History YMMV / PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime

** As for the Zombot Tomorrow-tron, you are given the heavily damaging Citron, some good splash with Laser Bean, and a nice defensive Infi-nut. You're also given Power Tiles, meaning even if Zomboss sends out a Gargantuar Prime or Football Zombie, Far Future's two DemonicSpiders, you can easily plant food a Citron and wipe them out. You also don't even need Plant Food to stop Zomboss's ramming attack; Blover can block Zomboss. This applies to the rematch as well, which is significantly easier than the rematch bosses from previous worlds, particularly the Zombot War Wagon 2.0, and gives a strong premium plant in the Electric Blueberry that will instantly OneHitKill zombies after every several seconds.

** Tombstones in the second game. While Wild West and Pirate Seas' special features results in a change of strategy and add to gameplay, the tombstones in Ancient Egypt are just an obstacle forcing the player to bring the Grave Buster. But it's not until Dark Ages, where the graves can pop up ''under your plants'', moving them at random and disrupting any sort of strategy that they become hated. As a bonus, zombies can then spawn from the Graves, sometimes circumventing defenses entirely.

** The ice wind in Frostbite Caves and its Endless Zone, Icebound Battleground. While the ice wind isn't that bad during regular levels, it does get MUCH worse in later endless zone levels; one gust is enough to ''completely'' freeze over a non-fire plant. If you don't have enough fire plants (the only non-premium one has a terrible seed recharge time) you'll be seeing your defensive and offensive plants get frozen over and over again every time the wind comes in and taking a long time to get out of said freezing.

** In Plants vs. Zombies 2 mods video, [=YouTuber=] Kabibambi tends to nickname the Turquoise Skull Zombie as Adweck, referring to a person who is greatly associated with him due to his profile picture. Said person is the developer of the upcoming mod named ''Oddysey''. The name also was popularized amongst the modding community.

** Around 2022 through to 2023, the game received a string of changes which everybody perceived as unnecessary, and even game-ruining. Certain hard levels (especially in Ancient Egypt) were trivialized and made stupidly easy (most likely to accommodate for new players), Cannons Away (the score-based Brain Buster minigame with Coconut Cannons) got removed, Adventure Plants were made to be gotten by seed packets instead of just playing the world, the Almanac got a complete redesign, and Seed Packets gotten from pinata’s had to be received one-by-one without being able to skip. So many bad changes have been happening that people are theorizing that [=PopCap=] is trying to kill their own game so that [=PvZ3=] (which wasn't even well-received anyway) will perform better.

** An update that completely removed both coin and gem drops was very ill-received by players of thee game. While the coin drops have since returned in the next update, the gem drops were still removed... causing much vitriol and hate towards [=PopCap=]'s decision.

** Around 2022 through to 2023, the game received a string of changes which everybody perceived as unnecessary, and even game-ruining. Certain hard levels (especially in Ancient Egypt) were trivialized and made stupidly easy, Cannons Away (the score-based Brain Buster minigame with Coconut Cannons) got removed, Adventure Plants were made to be gotten by seed packets instead of just playing the world, the Almanac got a complete redesign, and Seed Packets gotten from pinata’s had to be received one-by-one without being able to skip. So many bad changes have been happening that people are theorizing that [=PopCap=] is trying to kill their own game so that [=PvZ3=] (which wasn't even well-received anyway) will perform better.

** In Plants vs. Zombies 2 mods video, YouTuber Kabibambi tends to nickname the Turquoise Skull Zombie as Adweck, referring to a person who is greatly associated with him due to his profile picture. Said person is the developer of the upcoming mod named ''Oddysey''. The name also was popularized amongst the modding community.

*** On a similar note, many fans criticize the stiffer animation of the newer plants since 2022. Their lack of fluidity makes them stand out from the other plants and feel like they came straight out of the game's Chinese version. Not even the zombies are safe; while their animation is still fluid due to reusing assets, the Zombot Hot-Rodicus from November 2023's "The Zombosseum" event has such bad and shoddily-put together animation that you honestly have to wonder how PopCap let this slide.

