What the hell is going on with the reviews here? I agree with bitterbatterdog, it boggles the mind that people prefer the first game and dropped this one. Both games are worth your time, but Echo Night 2: The Lord of Nightmares takes most of what Echo Night achieved and drastically improves upon it.
The very first thing I noticed upon playing Echo Night 2 was how clearly structured the story was. The first game barely explains how you even end up on a ghost ship or what your connection to the ship is until later. Echo Night 2 on the other hand firmly establishes your motives immediately - finding your girlfriend - then succinctly explains why you go to the mansion the game takes place in. From there the story develops quite naturally and comes to a fairly satisfying conclusion. Some might argue that it's not very "Fromsoft" to have a front-and-centre story, but in the case of a story-driven mystery game I think it only works to its advantage. There's still plenty of discoverable bits of story (the Church is a big one) so, in my opinion, it hasn't lost that Fromsoft charm.
The next very noticeable thing was how much more integrated the mechanics of light and dark are into the gameplay. It was barely a thing in the first game, often completely bypassed by a quick 90 degree turn and a flick of the light switch. In Echo Night 2 you are often forced to play in the dark, avoid aggressive ghosts and find a way of turning the lights on. There are even candles to give you a brief respite from the darkness in choice locations. Not only does all this make the darkness mechanic actually worthwhile and add significant depth to the game, it makes it far more of a horror game than the first one was. There are some genuinely tense moments in this!
Even further, the sequel expands on its initial premise and adds a much increased variety of gameplay. There are segments where you find and use a handheld lamp, segments where you're chased in a similar fashion to Clock Tower and more. You are also not isolated to a single location this time and you can travel (ok, teleport) around a lake to a small selection of different areas. Just to rattle off a few more improvements, we also have full voice acting this time (not just ghosts!) and the graphics have had a minor but noticeable glow up. Even the map is better! All of this stuff serves to prevent monotony in its core formula and it works - the game is about twice as long as the original and it never felt stale.
Of course there are some drawbacks. I agree that a cruise ship is probably more interesting than a manor (honestly the manor in Echo Night 2 is not all that dissimilar to the Spencer Manor) and I personally found puzzles to be less intuitive, occasionally regressing to finding a needle in a haystack. Not to mention you can and probably will miss certain ghosts and lock yourself out of the true ending.
So yes, perhaps you are sick of mansions or the puzzles frustrate you more. But my God is Echo Night 2 mostly just a straight shot better game and absolutely worth your time if you enjoyed the first, especially if you were after something a bit spookier.
The very first thing I noticed upon playing Echo Night 2 was how clearly structured the story was. The first game barely explains how you even end up on a ghost ship or what your connection to the ship is until later. Echo Night 2 on the other hand firmly establishes your motives immediately - finding your girlfriend - then succinctly explains why you go to the mansion the game takes place in. From there the story develops quite naturally and comes to a fairly satisfying conclusion. Some might argue that it's not very "Fromsoft" to have a front-and-centre story, but in the case of a story-driven mystery game I think it only works to its advantage. There's still plenty of discoverable bits of story (the Church is a big one) so, in my opinion, it hasn't lost that Fromsoft charm.
The next very noticeable thing was how much more integrated the mechanics of light and dark are into the gameplay. It was barely a thing in the first game, often completely bypassed by a quick 90 degree turn and a flick of the light switch. In Echo Night 2 you are often forced to play in the dark, avoid aggressive ghosts and find a way of turning the lights on. There are even candles to give you a brief respite from the darkness in choice locations. Not only does all this make the darkness mechanic actually worthwhile and add significant depth to the game, it makes it far more of a horror game than the first one was. There are some genuinely tense moments in this!
Even further, the sequel expands on its initial premise and adds a much increased variety of gameplay. There are segments where you find and use a handheld lamp, segments where you're chased in a similar fashion to Clock Tower and more. You are also not isolated to a single location this time and you can travel (ok, teleport) around a lake to a small selection of different areas. Just to rattle off a few more improvements, we also have full voice acting this time (not just ghosts!) and the graphics have had a minor but noticeable glow up. Even the map is better! All of this stuff serves to prevent monotony in its core formula and it works - the game is about twice as long as the original and it never felt stale.
Of course there are some drawbacks. I agree that a cruise ship is probably more interesting than a manor (honestly the manor in Echo Night 2 is not all that dissimilar to the Spencer Manor) and I personally found puzzles to be less intuitive, occasionally regressing to finding a needle in a haystack. Not to mention you can and probably will miss certain ghosts and lock yourself out of the true ending.
So yes, perhaps you are sick of mansions or the puzzles frustrate you more. But my God is Echo Night 2 mostly just a straight shot better game and absolutely worth your time if you enjoyed the first, especially if you were after something a bit spookier.