YMMV page for River City Girls 2
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Kyoko and Misako may be the heroines of the story, but they have a habit of using violence as a problem solver, to the point where they initiate more than half the fights with students, gang members, and law enforcement, making them seem like a pair of impulsive punks.
- Misako in particular seems a bit too violent. One exchange has Kyoko pulling her away from a VIP bouncer as she threatens to rip his head off. Kyoko taking the threat seriously doesn't help, given she's also the stronger party member.
- They could also be considered mildly obnoxious, nearly everyone they speak to gets frustrated with their habit of constantly interjecting in conversations, including their boyfriends (which might be why they're ex-boyfriends).
- The Reveal makes this even worse, as Kyoko and Misako aren’t even Kunio and Riki's girlfriends. The two boys don’t even recognize them. This tarnishes any claim of them turning to mass violence to protect their boys, and instead shows they were beating up the whole of River City for the favor of two boys who are actively avoiding them. The Secret Ending since the 1.1 update puts them in friendlier terms but still leaves the implication the girls are impulsively violent. This also re-contextualizes some of the scenes. Kyoko and Misako vent their hatred for Mami and Hasebe, Kunio and Riki's actual girlfriends, whenever they are mentioned. Calling them “Trash girls" and "trash queens" that don’t deserve them, acknowledging that they're not Kunio and Riki's girlfriends. They may have actually done this because they want to be noticed by the boys they love, and partly because of their jealousy.
- The boys' actual girlfriends acting cruel and mocking Kyoko and Misako every time they walk up and lay claim to the two boys makes total sense as well; Mami and Hasebe are definitely bullying the protagonists, but the latter (in the original ending) are being delusional and going on a city-wide rampage for a relationship that doesn't exist anymore. Mami and Hasebe suggesting places where the "kidnapped boyfriends" are can also be viewed as sending these two nutcase brawlers on a Snipe Hunt to leave them and the boys alone for a couple of hours.
- Audience-Coloring Adaptation: Being the game that introduced many Western fans to the franchise, the redesigns and characterization the various characters receive here are likely better known than their original incarnations.
- Awesome Music: The game's soundtrack was one of the most consistently positive aspects brought up by reviewers for its combination of Synth-Pop and chiptune, coupled with a few surprising vocal tracks.
- Breather Boss: Abobo, while still no pushover, is considerably easier than Hibari given how telegraphed his moves are, how easy some of them are to dodge and how he can be hit at anytime whereas Hibari couldn't. Hard mode however averts this, Abobo will absolutely refuse to be stun-locked, block almost everything you throw at him, and if you interrupt his attack, he'll break your combo after the third or fourth hit to counter you with a powerful blow.
- Catharsis Factor: Beating up Hasabe and Mami is extremely satisfying after they taunt you for the whole game.
- Crosses the Line Twice: The game's credits theme does this if you pay attention to the lyrics. It's an energetic rock song that starts out about how much of an Amazon Chaser the singer is only to veer into recounting the number of ways his girlfriend has injured him, with the back-up vocals reacting with increasing horror. The song then concludes with the singer lamenting the fact that his fetish might get him killed one day.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: The game's depiction of Marian made rounds on social media. It's not exactly hard to see why. And for some of the same reasons, Skullmageddon gets this too.
- Fan Nickname: Due to their looks, Kyoko, Misako and Mami are nicknamed in Japan as Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles respectively.
- Fanon: Due to the poorly received initial ending, the Japanese translation is at least somewhat accepted in that Kunio and Riki acknowledge Misako and Kyoko as their girlfriends, even if they still comment on how hot Hasebe and Mami are as Fetishized Abuser. This changed with update 1.1 giving a better-received alternate ending.
- Fan-Preferred Couple:
- Misako and Kyoko aren't actually Kunio and Riki's girlfriends, but part of the fandom wished they are, especially given their actual girlfriends, Hasabe and Mami, are Jerkasses in this continuity. The 1.1 ending throws a bone to these fans and allows the player to defeat Hasebe and Mimi and go on a date with Riki and Kunio.