** Around 2022 through to 2023, the game received a string of changes which everybody perceived as unnecessary, and even game-ruining. Certain hard levels (especially in Ancient Egypt) were trivialized and made stupidly easy, Cannons Away (the score-based Brain Buster minigame with Coconut Cannons) got removed, Adventure Plants were made to be gotten by seed packets instead of just playing the world, and Seed Packets gotten from pinata’s had to be received one-by-one without being able to skip. So many bad changes have been happening that people are theorizing that [=PopCap=] is trying to kill their own game so that [=PvZ3=] will perform better.

** In Plants vs. Zombies 2 mods video, YouTuber Kabibambi tends to nickname the Turquoise Skull Zombie as Adweck, referring to a person who is greatly associated with him due to his profile picture. Said person is the developer of the upcoming mod named ''Oddysey''.

* FanNickname: The premium plants that cost [[PremiumCurrency gems]] are usually referred to as 'Gemiums'. [[AscendedFanon The game itself started using this name in 2022, with piñatas containing their seed packets being called "Gemium piñatas".]]

!!All spoilers are unmarked.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: For some, the Ancient Egypt, [[{{Pirate}} Pirate Seas]], Wild West, and [[TheFuture Far Future]] bosses are all generic one-eyed spider robots that only vary in their move sets and difficulty. Averted with the bosess from the Zombot Dark Dragon onwards, since each of them has an unique design.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The Chinese version's Fairytale Forest world, unlike others, is based on fairytales instead of a specific time period. Despite this, there are only ''3'' new zombie types, with one being a reskin of another zombie, another being a stronger version of a zombie that ''already'' had a stronger version, and the last one is a MiniBoss.

** The Zombot Multi-Stage Masher. The battle opens up rather quickly with a Punk Jam where all the zombies move quickly (and the punk can kick away your plants), the third phase may sometimes spawn the Breakdancer+MC Zom-B combo which can kill plants quickly. But the worst by far is the final phase with Metal Jam- it re-spawns its speakers quickly that can blow away a lane of your plants in one shot, and it spawns ''only'' Hair Metal Gargantuars, which thanks to their Jam, move much more quickly, and can use their shockwave attack. The speakers ''can'' OneHitKill any of the gargs if they fire on the same lane as the gargantuar, but this is unreliable as it is random. Finally, you probably wouldn't have many plants left on the lawn thanks to the shockwaves killing them quickly, making it even harder to damage him before the zombies overwhelm you.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: One of the main praises the sequel gets is how great the tracks are, and how amazingly thematically fitting every world's music is. So much that it has [[{{AwesomeMusic/PlantsVsZombies}} it's own page,]] shared with the first game.

** Many fans see Modern Day as this. While the concept of battling [[AllTheWorldsAreAStage every zombie and dealing with almost every gimmick from past areas]] in a [[NintendoHard five-jalapeno rated]] world looks like a pretty exciting idea, it really doesn't adds anything new other than few returning zombies from the first game and five gimmicky (though somewhat good) plants. Even the main gimmick is related to zombies from past worlds! Many people expected the return of all areas, zombies and plants from the first game with an awesome FinalBoss in the from of the original Zombot, but became disappointed with what they received.

** The Chinese have an [[NoExportForYou exclusive version of the game]] with six unique worlds: Kungfu World, Sky City, Steam Ages, Renaissance Ages, Heian Ages, and Fairytale Forest,along with many exclusive plants and zombies and exclusive mechanics.

** Many bootleg Planets vs Zombies merchandise exists only in China, from LEGO Plants Vs. Zombies characters and even build-your-battle dioramas.

** The Dandelion had a low rate of fire and attacked one lane at a time, severely hampering its usefulness, cost a huge bit of sun, and had a mediocre recharge time. Naturally, it was a LowTierLetdown. In the 4.6 Update, they doubled its rate of fire and made its Plant Food ability stronger and faster, making it much more useful now.

