RS2 News (Mar 2018)

We're into March (although you wouldn't know it when I look out the window!) and it's time for another round-up of the latest goings-on in Restaurant Story 2. Since my last update we've seen one cruise event come and go, another bring something a little different, and Lani with her predictable goals, as ever.

But before all that I'd like to briefly discuss a new version of the sequel title on iOS. Released on 8th February, the App Store promised 'bug fixes' and 'performance improvements' had been implemented. In fairness to Storm8 I can't actually think of what these could possibly consist of given that there aren't really many glitches currently in the game, at least from my experience.

App update for iOS in App Store

To date I've only downloaded the update on my secondary device (always very wary of things going wrong with updates!) and have found just a couple of noticeable changes. First of all the Social and Messages window icons have been shifted from the top of the screen to the bottom right corner next to the Market button. Not sure what this achieves, but it certainly takes a little time to get accustomed to.

The second change is the introduction of the free gems feature which has been added to Restaurant Story (and other Storm8 titles) in recent weeks and months. I don't think I ever got round to mentioning it on here for the original game, but this is a feature run by an outside company which gives players the opportunity to earn premium currency by completing a variety of tasks, ranging from watching trailers and completing surveys to downloading other apps and making deposits.

This certainly opens up more ways to earn additional gems, if you can be bothered. I've found it to be a slightly cumbersome system and had a bad experience with it in Restaurant Story early doors when not receiving a reward for one of the tasks where the goal was to reach a particular level in another game. Of course you can always drop an email to the provider to try and resolve the situation, but life it too short.

Luckily the classic free gem videos remain available on iOS, so we do still have that avenue for earning more gems which then can't be spent on anything useful!

To some of the recent events then, starting with the Winter Olympic themed cruise event. Aligned with the real thing in Pyeongchang, at first glance it seemed quite exciting that we were getting a cruise centred on a current event. However it soon became apparent that the gamemakers had just reused the content from the Rio 2016 cruise - and that was a summer Games! Recycling is obviously standard practice these days in Restaurant Story 2, but I felt that this was a particularly nasty instance of it.

Main window for Winter Olympics themed cruise event

A poor performance in the last couple of days meant that I looked set to miss out on a medal, but a flurry of 60 quick serves and 37 gems (the latter mostly spent on forcing the restock of Peppers which were insistent on cropping up again and again!) meant that I did eventually make the podium.

The final prize was the Go for the Gold Cookies, located on the Jubilee Oven. In line with the rest of the cruise, Miguel from the 2016 edition was back again, providing the Torch which I'd already accumulated over 1000 of in the two-and-a-half years since its introduction. The cookies call for 8 Torches, 2 European Butter and 2 Sugar with the middle one of those a stamp ingredient. Always a mark against a recipe for me - I'll never master all these stamp oriented prize dishes!

Before we got to the next cruise event there was a batch of stamp goals from Lani. This was actually her second lot of the month, and I'm pleased to report that I completed five out of the six she offered up in February. The only one I didn't partake in was the one yielding two silver stamps in the second batch given that this requested the Grilled Gold, a European Butter hungry recipe. I'm so tight on the use of the stamp ingredients that I even refresh them in the early days of the cruises!

 RS2 News

 03/02/18 February 2018
 13/01/18 January 2018
 02/12/17 December 2017
 04/11/17 November 2017
 14/10/17 October 2017

Now to the current event which concludes this weekend. The Lunar New Year cruise event was released in the early hours of last Saturday morning UK time, which meant that I wasn't able to kick it off until after reset time. The result of that is a Monday finish for me which will probably mean a not so pleasant quick serve and gem spend.

We're battling for right to have Barktholomew Chowington (it is the year of the dog after all!) visit our restaurants and deliver the Red Packet, with this special ingredient feeding into the Golden Dumplings on the Celebration Stove. There's good news regarding this dish - the stamp ingredient it devours is Duck Eggs, which being the main drop from bronze stamps is much easier to come by. I have 125 in the pantry at the time of writing!

But the real success story of this cruise lies with the side goal chain. Usually this is a monotonous and dull string of steps with a gold stamp awaiting at the end of it, but not this time. We have a new ingredient! The Paper Lantern is a time limited addition to the General Store with a 2 hour refresh time. It's been a long wait for a new ingredients so this is a real treat!

