Hideo Kojima gets all the flowers for Metal Gear Solid, but honestly, his best work might’ve been a weird, lightning-fast robot game from 2003. It's called Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. Most people missed it. Those who played it generally haven't stopped talking about it for two decades.
It's fast.
Like, "I can't believe the PS2 didn't explode" fast.
While most developers back then were struggling to figure out how to make a camera work in a 3D space, Shuyo Murata and the team at Konami created a combat system that feels like you're playing an episode of a high-budget 90s anime. You aren't just piloting a mech; you’re an orbital frame. There’s a difference. Most mechs feel heavy and clunky, like driving a tank with legs. Zone of the Enders 2 makes you feel like a god of physics. You zip. You slash. You fire a hundred lasers at once while spinning in circles. It’s glorious.
The High-Speed Robot Combat That Refuses to Age
Let's get real about the mechanics. In a world of Armored Core VI and Gundam titles, why does a game from 2003 still feel so responsive? It comes down to "Vector Cannon" philosophy. Everything in the game is built around the idea of momentum. You’re playing as Dingo Egret—maybe the coolest name in gaming history—who finds the Jehuty orbital frame buried in ice on Callisto.
From the second you boot it up, the controls are buttery. You have a shot button and a blade button. Simple, right? Wrong. The genius is in the context. If you’re far away, you shoot. If you’re close, you swing a sword. If you’re dashing while you shoot, you fire a burst of homing lasers. If you’re dashing while you swing, you do a lunging thrust. It’s intuitive in a way that modern games often overcomplicate with fifteen different skill trees.
People often complain that "character action" games are too hard to learn. They look at Devil May Cry or Bayonetta and see a mountain of combos they’ll never master. Zone of the Enders 2 takes a different path. It gives you a limited toolkit but makes every tool feel incredibly powerful. You can grab almost anything in the environment—a pipe, a shipping container, even a literal enemy—and use it as a club or a shield.
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The scale is also just... massive.
The "Aumaan Crevasse" battle is the stuff of legend. You are one tiny robot fighting against literally thousands of enemy units. The screen is a mess of neon blue and orange explosions. In 2003, this should have been impossible. It’s a feat of programming that Konami managed to keep the framerate (mostly) stable while rendering that much chaos. Even the 2018 VR remaster, Mars, struggles to capture the sheer "how did they do this?" energy of the original hardware release.
Why the Story of Dingo and Jehuty Actually Hits
Usually, mech stories are boring political dramas about space colonies and tax disputes. Gundam loves a good trade embargo. Zone of the Enders 2 is personal. It’s about a guy who is literally kept alive by the robot he's piloting.
Dingo gets shot. He’s dying. The only way to keep his heart beating is to plug his life support directly into Jehuty’s battery. If he leaves the cockpit, he dies. Talk about stakes. It creates this claustrophobic, intimate connection between the pilot and the machine. You aren't just playing a level; you're surviving.
Then you have ADA.
She's the AI inside Jehuty. Over the course of the game, she goes from a cold, logical computer to something that feels almost human. It’s a trope, sure, but the voice acting (even the slightly cheesy early 2000s dub) makes it work. When ADA tells you "I will prioritize your survival," it feels earned.
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The villain, Nohman, is basically a nihilist who wants to blow up the universe because he's bored and powerful. Classic Kojima production vibes. He pilots Anubis, the sister frame to Jehuty. Anubis is terrifying. In the first game, you couldn't even touch him. He would just teleport behind you and end your life. In the sequel, the whole game is a slow-burn power fantasy leading up to the moment you can finally stand toe-to-toe with him.
Breaking Down the Sub-Weapon System
Forget standard loadouts. The sub-weapons in this game are basically "cheats" that the game encourages you to use.
- Gauntlet: Knocks enemies back into walls for extra damage.
- Comet: A homing ball of energy that bounces between targets.
- Decoy: Creates a hologram of yourself to trick missiles.
- Zero Shift: This is the big one. It’s a short-range teleport that puts you instantly in front of an enemy.
Once you get Zero Shift, the game stops being a shooter and becomes a massacre. You become the teleporting nightmare that Anubis was in the first game. It is arguably the most satisfying power-up in the history of the genre.
