Originally published in March/2020 in cafecomgeeks.com, auto translated by Google Cloud.
With intense combat through Japanese streets against unsmiling enemies, River City Ransom has become a great Japanese classic from the past eras of video games. Arc System Works and WayForward last year launched River City Girls — a spiritual successor to the series.
In River City Girls, the girlfriends of the series’ previous protagonists (Kunio and Riki), Misako and Kyoko, come together to rescue their kidnapped boyfriends. Fleeing a restricted school that kept them in detention, they must travel through a semi-open world, fighting with whoever is ahead to achieve their goal.
River City Girls is an action RPG with beat ’em ups gameplay. You earn items and money by defeating enemies, which allows you to fight with weapons or buy other items, food for boosts and even upgrades. The combat is extremely varied, allowing up to two players in cooperation. Enemies have a good range of challenges, but many are visually repeated. Despite this, at times, you can recruit them and use them as a power-up, which makes the fight even more dynamic.
The presentation of the game is impeccable. The cutscenes are made by well animated manga panels, in addition to the completely dubbed and charismatic conversations. The game has art part pixelated part “anime”, with the parts drawn in menus and scenes, so that the graphic is not inconsistent. The animation also leaves nothing to be desired, speaking of cutscenes and in-game moments.
The game’s soundtrack is another magnificent aspect. Composed by Megan McDuffee, Chipzel, Dale North and Nathan Sharp, it goes back to the old titles, modernizing and even bringing sung titles.
River City Girls was kindly made available to us by WayForward and is available for PC, PS4 and Switch.
