Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 Review

Have you ever wondered what life would be like in the private military company in a war-torn “Eastern Europe”? What would your days be like, constantly fighting a war against mechanized enemies while your own government layers more and more financial burdens on you as a citizen? Do you also happen to like anime girls? Well, Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 may be the game for you!

Developed by Hinyari9 and released on Steam in August 2024, and coming to the Nintendo Switch and other consoles on February 13th, 2025, Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 is a direct sequel to the 2021 release of Marfusha: Sentinel Girls. The game, despite its deep story, consists of very minimal gameplay controls – moving, aiming, shooting your weapon, and deploying a wide array of tech and gadgets to aid in your gameplay.

The Story

As I noted above, Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 is a direct sequel to Marfusha: Sentinel Girls. In this game, you play as Snezhinka, Marfusha's younger sister. Marfusha, a member of the elite Molten Iron Squadron in the Kazormian Army, has been fighting in the war for years. One day, Snezhinka loses contact with her sister, prompting her to try and bring her home. And in the country of Kazormia, there is only one way to see this done – go to the front lines. The only way to do this – enlist in the private military company, Blue Peacock Company.

Now, we're not going to dig into game endings and plot because, well, we can't – Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 has multiple endings! Each of these endings depend upon two things: which recruited companions you have selected in the game and which route we take in terms of our deployment. Each route has not only its own unique twists and turns, but also highlights the growth and backgrounds of our companions in the Blue Peacock Company. All in all – there appears to be 9 unique endings to the game. I managed to complete five of them in the time I had with this game.

The Gameplay

As I mentioned earlier, the game has some pretty simplistic controls – you move, you aim, you shoot, and you deploy gadgets on the battlefield. Each day, your mission is to have Snezhinka defend a certain objective on the map that she has been assigned to and your only mission – protect that point from the waves of mech enemies. Scattered throughout your days of combat will be changing mechanized enemies, as well as various "bosses" that must be defeated, each of which have their own specific combat style and methods for dispatching them.

At the end of the day, you can use your pay from Blue Peacock to:

Purchase Upgrades for your weapon (Attack, Firing Rate, Magazine Capacity, Reloading Speed, Knockback, and Cooldown Reduction);
Buy Gadgets to deploy on the battlefield;
Select New Weapons; and
Recruit and Level Up Companions.

There's a catch though – the glorious country or Kazormia, despite what the media says, taxes you a LOT. So whatever pay you may make each day, you'll be left with a paltry sum after tax deductions and other needed payments. Also, what if the objective you were defending gets damaged. Guess what? Those repairs costs come from your pay! One last thing to keep in mind as well – your weapons, while powerful, will not last forever. Consequently, you will have to purchase new weapons periodically. Your weapon breaks during combat if you don’t check your durability and leaves you stuck with a measly peashooter.

The Barracks

Throughout the days that progress, you will also have moments where you spend your evenings at the Blue Peacock Barracks. These times serve as a brief reprieve from burdens of war. They also serve as other opportunities for Snezhinka to level up her stats and gain extra benefits. While in the barracks, you can:

Take a Side Job: Gain 3 credits
Get a Meal from the Automat: A meal will randomly raise your stats (or not, if you're unlucky)
Get a Snack from the Vending Machine: Snacks raise your Magazine Capacity
Sleep: Just good for the soul
Take a Shower: Showers raise your Reloading Speed by 1
Clean the Bathroom: Cleaning up the restroom will set your Gadget Cooldown to 0

Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 Barracks — The Barracks of Blue Peacock Company

The Companions

I mentioned Companions earlier. Snezhinka can recruit one Companion to fight with her in the field and each girl has their own unique backstory, as well as combat style. Overall, you'll have seven girls to choose from: Lisichka, Abrek, Dezik, Dochka, Krasavka, Hector, and Anita. Along with a unique story to tell, each Companion also brings with them their own individually crafted ending.

Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 Alternative Ending — Someone’s hands – but who?

Now, all of what I have mentioned above applies to the Story Mode of the game. Story Mode also comes in three levels of Difficulty: Easy, Normal, and Hard. I did not get a chance to try my hand at Hard Mode, but Normal felt...a little too easy for my tastes? But then again – I don't know what the jump to Hard was like.

And then we have Challenge Mode – fight as long as you can against harder and harder waves of enemies in two different settings: Gate Defense and Power Plant Defense. You still get access to the day-end purchases and occasional Barracks access, but none of the story. You might ask yourself "Why bother doing the Challenge Mode?" For bragging rights in the online rankings – what else!

The Good

First thing I want to discuss – I really enjoyed the artwork of this game and the 2.5D pixel art of the game captured me. I also found some additional artwork in the Gallery of the Main Menu, which just...chef's kiss.

The game featured music that really captured the somewhat hectic nature of the combat. And while not on the Switch, the soundtrack is available for purchase on Steam! I have never before bought a game's soundtrack on Steam...but I am tempted.

The gameplay controls were very intuitive and honestly, I was able to fall right into the gameplay vibe of moving and shooting. I will admit though – you can manually aim your weapon in game – I never did.

It also goes without saying – the story was phenomenal and I truly enjoyed the varied endings that I was able to explore. And I can promise – the different endings are not just "this character has some different dialogue" – they are TRUE different endings that provide a very unique conclusion of each story path.

The Bad

I honestly kind of struggle to find some things to critique about this game. But no game is perfect and I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't pinpoint some of the things that I didn't like.

One of the first things I noticed is the Gadgets that the player can purchase. While they are varied in terms of how they can support Snezhinka, I rarely (if ever) was purchasing them during my runs of the game and focused solely on upgrading my stats. So maybe not bad, just a "I didn't play in this style" matter.

I also found the length of the gameplay somewhat disappointing. I think that each of the runs that I completed only took...45 minutes to 1 hour? Taking into account that there are about 9 endings, this only leads to about 9ish hours of gameplay. So again...not bad...just disappointing that it's so short. I definitely would love to have seen more of the world be explored in the game. Heck – I would read about this world, only because it seems so interesting.

The last point that I would like to make about the game is the difficulty. I noted earlier that I only tried out Normal Mode and I have to say, by the end of the game (depending on your build), the fights tend to be a cakewalk and don't put too much of a challenge on you (even with some of the end game bosses). That being said, there was ONE boss that definitely proved to be challenging...but spoilers, so I'll leave it at that.

The Overall

I normally tend to swing towards the cozier side of gaming. Give me your Animal Crossings, your Stardew Valleys. With that being said, though, I genuinely enjoyed this game! It presented a very compelling story and world that I would love to see more of. Hinyari9 also managed to sell me on a run-and-gun style of game, which is normally not my cup of tea.

Honest truth – give this game a chance – if the concept of making different builds doesn't sell you on this game, the story might win you over instead!

Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 will be available for purchase on the Switch on February 13th, 2025 for $11.99 and is still available for purchase on Steam for $7.99. Be sure you check it out, along with the other releases coming during the week of February 10th.