Houkai Gakuen 2

Houkai Gakuen 2 (Simplified Chinese: 崩坏学园2) is a free Chinese mobile game developed by miHoYo. It is the first and second entry in the Houkai series.
It is a side-scrolling action game that depicts the battle of girls who have escaped from becoming zombies in a world where people have become zombies due to a "Houkai phenomenon" that occurs once every several hundred years. One of the features of this work is that the enemy character zombies are also depicted as girls.
Honkai Impact 3rd is the spiritual successor of this work.
In addition to the mobile game, the storyline of Houkai Gakuen 2 spans multiple supplementary media including multiple manhua, 4-koma, and promotional videos
==Gameplay==
Houkai Gakuen 2 has players control a team of up to 2 characters, in real-time combat against various enemies. During battle, players may freely move their character around the battlefield and switch between their main and secondary character / friend to adapt to various enemy types. Character gears can be customized with various equipment, which can be improved by using in-game resources. New equipment (known as "outfits" and "badges"), weapons, and characters can obtained either through in-game drop or through a Gacha game|gacha system.
Single-player game modes include the main story campaigns, consisting of short stages punctuated by dialogue in cutscenes and a series of brief side stories that explore backstories. The game features various asynchronous multiplayer modes and (now deprecated) synchronous multiplayer cooperative and competitive modes, where players can unlock time-limited badges and loots. Players are able to join groups of other players, called "Guilds", which allow for more opportunities for events and rewards.
Secondary gameplay mechanics include various minigames that allow players to gather various crafting and experience materials. Limited-time seasonal events may also include gameplay styles such as dungeon crawl and Puzzle video game|puzzle games which are not normally seen in the main gameplay modes.
=== Weapons ===
Each characters can equip up to 3 weapons and allows unlimited combinations without any restrictions. Players can obtain weapons through shop purchases, collection of weapon fragments, the gacha, part of daily activity, and many other ways. After players obtain weapons, they can upgrade and upgrade the weapons to improve their stats.
=== Badges ===
Each characters can equip up to 3 badges, some badges does not allow duplicate equips on the same character. Wear various badges can enhance character stats as well as adding skills.
Players can also activate a hidden effects when equipping different equipments depending on gear requirements.
=== Outfits and Familiars ===
Each characters can equip 1 outfit and 1 familiar.
Players can increase their characters' health and other attribute effects by equipping different outfits.
Familiars have their own stats, skills and stamina limit. Their level can be increased through battles as well enhancing.
=== Item Enhancement and Upgrading ===
Players can enhance characters by level up gears and character skills. The higher rarity and level of a gear, the more EXP it is required to upgrade to next level. Upon level up, the equipment can get a better attribute effect bonus.
Players can improve the attribute effect of equipment by upgrading gears. All gears can upgrade the star level through evolve function. After evolving, maximum level limit increases and allowing better effects from the gear. More advanced gears require more advanced upgrade materials. Players can obtain upgrade materials by challenging all kinds of scenario, extracting from supplies, purchasing in stores, etc.
Some gears do have different skill names or secondary skill at highest rarity, it is recommended players to keep skill upgrade materials at lower rarity then use them when reached maximum rarity.
=== Premium currency ===
The main premium currency of the game are crystals and Homei bells.
Crystals can be obtained in-game or recharge while Homei bells can only be obtained through recharge with pricing of 1 Yuan (currency)|yuan each.
==Synopsis==
===Setting ===
Houkai Gakuen 2's single-player Campaign takes place during the fictional "28 March 2014" in Nagazora city where the third Houkai appeared. Everyone in the city turned into zombies and survival rate is 0.003%.
The player controls Kiana Kaslana, a survivor of Senba high school to escape from the school and discover the truth about the Houkai.
=== Playable characters ===
There are total 15 playable characters (not counting skins) as of version 7.6, with Kiana Kaslana as the first unlocked character. Other characters can be unlocked through VIP system or gacha.
==== Main characters ====
Main characters plays an important role in Houkai Gakuen 2 universe and they may also becomes and destroy the world.
Main characters: Kiana Kaslana, Houraiji Kyuusyou and Sirin.
==== Side characters ====
Side characters are usually used for side stories or in important events along side with main characters.
Side characters: , Murata Himeko, Theresa Apocalypse, , Sin Mal, Yssring Leavtruth (Hakase), Musyoku Kika, , Ninti Apocalypse and Jyahnar.
== Development ==
Houkai Gakuen (offline version of the same game title) was originally developed somewhere between 2012 - 2013 by a team of 6 people and only available to iOS platform.
Later, in 2014, the game went under heavy re-development with upgraded game engine and arts as well as adding Android as second available platform. During the game re-development it is noticable that Cai Haoyu who was both CEO and the original game engine developer have rework several parts of the game and CiCi who is the creator of 3 main characters: Kiana, Mei and Bronya, and 2 other important works: Palefox and Yae Sakura.
miHoYo also offers small amounts of crystals to users that fill out surveys about their experience in each game versions, allowing the game developers to adjust future events and tweak the game. As a result, Houkai Gakuen 2 went under a continuous-update system, many major updates are released that changes the gameplay as well as rebalancing gears to be competitive against newer one.
