In the future, humanity has created specialized androids known as A.D.A.Ms (Autonomous Dueling Armed Machines) to fight their conflicts on their behalf, ending years of senseless killing. The A.D.A.Ms were, unfortunately, a little too successful, so the need for competition has been entirely eradicated ever since. It was decided (for unclear reasons) that rather than simply destroying the remaining androids, a tower was built specifically to house the remaining lethal robots. The A.D.A.M androids have been imprisoned in this tower, and much like Roman gladiators, they are forced to fight to the “death” against one another. The only difference is that there is no reward for the victor.
Action-oriented play is at the heart of Rengoku 2’s gameplay. Your A.D.A.M starts in the tower with nothing more than his fists to defend himself against the other androids. When you defeat your foes, they will occasionally drop weapons or Elixer Skins, which can be utilized to improve aspects of your character, such as your health, defense, and other attributes. After you have amassed several weapons, you can return to a terminal, a central hub located at the beginning of each tower floor, to equip them. Certain weapons can be used in many places, while others can only be attached in one location (for example, the Auto Crossbow can be mounted on your head and arms, but not your torso). Weapons can be equipped on the arms, the director, or the torso. Each body part has been given its face button (the square represents the left arm, the circle represents the right arm, the X represents the torso, and the triangle represents the head). If you link the attacks you make with your weapons together; this can result in some particularly vicious combinations. You can enhance the likelihood that your opponent will drop more Elixer Skins or that Flamethrower you saw them using a few seconds before you back-flipped to a safe distance and hit them with a barrage of homing missiles if you rack up massive combos as your opponent dies. This strategy is known as “Overkill,” and it’s one of the game’s secret moves.
The game’s rhythm is just as uncomplicated as the gameplay itself. You eliminate all of the foes on the existing floor, fight the boss of that floor, and then move on to the next floor to do it all over again. Along the way, you collect weapons and undergo upgrades. As you make your way deeper into the tower, the adversaries you face will not only begin to employ increasingly potent weapons — some of which you can steal for yourself —but also begin to collaborate in their assaults on you.
There is also a multiplayer option that uses the game-sharing feature, which means that you can upload a demo to your friend’s PSP even if they do not possess the game themselves. The multiplayer mode consists solely of head-to-head fights to the death. Every player starts the game with nothing and must search for weapons and other items in the environment or containers that can be destroyed. There is no way to tell what you are about to pick up until you grab it because all the pickups have the same appearance. This gives the multiplayer a bit of a random, on-the-fly approach, which makes it more interesting.
