This review contains spoilers
Fear & Hunger 2: Termina is the sequence to the first game, both created in the RPG maker engine and both made by Miro/Orange as he is called within the community. Termina takes place, however, quite a few years after the events of the first game, and where one is in a dark fantasy medieval place, this one happens around the period of 1940s.
I won't get too much into the lore of the F&H universe in general, because there are so few things that are actually confirmed and most of them are open to interpretation, so you can take your own spin on it. I will deal with a few spoilers for F&H2 here.
The game starts off by telling you to choose your character, there are eight to pick (as of 07/2023) and each of them is different from the other. The cast is bigger than the first game, having doubled and there are more coming out in the following few updates. In total, it is expected to have 14 characters to play.
If you have played the first game, the character selection will make you feel at home, you also get to pick their skills and by doing so, you get some backstory on them.
Once this is all done and you played/skipped the intro, you're finally thrown into the game of F&H2. You start in the train and once you get out, you get to meet all your fellow comrades. I won't go over the lore too much, but the general idea is that the game is supposed to be a battle royale for Rher, the Moon God. All participants got the same dream, even if not all of them are present outside the train - but everyone is aware of what needs to be done.
You are told to kill your fellow friends by the third day.
So, unlike the first game, sleeping in this game will cause time to advance, it will also allow you to save AND get new skills, using soul stones acquired from enemies. Getting soul stones is much easier in this game, but it also opens more room for every character. Some characters are way more robust in the early game, some are late-bloomers, and some are completely broken (Marcoh and O'saa). So, depending on the character you picked, you will have to play safe or go wild; and like the first game, you are expected to die a lot.
I died quite a lot in my first playthrough, having to reset many times to deal with the initial phase of the game, which is exploring and getting to know the place. I didn't want to really advance time because when time progresses, something terrible happens. Not only are you getting close to the end of the game (aka Day Four), but the other participants also have events happen to them, like getting turned into a monster or simply having their head smashed/ripped off/shot by other participants/monsters. Usually these events happen around day 2, but I was not aware of it, and kept myself somewhat 'stuck' on day one until I got comfortable with the village.
Once you find the best path and how to deal with enemies, the initial area is relatively easy, but then you are thrown into other places, like the sewers and Bunker 7, where you find a friend and also a "friend". Like the first game, this one will contain disturbing scenes, but what I liked here is that it didn't appeal to the shocking value.
Something I didn't like and still doesn't like about "dark fantasy" games or media, in general, is the use of sexual abuse and rape, and if you've played the first one, you are aware of such things. It is a meme within the community, and while I don't honestly see a problem in that, it is undeniable that "being raped" is one of the reasons this game got popular.
Nonetheless, unlike other media that I am also not a fan of but I still recognize them as good, I think Miro did a good job in the second game. It is not the focus, it is hardly mentioned (if ever), and I like to think Miro as well didn't want the game to be remembered as "lose and you get your ass fucked".
While some sexual aspects, nudity and genitals are still within the game, it was toned down a lot and I feel it was much more shocking than seeing your character get their butts fucked. But this is just a nitpick of mine, F&H1 is not bad because of it, nor is F&H2 better because of the lack of said scenes.
The scenes in F&H2 are much more shocking to me, and I like that. The few instakills I got were disturbing enough to make me never slack around said enemies. But despite having instakills quite around, this game feels much, much more easier than its sibling. You are given a bigger world to explore, after all, so Miro handed out a few goods to keep you alive, because killing you everytime is not good - especially since saving is scarce here.
Anyway, once you are past the initial village, you enter the city - and this is where the fun begins. It is a whole new area to explore, and this is where you will want to pass the days, because most if not all of the events happen around here. And if you don't see them and act, you will lose participants and potentially party members. Talking about party members, let's quickly go over what they do and what they don't do.
They are helpful, each of them coming with a few handpicked skills and besides ONE party member, all of them are useful. Karin can open doors, Marina can engrave, O'saa is a tremendous hitter, and so is Marcoh, and Abella can carry you through the whole game if you let her. Levi, however, is trash unless you revive him with Daan.
So, what's the deal with Levi? Well. He's addicted to drugs, and unless you are constantly feeding him with needles, he will mostly be a punching bag for enemies. He can be helpful, sure, he is still better than a ghoul, but you don't want him around.
Talking about needles, there is someone you should meet, which is one aspect I really liked about F&H2. You are not safe, even if you think you are. Needles is a famous enemy that happens to chase the player around if they get too cocky, and running into him can be the end of your run - alongside Bobbys in the city and the Mob.
So, the city is much more dangerous than the village, but still doable, it is not unfair, but it isn't entirely fair either. If you didn't get it, this game does not reward you at all for fighting. You don't get EXP, and you don't often get soul stones. Fights are dangerous unless you're well equipped and there's always a chance you get ganked by some people.
So, here is a brief summary. The gameplay is perfect, it requires a bit of strategy, and you are expected to die a few times. You are expected to walk around without an arm or a leg, and you are also expected to kill your fellow members.
Why? Because that's what Termina is all about. It is a battle royale, and the only fights you're 100% rewarded for are the ones you murder your friends. Not only do you get their equipment (which might or may not be helpful), you get their souls, allowing you to learn their skills. You can also chop their heads off and trade them with Pocketcat, someone you might remember from the first game.
And no, you can't save them all and yourself. The "best ending" requires at least your character to sacrifice themselves.
