Actually has an English alpha patch now. And having to buy teleports (unlike free warping in Zwei: II), plus the higher and less fair.

Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, known in Japan as Zwei II,^[a] is an action role-playing game developed by Nihon Falcom for Microsoft Windows, which released as a direct sequel to Zwei: The Arges Adventure in September 2008. A re-release with additional features was released in Japan in December 2009, and in English by Xseed Games in October 2017.^[1]

In the game, players alternate between two main characters, Ragna and Alwen, with two other supporting characters replacing Alwen at certain points in the game. Ragna is adept in physical attacks, fighting with his unique Anchor Gear weapon, which receives numerous technical upgrades as the game progresses. Alwen is proficient in magic and is able to harness powerful elemental spells. The game starts with Ragna delivering cargo to the floating continent of Irrbard, when he is shot down from his airplane. Alwen, a vampireprincess bonds with him to save his life and Ragna promises to reclaim Alwen's stolen castle to repay her.

Gameplay[edit]

The game plays similar to the 3D Ys series games, also produced by Falcom, with real-time battles and a fixed camera that follows the main character from a medium distance. One major difference is the presence of an inactive secondary character who follows the player's character for most of the game, usually either Alwen or Ragna, depending on who the player isn't controlling at that point in time. Initialising a physical attack forces the player to control Ragna, while initialising a magical attack causes Alwen to fight. Both characters are controlled in the same way, although they have different offensive and defensive stats.

The game features a variety of villages, where players can converse with NPC characters in typical RPG fashion. Travel between locations occurs via Irrbard's overworld map. The majority of the game takes place in dungeons filled with traps and monsters. A dungeon is composed of a few stages, which are split into three floors each. Each stage contains many small puzzle elements, which need to be solved to earn rare treasures or to simply progress. There are many mini-bosses and a dungeon boss, with the dungeon bosses requiring specific strategies to defeat, such as waiting for their weak spot to open.^[2]

We are not obligated to provide any other services, such as training, instruction or consulting.Art. In addition, we will provide you with a source code interface in the programming language C which also forms part of the Software. Applied vision 4. 4 Rights to Use. The free Software version can be downloaded from our website.

One of the unique aspects of the Zwei!! series is that defeating enemies does not award experience points, needed to level up, unlike in other RPGs. Instead enemies may drop food or coins when defeated. Food is very important as not only does it restore health, but it is the only commodity that awards experience points. Ten types of the same food can also be combined in the restaurant, found at the main village, to create a higher tier food item that awards more experience in comparison to the individual items.

To assist with item collection, players can buy pets from a pet store, such as a cat and dog. Pets automatically collect spoils, do minor damage to foes and can learn special abilities as they level up. There are also numerous gadget items, bought from shops or found in dungeons, which are applied as attachments to the game screen. These include tools to aid dungeon exploration such as a dungeon map navigator, and more obscure items, such as a text notifier and a music player.

Plot[edit]

Five hundred years ago, the world of Granvallen was rocked by the Great Sorcery War. The Six Demon Lords, fallen angels who betrayed the twin goddesses Aplyes and Espina, attacked Granvallen and caused much destruction. Eventually they were defeated by the Holy Kingdom of Valence, who allied with the fairies and the great dragons. Afterwards magic was sealed; the magic gates linking the floating continents no longer worked and the continents lost contact with each other. In recent years, machinery has prospered and now the people of Granvallen can move freely using aircraft.

Ragna Valentine is a treasure hunter who journeys to the north-western continent of Irrbard to fulfil a job contract. As he enters Irrbard's airspace, he is shot down by a mysterious group and plunges to an imminent death. Fortunately he is rescued by Alwen, a vampire princess who performs a blood contract with him. Ragna becomes Alwen's Blood Warrior and instantly recovers from his fatal injuries due to his newly gained supernatural strength. When they meet again, Alwen explains that her home castle and magic were stolen from her by an unknown enemy and requests Ragna to help her reclaim them.

References[edit]

1. ^Jenni. 'Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection Is Launching On October 31, 2017'. Siliconera. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
2. ^'Zwei The Ilvard Insurrection'. Zwei The Ilvard Insurrection. Retrieved 2017-09-20.

External links[edit]

A world of myth and magic where continents hang suspended in the skies, its lands shaped aeons ago by the goddesses Aplieste and Espina.Five hundred years ago, the Six Demon Lords rose up to make war upon the world. Their advance was checked by House Valence, lords of the Sacred Kingdom, and by their unlikely alliance of nations, spirits, and dragons. The fierce fighting tore at the very heart of Granvallen, but the demon lords were finally cast down and their power sealed.We know this epochal event today as the Great Sorcery War. In its aftermath, the Sacred Kingdom fell into decline, along with the magic that had suffused every aspect of its prosperous civilization.Most keenly felt was the loss of the teleportation gates that had linked Granvallen's myriad floating isles. ​No need to brave the unknown alone when you've got a partner by your side. Ragna roughs up foes in melee range, while Alwen fires off salvos of powerful magic, locking down enemies from afar. Switch between the two anytime with the tap of a button to create crazy combos!Ragna likes to run in and lash enemies with his unique weapon, the Anchor Gear.

Is it a whip? A fancy can opener? Even the NPCs aren't really sure! But the one thing that IS certain is that it's an incredibly versatile weapon, able to be modified to perform a variety of functions.Alwen is a master of the magical arts. Able to blast foes from a safe distance, some of her spells are also excellent at creating openings for Ragna: her ice magic can freeze enemies for a brief time, while her wind magic lifts them up and spins them right round (baby, right round), keeping them under control. ​Arcanum Skills are secret techniques that combine both Ragna and Alwen's powers to unleash a potent magical effect that can really sock it to enemies.

To learn such potent arts, however, requires an equally adept teacher, and in Ilvard, such an individual might be hard to come by.The humble bomb: simple in construction, simple to use, but who can argue with the results? Every adventurer worth his or her salt will keep a clutch of these on hand. They can open up passageways blocked by debris, shatter boulders to reveal anything hidden beneath, or you can just lob them at monsters and dive for cover. Any way you use them, bombs are always a real blast! ​Zwei dispenses with battling monsters for your Experience Points.

Instead, delicious EXP is found in all the food you'll already be eating to keep yourself healed in dungeons! This simple change opens up the game, allowing players who want more of a challenge to limit their use of food, and players who want an easier time to chow down on the most EXP-rich foods in their inventory so they can muscle their way through the opposition. It also means that, if you don't feel like fighting, you can often just run past enemies without worrying that you're missing out on valuable EXP. But wait.there's more!

Chef Huang at Artte's Panda Inn prides himself on his fully-stocked pantry and his ability to cook just about anything a patron might want. If you bring him ten of any one type of food, he'll trade them for one of a fancier food worth even more EXP than the ten servings of the food you gave him! Through judicious use of this 'food exchange,' you can make sure you're getting the most EXP for your effort and still have plenty of food to fall back on for all your healing needs. Each pet fights differently – cats barrel into enemies with abandon, dogs hang back and fling balls of energy at foes (.as dogs do), and the chick is a mad bomber, pooping out egg bombs that blast enemies – and sometimes regular bombs that can hurt everyone, just to keep you on your toes.

Or, avoid the difficult decision over which cute, heartwarming pet to get and buy all three like the responsible adult you are. Then, you can switch them out as the situation calls for.Whichever pet you choose to have active, your loyal friend will also rove around helping you vacuum up any money and food dropped by defeated enemies. They practically pay for themselves in convenience!There may be other creatures lurking out there in the unknown expanses of Ilvard that would jump at the chance to tag along with you, too. If the opportunity arises, take them under your wing and discover what special abilities they can bring to your team. ​In Zwei, it's not just the main characters who have their own stories – all the people Ragna and Alwen meet have a place in the world, complete with their own lives, problems, and triumphs.

If you don't see someone in their usual area, chances are they're somewhere in Ilvard, doing something, and if you poke around and find them, you might learn something new about them. Get to know these individuals and check in on them frequently, because as the game's story progresses, so will theirs.Legend has it that there exists a mysterious artifact known as 'Solomon's Ring,' and that whoever wears this mystical band will find him- or herself able to understand the language of all animals, and speak with them in kind.

Many animals are smarter than people give them credit for, and they observe with their keen senses things of which humans may be only dimly aware. If you somehow come upon this curious accessory, you can speak with birds, dogs, and cattle to pick up some interesting tidbits. Or, you can just talk to the three cats in Artte and listen to them belittle each other in true feline fashion. ​Hidden away somewhere in Ilvard is an entertainment center so flashy, so tacky, it's amazing it's not visible from space. Within its halls, visitors can browse a gallery of life-sized enemy models, challenge past bosses through the magic of electronic 'arcade cabinets,' and participate in the main event – a no-holds-barred battle arena that promises to pit Ragna and Alwen against some familiar faces as they shoot for the top (and whatever reward comes with it).

