Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium

The gameplay of Girls' Frontline 2 revolves around isometric turn-based tactical battles, akin to games such as XCOM, Disgaea and Shadowrun.^[6][2][7][8] The player commands a squad of units in order to fulfil mission objectives on a tactical map, which include destroying enemy units, capturing strategic points, surviving waves of enemy attacks, or evacuating all units to an extraction point.^[9] These playable units, which are combat androids known in-universe as T-Dolls, are obtained by the player via a Genshin-esque gacha system with standard and seasonal event banners to roll from, using in-game currencies.^{[10][11][12][6]}

T-Dolls are categorised into four different classes, namely:^[13]

• Sentinel: Primary damage dealing units with high DPS
• Bulwark: Tanking units with high survivability and defensive abilities
• Support: Units with healing and buffing abilities
• Vanguard: Units with high mobility and are able to perform flanking maneuvers against enemies in cover

In addition to a standard attack and a passive skill, T-Dolls have special active abilities which consume confectance index to use, akin to ability points in standard role-playing games, and provide unique offensive or defensive capabilities depending on the T-Doll. Confectance index can be replenished over time, or through the use of certain active abilities.^[13]

All units, both player-controlled and enemy-controlled, have a stability index which gradually decreases as they receive attacks from other units; when this is reduced to zero, stability break occurs, which reduces the effect of battlefield cover. The combat map offers locations with varying cover which reduces the amount of damage a unit receives, and the player is able to mitigate the effect of enemy cover though the use of positional flanking, area-of-effect attacks, melee attacks, elevated tiles which negate the efficacy of cover, or by reducing the enemy unit's stability index to zero. Other forms of environmental effectors on the map include hazard tiles which apply damage or negative status effects to units, and interactable levers that alter elevators, conveyor belts or turrets on the battlefield.^[14][7][1]

The combat ability of T-Dolls can be enhanced by increasing their training level, altering their weapon and attachment loadouts, fortifying the T-Doll using duplicates obtained via the gacha system, unlocking enhancement nodes on each T-Doll's neural helix, and equipping keys which provide modifiers to abilities or stats.^[13]

While not in battle, the player can visit the T-Dolls in their dormitory to observe them during their everyday activities and present them with gifts to increase their affinity level, which provides minor stat increases during combat.^[1][15] Outside of the main game, the player is also able to read additional in-universe lore using the "Traceback" menu.^[15]

The game is set ten years after the events of the final campaign chapter of Girls' Frontline. The combat T-Dolls, having previously been exclusively referred to by the names of the firearms they've been imprinted onto within their fire-control cores, begin choosing to adopt new, more human-like personal names as their callsigns, either for personal or professional reasons.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]} As the private military company Griffin & Kryuger undergoes dissolution and reshuffling, many T-Dolls find themselves joining other organisations, or ending up settling down in civilian life.^[22][23][24] Meanwhile, as the URNC^[a] grows in size and power, it begins to undertake a major project of purifying contamination zones afflicted by Collapse radiation so that human resettlement can occur.^[25][26]

The player takes on the role of "the Commander", who, at the end of the previous game, resigned from their position at Griffin & Kryuger, and subsequently was forced by IOP^[b] to sign a contract prohibiting them from coming into contact with their former subordinate T-Dolls from Griffin & Kryuger, and to exile themselves to the contaminated zone, as a condition for not being killed.^{[27][28][29][30][31]} There, the Commander assumes the role of a bounty hunter who takes on various tasks for commissions, accompanied by a team of three T-Dolls and a mechanic named Mayling.^[32]

During a cargo delivery job issued by BRIEF,^[c][33] the Commander's team is raided by Varjager bandits. After escaping from combat, they resupply from a black marketeer named Poludnitsa, who shares intel regarding the suspicious nature of the job they have taken.^[34][35] Deciding to head towards the Great Wall Railway at the edge of the contaminated zone, the Commander's team makes a detour to Port Vest, an area with hostile terrain that is teeming with ELIDs,^[d] in an attempt to eliminate the remaining Varjagers in pursuit. There, they encounter Colphne, a civilian medical support doll, who requests to join the team and have her body modified with a fire-control core.^[36] Unbeknownst to the team, the same client who had requested the cargo delivery job also hired the Varjager bandits to eliminate the Commander and to secure the cargo.

While inspecting the cargo to be delivered, the Commander's team discovered that the box contains a girl inside, Helena, who is a human experimentation subject seemingly immune to the adverse effects of Collapse radiation.^[37][38][39] The client contacts the team, and asks to rendezvous at a set of coordinates. Meanwhile, in a call, former Griffin & Kryuger colleague Kalina instructs the Commander to meet with her at ODE-01, a satellite city in Odesa,^[40] and so the Commander's team splits up. As the T-Dolls reach the rendezvous point, the client ambushes them, only for the client to be apprehended following the firefight. However, the client is promptly rescued by a hostile T-Doll, Sextans, and the two escape.^[41] At the same time, Kalina reveals to the Commander that she is now working at the Non-Military Forces Administration of the URNC,^[42][43] and that it was her who issued the assignment so that the human sample could be safely secured.^[44]

One of Kalina's subordinate T-Dolls, Lenna, spots law enforcement en route to apprehend the Commander, forcing the Commander to make their escape, and loses track of Helena in the process. Lenna explains that the Girard Group, a large machinery manufacturing conglomerate, is involved with the human sample. Upon reuniting with the team, they raid the facility where the client has kept Helena, and then escape by car in an attempt to take the train to depart for Kyiv,^[45][46] only to encounter another hostile T-Doll, Darture, who attacks. Odesa law enforcement agents, under the command of the client, raid Kalina's office and prepare to give her a summary execution, however are thwarted by Lenna who arrives at the last minute in an attack helicopter.

