| Chiyo Chans 2 | |
 | |
| Developer(s) | DMA Design Azumanga Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Bandai Namco Games Psygnosis |
| Platform(s) | Bandai Extreme Bandai Revolution Bandai CD Bandai PocketTurbo |
| Genre | Action/Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | 1 Player |
| Ratings | K-A for Kids to Adults |
Chiyo Chans 2 is a sequel to Chiyo Chans based on the character Chiyo Chan from Azumanga Daioh, developed by DMA Design and Azumanga Interactive, published by Bandai Namco Games and co-published by Psygnosis for the Bandai Extreme, Bandai Revolution, Bandai CD, and Bandai PocketTurbo.
The game is similar to the action/puzzle game Lemmings 2: The Tribes.
Overview[]
Numerous changes and additions were made in this sequel. First of all, there is an introduction movie explaining the storyline of the game. Secondly, there are now many, many more skills available to give to the Chiyo Chans, unlike the eight in the original game. There is still a total of 120 levels, but in this game they are divided into ten levels for each of twelve tribes.
Storyline[]
Once upon a time, the twelve Chiyo Chan tribes of Chiyo Chan Island lived joyfully and peacefully. However, an ancient prophecy foretells a great darkness soon to cover the island. This prophecy told that the only way the Chiyo Chans could live was by getting off their island, using the power of the Chiyo Chan Talisman. This talisman consisted of twelve pieces, one owned by each tribe. With the help of the Guide that has helped them before (referring to the player in the previous Chiyo Chans game), all Chiyo Chans must now reach the center point of their island in order to escape their doom.
Gameplay[]
The gameplay in Chiyo Chans 2 differs from the original in the following ways:
As mentioned before, there are many more (51 in total) skills available in the game, although no more than eight are available in each level. Some of the skills are similar to the original ones (like digging and building variants), others are all new (several flying skills, for example). One skill, the "attractor", will cause the Chiyo Chan to play a musical instrument and have nearby Chiyo Chans stop walking to do a dance. The instrument and dances they do vary by tribe.
A practice mode has also been added. In this mode, any type of skill available can be selected for the player to experiment with. There is a choice of four different practice levels.
Each tribe's levels can be started at any time, and progress can be saved from the main menu. The player starts out with 60 Chiyo Chans for each tribe, but only one Chiyo Chan needs to make it to an exit in order to progress to next level. The amount saved will then be the amount left in the next level. As some levels may require several Chiyo Chans to complete, the player might have to replay an earlier level to save more Chiyo Chans for the following ones if they realize they do not have enough.
The player will be rewarded with a bronze, silver or gold medal, depending on how many Chiyo Chans are saved in the level. This will also dictate the type of the talisman part received once all the tribe's levels are completed. To watch the outro and credits, all golden talisman parts need to be won, as well as rescuing at least 20 Chiyo Chans from each tribe.
A new fast forward button and fan button have been added to the controls. The fast forward replaces the release rate button in the original game, which would let the player release more Chiyo Chans at a time. The fan button turns the cursor into a fan, which is used to push around any flying Chiyo Chans or to affect wind-powered elements.
Smaller additions include:
- When falling from moderate heights, instead of just dying, Chiyo Chans will now stun themselves upon landing, taking a second to get back up to continue walking. (Chiyo Chans will still die instantly from higher falls.)
- Trampolines will let Chiyo Chans jump and bounce about.
- Cannons and catapults in levels will launch a Chiyo Chan away.
- Chiyo Chans can grab on wind-powered swing ropes to allow them to travel across gaps.
- Levels can span vertically as well as horizontally (mostly because of the flying skills).
- Chiyo Chans with permanent skills have their colours switched for easier identification.
- Chiyo Chans caught in explosions will be temporarily stunned.
Skills[]
The various skills that the Chiyo Chans are given can be broken into three different classes, referred to here as permanent, continuous, and temporary skills.
