Zone of the Enders the Second Runner Cover Art

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (Japanese championship Anubis: Zone of the Enders ) The sequel to Zone of the Enders, the game was produced past, and is closely associated with, Hideo Kojima. The game is based around mecha combat. Most mecha were designed past Yoji Shinkawa, the character and mechanical designer for the Metal Gear serial, with the exception of Lloyd and Inhert, who were designed by Kazuma Kaneko of Shin Megami Tensei fame. The sequel picks upwardly where the last game left off. The controls and graphics are improved to enhance the gameplay. Although instead of going city to city like the offset installment, the sequel is divided into sections, one after each dominate.

A variety of weapons, enemies, and boss battles have been added to the game. The "Special Edition" PAL and NTSC-J versions of the game featured a diverseness of additions and extras to the game, including new VR Preparation options, added scenarios, more than difficulties, a music video featuring a remixed "Beyond the Bounds" theme, improved anti-aliasing and graphical optimizations, and new Orbital Frames for Versus Mode, among other improvements to the game.

While the previous installment of the series covered themes such equally the loss of innocence and the morality of killing, this game featured themes such every bit camaraderie, duty, vengeance, and mortality.

In a contempo GameSpot interview with Kojima, he was asked virtually a third installment of the game. His response was: "I've been getting questions most that, and I've pretty much counted each one as a demand...I'll be sure to count that one too." An even more contempo interview describes Hideo Kojima every bit saying: "I want to make it, but I'grand so busy with Metal Gear Solid iv: Guns of the Patriots that I have to focus on that correct now." While no confirmations of a third game were made, the possibility of i has been brought to attending many times. Kojima has even stated that he "has an thought for the next Zone of the Enders game", which should please fans fearing that poor sales had put an terminate to the series. As of late 2015 Hideo Kojima has ended his employment at Konami, leaving the status of potential future games in the series unknown.

At Tokyo Game Show 2017, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner 1000∀RS ^[a] was announced, featuring enhanced graphics, 4K resolution support, VR headset support, new sound design and "adjacent-gen surround sound". Information technology released on September fourth, 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows.

Plot [ ]

The game begins with Dingo Egret, the protagonist, working at a mining facility on Callisto. His digger soon detects a foreign object hugger-mugger. When he digs it upwardly, he discovers that it is an Orbital Frame called Jehuty. Most this time, the facility is attacked by BAHRAM forces. Dingo climbs into Jehuty and engages the attackers. During the boxing, Dingo enters the BAHRAM battleship and continues the fight. He is finally subdued by a superior Orbital Frame known as Anubis, controlled by Col. Ridley (Nohman) Hardiman, leader of BAHRAM.

As a prisoner, Dingo is assaulted by Ken Marinaris, a female person Orbital Frame runner that Dingo defeated in the previous battle. Nohman arrives moments later on and asks Dingo to join him. When Dingo refuses, Nohman shoots him. Nohman orders Ken to dispose of the body.

Instead, Ken has Dingo revived and placed inside Jehuty. When he comes to, she explains that Jehuty is acting as a life-back up system, and if he leaves Jehuty, he will die. She and so tells him that she is a spy for the UNSF. Dingo escapes with a UNSF prisoner and heads for Mars.

On Mars, Dingo is attacked by several BAHRAM Orbital Frames, but he is saved by the white Orbital Frame, Vic Viper, who promptly attacks him later. The battle goes to a stalemate, at which time the pilot of the Vic Viper is revealed to exist Leo Stenbuck, the protagonist of the previous game. He orders Dingo to go out of Jehuty, just when Leo learns the situation, he decides to let Dingo stay in Jehuty. After several battles on Mars, Dingo is attacked by Nephtis, an Orbital Frame controlled past an A.I. program based on Viola'due south fighting style (some other character from the first game). After defeating the A.I., Ken arrives in her Orbital Frame Ardjet; the A.I. then possesses Ardjet, forcing Dingo to disable the Orbital Frame to purge the calculator virus. Ken climbs into Jehuty and, together, they seek out Lloyd, a friend of Dingo's who tin upgrade Jehuty, assuasive it to stand a chance against Anubis.

Later on defeating Lloyd in gainsay, he agrees to upgrade Jehuty. While Jehuty is being upgraded, Lloyd tells Dingo near "Project Aumaan", a giant battle station capable of destroying everything around it, with a possible range of the known universe. Just as Jehuty is fully upgraded, Nohman flies in and attacks Dingo. Dingo is able to escape, simply Ken is left backside, and Lloyd is killed.

