Video Game / Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2

All spoilers for the original Fuga: Melodies of Steel will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

From the valley between hope and despair -- Make your way forth! ^note Left to right, top to bottom: Hanna, Boron, Kyle, Mei and Socks, with the Exo-Taranis in the far background and Malt in the foreground. Art by Tatotake.

"Jihl… I'll make you regret ever being born! For stealing Hanna away— for causing us all this grief! You'll pay for it all and more! I will find you, wherever you are… I'm coming for you, Jihl. I'm coming to kill you!"

— Malt

Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 (「戦場のフーガ2」, "Senjō no Fuga 2", lit. "Fugue on the Battlefield 2" in Japan) is a turn-based RPG developed and published by CyberConnect2, as a sequel to the original Fuga: Melodies of Steel and again being set in the greater Little Tail Bronx universe. The game released worldwide for all major platforms (including Xbox Game Pass) on May 11th, 2023. A demo for the game was released on January 12th, 2024, in commemoration of the Fuga series surpassing 400,000 total downloads.

One year after their victory over the Berman Imperial Army and the liberation of the Free Lands of Gasco, the twelve children who commandeered the ancient tank Taranis to save their families have since returned to living their lives in peace. One day, the children reunite in the new national capital of Pharaoh, having been invited by the Gasco Army to help them with studying the recovered Taranis. Once the door is successfully unlocked, however, half the children suddenly become trapped within the tank, and the Taranis itself reactivates, brainwashing its captives and kickstarting a destructive rampage.

With no other options aside from using the similarly-recovered Tarascus (which now has an AI based off of previous Big Bad General Hax), Malt and the other remaining children— joined by Vanilla Muscat, the President's youngest daughter— board the former Berman tank to stop the out-of-control Taranis and save everyone. However still, more tragedy may be looming over the horizon beyond this mere kidnapping, more of the dark secrets surrounding the Taranis and its history are set to be unearthed, and with enough time and turmoil, Malt and the other children may shift towards a new desire for revenge against the one who started this new conflict…

Continuing on from the first game's Turn-Based Strategy gameplay, Fuga 2 features new skills and new attacks for the children, a revamped way of progressing through battle routes, and features new decisive mechanics fleshed out from the Soul Cannon of the last game. One such feature is the Tarascus' own Wave-Motion Gun, the Managarm, which is now usable in any battle as opposed to just boss fights. Rather than requiring a child's total being to be sacrificed to power it, a child can instead be drained of their energy, knocking them out until the next intermission and negating all experience points gained in the battle. Which isn't to say that the Soul Cannon is completely absent from this game.

More significantly, the game features extra replay value and player consequence through the new Judgement system, where Malt's choices to focus more on empathy towards others or more on achieving desired goals will impact the story and bestow upon him different leadership skills that can turn the tide of battle. Intermissions and ruin explorations also return from the last game, albeit fleshed out further. Additionally, airships can be used to alter the path the Tarascus (and its upgraded form, the Exo-Taranis) takes throughout a chapter, and also allow players to buy or sell items between battles.

Like the last game, Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 is directed by Hiroto Niizato alongside Yoann Gueritot, has art and character/vehicle designs by Yusuke "Shimipan" Tokitsu, has Yasuhiro Noguchi once again as scenario writer, and Chikayo Fukuda as composer, joined by vocalist Tomoyo Mitani to form CyberConnect2 music label LieN. This also serves as Yoann's final game working under CyberConnect2 before leaving for PlatinumGames, as he announced his departure from the company a month ahead of the game's release.

The official website can be found here. Pre-release trailers include the teaser trailer, overview trailer, and Deluxe Edition trailer.

"System" videos that demonstrate gameplay mechanics include Battle & Formation, Skills, Leader Skills, Judgement Chance, Resolution Event & Empathy Event, Soul Cannon & Managarm, Link Event Workshop & Scrap Fishing, Notebook & Hero Mode, Airship Services, Meetup and Expedition.

Like with the first game, a bi-weekly series of motion comics known as Comedies of Steel 2 have been uploaded to CyberConnect2's YouTube channel following the game's release. As of this writing, they are only available in Japanese with no English subtitles, but they can nevertheless be found here. The similarly bi-weekly Senjō no Fuga: Steel Melody manga has begun adapting this game since Chapter 29 onwards.

