Video Game / God Eater 2

Defiance is in our Blood^note From left to right: Julius and The Protagonist/Hiro Kamui. Center: Romeo, Ciel, Nana and Gilbert.

^{God Eater 2 Rage Burst}

The second game in the God Eater series of Action RPGs. It was released in Japan on November 14, 2013 for PlayStation Portable and Play Station Vita.

Three years after the events of the previous game, a mysterious red rain has started to fall over the world, infecting those caught in it with a fatal disease called the Black Plague. Meanwhile, a new type of Aragami, known as "Psions", has also appeared, and cannot be defeated by regular God Eaters. Helping to even the odds for humanity is a special class of God Eater who wield a new ability called "Blood Power", which gave them a fighting chance against the Psions.

The name of this special unit of God Eaters are called "BLOOD Unit", and you are one of its newest recruits inducted into their ranks as Fenrir's only answer against threats not just from the Aragami and the Psions, but also from within...

God Eater 2 expands upon the first game by adding new weapon types: the Boost Hammer, Charge Spear, and Shotgun. It also adds the Blood Art mechanic, improving your melee attacks with special abilities.

An Updated Re-release, God Eater 2: Rage Burst, was released for PlayStation 4, Play Station Vita, and Steam on February 9, 2015 in Japan and August 30, 2016 in the rest of the world. It adds an additional storyline, a new weapon type, the Variant Scythe, which was previously introduced in God Eater Resurrection, as well as a new Super Mode called Blood Rage.

This is followed canonically by God Eater 3, taken place in 2087 A.D. within the franchise's timeline.

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God Eater 2 & God Eater 2 Rage Burst contain the following tropes:

• Advanced Movement Technique: The Long Blade's Tornado Rush Blood Art is a Dash Attack that can be cancelled into a Step (which quickly moves you a short distance in a given direction). It can also be cancelled from a Step, so by alternating between Tornado Rush and Step, you can zip around the map very quickly. It also doesn't cost any stamina unless it hits an enemy, so it isn't any more exhausting than simply Stepping everywhere.
• And the Adventure Continues: In the final cutscene of Rage Burst, the members of Blood, including the revived Julius and Romeo, decide to become God Eaters again after being Brought Down to Normal, leading to the next scene of them all at a mission and jumping off a cliff towards the action.
• Anyone Can Die: Romeo and Julius, two of your squad members, end up biting it. Though technically, Julius isn't really dead, but he is stuck in a helix plant-like structure in order to stop his Singularity from evolving. However, in Rage Burst, this is averted, with not only Julius being saved from being the Cosmic Keystone to the Devouring Apocalypse, but also Romeo being Back from the Dead.
• Alternate Continuity: The part where Blood meets Alisa and had their first battle with a Psion-type Aragami^note Excluding the first encounter with Marduk which occurred in cutscene only occurred before Friar reaches the Far East Branch in Rage Burst. However in the original game, it happened after Nana reawakens and gains control her Blood Power which happened long after Friar reached the Far East.
• Autobots, Rock Out!:
  • Wings of Tomorrow, Marduk's battle theme.
  • Blood Rage, which plays when your character enters the similarly-named Super Mode in Rage Burst.
• Award-Bait Song: Quite a few of them can be found in this game's soundtrack:
  • "Revolving Lantern", which plays during Romeo's Dying Moment of Awesome in the original story as well as the flashback to his time with Livie in the orphanage in Rage Burst. A song with vocals by Ingrid Gerdes about the emotions the aforementioned character feels as he dies, lamenting the fact that he'll be missing out on so much of life's experiences yet celebrating that he's sacrificing himself for the greater good.
  • "Faith", the Rage Burst credits theme, is about determination in the face of adversity.
  • "Tree of Life", which plays after completing Julius' character episodes, is about how far the characters have come, and has a Truck Driver's Gear Change in the final chorus.
• Awesome, but Impractical
  • Impulse Edge and its Blood Arts are usually Simple, yet Awesome. Not so much with IE Mk 0: Slash. By far the most damaging Impulse Edge Blood Art, but also the most impractical. It has poor range, cost lots of OP, cannot be steered, and has long activation, which also leaves you vulnerable. And, unlike Charge Crush which benefits from Charged Ability Speed, Mk 0: Slash has no such luck, since it doesn't count as charged ability. The only saving grace is that being interrupted doesn't cancel the Blood Art.
  • Boost Hammer's Tornado Carnage. It is the most damaging Boost Hammer's Blood Art. However, it takes very long to swing and charge to full power, and if you miss the final attack, you'll die. Considering that later Aragamis are consisted of Lightning Bruisers, it's really impractical even with setups like stun grenade or traps.
• Base on Wheels: The Friar base is a mobile Fenrir base which appears like a big structure moving through tracks.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Long Blade's Zero Stance. Compared to other weapons' special moves (Short Blade's Rising Edge, Buster Blade's Parrying Upper, Boost Hammer's Boost Action, Variant Scythe's Extend Bite), it doesn't feature any offensive maneuver. However, it recovers stamina, and allows you to chain your attacks without dropping your combo, or use the Simple, yet Awesome Impulse Edge.
  • Charge Spear's Backflip is also this, especially compared to the more offensive Rising Edge. Yet it serves as the better evasive maneuver due to having further flip range. It's also the most practical move to maintain the spear's transformed state, allowing you to keep attacking with increased damage.
  • Buster Blade's CC Breaker. It's the least flashy Charge Crush Blood Art, down to having similar color to the standard Charge Crush. However, not only that it deals extra damage to weak points, but also ignores enemies' defense, allowing you to tear apart many heavy armored Aragami with ease.
• Brought Down to Normal: In Rage Burst, Blood becomes this following their final battle counteracting the Devouring Apocalypse, which causes the Oracle Cells in the area to cease functioning and the "life recycling" of the Apocalypse to remake them as normal humans... Naturally since Aragami are still a threat, Blood voluntarily become God Eaters again.
• Canon Name: The manga gives the protagonist the name Hiro Kamui. The western release of Rage Burst, however, makes the canon protagonist female named Reika Kagura, who is the younger sister of western Resurrection's own Shinji.
• Compressed Adaptation: The manga adaptation of God Eater 2 omits some irrelevant story missions and Character Episodes for male characters (except Gilbert and Haruomi) in favor of Harem Genre antics and fanservice.
• Cutscene Power to the Max:
  • When Blood breaks into the Friar the second time. A bunch of Ogretails and Zygotes in the way? No problem, just kill them all with one hit each!