Dingo meets up with Leo again, and they travel to where Aumaan is kept. Once there, Dingo and Leo do battle with Nohman (or so they think). In the middle of the battle, Leo is attacked by the real Nohman, and Dingo realizes that Ken is in the Orbital Frame that they were initially fighting. Nohman flees the facility and attempts to destroy information technology. Ken tells Dingo and Leo that Aumaan is really on Phobos, the largest moon of Mars. The three manage to escape, and Dingo and Leo travel to Phobos.

On Phobos, Dingo does battle with Nohman over again, this time destroying Anubis. Before his death, however, Nohman activates Aumaan. While Leo tries to wearisome Aumaan'due south detonation at the core, Dingo throws a piece of Nohman's Orbital Frame at the core, causing Aumaan to explode. Dingo and Leo manage to escape Phobos before the moon explodes.

Characters [ ]

Dingo Egret: Dingo is an ice miner on Jupiter's satellite Callisto. A former member of BAHRAM, Dingo disappeared after his unit was wiped out in a UNSF ambush. He passes his days as an water ice miner around Jupiter's moons, until he finds the hidden Orbital Frame Jehuty.; Merely every bit he finds the Frame, BAHRAM does too, and attacks the mining functioning to retrieve it. Dingo activates Jehuty and takes it into battle, wiping out the BAHRAM drones and driving off Ardjet. He infiltrates the BAHRAM battleship, but is defeated by Anubis and Nephtis. Outside of their orbital frames, Nohman tries to go him to bring together him once more, simply Dingo refuses and Nohman shoots him. The gun shot wounds destroy his heart and lungs.

Dingo wakes upwards two months subsequently in the cockpit of Jehuty, hard-wired into its life-support system. Ken Marinaris, claiming to be a UNSF spy, asks him to assist the UNSF stop BAHRAM.

Nohman: Colonel of BAHRAM. His real proper noun is Ridley Hardiman. He pursues the project of completing "Aumaan" -- the invincible military fortress to secure the victory of BAHRAM. He is the frame runner who pilots "Anubis". He is the main antagonist in the game.

In truth, Nohman has no desire to liberate or conquer Mars. His ultimate plan is to destroy humanity, and the entire solar arrangement with it. Aumaan is merely the weapon to exercise that.

Ken Marinaris: Ken Marinaris is an Orbital Frame runner who claims to be a spy for the UNSF. She pilots the Orbital Frame Ardjet, and is the offset to battle against Dingo and Jehuty on Callisto. When Dingo is seriously wounded past Nohman, Ken revives him and hides his trunk. As the BAHRAM armada returns to Mars, she has him wired into Jehuty's systems, and convinces him to help her fight confronting BAHRAM. In actuality, Ken is no spy, she is in fact a normal BAHRAM runner, but found herself disagreeing with Nohman'south motives and methods.

Leo Stenbuck: The main graphic symbol of the previous game. Leo Stenbuck was a boy living on Antilia, a space colony orbiting Jupiter's moon Europa, when an set on on the colony past BAHRAM leaves most of his friends dead and himself accidentally in the cockpit of the Orbital Frame Jehuty. Leo found himself having to fight his manner across the colony to the safety of the waiting UNSF ship "Atlantis", doing a lot of growing up on the fashion every bit well as forming a unique bond with Jehuty'due south onboard figurer A.D.A.

Ii years afterwards, Leo is still fighting for the UNSF, this time in the cockpit of the prototype LEV Vic Viper. Fighting a yr long skirmish against Bahram with the crew of the Atlantis, Leo has endured much but come out an immensely strong hearted young man, his will matched just by his incredible prodigy level piloting skill which has farther been honed. Upon realizing the UNSF intends with finality to transport the Jehuty to Mars in order to self-destruct with the armed forces fortress Aumaan (XY.. as stated at the cliff hanger of the previous game), Leo alters the form of the Urenbeck Catapult (a course of near light speed travel in the Zone of the Enders universe.) to send Jehuty to the ice covered Jupiter moon of Callisto, intending to hide it among the Metatron mines nowadays on the moon. He and then intended to use the rather powerful Vic Viper to fight confronting BAHRAM and Aumaan itself. He is surprised and angered to find Dingo with Jehuty on Mars, and quickly attacks him in an endeavour to retrieve his old Frame believing Dingo to be an agent of BAHRAM.

Viola A.I.: An Artificial Intelligence based on the battle abilities and idea patterns of Viola, a BAHRAM officer who died fighting confronting Leo and Jehuty during the incident on Antilia orbital colony. She almost never speaks, and seems to accept been programmed with a hatred or obsession with Jehuty. Many of her lines are repeats of the original Viola's in the showtime games, consolidating the fact that she is, equally Dingo would depict, "a vengeful ghost".

