple treasures left around the world, so Starfy and Kurosuke set out once again to find them. Unlike the first game where you have to revisit levels already completed, and having to wander aimlessly around trying to find secret passage ways that couldn't be opened before; this time, entirely new levels are unlocked, with all of which just being basic gameplay levels that become more and more increasingly challenging as they gone on, with some really testing your platforming skills. This great postgame comes to an end with a rematch of the final boss, of course being Ogura, but this time much, much harder than he was before. It took me a good two hours to finally defeat Ogura once again, and boy was it extremely satisfying when I did, as it proved such an incredible and once again climactic challenge and ending to the entire game's journey. Beating Ogura with all of the treasures allows you to unlock the game's true ending, which shows Pufftop Castle throwing a party for Starfy and Kurosuke. This is followed with hands down the best out of nowhere lore for any kids platformer I've ever seen. We see Kurosuke on a cloud outside Pufftop, carrying his treasures collected from this game and the previous home in order to help provide for his three siblings, as they still live in extreme poverty. He sheds a tear as he knows he will miss Starfy, as we then look up into the sky. Then, the credits roll as we see flashback frames that tell the story of Kurosuke's abusive father, how him, his siblings and his mother left for the home they live in now, and how his mother died of illness, with us even seeing his mom pass. This out of nowhere ending really surprised me, and turned Kurosuke into a character I tolerated (as he holds similar Japanese character traits as Jiraiya from Naruto or Zenitsu from Demon Slayer) into one I felt sympathy for and admired, which was a great lore tidbit that really added to this game's world. Other than that, the rest of the postgame consists of replaying the older levels and grinding for the game's currency, Pearls, to complete the shops. Something I didn't see a reason in doing. But all in all, this was a great game, and with new English translations for it on the horizon like text translations on Reddit or videos with edited text on YouTube, I see no reason in not playing such a good game, despite the language barrier, even though I had my Japanese friend translate everything for me himself. Please check out this game with the help of some fan translations!