Those who are seeking out a challenging action RPG on the Nintendo Switch should give Warlocks 2: God Slayers a shot. It's just hard to recommend the game based on its tedious control scheme and slow moment-to-moment gameplay.
Jumping into any sequel without playing the original game is a mistake any gamer has made, and is usually an egregious one when hopping into any action RPG sequel. However, over the last several years those sorts of mistakes have been alleviated with developers implementing smaller learning curves to get into their sequels even if you haven’t played the original game. I figured the same would be true for myself with Warlocks 2: God Slayers; unfortunately that was not the case.
Gameplay
Warlocks 2: God Slayers is a side-scrolling action RPG, with an extra emphasis on the RPG side of things. Players are dropped into the world with very little on their back, and only one spell to take enemies head-on with. Initially I figured that lack of attacking spells made sense for the story, but that thought quickly dissipated due to the frustrating and tedious moment-to-moment gameplay. Being on the Switch, I found many of the button mappings to be a headache (I don’t feel like I can move while using spells), while also being tediously slow for the early-level Warlocks. Like most RPGs, leveling up is super important to improving the gameplay; but it’s the moment-to-moment early-game that really needs to lock players in to feel engaged.
Warlocks 2 utilizes a sort-of “twin-stick” shooter style of gameplay for its spells that gets very cumbersome on the Switch. Having to aim, attack and move all at the same time in a side-scrolling game is entirely frustrating, and often led to the death of my character. Certainly it requires many hours of practice to master playing any one of the five Warlocks, but I never found the game enjoyable to play longer than an hour or two at a time. It could be the simple nature of the hardware I was playing on, but with Warlocks 2 I never felt a sense of gameplay progression if I played for an extended amount of time.
The game does support co-op play, but unfortunately DigitalChumps only has two Nintendo Switch reviewers and we were unable to test out this section of the game. However, it is quite apparent that the game was designed for co-op play in mind, as many of the levels are entirely too difficult for solo-play.
Visuals
Warlocks 2 uses the similar pixel-art style that many side-scrolling RPGs use. It’s pretty, not taxing on the Switch, and offers enough visual flair to keep things interesting. Enemies are varied visually, with each having their own sets of difficult attacks. I never felt that an environment or enemy was ever re-hashed 
while playing; a mistake many RPGs of this nature fail at. Some characters and environments are charming enough to live within the world of Warlocks 2, but I can’t help but feel that many of the side characters are forgettable.
Overall
Warlocks 2: God Slayers is a tedious action-RPG that will certainly satisfy those who seek out a challenge on the Nintendo Switch. It’s not necessarily the first game of its genre that I would recommend for people who are interested in the genre, but it’s certainly not the last. The tedious button mappings on the JoyCons with the slow moment-to-moment gameplay makes it an action-RPG that’s fun to play in short bursts, but not for long periods of time.
