Ariel's second adventure on the Super Famicom!

Japanese Game Box Front

Ariel and the Scroll

About one year later, Yanoman and JAM try their luck with another Aretha game. The main protagonist of this game is still Ariel and the game takes place only a short while after the first game. Ariel is relaxing in the castle until her friends, Celia, Marie, and Minea rush up to Ariel in a hurry. Nervous, Marie hands Ariel a scroll containing important information regarding Doll, one of Ariel's friends from her previous adventure. As it turns out, Doll and Kyle (Also from the previous game) are in danger! Determined to help her old friends, Ariel sets out on a boat to a village that may help her find out what happened to Doll and Kyle. She will meet a warrior named Todd in this village and thus, Ariel is off on her second adventure. Eventually, she will meet with several others to stop a great evil from ruining the world.

Like a sequel, Aretha 2 is more of the same. The battle graphics are significantly enhanced with more detailed enemies and spell effects. The colors are a bit more vibrant and things animate a little better too. The artwork seems to be sharper, which makes the art style stand out more, though I prefer Ariel's old look to her new one. The overworld graphics are also enhanced with a few minor touch-ups...mostly just some slightly sharper environments. The musical score is significantly better than the previous game. The world map music is pretty cool this time around and so is the battle theme. The upbeat melodies within the game are refreshing and they helped me endure even some of the boring parts of the game. The game has more polish graphically and musically. That's good. Sequels have a habit of doing that which means this game is doing things right.

The gameplay is only changed slightly. There is an extra soul you can obtain to make more equipment than in the previous game. Warrior-type characters also have one or two more moves in this game. In the first Aretha, warriors had a special technique that was unique to them. In this game, however, warriors have "EP". EP is like MP, but for warriors. EP also doesn't go nearly as high as MP (Actually, I don't even remember having 50 EP late in the game) and EP is accumulated when that warrior character takes damage. EP techniques are usually very powerful. Unlike the first Aretha, there are no random encounters on the world map. The game is still pretty easy, though, the final portion of the game proved much tougher than the first Aretha's end parts. A solid sequel to an average game.

- Written by Vyse the determined -