Nights of Azure 2: plenty of details and screens, release date (Japan), trailer
Yesterday, Koei-Tecmo revealed a ton of new details and screenshots for Nights of Azure 2, followed by the announcement of the release date and a new trailer today.
Two new characters are reveled:
- Arnice, the Nightlord (voiced by M·A·O). As the Nightlord, she used to rule over demons, suppressing the damage done to the people. Nowadays, she simply wanders through the night (because of her Nightlord instincts). She can become a Lily (support character) if you meet the right conditions during a specific event.
- Valderossa (voiced by Chiaki Takahashi): a spider-like demon. There’s nothing she loves more than poisoning humans, capturing them, and then turning them into demons.
Valderossa is actually one of the bosses you will have to defeat. Her tactics involves using spider-like attacks, and preventing your characters from moving forward. She can use a her large build and legs for a rather deadly rotating attacks, which can blow away Alushe’s small body. She can also spin webs around the battlefield, to trap her enemies, and cling to the ceiling in order to pounce down on her prey.
Next, we have some details about the story of Nights of Azure 2. The main character is a young woman called Alushe, who happens to be an agent of the Curia. While escorting Liliana (her childhood friend and a saint), she loses her life, and she is revived as a half-demon. She then goes on a journey through the night to find her friend, who has gone missing.
She ends up meeting Veruschka, a woman from the Lourdes Order (who opposes the Curia), who attempts to end her “life” with her dual daggers. She’s also a half-demon, and for some reason, she has a deep hate forAlushe.
Eleanor Ernesto (that was discussed in this post) is well connected, and heard about Liliana: she shares whatever she knows with Alushe. Since she may still be nearby, she hurries after her. Unfortunately, she immediately encounters a huge demon, who blocks her path. Naturally, she has no other choice but defeat it with her blood sword in order to move forward.
After a while, Alushes ends up in a garden of flowers, where she finds the very person she was looking for. But will that person respond to her call? Is this really the end of her journey?
Just like the vast majority of RPGs, Nights of Azure 2 will have boss battles. Alushe and her friends will have to battle powerful demons and various other large enemies, which are much more dangerous than your average monster.
Naturally, those battle require a specific strategy, and you cannot simply deal with those bosses the same way you deal with other enemies. Working with your Lily and subordinate demons is, you guessed it, crucial, since bosses have lots of HP after all!
And what would be a RPG if the bosses were not really chatty? Some of them are pretty haughty, while others, while others try to lead your astray. Of course, there’s also bosses that try to make you lose your composure. The various bosses have their own personality, generally linked to their appearance. Naturally, their words are the least of your worries!
Each boss has its own special attacks. For example, Jaw (a fish-like boss) hides its body in the ground, and wait until you drop your guard before attacking.
To defeat those bosses, you can use special gimmicks found in the stage the battles take place in. In fact, if you manage to use those, you will be able to gain the upper hand by dealing lots of damage and/or weakening the boss. For example, regarding Jaw: you can break barrels placed throughout the stage, in order to cover it in flammable liquid.
By using Nero’s (a subordinate demon) action, you can then set that liquid on fire. Not only does this allow you to deal some damage, but you can also use it as opportunity to chain some attacks of your own.
Koei-Tecmo also shared details about regular battles, starting with the battle screen. Here’s the various elements you can find there:
- dungeon mini-map (upper right corner);
- combo count (bottom right corner);
- Alushe’s HP (upper left corner);
- Lily Burst gauge (upper left corner): when filled, you can trigger a Double Chase (combo attack). With Camilla, the Double Chase allows you to deal lots of damage to enemies within a given radius;
- Lily HP (upper left corner);
- Double Chase gauge (upper left corner);
- instruction for allies (bottom left corner);
The basics of the battle system involves unleashing powerful attacks and inserting commands with proper timing. Naturally, there’s combos for you to perform: those actually evolve through the use of weapons transformed from Striker subordinate demons (see below for more details).
About the Lily (support character): their weapon and battle style vary, so you need to think hard about which one to pick, depending on the stage. For example, Veruschka’s active skill allows you to deal damage to several enemies around you.
As for subordinate demons, they can unleash special attacks called subordinate demon actions, and more:
- Tricker type subordinate demons: they can surround themselves with balls of thunder, that deal damage to enemies upon contact;
- Striker type subordinate demons: they can transform into weapons.
Here’s two new demons:
- Dump (Striker): a mechanical golem that can transform into a pile bunker. That weapon makes Alushe movements and attacks really slow, but she also becomes much stronger;
- Peruru (Tricker): a dolphin-like demon that can fire powerful projectiles. You can use its skills to push back your enemy if you’re getting overwhelmed by enemy attacks.
And yes, you can strengthen your subordinate demons using Subordinate Demon Points, that you earn by cleaing quests. There’s 4 parameters that you can level up:
- HP (affects physical strength)
- MP (affects how their special actions, including how frequently they can use them)
- Attack (ATK, affects their attack power)
- Special Attack (SATK, affects the power of a Striker-type’s weapon or a Tricker-type’s action).
Koei-Tecmo gives us an example with Eir, a Striker-type demon that specialises in skills. Increasing MP and SATK is recommended, because effect time and weapon power as a weapon will increase. If you choose to do that, then HP and ATK will not increase, which means that its attack power and HP when not as a weapon will remain the same.
As for Kaeda (a Tricker-type demon), it has low HP and high MP. You can choose to have it specialise in physical strength, in order to have it become a more versatile and reliable demon.
One thing to note about subordinate demons is that when their parameters reach a certain value, then they evolve, which leads to a change in appearance and an increase in parameters. Furthermore, if you reach MAX level for all parameters, you can perform a reincarnation: this will make the demon go back to Level 1, but in exchange, its limit of development will be expanded.
Next, here’s the second trailer for the game:
Wondering when Nights of Azure 2 will be released? The answer is… August 31st on all platforms (including August 31st). The Upcoming Releases page has been updated to reflect this!
Finally, here’s plenty of new screenshots and artworks fir Nights of Azure 2:
