Onechanbara Z2 Chaos Review (PS4)

Videogames can be so simple sometimes.  Zombies, violence, and scantily-clad women.  That's all there is to Onechanbara Z2 Choas.  Nobody ever said simplicity was bad.

Undead ass-beatings lie within.

In this game, you take the role of four women.  First, you have the mainstays of the series, the temptress Aya and foul-mouthed Saki.  They bring two others to the party, vampires Kagura and Saaya (no, that's not a typo).  These archenemies must come together to defeat a new breed of evil.

The four ravishing vixens you'll be playing as.

The gameplay is fast, fluid, fun, and simple.  You just select the order you want to use the girls in.  Then, you run around and kill every enemy you see.  If one of the girls is getting her ass kicked too much, just switch to the next girl and continue the fight.  Even with all four girls at your disposal, if you're careless you might take an ass-whuppin' and all four girls will be dead faster than you can say "g-string".  Yes, there is some level of challenge.  It's not just killing things and drooling over girls.

There is a little more to the game than mindless hacking and slashing, though.  Each girl has several weapons that you can switch between at any time.  The whole time you're fighting, these weapons will get covered in blood and will need to be cleaned.

The real fun, though, is when the girls themselves get covered in blood.  Yep.  With all the blood flying around, the girls are bound to get covered in it.  When the girls get covered in too much of it, they will turn into a berserk killing machine, doling out beatings and rape to all who dare to get near them.  However, you must be careful, because while in berserk mode your girl's energy will slowly drain and she CAN actually die from it.  You can revert the afflicted character by going to a goddess statue or she transform back over time, assuming she doesn't die first.  You can also keep her from going berserk by using statue fragments.  Of course you could also switch the girl out after she changes over (her energy won't drain while she's on the sidelines) and unleash her when you need to kill without prejudice.  The afflicted girl can get even more powerful with a mega-transformation for maximum butt-kicking powers.

The action can get pretty fast and crazy.

The graphics do their job.  The girls really do look hot, especially Kagura and Aya (sorry, but there's no getting around it).  Some of the imagery can be disturbing.  For example, there is an area where you fight where the ground is completely completely covered in blood.  It's pretty creepy.  Also, the enemies look good, especially the bosses.

Make no mistake, this is so creepy stuff.

The story is total BS.  It's almost in comprehensible.  Seriously.  You'll be going WTF the whole time.  This game is a sequel, so the first game may give you a better idea of what's going on, but in general, the Onechanbara series as a whole has a head-scratcher of a story.

Pretty nice looking game.

So the game looks and plays good.  What are the flaws?  It's too short.  The game ends just as it starts to get good.  It leaves you wanting more and not in a good ways.  It feels kind of cheap, like when Street Fighter 5 first came out.  Also, sometimes there's a little too much going on at times.  You just be hacking and slash when your girl will suddenly just drop dead, because you didn't realize you were getting it as good as you were giving it.  As mentioned earlier, watch your girl's energy and switch frequently to keep them alive.

What about the other stuff.  The music seems weaker than other games in the series, but it's still loaded with the fist-pumping energy a game like this needs.  On the sound front, we finally have English voices.  They may or may not be bad, but I can finally understand what Aya and Saki are saying and that trumps everything.  There is also a challenge mode, which adds a little more length for those left unsatisfied with the short story mode.  You can change the girls' outfits in coordinate mode, power up the girls and their weapons in battle settings, or just drool over them in gallery mode.  One thing that other titles in the series have that's mysteriously missing from this entry is survival mode, which also can have helped counter the short length.

Now THESE are good uniforms.

All-in-all, Onechanbara Z2 Chaos is a solid game.  It's short, yet violent and moderately-satisfying.  The action is fast and there are plenty of enemies to kill.  The girls die pretty fast, but the use of items and frequent switching can help on that front.  It's just mindless, over-the-top mayhem.  If you like female protagonists, skimpy outfits, and hilarious amounts of violence, this is your game.  I say check it out.