Overall, I enjoyed playing through Hiveswap Act 2: the art style was pleasing, the soundtrack was great and had several gems, the writing was on point and the story, while admittedly a bit on the boring side, was still something I enjoyed following. There are a LOT of different item and character interactions, a good amount of which brought a smile to my face as I was exploring the hellhole full of violence, death and segregation that is Alternia.

But the game has its flaws. It is too buggy for a game we've waited three years for, and I already had the same qualm for the previous game in the series. For example, I've had a handful of objects making me walk around the area for a good five seconds for no apparent reason upon inspecting them (the only one I can remember right now is the barnacle in the cave). In addition, it felt like the overall quality of the game's animated sequences had decreased quite a bit compared to Act 1's, which was especially noticeable during certain cutscenes.

What I found most annoying about this game though is how much backtracking the game makes you do towards the latter half of the story: while the things you did in-between the endless area switching you had to do were fine (pretty entertaining at times, too), the endless walking, door-opening, walking, door-opening, walking, escalator-using cycle made the story feel like it dragged on and on. That is a real shame, because I think I would have enjoyed this part of the story a lot more if it were not for the absurd amount of backtracking.

However, Act 2's saving grace is definitely the characters and their interactions with Joey and Xefros. Characters like Marvus, Tyzias and Elwurd made me feel like this whole ordeal was worth it - I have no doubt I wouldn't have bothered to finish the game if it didn't have such fun and interesting characters. I'd say this all culminated during the Phoenix Wright legislaceration segment, which I thought was great fun and helped the characters shine. There are a few bad eggs here and there (Zebruh), but all in all, I really enjoyed getting to spend more time with the characters I got to meet in the Friendsim series.

Was this game worth the three years of waiting? No! The game felt way too short and buggy for it to be the case; if it had come out in Spring 2018, its initial release date, I wouldn't feel nearly as conflicted about it as I do now. Do I think this is still a good game? Well it sure has its flaws, but its upsides outweigh them just enough for me to be able to say Act 2 is at least a nice experience, at least in my opinion. I will absolutely lose my ♥♥♥♥ if Act 3 takes another 5 years to get released, though.