They just deployed a framerate fix, check the announcements!

Or alternatively, I'll just copy-paste it if you're feeling extra lazy:
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From your Steam library, right click on the River City Girls 2 game title
Click PROPERTIES
Select BETAS
Type in the following code: openbetabranch
Click the CHECK CODE button
Click the OPT IN button that appears
Close the PROPERTIES window
The game should now update

One of the 7 games in the world with 4 player co-op

It's like the first game but there's more stuff and a 2 in the title.

This used to be the most helpful rated review but it was negative. At the time, I honestly wouldn't have recommended this game to people and that was fair. Maybe I could have changed the content and left it negative and it would have stayed at the top of the list, but that didn't really feel fair to the game given the changes that it's made. I haven't played the game since the changes though, due to my brother being my co-op partner and him simultaneously having no interest in playing the game again and telling me he'll hold a grudge if I beat it without him so consider this a placeholder for now.

I initially wrote that it was a great game, that I liked the characters, I love the style, the writing, the soundtrack, the variety of their move lists, there's a lot of cute environmental stuff and I appreciate how the move lists have opened up from the first game with more stuff being able to chain into combos. It even has cross play available between PC and consoles and a cameo from good old Matt McMuscles. But a friend asked me if he should get the game and I could not honestly and wholeheartedly tell him "yes.". I had to tell him "It's got some problems at the moment.". And they were some serious problems so at that time I told him and anybody else that I could, as a friend, to wait on this game.

Those problems seem to be a thing of the past now however and as I've even been trying to get that same friend to pick the game up recently with the addition of four player online co-op it seems only fair that I can tell you now that the time of waiting is over. If you happen to see this game on sale (because 39.99 is still a lot to ask, imo) or you have deep enough pockets I'd tell you to pick it up without hesitation. Just... not on switch as that's still locked to 30 fps.

As a final note, I would say to the devs, you bungled this game's launch badly. Not only did the game launch in a state you should honestly be ashamed of but then you paired months of silence with months of "soon"s and offered garbage excuses like "None of use could tell the difference between 30 and 60 FPS" to anybody waiting for those desperately needed fixes. I still hope you get a chance to make a River City Girls 3 though and I hope you give THAT game the development and QA time it actually needs.

I wish girls were real so they could kick my ass

i want marian to step on me

🔵 Requires light tinkering

Framerate fix:
From your Steam library, right click on the River City Girls 2 game title
- Click PROPERTIES
- Select BETAS
- Type in the following code: openbetabranch
- Click the CHECK CODE button
- Click the OPT IN button that appears
- Close the PROPERTIES window
- The game should now update

Tested on: OnexPlayer Mini Pro 6800U

Follow Handheld Friendly

TEMPORARY 60FPS FIX
>Right click game and go to PROPERTIES
>Click BETAS
>Type "openbetabranch" in the code
>Click CHECK CODE
>Click the OPT IN button as it appears
>Close PROPERTIES

The game should now update

UPDATE UPDATE: Since writing the first update, there has been a NEW beta patch released that reverts a lot of what I talked about in the first update. The game feels mostly like it used to be. However, unlike the first beta patch, they haven't done anything to prevent beta players from playing online or even crossplay. They're just going wild west with things at this point, so I guess expect lots of weirdness if you're playing someone with a different version of the game than you. -shrug-

UPDATE: Since writing this review, there has been a performance patch released that fixes the 30 FPS issues mentioned in this review. However, the patch also did a lot of changes to the gameplay, physics and flow, making the game feel very off to many players, myself included. With the exception of 60 FPS online, which you probably aren't going to find games in the lobbies to join anyway, I'd say the game is probably worse now than it was when I originally wrote this.

Getting the obvious question out of the way, the vast majority of my play time has been making mods for the game. I've only played the story around 2.5 times and have yet to 100% a save file.

