Sister Location should be used as an example for how NOT to make a sequel/follow-up. I mean it when I say there is not a single thing this game does well at all, EVERYTHING is wrong with it.
Alright so FNAF 3 was supposed to be the ending of the series, but the game was criticized for not being scary enough, so Scott Cawthon decided to make one more game, this time even dubbed "The Final Chapter," leaving the series off on a good note and a little bit of unsolved details to keep fans talking. Nothing big of course, the story still makes complete sense, but you have to end the series all about solving a mysterious ghost story on a little mystery right? It just feels natural.
Uh yeah no, because fans were driving themselves mad trying to solve pieces of the lore that ultimately didn't matter in the long run, Scott decided to make another game AGAIN! Because fuck it why not right? Apparently this series isn't allowed to end until a game drops that receives no criticism whatsoever, good to know!
So how did Scott follow up FNAF 4? How did he address this totally important issue that the series couldn't end without going into? He decided to completely change the direction of the series! This game has explanations for plot elements that we did not need or want explanations for, retcons out the ass, and a complete tone shift! FNAF is now a sci-fi family drama!!! Woohoo!!! That's what everyone wanted right???
Alright lemme just go down the list of everything I hate about this stupid ass narrative before I get into the actual gameplay itself.
Ok so between the release of FNAF 4 and this game, Scott started his series of FNAF novels. These were stated to be a retelling of the games and their own continuity entirely, not related to the games at all. Ya know until this game came out and decided it did want to take some elements from the books actually! If you didn't read them, good luck figuring out what the hell is going on, but hey all the YouTubers making theory videos can cheer and clap when they notice references to the other piece of media they experienced so that makes it worth it right??
This game decides to give a scientific explanation for how possession works in this universe, which is something I already despise. The story isn't scary or mysterious anymore when you just explain how everything works, why the fuck would you do that?
Remember how this plot is kicked off by a random incident of child murders that results in robots being haunted? This game decides to give the murderer a personality and a name, William Afton, which could work on paper, but I have many issues with this. First off, William is no longer some random person that committed murder, he is the co-founder of the fucking company that owns all the animatronics and pizzerias in the first place. Oh. My. God. Again, the more you explain, the less interesting the story is, why did this need to be told to the audience, it didn't. Not knowing anything about William other than the fact that he was a murderer was why he was so interesting in the first place. Remember when he was just known as Purple Guy, and fans would have fun coming up with theories about who he was and what his motives were? Nah fuck that, just tell us everything! Ruin the fun why don't ya! Secondly, this game shows that as far back as the 80s, William was designing animatronics that were specifically meant to capture and kill children and harvest their remnant, which is how the possession works now. Not only does this not make ANY sense as these animatronics from the 80s are far more advanced than anything else in the series, even with two games set much much later, but that leaves me with a question. If William was able to make robots like this and easily get away with murder without being caught, then why in the fuck was he shown in the other games killing children in broad daylight with his own hands????? That doesn't add up in ANY context.
Oh but it gets better! So according to this game, animatronics that have been possessed are basically just new bodies for the soul inside them. They're fully conscious and aware of what they're doing. So yeah, that makes the previous games make even less sense when you think about it for longer than five seconds, but this especially bugs me in the case of FNAF 3. This means that Springtrap was actually still his usual self and fully conscious when he was trying to kill you in that game. Except the entire gameplay loop of that game revolves around luring him away from you by using audio, which there is no way someone as smart as him would ever fall for. Cool, thanks for ruining that for me! The new animatronics in this game are also fully sentient on their own, even the ones that aren't possessed. Don't ask me how that works!
Oh but it gets BETTER! So this game entirely rewrites FNAF 4 retroactively, and I'm not joking. Despite it being very obvious that the gameplay loop of FNAF 4 takes place in the nightmares of a child as he is literally fighting death in his hospital bed, with many MANY clues to back this up, this game says actually no! FNAF 4 really did happen and the nightmare animatronics are...like illusions William made through his science experiments, apparently?? The child's imaginary friend Fredbear is actually a camera that William uses to keep an eye on him because he's actually his son? Or something? And he was actually the one talking to him throughout that game? What in the fuck is going on???
OH BUT IT GETS EVEN BETTER!!!!!! Remember how FNAF 3 was the big final showdown with Springtrap? Remember how he finally died for good and the story was put to rest? Remember how even FNAF 4 didn't touch that ending because it didn't need to be messed with? Sister Location ends with the cliffhanger that actually no, he's back! Because fuck you! You may be wondering HOW since there is literally no conceivable way he could've survived the events of that game, and I hope you don't expect an answer for that because you're not getting one, fuck you!