Sure, the staff is a bunch of weirdos, but it's a good time all-around!In the same building that houses Ilvard's branch of the Treasure Hunter's Guild, you'll find Ilvard's very own museum, stocked with strange curios from Doctor Theo's collection. At the beginning, it's a bit lacking in impressive specimens and displays, but that's where Ragna's penchant for finding treasure comes in. ​If you can somehow ascend the heights of Starry Peak, you may chance upon a strange kappa.

How does it survive on the blizzard-buffeted heights, you may wonder? Well, that's not really important. What IS important is that this is one savvy kappa – he knows a couple ace routes down the mountain perfect for skiing and snowboarding, and he's perfectly happy to let you run them as many times as your heart desires.for a small fee.

Unfortunately, Ragna doesn't have a snowboard handy, but he's nothing if not resourceful. He'll find something he can use. And if it goes even faster than a snowboard, all the better. 'Zwei' is German for the number two, and to Falcom, it's a double entendre.

Two of their classic PC franchises, Xanadu and Ys, redefined how the company operates and presents itself to the world. When Falcom made a new original game back in 2001, they had spent years remaking late-1980s games for nostalgia money while iterating on wargames like Vantage Master and Lord Monarch. After X and Y came Z, with Zwei!! Heralding an era of new leadership and risk-taking at the company. They soon successfully revived the Ys and Legend of Heroes franchises (giving us the Trails series of games); after 7 years of fans clamoring for a new Zwei, Falcom delivered Zwei II in 2008.The game XSEED's releasing—Zwei II Plus (a version of the original with extra cosmetic features, a randomized dungeon, and extra replayability and compatibility fixes)—is definitely a sequel to Zwei!!

However, you can start with this game. It's almost entirely standalone, leaving details about the world of Granvallen and its history to the wayside as Alwen and Ragna trudge onward. Some details about events from the prequel are mentioned in passing, but hardly spoiled in depth. XSEED's expressed interest in localizing Zwei!! Later on should Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection sell well enough, but the 2001 game runs on DirectX5, has more limited gamepad support than all Falcom PC releases since then, and was designed with 640x480 2D art/user interfaces, all factors which make a new release unlikely.For anyone interested in Zwei!!,. You can buy a Japanese digital copy via DLSite, DMM, Vector, or any competing distributors which host Falcom's Japanese PC releases.

The patch automatically fixes incompatibility problems like the unsupported Indeo video codec; keep in mind that the patch still has problems with text overflows, instability, and parts needing an editing pass. I recommend playing Zwei!! If you want a rough but fun, gorgeous, and intriguing story-centric dungeon crawling adventure, albeit one which doesn't control as well or play as nice as its successor., also, which meant extra time to ensure the base script didn't have any mistranslations before editing those parts. Because XSEED sticks to a general rule of not announcing release dates until they certainly think the game's ready for sale, this delay suggests a number of issues came up at the last minute and forced the QA team to keep working on Zwei: II.For more comments from the game's editor, Nick @ XSEED, These don't focus on technical specifics so much as the larger process of localizing a new-ish and unique Falcom game. Meanwhile, here's what Tom @ XSEED, a fellow localizer and fan of older Falcom, has to say about the game's performance and barriers to entry. I mean, it was a PC game originally, and while it actually required some reeeeelatively decent specs back in 2008 to run smoothly (nothing super-high, but higher than usual for Falcom, on account of the fact that this was their very last original PC title they ever made, and easily their most technically advanced PC title by far), that was nine years ago.

Chances are, your computer can run it just fine - and while yes, Sara is making the standard improvements to it, she's not rewriting the source code wholesale or anything, so it should still be pretty resource-light by 2017 standards. The game takes about 25 minutes of story before you're given the option to leave the hub town, Artte, and start exploring Ilvard. Iclone 3dxchange 4 pro. If you so choose, talking to NPCs in Artte and Roalta Village is available right at that point. Equipment shops sell only a limited selection of items, so the clearest objective at the start is clearing Secundum Mines to advance the story and get used to combat and puzzles.One option that's easy to miss is Alwen's teleport magic, which you can use from the start. If you're having trouble on the first boss or wish to defeat it without healing, for example, you could teleport from Secundum Mines back to Artte to get equipment. I absolutely loved the characters (Gallandou forever!), the story and writing were far more amazing than they had any right to be.the graphics contain easily the best 3D Falcom's ever produced, the gameplay is super-fun (I absolutely love using the Anchor Gear to grab enemies and hurl them at other enemies!) and the level designs are top notch all the way around, with cool gimmicks and cool bosses.I just wish Zwei 2 had done a little better, as the ending very much set the stage for as many as four additional sequels, and I would've been SO down to play them all!

