Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict

Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict is a Roblox adventure game created by mh:garbagerobloxgames:Explode1, along with a few other users that helped with the project during its production. Players go on an adventure to collect Stars and Symbols from 11 different worlds and Bonus Worlds to stop Celesteal from taking over the world. A remake under the title of Adventure Forward 2: Repainted released during early September of 2021 and was cancelled, along with Adventure Forward 3: Crown of Shadows, because of SirRovers being attacked by multiple people who had previously worked with Explode1.

Story
The game takes place in the year of 2314, where after the events of the previous game, where the First Star Savior vanished without a trace after they managed to defeat Stratosfear, and now, a new villain called Celesteal has arrived, and the Second Star Savior (Or just the player) has been summoned by Cyalm, since that he "believes that they can defeat Celesteal".

Points of Conflict (Original and Re-released versions)

 * 1) The game became mobile compatible during some point in 2018, however, this was the last update that the original game would receive before Explode1's termination.
 * 2) The thumbnail is far better from the first games thumbnail, since the drawings look more polished, and it shows a few of the main characters that are represented in the game such as Anshine.
 * 3) While the plot is just your generic "Oh no, an evil guy has taken over your home, now you must stop him", there is a decent plot twist where it is revealed that Cyalm was Celesteal all along, with an average buildup as well. It is also revealed that Stratosfear was the first Star Savior all along.
 * 4) The graphics look good for its time, although there could've been some more materials in some sections.
 * 5) The game doesn't really lag that much, even when the graphics are set to 10, and when the game does lag, it's not very bad at all.
 * 6) The loading times are pretty quick, as they only take around 1-6 seconds to finish, which gratefully keeps the pace of the game going.
 * 7) The gameplay is a huge step up from the original game, since there are more mechanics such as spring pads that make the gameplay more interesting, and there are a few new obstacles such as hammers (Seen in World 1, Adventure Grounds) and speed pads that make the pacing of the game quicker and the parkouring a bit trickier, and a few mechanics from the previous game return, such as the Dash Pepper.
 * 8) The checkpoint system is even better than the previous game, since that it still just requires the player to walk into a specific area to obtain a checkpoint, and while there still isn't a reminder for when the player does get a checkpoint, checkpoints are pretty common to find, so it isn't that big of a deal anyway.
 * 9) The respawning time isn't modified from the previous game, as it still takes 0.50 seconds to get the player respawned, which helps keep the pace of the game going.
 * 10) There are/were 6 badges for players to collect in the original game when they collect/collected more Symbols throughout the game.
 * 11) A few of the characters in this game have decent and unique personalities, such as Cyalm being kind and promising yet mischievous in reality, and Ixol being an insane character with a split personality.
 * 12) The hub world, Sky Emporium, is an interesting place to traverse through, since that the player is allowed to talk to other Points throughout the building, visit the tutorial, play a few bonus stages, or enter the first world, Adventure Grounds. The Stars and Symbols that the player gains throughout the worlds unlocks more areas in Sky Emporium, which often leads to decent views of Sky Emporium itself, and more Points to talk to as well, and if the player completes the post-game mission, the player can even collect Celesteal's Symbol and complete the game.
 * 13) The worlds are far more creative and feel more original, such as having a world based on Chinese culture (Mad Dragon Festival) and having a world based on electricity (Battery Canyon).
 * 14) There are a few more Stars for the player to collect than in the previous game, with having 55 main Stars in total, and having 36 bonus Stars to collect, which equals a total of 91 Stars for the player to collect. This means that this game has 40 more Stars to collect than the previous game, 4 more Stars to collect if you exclude the bonus Stars, and 11 more Stars to collect if you compare the original game's re-released version instead.
 * 15) While the original fight against Celesteal suffered from checkpoint starvation, a bit later after this game released, checkpoints were added in Celesteal's boss fight after every three Symbols that the player collected.
 * 16) This game has a post-game mission that is an entire world to traverse through to collect five Symbols from five difference Points under the names of Yawgate, Stratosfear, Morward, Pasless, and Voixer.
 * 17) The re-released version of this game fixes every boss fight from the original game and even adds a few minor changes to a few of the attacks in the boss fights as well.
 * 18) The re-released version of this game also makes the Bonus Levels free, which allows more players to access these Bonus Levels now, along with an updated secret ending.
 * 19) While the secret ending is extremely anticlimactic, the rereleased version has the Trollface replacing Explode1 for the majority of the secret ending due to Explode1's actions.

