Can't give it a perfect right now, as it's not even considered finished by the developer yet, but honestly, it's a hell of a lot closer than I expected. Everything feels like Miro has become something of an indie master at this point. While there are still plenty of derivative elements from media they love here, it feels even more uniquely its own thing than the first, with quite a bit less than expected that I can describe as "just X character/thing from Y", for a game with this title with The Funny Moon right on the cover. The thematic lore/broad plot writing is just as solid as it was in the first game, and while it's even more cryptic than the first game, it's so brilliantly blended together with the gameplay and setting design this time that I'm honestly in awe.
That blending of gameplay, thematic storytelling, and map design is one of two elements that really makes this game so fantastic. I honestly can't imagine a battle royale game that does this better- the first time I killed a character (O'saa, who I accidentally aggro'd but I was sure would have been recruitable anyway later) that wasn't mutated, I felt intense remorse, but because of how sparse saves are and how tight the time limit feels, I couldn't bring myself to reset and lose over an hour of progress. So I pressed on, and became FAR stronger thanks to the benefits killing him gave me, this incident probably leading to my success. Despite being pretty strictly scripted, on a blind run (and the next couple after that), many elements of the game feel emergent- I knew August would show up after fighting Moonless on a second run, for example, but it still surprised me, because I thought he was off elsewhere. This psuedo-emergent design and matching map building feels perfectly tied to the feeling of desperation for community and belonging that the game winds up largely being about- a belonging that, as the transition from night 2 to day 3 surprised and devastated me with, can be shattered in a moment thanks to circumstances beyond our control.
A game about community and the desperate modern urge for belonging would mean absolutely nothing, though, if not for fantastic character writing, and holy shit this game has that. None of the characters are done being developed yet, says the developer, who is currently adding details to all of their backgrounds- and I can't fucking wait for more. Even with what we have right now, these characters feel alive, so much so that an unexpected kidnapping on morning 3 left me sitting dead-eyed for ten minutes, trying to decide what the hell to do.
This is a god-awful ramble, but I just adore this game. Everything works together so perfectly, building on everything (mechanically, thematically, and literally) that the first game created, and it ends up being one of my favorite RPGs in years.
One of the only criticisms I'll give it is that the changed setting and different themes makes the sexual horror of the game feel less justifiable than in the first. There's one fight in particular- a priest- where the sexual element feels entirely gratuitous, unexpected in a way that made my eyes roll in annoyance, something neither game had ever made me do before. It's the only instance of implied sexual abuse of children, and it feels entirely unjustified and without any relevance. It's the only time in either game I felt like something was there just for the shock factor, and it's a shame, because it comes at the end of a very solid, atmospheric level. The game is still fantastic, but god, Miro's amateur-ness still does poke through sometimes, doesn't it? I admire that about their work, but almost every other time in the series, it at least still reads as thematically justified and horrific in ways that the game has built up to.
Game's great, though, and I can't wait for update 2.0.
Funger.

Really good, not just in spite of but in a lot of ways because of the Edge. Some of it really does still feel unnecessary, even after several runs, but it's still very effective. The intentionally cruel difficulty is offputting, and I really can't count how many times I just wiped in the early game those first blind runs. Once I learned through that, though, it really does have this fantastic feeling of progression and piecing things together, some of the best cryptic Souls-style storytelling-through-gameplay-and-fragmented-lore I've seen in a while, and probably The best in a horror game. Definitely technically weaker than the sequel, and the character writing leaves more than a little to be desired, but what's great is absolutely fantastic, especially for a one-person game. The way that Miro managed to craft together something genuinely unique out of SO many referential elements is impressive on its own- for a game that's so derivative, it ends up becoming a beautiful thing of its own by the end. Funger.

Peak. Don't want to write a big, detailed review at the moment, but I might eventually. Regardless, the unique ways this setting oppresses its citizens, and the ways that the game discusses the various cycles that keep people trapped in unbelievable suffering, will stick with me for a long, long time. This game has easily the best executed villain protagonists I have seen in any media, and the way that you the player start feeling like an absurd monster by around the 1/3 point is unrivaled in gameplay/story resonance.

At the same time though, this game is a fucking time vampire to an absolutely unnecessary degree. The deck building is genuinely a lot of fun, and the combat itself is also a lot of fun- during the player controlled phases. I genuinely cannot imagine how much time I spent watching the dice rolling phases play out, over and over and over again, taking several minutes each at their most hectic. What feels like ten minutes, and actually IS ten minutes or so of actual decision making gameplay, can be thirty or forty, easily. The game operates in what I refer to as casino time- if you don't have a clock directly in front of you on a second monitor, you WILL find hours vanishing as you retry puzzle bosses over and over again, not realizing that each failed attempt took half an hour at least.

Basically, game is just incredible in every way, but holy SHIT does it need animation skip options.