Developer WayForward has now released a tweet explaining that River City Girls has been delayed until a yet-to-be-confirmed date, though only confirmed for North America. River City Girls 2 publisher WayForward has announced that the North American release of River City Girls 2 has been delayed past Summer 2022. WayForward has provided an update for River City Girls 2 River City Girls 2, announcing the game is now going to arrive in North America at some point later than the original expected end of summer 2022. During a presentation for Limited Run Games earlier today, WayForward came out to the stage and announced the sequel to its 2019 Kunio-kun spin-off game, River City Girls.
On Thursday, June 23, 2022, Nekketsu Kuniokun Gaiden – River CityGirls for the PS5 is set to release. Arc System Works (which we abbreviate as ArcSys from here on out; they are the publisher) and WayForward (the developer) are going to develop a version for PlayStation 5, and it is going to have a physical version too, courtesy of Limited Run Games.
Finally, WayForward (the devs) announced River City Girls 2, which was announced to pretty much everyone (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch) with a release window in 2022, and, yes, Limited Run Games is going to make the physical version. The game was supposed to release in Summer 2022 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, but that is not going to happen. It was the WayForward official Twitter account that made the announcement; Unfortunately, WayForward did not comment how much of the delay it will be, so as of right now, we have no idea about the approximate release date. Also, Tokyo Game Show 2022 is going to take place in September 2022, so we could be expecting an important announcement there.
Alongside the announcement, a few scenes were released that showed Misako, Kyouko, Kunio, Riki, and other characters running wild. The punchlines are toned down for a secret finale, where Kunio and Riki bring Misako and Kyoko out to get hamburgers. Though it is considerably downplayed in the secret ending, where Kunio and Riki take the girls out for food, although it is never explicitly confirmed whether Misako and Kyoko were actually dating before. It is also never really revealed who sent Riki and Kunio photos of themselves to Misako and Kyoko first.
Misako, Kyoko, Kunio, and Riki all appear to have the same sense of controlling that they had in previous titles, but I am wondering about the nature of marian and prouvi characters, and the sense of controlling that is present with attractive characters. If the fight is with Sabus in the ending, Riki and Kunio reject Misako and Kyoko as former girlfriends, leading them to punch a guy in the sky in frustration. In that match, the girls were almost killed with a shot, while here, they get away with falling from the top skyscraper without any problems. As it turns out, Kunio and Riki were not abducted at all, and Misako and Kyoko are just girls-boyfriends-in-their-own-heads to get a regular ending, meaning that they did nothing remotely heroic, and blew River City High down for naught.
River City Girls is the story of wayward besties Misako and Kyoko, who, while asleep in solitary confinement, get a text message that reports that their respective boyfriends, Kunio and Riki (heroes from several River City games), are missing. Misakos girlfriends, Kunio, are missing. If you are unfamiliar with the River City Girls franchise, the first game features players taking the roles of either Misako or Kunio Kunio, exploring River City while trying to locate their missing friends. Kunio-tachi no Banka is the first game of the original Kunio-kun franchise, where protagonists Kyoko and Misako are playable for the very first time, along with their protagonists boyfriends Kunio and Riki.
Picking up where its predecessor, River City Girls 2, left off, River City Girls 2 casts its six playable characters into the struggle of their lives as an old enemy returns to cause chaos. The melee takes players through a number of new and revamped areas in River City – including a slum in downtown, a technology company campus, and a magical forest – and puts them up against a variety of new enemies and bosses, like the dragon twins (Ryuji and Ryuichi). The battles have been tightened to incorporate guard-crushing, peel-off combos, dual-team attacks, and more, while River City itself has been expanded to make it bigger than ever, with more routes and secrets waiting to be discovered.
The good news is WayForward shared a artwork of the game, and it looks fantastic. While the graphics, music, and gameplay are still faithful to the Super Famicoms classic 16-bit releases, River City Girls Zero marks the first time that 1994s title has been localized to the West. Hasebe and Mami, who were generally kind girls in the Kunio-kun series, behave in the sequel more crudely and with a sense of arrogance toward Kyoko and Misako. Unlike in River City Underground, though, pedestrians, which make up the Regulars, are unassailable, though they do respond to attacks performed by players and enemies, which they will flinch at or duck under (except one schoolgirl with pink hair, who instead will swerve away from hits).
