Frederic 2: Evil Strikes Back

Genre: Music-Rhythm

Players: 1

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Review:

Frederic 2, like the first game, is a Music-Rhythm game where players play notes on an on-screen keyboard while they compete in music battles as famed composer Frédéric Chopin on a musical adventure through time. And because this game is very similar to the first game, I’m going to go ahead and mirror much of what I said in my review of the first game, because it all still holds true for the sequel.

As with Frederic: Resurrection of Music, Frederic 2’s story is wacky. I got a vibe similar to Gitaroo-Man here, where music battles are taken super-seriously, while the game’s protagonist is very much a reluctant fish out of water. However, it adds some extra flavor to the game that’s welcome, even if a bit odd.

The gameplay here is classic Guitar Hero/Rock Band-style stuff, where notes fall down a path and you hit the corresponding button, with six “keys” simulated in the game. That’s not to say there aren’t some unique things here, such as dragging some notes one way or the other to “bend” them. But fans of those games will recognize this gameplay straightaway.

However, we’re no using a guitar controller here, we need to contend with what the Switch has to offer, and that’s… well, not ideal. The game can technically be played in docked mode, but the controls are a bit awkward and unintuitive. Likewise, you can play it in handheld mode, but if you do that you’re gonna’ need another hand because some of these songs will really require you to have both. Really, your best option for playing Frederic is to lay the Switch down on a table and play with both hands poised above, just like a real piano. It’s not ideal – you don’t get the feel of a real piano, the on-screen keys are smaller than real piano keys, and the game’s “bonus/star mode/whatever” command requires you to press both L and R, which is damn near impossible to pull off seamlessly when playing like this, but otherwise the game plays well enough.

Thankfully, the music here is pretty good, remixing classic Chopin classical music into new and interesting genres, with some pretty good arrangements. It’s a shame there are only 10 songs here (compared to 12 in the first game), making for a pretty short game, but at least the quality is good.

In the end, Frederic 2 is a decent little Music-Rhythm game for the Switch, even if it suffers from control issues and a short length, even shorter than the first game. If you enjoyed the first game and want more, this is a no-brainer, but otherwise you might as well start with the first game or perhaps another music-rhythm game entirely.

tl;dr – Frederic 2, like the first game, is a Music-Rhythm game that combines Guitar Hero-style “hit notes falling down the path” gameplay with a Gitaroo-Man-style silly story and nice remixes of Chopin’s classical tunes. This one is even shorter than the first game and the game’s controls are still a bit awkward, but if you liked the first game, this is… well, more of that.

Grade: B-

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