Got the PS3 Version, so far no major technical issues---but is it me or is the camera pretty wonky in this?
So far though it seems like a relatively "good game" if you're a Rider fan, especially considering the varied character roster. The graphics are passable, and the presentation looks a bit better than the original---I especially think the stages feel a lot more natural and more interesting than the ones in the original, as well as feeling a bit shorter since I've yet to come across those "destroy the memory pillars!"
Was pleasantly surprised to see you can now spend money to raise levels of the Riders which is a great feature every Musou should have, and combined with the Tag System (which is rather neat, especially when your partner's special attacks perfectly meshes with your own combo) makes leveling the Riders up far easier and less tedious.
Glad I ordered the TV Sound Edition, because the in-game music is still pretty bland---there was this pretty great sounding piece that played at the beginning of the Drive level, though it was replaced once the level started with Surprise Drive...don't know if that only played at the intro though and would be replaced by duller music in the regular Edition. Also neat how the Custom Soundtrack allows you to choose whether or not you want the TV Sound Edition songs to begin at the climax for Form Changes, or start at the beginning for when using them on levels. Hope someone posts a good translation of the BGM Menu soon though.
How do the Gachapon figurines work? I only got one, Drive Wild, and I see it has its own stats and can level up, but do they have unique Abilities still this time around or do they just give stat boosts? It's neat though how you can find them in levels now as opposed to having to buy them, makes it a bit more fun IMO. Also hope someone does a good list of what they do since I want to grab one that gives increased EXP or Money.
My thoughts on the four characters I have...
* It doesn't surprise me Ghost doesn't have individual Form Changes since that's a lot of Forms plus many of them don't have too many abilities shown in the show, but the way they linked all seven of them to a string gets a bit confusing. Also fuck his Super Attack, he never seems to actually aim at the enemy and just flails around wildly. Does he ever get anything new when leveling up? The previews show a bar filling up under the Ghost Driver which I don't see yet---what does that do?
* Drive is pretty neat in how in-depth he seems with all the Shift Cars, though now I'm sad because I've slacked off on my Japanese and the katakana is throwing me off so I get confused over what Shift Car I'm actually using. Love he can pull off the Pinball Finisher whenever he wants, though it seems a bit broken. I never filled up the bar enough when playing as him, but I guess one bar gives you Formula, two gives you Tridoron? Still haven't figured out how the new Super Bar works exactly.
* Mach's neat, he seems pretty fast and I love how he cancels out his attacks with that forward dash. Noticed if you hold down Square, he does the jack-up deal---guess that just powers up him for a bit, right? Magarl proved pretty useful when fighting the Bat Grongi with the shield because it homes in on him and all...there's no way to charge up the Shift Bikes like in the show, right? When I do the jack-up he just switched back to the Mach Shift Car. Also noticed pressing down on the control pad does a different attack.
* Kuuga getting another one-on-one stage was neat, though a bit cramped which messed up the camera and not as effective as the Daguva fight in BW1. Otherwise he feels the exact same as BW1 to me, which isn't an issue as he was pretty fun anyway---is Decade Kuuga vastly different, or is he mainly different only due to the new Ultimate form?