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Dragoon En Regalia · Jun 14, 2017

Gematsu article + trailer

Excerpt from opening (fan-subbed)
More game footage

Launching on PC via Steam, GOG, and likely Humble Bundle. Possibility of console port(s) remains, depending on PC sales.

Zwei II is a standalone sequel according to XSEED, taking place way far away from the setting of 2001's Zwei!! but featuring the first game's protagonists as NPCs later on. You can play either game in either order . Like in modern Ys games, previous details and events are referenced, but non-essential for new players to know beforehand.

XSEED PR said:
Story

Pilot, treasure hunter, and courier Ragna Valentine lives a life of adventure flying the high skies of Granvallen. But on a routine delivery to the remote floating continent of Ilvard, he finds himself ambushed by two dragon-riding ne'er-do-wells who send his plane spiraling to the ground.

Fortunately for Ragna, his crash was witnessed by someone in a position to do something about it: vampire princess Alwen du Moonbria. Pulling the dying Ragna from the wreckage of his plane, Alwen forms a blood contract with him, saving his life in exchange for his services as her vassal.

Her request is far from simple – Alwen needs Ragna's help both to recover her stolen magic, and to retake her castle, wrested from her mere weeks ago by villains unknown. Ragna's ready to ante up, but on one condition: instead of acting as Alwen's servant, he wants to undertake their adventure as equal partners...even though it could very well make the going tougher!

So begins the unlikely duo's trek across Ilvard. Along the way they'll meet the isle's strange and colorful residents, battle the minions of darkness, train pets, learn potent skills from a macho masked luchador, and discover the meaning of (slightly dysfunctional) friendship. Sure, the bad guys might have the upper hand, but luckily for Ragna and Alwen, they never saw a team-up this weird coming!

About

Originally released as Zwei II in Japan by acclaimed RPG developers Nihon Falcom, Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection contains a standalone story featuring a brash pilot named Ragna who is forced to partner up with the haughty vampire princess Alwen after she saves his life in exchange for a blood contract.

The real-time combat is tied to a unique leveling system that allows players to choose when to apply experience towards leveling up, and pets can fight alongside players to help take down some of the massive bosses in the game. Boasting a story with a large cast of colorful NPCs that often takes itself lightly, fans of vampires, treasure hunting, fairies, ninjas, luchadores, cat-people, vintage airplanes, magic castles, robots, chickens that lay bombs, and more will find lots to love!

Key Features

Two Playable Characters At Once (Plus a Pet) – Ragna roughs up foes in melee range, while Alwen fires off salvos of powerful magic or locks down enemies from afar. Switch between the two on the fly to create crazy combos!

Unique Food-Based Experience System Gives Greater Control Over Leveling – Experience is gained through eating food, which can be cashed in immediately or saved to trade later for food worth even more EXP. Entire game can be played at level 1, if you dare.

Strange and Quirky Setting with Strange and Quirky Characters – Taking a page from the Legend of Heroes series, the residents of Ilvard are a lively lot, and a lot can be learned about each one as the story progresses. What's the deal with that chain-smoking nun? Which of the three maids shirks the most work? And... is that a girl in a giant penguin costume?

Brand New, Expanded English Voices – Over 2000 voiced lines have been added to bring the twists and turns of the story to life.

Nick @ XSEED's confirmed to have licensed a work-in-progress fan translation (which included work on Zwei!!, but this may not have been part of the licensing deal) as their base for editing.

He's also hinted at something special coming up soon for "true believers", which is ambiguous but could be a hint at the first Zwei!! coming to Steam/GOG.

XSEED Forums thread with commentary from localization specialist Tom Lipschultz. I grouped some of the quotes here.

Finally, Durante was privy to internal discussions on Steam regarding the localization's development. This is not confirmation of his involvement with Zwei II, but it doesn't hurt to point out since Durante previously fixed the PC port of Little King's Story (Wii).