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PRÉPAREZ-VOUS AUX COMBAT!^* (Encore!)
- Tropes Start -

• 100% Completion: Just like the previous installment, playing the game repeatedly (in addition to obtaining all of the Multiple Endings and Epilogues) unlocks a secret movie depicting a teaser for a potential third installment. Watch here.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The new Airship mechanic is full of these, which can make progression easier on you if you have the Rings to spare.
    • You can use the transport service to not only take you to disconnected or further ahead points in the map, but also backwards as well, allowing you to go through other parallel routes for extra items, materials, and experience points.
    • The Airships act as shops that you can use to buy useful items and materials or to sell treasures, as well as provide extra HP and SP drops in the next available empty space, meaning you no longer have to wait until the end of each chapter to obtain an important part or be as restrictive with using Skills compared to the first game.
    • If you use the Airship's Air Raid services, you can still gain experience relative to the threat level of the encounter wiped out.
  • In the final chapter, the second half consists of two mini-bosses fought back to back, one of which being a Flunky Boss, so extra HP/SP Recovery spots are added to make sure you don't burn yourself out by the Final Boss.
• Arc Words: "Hope and despair."
• Ascended Meme: Boron's popularity in the West has achieved memetic status, with this notable Let's Play of the original game by Sean Chiplock hailing him as a "God of Destruction" in a run wherein as many children as possible were sacrificed but Boron lasted until the final boss. In this game, Boron's Link Events with Wappa are about her boasting about him to her minions back home, with the final event directly referring to him as a "God of Destruction".
• Automated Automobiles: All the Berman tanks and vehicles that are fought in this game (referred to by some NPCs as "Berman Geists") actually have no pilots and are covered with overgrowth of moss/mushrooms or fleshy growths, giving them the invoked imagery of being essentially "zombie" tanks. This is due to a corruption of the Belenos' ability to bring back the dead being abused by Jihl and Cayenne.
• Bag of Spilling:
  • Justified. The children spent the whole of the previous year living as normal civilians and their powers are tied to the Taranis itself. So when the Taranis goes rogue and the ones that were not captured had to use the Tarascus and later the Exo-Taranis instead, they had to restart from level 1 or in the case of the other rescued children, at a much lower level.
  • Every time you start New Game Plus, your Karma Meter resets back to zero in order to give the player a chance to experience different Empathy and Resolution Events at certain points in the story, and unlock the two bonus Epilogues related to such following the Golden Ending. However, the caveat of this is that it also removes all Leader Skills earned from the previous run, preventing all of them on both sides of the Judgement Gauge from being gained within a single playthrough. New Game Plus does however unlock the Gasco Medal, an extremely expensive item costing 100,000 rings, which will double any increase of Empathy and Resolution when acquired.
• Beam-O-War: Happens during the first scripted tutorial fight against the rogue Taranis. The children take too long to prevent the Soul Cannon from firing, so as a last-ditch effort they fire the Managarm to try and extinguish the Soul Cannon shot, which results in the trope between the Soul Cannon and the Managarm. The Managarm loses in seconds.
• Betty and Veronica: Vanilla has a couple of Ship Tease moments in her link events with Malt, on top of the Count repeatedly assuming Malt is her boyfriend when passing out his comics. As a stern, hard-headed rich girl, Vanilla is a near 1:1 example of a Veronica to Hanna's down-to-earth cheerful Betty.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the final chapter, we have both Von Stollen and Von Baum saving the Exo-Taranis from falling into the cloud sea instead of fleeing like they originally wanted to, and the Gasco military successfully disabling the Vanargand's main cannon after it regenerates and is about to destroy the Exo-Taranis.
• Boss Bonanza: The second half of the final chapter consists of three bosses fought almost back-to-back (the only outlier being a standard encounter spliced between the first and second fights): those being the leg of the Vanargand, a Flunky Boss against the spike of the Vanargand's top, and Cayanne himself.
• Breaking Old Trends: Downplayed. This is first Little Tail Bronx game to be a direct sequel rather than a Non-Linear Sequel, and the first game to not be tied to any anniversary in CyberConnect2's history.
• Brought Down to Normal: In the true ending, the Exo-Taranis converts all of the material obtained from the Tarascus into energy for its final Soul Cannon shot, reverting back to the regular Taranis afterwards.
• Call-Back: When the children start fighting against the leg and spikes of the resurrected Vanargand, the music starts playing "Flower On The Trails", the iconic vocal theme from the first game.