General Store including Paper Lantern

The Paper Lantern is among the necessaries for the Auspicious Fish on the Diner Stove and the Prosperous Spring Rolls on the Diner Oven, both new recipes which are around for a limited time. It's great to see new dishes added outside of the two prize appliances again and greater still that the only other ingredients they need are Eggs and Tomatoes. This makes for a relatively easy challenge running alongside the cruise, especially given that the mastery requirements of both are not all that high.

The only negatives I can pull from these side goals is that there's a decoration reward at the end rather than a valuable gold stamp, and Paper Lanterns are a prize on three of the 10 days of the cruise, thus meaning fewer stamp opportunities. However this is balanced out by the fact that day eight is providing four gold stamps, which may be unprecedented.

It's fair to say that I am pretty happy with this current event. And I haven't said that in a long time. That makes it all the more baffling that I'm well behind schedule having just finished day seven halfway through what is my day eight! But hopefully we see more invention in the coming weeks as it has certainly brought me out of my Restaurant Story 2 stupor.

RS2 News (Feb 2018)

We're into a new month, and that means it's time once again for a rundown of all the goings-on in the sequel title, Restaurant Story 2. The period since my last round-up has not been all that frantic - this is largely a quirk of the timing, with two cruise events and a batch of goals from the ever dependable Lani.

The first of those cruises saw actor Kevin Bacon being immortalised in the game as Kevin B. Acken. What an honour for the guy, the second occasion homage has been paid to him! But the last time it was a a goal set, so technically speaking this bacon themed cruise event was not a repeat.

Introduction to bacon themed cruise event

RS2 News (Jan 2018)

It's time for my first monthly moan of 2018 on the topic of Restaurant Story 2. In fairness it's been a fairly active month in the sequel game, with two new cruise events and two batches of goals from Lani.

But we begin with the winter cruise event which kicked off just before my previous news post at the start of December. Although the content available via this challenge wasn't new, it was the first time it had featured in a cruise event, which is more than can be said for most of the cruises in recent times.

Yancy the Yeti was the special guest we were aiming to unlock, and I did so after a four gem spend on the final day to force a restock of Potatoes. Otherwise it was a reasonably comfortable one for me, although as has become customary the wait for Yancy to show his face was less comfortable. I tend to find that a new visitor appears very infrequently early on - that could be because there are now so many special guests, but it could also be an underlying issue in the game's mechanics.

RS2 News (Dec 2017)

Four weeks on from the last round-up, here's my breakdown of the latest events in the sequel title, Restaurant Story 2. Up for discussion are three cruises, two sets of goals from Lani and a partridge in a pear tree (also known as a Black Friday damp squib!)

The Thanksgiving cruise event was just getting under way at the time of my previous report, with plenty of familiar decor up for grabs.

Notification for Thanksgiving cruise event

Even the character who we were battling to unlock was a familiar one - Tommy the Turkey was supposedly the cousin of Timmy the Turkey who was the special guest unlocked at the climax of the equivalent cruise back in November 2015.

RS2 News (Nov 2017)

It's that time of the month where I throw a tantrum over the state of Restaurant Story 2. Since the Rock Star Life cruise event (which I covered in last month's edition) we've had one cruise, have started another, and endured two more batches of Lani's tedious tasks.

So let's cast our minds back to the Halloween cruise event which arrived late on Friday 20th October. The increasingly late start times for events not only in the sequel game but also the original is frustrating for me. Here in the UK it can be midnight or later before stuff drops, and despite typically still being up at that time I tend to miss the beginning of cruise events.

Main window of Halloween cruise event

RS2 News (Oct 2017)

It's been a while now since my previous round-up of the activity in Restaurant Story 2, so let the discussion commence.

This is perfectly summarised by a new collection of goals from Lani (the 21st edition) which followed the same structure and procedure as always. I am now set in my ways with Lani and her boring tasks - I complete the gold stamp goal and ignore the two silver stamp goals. Strangely the gold stamp goal is typically the simplest of the three, with the difficulty I suppose attributed to the shorter time-frame. But with the flexibility to choose our own start point this is generally an easy gold stamp.

Something needs to change with stamp accumulation. Lani has very much run her course and with more and more long standing players likely to be mastering all the stamp recipes, I think Storm8 need to be thinking about applying some innovation. Stamps can usually be gained from cruise events, but something more substantial is needed to freshen things up. And preferably not involving dear old Lani.

RS2 News (Sep 2017)

Here comes your monthly review of the latest goings on in the sequel title, Restaurant Story 2. When we last convened the Egyptian themed cruise event had just been released, and since has been followed by two more cruises as well as a pair of goal sets from Lani.