There has been no confirmation against Japanese voices in Zwei II, only for a full English dub with extra lines in scenes that were previously unvoiced. Dual-voice is still a possibility, as weird as it would be for XSEED to do it for this Falcom game first. Also, the game is currently locked to 30 FPS, perhaps because the game's based on Gurumin which also runs at that (though controls can run at 60), but neither Tom nor Sara @ XSEED have denied trying to improve this. The game's way more than just playable at this speed.

Open screens in new window/tab or click to expand. Screenshots do not reflect final technical quality ("Sara [XSEED's internal programmer] is making the standard improvements to it")

Some choice quotes about the game:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=111055012&postcount=74 said:
I agree, Gurumin 2 would be amazing (Gurumin is also pretty up there in my list of favorite Falcom games of all time!), but honestly, Zwei 2 was close enough for my tastes. I absolutely loved the characters (Gallandou forever!), the story and writing were far more amazing than they had any right to be...the graphics contain easily the best 3D Falcom's ever produced, the gameplay is super-fun (I absolutely love using the Anchor Gear to grab enemies and hurl them at other enemies!) and the level designs are top notch all the way around, with cool gimmicks and cool bosses.

I just wish Zwei 2 had done a little better, as the ending very much set the stage for as many as four additional sequels, and I would've been SO down to play them all! (Though Nayuta no Kiseki is kind of like a spiritual sequel, and while I didn't much care for the story or characters in that game, I found its gameplay, level designs and bosses to be almost unmatchably glorious, and its soundtrack is one of Falcom's best of the last 10 years.)

...But, we're kind of veering off topic here!

-Tom

http://www.xseedgames.com/forum/index.php?threads/zwei-the-ilvard-insurrection-announced-for-e3.29273/#post-948173 said:
I mean, it was a PC game originally, and while it actually required some reeeeelatively decent specs back in 2008 to run smoothly (nothing super-high, but higher than usual for Falcom, on account of the fact that this was their very last original PC title they ever made, and easily their most technically advanced PC title by far), that was nine years ago. Chances are, your computer can run it just fine -- and while yes, Sara is making the standard improvements to it, she's not rewriting the source code wholesale or anything, so it should still be pretty resource-light by 2017 standards.

http://www.xseedgames.com/forum/index.php?threads/zwei-the-ilvard-insurrection-announced-for-e3.29273/page-3#post-948639 said:
Oath/Ark/Origin because you actually do get to jump, and the weapon/magic you have selected COMPLETELY changes the way you attack, as opposed to simply functioning as a skill. Ragna's "Grab Gear" weapon, for example, is kind of like if you were wielding a Castlevania whip, but whenever you whip an enemy, you actually grab it and pull it into your hands so you can then throw it at other enemies or objects. His "Glide Gear," on the other hand, turns his weapon into a bladed skateboard of sorts, allowing you to coast through areas and just ram into enemies.

Meanwhile, Alwen can fire off rocks in multiple directions with her earth spell, shoot out laser-like beams with her light spell, or slap enemies with giant screen-filling devil hands with her dark spell.

And it's because you've got both Ragna and Alwen (or, at certain points in the story, someone other than Alwen!) in your party that it's a little bit like Seven/Celceta, since you can swap your active character on the fly, with the other one (and your pet) controlled by AI in the meantime. It plays out a little more smoothly than in Seven/Celceta, though, since when you switch characters, the two instantaneously change places entirely, so you can quickly and seamlessly switch back and forth between attacking with Ragna and firing off magic with Alwen in the middle of a single fight, and there won't be any disorientation (since you won't ever move from the spot you're standing in), nor any interruption in the flow of combat. It'll be literally no different than if you'd pressed a button to switch bangles in Felghana, save for a sudden change in the visual appearance of your character.

https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/6h2vs1/zwei_ii_e3_2017_trailer/div6epm/ said:
This game is amazing. Hidden in one of the dungeons is a little HUD widget that when equipped, it displays simple math problem like 7*4 + 13 = ? and if you type in the correct answer, you get rewarded a small amount of gold. There is no limit on how often you can use it, it just dispenses gold every time you correctly enter the math problem. The more you get correct in a row and the faster you can solve them, the more gold you can get. Genius!