• Call-Forward:
  • Per the last game's confirmation that Gasco will eventually become Shepherd, the map of Gasco seen in this game looks very similar to how Shepherd appears in Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, with only a few key differences (for example, Vizsla is situated on the southern peninsula of a larger landmass in this game, compared to how in Solatorobo the peninsula will have split off into its own island to the south of said landmass). Some areas also have themes that are remixes of their Solatorobo counterparts, in ways that vary from subtle to obvious. Other geographical things to note are:
    • The industrial city of Pharaoh has been established as the nation's new de facto capital, replacing the ruined Paresia. It'll remain the capital by the time Solatorobo occurs. It's also mentioned in the Library that a rail line is being developed to better transport bedrock collected from the nearby mountain range to Pharaoh, with it possibly being a distant precursor to the passenger trains seen in Solatorobo-era Pharaoh.
    • It's stated in the library entry for Lhassa Apso that the hot springs of Dachs (as in "dachshund") were created as a result of the land rupturing from the Vanargand's attack, along with the destruction of the island's lava beds and sulphur deposits. While Lhassa Apso was a location created for Fuga, Dachs was originally shown off in supplementary materials for Solatorobo, specifically the "Red Data Children" novels and the Archives art books.
    • Between Chapter 4 and 5, one NPC will note that the island of Basset is a place where airships are known to crash. The island's respective Library entries add to this by discussing how a low magnetic field that causes machinery to go berserk has been discovered around the eastern port of the island, along with stating that Basset suffers from a general lack of resources due to its distance from Pharaoh. By the time of Solatorobo, Basset is a slum town composed almost entirely of wrecked battleships.
    • Shetland's Library entry discusses how— following its takeover by the Berman Army and the fragmentation of Gasco— it has now become a full-on mining island with major airship support and industrialization underway, which will remain the case for it by Solatorobo.
    • While the last game already established that Mau had a sizable population of spell-casting Felineko long before the Berman Army showed up, its Library entry for this game states that the fragmentation of Gasco has isolated it and encouraged many followers of the Oshilasama folk religion to make their way there. Compared to the desert seen in the last game, slightly more vegetation seems to have shown up across Mau in this game, possibly alluding to how the island's climate is that of a windy grassland by the time of Solatorobo.
    • The Library entry discussing the wetlands of Vizsla mentions that the local flora and fauna have begun to mutate and grow following Gasco's fragmentation. By the time of Solatorobo, the island of Vizsla is covered with mushrooms so massive that the island's residents have built homes upon them, and giant insects like ladyshrooms and scarabees have also come into existence as pets and pests respectively.
  • Socks, being The Smart Guy of the group, expresses an interest in Old World technology when the children enter one of the Crusade facilities. Likewise, when the children learn Jihl's backstory, he specifically is the one to point out how unbelievable that the technology to create "hybrids" existed— a relatively subtle nod to how his distant descendant Merveille will help to create some more of these hybrids herself.
  • The boss of Chapter 7 is Matir, a massive robot created by Crusade and the Female Engineer to protect the pilots of the Belenos. Solatorobo and its supplementary materials have discussed a century-long period of conflict collectively known as the Hundred Lilies War, the last stretch of which involved the Kingdom of Shepherd engineering large battle robots to turn the tide of the war in their favor— with the first use of these robots being set to occur over four and a half centuries after the Fuga trilogy. Suspiciously, Matir has a very similar design to the machines created by Shepherd, with the most obvious difference being that the Crusade logo on its front plate is swapped out with a magatama-like symbol.
  • In the final chapter when Cayenne restores the Vanargand through using the power of the Belenos, the Vanargand destroys the ruined island its main body came to rest upon in the last game's finale, explaining why said island is completely gone by the time Solatorobo takes place.
• Cast from Hit Points: The Managarm works this way— a child's energy can be used to power it, but it incapacitates them rather than killing them, meaning they aren't permanently removed from battle, only knocked out until the next intermission.
• Central Theme: The desire for vengeance is inherently self-destructive, and those fully consumed by it may become just as bad as the very people who wronged them.
