Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium is a Turn-Based Tactics Gacha Game developed by MICA Team. It is the sequel to their previous game, Girls' Frontline.
Ten years ago, the Commander bade farewell to their past in Griffin & Kryuger and choose self-exile in the contaminated zones. Working as a bounty hunter, their only company are the Mobile Command Vehicle Elmo and a few stray Tactical Dolls they encounter in this decade-long journey. Life is meager but relatively stable, which is all the Commander wants.
Yet the world continues to turn. Old powers disappear, and in their place rose a new one. The geopolitical situation has stabilized following the period of chaos after World War III, and in this new world there is little need for large Private Military Contractors. Griffin & Kryuger was judged to be too powerful and influential to exist, and so it was forcibly restructured, scattering many of its members into the winds. In their place emerged a large number of independent Bounty Hunters — many of which were former PMC employees. Rossartrism continues to expand its influence; in 2064, the Union of Rossartrist Nations Coaltion (URNC) was established, and eventually grew into a humongous political body which controls half of the world. The New Soviet Union signed a pact of cooperation with URNC in 2066, thus signaling the start of merging of both super-states, which resulted in Project Lazarus: a plan to purify and revitalize swathes of Europe still contaminated by Collapse Radiation. Away from the expanding secure zones, criminals and other renegades band together to survive, scavenging technology from abandoned Sangvis Ferri factories and other places, while ELID creatures mutate into stronger, more menacing forms with each passing days.
The year is now 2074. After accepting a delivery mission, the Commander awakens to the sound of Elmo being raided by the Varjager gang. Their objective is none other than the package being delivered: a strange black box that happens to contain a girl inside. What was supposed to be a simple task took turn for the worse, and the Commander, who once escaped the whirpool of conspiracy, found themself in an even larger vortex...
The game was launched in China on 21st December 2023.
This game provides examples of:
- Action Bomb: Goliaths return from the first game with a new look. Although they no longer wipe out the entire team in a single explosion, they still do very high damage and ignores cover.
- Action Prologue: The intro cutscene/tutorial starts In Medias Res with Groza's squad fighting their way out from ODE-01 while being pursued by Darture and her forces. The scene is later revisited chronologically in Chapter 4.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- There are no misses in Exilium. Since everything is an Always Accurate Attack, this removes the frustration of missing an important shot due to bad RNG, instead shifting the focus towards positioning and ability usage.
- Enemies within a doll's line of sight will be highlighted by a curved line ala Valkyria Chronicles. This also applies when moving a doll to a new position, making it easy to tell at a glance which enemies can be targeted after repositioning.
- The game will preview expected damage before an attack is made. It even takes possible Support Fire attacks into account.
- You can rewind battles on a per-action basis, all the way to the first turn, though it's limited to three rewinds per stage attempt.
- Arbitrary Gun Power: Weapon damage is dependent on its rarity and level. An SSR level 60 handgun will always do more damage than an R sniper rifle at level 1.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can only bring up to four T-Dolls into each stage.
- Artificial Stupidity: The game's autoplay is reasonably competent when it comes to placing T-Dolls behind cover, but it has a hard time using their skills to full effectiveness and doesn't take enemy abilities into account.
- Art Shift: Where the original game was entirely 2D artwork and effects, Exilium jumps straight into full 3D visuals and gameplay with a massive Animation Bump to match. This also applies to 2D character art; whereas Girls' Frontline employs multiple artists with their own distinctive style, character artwork in this game are much more unified.
- Base on Wheels: The Commander and their entourage operates from the Mobile Command Vehicle "Elmo", the exact same one they received at the latter parts of Girls' Frontline. The Elmo is large enough to house a fully-featured bridge, a sizable training area, a helipad, and dormitory for dozens of personnel.
- Bottomless Magazines: Ammo management is completely non-existent during battles. Especially egregious since some T-Dolls are shown reloading their weapons, but only in non-combat situations.
- Break Meter: The Stability Index mechanic reduces all incoming damage by 60% until it's depleted, upon which the unit is exposed and unable to hide behind cover. Certain attacks and skills are better at breaking Stability than dealing damage.
- Combination Attack: Some T-Dolls and enemies can perform a Support Fire attack if certain conditions are met. Multiple Support Fires can trigger in succession, allowing for ludicrous damage potential with the correct setup.
- Elaborate Equals Effective: Higher rarity weapons are distinguished by having extra greebles and doodads, indicating their superior stats. This is especially pronounced with SR weapons, which are distinguished from their R counterparts simply through more detailed textures.
- Genre Shift: From Strategy RPG with Turn-Based Strategy, Real Time Combat to full-on Turn-Based Tactics.
- The Border Exploration mode is a real-time Dungeon Crawler that switches into standard turn-based tactics for combat encounters.
- Geo Effects:
- The ground can be set on fire, frozen with patches of ice, or electrified, which inflicts their respective status effects when a unit pass through them.
- Conveyor belts and elevators transport units to different locations at the end of the turn.
- Attacks made from high ground have extended range and ignores half cover.
- Gun Accessories: Weapons can equip various attachments which boost their stats. Some attachments also confer Set Bonus when equipped together.
- Limit Break: T-Dolls have a Collapse Radiation Index gauge which can be spent to cast powerful abilities. The specific mechanic of gaining CI differs for each Doll, but it generally involves battlefield actions such as killing enemies or buffing allies.
- Mecha-Mooks: Varjagers employ Sangvis Ferri Prowlers and Goliaths alongside their human grunts. Aegis droids also appear under the control of various PMCs, now with variants to fulfill different roles such as sniping and area bombardment.
- Optional Stealth: Border Exploration introduces stealth mechanics, allowing your T-Dolls to sneak past enemies and nab loot right under their noses. Going in guns blazing is also a valid option, but since health and stability damage carry over between encounters, it's often more prudent to avoid fighting altogether.
- Take Cover!: Much like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, taking cover is a vital part of keeping your T-Dolls alive. Cover is divided into several types:
- Full cover provides the most damage reduction, but blocks line-of-sight.
- Half cover is less protective and is ignored when attacking from elevated position.
- Thin cover does not take a full tile, allows melee attacks to pass through, and can be vaulted over.
- Barbed wire is the opposite: it blocks movement and melee attacks, but provides no protection against bullets.
- Weapon Specialization: Downplayed compared to the first Girls' Frontline. T-Dolls can now equip weapons other than their Imprinted one so long as they're of the same weapon type. Sabrina, for example, can also use Vepley's Vepr-12 in lieu of her SPAS-12. Matching T-Dolls with their signature weapons is still encouraged, since the weapons have effects that greatly synergize with the corresponding T-Doll's fighting style.
