Comic Party Wars 2/Getting Started

This game's setup is weird and its mechanics have a lot of... interesting quirks. Reading on is recommended for anyone trying to run the game for the first time.

Getting the Game

This game needs a few supporting programs to work properly on modern non-Japanese machines. And may God help you if you want to run the game on anything other than Windows.

Required Downloads

CPW2 OR All-In-One Download

Recommended Downloads

Not needed if getting the all-in-one, but potentially more up to date. (To download software from GitHub, expand the "Assets" dropdown on the most recent release, and pick the file archive appropriate for your system (i.e. NOT the source code).

• AntiMicroX - Used to circumvent bugs with the game's input handler
• Locale Emulator - Used to circumvent a bug that prevents the game from launching on non-Japanese locales
• LilithPort - An option for online play
• Parsec - Another option for online play

AntiMicroX

2D Fighter Maker 95 games, including CPW2, do technically have native support for joysticks. The game does not play nicely with all sticks, however, and will, depending on the stick, read all directionals as double taps, making all movement come out as dashes and backdashes. In addition, when the game has joystick input enabled and 2 joysticks are not plugged in, the game lags pretty horribly. For these reasons, it is easiest to use a program like AntiMicroX or JoyToKey to translate joystick input to keyboard input to avoid the hassle altogether. To use, open the program alongside the game and configure the inputs you want on your controller to correspond to the keys on the keyboard that the game's binds are set to. See Controls.

Locale Emulator

Comic Party Wars 2 was a game developed for Japanese systems, and unsurprisingly, uses Japanese characters in its programming. These characters are not decoded properly by computers not set to use a Japanese locale, and so the game will crash immediately on launch. Locale emulator allows these characters to be decoded properly, preventing the game from outright crashing on startup. To use Locale Emulator, install it and either restart your computer or restart windows explorer through task manager. Once, this is done, launch ＣＰＷ.exe through Locale Emulator's right click context menu. This program is not strictly necessary, but exists as an alternative to changing your system locale. If you'd prefer to do that instead of downloading this program, open Control Panel > Clock and Region > Region > Administrative > Change system locale and select Japanese. A restart is required for this to take effect.

LilithPort

LilithPort is one option for online play. It requires more setup than Parsec, but in return offers a fairer experience. It requires that either you or the person you want to play against be able to forward a port on your router. Tutorials for that are highly hardware-specific and can be found online. It also cannot be used in conjunction with Locale Emulator, so both players must change their system locale to Japanese for the game to run. To use LilithPort:

1. One player must launch LilithPort in server mode listening on a forwarded port. The other player must join that same port using the IPv4 address of the hosting player after they have begun hosting. Your IPv4 address will be displayed to you when hosting the server.
2. Both players should have their games configured to have them as P1 (i.e. your combination of AntiMicroX and ingame bindings should both have you receiving inputs locally as player 1).
3. Set the game path to ＣＰＷ.exe when prompted, and right click on a player's name in the sidebar in order to fight them.

Parsec

Parsec is the other option for online play. It requires much less setup, but offers the session host a significant advantage, as their inputs will not be delayed at all compared to the client. To use, download and install Parsec, and make an account. Exchange account information with whoever you want to play with, and one of you can then host the other. Once this is done, pressing any buttons on a controller will cause it to be registered on the host's end, so this controller can be used with AntiMicroX (recommended) or directly with the game (not recommended).

Optional Downloads

• Borderless Gaming - A program that allows for an almost-fullscreen experience with proper setup.

Borderless Gaming

Borderless Gaming is a program that, when run alongside other windows as configured inside of Borderless Gaming, automatically resizes and hides certain elements, potentially including the title bar and the taskbar. To set up Borderless Gaming for CPW2, have both programs running at the same time and right click ＣＰＷ on the left to add CPW2 as a favorite by the process binary name. Once on the list of favorites, right click ＣＰＷ on the right to select whatever options appeal to you.

Once In-Game

The game only has 2 modes: Arcade and Versus (in that order). To use "training mode", go to versus mode and select P2 as the character that's just a sprite of Mizuki, not a portrait like every other character; she should be to the left of Mizuki or the right of Eimi. To exit training mode, either close and restart the game or have the dummy kill you, though the only attacks the dummy can do are universal overhead and throw.

The game has a few settings that can be changed in Options > Game in the title bar.

• The drop down menu changes the stage and music (unless someone is playing Eimi, who has her own theme).
• The first slider changes the speed of the game inversely proportional to the value selected with 10 as default (e.g. selecting 1 will make the game go at 10x speed, selecting 20 will make the game go at half speed).
• The second slider changes the round timer, with 0 being infinite.
• The first tick box enables hitbox display.
• The second tick box enables the frame counter.
• The third tick box enables joystick input. Leave this one off for the reasons mentioned above in the AntiMicroX section and below.

I recommend stretching the window in order to cover a 4:3 region on the screen or using a program such as Borderless Gaming, as full screen does not work properly.

Known Bugs

The game will run extremely poorly if Joystick input has been turned on and there are fewer than 2 joysticks connected. This is why it's turned off by default and why it's recommended to use AntiMicroX. On some machines, the MIDI soundtrack will not play unless the game is run in compatibility mode or as administrator. This can be a good thing due to the next bug. This can be intentionally replicated by running the game in certain compatibility modes. If you find one that works on your machine, please add a note here, as mine already works like this by default. If the MIDI soundtrack does work, any time a track should start playing (such as on round start or immediately after certain moves that stop the music, including Eimi's throw and time stop super), the game freezes for a few seconds.