The Egyptian cruise was of course a re-release having first appeared in the game back in April 2015. As was the case then, a gem producing recipe was up for grabs as the final prize, with the Pistachio Basbousa situated on the Jubilee Oven.

Unlocking of Pistachio Basbousa

RS2 News (Aug 2017)

It's time for my monthly news bulletin for Restaurant Story 2, and there is plenty of water has passed under the bridge since my last update. One cruise has finished, another two have come and gone, and a fourth is now in progress. Add to that three more goal sets provided by Lani, and it's been a bumper month.

But don't get too excited. There's a familiar theme to proceedings, with content revisited and rehashed. We're at a point now where I'm debating whether these reviews are even worth bothering with since new news is actually old news. I guess the question is this - how long can Storm8 go on with this string of re-releases before either killing the game or breathing new life into it with fresh content?

RS2 News (Jul 2017)

It's been a month since my last Restaurant Story 2 round-up, and there's been a number of events which require some commentary during that time-frame.

First on the agenda is Lani's 14th set of goals.

Three silver stamp goal from Lani's 14th set of goals

The long run without Lani making an appearance is undoubtedly behind us now. After returning from a three month absence in late May we only had to wait a fortnight for another trio of goals. That last batch took a while for me to get used to having present, and consequently I didn't complete them within the time limit. No such carelessness this time. Progress was swift, with one gold and five silver stamps eventually headed my way.

RS2 News (Jun 2017)

The tumbleweed has been passing through in Restaurant Story over the past couple of weeks, with no update since the theatre themed goals were released. Luckily the sequel title, Restaurant Story 2, has done its best to keep us occupied, with two cruise events sandwiched by the return of Lani and her tasks.

The first of those cruises was the Madder Tea Party cruise event, which was a rehash of the Mad Tea Party themed cruise from May 2016.

Main page of Madder Tea Party cruise event

RS2 News (May 2017)

Good evening one and all. This is your monthly bulletin from everyone's favourite Storm8 sequel title, the great and mighty Restaurant Story 2. Is that enough of an intro for you?!

You may remember that last month I had very little to report thanks to a complete dearth of updates throughout March. Luckily things have picked up since then to some degree, with two cruise events sandwiching an Easter sale.

Let's start with the Wedding cruise event which broke new ground but not in a good way. A feeling of déjà vu would have been highly justified as this was the first case of a cruise being recycled for a second time. The wedding cruise first appeared in the game as one of the earliest cruise events back in July 2015, before returning in September 2016 for a second run.

RS2 News (Apr 2017)

This is your monthly digest of news from the sequel title, Restaurant Story 2. Or at least it should be.

When I provided my last round-up we were twiddling our thumbs having gone a fortnight without any new updates. Sadly our thumbs are worn out now as there has been absolutely nothing since then. That means that the Mardi Gras themed cruise initially released on 23rd February remains the last addition of any description to the game.

Now before I go any further a quick caveat - I actually wrote this post on Thursday as I'm away this weekend. So if there was in fact an update provided on Friday then this is all moot! (And a similar rule applies to the original game - any update between yesterday and this coming Tuesday won't be given the treatment until I'm home on Wednesday!)

RS2 News (Mar 2017)

It's that time of the month where we have a look back at the past month's activity in the sequel title, Restaurant Story 2. We are of course having a tough time at present in the original game, and the same can be said of the sequel too.

But before we get to the quiet, we have to deal with some busy. At the time of my last round-up, the Valentine's Day cruise event was in progress, with my uncharacteristic excitement stemming from the promise of the special guest - Frank - delivering Valentine Cards once unlocked. Why was this causing a buzz for me? Because back in February 2015 those Valentine Cards were key to a goal set. They were required to unlock recipes on the Valentine Oven, and I was unable to capture them all before the deadline.

The Heartberry Tart has remained unobtainable throughout the two years since, and yet it remains so. That's because the Valentine Cards produced by the gem making recipe are distinct from the 'Valentine' offered during that quest in 2015.

RS2 News (Feb 2017)

We've tiptoed into February, and so the time is ripe for another round-up of the latest goings-on in Restaurant Story 2. The past month has been all about recycling, with two cruise events and one quest all making use of content which has been seen before in the game.

The first such challenge was the Puppy Games cruise event launched on 5th January.

