This review contains spoilers
One of my bigger gripes with the first game was how a lot of the humour was pretty unfunny and occasionally really out of place and while that still applies here I'd say it's at least somewhat improved although it could just be because Date isn't the protag anymore (they still make sure to include some unfunny porno mag jokes).
Beyond that though, the writing took a massive nosedive.
First of all, the story here is held together by plot conveniences and superglue, for example, Tearer gets knocked out but uh oh, turns out his mask is rigged with explosives and therefore can not be taken off so i guess we have to psync with him. Thankfully the Prototype Psync Machine (very expensive and dangerous device) was left in the abandoned factory because apparently it would break if transported (?) AND it also randomly got upgraded at some point so now you don't have to remove Tearer's eyeball.
Man that sure is convenient!!
Tearer also has absolutely 0 presence as an antagonist (he's straight up dead for half the game) and all the nirvana stuff just amounts to 2 or 3 cool abstract videos that you watch in the first few hours of the game and nothing else. Feels like they were trying to go for something more "grand" than a standard murder mystery whodunit but it just kinda falls flat.
Beyond that the simulation theory is also moronic, if the world itself were nothing but a simulation, we would be a part of the simulation and therefore fundamentally incapable of escaping it (they compare it to video game glitches but even if you go out of bounds in a video game, you are still in the video game, you haven't somehow transcended).
The thing that irritated me most was Mizuki's past getting retconned with her now being a cloned super soldier of Bibi and only being the adopted daughter of Renju and Shoko. This makes absolutely 0 fucking sense considering the biological relationship between Mizuki and Shoko was an integral part of the first game with Shoko constantly telling Mizuki "I wish you were never born." and Renju saying that Shoko had an equally difficult relationship with her mother. Beyond that there's numerous instances that show that this was not planned in the 1st game like Shoko complaining about her crying as a baby, Mizuki explaining that her strength comes from her grandpa etc and i mean just look at their designs.
The game even acknowledges how nonsensical this is by playing a flashback of Shoko saying "I wish you were never born." to which Mizuki responds "I guess she meant adopted". lol
The fact that Bibi is Boss' adopted daughter makes it even dumber because she had no reason to hide it from the player and the game once again acknowledges this and jokes about it so I guess being a bad writer is OK as long as you're self aware.
Furthermore, the timeline twist feels random and somewhat pointless since it doesn't fit with any of the games themes and it once again requires loads of plot conveniences to work in the first place like shoma not aging, Mizuki and Bibi looking identitcal (despite the age gap) and wearing the exact same clothes etc.
It's pretty much just a twist for the sake of having a twist.
The dialogue and how information is revealed to you is still done well although some things are teased for too long like Amame's involvement or Masked Woman's identity etc. There's also noticeably more action scenes than in the 1st game but they still kinda suck, the animation really lacks weight, the framing is bad, they go on for too long and it does the whole "bad guys can't aim and just stand around waiting to get beat up" thing. To put it bluntly, they're boring to watch and the final stadium cutscene is especially bad.
Regarding gameplay, the new VR investigation mode is pretty fun and obviously fits a detective game well but the returning Somnia still aren't a joy to play through and characters tend to now talk way more during them and often over-explain stuff which can get annoying. They also still suffer from some of the same structural issues regarding split paths where, just like in the first game, 1 path is more of a "story" path while the other focuses more on character relationships. Unlike in the first game however, the relationship path pretty much completely disregards the story while it generally tries to go for some abstract nonsensical romcom (Gen and Amame's Route specifically is so bad it almost becomes funny).
In the end the relationship paths barely even matter because nothing that happens there affects the "main timeline" so it comes off as bad fanfic.
Overall super disappointed, genuinely made me wonder if Uchikoshi feels no shame when writing this shit.
Beyond that though, the writing took a massive nosedive.
First of all, the story here is held together by plot conveniences and superglue, for example, Tearer gets knocked out but uh oh, turns out his mask is rigged with explosives and therefore can not be taken off so i guess we have to psync with him. Thankfully the Prototype Psync Machine (very expensive and dangerous device) was left in the abandoned factory because apparently it would break if transported (?) AND it also randomly got upgraded at some point so now you don't have to remove Tearer's eyeball.
Man that sure is convenient!!
Tearer also has absolutely 0 presence as an antagonist (he's straight up dead for half the game) and all the nirvana stuff just amounts to 2 or 3 cool abstract videos that you watch in the first few hours of the game and nothing else. Feels like they were trying to go for something more "grand" than a standard murder mystery whodunit but it just kinda falls flat.
Beyond that the simulation theory is also moronic, if the world itself were nothing but a simulation, we would be a part of the simulation and therefore fundamentally incapable of escaping it (they compare it to video game glitches but even if you go out of bounds in a video game, you are still in the video game, you haven't somehow transcended).
The thing that irritated me most was Mizuki's past getting retconned with her now being a cloned super soldier of Bibi and only being the adopted daughter of Renju and Shoko. This makes absolutely 0 fucking sense considering the biological relationship between Mizuki and Shoko was an integral part of the first game with Shoko constantly telling Mizuki "I wish you were never born." and Renju saying that Shoko had an equally difficult relationship with her mother. Beyond that there's numerous instances that show that this was not planned in the 1st game like Shoko complaining about her crying as a baby, Mizuki explaining that her strength comes from her grandpa etc and i mean just look at their designs.
The game even acknowledges how nonsensical this is by playing a flashback of Shoko saying "I wish you were never born." to which Mizuki responds "I guess she meant adopted". lol
The fact that Bibi is Boss' adopted daughter makes it even dumber because she had no reason to hide it from the player and the game once again acknowledges this and jokes about it so I guess being a bad writer is OK as long as you're self aware.
Furthermore, the timeline twist feels random and somewhat pointless since it doesn't fit with any of the games themes and it once again requires loads of plot conveniences to work in the first place like shoma not aging, Mizuki and Bibi looking identitcal (despite the age gap) and wearing the exact same clothes etc.
It's pretty much just a twist for the sake of having a twist.
The dialogue and how information is revealed to you is still done well although some things are teased for too long like Amame's involvement or Masked Woman's identity etc. There's also noticeably more action scenes than in the 1st game but they still kinda suck, the animation really lacks weight, the framing is bad, they go on for too long and it does the whole "bad guys can't aim and just stand around waiting to get beat up" thing. To put it bluntly, they're boring to watch and the final stadium cutscene is especially bad.
Regarding gameplay, the new VR investigation mode is pretty fun and obviously fits a detective game well but the returning Somnia still aren't a joy to play through and characters tend to now talk way more during them and often over-explain stuff which can get annoying. They also still suffer from some of the same structural issues regarding split paths where, just like in the first game, 1 path is more of a "story" path while the other focuses more on character relationships. Unlike in the first game however, the relationship path pretty much completely disregards the story while it generally tries to go for some abstract nonsensical romcom (Gen and Amame's Route specifically is so bad it almost becomes funny).
In the end the relationship paths barely even matter because nothing that happens there affects the "main timeline" so it comes off as bad fanfic.
Overall super disappointed, genuinely made me wonder if Uchikoshi feels no shame when writing this shit.