The Visual Identity of Yoji Shinkawa
We have to talk about the art. Yoji Shinkawa, the lead character and mechanical designer, is a genius. You know him from the scratchy, ink-heavy concept art for Metal Gear Solid. For Zone of the Enders 2, he went full futuristic-Egyptian-mythology.
Jehuty doesn't look like a robot. It looks like a living thing made of metal. It has a "cockpit" located in a... suggestive place (it's called a Cockpit for a reason, Shinkawa has joked). The wings are made of light. The way the armor plates shift when you move makes it feel organic.
The cel-shaded look was a bold choice in 2003. Most games were chasing "realism," which usually meant brown textures and jagged edges. By going with a stylized, anime-inspired look, Konami ensured the game would never look "old." If you play the M∀RS edition today on a 4K monitor, it looks like a modern indie hit. The colors pop. The line work is sharp. It’s a masterclass in art direction over raw polygon count.
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What Most People Get Wrong About the Difficulty
There’s this myth that Zone of the Enders 2 is a "button masher."
If you play on Easy, maybe. But try playing on Hard or Extreme. The game transforms. You realize that you can't just swing your sword wildly. Enemies will parry you. They will surround you. You have to learn the "Rock-Paper-Scissors" of the combat.
- Enemies with shields? Use the Burst attack to break their guard.
- Fast enemies? Use the Wisp sub-weapon to pin them down.
- Giant fleets? Use the Vector Cannon, which requires you to stand still for several seconds while a massive cannon unfolds from your back.
The Vector Cannon is the coolest weapon in gaming. Period. It takes like five seconds to charge. In a game this fast, five seconds is an eternity. You have to find a window, plant your feet, and watch the entire screen turn white. It’s a gamble every time you use it. That’s good game design. It’s about risk and reward, not just looking cool.
The Problem With the PS3 Collection
If you're looking to play this today, be careful. The Zone of the Enders HD Collection that came out on PS3 and Xbox 360 was a disaster at launch. It was developed by High Voltage Software, and it ran like garbage. The framerate would dip into the teens during the big battles, which is a death sentence for a game built on speed.
Konami eventually hired HexaDrive to fix the PS3 version. They basically rewrote the engine. If you're playing on PS3, make sure you download the massive patch. Or, better yet, just get the Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner M∀RS version on PC or PS4. That one was handled by Cygames and it’s the definitive way to play. It even includes a "Very Easy" mode for people who just want to see the explosions, and a VR mode that is honestly a bit nauseating but incredibly immersive.
Actionable Steps for New Pilots
If you've never touched this series, don't start with the first game. Honestly. The first Zone of the Enders is basically a tech demo. It’s short, repetitive, and the protagonist, Leo Stenbuck, is a whiny kid who spends the whole game crying.
- Jump straight into The 2nd Runner. The game has a "Previously On" summary that tells you everything you need to know.
- Switch to Pro Control Mode. The "Legacy" controls are a bit wonky for modern thumbs. Pro mode maps the dash to the trigger, which feels much more natural.
- Master the Grab. Most players forget you can grab enemies. It’s the fastest way to deal with shielded opponents and gives you invincibility frames during the animation.
- Listen to the Soundtrack. Beyond the game, the music by Maki Kirioka is incredible. "Beyond the Bounds" is a legitimate banger that mixes techno, orchestral, and weirdly beautiful vocals.
Zone of the Enders 2 represents a time when Konami was willing to take massive risks. It’s a weird, flamboyant, hyper-aggressive game that doesn't care if you can keep up. It’s short—you can beat it in about six or seven hours—but it’s all killer, no filler. No open-world bloat. No side quests where you have to find ten space-flowers. Just pure, unadulterated robot violence.
If you want to understand why people still worship the Kojima-era Konami, this is the game to play. It’s the peak of the "High Speed Robot Action" subgenre, and frankly, nothing has topped it since. Check the digital stores or look for a physical copy of the M∀RS edition. Your eyes will hurt from the flashes, and your thumbs will be sore, but you’ll get it. You'll finally see why we're all still waiting for a third game that will probably never come.