(Though Nayuta no Kiseki is kind of like a spiritual sequel, and while I didn't much care for the story or characters in that game, I found its gameplay, level designs and bosses to be almost unmatchably glorious, and its soundtrack is one of Falcom's best of the last 10 years.).But, we're kind of veering off topic here!-Tom. Ragna's 'Grab Gear' weapon, for example, is kind of like if you were wielding a Castlevania whip, but whenever you whip an enemy, you actually grab it and pull it into your hands so you can then throw it at other enemies or objects.

His 'Glide Gear,' on the other hand, turns his weapon into a bladed skateboard of sorts, allowing you to coast through areas and just ram into enemies.And it's because you've got both Ragna and Alwen (or, at certain points in the story, someone other than Alwen!) in your party that it's a little bit like Seven/Celceta, since you can swap your active character on the fly, with the other one (and your pet) controlled by AI in the meantime. It plays out a little more smoothly than in Seven/Celceta, though, since when you switch characters, the two instantaneously change places entirely, so you can quickly and seamlessly switch back and forth between attacking with Ragna and firing off magic with Alwen in the middle of a single fight, and there won't be any disorientation (since you won't ever move from the spot you're standing in), nor any interruption in the flow of combat. It'll be literally no different than if you'd pressed a button to switch bangles in Felghana, save for a sudden change in the visual appearance of your character. This game is amazing.

Hidden in one of the dungeons is a little HUD widget that when equipped, it displays simple math problem like 7.4 + 13 =? And if you type in the correct answer, you get rewarded a small amount of gold. There is no limit on how often you can use it, it just dispenses gold every time you correctly enter the math problem. The more you get correct in a row and the faster you can solve them, the more gold you can get. Genius!Also, there are a whole bunch of crazy little HUD widgets with their own little functions that can be found throughout the game.It is mostly a dungeon crawler but with a lighthearted story and lovable characters. Similar to Final Fantasy, it is completely independent of the first game, so you don't need to play it to enjoy the game. Though the main characters do occasionally make some cameo appearances and exists within the same universe.

I don't agree that Zwei: II is simplistic, though Zwei!! Sadly has rather iffy combat and accessibility. Zwei: II benefits from QoL advances made in games like Ys Origin and Xanadu Next before it, and the dungeon crawling's generally as good as in Zwei!! While playing smoother.

If I had to compare Zwei: II with Xananext, I'd say they both have a nice sense of interconnection and rewards for revisiting dungeons and areas once you've gotten farther in the game. They also have combat slower and less precise than Ys, but still just as methodical and generally well-designed no matter the challenge level. Both games also let you bend the difficulty curve; in Zwei, this means refusing to eat consumables from the food exchange which fast-track leveling up, or skimping on even basic foods.There's plenty of reasons to get excited about the game. It's a bit too pricey at the moment, but I've been waiting for this all year and nothing's stopping that feeling.

To answer this, I had to sit down and research Solatorobo the way I should have done a while ago.now if only I could afford it!Both games definitely have dungeons, steampunk elements, and a fantasy story underneath, but it looks like Zwei leans more towards fantasy and dungeons with recycled assets while Solatorobo's got much shorter but customized dungeons and a lot of steampunk. The story in Solatarobo seems cool and ticks off some of my favorite setting tropes (characters are cute but not too interesting), but Zwei: II's dialogue is way more detailed and supports more distinctly 'out there' characters. Ragna's Anchor Gear has as many utilities as needed for the dungeons you go through, same with Red's Dahak, but there's no clear separation between combat and puzzle-solving in Zwei: II (and Solatorobo might prove me wrong since I've only peeked at early dungeons). The clever hacks used to give a greater sense of scale in Solatarobo don't appear in Zwei: II even though it looks better graphically; combat's also one area where I'm bored to tears looking at Solatorobo in contrast to Zwei: II.Finally, Zwei: II doesn't seem to have same chapter system as Solatorobo, and it's definitely harder. I definitely think there's enough in common, starting with a cheery and colorful aesthetic, that many who played Solatarobo can get a lot from Zwei: II. Commonly-cited strengths in the DS game include great world-building and art design, something which Zwei: II has on its own merits, and the pacing's certainly good in both games.