• Continuity Nod: In the first game, the Library entry for Paresia mentioned that the wall (or "facade" that surrounded it) was a remnant from a previous civil war. The first two Gasco Reports expand on this, stating that Gasco once had constant armed conflicts between its various autonomous regions, hence why the largest city of Paresia built said wall to defend itself.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Any deaths incurred by the player in the first game are not taken into account, as the game takes place one year after the kids achieved the Golden Ending. Justified, of course, as all playthroughs of the original game except the aforementioned Golden Ending one were simulations by Jeanne.
• Darker and Edgier: The game is even darker than its predecessor, which was already pretty dark by Little Tail Bronx's standards. This is due to many factors, such as even more fanfare made out of the Soul Cannon use, darker plot with more named characters unavoidably dying, the harrowing effect these deaths have on surviving children, and additional tragedy and atrocities revealed in the setting's background.
• Debut Queue: You start with only Malt, Kyle, Sheena, Chick and Hack. Over the subsequent chapters, you get Mei and Vanilla in Chapter 2, Socks and Boron in Chapter 3, Britz in Chapter 4, Wappa in Chapter 5 and Jin in Chapter 6. Hanna was relegated to a supporting role as the Belenos' support AI and wouldn't be playable at all.
• Desperation Attack: The returning Soul Cannon and the less fatal Managarm. As in the last game, the Soul Cannon can instantly end any fight at the cost of a child's life, while the Managarm can do the same, but can also be used in regular encounters at the cost of simply knocking out a child and nullifying any experience points gained.
• Discard and Draw: Multiple characters have changed which type of main tank weapon they operate:
  • Hack has switched from being a Cannon user to a Machine Gun user, and his signature Burning Trigger skill is replaced with a new skill called Frenzy.
  • Sheena has switched from being a Machine Gun user to a Grenade Launcher user, and her skillset has become more offense-oriented overall.
  • Wappa has switched from being a Cannon user to a Grenade Launcher user, and her skillset is now more based on curing negative status effects.
  • Jin has switched from being a Grenade Launcher user to a Cannon user, though given how offense-oriented he already was in the first game, his overall skillset hasn't changed much.
• Downloadable Content: Much like with the first game, there's a Deluxe Pack that contains additional sleepwear outfits for the children, but a Season Pass has been confirmed that contains three additional DLC costume packs. Interestingly, they were able to strike a proper deal with Bandai Namco for this, as a Tail Concerto costume set is the first DLC pack, while the other two consist of a general Steampunk and an animal set for the second and third respectively.
• Dueling Player Characters: Due to half of the initial Taranis crew being Brainwashed and Crazy for the first three chapters, Boron, Socks, Mei, Britz, and Hannah all obtain statuses of being boss characters before getting rescued.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Crusade facilities are huge, to the point where the kids can drive around and fight unobstructed aboard their giant tanks while inside. Driving through these facilities usually takes a significant chunk of a given chapter, and one chapter consists solely of driving out of one such facility.
• Elemental Weapon: In addition to elemental statuses the kids can inflict in tank combat, this game introduces elemental ammo for their pistol that they can use while exploring dungeons. Fire bullets incinerate roots that bar the kids' path (and also deal double damage to monsters), while electric bullets can be used to power switches.
• Empty Piles of Clothing: After being a victim of Teleporter Accident, Hanna's jacket is the only thing that remains.
• Evolving Title Screen: After beating the game, the title art changes from just showing the kids from Petit Mona to showing all of the playable children, plus Jihl and the Belenos.
• Fission Mailed: Three times.
  • In Chapter 1, When Mei was put in the Soul Cannon chamber by Jihl during the first boss fight with the Taranis, The Kids find themselves too horrified and worried about harming her to do anything and the Taranis was able to fire the Soul Cannon at the Tarascus, wiping it out, cue Malt having his first encounter with Maestro who chides Malt for his hesitation before rewinding time to just before the first fight with the Taranis. During New Game Plus, this scene is skipped with Malt quickly figuring out how to save Mei just before the fight proper starts.
  • In Chapter 4, Malt arguing with the other kids over whether to prioritize taking down the Belenos or saving a nearby town from a Berman Geist it generated leads to the tank taking damage, and AI Hax sacrificing Malt to the Soul Cannon to protect itself. The scene then suddenly switches to Maestro chiding Malt's spirit, and he rewinds time to before the tank was damaged, allowing Malt and the kids to take down the Geist.
