Mugen Souls Z Review – Redefine Wacky

I reviewed Mugen Souls on the Nintendo Switch due to East Asia Soft getting the license to be able to publish it uncensored on the Nintendo Switch. In the review, I was curious if they were able to get Mugen Souls Z. Turns out they were able to when they announced it back in June of this year. Were some of my nitpicks from the last game still present in this game or is there going to just be more of the same in this sequel? Time to find out!

Game Name: Mugen Souls Z
Platform(s): PS3, Nintendo Switch (Reviewed)
Publisher(s): East Asia Soft
Developer(s): Compile Heart, Idea Factory
Release Date: September 14th, 2023
Price: $39.99

Mugen Souls Z starts immediately after the end of Mugen Souls with Chou Chou becoming the undisputed god of the universe after taking over the seven main planets. Chou Chou ends up in a new universe with her peons, and it turns out this one has twelve worlds all still free from the control of Chou Chou. She can’t have that so she wants to do her part in taking over the first world she lands on but unfortunately for her, she found the ultimate goddess, Syrma. After Chou Chou does beat Syrma and is about to steal a coffin that Syrma has, she gets stuck inside the coffin and loses all her godly powers. A powerless and tiny Chou Chou now has to help Syrma with her goal of becoming the “ultimate” goddess.

To become the “ultimate” ultimate goddess, she has to drain the power of all the other ultimate goddesses that are stationed on the twelve worlds in this new universe. Since she drained Chou Chou’s power, Syrma has access to her abilities as well. Time for more peon power!

Playing With Peons 

All the mechanics from Mugen Souls are present here in Mugen Souls Z. One big difference is as opposed to the first game, you don’t get access to all of them right from the get-go. You have to do a few missions and areas before you unlock each one. A much welcomed change and it made the pacing of the game feel so much better. Though you could argue that I might just be more familiar with the mechanics so that it didn’t feel as jarring to me, it still felt better-paced and easier to manage. You will get a story fight, maybe a bit of exploration, and then Chou Chou will explain one of her abilities to Syrma. Using the ability to charm enemies also gives you a bar before you accomplish the task that gives you a percentage of likeliness that the specific peon charm will work on turning the enemy into a peon. When you unlock the ability to turn Syrma into a different form based on mood, you will also be able to turn the planets you are on into peons. A big change is that when charming a planet, the initial statement of what the planet is looking for is streamlined. It makes it a lot easier to piece together when the same statements use the same mood from Syrma.

Combat is the same in Mugen Souls Z as it was in the first game. You start in an overworld that represents the planet you are on, and you can attack enemies you see on the map. If you attack an enemy, you begin the fight having an advantage. If an enemy engages you from behind, the enemy has an advantage. You can do a move in the arena on your turn, attack, use a skill, or defend for an action. The battle order is at the top, so you know what enemy to focus on and who goes next in your party. Link attacks return as well, which lets you do a move with everyone up next in the turn order. If you start the round with all four of your party members in a row, that means you can do the link attack with all four characters.

Peon creation also returns. You can create a variety of classes of characters to make your peon and choose a variation of colors and weapon styles. You unlock more classes by doing Mugen Field. Mugen Field is side-content that lets you level up quickly by doing difficult fights and bosses all in a gauntlet. After ten encounters with enemies, you get placed in a lobby that lets you get additional features for your characters, such as new classes and new skills. They all cost Mugen Points to unlock, which can be obtained by fighting or doing more floors of Mugen Field. Mugen Field makes story mode feel like a breeze, though. I did the first ten floors of Mugen Field and got a ton of experience points from the boss that skyrocketed my level to around the 50s. That immediately made the balance feel the opposite of the first game. I felt like I had to grind on the story enemies to get over boss encounters in Mugen Souls, whereas in Mugen Souls Z, just half an hour in the Mugen Field, and now every enemy dies in one hit. The story became a breeze, but it made me more interested to continue in the Mugen Field after I reached certain points in the story.

Becoming An Ultimate Goddess

The art of Mugen Souls Z is a delight. It is a very stylistic anime chibi approach to characters and the style fits well. The art style aged like a fine wine with it not trying to be a more serious 3D model of earlier PS3 games. The stylistic approach has created a much-needed balance for the characters as well. Chou Chou becoming tiny only added to the greatness of the art. Having a cute mascot be the main character of the first game was a great design choice. Plus, mini Chou Chou can still become different forms which was amazing to see all miniature. There are still some areas that can make the Switch suffer frame dips but they weren’t nearly as prevalent. Having smaller areas to explore segmented in teleporters or on the map overall makes it much easier on the Nintendo Switch. Only a few areas seemed to make the areas dip, the hub area also ran fine.

There are scenes in Mugen Souls Z though, that need discretion. This is an uncensored game, and though it isn’t full-on nudity, it definitely gets close to the bar in a variety of artwork and CG scenes. Make sure you are prepared, especially when using hot springs mini-games. G Castle fights in this game seem like Gundam fights which is amazing! The G Castle turns into a giant Gundam, and it looks fantastic. It is a small part of the game but when it does rear its head, it is nice to see the battle animations from the enemies as well as your own G Castle.

Streamlining Mugen Souls

If I were to describe my experience with Mugen Souls Z compared to the original game, it would be streamlined. Mechanics feel better, they don’t seem nearly as nonsensical and forgettable, and having dedicated moments throughout the story to teach you these mechanics helped me understand this game so much more. Since it is a sequel, it is difficult to recommend this game for the story, unless you already liked the story and characters from the first Mugen Souls. It is more of the same in that regard but overall the game itself is just so much more fun to play and experiment with. I highly recommend if you want a Disgaea feeling to kick in a more traditional feeling combat game, then this is the one to try out! There is a lot of customization to your play style and characters that you can make for several parties.

Overall I enjoyed my time with Mugen Souls Z, and I am so excited I was able to power through the first game to get to experiment with this one which was so much better to play. I have a feeling I am going to return to play this game more and more just to see how much more of Mugen Field I can do to level up!

Mugen Souls Z releases on Nintendo Switch on September 14th, 2023. It is also available on PC.

 

Review Disclosure Statement: Mugen Souls Z was provided to us by East Asia Soft for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

Affiliate Link Disclosure: One or more of the links above contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, we may receive a commission should you click through and purchase the item.