  • Right after defeating the final boss of the Rage Burst arc in the sequel, it opens up its chest and attempts to devour Julius by placing him inside. The protagonist breaks free of the toxic spikes impaling him/her, shattering them in the process, jams a hand in the boss's chest just as it closes, and rips it open with his/her bare hands. The resulting damage finally finishes off the dying boss for good.
• Darkest Hour:
  • In Rage Burst. The only things standing in the way of the approaching Aragami army and the Far East branch are about 18 or so God Eaters stationed there, two of whom were just put out of commission. The seemingly endless horde is being led by several powerful Aragami no one has ever seen before. You and your allies are also exhausted from having just completed multiple missions in a row, and your armlets are running dangerously low on bias factor. At that moment, Romeo's supposedly dormant God Arc (in the storage back at the Far East branch) unleashes a bright flash of light that forces all the enemies to retreat.
  • A little more subtle is the final cutscene of the Rage Burst arc. The final boss has destroyed the Singularity, kickstarting the Endless Destruction. While you and your team do manage to put a stop to it just in time, all everyone else outside the Tree could tell was that humanity had lost - they were all doomed. Right before the huge burst of golden light caused by your team blows the Tree open and purifies the surrounding area, you could tell from Sakaki and Feldman's faces that they were in utter despair.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Almost every Black Blood Arts are either Awesome, but Impractical or this. Several examples including:
  • Long Blade's Rising Dragon. It requires a total of three dashes before being executed, and the dashes are not invulnerable to interruption. However, it deals great damage. And if you're smart enough, you can even use the dashes to evade incoming Aragami attacks before counter-attacking.
  • Buster Blade's Final Vengeance. Compared to other Parrying Upper Blood Arts, it has very small activation window. But it also boasts the highest damage of all Parrying Upper, and will deal very high DPS against aggressive enemies if used right.
  • Buster Blade's CC Finisher. On surface, it looks like an Awesome, but Impractical material: long charge time, requires lots of stamina, and can only be activated during Burst level 3. However, later in the game, players will have abilities that will offset the difficult requirements, such as Charged Ability Speed and Link Devices that will grant Burst level 3 on certain time interval, including from the start of the mission. The remaining difficulty is maintaining said Burst level 3 and landing the actual hit, and you will have access to a Charge Crush that boasts one of the highest single-hit melee damage, deals extra damage on weak points, and even has super armor during the charge.
  • Boost Hammer's Deicide. It's the slowest of Boost Impact Blood Arts, and it drains your whole stamina once the hit lands, yet the damage is only second to the more impractical Tornado Carnage with less drawbacks.
  • Charge Spear's Crescendo. The damage dealt is based on player's speed upon impact, which is hard to time, especially against more agile Aragamis. Do it right, and the damage dealt is devastating.
  • Variant Scythe's Execution. It has very strict activation window, but the description doesn't lie.
    But get the timing right, and there's nothing your scythe won't cleave in two.
• Empathic Weapon: In the Far East branch's Darkest Hour, the deceased Romeo's God Arc responds to Blood's activation of their special abilities by doing the same - it forces the entire Aragami horde to retreat, a good thing considering that it also had the unfortunate side effect of causing all the God Arcs in the area to temporarily stop working since they're essentially domesticated Aragami.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: You get to send Emil flying a couple yards with a Megaton Punch at one point in his character episode. In gameplay, he turns out to have the Exaggerated ability, which makes every single attack send him flying. Quite a fitting ability for the resident Large Ham.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Implied by Rachel Claudius, who has a few lines that refer to a Restless God that she hints that not only was influencing her actions, but those of all Aragami.
• Heroic BSoD: Julius suffers one following Romeo's Heroic Sacrifice, which allows him to be easily manipulated by Dr. Rachel.
• Humongous-Headed Hammer: Alongside the BFGs they wield, God Eaters have a variety of options for oversized melee weapons, including very, very big hammers. This game reclassifies them as Boost Hammers, which combine the hammer with a jet engine to increase its power when swung. Boost Hammers tend to have a head about half as tall as your character and just as wide.
• Informed Ability: Einherjar, one of the Arc Aberrants, is said to have the power of Evoke similar to the player's. However, unlike other Arc Aberrants created from Blood members, Einherjar demonstrates no such thing, and is the only major Arc Aberrant who has no special abilities in battle^note Caligula Xeno has Gilbert's Inspire which increases its attack power every time it uses a move similar to Charge Glide. Rakshasa Kongou has Nana's Attract every time it performs a body slam. Mukuro Kyuubi has Ciel's Intuit, which allows it to target the weakest member in the party..