A.D.A.: The AI built into Jehuty. Earlier the battles on Antilia, A.D.A. was cold and mostly emotionless, but speedily warmed up to her young pilot, who was a great influence on her. She is helpful to both Leo and Dingo, and volition often help them in battle by managing Jehuty's weapons.

A.D.A. cares a lot for Leo, a fact that Dingo often teases her about. In return, she teases him about his interactions with Ken Marinaris.

When Jehuty was captured by the UNSF, A.D.A. was given a single directive: To brand her way into the fortress Aumaan, and destroy it by self-destructing Jehuty. Leo hid Jehuty on Callisto in an try to prevent her from doing so.

Lloyd: Runner who pilots Inhert. A BAHRAM scientist who conducts inquiry on Orbital Frames. He'south worked with Dingo when Dingo was a BAHRAM exam airplane pilot. While having doubts about BAHRAM's dictatorship, he does serve BAHRAM loyally. He has the key to filling in the gap between the performances of Jehuty and Anubis. Lloyd, along with Inhert, was designed by Kazuma Kaneko, of the Megami Tensei fame [1].

Taper: A UNSF soldier who somehow finds his style onto BAHRAM's battleship. Ken tries to have Dingo utilize him as a contact with the UNSF. Once reunited with his team on Mars he, along with Dingo and Leo, lead an attack on the BAHRAM super-fortress of Aumaan. Taper is a loyal soldier, but is probably also panic-prone for his own skilful.

Orbital Frames [ ]

Jehuty: An Orbital Frame secretly adult on the space colony on Jupiter's orbit. It has escaped the attacks of BAHRAM 2 years ago, cheers to Leo Stenbuck. But information technology has been lost since. Dingo discovers Jehuty on Jupiter's satellite Callisto. Information technology is considered the mech that controls the fate of the entire homo race.

Jehuty'due south normal form of attack is energy blasts fired from its hands. These can be either small bolts, a spread of beams that tin can hone in on the enemy, or a huge, powerful ball of free energy that tin can exist hurled at a target. Jehuty as well has a switch-blade attached to its right elbow that can be swung frontwards over the hand for close gainsay. Jehuty can also download attack programs that give it additional weapons.

When Jehuty is upgraded to Jehuty ver.ii past Lloyd, information technology gets even more powerful, and gains three "options", which also fire at enemies, and can help attack enemies in close combat. Information technology can also use powerful weapons such equally the Vector Cannon, and gains the ability to Zero Shift, compressing and releasing space in social club to move great distances instantly.

The name "Jehuty" is an alternating spelling of "Djehuty", the name of the Egyptian god Thoth, as derived from hieroglyphics.

Anubis: The strongest Orbital Frame controlled past Nohman. A twin mech adult along with Jehuty, it has like characteristics. It has the ability to employ an Urenbeck Catapult in order to propel itself at incredible speeds. Anubis's abilities are similar to Jehuty'due south through the utilize of burst attacks and its laser dash attack. Anubis is already programmed with Zero Shift at the end of Zone Of The Enders and is thus renowned as the nigh powerful orbital frame in existence.

Ardjet: Orbital Frame piloted by Ken with a tough exterior armor. Ardjet is primarily armed with wisps, small-scale remote drones that tin deed as missiles or catch onto an orbital frame or other target. Ardjet too has the capability to fire a very powerful beam weapon by cocooning itself in its armour. Ardjet is abandoned by Ken in a solar ability plant, after Jehuty deletes its AI systems, in order to destroy the Viola AI which had infected Ardjet with a virus, that took control of the frame.

Vic Viper: Mech piloted by Leo. Morphs into humanoid way and flight mode. The Vic Viper, likewise known as the V2, is not an Orbital Frame, but is an extremely powerful LEV, capable of nearly matching the more than powerful Frames in combat. There were originally two Vic Vipers, all the same Rock Thunderheart, the runner of the other Viper was defeated in battle.

Vic Viper is patterned off of the ship in the Gradius series, and its weapons reflect that. Aside from the Gauntlet subweapon, all of its weapons used in flying mode are powerups used by ships in the Gradius series (missiles, lasers, Ripple beams, and Options).

Nephtis: Orbital Frame piloted past the Viola A.I. An enhanced version of the Orbital Frame Neith piloted by the original Viola.

Inhert: Lloyd'due south epitome frame. Unlike conventional Orbital Frames, the cockpit is at the head. The cockpit has a statue affixed to it of the Archangel Metatron .Information technology uses magnetic rays in its power railroad train. Its armor consists of a special gel (the black substance on the surface).

LEV Phantoma: A UNSF military LEV. This was previously the strongest of combat mechs until Orbital Frames were invented. Later the cosmos of Orbital Frame it became an out-of-date design that proved a poor match for the newer, more than efficient mechs.