** Snow Pea was initially seen as an inferior ice plant, even when the Plant Leveling System allowed it to have a chance to freeze the zombie it hit. However, a later update gave it a massive buff -- the ability for its shots to [[SplashDamage splash chill/freeze]] in a 1x1 radius. With enough columns of them and/or enough luck (and no Frostbite Caves zombies on the lawn), it now becomes possible to stunlock groups of zombies via freezing them, and allowing it to extinguish Explorer/Torchlight zombies hiding behind zombies in front, making it ''far'' more useful than before.

** Tombstones in the second game. While Wild West and Pirate Seas' special features results in a change of strategy and add to gameplay, the tombstones in Ancient Egypt are just an obstacle forcing the player to bring the Gravebuster. But it's not until Dark Ages, where the graves can pop up ''under your plants'', moving them at random and disrupting any sort of strategy that they become hated. As a bonus, zombies can then spawn from the Graves, sometimes circumventing defenses entirely.

** The prehistoric reptiles in Jurassic Marsh can make things get out of hand ''very'' quickly. Each of them ''[[InvincibleMinorMinion cannot be damaged by the plants]]'' and have an ability that greatly benefits the zombies. Raptor kicks zombies like breakdancer, only affecting one at a time, but kicks them ''four'' squares forwards, [[DungeonBypass up to the third column]]. Stegosaurus snares zombies with its tail spikes, then launches them on random lanes... [[DungeonBypass four squares away from your house]]. Pteranodon [[DungeonBypass places zombies in front of your lawn]] so that they can eat your defenses from behind in a manner similar to the Digger/Prospector zombie. T-Rex boosts the speed of all zombies in the lane. Finally, Ankylosaurus knocks zombies forward into your plants to push them back/throw them away ala Mecha-Football zombie!
** Portals in Modern Day can appear in the middle to the back of the lawn, bypassing defenses and displacing plants. These then spawn certain special zombies from different time periods, a good number of which are DemonicSpiders- a Mecha-Football spawned in the middle of your plants will ''immediately'' begin pushing them back, a Jester will make all your projectile plants hurt your own, an MC Zom-B will instantly decimate your attackers via his microphone spin, etc.

** A major complaint the Chinese version receives that the International version doesn't get is how low quality, buggy, and stiff a lot of the version’s exclusive animations feel. The bugginess and low quality even extend to the music, which has infamously been a problem with the Chinese version since its first release.
* SurpriseDifficulty: The previous game is disliked by a few for being [[ItsEasySoItSucks too easy]], so this game would be the same, right? '''WRONG.''' It's quite possibly the hardest game Creator/PopCapGames has ever created. With [[ZergRush constant waves]] of DemonicSpiders, very difficult [[ThatOneLevel levels]] and [[ThatOneBoss bosses]], and high prices on plants and powerups, this game completely blows the easiness of the previous game out of the water.

** Dr. Zomboss uses a similar attack ([[CrosshairAware in that it's just as easily predictable]]) as in the original but it gets worse. You can block Zomboss with a Plant Food attack (this also stuns him for a few seconds) but if you just so happen to not have Plant Food, he could destroy two rows of your plants and then place either a lot of zombies or a Gargantuar or two for a cheap victory/lawnmower fatality (Thankfully, this attack kills the zombies in the lane as well, but only if they were there beforehand). Powerups make this fight slightly easier (perhaps EA made Popcap create these boss fights to get players to pay up for better plants and powerups...).

* FanNickname: The premium plants that cost gems are usually referred to as 'Gemiums'. [[AscendedFanon The game itself started using this name in 2022, with piñatas containing their seed packets being called "Gemium piñatas".]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Neon Mixtape Tour, a [[BandLand Music themed world]] set during the 80s....and Dancing Zombie (especially the Music/MichaelJackson one) is nowhere to be found. It's relatively minor, but still.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: For some, the Ancient Egypt, [[{{Pirate}} Pirate Seas]], Wild West, and [[TheFuture Far Future]] bosses are all generic one-eyed spider robots, but vary in difficulty. Averted with the Dark Dragon onwards, since they're unique.