• Interface Spoiler: In the Updated Re-release, pictures of all the Aragami that appear in that mission are displayed at the top right when selecting missions. Which means that you'll know what Aragami will show up even if the debrief doesn't mention them, making kind of odd when the Mission Control remarks that an unexpected Aragami has shown up halfway through the mission. Some missions do try to avoid this by replacing the Aragami's image with an Unknown icon when you're doing it for the first time, but checking the mission reward list will still give its identity away if it drops anything at all.
  • Quite strangely, the alternate versions of party members don't get any form of treatment to prevent this in the Personal Abilities menu. As the DLC including these is included for free, you'll get spoiled on the full roster of Blood early.
• Male Gaze: Certain scenarios shows Fran's rear and thighs on side while focusing on another character, even in very serious situation.
• Mini-Mecha: The God Arc Soldiers can be this, by allowing a God Eater to essentially pilot them. However their main purpose is to act as remote controlled robots.
• Monochrome to Color: The opening video has the first part Deliberately Monochrome with Splash of Color for the characters' eyes and clothes, it shows short clips hinting about their backstories. It then switches to full color in an Avengers Assemble shot, and has them fighting as a team against some aragami. the transition implies "these people had their own problems, now they are bought together as one and must support each other".
• Old Save Bonus:
  • You can transfer your Japanese God Eater Burst save file to God Eater 2. However, Only Guns, Blades and Shields (Including DLC) can be transfered and will be limited to 12 equipment of your choice. Collaboration equipment such as Laevateinn gear, Soul Calibur, Soul Edge and Don Kat Shield cannot be transferred. In order to transfer, you must clear at least 1 of the following 12 transfer tiers. You only need to clear one of the items on the tier to clear the tier. The number of cleared tiers translates to the number of equipment you may carry over, and bonus items are given for clearing a number of tiers.
  • You can also transfer practically everything to God Eater 2 Rage Burst from God Eater 2, with the exception of the upgrade cores since that system got scrapped in favour of the old crafting/upgrading system. All cores get converted to fc instead.
• Playable Epilogue: The Rage Burst storyline which deals with Blood trying to investigate the mysterious Spiral Tree following Julius's Heroic Sacrifice and the consequences of Dr. Rachel's actions.
• Power Copying: In Rage Burst, Livie has this ability, allowing her to use another God Eater's God Arc, and even the Blood Power when she uses Julius's and Romeo's Arcs. However this causes her great pain, shown as tendrils of Oracle Cells spiking out of her skin.
• Regional Bonus: Rage Burst has western exclusive DLC costumes such as Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization and Tales of Zestiria. However, these are eventually released as update patch in Japan along with The Idolmaster costumes.
• Secret Art: The Blood Power as well as Blood Arts and Blood Bullets are originally exclusive for the members of Blood. However, the protagonist's own Blood Power enables non-Blood God Eaters to use Blood Arts and Bullets
• Ship Tease: In some God Eater 2 manga, we have a harem variant between Hiro and pretty much every female character.
• Simple, yet Awesome:
  • Long Blade's Impulse Edge is already one in the previous game, and even more so here with the addition of Blood Arts that can alter the power, range, and attribute.
  • Rising Edge also counts, as it improves upon Short Blade's already versatile combat and verticality. Just like Impulse Edge, it also has access to various Blood Arts.
  • Charge Spear's Charge Glide. Compared to other charge actions like Devour or Charge Crush, Charge Glide provides more mobility, as you can still move around while charging, and you can even use it mid-air. And guess what? It also has various Blood Arts to add more flavor into combat.
• Spoiler Opening: Rage Burst's opening features a noticeable lack of Romeo and Julius (the former gets KIA and the latter is stuck in the Tree by the end of the main arc), Kate talking to Gilbert from behind and Nana getting up from a meal with her mother and walking out the door (both scenes take place in Rachel's Lotus-Eater Machine). A quick blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment also depicts a young Livie and Romeo, spoiling the reveal that Livie's his childhood friend and an orphan at the Magnolia Compass. Apart from that first thing, none of them are immediately obvious though.
• Super Mode: Blood Rage, introduced in Rage Burst. It's activated by fulfilling pledges within a strict time limit, and is accompanied by a Theme Music Power-Up. It makes you invulnerable to all attacks, increases your melee damage, greatly reduces the OP cost of bullets, allows for unlimited chaining of steps/rolls for rapid movement, and gives an additional buff depending on your melee weapon class (Buster Blades have a faster charge time for Charge Crush, Long Blades have lower OP cost for Impulse Edge, Charge Spears pierce through defense...).
• Team Pet: The Far East Branch adopts a capybara in 2 which they eventually name Cappy.
• Theme Music Power-Up: In Rage Burst, the song Blood Rage plays whenever you enter said Blood Rage.

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