A similarly wild ride to the first entry, but this time it feels like a little bit of acid was involved... and that made it better.
I'll get the biggest weaknesses it had out of the way first. Just like the first game, this one sometimes just gets too goofy. Generally, in the dialogue and character scenes the absurdity is great and well appreciated... but sometimes the game would build up a nice, heavy mood then shoot itself in the foot — usually with the guns on-screen.
The action scenes were really not great. I'm normally fine with over the top anime action, but it doesn't work when you're trying to tell a story where murder and violence are so integral to the details of the narrative. Thankfully it wasn't often enough to derail the story, but it did hurt the finale.
Putting that sizable asterisk aside, the plot here was even cooler and darker than the last one, and had one of the most creative uses of branching path narrative that I've seen in a while. It's a story that doesn't spoon feed you every interesting detail, but it presents them well regardless. Beyond the plot, the overall tone and mood of the game will stick with you even longer. Definitely worth the time.
Oh, and the actual game part of the game is really fun, too. The Somnium puzzles aren't the hardest around, but unraveling their dream logic is entertaining and rewarding even when you're getting things wrong as you'll still get charming commentary between the characters.
I'll get the biggest weaknesses it had out of the way first. Just like the first game, this one sometimes just gets too goofy. Generally, in the dialogue and character scenes the absurdity is great and well appreciated... but sometimes the game would build up a nice, heavy mood then shoot itself in the foot — usually with the guns on-screen.
The action scenes were really not great. I'm normally fine with over the top anime action, but it doesn't work when you're trying to tell a story where murder and violence are so integral to the details of the narrative. Thankfully it wasn't often enough to derail the story, but it did hurt the finale.
Putting that sizable asterisk aside, the plot here was even cooler and darker than the last one, and had one of the most creative uses of branching path narrative that I've seen in a while. It's a story that doesn't spoon feed you every interesting detail, but it presents them well regardless. Beyond the plot, the overall tone and mood of the game will stick with you even longer. Definitely worth the time.
Oh, and the actual game part of the game is really fun, too. The Somnium puzzles aren't the hardest around, but unraveling their dream logic is entertaining and rewarding even when you're getting things wrong as you'll still get charming commentary between the characters.