After their escape from Odesa, the Commander seemingly receives a message from Kalina, stating that the meetup point has changed to an abandoned factory within the Yellow Zone. Eventually it is revealed that their comms had been compromised, as they find themselves in a trap set by Darture.^[47] After defeating Darture in a firefight, Kalina calls, requesting that the Commander continue making their way towards Kyiv, and that they should resupply with a black marketeer named Saga while on the way. The team encounters a Varjager encampment in Bihor and quickly subdues them, only to find the same band of Varjagers raiding Saga's encampment.

Groza (闪电; Shǎndiàn)

Voiced by: Zhang Jen (Chinese); Marina Inoue (Japanese); Lee Daeun (Korean)

A combat T-Doll armed with an OTs-14 Groza, whom the Commander originally found damaged under a pile of rubble. Groza is unable to recall any memories prior to being reactivated by the Commander.

Nemesis (纳美西丝; Nàměixīsī)

Voiced by: Qin Ziyi (Chinese); Aya Endō (Japanese); Shin Nari (Korean)

A T-Doll armed with an OM 50 Nemesis who plays the role of the team's sniper. She has a damaged language module, and as a result, can only speak in poetic riddles.

Krolik (克罗丽科; Kèluólìkē)

Voiced by: MAO (Chinese); Sayaka Ohara (Japanese); Song Harim (Korean)

A T-Doll with bunny ears armed with a melee blade. In addition to combat duties, she assumes the role of the team's de facto translator for Nemesis.

Colphne (寇尔芙; Kòuěrfú)

Voiced by: Shi Haku (Chinese); Naomi Ōzora (Japanese); Sung Yewon (Korean)

A former civilian medical T-Doll who joins the Commander's team after her entire medical regiment was wiped out by an ELID attack, escaping as the sole survivor.^[36] Armed with a Taurus Curve.

Vepley (维普蕾; Wéipǔlěi)

Voiced by: Cotton Candy (Chinese); Hitomi Harada (Japanese); Jung Hyewon (Korean)

A singing "idol" T-Doll handed over to the Commander by the black marketeer Saga.^[48] Armed with a Vepr-12.

Mayling (美玲; Měilíng)

Voiced by: Liu Wen (Chinese); Madoka Asahina (Japanese); Kim Haru (Korean)

The mechanic of the Elmo Mobile Construction Vehicle, used by the Commander as a mobile base of operations.

Kalina (格琳娜; Gélínnà)

Voiced by: Tsumao (Chinese); Nao Tōyama (Japanese); Jihyun Lee (Korean)

The Commander's former colleague from Griffin & Kryuger PMC, who has since become a bureaucrat at the Non-Military Forces Administration.

Lenna (莱娜; Láinà)

Voiced by: Hou Xiaofei (Chinese); Mamiko Noto (Japanese)

Formerly known as UMP9 in Girls' Frontline and prior to changing her name, Lenna is a combat T-Doll formerly subordinate to the Commander at Griffin & Kryuger, and now reports to Kalina.

Poludnitsa (佩妮泽; Pèinīzé)

A famed underground broker in Eastern Europe.

Saga (萨珈; Sàjiā)

An underground broker based near the Black Sea.

During a livestream in May 2020 celebrating the fourth anniversary of Girls' Frontline, game producer Yuzhong announced four new games set within the Girls' Frontline universe. Girls' Frontline 2 was described as a tactical game with exploration and character progression mechanics.^[49]

Yuzhong states in a 2021 interview that Girls' Frontline 2 is the studio's first attempt at creating a 3D game.^[50] As a departure from the previous game's simpler design, Girls' Frontline 2 utilises a freely adjustable third-person top-down perspective. The production team also combined the usage of more realistic-looking physically based rendering for objects and environments alongside the non-photorealistic rendering of animesque characters as part of their design of the game's aesthetic, seamlessly combining the characteristics of moe and realism together without breaking immersion.^[2][51][1] Battle maps with a variety of indoor and outdoor settings were created, along with variations in time-of-day and season, to create an atmosphere of realism for the game's post-apocalyptic wasteland setting.^[52]

MICA Team states in an interview that the development cost for the game exceeds 100 million renminbi.^[2]

Development of Girls' Frontline 2 was first announced in May 2020, and the game received content review approval from the General Administration of Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China in March 2023.^[53] The game underwent numerous successive stages of closed beta testing on 29 June 2021,^[54] 18 October 2021,^[55] 20 July 2023,^[56] and 28 September 2023,^[57] and was released in China on 21 December 2023.^[1]

An English localisation for the game was announced on 20 July 2024,^[58] with pre-registrations commencing on 24 September 2024.^[59][60] The game was released in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and various other countries on 3 December 2024 (under the publisher Darkwinter Software),^[61][2] and in most European countries, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and various other countries on 5 December 2024 (under the publisher HaoPlay).^[62][63]

Pre-registrations for the Chinese version exceeded 4.74 million players prior to the game's release.^[52] On the game's day of launch in China, Girls' Frontline 2 reached the top 2 rank among all charting free-to-play games.^[50] On 6 December 2024, Game producer Yuzhong announced that two million players joined the western release of the game on its first day.^[64]

A review for the Chinese version of the game by Gcores praises the game's aesthetics and animation quality.^[65] Similarly, Youxi Putao makes a positive note on the animation and use of camera perspective for the game's exposition sequences, and that the game differentiates itself well from other animesque tactical games on the market.^[66]

• Official website (Sunborn/Darkwinter server)
• Official website (Haoplay server)
• Official website (China server)