I haven't even gotten into the meat and potatoes of the game's plot yet oh my god I'm gonna be here all day. So in this game not only are their hints that the child from FNAF 4 is William's son, in this game you play as William's other son, Micheal. The main antagonist in this game, Circus Baby, is actually possessed by William's daughter as well! That's a lot of new characters all related to the villain of the franchise that was supposed to be fucking dead after FNAF 3 and I really don't care for this. This feels like a poorly written fanfiction, why is this actual lore in the series. Anyway, so the game's main five nights are actually not that eventful in terms of story, even though the point of this game was to be more story driven, so that's a little embarrassing. Most of the lore and story stuff is backloaded to the last section of the game which feels sloppy but whatever. This game's big twist besides Springtrap coming back can be described as...what's the phrase for jumping the shark times ten?
So the animatronics trick Michael into getting himself killed so they can use his body as their own and escape the facility. Shortly after leaving, they realize that a decaying human body is not going to last them very long, so they peace out and duck into the sewers, play the next game to get answers for that! So Michael is dead now right? No! Because of stupid barely explained remnant bullshit, he's able to possess his own corpse and carry on like nothing happened. I'M SORRY?????
And I kid you not, this was only done to explain a piece of FNAF trivia that DID NOT NEED EXPLAINING AT ALL. In the first two games, upon beating all the nights, you are fired from your job, with the reasons on your pink slip being tampering with the animatronics, and odor. This was a silly joke back then and nothing more, but this game goes out of its way to explain that actually you have been playing as Michael in every single fucking game and now the odor joke makes sense oh my god woah! What even is this? This isn't horror, this isn't scary, this isn't mysterious, it's stupid. This is supposed to be a horror series yet we have this shit happening now?? This feels like a parody, not a canonical follow-up to a series that ALREADY ENDED TWICE OVER.
One thing I do want to quickly bring up is Baby herself. I do think it's a very interesting idea to have a robot be sentient and fully aware of what they're doing and be forced to do bad things due to their programming. That seems to be where the story is going, with Baby wanting herself and the other animatronics to be destroyed so they can't hurt anyone anymore. It's still way different and doesn't feel like FNAF but I'd appreciate the different idea. Since that would've been interesting though, that's not what happens! Baby was actually playing 4D chess and pulling the strings to get you killed the entire time. Wonderful.
If it wasn't painfully obvious, I despise this game's story with a burning passion, but I won't spend anymore time on it. Before I get into the gameplay itself though, there is one element that I do want to praise. While I do think the animatronics talking to you directly is immersion breaking in so many ways, the voice acting itself is amazing. The cast does a fantastic job, and every time I hear William's voice in the intro, it gives me chills. He sounds so scary and I love that. Any character besides Hand Unit (who I will get to later) has a fitting voice that is very entertaining to listen to. Again, I don't think it necessarily fits, but I want to give proper credit to the cast here.

I had that much to say about this game's story and I haven't even mentioned anything about the actual gameplay yet. Maybe that's because there is none! Let me get into that now.
Unlike the other games, Sister Location has a different setup for each night, you won't be doing the exact same thing five or more times in a row, it always mixes it up, which sounds great on paper, but of course it's executed terribly here.
First off, I have to talk about Hand Unit. If you needed more evidence that this isn't a horror series anymore, look no further than this guy. He will talk to you throughout a good portion of the game with dialogue that's meant to be funny, but is just painful. Imagine Wheatley from Portal 2, but instead of actually witty and funny lines, he just has 'lol random xd' humor that has nothing to do with ANYTHING throughout the entire game. That's Hand Unit.
But how are the actual nights themselves?
Night 1 has literally nothing happening, it's a glorified cutscene.
Night 2 has a stop and go section with Ballora that is scripted to play out exactly the same way every time, making it extremely boring. Walk forward and stop if you hear her music playing, that's it. There's another section with Freddy that is actually pretty tense, having to reboot systems while not letting Freddy get too close and attack you. I actually don't have any complaints with this one! I like it! It's worth noting though that if you die here, you're sent back to before the Ballora section since it's in the same night, and all the nights work this way, because I guess Scott didn't think about basic game design when making this.