Also, there are a whole bunch of crazy little HUD widgets with their own little functions that can be found throughout the game.

It is mostly a dungeon crawler but with a lighthearted story and lovable characters. Similar to Final Fantasy, it is completely independent of the first game, so you don't need to play it to enjoy the game. Though the main characters do occasionally make some cameo appearances and exists within the same universe.

r/Falcom Discord said:
[11:46 PM] Jack FroSTALKER: I just discovered that you can sometimes get different dialogue from NPCs in Zwei 2 by talking to them with Arwen instead of Ragna
[11:47 PM] Jack FroSTALKER: I've been trying to get every bit of dialogue I can so now I'm worried I missed some because of that
[11:47 PM] Jack FroSTALKER: shit

And for giggles, where were you when Dio predicted XSEED would use the fan translation?

I'm very excited for this release, especially if XSEED can put out an even better playing version of the game which Falcom can be proud of. Please give this some attention and spread the word! We really can't afford another great Falcom PC game to go overlooked because of tentpole announcements and so many only seemingly caring about Ys and Trails (which need attention too, but so does Xanadu Next!).

Familienoberhauptvogel · Jun 14, 2017

so two two?

Father_Brain · Jun 14, 2017

Ugh, is this locked at 30fps like Gurumin? The trailer is 30fps even though it's encoded at 60.

Nyoro SF · Jun 14, 2017

Really looking forward to this. I can't get enough of classic Falcom, especially their PC-native work.

Father_Brain said:
Ugh, is this locked at 30fps like Gurumin? The trailer is 30fps even though it's encoded at 60.

It would not surprise me, the game is old and likely was not designed with that sort of framerate future proofing. You'd probably end up in a situation where you have to manually tune every animation in the game; a nightmare.

Kyolux · Jun 14, 2017

How comparable is this to the ys games? Especially oath/origins.

John Kowalski · Jun 14, 2017

Ah yes the good old vampire sucking blood metaphor for having sex

Tohsaka · Jun 14, 2017

Another dub-only Falcom release from XSEED, seemingly. I wonder why Aksys and NISA were able to get the Japanese voices for Tokyo Xanadu and Ys VIII but XSEED has never been able to for any of their games. I'll still buy this once there's an undub patch, but it's really frustrating.

preta · Jun 14, 2017

Father_Brain said:
Ugh, is this locked at 30fps like Gurumin? The trailer is 30fps even though it's encoded at 60.

Sort of. The game includes a 60 fps option that looks the same, so as far as I was able to tell, it controls at 60 fps but still appears to run at 30. Gurumin was the same way.

Tohsaka said:
Another dub-only Falcom release from XSEED, seemingly. I wonder why Aksys and NISA were able to get the Japanese voices for Tokyo Xanadu and Ys VIII but XSEED has never been able to for any of their games. I'll still buy this once there's an undub patch, but it's really frustrating.

Getting the JP voices was simply too expensive for XSEED. NISA and Aksys are both larger companies with significantly more money at their disposal.

GoldandBlue · Jun 14, 2017

I'm gonna assume like most Falcom ports from Xseed, no duel audio right?

BigEmil · Jun 14, 2017

Never heard of it but I'll buy it on GOG

True Fire · Jun 14, 2017

Zwei II? Really?

BasilZero · Jun 14, 2017

Getting this on steam, great news!

Dragoon En Regalia · Jun 14, 2017

Father_Brain said:
Ugh, is this locked at 30fps like Gurumin? The trailer is 30fps even though it's encoded at 60.

Currently at 30 FPS, no info on whether or not 60 FPS will happen. It's likely a difficult thing to make happen since this game uses parts of Gurumin's engine, which Mastiff couldn't get into 60 FPS outside of control inputs.

