the first deadly premonition became one of my favorite games of all time after i played it a few months ago. i can honestly say that not a single day has gone by where i haven't thought about that game at least a little, either through a funny and memorable scene of dialogue or some connection i suddenly pieced together about the game's themes and its gameplay. the second game is a bit of a disappointment. i didn't expect it to surpass the original, and while at its best moments it matches some of that game's charm, during its worst moments it doesn't come even close or doesn't try. it's about as underwhelming as i expected, but at least it's not the disaster i feared it could be.

the dialogue is still excellent. if you enjoyed the first game you will undoubtably have a great time listening to york interact with the world and comment on his situation. this is really the sole reason i don't hate this game. i was always eager to turn it on and keep playing because york's dialogue is memorable and quotable and there are many hilariously bizarre scenes that i will be thinking about for years.

unfortunately that's about the only thing the sequel does as well as the original. the world feels lifeless and there are much fewer interactable npcs, which severely limits the pool of potential suspects. the story is interesting but the payoff is underwhelming and a lot of the twists feel forced or unbelievable. the otherworld sections are completely lacking the horror aesthetic that made them interesting in the original and rather than serve as twisted versions of the town's landmarks, are completely separate locations that all share the exact same setting and assets. the main issue with the game is that it just doesn't expand the first game very much. i don't feel like i have a better understanding of this world, its lore or its characters after beating it. it was just another miscellaneous adventure starring york, and the payoff of the present-day segments is so minimal that it feels like they didn't need to be there.

there are also some really uncomfortable depictions of racism and transphobia in the game that, even if they don't bother you personally, are completely unnecessary. swery has addressed these and says he plans to change or remove them. hopefully he is able to fix the problem but it really shouldn't have been in the game to begin with. edit: problem was not fixed

overall, i had a lot of good experiences playing this game but i don't think it was worth returning to the world of deadly premonition for the game we ended up getting. the universe of deadly premonition has a lot of room to expand the setting and lore, but this game barely does that.

edit #2: upon further thought, i like this game a lot less than the thoughts i had originally wrote out led on. i gave this game a 6/10 then, which i wrote after playing it on release, but it's been a couple of months since then and i'm struggling to remember any of what i thought were standout moments. the only positive thing i had to talk about was the memorable writing but nowadays i can only remember the parts of the story that frustrate me.

literally everything about this game is good besides the level progression, and it's such a big problem that it almost ruins everything else. the levels themselves are fine but the way they're strung together isn't. they're interconnected but not in ways that are helpful, also the map is such a mess, idk how to describe it bc i dont even know how to read it, you start in A-1 and then get to A-2 until you're in B-1 so you're like oh they are connected alphabetically but then you're suddenly in F-1 from B-3 and it doesn't connect in any way to E-anything or G-anything and the map tells you that if you go left from B-2 you get to C-1 but really if you go left you STAY in B-2 and if you go RIGHT you reach C-1 so seriously just look at a complete map online and a walkthrough so you don't have to figure this shit out yourself and then the game becomes good because you get to play it like a regular mega man game. i'm not against a mega man metroidvania (i'd actually love to see another attempt) but this is possibly the worst attempt at metroidvania map design i've ever seen in my life. but also you can basically play as the guardians from the zero games and playing as harpuia is fucking sick