  • Chapter 10 ends with the Exo-Taranis' engine bombed and the entire party getting vaporized by a fully-powered Belenos. After an intermission that seems to take place in the afterlife, Malt once again encounters Maestro, and is encouraged to reach out to the spirits of his other friends. Once Malt has done so, Maestro once again helps him rewind time, and slightly alters history so that the Belenos spares the Exo-Taranis after its engine is disabled.
• Fusion Dance: A new tank called the "Exo-Taranis" is briefly shown in the overview trailer and appears to be controllable in some gameplay footage. Its design features both the Soul Cannon and the Managarm, indicating it to be a combination of the Taranis and Tarascus (though using the former as a template). It's formed in the climax of Chapter 3, after both of the original tanks are rendered unusable by the Belenos.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Just like the last game, characters who are closer to one another start with stronger affinity. Malt and Kyle have half an extra level due to them being closer friends following the first game, as do Hack and Chick given their sibling bond.
• Happy Ending Override: After going through hell and back fighting off the Berman Empire's invasion in the last game, the children's peaceful lives are once again disrupted by war, forcing them to return to the battlefield in order to save their friends and Gasco as a whole from the rampaging Taranis. Thankfully, it doesn't seem as bad for Gasco itself as last time— at the very least, the economy is intact as evidenced by how rings are now an in-game currency (in contrast to the last game's bartering system), and the Gasco Army is better equipped to handle the new threat.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: A recurring mechanic in boss battles, when hitting certain HP thresholds you have an Awakening Chance to make appeals such as crying out to Malt's brainwashed friends to resist the enemy's control, among other things. In terms of battle advantages, making the correct pleas to your opponent can have effects like stunning them for a turn or even ending some battles prematurely.
• Infinity +1 Sword: There are two items you can get upon starting New Game Plus, those being the Gasco Medal and the Golden Pawbun. They both provide the simple, yet very effective, effects of doubling all Judgement points, Affinity, and Experience gained. They are also the most expensive items in the game bar none, possibly invoking multiple repeat playthroughs if you're also trying to budget for items and upgrade materials.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • Looking at the Link Events page shows that each combination of characters has three events, and if one counts up the number of ??? slots they can determine early on that there isn't enough space for every known kid. If you look properly at the screens that feature the children as a whole like the battle results along with the Soul Cannon and Managarm interfaces, you will see that there is only enough space for 12 children while there are supposedly 13 playable characters.
  • When AI Hax picks the kids at random for the Soul Cannon, he never picks Vanilla or Malt no matter how many times you trigger it, hinting at their possible Plotline Deaths later in the game. Once Vanilla's Plotline Death is averted, she becomes selectable.
• Karl Marx Hates Your Guts: No matter which town you stop in or which airship service you request, all items are priced the same and remain that way throughout the entire game (the only exception if you're lucky enough to pass by a pedestrian who will give you a coupon for the next town... but for only one of the three shops). This becomes a major issue early on and even later in the game, as it's very easy to run yourself into the red buying the materials needed to upgrade your tank or recovery and battle items to make the next chapter easier, with your only method of gaining Rings is through selling trinkets found at random throughout the chapter or in expeditions, as selling whatever items you no longer need becomes pointless due to the pocket change they give you in exchange.
• Karma Meter: The new Judgement system is built upon two values: "Empathy" for if Malt aims towards co-operation and caring for his crew members, and "Resolution" for if he makes choices focused on working towards a goal. As a result, Malt gains different skills to use during gameplay, while also changing the way he develops as a leader to the other kids in-story.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The game's promotional material puts no effort into hiding that the Tarascus is a former Berman tank with the same capabilities to the Taranis, nor does it hide how Hax has somehow survived as the AI for the Tarascus.
• Meat Moss: The "Berman Geists", machines from the previous war that are now being operated without pilots, tend to be coated in fleshy growths and actual moss.
• Metal Slime: The silver and golden versions of Old World robots you have to face award you with additional XP and valuables if you defeat them, but if you take too long they will flee the fight, leaving you with nothing.
• Mood Whiplash: At the end of Chapter 4 Malt is at his lowest, broken and crying out from the top of the Taranis, proclaiming his murderous revenge against Jihl as a rainstorm falls around him. And in the very next scene, less than 10 seconds of playtime later, Wappa shows up in a perfect inversion of Shoo Out the Clowns.
