From the makers of Mirror, KAGAMI WORKS (rebranded as KAGAMI Ⅱ WORKs), Mirror 2 Project X continues to deliver an excellent Match-3 puzzle game experience with improved graphics and great storytelling – Released on Steam in Early Access on 21 January 2022.
Follow the story of multiple heroines living their own lives and dealing with their own challenges. Fight your waifus in match-3 combat and overcome their unique abilities. A short burst of fun for a quiet evening.
Table of content:
Mirror 2 Gameplay
Choose your heroine out of three characters (as of right now). Each character has their own cinematic cutscenes for you to enjoy in between battles that progress their mini-stories forward.
Once all the stories have been completed, or sooner if you like, you may enjoy the end game that provides Slay the Spire-like roguelike game mode in which you try to advance in a dungeon full of enemies to battle, treasures to discover, and events to stumble upon.
Story
Mirror 2 tries to tell a serious story with its characters who live in their own worlds, only linked to one another by mention. Thanks to great camera work, smooth character animations, and adorable facial expressions, the game stands above many of its competitors, especially for the low price it asks in return.
Sadly, the stories, as enjoyable as they are to watch, end too soon, leaving the player craving for more. Having said that, the quality of these stories shoots far higher than the asking price of the product, thus balancing the short experience.
Multiple endings
You as the player can influence the narrative by making decisions during certain points of the story that impact the ending. A flowchart is given for the player to see which decisions led to which endings, and this same chart can be used as a reference to unlock all the paths. Each ending unlocks a beautiful artwork to admire.
Characters
Fall in love with several cute waifus and watch how their story will end. The first story introduces you to a demon succubus locked away in a secret facility that studies the supernatural. The second story throws you in the desert with a catgirl seeking to resurrect life on dried land with the help of a stranger. And finally, a confused zombie finding herself in a time she does not recognize on a floating city in the skies.
Difficulty
With a basic quick tutorial to read through in a minute, new players can understand the flow of the match-3 puzzle sections without trouble. Veterans of the genre will need no introduction to Mirror 2’s combat system, especially if familiar with the first title.
For those seeking a greater challenge or looking to lower the default, the game provides difficulty setting, exclusive to the challenge mode. In the story mode, hints on how to defeat your opponent are displayed before every battle.
Even though it is safe to say that Mirror 2 is not a difficult game, some battles can prove more challenging than others, thus requiring some level of skill to win. Randomly matching icons on the board will most often result in defeat.
Challenge mode
If you like risky situations and increasing challenges with no redos, Mirror 2 provides exactly that with its challenge mode! Battle against countless enemies as you try to progress through a dungeon on a map with various tiles to step on that may be harmless or harmful indicated by their icon.
The further you get in the dungeon, the more challenging enemies you will face. Unique to the challenge mode, the monsters you battle come in different shapes and sizes and are added to your monster book to collect as you encounter them.
Adult content
While the first Mirror is known as an adult game providing hentai as a form of reward when battling waifus, Mirror 2 takes a new direction by removing the hentai completely and sticking with ecchi tease with no actual nudity – A great disappointment for the fans of the first game.
For each girl during their story, there is a love section in which the player is given a QTE (Quick Time Event) to cherish the waifu. Almost as an afterthought, these sections are pure fanservice having no real impact on the story and thus become a sad reminder to the old fans of what could have been…
Despite the bitter taste from the perspective of an old fan, Mirror 2 is easy to recommend for everyone who is looking to enjoy adorable anime waifus doing cute things for a short while.