The game also have many elements of Neon Genesis Evangelion (franchise)|EVA as one of game developer is a fan of this franchise.
=== 4-koma ===
The 4-koma was drawn by DomotoLain, usually used for non-canon joke to complement the story.
=== Manhua ===
Houkai Gakuen 2 features an ongoing serialized manhua of the same name in Chinese. The manhua aims to supplement and flesh out the in-game plot, and may includes character origins.
=== Kizuna ===
Kizuna is a special function which player can set main menu background as a Moe (slang)|Moe-fied gear or a character for the game. However, it may also contains lots of important lore if players owned corresponding gears containing the lore.
Several lore such as Yae Sakura or Kaguya character requires owning corresponding Familiar and playable character lore requires owning the character.
=== Visual novel ===
The game usually contains game event related visual novels and they can become inaccessible after the event. However, there are currently 2 permanently accessible visual novels can be accessed through miHoYo forum or miHoYo BBS app.
== Reception ==
In 6 March, 2014, Houkai Gakuen 2 has passed App Store (iOS)|App Store for the first time ever and quickly reach the top 1 game list in 29 March 2014 in China without spending much money for advertisements. According to one of early investment company, iOS version has reached a monthly turnover of 1.6 million US dollars.
In October of the same year, according to Cai Haoyu, CEO of miHoYo, more than 50% of the Android revenue of "Houkai Gakuen 2" comes from Bilibili|BiliBili server, and the number of players is 3-4 times higher than other Android markets.
The game also launched across multiple regions, including Taiwan, English (School DayZ for Southeast Asia server, Mirage Cabin for North America server), Japanese and Korea.
Since the successful launch of "Houkai Gakuen 2" in 2014, as of February 2017, "Houkai Gakuen 2" has been in operation for 3 years, and it is almost regarded as the "old antique" in domestic mobile games. In the past 3 years, the original team then developed another spiritual successor game called Honkai Impact 3rd|Honkai Impact 3.
Since Honkai Impact 3 was released, Houkai Gakuen 2 went under many major updates toward new player experiences as well as gaining many balancing patches to reduce the range between Free-to-play|Free to play and the Free-to-play#Pay-to-win|Pay to Win, these updates receive multiple positive reviews on :zh:TapTap (游戏社区)|TapTap and continue to keep the game at high player rating.
=== Plot hole issue ===
Houkai Gakuen 2 is well known for having many plot holes that was unexplained or may become something else rather than the original way. The most noticable work is the "Houkai 3rd" which was first introduced in 2015, shortly after the introduction of Himeko boss. The "Houkai 3rd" was originally intended to be the continuation of the original game but due to bad story written, the story instead went into different way and becomes a completely new title called "Honkai Impact 3".
== Legacy ==
Houkai Gakuen 2 had a substantial impact on its genre, created many clone games based on the original but unfortunately all of them are unsuccessful and soon closed after few months of operating.
The game also have a substantial impact on Honkai Impact 3rd|Honkai Impact 3 story development such as chapter 1 and chapter 2 (before version 2.6) as well as characters.
Several musics of Houkai Gakuen 2 also available in Honkai Impact 3 such as: Cross, EVO, Grow, Lift, Lightning, MACH and comics such as: Escape from Nagazora, Anti-Entropy Invasion, Yae Sakura and Azure Waters
==Downloadable content==
Houkai Gakuen 2 featured a total of two downloadable content (DLC) packs that included new maps and additions to gameplay. All two DLC packs were available prior to their scheduled release by players who had completed Kiana world. DLC are free to play.
===Fire Moth DLC===
Fire Moth DLC take place in Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|post-apocalyptic world, five years after Kiana becomes as a and launched "the end of the world" or "Judgement Day", one day "she" woke up from a train heading to the rebel stronghold in Nagazora City, but lost all her memories, leaving only the name "Houraiji Kyuusyou". Finally, after reaching the destination, she joined the Fire Moth, and continued to contribute her strength in the subsequent battles.
In Fire Moth DLC, player controls the main character Houraiji Kyuusyou, known as the Savior.
Houraiji Kyuusyou possessing 3 weapons: heavy blade, double daggers and cannon. Weapons from the main game can be used to enhance Kyuusyou's weapons and familiars can be used to enhance health and damage.
===Era: ZERO===
Era: ZERO takes place during the fictional 50000 years before main game, an Earth which has evolved into a dystopian cyberpunk society. And then, there was a war between 4 organizations: Apocalypse Church, United Nations, Fire Moth and Massive Electric. In an unknown time, Apocalypse Church had a deal with Dr. Mei, leader of ME and both decided to secretly transfer a test subject to ME for scientific purposes.
In Era: ZERO, player controls the main character test subject Kiana through many combat tests and also fight against Kevin, leader of Fire Moth.
== References ==
==External links==
* Official Houkai Gakuen 2 Chinese website
* Official Houkai Gakuen 2 Chinese IP website
* Official Houkai Gakuen 2 Weibo website
* Official Houkai Gakuen 2 JP website
* Official Houkai Gakuen SEA server website on Facebook
* Official Houkai Gakuen US server website on Facebook
Category:Simplified Chinese characters
Category:Chinese mobile