Zone of the Enders: 2nd Runner Review

To be honest the first Zone of the Enders game was kind of an underwhelming mess at points. I mean everything was just ok. The story and gameplay were all just very standard. This is mostly why I put off playing the sequel for so long but man did I ever miss out until now. Who new the sequel would actually be a game with fun mechanics, a somewhat engaging story, likable characters, and a fix to most of the problems of the original.
I'm not saying it's perfect, God knows I wanted to kill my comrades barking orders at me during the minefield and pulse hallway sequences but aside from these we get joy of piloting Jehuty all over again with an adult this time and Leo is now a bit more mature as well and he pilots the Vic Viper, a rig which can transform into the actual Konami classic ship of the Gradius series! And there's a persistent, threatening villain this time! Everything has been kicked up a nock to put this into the category of memorable and good.
The short review is the game is pretty cool, you feel like a badass piloting your mech, it's only 6 hours long, there's a ton of cool characters, and the game is overall fun to play with a streamlined, linear path instead of some half baked levels like in the original. Is it going to blow your mind? No. But you can certainly do a hell of a lot worse.
It's worth playing, maybe I'll even go back to it someday just because it's a rockin' experience at some points. 8/10.