If you liked the first RCG, this sequel expands on the game world, side quest, better accessories, playable characters and improved combat. On the other hand, this comes at the sacrifice of being more directionless, less polished, more buggy and mostly less funny. There are moments where everything clicks and comes together but it's too often a slog to get to those moments.

There are many instances where the execution doesn't match the ambition. An example is the way the middle story missions can be tackled in different orders. It's a nice idea but it's fairly clear that there was a default order in mind and what areas got worked on first. If you don't follow that order, you risks losing out on dialog and context. If you do follow the order, it becomes obvious that the backend is full of filler locked-screen fights and forced fetch quests that involve repeated globe trotting back and forth between the same screens.

The dialog system is weird and it seems like it really handcuffed the writing. You can play as multiple characters but for the most part, there are two talkers, speaker and responder. Speaker lines are almost always something Misako might say and responder lines are almost always something Kyoko might say. Speaker and responder talk to each other quite generically, in a way that prevents their words from needing context to who they are talking to. At its best, the dialog falls flat and provides no insight to the characters speaking it. At its worst, characters speak nonsense that doesn't fit them or their context at all. An adult woman worrying about being late for high school class, for example.

This might seem like a costs cutting measure but I'm not sure. In order to make this system work, the majority of the characters had to record both speaker and responder lines to avoid conflicts between combinations of characters. It's hard to imagine this was the most efficient use of resources. Considering the manga cutscenes are always told from the perspective of Misako and Kyoko, I'm not sure doing things this way made any sense.

There are other areas of the game where it just feels like different parts of the development were not communicating with each other. Story dialog that makes references to side quest that you may not have done. A sprite of a character crying in peril, only for the joke of their rescue dialog to be that they were oblivious to being in mortal danger because they were too busy being an airhead. One character's entire introductory manga sets up a story that is instantly resolved the second she joins your crew and no story dialog follows up on it afterwards. There are multiple collectibles in the game but you can't start collecting most of them until you start the quest, which may be several hours into the game, depending on your route. It might seem like little stuff but there's a whole lot of it and it adds up.

The game was released with a 30 FPS cap but not even in the way you'd expect it. Elements related to the gameplay are locked at 30 while the rest of the game runs at 60. This includes menus, transitions and particle effects. This means you're seeing things run at both 30 and 60 at the same time, which is even worse than just seeing things at 30.

There is a "beta" branch that band-aids this problem but only this problem and only for offline play. A proper patch has been "almost ready for certification" for two months as of this writing and has yet to be submitted for approval by the console manufacturers. Because the game supports cross-play across all platforms, everyone has to get the patch at the same time.

Little information is available about this patch and communication from Wayforward is very sparse and what little we get involves a generous amount gaslighting, hand-waving and absurdist claims. As mentioned, I have spent time modding the game which required getting familiar with its code. While I'm not an expert on the engines of the game, I can say confidently that the manner in which this cap has been presented as nothing more than "error in the code" that went unnoticed for the entirety of the game's development is nonsensical. The evidence within the code is that this cap was put in intentionally. Why? Can't say for sure. Was the plan always to go back and change it? I think it's probable. It sure feels like a stopgap solution to get a game out before Christmas. I would love to hear a believable explanation that contradicts this evidence but I am not holding my breath.

There's a good game buried beneath all of this and if you liked the first game, it's hard to imagine you'd outright hate this one, if not like it more depending on your tolerance of certain flaws. If you do get it, I wouldn't pay the $40 asking price again and certainly not the much higher regional prices I've heard about. 50% sale, at least and if you do grab it, go check out some mods! :p

Bought this game for 3 friends forgetting that its only 2 player online co-op. Wayforward or Arcsys, whoever reads this, PLEASE try and make this 4 player online co-op. I get this game is meant to be played together on the couch but sometimes YOU CANT DO THAT SOO PLEASE LET ME HAVE 4 PLAYER CO OP WITH ME AND MY BUDDIES. But yeah the game is lit try it out.