Notification for Puppy Games cruise event

The merging of puppies and the Super Bowl into a single theme occurred 12 months ago with a traditional goal set. This isn't the first case of a past event being adapted for a cruise, and nor would it be the last. At least in the case of this theme there is some benefit to having multiples of some of the prizes - the likes of the Puppy Team A and Puppy Team B are cute individually, but when placed together you can actually form a proper squad to take on the Patriots and Falcons! Anyone who already owns a set of them has the prospect of doing just that with another collection.

RS2 News (Jan 2017)

Time for the first summary of the shenanigans going on over in Restaurant Story 2 in 2017. And it looks like I'm turning over a new leaf in this new year with some positive comments about the sequel game! Don't get too excited though - there's an ample dollop of grumbling as well!

Two cruises have dominated since my last news post, with the first being the Wizard Wonderland cruise event.

Notification for Wizard Wonderland cruise event

This was essentially Storm8's take on the Harry Potter series, and for some players it may have seemed an odd choice of theme just over two weeks before Christmas. However I tend to think of the Harry Potter films as being quite a Christmassy thing to watch, perhaps influenced by the fact that all eight were aired here in the UK over the Christmas period on terrestrial TV.

RS2 News (Dec 2016)

It's four weeks since my last Restaurant Story 2 round-up, and since then we've seen more stamp goals provided by Lani, a Thanksgiving cruise event, a Black Friday sale, and the start of a Christmas quest. But there's something all too familiar with the challenges...

However we commence proceedings with a brief thought or two on the Australian cruise event which was in progress at the time of my last news post. As I anticipated, the decorations which could be obtained from navigating the various days of the event were of fine quality - Joey Roo and the Koala Climber are both immensely cute while the Watering Hole is a slightly more sinister version of the Oasis.

And the final prize was the permanent guest appearances of Crocodile Jack.

Unlocking of Crocodile Jack

RS2 News (Nov 2016)

This is your latest Restaurant Story 2 bulletin. The headlines over the past month include a pair of cruises - one themed on Halloween and the other on Australia - and another two batches of stamp goals starring the dependable Lani.

It's with the Halloween cruise event that we kick-off.

Notification for Masquerade Ball cruise event

This challenge docked in the game halfway through October and provided a slightly different take on Halloween. As far as Storm8 games are concerned we tend to associate Halloween updates with one of two sub-themes - trick or treating or monsters. Typically everything can be associated with one of these categories, yet this cruise diverged from the norm.

RS2 News (Oct 2016)

Now that we're into October, another Restaurant Story 2 round-up is due. Since my last update, there's not been the variety of events we'd all like, but with a cruise and some stamp collecting opportunities, it hasn't been all quiet in the sequel game.

It's with the wedding cruise event we begin.

Main page of wedding cruise event

RS2 News (Sep 2016)

When we last met to discuss the highs and lows of Restaurant Story 2 there was grave concern at an update famine. Since then we've had another cruise event plus a fresh batch of stamp recipes along with some nice ways to earn those precious stamps that allow these high yielding dishes to be capitalised upon.

So following the under the sea themed cruise launched in mid-July, there was no further new content for four weeks. In some ways this wasn't as horrendous as it may sound, partly because the cruise does typically get a two week slot anyway to allow players the opportunity to start at a later date if they so wish.

And to be honest the drought suited me just fine. As much as I do enjoy the challenge the quests bring, it can get stressful and very time consuming. So following completion of the under the sea cruise I found myself relishing the opportunity to focus on mastering the many permanent dishes and learning more of the stamp recipes.

RS2 News (Aug 2016)

It's once again time to check in on the sequel title, Restaurant Story 2. Surprisingly it's been a quieter few weeks since my last update, with Storm8 taking a couple of week off. More on that later, but first we have the conclusion of a quest and a cruise event to discuss.

The quest in question is the Wild West goals. It seems like a lifetime ago now that we were all frantically collecting Ten Gallon Hats in a bid to stash enough to polish off the challenge. Those hats came with just about every recipe cooked, and were soon racking up. However with 22,000 required to complete the final goal this was a tough quest.

There were some hat boosts available for cooking certain recipes and from certain appliances, and at the time of my previous review I was struggling with the last of them - the Cowboy Coffee. Well, in the end I just couldn't gather sufficient Sugar to produce enough of the coffee, thus meaning I missed out on 1,000 precious hats. But would this prevent me getting over the finish line in the goals as a whole?