The story picks up shortly after where the first game left off, and begins by introducing two new characters, Princess Neige of Elfentale, and Alady, a Shuura warrior charged with seeing the princess safely back to her kingdom. The background to what's going on is then delved into via several prologue chapters, where two characters meet and travel together to a certain point. For example, KOS-MOS and Suzuka are both heading towards the Schlafen Celeste, fight alongside until they get there, and then go their separate ways. During the prologues we also meet a pair of characters borrowed from the standard SRW:OG universe – Axel and Alfemia – who come through a Cross Gate and end up with amnesia.
The gameplay is almost the same as the first game, but has been improved in a few areas which make it much easier to get into and reduce frustrating death-induced restarts. The number of front-attackers remains four, with the back-attackers now0 up to six. Support characters are now assigned to attackers (front or back) and grant a stat boost to that attacker. While attacking, additional attacks are available from the next back-attacker in the line, and from the support character assigned to the current front-attacker. However, each front-attacker has a limited number of support attacks per turn, which can be used for either back or support attackers.
This is no Legend of Zelda game: grinding must be done. The player needs to spend time getting their characters on the same page, level-wise. This shouldn't be viewed as a chore though, but as a chance to perfect the timing of bringing in support-attackers, and to find the sequence of attacks that works best for each character. As with the previous game, the order in which a character performs their attacks can be customised. Having five different attacks grants a reduction in the COM used. At the start of a fight, characters have 100% COM which can be used for attacking or to use items. Using this COM reduction bonus, it is possible to have attacks totalling 110% or more, meaning more damage can be inflicted. At the start of each round all the front-attackers receive extra COM, up to a maximum of 100%.
When one of the player's attackers is being individually targeted for an attack, the player can choose whether to leave that character there to take massive damage, or to switch for one of the back characters. The advantage of switching characters is that the one being brought in will automatically guard against the attack and suffer far less damage. On the downside, the character that has been swapped out will also be removed from the turn list at the bottom of the screen, so that if they haven't yet attacked in this round, they won't be able to, and neither will the character that was just swapped in. This means it's much more difficult to lose a fight, but not impossible. It also means that the player doesn't have to be constantly using healing items to get through, something that seemed to be a necessity in the original.
There is also now an attack-breaker, where the player can choose to use 50% of their F gauge to escape from an attack combo being played against an individual on their team. The enemy can do this as well if they are in contact with the ground for long enough. An additional gauge has been added to show when the enemy being attacked will be able to evade mid-attack. Hence the label – E gauge. This goes some way to remove the annoyance of an enemy suddenly escaping the player's grasp. Being able to see when they are able to do this then gives the option to let them escape, so that they won't be able to during the next turn. Realistically, it is still annoying when they escape, but now the player can't use their lack of knowledge as a reason to get angry at the game.
The shoulder buttons are no longer used, only left, right and up on the D-pad, along with ABXY. Other than that, the controls remain the same as the first game: A – attack, X – special attack, Y – group special-attack, B – cancel, left – back-attacker support attack, up – support-character support attack, and left – swap in next front-attacker. The SP and F gauge system has also stayed the same. "Spirit commands" and back-attacker support attacks both use SP, of which characters have a limited amount. This can be replenished using items, resting along the way, and also when a character levels up.
The two varieties of special attacks both need the F gauge to be at 100%. Said F gauge charges when characters give or take damage. Also, certain spirit commands can be used to increase the rate of charge. Finishing off a group of enemies with either special attack grants a experience bonus of 1.2x for an individual baddie and 1.3x for a group (two or more). With practice and planning, leveling up can be made a little quicker and easier, not the mention the fact that the accompanying animated sequences are a pleasure to watch. The attacks and animation in the game are excellently planned and presented. After getting all the characters available there's enough variety for the player to be able to watch the attacks without that feeling of creeping boredom that sometimes enters in.
The 8-bit-esque isometric viewpoint has been retained for the world map – a sharp contrast to the sprites used in the battle animation, and an obvious hat-tipping to the GBA/DS SRW games, which use a similar map system. An animated opening theme song really puts this game one rank above its predecessor in terms of presentation.
The enhanced but in no way simplified gameplay, mixed together with what has seemed to become the standard in voice acting, along with such enjoyable attack animation mean that SRW OG Saga: Mugen no Frontier EXCEED does indeed exceed its progenitor in every way. The multiple CD soundtrack and artbook that accompany the limited edition really sweeten the deal beyond what dentists recommend.