this sort of game (and online horror in general) is extremely hit or miss to me, leaning toward miss most of the time. i am happy to say, however, that this was basically all hit. everything it has to show you is extremely effective at building an uncomfortable atmosphere and it is very, very freaky sometimes! it only has one moment that i think is really lame and typical of a modern horror game and you are unlikely to see it.

to me, this is a great utilization of the strong liminal/anomaly concept that so many writers and devs lean on to make lazy and uninspired art.

kino has a sequel…

in some ways it’s better, and in some it’s worse. everything about the gameplay is tighter, and the fighting feels so much better! but the fighting is most of the game now… the puzzles are still fun but they are fewer and farther between than in the first game, and i frankly just miss that clunky pacing. the already sparse story from the first is on an extreme backburner here and all context is mostly kept to single screens before each chapter. i miss how you could talk to people standing around like baby’s first rpg… the visuals are considerably less interesting, and the music quality/variety took a major hit too.

even considering all that, this is still pretty fun and is one of the few licensed GBA games i’ve played so far that feels like a “Real Game”. whatever that means