Penny Arcade: On The Rainslick Precipice Of Darkness episode 2 is almost as awesome as it's name.....almost. To get this out of the way first, this game is hilarious. I'd buy this game just for the dialouge, but I'll assume most people won't, so I'll cover the basics of gameplay now.
Penny Arcade plays out battles in a similar way to the ATB(active-time-battle system) of many Final Fantasy games, but with a twist. You have 3 seperate circles that fill in succession over time. The first is items, second is regular attack, and third is special attack. What this means is that in order to do a special attack you will have to wait for all 3 gauges to be full. This forces you to strike a balance between regular and special attacks, as well as stat-buffing and healing items. most normal battles wont require the use of items and micromanagement of HP isn't needed as you'll start every battle with full HP. In addition to the mix of regular attacks there are also team-up attack that can be executed when 2 or more members have there special attacks ready. These attacks are overall very powerful and useful against many bosses. There are also support charecters who you can call in to perform a special attack similar to summons of earlier FF games. They also have their own gauges that fill slowly, so you can't spam.
The story in this game is basically just an excuse to go on hilarious adventures such as exploring an insane asylum and fighting with monkey robots. While the story is simple at best, the dialouge will have you rolling on the floor as soon as the game starts. I guarantee you will ROFL and LOL on multiple occasions(unless your heartless, in which case you have my condolences). The first opening lines where your friends try to convince you to help them are among my favorites, I never thought I'd ever laugh about a rake, but I was dying within a couple of seconds of dialouge. Although, it is important to point out that only a few lines of dialouge are actually spoken, so expect to read a lot.
If you are a fan of RPG's you wont go wrong, but the battle system is definetly not what you'd call complex. If you've never played RPG's, this is an excellent entry game, as it's simple and relatively easy, but not without a couple of challenges. Penny arcade 2 is a great if not simple RPG with hilarious dialouge that will have you laughing all the way through
4.0