Repainted

 * 1) The graphics were far more superior than the original game's graphics, and while they did lag the game, it would have most likely require the player to lower the graphics down by around 2 bars.
 * 2) The soundtrack had been remastered and much more Kirby songs were added into the soundtrack, and a few of the other songs in the original soundtrack that were a bit unfitting for their areas were removed from the soundtrack as well.
 * 3) There was a new path in each world to collect an extra Star, along with four hidden Cyan Stars that could have been accessed once you would have collected the Symbol of the world that you were in, and a few of the Red Coins had gotten new spots as well, but that's probably because of the new paths added in each world.
 * 4) The new Bully Bots were gratefully improved over their past selves, since instead of having to annoyingly push them into a death pit while risking being flung all over the place and possibly being flung into death as well, now all that the player would have had to do was to jump on their heads, which was where the self-destruct button is, and then they would have usually blown up.
 * 5) This game had plans to make the storyline of the Adventure Forward series have more detail added into it by introducing new areas such as Vestige Island which would have been an area where dead spirits would have gone, and this area would have gotten more attention in the post-game mission.

Points of Conflict (Original and Re-released versions)

 * 1) The main thumbnail is incorrectly scaled, with the top and bottom sides not completely filling up the rectangle. Oddly enough, the Beta version has a properly scaled thumbnail, with the entire rectangle being filled.
 * 2) The original game is categorized in the "All Genres" section instead of the "Adventure" genre, however, the restored version fixes this issue.
 * 3) The re-released version lacks every badge from the original game, and doesn't even have any new badges to introduce.
 * 4) The Superstar Mode doesn't have that much to offer, since all it does is raise the difficulty higher.
 * 5) False Advertising: The main thumbnail shows Anshine and the Second Star Savior obtaining a Star, however, Anshine never even collects anything during the game. The game also claims to have countless secrets, yet the only actual secrets are just Red Coins or memes that are hidden in the Bonus Levels. The secret ending even states that there are 296 Red Coins as well.
 * 6) While the soundtrack is nice for the most part, a few of the songs in the soundtrack don't fit very well with where they're placed sometimes, such as the two songs that play in Ixol's boss fight.
 * 7) As stated earlier in WIR #3, the plot is just your generic "Oh no, an evil guy has taken over your home, now you must stop him", and to make matters worse, this game was released in 2017, meaning that not only was the first game three years old by the time that this game released, but other Roblox adventure series that shared identical plots were already 5+ years old when this game released, and to make matters even worse, there's twenty-four plot holes as well.
 * 8) As stated earlier, there are twenty-four holes throughout the game, with the majority of them being caused by Cyalm/Celesteal being a god and his narrative.
 * 9) * Stratosfear was able to remember the exact amount of time that he was trapped for, which was 300 years.
 * 10) * Cyalm waits for 300 years to attempt to take over the world, when he could have tried doing so as soon as he captured Stratosfear.
 * 11) * Cyalm summons the Second Star Savior for no good reason for himself, and if he didn't, he could have taken over the world easily.
 * 12) * Cyalm didn't have to brainwash anybody to take over the world, making him turning the Points into his puppets unnecessary.
 * 13) * If Cyalm/Celesteal had a complete narrative, then why did he allow it to have the Second Star Savior defeat him?
 * 14) * Why couldn't Cyalm make it so that in his narrative, none of the Points would be able to trust the Second Star Savior?
 * 15) * Why couldn't Cyalm/Celesteal simply just make the Points evil so that he could gain more power?
 * 16) * If Cyalm was going to allow the Points to give the Second Star Savior their Symbols anyway, then why did he make it so that the Second Star Savior needed Stars to begin with?
 * 17) * Similar to the previous plot hole, if the Second Star Savior was going to get the Point's Symbols anyway, then why did they even have to work for the Symbols?
 * 18) * Why can’t all the points regain their memories by breaking their Symbol on their face like Stratosfear did?
 * 19) * Why did Cyalm/Celesteal decide to make Sky Emporium? This just allows for the Second Star Savior to gain multiple paths that can help them defeat Cyalm/Celesteal.
 * 20) * Why did Cyalm allow Stratosfear to be freed in his narrative?
 * 21) * Why did Cyalm wait to fight the Second Star Savior until they gained the trust of every Point?
 * 22) * Trapping Stratosfear was unnecessary, because he could've changed his narrative so that nothing could stop him.
 * 23) * Why did Cyalm/Celesteal have to enslave other random people for a useless purpose?
 * 24) * Why did Cyalm allow it so that the Points can regain their memories?
 * 25) * Why couldn't Cyalm give himself Celestial Power?