Kyolux said:
How comparable is this to the ys games? Especially oath/origins.

See third quote at bottom of OP for some comparison. It's a mix of Zwei!!, mid-2000s Ys, Gurumin, and Xanadu Next if we're looking at similar games.

Tohsaka said:
Another dub-only Falcom release from XSEED, seemingly. I wonder why Aksys and NISA were able to get the Japanese voices for Tokyo Xanadu and Ys VIII but XSEED has never been able to for any of their games. I'll still buy this once there's an undub patch, but it's really frustrating.

There has been no confirmation against Japanese voices in Zwei II, only for a full English dub with extra lines in scenes that were previously unvoiced. Dual-voice is still a possibility, as weird as it would be for XSEED to do it for this Falcom game first.

Worst case, we'll have an undub in no time.

True Fire said:
Zwei II? Really?

Standalone sequel. I've added this note to the top for clarification.

CertifiedFP · Jun 14, 2017

Nyoro SF said:
Really looking forward to this. I can't get enough of classic Falcom, especially their PC-native work.

It would not surprise me, the game is old and likely was not designed with that sort of framerate future proofing. You'd probably end up in a situation where you have to manually tune every animation in the game; a nightmare.

Wait what

Isn't this game newer than Sky and the older Ys games? Both of which support arbitrary framerates?

preta · Jun 14, 2017

CertifiedFP said:
Wait what

Isn't this game newer than Sky and the older Ys games? Both of which support arbitrary framerates?

Yes, but it runs on a completely different engine from them. It seems to be based on Gurumin's engine, which was the same way - displays at 30 fps, controls at 60.

Also - can't have a Falcom thread without some music samples.

Artte Airfield
Leave It to Ragna
Golden Dark Forest
A Prayer to Espina (heard in the trailer)
Crystal Valley

Dragoon En Regalia · Jun 14, 2017

Wanna get your mind blown? Zwei II was Falcom's first PC game to natively support widescreen back in 2008, while still having this FPS lock perhaps because of the way animations and game logic work. That's pretty weird, but see, there's always a reason behind these kinds of things.

I have to go to work now and won't be back in 8 hours.

Please answer everyone's questions for me, preta, petty plz?

Eusis · Jun 14, 2017

Familienoberhauptvogel said:
so two two?

That'd be the proper localized name, yes. It's a travesty they didn't go this route.

preta said:
Sort of. The game includes a 60 fps option that looks the same, so as far as I was able to tell, it controls at 60 fps but still appears to run at 30. Gurumin was the same way.

Are the UI and menus at 60 FPS then, kinda of like some older games (PS1 JRPGs most notably) and even newer ones like Horizon?

jj984jj · Jun 14, 2017

You probably should've used the English title to avoid confusing people.

Anyway I'm looking forward to it. It's too bad there's no E3 update on their Cold Steel port as well.

PantsuJo · Jun 14, 2017

I'm so ready for this

Oreiller · Jun 14, 2017

Hope we get a launch date and a price soon. I also hope it will actually run decently on my shitty notebook.

purseowner · Jun 14, 2017

Fantastically detailed OP. Very hyped for this.

Shall link to this in the announcement thread I made the other week.

Eusis · Jun 14, 2017

jj984jj said:
You probably should've used the English title to avoid confusing people.

Anyway I'm looking forward to it. It's too bad there's no E3 update on their Cold Steel port as well.

Technically Ilvard Insurrection is abbreviated as II... which is why I still kinda wish they kept the old logo and pulled a more clever Monster Hunter Tri.

RinNowaru · Jun 14, 2017

True Fire said:
Zwei II? Really?

Two Worlds 2

oneida · Jun 14, 2017

Manos: The Hands of Fate-tier title

Manos is Spanish for "hands"

DarknessTear · Jun 14, 2017

oneida said:
Manos: The Hands of Fate-tier title

Manos is Spanish for "hands"

It's not called Zwei II in the west.