* ScrappyWeapon:
** Cabbage-pult was already not a very good plant in the first game, but in ''[=PvZ2=]'', it's even worse. In terms of stats, it's slightly weaker than Peashooter — the ''very first'' plant in the game — and has no synergy with Torchwood, leaving it hopelessly overshadowed by other offensive plants. Its ability to shoot over obstacles can be situationally helpful in Ancient Egypt and Dark Ages, but isn't a great deal of use generally — and even in this niche, it's also outclassed by other lobbed-shot and piercing plants.
** The most unanimously agreed on plant to be this is Spring Bean. While cheap at 50 sun and slightly useful in his home world of Pirate Seas, he has no other redeeming qualities. His knockback is measly, only affects one zombie, and he has a cooldown every time he uses it. Oddly, Spring Bean ''[[HowTheMightyHaveFallen used to]]'' be part of ComplacentGamingSyndrome and a GameBreaker, as its Plant Food bounced all zombies on the screen and could be used in conjunction with Blover to blow them away, giving the infamous "Spring Blover" combo. This [[ObviousRulePatch got patched out]] and zombies bounced into the air by Spring Bean became immune to being blown away. After this, Spring Bean became outclassed in every way by the Chard Guard (who for only 25 sun more, flings zombies much further away, can affect multiple zombies in a single hit, and has no cooldown), and a Level 5+ Stallia (who is one-use, but costs no sun, flings a 3x3 area of zombies, slows the zombies affected for a while, ''and'' can be used alongside Blover). Then as a final nail in the coffin, Boingsetta was introduced, which does the same effect as Spring Bean's Plant Food in addition to chilling the zombies and [[AntiStructure wrecking obstacles]] when planted, and it can bounce the whole lane of zombies instead of just one after its recovery time.
** The Pea-nut is a textbook MasterOfNone — it attempts to perform the jobs of both a Peashooter and Wall-nut at once, but is incompetent at both of them. It's more expensive than a Peashooter and recharges much more slowly, so it can't be used for a quick defence at the start of a level, and its firepower pales in comparison to other, more expensive offensive plants. Equally, it's much more expensive than a Wall-nut (in fact, slightly more expensive than a ''Tall-nut'') while providing the same defensive power, making it an inefficient use of your sun. To top it all off, it's also one of the only plants to avert CriticalExistenceFailure, because its attack, already weak, gets ''weaker'' when it's at half HP.
** Chomper not only retains this title from the first game, but it's arguably even worse here. With larger clusters of zombies, a much stronger lineup of insta-kills, and having [[PowerCreep direct upgrades]] in Toadstool (Who has a longer range and turns digested zombies into sun), Snap Pea (Which shoots the zombies it ate towards other zombies), and especially Olive Pit (Who can eat multiple zombies before recharging, hides underground so that it can't be eaten, and spitting out slowing oil on top of it), what little Chomper had going for it in the first game is all but lost here. Even worse, it now has a longer lag time before it actually eats a zombie, making several zombies kill it before it can react. Chomper's only redeeming quality is its plant food effect, which not only kills three zombies, but pushes back all the other ones in the lane, serving as a mild alternative to Hurrikale. It got a buff that allowed it to eat two zombies (4 at max level) before becoming full, but its slow attack speed is still an issue for it, especially when Olive Pit can still eat more zombies ''and'' can't be attacked by anything short of Gargantuars and Jurassic Rockpunchers.
** Electrici-tea [[OneHitKill fries up]] any zombie that eats it, dealing that zombie's health to nearby zombies, and it can also area electrocute zombies around it. This is highly situational as there are ''[[KryptoniteIsEverywhere several]]'' zombies that just kill it without eating (and are incidentally, also the ones you'd ''want'' it to kill, such as Gargantuars, Rodeo Legend, Mecha-Football, Jurassic Rockpuncher, charging All-Stars, Zombie Hamster Ball, Firebreather, etc). As for the area electrocution, it's ''pathetically'' weak as a form of offense. It does however have an extremely strong Plant Food ability.
** Garlic was a pretty good plant in the original game, but the sequel hit it with heavy {{Nerf}}s that dramatically reduce its effectiveness, perhaps to make up for there being more plants that can benefit from it. Not only does it have less health than before to begin with, but zombies also need to take multiple bites of it to switch lanes, reducing its longevity even further. Additionally, there are [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere far more zombies]] that can either eat Garlic without suffering its effects or just kill it without eating. It only starts to work like it did in the first game at high levels, while other plants improve much more by comparison.
** Intensive Carrot sounds useful on paper, reviving any eaten plant at the cost of 100 sun. In practice, however, this is more situational than you'd expect, and it's usually better to just use another plant in its slot and just re-plant any eaten plants. It does get a cost and cooldown decrease down to 25 sun as it levels up, but other plants get a cost and cooldown decrease too, making it less worthwhile. The only gimmick it can be feasibly used for is that any boosted plant revived by Intensive Carrot gets to use their boost again, but that's it.
** Blooming Heart is priced at 7 dollars, which is awful for a single-target plant like her. Secondly, her ability isn't very useful, damaging zombies more and more as she hits them, but most zombies will be killed just as quickly by something like Cold Snapdragon. What really sealed the deal on her, though, is that she used to have a GameBreakingBug, where using plant food on her would make every zombie {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le. While the last one was fixed, it did little to help her status. This seems to have settled when she was made a seed-obtained (read: free) plant, but even then she's still not very good. Even Cabbage-pult, a free plant obtained near the start of the game and itself a low-tier scrappy, actually outperforms Blooming Heart at higher levels due to the more consistent damage and faster attacking speed.
** Out of all the Power Mints, Winter-mint is generally seen as the weakest. When planted, it will chill (not ''freeze'', chill) all Zombies on the screen while powering up ice plants. While this is great for powering Winter Melon, Missile Toe, and Cold Snapdragon, the effect on planting is extremely underwhelming, considering that Ice Bloom, PF'd Iceberg Lettuce, and Contain-mint actually freeze/stun all the zombies on the screen.