 * 26) * In the previous game, it is revealed that Stratosfear is a future version of the player that is corrupted, and in the rereleased version of the previous game, Cyalm can be seen for a few milliseconds trapping Stratosfear in the post-game mission. Since that Stratosfear had every Star at that point in the game, why didn't Cyalm just gain the Celestial Power from Stratosfear's Stars instead of capturing Stratosfear and waiting 300 years later just to attempt to get Celestial Power from other Stars?
 * 27) * If Celesteal/Cyalm killed some people just because they got in his way, then why couldn't he do the same to the other Points?
 * 28) * Why couldn't any of the Points collect the Stars their selves?
 * 29) * Why couldn't Cyalm just go and get the Stars himself? He could have taken over the world quickly and easily if he did that.
 * 30) * Why was the entire adventure needed to happen to begin with, if Cyalm/Celesteal allowed himself to be stopped in the end?
 * 31) * Why did the Second Star Savior have to get Yawgate, Stratosfear, Morward, Pasless, and Voixer's Symbols and their trust to uncover Celesteal's message, when all that was needed was for Voixer to die, and when the Second Star Savior only got the previous Point's trust to have them give the Second Star Savior their Symbols in order to defeat Celesteal?
 * 32) * Why can't the last five Symbols just be given to the Second Star Savior? Shouldn't the Second Star Savior have every Point's trust because they defeated a powerful villain?
 * 33) Despite the Bonus Levels being free in the re-released version of this game as stated earlier in GQ #18, if a player were to purchase the Bonus Levels in the original version of this game nowadays, they would still most likely be unable to access a majority of the game, since the player needs to get other Symbols from other Points in order to make more progress in the game, but since the boss fights are broken in the original game, a normal player would be able to get as far as Cavern Club and Frosted Snowland with 18 Stars and 1 Symbol, or 50 Stars and 1 Symbol if they've purchased the Bonus Levels, which kind of makes the Bonus Levels in the original game a scam now.
 * 34) There are a few levels in the game that are not very pleasing to the eye, specifically Distortion Paradise and Distortion Forest, since that a few of the obstacles are glitched particles that move very quickly around each other, and to make matters even worse, these obstacles are scattered across these two portions of the game.
 * 35) Despite a few of the characters having unique personalities, a majority of them have little to nothing interesting about them, since that some of them have a very bare personality, such as Compale being treated as a basic mature and kind person, and Ulipse being treated as a generic person who's crude. Some of them also have no personality, such as Shallare, Signol, and Ploque.
 * 36) The Bully Bots are just as bad as they were in the first game, since that the player still needs to annoyingly push them into a death pit, while risking being flung all over the place, and possibly being flung into death as well.
 * 37) The marbles have pretty stiff movement, which might cause a few issues such as the player bulleting into one direction, or not being able to dodge obstacles quick enough, which will most likely kill the player.
 * 38) The game tries way too hard to get really edgy once the player reaches World 9, Distortion Paradise, since that the dialogue starts to get very cheesy, the music starts to get stranger, and the themes of the next few worlds, Distortion Paradise, Shattered Shardscape, and the post-game mission start to get stranger as well.
 * 39) The main boss fights are laughably easy due to most of them mostly requiring the player to just run and jump around aimlessly while constantly spamming the shooting button, with Ixol being the worst fight of the bunch, since that his fight requires only around 20-40 uses of the WASD or arrow keys. Many players claim that Ixol is pretty hard, but in reality, he's pathetically easy.
 * 40) As stated earlier in GQ #15, the original boss fight against Celesteal suffered from checkpoint starvation, but thankfully, checkpoints were eventually added a little bit after the original game released, and every three Symbols that the player collects gives the player a checkpoint.
 * 41) As stated earlier in GQ #19, the secret ending is extremely anticlimactic, since all that you get is a boring speech from Explode1 (Original version) or the Trollface (Re-released version) telling the player the inspiration of the main bosses, Compale, Ulipse, Ixol, Cyalm, and Celesteal. It doesn't help that in the original version of this game, you had to pay 80 or 90 robux for the secret ending, meaning that most players probably wouldn't have been able to even access the secret ending in the first place, and if you add BQ #9 up with this, it just makes this situation much worse.
 * 42) Some major issues have been occurring in the original version of this game because of how Explode1 can't edit the game anymore due to his termination.
 * 43) * The boss fights are now broken because players can only view a blank screen and are stuck there until they leave the game, making the game unbeatable, due to every three worlds ending with a boss fight, along with the final world, Shattered Shardscape, ending with battles against Cyalm and Celesteal.
 * 44) * A few of the platforms have lost their collision, which almost makes the entire game unplayable, since that players can't even get Signol's Symbol anymore because of this.

