Relics: The 2nd Birth is an action role-playing game. Being a sequel to Relics: The Recur of Origin, this game retains the core gameplay of the former title, having players explore dungeons in the isometric perspective and relying on the possession mechanic. Unlike most RPGs, Relics doesn’t award players with experience points when defeating enemies and the key to powering up lies within swapping characters, acquiring their skills and using the appropriate skills and attacks to clear the path from enemies and get to the next area of a dungeon.
Compared to its predecessor, the game has players take the role of a living character and adds up to two extra party members that follow players and assist them in battles. The game also changes the latency system to allow players to transfer skills from one creature to another. Characters now have 6 attributes such as Fire, Ice, Wind, Thunder, Holy and Demon as well as HP and SP recovery speed. The 2nd Birth adds a new faction to the series: Mutants and there are over 120 distinctive characters for players to possess. Some extra RPG elements were added as well such as shops where players can sell the items they’ve gathered at dungeons and use the gold to purchase various jewels and healing items. The game has multiple endings, but there are no branching paths in the story and in order to get them, players have to finish the game and start over using their save files.
New and unique to this game is a multiplayer mode which allows up to four players to explore four vast dungeons together via LAN and the Internet. Clearing these maps and defeating their bosses rewards players with exclusive items which can be transferred into the Single Player campaign.
The story of Relics: The 2nd Birth is set in the distant future. A group of MARX colonists have settled on another planet and during their research, they found out about the everlasting conflict between the HEAVEN and HELL factions. Among the discoveries they’ve made was the ability to separate one’s spirit from the body and transfer it to other life forms. The colonists titled this ability “Spirit Ride”. This game has players take the role of Randy, the Spirit Ride experimental unit’s commander and players will once again get caught up in the conflict between the two factions. During his journey, Randy destroys his own body, breaking up with his human self and is reincarnated as a HELL creature, which is what the 2nd Birth stands for.