** When the Pelican Zombie is electrocuted to death, the pelican carrying the zombie inexplicably turns into a seagull, which is the animation used for its predecessor the Seagull Zombie.
** A major complaint the Chinese version receives that the International version doesn’t get is how low quality, buggy, and stiff a lot of the version’s exclusive animations feel. The bugginess and low quality even extend to the music, which has infamously been a problem with the Chinese version since it’s first release.

* DemonicSpiders: [[DemonicSpiders/PlantsVsZombies It has enough to warrant its own page]].

* GoddamnedBats: [[GoddamnedBats/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime Has its own page]].

** This overlaps with AntiClimaxBoss and ItsTheSameNowItSucks. Memory Lane is a mode in the Chinese version [[{{NostalgiaLevel}} dedicated to revisiting the mechanics and areas of the first game.]] So, obviously, the only real way to end a mode like that would be a rematch against the original Zombot! However, the word “rematch” might have been taken too literally. As, barring the zombies being changed, the fight against the Zombot Mark II is the same as the fight from the first game. '''[[ItsTheSameNowItSucks The exact same.]]''' Nothing else significant has changed from the original boss battle. What makes it worse is that an original Zombot rematch is exactly what international fans were hoping for as the boss of Modern Day, as described right above. And it happened, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor just to have it be both a carbon copy of the fight they've already played, and locked behind a version in a different country.]]

** Some international players praise how the Chinese version has so much cool exclusive content, and wish that all of it could also be in the International version. Mostly because it’s just the fact that theres another game’s worth of new content that gets mentioned about the version, and not the content itself. Fans who have actually played the Chinese version are not afraid to say that it would arguably make the game worse, as what most international players don’t realize is that a lot of the new content itself isn’t the greatest, and just how many more bad things the Chinese game brings with it.
** In a complete reverse of what was just described above, Chinese fans are actually the ones who are jealous of the International version. You’d feel jealous too if the rest of the world got a polished game while your country ''(and your country only)'' got a buggy mess that values quantity over quality.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: A lot of people like how the requested Gatling Pea is back in some way; now as [[https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Gatling_Pea Mega Gatling Pea]], costing 400 sun, not as an upgrade; shooting 4 peas and having a tiny chance of activating its Plant Food ability. After it has activated said ability, even manually by the player, it'll permanently fire 5 peas instead.