Earth Defense Force is quite possibly my favourite series of all time. I know that sounds like I’m going for a bit, but I’m really not. While I love the high-quality offerings of series like Zelda and Final Fantasy, I find they don’t always hit the spot. Tears of the Kingdom left me unenthused, and honestly, Final Fantasy hasn’t landed for me for a few years now too. EDF, on the other hand, understand the assignment every time, and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is the second cutesy take on the series.
World Brothers 2 is the follow-up to the voxel spinoff that came out back in 2021, and it just sort of feels like more of the same. You’re a person, there are things to shoot, and you get bigger things to shoot with as enemies get bigger too. The main difference is that it doesn’t feel quite as culturally insensitive so far, although I’ve somehow not unlocked all of the characters yet, because there are hundreds.
The core concept is the same as before, you get voxel characters who represent characters from across the series, or nationalities from across the world. That means alongside the Air Raider from EDF 6, you’ve also got characters like Yodel Sister and Viking Brother. It’s innately silly, and the cutesy art style brings with it a substantially lower difficulty as well. It makes for a good game for younger gamers, and that’s clear to see throughout. It’s why the controls are so simple, and the combat is so forgiving, and I don’t begrudge that, even though I like just a touch or two of complexity.
With that in mind, the game succeeds in what it’s trying to do. The weapon choices are much more limited, because every class has its specific weapon it does best with, and while you can change things up, you never need to until the hard difficulty. You also get to control a full team of four, which means you can mix and match as you please. This usually means you’ll have a Wing Diver on your team, because they can fly and it’s so fast, but other than that, the sky’s the limit.
It’s all good fun, but it’s just so… beige. Not the colours, of course, but the flavour of the whole thing. I didn’t leave any moment thinking “Wow, this is incredible.” Instead, it’s just pushing through levels for the sake of it, collecting new characters because they’re there. It’s definitely a lot more entertaining in multiplayer, and I still love the idea that this is some weird multiversal event, but it just doesn’t feel like anything’s really at stake, even when the story is telling you otherwise.
Ultimately, the biggest sin that World Brothers 2 commits is coming out so soon after Earth Defense Force 6, which is not only the best the series has ever been by a fairly large margin, but also manages to be one of the best games about time travel around.