Repainted

 * 1) As stated earlier in Repainted #1, the game was a bit laggy, which is something that the original game lacked. Players would have most likely had to lower their graphics down a bit during gameplay due to the game being a bit laggy at graphics 10, which also slightly damaged the pacing of the game a bit.
 * 2) Despite having more to offer than Superstar Mode, the game didn't have that much to offer, since that all of the good things that it added were upgraded graphics, one extra main Star for each world along with an extra path, and four hidden Cyan Stars for each world.
 * 3) The introduction looked really strange, since that it shows a few of the Adventure Forward characters looking like humans, which came off as a bit uncanny to other players.
 * 4) The animation was pretty strange and didn't look and feel very natural or realistic at all, mainly because the animation was a bit stiff, however, unlike Adventure Forward 3: Crown of Shadows, the limbs of characters didn't detach.
 * 5) The checkpoints had received a downgrade from the original game, since that instead of just needing to walk into a specific area to gain a checkpoint, the player had to walk over to a checkpoint flag to gain a checkpoint instead, and it would have been better if there was a message that told the player that they got a checkpoint when they walked into a specific area instead. It doesn't help that kicking the flag to obtain a checkpoint confused a few players as well.
 * 6) The gameplay for the extra Star path was weaker than the rest of the original gameplay taken from the original game, since that it not only suffered from too many Bully Bots, but there were plenty of assets reused from other parts of the world.
 * 7) There was an unnecessary amount of Bully Bots cluttered throughout Adventure Grounds, and there was even a group of them guarding nothing at some points in the world.
 * 8) The hitboxes were a bit wonky at times, since sometimes, if the player were to hit a Bully Bot on the top of its body, it wouldn't have blown up and wouldn't die sometimes, which could have caused a cheap hit or even a cheap death to occur if the player was on their third and last piece of health.

Reception
Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict was highly praised for mostly its gameplay and for improving almost everything from Adventure Forward 1: Star Savior. The original game currently has around 71,000 favorites, around 3,000,000 visits, and around 22,000 likes to around 3,000 dislikes. The re-released version has around 35,000 favorites, around 1,500,000 visits, and around 9,700 likes to 1,300 dislikes. Repainted was also met with positive reception as well, and while there aren't really any in-depth reviews about the game, most users that just scratched the surface claim that they enjoyed the demo. The game currently has around 1,600 favorites, around 30,500 visits, and around 900 likes to around 10 dislikes.

Trivia

 * When the game first released, the game was titled Adventure Forward 2 [GRAND OPENING].
 * World nine, Distortion Paradise was originally not planned to be in the game, and ended up being the final world to be worked on because of this.
 * Distortion Paradise was the only world in this game to be developed in its own separate game.
 * There were two cut DLCs for the game under the titles of Remnants of Celesteal, and Hall of Memories.
 * The trailer for the original version of this game was taken down at an unknown date, but it was put back up on June 16th of 2022.
 * There is an unplayable Beta version of this game with a few differences:
 * The game is titled "AF2 Beta" instead of "Adventure Forward 2".
 * There is an early icon of the game, showing Cyalm's Symbol, along with the game's title instead of a hand grabbing a Star.
 * The thumbnail image is correctly scaled, unlike the final version as stated earlier in BQ (PoC (OaRv)) #1.
 * There is no trailer available on the thumbnail images.
 * The genre is categorized in the correct category unlike the final version as stated earlier in BQ (PoC (OaRv)) #2.
 * There are no Bonus Level Pack gamepasses to purchase in the store.
 * The description of the game is different, as it gives the player a link to the original game instead.
 * The badge, Fully Voided, is absent from the Beta, and the badge names are different, aside from Shattered Vengeance, with each of the other badges (Aside from the post-game mission) being called Symbol Door #1 Unlocked, Symbol Door #2 Unlocked, Symbol Door #3 Unlocked, and Symbol Door #4 Unlocked.
 * Symbol Door #4 (Or Distortion and Dragons in the final release) is in a different spot, and comes after Shattered Vengeance in the badge list.
 * The game originally might have not originally had the post-game mission, since that Fully Voided is absent in the Beta's badge list as stated earlier.
 * The shadow model of Explode1 in the secret ending lacks textures and is named Splode. Splode can also be seen if the player hasn't collected all 91 Stars by the time that they arrive to the secret room that can be found after the player has completed the post-game mission.
 * Splode is also the most obscure character in the Adventure Forward series, since that he's not only mistaken for being the same character as Explode1, but the only actual way to see Splode's name is by angling the camera next to him.
 * Throughout time, there have been a few moderations of this game with a few differences, such as one of the moderations adding HD Admin into the game.
 * As stated earlier, Repainted, along with Adventure Forward 3: Crown of Shadows was cancelled on 10/14/21 because of SirRovers being attacked by multiple people who had previously worked with Explode1.

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