Fault Milestone two: above picks up right where the last game ended and introduces us to new areas other than the original’s Outer Pole. If you haven’t played the first game you will very likely be lost straight away and even if this game features an encyclopedia detailing the world it’s set in, I would still highly suggest you play the original first, mediocre as it may be. Going into this second entry of the series I honestly had my expectations set rather low since it’s no secret I wasn’t a fan of the original due to the massive amount of time you spend in flashbacks and being force fed the lore. Luckily now that the characters are introduced and the unique world that houses both science and magic has been explained we now have a much better flowing & coherent story. While in the original it felt like you had done very little other than get new clothes and friends, in this sequel you will go through a surprising amount of situations in this very beautiful aquatic city.
Once again it is more than meets the eye as it may appear like a simple light hearted adventure with three very young looking anime characters it actually touches upon social inequality, corruptions and other subjects you would not expect by just glancing at the game. This sequel does a very good job at hooking you in immediately and features a rather neat trick in the beginning that inadvertently caused me to face-palm when I thought the game crashed. The main villain that looks like someone just got out of a Halloween themed party, shows off her power and the threat she poses is made clear to us so she no longer seems like a joke of a character. Not much else will be shown about the villains as this sequel takes place very far away from Princess Selphine’s now conquered castle. The story mostly focuses on Selphine, Rune and Ritona as they gather supplies for their journey back to the castle but things end up going really wrong for them.
They become pretty much stranded in this new land and Selphine really shines. She was your typical happy go lucky cliché type of character but under this new found stress she beats up old people, holds cops hostage and does not take no for an answer. It is no doubt funny seeing such a little girl doing all these things though she will surely hold your attention whenever she is on screen and always has a reason for her rather extreme actions. Back in our protagonist’s homeland we will also briefly play as three new characters on a journey to search for the princess. Not much time will be spent with these fellows but from what little we did they seem like decent characters and I am interested in where their journey leads them. This time around there are no choices to be made and you will just be right clicking for the duration of the time. The original had a single “decision” which was completely meaningless so this feature won’t be missed though it is something you should be aware of.
Unfortunately one thing that did carry over from the original game is the glitch in where the text cuts off at the bottom if there are multiple lines in the speech box. It’s annoying as ever and pretty disappointing that it has not been fixed in their new game. Aside from the main story you will have an audio box to listen to the sound track and a gallery to see the artwork used in this game from the main menu. The artwork for this game is simply amazing and features far more awe inspiring locations. Everything is much improved over its predecessor and it is very much worth its asking price. Which is where the problem comes in, you pretty much need to play the original to understand this sequel and fault milestone one was indeed interesting but very lacking as well as the same price as this. Fans of the original or even those that weren’t too keen on it should definitely give this a shot since it does feature a demo while those new to the series should wait for a sale on the original instead of diving straight into this. Fault milestone two: above is an extremely interesting entry to the series and if the quality of the future entries retain this potential then it’s well on its way to becoming one of the best Visual Novels ever made.
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