In the future, humanity has created A.D.A.Ms (Autonomous Dueling Armed Machines) to fight their wars for them, ending centuries of bloodshed. Unfortunately, the A.D.A.Ms were far too practical and had since eliminated the need for war. Instead of scrapping the remaining androids (for some unknown reason), a tower was built to house the surviving killing machines. The A.D.A.M androids are imprisoned in this tower and forced to fight to the “death,” much like Roman gladiators, only without a prize if they win. Rengoku 2’s core gameplay is pure action. Your A.D.A.M begins by fighting the other androids in the tower with nothing but his fists. When you defeat your enemies, they may drop Elixer Skins (which can be used to improve your health, defense, and other stats) or weapons.
Once you’ve collected a few guns, you can equip them at a terminal (the hub at the top of each tower floor). Weapons can be equipped on the arms, head, or torso, and some weapons can be used in multiple locations (for example, the Auto Crossbow can be equipped on your head and arms but not on your torso). A face button is assigned to each section of the body (Square – Left Arm, Circle – Right Arm, X – Torso, and Triangle – Head). You can create nasty combos if you link your weapon attacks together. By racking up large combos as your opponent dies (a technique known as “Overkill”), you can increase the likelihood that they’ll drop more Elixer Skins or that Flamethrower you saw them using a few seconds before you back-flipped to a safe distance and hit them with a barrage of homing missiles. The pacing of the game is as straightforward as its gameplay. You clear the current floor of enemies (collecting weapons and upgrading along the way), fight the floor boss, and then move up to the next floor to repeat the process. As you progress through the tower, your enemies start using more potent weapons, which you can take for yourself, and they even start attacking you in groups. AA multiplayer mode uses the game-sharing feature, allowing you to upload a demo to a friend’s PSP, even if they don’t own the game. The multiplayer mode is a death match. Each player starts with nothing and must seek out weapons and support items in the environment or within destructible crates. Because the pickups all look the same, you have no idea what you’re about to pick up until you take it, which adds a bit of random, on-the-fly strategy to the multiplayer.
