this game is truly an achievement. ep 2 expands everywhere where ep 1 left me asking, and boy what a world that unfolded from that humble demo. a cerebral force at times, and an achingly gorgeous coming of age story at others, this completely otherworldly yet so human parable of relationships, of identity, of happiness, of godhood was simply put a piece of art. there's just not enough i can say about this story, with the characters and their relationships being all so just captivating. all the little details, the fiercely intricate world built here that just screams character from every tile to every background. its a work of art. and without a doubt i will be thinking about it for a long time to come <3

I'm not going to deny it, I came into this game with a lot of hesitation, bias, and general judgement because I absolutely despised the first one, but had heard enough good things about the second one to give it a chance anyway. And because I played this game with judgement in my heart and mind, it was easy to spot a lot of tiny things, like inconsistencies in transfer spots (some doorways activate when you touch them, others are a-button commands, and half the time the a-button ones aren't tied to the doorway but instead the space in front of it, so even if you aren't facing the door, you'd still transfer if you hit a), or characters popping in and out during cutscenes without any animation or transition, which obviously aren't the biggest deal in the world, but at the same time are such easy fixes that it gives me a bad feeling. It's also hard for me to judge the merit of this game's story, especially when it (naturally) continues off the heels of the first game. I finished the first game in such a huff (and so long ago as well) that I don't really remember much of it. My memories of the first game are entirely of the frustration I felt while playing it. And so, looping back around, it really wasn't possible for me to come into this game without some of that bias still in my head. Luckily, though, it seems that this game stands on its own pretty well, if you disregard the stuff about the oracle and what not.

So for starters, this game has a battle system. It's all random encounters that only happen in the school, and it's framed as 'socialization', which I think is a really unique take and fits well in a game that takes place in a school. The game even gives you a single infinite-use item that fully heals you every time you use it. However, I completely ignored the battle system in its entirety, and that's for one reason and one reason only-- there's only one single save point in the entire game. I'm not always the biggest fan of when games only let you save at specific points, although I understand the merit behind it in certain games, especially as a means to prevent save scumming. However, for a game like this, having only one single save spot in the whole game is absurd. Especially when that location is made off-limits at random points for little to no reason. The game doesn't seem to punish you for always running from battles, since it doesn't really feed you that many to begin with, it kind of just seems like a side thing you can play around with when you want to.

The game also culminates (or at least I think it does, that's the place where it seems like it does) at a grand yes/no question. I chose 'yes' and I got the (or one of the) good ending. And for a moment, I thought I'd replay up until that point and choose the other option to see what happens. Then, I realized how far back I was because of how long it had been since I last saved, and I felt like it wasn't worth it.

The art and music are nice as always. And the game, as a whole, gave me this sick feeling that, for some odd reason, made me yearn for high school again. As context, I'm 22 and a recent college grad. I knew a girl in high school who Charlotte reminds me of. And although high school sucked, there was this weird comfort of knowing that maybe life afterwards would be better, as long as I stayed in school and worked hard. Of course, it didn't get much better, and the whole 'work hard and you'll succeed' thing was a total lie, but... well, now I'm getting off topic.

I'm not sure where this game leaves me in terms of the last 3 games in the series. Maybe sometime later I'll watch the rest of the endings on YouTube and use that to determine if I wanna play the rest of these. But as for right now, I'm kind of just uninterested. The best thing this game did for me was wash out my negative feelings towards the first game and leave me feeling truly neutral.