Developer: Azurezero
Genre: Stealth, Mini-games, JRPG
Reviewed version: Final
Censored: No, except for the DLSite version
Patch Needed: No
OS: Windows
Language: English
I've been looking forward to playing Phantom Thief Sylphy 2 because of how much I enjoyed playing it and how much it left me wanting more of it, and it didn't disappoint me one bit.
Pros
Pretty visuals
Good variety of minigames that keep things fresh
A decent plot with two different endings
Cons
The rhythm minigame doesn't work properly
It's quite resource-intensive for an RPG Maker game
Story
The plot is good and follows the same formula used in the prequel. It puts players in the shoes of Sylphy as she's sucked into an alternate dimension during one of her heists by a demon named The Collector, and she has to go through four trials to escape while trying not to get corrupted. It doesn't get much development past the premise, but it works better that way since, in a way, it allows players to go through the trials in whatever order they prefer without affecting the story. Moreover, it's a nice touch that you can get two different endings based on how corrupted Sylphy is by the time you clear the challenges.
Gameplay
One of the things I liked the most about the game was the variety of game mechanics and how entertaining each segment was. The first one, The Temple of Lust, is similar to the first time in that you have to sneak around and solve puzzles to reach the goal. Moreover, you play a minigame whenever a cultist grabs you, in which you have to press X at the right time to make them cum before you do. The second one, The Office, tweaks things a bit and removes the stealth element of the first part, replacing the grabby cultists with carefully placed handsy salarymen while adding a minigame similar to The Dinosaur Game and a puzzle boss fight at the end.
The third one, The Pussycat Club, is vastly different from the others since the goal is to gain access to different areas of the club by using money to increase your rank. And how do you get money? By shaking your money maker at the beat of the music in a rhythm mini-game, playing another mini-game in which you have to apply the right amount of pressure to a customer when squeezing their head with your thighs, or by making enemies cum before they defeat you in turn-based fights.
Talking about turn-based combat, the fourth and last one is a dungeon crawler JRPG in which you explore a cave searching for the orc leader that lives there to show him who's boss. Movement is automatic, and all you do is choose to go left, right, or straight whenever you're at an intersection, encountering regular mob or elite mobs to fight, a shop to buy potions and permanent buffs, and a bonfire to rest and heal. It's one of the easiest parts of the game if you know what you're doing since Sylphy gets very powerful fast.
All these parts have something in common, and that's you have to avoid cumming as much as possible since your corruption increases every time you cum. Moreover, cumming five times, failing a specific puzzle, or being defeated by a special enemy lead to a bad ending, and you have to start the segment again.
Bugs & Performance
It surprised me that the game is more resource-intensive than the usual RPG Maker game. I first played it on my 10-year-old laptop that can run VNs and RPG Maker games just fine, and there was some stuttering and issues regarding the timing in the grapple mini-game in the Temple of Lust. I tried it on my PC later on, which has an I7-9700 and an RTX 2080, and while the game ran fine, the GPU load was a lot higher than in the typical RPG Maker game. I also had problems with the dancing mini-game since it sometimes ignored which key I pressed, and I had to press it twice or thrice to make it count.
Visuals
The art improved quite a bit compared to the previous game since the CGs and Sylphy's standing sprite are gorgeous, and the animations are very fluid. I especially loved the one in the dancing mini-game because it has the right amount of cuteness and sexiness, and you can't help but follow her hip movements with your eyes.
Verdict: Fun
Playing Phantom Thief Sylphy 2 was an enjoyable experience because of its gameplay, variety of game mechanics, and eye-catching visuals. You may want to wait for a sale before purchasing it because of its issues, but don't hesitate to go ahead and give it a shot regardless of its price if you liked the first game or are a fan of the genre and the art style appeals to you.