Stream: Mary Skelter 2
Dive into Mary Skelter 2 through my perspective. This page serves as a living journal, updated daily with bite-sized reviews, exclusive video highlights, and curated screenshot galleries from my adventure.
Chapter 2 Aquarium Ruin - Little Mermaid
Completed the second dungeon of the game and it seems to be configuring as a similar pattern as the first game of the series. Each dungeon (except for the tutorial one) are linked to a particular Blood Maiden and you go around searching for the core needed to weaken the Nightmare and be able to kill it in a multi-part battle against it destroying the many pieces that it is composed of. The Nightmare and the dungeon design clearly show who is the owner of the dungeon which, in this case, was Little Mermaid (water based, lots of blue, etc...).
Apparently it was here that Otsuu first found her and immediately declared to her. She doesn't even know why, but knew she loved her at first sight. I'm still unsure about what is the fairy tale that Otsuu is based on, the name itself makes me think something Japanese, but I wasn't able to find definitive proof in the few posts online I searched. I didn't want to go too much deep to avoid spoiler so I guess I'll wait until they reveal more themselves.
I'm a bit puzzled about the final scene that was shown after defeating the nightmare and coming back to the base. Again, we take for a very short moment control of another individual (or Nightmare considering the sounds) as it moves escaping from something in the dungeon. Who is he and why is he connected to Jack? Is it because they're both Nightmare or is it because it's something very strictly linked to Jack (Alice). I hope it's not Alice because I really want her to be playable...
Either way, seems like next stop will be Red Riding Hood. Let's see how it goes!
Laboratory Base Mechanics Explained
I was just going through the menus to see the differences between this game and the previous one and it seems like there's quite a few new features being added both in the base and in the fields.
We have the usual job change one (all with different arts for each heroine, including swimsuits if you got the DLC).
Expand Skill Slots is still the same as before, spend blood to get extra skill slots
Blood Devolution allows you to lose levels to gain extra stats (sort of an end game thing really)
Blood Pack Appraisal/Transfusion seems to be a new one. You can basically gain extra skills (powering up existing ones) based on special types of blood packs you find in your explorations. This is an interesting one as it can make characters even more flexible...
Oh and in the dungeons apparently you can farm blood? Like literally plant it and let it grow over time and then harvest the items that grow out of it. It's actually interesting...
Blood Skelter Mode Mechanic Explanation
So it's confirmed. Blood Skelter mode works exactly like in the first game, they discover it by coincidence when Little Mermaid goes in that mode and start attacking Otsuu and Hameln. She is reverted by Jack's blood that was splattered on her when he protected Otsuu from being hurt. I guess that's why they had Jack transform as a nightmare, if he was a human he would jeopardize the protagonist role of Otsuu, but he has to be around the group because the key mechanic of the game goes through him.
Now my thoughts go to Alice because she went Blood Skelter too earlier in the game before the group separated, is she still in that mode clashing around somewhere in the dungeon? Surely nothing bad can have happened to her right?
Now let's continue exploring the aquarium area, it's apparently the area from which Little Mermaid appeared so I wonder if it'll be just another tutorial explaining how to defeat the Nightmares and they'll leave new characters to a future zone...
Prologue Complete - Hameln get!
I just finished the first chapter of the story. After recruiting Hameln (she's now cosplaying as a hero and is even more cute than usual) we fought our way up to reach the liberation district, but turns out entire original Reimei group has been annihilated by a mysterious nightmare that appeared out of nowhere. Of course no body of the blood maidens was found so they should be still safe somewhere.
We don't know much about it yet, but from the small scene it seems to be related the Little Mermaid somehow as it uttered her name.
Now the quest is to gather back the original Blood Maidens and accumulate enough forces to fight back against the Nightmare. Similar to what happened in the original game, but from the a new point of view. The parallel universe theory is looking more and more likely now because way too many things don't match up in this world compared to the previous one...
What happened to Jack?!
Kept going for a bit further and the questions only keep growing. Jack was engulfed by some weird tentacles and transformed into a nightmare, but he doesn't seem aggressive and is actually linked to Otsuu to the point that she can use him in battle as a second attack (and is the only one who can fully understand him).
Is that going to be his permanent form in this second game? If yes, how do the girls come back from Blood Skelter mode? Is his blood still applicable to this?
As you can see from the video below, Hameln was introduced quite early in the game this time around. In the first game she was sort of a "bonus character" that wasn't really involved with the story much. She's still as cute as I remember her too with her continuous fumbling of words.
I'm not still sold on Otsuu character to be honest, way too tomboy-sh and her prince act feels a bit jarring at times. Let's see if it improves along the way as we get to know her better.
The story seems to have diverged from the first game...
The questions I have only increase instead of decreasing right now. We found the blood maiden and it was Jack and Alice from the first game, but we never met Little Mermaid nor Otsuu in the first game so things don't match up. The events after freeing her are also different as she goes in Blood Skelter mode and make the ground fall separating the team into smaller groups.
Is this a parallel universe to the first game? That would explain why the characters are the same, but events are different. I can't remember lots of the details of the original game so maybe there's something I'm forgetting as it's been over 10 years.
Now I'm with Otsuu alone in the underground trying to find back my way to join the others.
Hopefully we can go back at the base soon and start to learn more about the situation in the city too. That'll be the important part right now. Who are the other Blood Maidens available in the game right away?
Otsuu and Little Mermaid first impression
Seems like we got two new characters in Otsuu and Little Mermaid and they seem ultra yuri for each other which is always a nice thing. The issue is, while I do understand that Little Mermaid comes from the fairy tale with the same name, I have absolutely no idea where Otsuu comes from.
Maybe some japanese fairy tale I never heard of? Or something else altogether?
Oh and of course there's Red Riding Hood, but this time with long hair which makes her even more charming!
Right now going through the prologue which is us trying to save an unnamed blood maiden from being trapped. And of course going through the tutorial that is classic for these games. So far everything seems to be identical to the original, just that Jack isn't there to act as controller of the Blood Maiden.
Weirdly the "Massacre Mode" of the blood maidens that was "unrecoverable" in the first game seems to be recovering automatically after battle. Retcon or is there some reason for it?
Mary Skelter Journal start!
Starting from today to play Mary Skelter 2 after so many years since when I played the original (that I technically played twice, once in PSVita and once on Switch). You can read my review of the original at this URL https://blog.emptyblue.it/impression/mary-skelter-classic-dungeon-crawling-with-an-unexpected-storyline )
As far as I know the story is linked and intertwined with the original to the point that one of the endings of the original is only unlocked if you complete the story of the second one.
It's going to be interesting where it goes, I remember the first game was quite final and revealed most of the secrets in the world. But maybe there's more to discover considering there's even another game after this one.
The OP movie seems to put a lot more emphasis on Hamelin compared to how marginal she was in the original game. Plus there's some new heroine too...