RIP @ this derail.

Mivey · Jun 14, 2017

True Fire said:
Zwei II? Really?

So that means it's part 4, adding both together. Not the weirdest naming scheme in a Japanese game, but if it'd be a contest, I'd give it an E for effort.

hans_castorp · Jun 14, 2017

Would gladly buy "zwei mal" to show my support to XSEED and if it means we'll get Crossbell translated.

Tizoc · Jun 14, 2017

Dat music.
Based Falcom <3

preta · Jun 14, 2017

Tizoc said:
Dat music.
Based Falcom <3

The first game's got a superb soundtrack too, and it's arguably even more unique for Falcom. It's got a very acoustic and folksy flavor.

An Eternal Dream, Memories of the Heavens −Zwei!! A Great Adventure For Two−
Floating Continent Arges -Main Theme-
Pavel Garden
Kayapa Forest
Hippolyta Hill
Fight!! -Attack of Pockle-
Supiri Ancient Labyrinth

Eusis · Jun 14, 2017

DarknessTear said:
It's not called Zwei II in the west.

RIP @ this derail.

It will always be Two Two in my heart. And Japan.

Undubbed · Jun 14, 2017

Almost thought it was Panzer Dragoon Zwei from the title for a millisecond there...

Tizoc · Jun 14, 2017

Zwei the II.
There I just made it sound even better :V

Jazzem · Jun 14, 2017

Shame about the likely frame rate lock, still it's great to see more Falcom stuff! Their games are always stylistically appealing, regardless of which engine they use.

Linkark07 · Jun 14, 2017

GOG? Let's do this XSEED.

Love XSEED and Falcom are also doing DRM-Free releases.

oneida · Jun 14, 2017

DarknessTear said:
It's not called Zwei II in the west.

RIP @ this derail.

It's called Zwei II somewhere and that's all that matters

Ballistic Peanut · Jun 15, 2017

The more ARPG Falcom games out there, the better. I really can't get enough of this stuff.

I just finished Xanadu Next, and while it was pretty different from the Ys games, it was still very enjoyable to play.

preta · Jun 15, 2017

Ballistic Peanut said:
The more ARPG Falcom games out there, the better. I really can't get enough of this stuff.

I just finished Xanadu Next, and while it was pretty different from the Ys games, it was still very enjoyable to play.

Be sure to check out the Brandish 2 PC-98 (better than the SNES version) fan translation when it releases - should hopefully be this month, if not, July for sure. It's a really neat game and I think one of classic Falcom's best.

Dragoon En Regalia · Jun 15, 2017

Speaking of which, I'll have to make threads for the Brandish 2 and Legend of Xanadu (II) fan patch releases once we get those, let alone Dinosaur Resurrection and VM Japan if the translator working on those can get everything done by July or August. There's a bunch of active Falcom fan patches, more than ever before, all of which unlock overlooked and deserving experiences for English players. I especially want to try Dinosaur since the story's unique in Falcom's history.

TechRaptor's local Falcom fan, Thesweeet, says he's got an XSEED interview coming up this week, so that'll give us more details on Zwei II. I'll add some Q&A, music examples, and quotes for now.

jj984jj said:
You probably should've used the English title to avoid confusing people.

Anyway I'm looking forward to it. It's too bad there's no E3 update on their Cold Steel port as well.

Posts would complain about how doofy "Ilvard Insurrection" sounds though, and I'd be unable to fit the other eye-catching details into the title. And most people know this game as Zwei II already anyway, not like I can avoid mentioning it's a sequel and the more clearly accessible of the two games. But wait! Maybe Falcom's master plan is to remake Zwei!! and Zwei II once each, so that we have only two games with two remakes from two different decades. /me holds President Kondo's beer

I wonder if they're going to announce a release date for the Cold Steel PC port soon, which is what we should hope for so the game can launch by August and get the sales momentum it needs. By now they've gotta be doing beta testing.