The permanent skills are irreversible enhancements to the behaviour of a Chiyo Chan, staying with the Chiyo Chan until the end of the level. When a Chiyo Chan is given a permanent skill, their hair and shirt colours are swapped to make them easier to identify. An example of a permanent skill is the runner, which makes the selected Chiyo Chan run for the rest of the level, and jump over small gaps.
Continuous skills are those that a Chiyo Chan will continue doing until it is ordered to do something else, encounters an obstacle, or reaches the end of the appropriate terrain. An example of a continuous skill is the fencer, which gives the selected Chiyo Chan a small sword, and enables it to dig a tunnel on a slight upward slant until there is no more dirt, or until the sword hits something more solid than dirt.
Temporary skills are carried out until given another order, just like continuous skills, but also have an upper limit on how long the Chiyo Chan will keep doing the skill. This may be due to a Chiyo Chan running out of materials, or simply because there is a time limit on how long the skill can be used for. An example of a temporary skill is the laser blaster, which allows a Chiyo Chan to make a vertical tunnel slowly blasting upwards. The laser beam has a long but limited range, and is only activated for a limited time.
An alternative (and overlapping) grouping of skills can be made in terms of what they do to the surrounding environment. There are building skills, which add bits that other Chiyo Chans can walk over (e.g. planter, filler), removal skills, which remove pieces of ground (e.g. bazooka, twister), movement skills, which alter the way a Chiyo Chan moves through its environment (e.g. roller, diver), shooting skills, which cause a Chiyo Chan to fire a projectile (e.g. archer, bazooka), and wind skills, which cause the Chiyo Chan to be influenced by the fan in some way (e.g. Icarus wings, twister).
Tribes[]
There are a total of 12 tribes in the game: Classic, Circus, Cavelem, Shadow, Space, Outdoor, Beach, Sports, Egyptian, Highland, Polar and Medieval. While the twelve different tribes of Chiyo Chans will generally have a set of skills that are more commonly associated with that tribe, there can be overlap between the available skill sets of each tribe. Each tribe will typically have its own style of traps (for example, space Chiyo Chans can be killed by an open airlock, while outdoor Chiyo Chans must avoid being eaten by a frog), and levels are designed in a way that complements the tribe. Apart from that, each tribe has its own skin and clothing colors, its own entrance, its own entry and exit method, its own music, and, except for Classic, its own style of dancing (for the attractor skill).
Functional differences[]
There are no functional differences between the tribes, save for the "classic" tribe which has had many of the new gameplay features turned off in order to play similarly to the original game. In this tribe, the exploder follows the "classic" explosion type of previous Chiyo Chans games, with the Chiyo Chan stopping at the end of the countdown for a couple of seconds before exploding into a shower of debris. While the Chiyo Chan is stopped, other Chiyo Chans can pass behind it (even if the Chiyo Chan was a blocker prior to being an exploder). Skill sets for this tribe are restricted to the skills from the previous Chiyo Chans games (climber, floater, exploder, blocker, builder, basher, miner, and digger), making gameplay for this tribe fairly similar to that in Chiyo Chans.
Cosmetic differences[]
Most tribes have green hair, white skin, and blue clothes (just like in the original Chiyo Chans games). Exceptions to this include the beach tribe (tan skin, as they get the most sun), the polar tribe (light blue hair, a reflection of the cold environment they live in), the highlands tribe (orange hair, a stereotype associated with the Scottish Highlands), and the shadow tribe (black hair and tan skin).
The music and dance style of the tribes also reflect the nature of the tribes. The background music from the sports tribe has a very vibrant, bouncy beat, and the entertainer from the medieval tribe plays a few notes on a lute.
Methods of entry and exit also differ between tribes. The entrances are usually in the form of trapdoors with two flaps that drop down, but can differ a bit from this — there is an upturned barrel used by the highland Chiyo Chans, and a dragon's head that is used by the medieval tribe. Chiyo Chans from the circus tribe carry out a bouncing turn before heading off into the next level, while Chiyo Chans from the space tribe float away behind a planet.
Box Art[]