• Morton's Fork: How the Exo-Taranis' Soul Cannon and Managarm operate in a pinch during boss fights. If enough damage is inflicted on the player, then the AI will forcibly send a randomly-selected child to the Soul Cannon Chamber to prepare the weapon. If you fail to end the battle before the countdown ends, then the Soul Cannon will automatically fire. You can bypass this by using the less-fatal Managarm, but not only does it knock out a child upon use, it also nulls any experience points you might have earned in that encounter.
• Militaries Are Useless: Downplayed this time around. While they lack the power to take the Taranis head on, the Gasco Army can still offer assistance through letting you travel alternate routes through aerial transports, offer supply drops, or clean out the next encounters in an air strike. During the grand finale, they even fight alongside the Taranis against the resurrected Vanargand.
• Multiple Endings: Like in the previous game, there are three potential outcomes at the end of the game: a Downer Ending if every child is sacrificed to the Soul Cannon, a Bittersweet Ending if at least one but not all of the children have died, and a Golden Ending if every child survives. The Golden Ending also has two different epilogue sequences, one each for having one side of Malt's Karma Meter 90 points higher than the other. Unlike the previous game, these can be replayed from the game's Library after being unlocked.
• New Game Plus: As with its predecessor, once you complete the game you can play it again while retaining your upgrades, character links and character levels, allowing you to try and reach a better ending, unlock more secret files with lore as well as enter the Dangerous paths that were locked off during your first playthrough.
• Non-Malicious Monster: The boss of chapter 7 is a sentry robot named Matir, reprogrammed by the Female Engineer to protect the pilot of the Belenos (which happens to be Jihl). It's possible to end the fight with it prematurely if you tell it that you don't want to harm Jihl, in which case it stands down (though you won't get the XP and items reward after the battle in this case).
• Old Save Bonus: If you have save data from the first game, then you can unlock additional resources as well as Throwback Threads for the returning children. Beating the game normally also lets you switch between the old and new intermission themes, and getting the Golden Ending in Fuga 1 also unlocks a bonus photo for you to view.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Revealed in this game that children being used to power the Soul Cannon wasn't simply a circumstantial issue in the previous game, it is in fact designed specifically to use children as ammunition and a subplot of the game features humanity's attempt to create powerful cyborg children who can survive repeated use of the cannon.
• Production Throwback: The short version of "Flower on the Trails", the main boss theme from the previous game, is heard when the children are attacking the Vanargand's critical points as they reach for the head.
• Rearrange the Song: As Gasco has been fragmented into islands and certain locales start to forge into their more modern Shepherd Republic selves, a lot of the stage themes in this game are rougher, militarized remixes of existing Solatorobo songs, such as "Holy Samoyede", "Slums of Basset", "Shetland Mines", and "Mau -The Bower-".
• Redemption Equals Death: In the true ending, the AI version of Hax sacrifices itself to take down the Vanargand his mortal self once awoke, and Jihl sacrifices himself to bring back Hanna to atone for his mistakes.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The trailer mentions something or someone called "Belenos", named after a healing god in Celtic Mythology, akin to how the Taranis is named after the Gaulish god of thunder. It turns out to be the name of the tank Jihl commandeers in order to get his revenge. The reference to the god actually makes sense when it's revealed the true purpose of the Belenos was to bring people back to life.
• Retcon: The Library entry for Pharaoh in the first game described it as being a large village at the base of Mont Pharaoh. According to this game, it was the second largest city in Gasco back when Paresia was still the capital.
• Revision: The Jeanne Archives from the first game only mention two specific times when the Taranis was deployed by Crusade— the test firing of it in the wastelands and its takedown of the Vanargand— likely leading some players to believe that those were the only two times the Taranis was sent out, as well as believing that the conflict between France and Germany only began and ended with the Vanargand's deployment. Jihl however states that Crusade's hybrids were also killed in combat, and he was forced to be a reusable source of Soul Cannon ammunition when the Taranis was deployed "to the battlefield". The implication to take here is that the conflict between France and Germany went on for long enough for Crusade to suffer a number of hybrid casualties, with the Vanargand only being deployed as a final trump card.