Ballistic Peanut said:
I just finished Xanadu Next, and while it was pretty different from the Ys games, it was still very enjoyable to play.

Please, check out the GAF OT if you want a fun read. The game's stupidly overlooked, even if the thread's done better than I had hoped for.

Theswweet · Jun 15, 2017

Dragoon En Regalia said:
TechRaptor's local Falcom fan, Thesweeet, says he's got an XSEED interview coming up this week

That was for Kenichiro Takaki, and I've got NISA/Aksys appointments tomorrow.

Edit: While Durante is on Cold Steel, it's sounding like he might not actually be working on Zwei with Sara. My bad!

Dragoon En Regalia · Jun 15, 2017

Thank you for reminding me—I just knew you had an XSEED interview with someone, lol. Curious to know what kind of help Durante's giving them for Zwei (II?) and Cold Steel PC, but the details can wait.

Grim Patron · Jun 15, 2017

Hope this isnt as terrible as Gurumin.

Also dub only? Yep. Waiting for undub patch.

Thoraxes · Jun 15, 2017

Theswweet said:
That was for Kenichiro Takaki, I've got some news on Zwei though (such as confirmation that Durante is on it + Cold Steel), and I've got NISA/Aksys appointments tomorrow.

Durante had mentioned Zwei, but CS is news to me! As far as your other stuff goes, Aksys hasn't really talked much about the Vita release of TX, surprisingly. AFAIK Thats still for the end of this month, too.

Dragoon En Regalia · Jun 15, 2017

Grim Patron said:
Hope this isnt as terrible as Gurumin.

Also dub only? Yep. Waiting for undub patch.

It's definitely a better game than Gurumin in most ways, including not having a camera that's hard to wrestle with. Gurumin's still good, though, and has fun bosses to make up for the less interesting level designs and mob combat.

We have no details regarding Japanese VA yet. Tom's only said "stay tuned". Regardless, someone will make an undub if there's nothing from XSEED about this. It's likely a bit expensive for a release this lean on personnel.

Psxphile · Jun 15, 2017

Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection |OT| It's the sequel to 'Two!!' so shouldn't it be 'Three!!!'?

Continental 0p · Jun 15, 2017

Psxphile said:
Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection |OT| It's the sequel to 'Two!!' so shouldn't it be 'Three!!!'?

I have to second this. It's too damn good

GhostTrick · Jun 15, 2017

Grim Patron said:
Hope this isnt as terrible as Gurumin.

Also dub only? Yep. Waiting for undub patch.

Theswweet · Jun 17, 2017

I edited my post, but just to make it clear it looks like I might've been misinformed about Durante helping with Zwei. My bad!

Eusis · Jun 17, 2017

Psxphile said:
Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection |OT| It's the sequel to 'Two!!' so shouldn't it be 'Three!!!'?

It's that, or you throw two in two more languages in there. Deux Ni?

Theswweet said:
I edited my post, but just to make it clear it looks like I might've been misinformed about Durante helping with Zwei. My bad!

I get the impression he got access as thanks for working with Xseed (or maybe just being marked as an Xseed developer and getting access to all their Steam games? Dunno how that works.)

Dragoon En Regalia · Jun 18, 2017

E3 impressions from TechRaptor, RPGSite, WorthPlaying, RPGamer, and RPGFan are live!

Theswweet said:
I edited my post, but just to make it clear it looks like I might've been misinformed about Durante helping with Zwei. My bad!

Fine by me. He's a busy man and is already helping XSEED with Cold Steel, too.

Psxphile · Jun 23, 2017

Hardcore Gamer's E3 review
XSEED Localization Blog on Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection

Informative write-ups of the game.

Zwei II seems like what would happen if you take Dew Prism [Threads of Fate] and force the hero and heroine to join forces instead of giving them their own story paths where they only occasionally run across the other.

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