Night 3 has a boring section where you hide behind a slab of metal and have to click and hold it in place to keep the bidybabs from moving it. Yes that is seriously it for this section. There's also an almost identical segment to the Ballora one but with Foxy this time, so, yay. Finally there's a parts and service segment where you follow Hand Unit's instructions to repair Freddy. Just click what he tells you to, it's really that simple.
Night 4 is baffling to me. In this one, you get caught by Foxy and stuffed into a springlock suit, which is a super cool idea calling back to the original game! But why is this so insanely hard??? There is no gradual increase in difficulty, suddenly the game goes from piss easy to tough as nails, that's great design! You have to survive the night while tightening the springlocks to make sure they don't close on you, and keep the minireenas from killing you by shaking them off the suit, which also loosens the locks. The game is super strict on how you do this, you have to be on point managing the locks. One wrong move, and you're screwed. It feels like it wasn't properly playtested, it's infuriating. I spent so long on this and found out that since the timing the minireenas appear is scripted, I could use a stopwatch and time when to shake them at the perfect time. Even then I had to pray to god it would actually work, since the springlocks' starting positions are randomized. Also, some dialogue from Baby in this night introduces new bits of lore that sound genuinely interesting actually! She talks about how the suit you're in is from her old pizzeria and that it was never used for its intended purpose, but was still used nonetheless. On one hand, I like that the game introduces SOME element of mystery here. On the other hand, this feels so shoehorned in as a 'look it's just like the other games!' moment. This information is never explored again and we never get any answers of any sort. Scott decided this should be left ambiguous, but there is so little information here that there is nothing you can piece together from this. It's pointless.
Night 5 is horseshit. I'm gonna be fully honest here and say that I rage quit this night. Night 4 is technically harder, but the way this one is designed is baffling. First you have to walk through Foxy's auditorium again, except they aren't there so there is no danger. Then you have to follow Baby's instructions in another parts and service segment. The catch is you have to be lightning fast. Baby will read you a series of numbers and you have to enter them into a SUPER tiny keypad attached to her head. This wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that Sister Location has a custom cursor that is comically large. It's so annoying trying to move in in JUST the right place to press the tiny buttons. If you don't press the right button IMMEDIATELY as Baby says it, you're dead. What the fuck. Immediately after this is a segment where you have to run through Foxy's auditorium AGAIN. This time you can't see whatsoever and have to rely on Baby's instructions in order to avoid Ennard. The problem is that her instructions can just be wrong! And if that's the case, you die and have to do everything from Night 5 all over again. Fuck. This.
I didn't bother finishing it because I was spending more time redoing sections I had already played over and over again than actually making any progress. This is the very end of the game anyway, so whatever.
If you knew about the secret ending beforehand and went out of your way to go after it, Night 5 does have another section that is also pretty challenging, setup like the older FNAF games, which is pretty neat. Why this needed to be locked behind a secret ending is beyond me though, that seems ass backwards. Also, the secret ending requires you to find a secret in a minigame with Baby, and this minigame just has a random chance of popping up after you die, so you might just miss it altogether! Why can't it just work like FNAF 3 where you find a secret in the game itself to take you to the minigame? What was the point of making it more of a pain in the ass in this one??? Also also, if you die in the secret final section of the night, you are once again sent ALL the way back to the start of Night 5. Awesome. This really sucks because it's the only section of the entire game that feels like FNAF at all. But no, this section is locked behind an alternate ending and is a pain in the ass to play because of your penalty for dying in it, which you will because it's pretty damn hard. EVEN THE ONE PART OF THE GAME I COULD PRAISE WAS FUCKED UP, COME ON!
And by the way, the ending you get for this is a joke ending, it's not even an alternate good ending like before. Thanks for that Scott.
So yeah that's Sister Location, and I am being completely serious when I say that this is one of the worst pieces of media I have ever experienced in my life. It is Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Pac-Man World 3 levels of dogshit. I fully believe that this series just should've been left the fuck alone after FNAF 4 came out. While I do really like the final game in Scott's series which I will get to soon, this game did irreversible damage to the franchise and made every bad decision one could possibly make when designing a game.
Oh yeah this game has post launch DLC as well, but I can't play it since 100%ing the game is required to access it! I did talk about some of the story stuff added in the DLC earlier in this review, but I can't speak for how it actually plays. Even if it's good though, having to fully complete the game to access the actually good content does not do Sister Location any favors. I hate this game with every fiber of my being.