Blasting off their clothes in the Censor-ship.
Waifu Discovered 2: Medieval Fantasy advertises itself as a strip’em up action shooter, and they’re certainly not wrong. As you get into your ship, outfitted with guns and missiles, you’ll combine them with a variety of rune crystals as you look to destroy the evil that resides in the clothing of elf girls, vampire vixens, sexy knights, lewd mages, and more.
While there are a variety of fan-service games readily available on the Switch, ranging all over the spectrum of numerous gameplay styles, Waifu Discovered 2 is likely the thinnest in what it actually offers up as gameplay. Part shoot-em-up, part gallery mode, the purpose of what the game offers is to collect a variety of gallery images that feature the girls in various stages of undress. You’ll do this by blasting through bullet-hell scenarios as you attempt to free the girls from their evil saturated clothing. There are a few censorship modes on offer, but I assume most players seeking this game out are here to set the game on uncensored and not look back. Though you do have to unlock the uncensored mode by at least beating the beginner mode, so I’m terribly sorry, but you’ll have to wait to see all the naughty bits.
Developed by the aptly named, One Hand Free Studios, Waifu Discovered 2 is a sequel to Waifu Uncovered, and frankly, the visual jump alone is noticeable enough that this is a more complete and functional game than before, even if again, there isn’t much here. You’ll attempt to rescue eight girls from their corrupted clothing, shrunken down by a witch, and tasked with saving each of them. There is a beginner mode, arcade mode, gallery mode, and what is called “one finger mode” which is only playable as a touch-screen game, effectively played with “ahem” one hand.
As you progress, you’ll unlock more pilots that each has a variety of stats, ranging from movement speed, multi-shot bullets, bombs, health, and more. What is bizarre about your pilots is that they are oddly small animals and not actually people, making the flirting the girls do with you all the odder when you have successfully shot off all their clothing, and they stand there topless, congratulating you for a job well done, offering to buy you a drink for your efforts.
Regardless, you’ll earn coin through each mission that allows you to level up and upgrade your pilot, giving their ship better handling, more power, and just effectively being able to kick more ass. Some tiers of upgrades are based on your level, which you’ll also spend money on upgrading as well. It’s a fairly typical system of upgrades, however; the changes do make a world of difference as some stages can get incredibly challenging.
Earning coins and retrieving them in combat is where there is an aspect of strategy as you’ll destroy enemies to collect coins, but the coins can also reduce their earnings if you shoot them, and as they are often nearby enemies. To collect them, you’ll have to engage in a bit of risk and reward to retrieve them. As you blast enemies you’ll also earn crystals that allow you to quickly destroy the clothing on these girls that are saturated in evil, because, why not. As you blast off these articles of clothing, the girls will get more and more undressed, and enemies will start to pile on even more, dropping more coins, more crystals, and more challenge.
Your ship will also be outfitted with a bomb, allowing you clear the screen, but these are fairly limited until you upgrade your ship to hold more. You’ll find upgrades and more powerful blasts as the missions go on, collecting them from dead foes, and allowing you to destroy more enemies far faster and more efficiently. Each stage ends in a boss, some of them crudely named, and even one that is designed to look like The Rock, complete with the People’s Eyebrow, for all my wrestling fans out there. Bosses are more or less built on patterns, but some will actively follow you, making their movement a bit less predictable, but not in a way where the fight suddenly has a different level of strategy.
Apart from an easy mode to let you learn the basics, the arcade mode is where you’ll going to spend most of your time, beating missions, saving each of the girls, and clearing initial waves on each level to earn more glimpses of their more naughty side through the game’s gallery feature, that does allow you to check out the various stages of undress as you’ve earned them.
Visually, the game is a mixed bag. While some of the artwork for each of the girls are more or less well done, a few just have faces that greatly disappoint. Again, this is a hentai-lite shoot-em-up, so I’m not exactly expecting much, but I’ll note that the artwork is leagues better than the first game, so I’ll give it that. The enemies range from interesting to just bizarre, and while I wasn’t terribly impressed in some of the sprite work, especially as your ship looks like it is drawn in pen, these assets do match the goofy tone this game sets up with its scenario. I did also enjoy the screen cracking antics of King Khee, or Bang Peer throwing tomatoes at the screen, with each act causing your vision to be obstructed just enough to make their fights fairly challenging.
Each game is essentially a single run to unlock more as you go, and while it’s not exactly a rogue-lite in that sense, you do have to push through a lot of the same dialogue over and over again from your witch-friend and shopkeeper, Bru-Ha. It’s a shame there isn’t some sort of skip dialogue feature, but you can fast-track through dialogue, so it’s not completely hopeless.
Waifu Discovered 2: Medieval Fantasy is certainly made for the fan-service gamer as its gameplay elements are not strong enough to just recommend it as a shoot-em-up, especially with such a wealth of them on the Switch as it is already. The anime waifu elements are cheeky and some of the artwork is damn well-executed, but as each girl only has one pose, the replayability just isn’t really there considering the gallery will give you the sneak peak you desire, as long as you’ve unlocked it. I think the differences from the first game to this is striking enough, so I am hopeful that a third entry will bring with it more variety and better sprite work, The game can at times be fun, and it’s fairly cheap at under $10usd, so if this sort of thing is your bag, you might have a bit of fun with its more naughty aspects.
Developer - One-Hand-Free-Studios. Publisher - Eastasiasoft. Released - October 14th, 2021. (July 29th, 2021 - PC) Available On - Switch, PC. Rated - (M) Blood, Violence, Sexual Themes, Nudity. Platform Reviewed - Switch OLED/Switch. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.