• Ruder and Cruder: The first game's English localization had some minor cases of swearing (mostly mild profanity like "damn" or "asshole"), while this game has characters like Kyle using the more severe "shit" at times.
• Sequel Hook:
  • The game's true ending concludes with Malt waking up in the middle of the night and returning to the cave where they originally found the Taranis, shocked to see that it's returned there after everyone decided it was too risky to keep around and dropped it into the sea of clouds. A Carmine-esque silhouette then calls out to him, and Malt immediately recognizes it's his brother.
  • In-Universe, the final issue of the current "The Adventures of Sucre" arc, which Malt receives in the true ending, ends on one. Sucre believes it's for the best that they buried the Taran so its power can't be exploited, and is looking forward to using the Juno energy crystal they found to power their flight to the moon, but his owl looks oddly concerned. Cut to Count Nouvellune gazing at the moon, stating that it's almost time for a grand reunion as a giant sigil appears on the moon's surface.
  • One of the secret files unlocked after you beat the game reveals Cayenne learned all about Jihl and the Belenos in the first place by an unknown third party who had contacted him through the secret President's communications line, indicating it was someone who knew who Cayenne really was and subtly manipulated the man to do everything. The final file is likewise written by an unknown man who, following humanity's eradication by Juno, is preparing to "take back everything that was stolen from [him]".
  • The unlockable Secret Movie teases a third game in the series through a hefty amount of Mind Screw. In it, Malt sees a Bad Future where a new war involving the Berman Empire has claimed the lives of his friends, the children are told Petit Mona is "a birthplace of heroes" and that at least Boron is a reincarnation of a legendary warrior, it's hinted that Jihl's spirit is still tied to Hanna after his sacrifice, Wappa mentions a "great kingdom" that existed in the past, Flam has regained consciousness, Maestro watches over "a new beginning", and Malt proclaims this will be the story of how he betrayed the world. Locations shown include a city full of skyscrapers, a structure that looks suspiciously like the Futzu Tower, and outer space and even the moon.
• Serial Escalation: In the previous game's final chapter, the Taranis was able to get on top of the Vanargand before it fully stood up, and then entered a crack in its shell to directly fight its heart, the Tarascus. In this game's final chapter, first the Exo-Taranis has to disable one of the Belenos-empowered Vanargand's legs, then climb up it to disable the spikes on its back that are shooting down allied airships, and then use an airship to fight the Vanargand face-to-face, with its face still capable of emitting the same amount of power that fractured Gasco into an archipelago.
• Shout-Out:
  • The first chapter of the game is titled "The Devil in the Belfry", after the poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
  • The rest of the chapter titles, such as "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair", "The Palace of Silence" and "Dead Leaves", are named after Claude Debussy compositions, just like with the chapter titles of the previous game.
  • The achievement rewarded for spending over 50,000 rings at shops is called "Big Shot".
• Spider Tank: Some Old World robots you face are looking like this.
• Spoiler Cover: The golden tank pictured in the corner of the cover has elements of both the Taranis and Tarascus, hinting at what the new tank might be. Additionally, Hanna is depicted without a solid outline unlike the other characters, hinting that she will become a Sacrificial Lion and Virtual Ghost.
• Stern Chase: Most of the game is this, with the kids pursuing the rogue Taranis (and later the Belenos) aboard a different tank.
• Technologically Advanced Foe: In addition to Berman Geists you will also occasionally encounter robots remaining from the Old World, most often found in and around Crusade facilities. They are not that much stronger than contemporary machines but they do have their own tricks - for one, they don't have any Weaknesses, meaning they normally cannot be delayed, and some of them are capable of Gathering Steam, automatically increasing their armour level and gaining access to new attacks throughout the fight. They also shoot lasers instead of bullets and artillery shells.
• Teleporter Accident: A newly revealed function of both the Taranis and Tarascus is the ability to teleport crew members to other locations within the tank, as well as between one another if they're able to get within spitting distance. The children use this functionality to rescue their trapped friends on the Taranis, but the process being interrupted leads to Hanna's apparent death as the tanks are wrecked by Belenos before she fully re-forms.
• Timed Mission: If you sustain enough damage during boss battles, the AI Hax will auto-load the Soul Cannon as a defense mechanism. Failure to end a battle before the countdown ends (which goes down with each passing turn) results in an auto-fire of the fatal weapon. That said, there's an option during intermission periods to pray in front of the Soul Cannon Chamber to reduce the percentage of health loss required to trigger the countdown. Praying three times (which costs 6 action points in total) can disable the countdown entirely!
