Slayers Royal 2

Slayers Royal 2 (スレイヤーズろいやる2) is a tactical role-playing game developed by Onion Egg and published by Entertainment Software Publishing and Kadokawa Shoten in 1998 for the Sega Saturn and in 1999 for the PlayStation, exclusively in Japan. It is a follow-up to 1997's Slayers Royal but is a standalone story in the Slayers franchise and not a direct sequel. The game sold well, but its reviews were mostly only moderately positive.

Gameplay
Slayers Royal 2 retains its predecessor's overall gameplay of a tactical role-playing game with exploration phases, but with some differences. Notable changes in comparison with the original Slayers Royal include a simplification of the town-navigation system (which no longer resembles adventure games), the introduction of day/night cycle, and the presence of freely explorable dungeons throughout the game. The combat system has undergone a radical overhaul since the previous game. Instead of the pseudo-real-time turn system, it is now purely turn-based. Its other novelties include a new magic system that demands an uninterrupted invocation before being cast, taking a time proportional to the spell's power, and a necessity to keep the player's party well-fed for them to perform best in battle.

Plot
The plot of the game is mostly unrelated to Slayers Royal, with the exception of the appearance of the elf boy Lark. It also contains some elements from the film Slayers Gorgeous.

Reception
Slayers Royal 2 was commercially successful, having remained on Japan's Sega Saturn top ten list five weeks after its release. However, the game received slightly-above-average review ratings, including 25/40 from Famitsu and 18/30 from Japan's Sega Saturn Magazine. In the West, French magazine Joypad scored the Saturn version a 7/10, while Spanish magazine Superjuegos opined that although Slayers Royal 2 "is not Vandal Hearts" it should please the fans of the series and noted the game's "spectacular" animation. The website RPGFan gave the Saturn version a score of 78%, praising its graphics and recommending it for the fans of the anime version.