- There are also fans that pair Misako and Kyoko with each other. They're great long-time friends and mesh well with each other, so it doesn't take much effort to make the pairing work. The normal ending which reveal Kunio and Riki and not their boyfriends and ends with Misako and Kyoko punching them into the sky helps. Not to mention rough and tumble girls with a retro aesthetic are popular in depictions of LGBT women at the time of its release, so they got the treatment even with the knowledge that their love belongs to Kunio and Riki.
- Similarly to Misako and Kyoko, Hasebe and Mami only have eyes for Kunio and Riki due to them being the boys' true girlfriends. Because of their preppy, touchy-feely Girl Posse behavior and how the two are rarely seen apart, fans took to shipping them together over with their love interests. Adding more fuel to the fire is their tarot card for River City Girls 2, which had them arm-in-arm as The Lovers.
- Game-Breaker:
- Joy of Toys (Book) is absolutely this. It makes it so as long as you have it in your inventory, Toy weapons won't break as long as you hold them. Combine this with the yo-yo, an incredibly long-reaching weapon that combos into itself, and you'll rarely get hit because nothing is ever able to get near you and can be comboed until you're far out of reach. It also uses a consumable slot despite not being consumed upon use, meaning you get to keep both your equipment slots. As for when you get it? Right before the fourth boss, when there's still plenty of the game left. For only $100, at that.
- The wrestlers and the faux-Terminators both have some of the strongest assists in the game. Both come out fast and have massive range, allowing them to easily follow up on attacks or pin large groups of enemies down.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- Before the final boss, Mami & Hasebe are encountered and call Kyoko & Misako clueless rejects for thinking Riki and Kunio are actually in love with them. Turns out they are telling the truth. The boys are dating Mami & Hasebe, giving the implication that Mami & Hasebe use their romantic relationship with the boys as another means to bully Kyoko & Misako.
- Worse, Misako tells them to "Ask them" to prove they’re dating, and are given a coy "Oh we will... tonight".
- Comparisons of the gameplay elements and presentation to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game also became much less amusing with the above knowledge in mind. Your player characters can effectively be described as "Evil Exes".
- Due to Misako and Kyoko having beaten Sabuko (a fight that happened entirely because of a series of misunderstandings caused by Godai), her imprisoned father Sabu learns about it at the start of River City Girls 2. Two guesses as to what happens.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Before the True Final Boss, Hasebe and Mami taunt Misako and Kyoko about how their original game, Kunio-tachi no Banka, was never released outside of Japan. Now that it is being localized as River City Girls Zero, suddenly they have a lot less to be smug about.
- Low-Tier Letdown: The cop enemies have probably the worst assist move in the game. They toss a tear gas grenade that stuns enemies caught in its blast, similar to the male students' sand toss. However, the grenade comes out slower and detonates further away from you, which isn't often much help against enemies that are swarming you from up-close, and the lengthy period that they're on the field for makes it easy for them to get hit.
- Nightmare Fuel: There are six (three for elites) variants of enemies that the players can recruit, the last two are red and "zombie". They have a unique description, and some of them are nightmarish than the others (which is normally not shown on their in-game sprite).
- Grendel is a former prom king whose face is downright skeletal in nature, to the point that it is evidently toned down in 2 to be more human-like (while still retaining his menacing nature).
- Nakamura's description states outright that he is killed while on-duty. While, to him, is simply an inconvenience (he is later revived as a zombie) it's an eerie reminder that there is a possibility that someone might get killed even in a Denser and Wackier reboot.
- Vesper once performed a séance with her friends that night. And the result from dabbling with an occult activity? Her soul was taken and came back as a zombie. If that wasn't creepy enough, Hibari has an endless supply of them she summons in her fight.
- Chaim decided to take a swim inside Sabu's illegal chemical reservoir and the presumed high dosage from said chemical heavily mutated him that his face now bear shark-like teeth.
- The Sanwakai assassins, Osamu and Shinobu all suffer from Facial Horror. The former's skin on his face is exposed that, at first glance, is easily mistaken for an Oni mask until one takes a closer look. And the latter has a portion of her skin torn off that resembles a Slasher Smile.
- Special mention goes to Chance, a cursed puppet who happens to have the scariest faces alongside Grendel and Chaim. Possessing frightening fangs, and evokes an Uncanny Valley expression that she lives up to her description as a Creepy Doll. Not even toning it down in 2 can diminish her scare-factor because she now resembles a nutcracker and her eyes are now blank.