Zakat: Zakat (Russian Закат, "Sunset") is BAHRAM's gigantic Orbital Frame for destroying bases. It played a primal role in BAHRAM's overtaking of Mars. It is controlled by 4 runners. Zakat is spherical in overall shape, armed with a powerful shield and multiple beam cannons. Like in looks and purpose to the Decease Star of Star Wars.

Zoradius [ ]

Zoradius is an unlockable 3D remake of the original Gradius arcade video game constitute in Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner . It can be plant in the battle against Vic Viper, or by replaying the fight equally an Extra mission, then pausing the game an entering a variation of the Konami Code.

In Zoradius, the actor uses the Vic Viper in fighter mode, flying through a tunnel and shooting down various not-humanoid enemies from the game to gather powerups to increase the Viper's firepower and shields. Roughly halfway through the stage, the player has to fight through an area full of ring-shooting Moai heads, likewise a staple of the Gradius series. The game ends in a boss fight against the Railroad train boss, also from the main game.

New Game Plus [ ]

Unlike the commencement game, ZOE2 allows the thespian to start the game over again with a saved file after completing it once. Later loading a GAME CLEAR file, the player will be given the option to choose which form of Jehuty to start out with and to start out with all subweapons, including the optional MUMMY. Should the player cull Damaged Jehuty, the game volition exclude a few parts from the master game to allow progress due to the exclusion of shot attacks.

Staff [ ]

Yoji Shinkawa - Mechanical Designer
Hideo Kojima - Producer
Nobuyoshi Nishimura - Grapheme Blueprint 2D Animation Manager
Tsubasa Masao - Original Character Designer
Shuyo Murata - Game Design/Scenario/Manager
Kazuma Kaneko - Guest Graphic symbol/Mechanical Designer

Soundtrack [ ]

Template:Infobox Anthology

The soundtrack to Zone of the Enders:The 2nd Runner was released March 19, 2003 in music|2003 on the anthology ANUBIS Zone of the Enders Original Soundtrack past Konami Music Entertainment. The album was composed by the aforementioned artists as the previous album, Norihiko Hibino (日比野則彦), Maki Kirioka (桐岡麻季), Akihiro Honda (本田晃弘), Toshiyuki Kakuta (角田利之) and Shuichi Kobori (小堀修一).

The game's theme song, "Beyond the Bounds," was composed by Maki Kirioka and performed by Maki Kimura. (Lyrics) A remix of the vocal, titled "Beyond the Bounds (Mitsuto Suzuki 020203 Mix feat.Sana)" also included on the soundtrack, is played during a music video extra in the PAL and NTSC-J "Special Edition" versions of the game, and appears on Pop'n Music viii.

Rail list

#	Title	Artist	Length
01	Beyond The Bounds (Full Version)	Maki Kirioka	v:37
02	Jehuty -Bright Transparency	Akihiro Honda	5:18
03	Seek Taper	Toshiyuki Kakuta	1:33
04	Leo! Leo!	Akihiro Honda	2:08
05	Phobos at Mars	Norihiko Hibino	1:44
06	VR Grooming	Toshiyuki Kakuta	one:53
07	Fake Aumaan	Maki Kirioka	0:58
08	Ardjet	Akihiro Honda	4:39
09	Compression Space	Maki Kirioka	2:00
ten	Beyond the Bounds (Mitsuto Suzuki 020203 Mix feat. Sana)	Maki Kirioka	five:52
11	Bahram Battleship	Toshiyuki Kakuta	2:42
12	Railroad train	Akihiro Honda	three:25
thirteen	Air Fight	Maki Kirioka	3:28
14	ALOIVIA	Akihiro Honda	half dozen:12
15	Inhert	Maki Kirioka	one:30
sixteen	Explosion & Backwash	Norihiko Hibino	3:12
17	Descending Aumaan	Toshiyuki Kakuta	3:28
18	Cluttered Fight	Akihiro Honda	3:42
19	Zakat	Toshiyuki Kakuta	two:29
20	Final Battle	Norihiko Hibino	ii:55
21	Jehuty Returns	Norihiko Hibino	2:07
22	Trusting Peace	Norihiko Hibino	one:55

Reception [ ]

The game was praised by some players for its beautiful visuals and graphics, fast and intense boss battles, and excellent controls. The game received positive reviews from game sites, though its short length and awkward dialogue (due to poor software localization) have been criticized.

GameSpot - viii.5/ten
IGN - 8.6/x
GameTab - 83.58%/100%
GameSpy - 3/v

External links [ ]

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner - Konami Official Site
Zone of the Enders: The Unofficial site - Unofficial Zone of the Enders site. Contains various information on Zone of the Enders media.*
Bahram-Headquarters - Die einzige ZOE HP Deutschlands. Noch neu und in der Testphase.