The concept of a sequel is often welcomed by RPG fans, with players longing to see their favourite characters in new situations, and enjoy new styles of gameplay. Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord does follow this trend, but as the original did not receive an international release, Aquaplus have made sure that no story elements or characters from the original have been included. So while it may a sequel by name, it follows the example set by Final Fantasy by little resemblance to its older brother.

After witnessing the downfall of his home country to an by an empire driven by their religious beliefs, a young man named Hamil saves the life of a woman named Tarte who has been declared blasphemous for calling herself a goddess. As well as being the remaining member of Hispania’s royal family, Hamil is also the heir to another legacy that could place the whole of the kingdom in danger. When the danger is averted, Hamil, Tarte and a group of fighters from the resistance are forced to join together. Now they must find a way to restore the honour of Hamil’s heritage, the country of Hispania, and drive out the evil that has overthrown the kingdom.

Although the sequel may have entirely new characters and settings, the general theme of the game has remained. Hispania is primarily a medieval country, so you will be faced with castles, hamlets and lush green forests, rather than space stations or modern high schools. Although the game begins with just Hamil and Tarte, you will also recruit several members of the resistance, including the war torn elderly warrior Monomachus, the beneovlent teacher Enneads and the best friend with a deadly flaw that is Dion. While all these characters might be cliches, their distinct personalities and interesting backstories justify their existence in the plot.

If you have ever played Disgaea or Final Fantasy Tactics, then you will know what to expect when you enter a fight. Using a grid based system, the player can choose to move their allies to another place on the battlefield, and find out detailed information concerning their opponents. For example, mystical characters like Tarte can use magical attacks such as elemental spells can be used from a long distance, whereas muscular characters such as Monomachus are best suited to melee attacks that require you to be closer to your opponent.

One design choice that intrigued me was that you needed to be more than one square away to use a ranged weapon, whereas most role playing games do not consider the distance to be a deciding factor. Although I am used to playing games with real time or turn based combat, the battle system felt comfortable to learn, and if I needed to learn an advanced technique, I could rely on the extensive tutorials, or the help menu that can be accessed at any time. When you have reached winning conditions of the area, you will clear the stage. Secondary conditions can also be put in place, as well as failure conditions to make you think on your feet. The only major complaint I would have with the fighting system is that not all the controls are shown on screen, or represented within the help screens that I described. In one case, it took me several attempts to figure out that once you have moved your allies, you need to press the start button to activate the next turn.

Although the battle segments of the game are entertaining, you will not be seeing many of them throughout the game in comparison to the event cut scenes. These are split between visual novel style dialogue sections, and professionally animated cut scenes you would expect to see in an animé. Behind the visual novel segments, you will commonly see a three dimensional model of the characters within the scene. Although Tears to Tiara is on a high definition gaming platform, the cel shaded chibi character graphics leave you to wonder if the game was originally intended for a hand-held platform.Wthe style blends well with the low resolution environments, it feels like they were focusing on building the world with words, rather than modelling it for visual representation.

Whilst the world of Tears to Tiara II feels reasonably genuine, the balance between non interactivity and playable gameplay is severely unbalanced. Within the first few hours of the game alone, more than eighty percent of that time was spent watching events, rather than engaging in fights inside the game world. While it is possible to fast forward through the many lines of exposition to get to the next fight, the amount of time it takes to reach your destination will certainly test your patience.

Heir of the Overlord’s soundtrack is one of the game’s finest points. From the high octane opening theme song, to the orchestral arrangements that play during the adventure, they have all been produced with a high level of care. Unlike with some games of its genre, you rarely hear the same track twice, except when you clear a fight, or are waiting for the next fight to begin. One of my personal favourites is the booming sonata that is played when one of the empire’s soldiers is proclaiming his hate speech to the downtrodden people of Hispania.

For anyone who is used to hearing an English dub track in their games, you will be sadly disappointed with Tears of Tiara 2, as the developers have opted to keep the Japanese voice-overs, and offer translations via the way of subtitles. The voice acting is of a very high standard, with the majority of the characters experiencing genuine emotional affinity with their dialogue. The subtitles occasionally lead to exaggeration in the action sequences, particularly in the first scene where Hamil embraces his latent powers. Sometimes these events can be comical, but most of the time it feels entirely unnecessary.

Overall, Tears to Tiara II is a mixed bag. It has an engaging orchestral soundtrack, coupled with interesting characters and a deep storyline. While the fighting sections are challenging and require a certain level of strategy, they are overshadowed by the amount of cut scenes between each of the segments. It is with this is mind that I can only recommend the game to true fans of the genre, or players that give equal focus to narrative and gameplay.