• Time Skip: The game occurs a year after the original game, with all the returning children noticeably growing taller and changing up their attire.
• Turns Red: Whenever they are brought down to below half HP, bosses will enter an enraged state signified by a red Battle Aura that grants them permanent Wrath and Speed (though those buffs can still be removed by Chick's Vanish Skill) while also completely switching up battle tactics.
• Void Between the Worlds: The game reveals the existence of the Deep Depths, a realm said to be outside of space, time and reality. Malt ends up in this realm should he die in the real world, allowing him to go back in time and ensure a different outcome for himself and the crew of the Taranis. It's also stated that the desires and memories of those within the Deep Depths impact how the realm is perceived by them, as evidenced by how Malt experienced an illusion of Petit Mona created from his memories.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 3, "The Palace of Silence": the conclusion to the Tarascus' pursuit of the rogue Taranis. Jihl gains access to the Belenos, and uses it to heavily damage the Taranis and destroy the Tarascus, causing Hanna's evacuation teleportation to fail and her body to dissipate into light. The remaining children are so outraged that the remains of the ruined tanks resonate with them and merge into a single machine: the Exo-Taranis.
  • Chapter 4, "The Shadow of Trees": it's implied that Jihl isn't entirely working on his own, and is revealed to have a contact discussing matters with him. Meanwhile, Malt's frustration towards his failure to save Hanna boils over, and he vows to take Jihl's life as revenge.
  • Chapter 7, "Forgotten Images": after wondering if they heard Hanna's voice guiding them in the previous chapter, the children are able to confirm that Hanna's soul still exists… as a Virtual Ghost inside the Belenos' systems. Destroying the Belenos will thus permanently erase her, but she encourages them to chase Jihl down and do so, for Jihl's sake, before the Belenos' power consumes him. Then, in the next port town before the next chapter begins, Vanilla receives a message claiming that her father, Shayne Muscat, is still alive.
  • Chapter 9, "The Game of Knucklebones": Jihl's backstory is revealed— Crusade originally created him as one of many hybrid children meant to pilot the Belenos, and when testing for it failed, they exploited him as a renewable source of energy for the Soul Cannon. Jihl's assumption that his "Mama" (the woman responsible for caring for him and the other hybrids) did nothing but leave him to black out in the Taranis is also proven wrong— it's revealed that she sacrificed herself in his place for the Taranis to land the killing blow on the Vanargand.
  • Chapter 10, "The Interrupted Serenade": Hanna learns that someone has been guiding Jihl all along. Jihl completes the Belenos, having had a change of heart and planning to use it to resurrect Hanna. However, the Belenos' hidden programming activates, trapping Jihl and merging him with its bio-machinery. When the other children catch up, they also learn who Jihl's secret benefactor was: Vanilla's former tutor Cayenne, who had faked his own death and used Nono magic to appear as President Muscat for the past six months, then faked that death as well. Revealing his desire to use the Belenos to revive the Vanargand and use it to destroy the Berman Empire in revenge, Cayenne then uses magic to force Vanilla to set off a suicide bomb in the Exo-Taranis, and then uses the Belenos at full power against the incapacitated children, killing them all. They get better in the next chapter.
  • Chapter 12, "Sounds and Perfumes Swirl in the Evening Air": the children take a Multi-Stage Battle across the Belenos-revived Vanargand, and are backed up by the Gasco Army, along with their former "prisoners" Stollen and Baum.
• Wham Line:
  • Early into Chapter 10, Jihl informs Hanna that he's just been sent the coordinates for the last Altar. Hanna's response is, "Sent? From where?"
  • The Stinger for the Golden Ending has Malt coming across a silhouetted figure in the cave that the Taranis has returned to… and it's shown that he recognizes this figure:
    Malt: Brother?
• Where It All Began: The game starts with the Tarascus driving through the streets of Pharaoh, chasing the rogue Taranis, and in the final Chapter you briefly return to Pharaoh as it is assaulted by the Vanargand.
• The Worf Effect: To show how powerful the Belenos is, it is able to outright destroy an unshielded Tarascus and heavily damage the Taranis to the point that it is unusable in its debut. It took the creation of the Exo-Taranis to match it.

Results:
Turns: 25 (A)
Damage Received: 18 (S)
Technique: 15600 (S)

Rank:
S^note As in, "Sorry for losing even more time."

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Kaze ga oshieru ikisaki e susumou^note Our destination is wherever the wind tells us to go
Shinjiru sono-te o hanasanai yō ni^note Don't let go of the hand that you believe in
Hoshi ga tomosu made^note Until the stars light up