As I’ve delved into the PC Engine CD library I’ve gained a new appreciation for the system. I wasn’t able to own one back in the day; at $399 for just the add-on I would have had to pull a knife on my parents for it. But now the games are cheap and worth exploring. I say the PC Engine CD specifically as its American counterpart was woefully under supported. There were legions of titles that should have come to the US but instead we got crap like this. Final Zone II is an average game only remembered for one reason; its dub.
Chances are if you’ve heard of Final Zone II it is because of its English dub. And yes, everything you’ve heard is true. This is among the worst English dubs in the history of the medium and that is saying a lot. Nearly everything you can think of is wrong. There are weird pauses in dialogue, the lip flaps don’t match, and strange inflections for no reason. It is clear there was no direction given to the actors with expediency being the most important. The lack of any emotion robs the characters of any depth, such as it is. Those of you that have played Last Alert will recognize some of the voice cast and it’s just as bad.
The bad dub ruins what could have at least been a decent story. The original Final Zone was never ported to any platform. The connections between the two games are lost on those of us in the west as a result. You can at least infer the events of that game from the many cutscenes but it would have been nice to have some context. There are an abundance of cinemas, some even running a few minutes long. They would have been a nice reward for your progress if the voice acting were not so bad.
Ignore the plot and you are left with a standard top down action game. Final Zone II wisely sheds the ill-conceived squad tactics of its predecessor for straight action. The best way to describe it is zippy. Regardless of which character selected all move pretty fast with tight controls. One oddity you’ll have to get used to are your weapons. Your primary fire comes from the left arm while special weapons come from the right. It gives positioning a slight factor but is otherwise just a bit strange.
There are five characters total which you’ll get to play as during this short trip. Honestly aside from their secondary weapons the differences between everyone are slight. Bowie and Hanna both have long range Vulcan cannons with rapid fire while Momoko doesn’t. Randy has a spread gun that is incredibly useful but only becomes playable for the last level. Izak has a light saber that does the most damage suffers from short range. There are few power-ups; you can replenish special weapon ammo, health or extend your life bar. While it sounds limited you really don’t need more than that as the game is easy.
For the first three missions you play as a set hero/heroine. But for the game’s second half it opens up, allowing you to pick from multiple characters in each level. There really isn’t much strategy to picking the right one for each stage. Everyone is so similar most will have little trouble breezing through the game. All enemies attack in preset groups with little variation. The lack of enemy variety grows old quickly and makes the game a slog. New enemies are introduces late in the game when the story takes a….weird turn but it isn’t enough.
If there is anything Final Zone II is guilty of its being boring. Sure you’ll laugh at the cutscenes but the game isn’t good enough to warrant seeing them all. While commanding troops in the original while in the field was frustrating it made the game unique. Removing that element has made for a more solid game but at the cost of being interesting. If they had fixed the mechanic this could have been far better. Aside from a brief shooter segment in stage three the game is simply average.
In Closing
Final Zone II is average and only memorable due to its lacking production. Even an excellent soundtrack can’t help this rise above its mediocrity. The only reason to play it is for the awful English dub. You can just as easily go to youtube for that now.