- Older Than They Think: River City Girls 2 isn’t the first time Marian has been Promoted to Playable as opposed to being a Damsel in Distress. She was actually playable in the 1995 Double Dragon fighting game loosely based on the 1994 live-action movie.
- Periphery Demographic: Has a pretty decent following among several members of the Fighting Game Community, due to the in-depth combat system full of hidden mechanics and glitches which a great amount of the development team outright promote using and endorse. It helps that the game is published by Arc System Works and that two of their characters from Guilty Gear make cameos in the sequel.
- Scrappy Mechanic:
- A rather annoying feature is that if you stay in an area too long, multiple Mooks will start rolling out that don't give any XP and only minimum money. Leaving the area is the only way to fix this. This is especially annoying if you're trying to grind — although higher-leveled versions of certain mooks spawn more often in the penalty waves, giving you more chances to recruit them.
- Light attack being the same button used to interact with things also drew complaints, since you could accidentally pick up an item when you were trying to execute a combo.
- That One Attack: Mami's spinning fire kick can take off a solid third of your health bar, and she can use it whenever she wants.
- That One Boss
- Hibari is a considerable step-up from the previous two bosses. She's a Marathon Boss, Flunky Boss, and Tennis Boss all rolled into one. She's constantly spawning Mooks every third attack while normally being too far out of reach to attack, with the only ways to bring her down to deal damage being by hitting her with her own needle - a feat that requires precise aim and timing - or by hitting her several times with VERY careful usage of wall-jumping attacks. And unless you've been doing some considerable level grinding beforehand, you have to do this an upwards of nine times. As the fight drags on, she eventually begins subjecting you to a Bullet Hell that wouldn't be out of place in Touhou Project, all the while her continuously spawning minions are constantly swarming you. Getting hit by her threads that cross the screen (a move that comes out in all her phases) will very likely kill you or leave you near death in a second, sending you back to the start of the fight again.
- Abobo is a more straightforward boss, but he's much harder than Misuzu and Yamada were. He blocks your attacks mid-combo and retaliates with a powerful headbutt, making it difficult to get any real damage on him, not helped by the fact that he's a tanky boss to begin with. He also has a few fast attacks for someone so big.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: It may be light-hearted and wacky, but prior to 1.1, the game's Twist Ending is hated largely for casting basically every major character as unlikable. Kyoko and Misako turn out to be Kunio and Riki's Psycho Ex-Girlfriends, who physically assault their supposed boyfriends when their delusions are refuted. Hasebe and Mami turn out to be right to dismiss the other girls' claim to be dating the boys, but this doesn't earn them much sympathy, as they're still incredibly smug jerks who've been bullying Kyoko and Misako for years. By extension, Kunio and Riki actually dating Hasebe and Mami reflects pretty poorly on them as well.
- Unexpected Character:
- Out of all the characters formerly owned by Technos, who could ever imagine that Bullova, Trash and Martha, respectively a playable character and the third and final bosses of The Combatribes, would make an appearance in River City Girls? The former and latter are Shopkeepers, while Trash is a regular enemy.
- This game brings in a ton of notable Double Dragon characters for minor roles, including Abobo as a boss, Burnov as an NPC, Linda as a regular enemy, Marian as a Shopkeeper, and even Billy and Jimmy Lee themselves as masters of their own Dojos. On the other hand, there's also Skullmageddon, the main antagonist and final boss of Neon, as both an NPC and a Shopkeeper of all things. Yes, WayForward worked on both this game and Neon, but 1) Skullmageddon had only appeared in one game up 'til this point, 2) said game was seven years ago as of River City Girls's release, and 3) he's not even that popular of a character to begin with.
- Many fans were expecting at least one of WayForward's characters to have a cameo appearance since they have developed the game, but no one thought that honor would go to Kebako, whose game isn't even widely-available to begin with, let alone on consoles. note
- Woolseyism: Despite keeping the English voiceovers, the Japanese text translation changes several things.
- The girls being in detention at the beginning of the game was altered to them having extra study class, as the latter is the norm in the Japanese academic course and the concept of detention is nonexistent.note
- The ending captions had some altered lines that changes the implication of Kyoko and Misako being Psycho Ex Girlfriends into Kunio and Riki being Fetishized Abusers.