Okay, so you got what F&H2 is all about. Kill your friends (or don't), survive a big scary city, and wait until the third day.
Now, this game has three different endings, one of them will require you to explore the game a bit, and it goes off-rails with the whole Termina Festival thing. The other two are closely related to the festival, asking you to kill your friends.
So, for ending A, you will discover along the game that something bizarre is going on. The bunkers, the weird technology, the mystery, they all lead to this big door in the depths of the museum, which takes you to yet another hidden bunker. Once you're inside the "white bunker" as it is called, there is no going back.
You and your party explore this place, and you discover Kaiser, a man dressed in yellow who is the leader of the army invading the city you are in. He tells you about creating a god out of technology, the Machine God, so to speak. The Gods had forsaken humanity, and the new gods were too weak to do anything. If you played the first game, you would RECOGNIZE this man as Le'garde. What happened to him is up to interpretation, however, but it is definitely him.
You fight him eventually after his explanation, and you meet the Machine God. Another fight with yet another divine being and what happens is... you are absorbed by it, you become part of it, and she soothes you by telling you everything is fine.
So, the Machine God is a god made by humans, to care for humanity, and when you finally set her free - so does the festival end.
As for the other endings, they both involve the Moon God, and the revelation that Rher is actually gone. What you see, and what the antagonist uses to fuel his power, are but traces of him.
The main villain explains to you that the last few festivals were, in fact, used to further the plans of his cult and master, the Sulfur God, which is basically Satan. The Sulfur God is not talked about much, but he is clearly the counterpart to All-mer (basically Jesus). The Festivals are used to choose souls to serve him and just sacrifice in his name, in general.
So, depending on the ending, you will fight this handsome antagonist and the moon, and escape the festival alive - but with memories that will never fade...
Or you will be sacrificed to the Sulfur God.
Both endings are lacking, and it is a letdown towards the game's premise. Sure, the plot twist that Rher is dead did catch me and I loved it - but hearing that it was actually a plan to take Satan out of his pit? I didn't like that.
I'm sure Orange/Miro has some plans for him, and it was nice to see another God introduced. Don't get me wrong, the Sulfur God is not a bad thing, but I feel the way he was shown was lacking. Why would the Termina Festival (which is hosted for Rher) be used as a 'cover' for the Sulfur God? From what the villain says, the Old Gods are gone, and it's not like the participants actually wanted to be part of Termina; they were forced to.
So, why the cover-up? Did the villain think people wouldn't want to play his game if they knew it was actually a festival for the Sulfur God? Or was he fearing other cults to try and take him down for worshipping a god which is, from my point of view, "bad and evil", one that should be forgotten, one that is taboo even within the other cults (who are just as bad)?
Nonetheless, the OST of this game is fantastic, and so is the ambiance. Miro clearly took inspiration from Silent Hill and a few other games, and he certainly didn't lose his touch with the art style or the sprite work. The design of the enemies (in particular Bobby) kept the essence of the first game, and the Lovecraftian Horror was tuned to a max, even if the endings were unsatisfying for me.
Though, one thing that disappointed me was that you really don't get to know much about your character if you play as them. In my eyes, they are just an empty shell, with few moments where they actually truly shine through, well, the character. Of course, I won't ask Miro to change every dialogue and make it unique to all characters, but there are a lot of things you don't truly see about them. There are unique scenes, of course, but they are so rare and specific that... they don't fill the void in my soul, I want more, I NEED more.
Despite that, this game will go down as one of my favorites of 2023, and I expect to play it quite a few times until the end of this year. I do hope there are some S-Endings as there were in the first game.
I am excited to see what Miro is planning.
Happy suffering!
I won't get too much into the lore of the F&H universe in general, because there are so few things that are actually confirmed and most of them are open to interpretation, so you can take your own spin on it. I will deal with a few spoilers for F&H2 here.
The game starts off by telling you to choose your character, there are eight to pick (as of 07/2023) and each of them is different from the other. The cast is bigger than the first game, having doubled and there are more coming out in the following few updates. In total, it is expected to have 14 characters to play.
If you have played the first game, the character selection will make you feel at home, you also get to pick their skills and by doing so, you get some backstory on them.
Once this is all done and you played/skipped the intro, you're finally thrown into the game of F&H2. You start in the train and once you get out, you get to meet all your fellow comrades. I won't go over the lore too much, but the general idea is that the game is supposed to be a battle royale for Rher, the Moon God. All participants got the same dream, even if not all of them are present outside the train - but everyone is aware of what needs to be done.
You are told to kill your fellow friends by the third day.
So, unlike the first game, sleeping in this game will cause time to advance, it will also allow you to save AND get new skills, using soul stones acquired from enemies. Getting soul stones is much easier in this game, but it also opens more room for every character. Some characters are way more robust in the early game, some are late-bloomers, and some are completely broken (Marcoh and O'saa). So, depending on the character you picked, you will have to play safe or go wild; and like the first game, you are expected to die a lot.
I died quite a lot in my first playthrough, having to reset many times to deal with the initial phase of the game, which is exploring and getting to know the place. I didn't want to really advance time because when time progresses, something terrible happens. Not only are you getting close to the end of the game (aka Day Four), but the other participants also have events happen to them, like getting turned into a monster or simply having their head smashed/ripped off/shot by other participants/monsters. Usually these events happen around day 2, but I was not aware of it, and kept myself somewhat 'stuck' on day one until I got comfortable with the village.
Once you find the best path and how to deal with enemies, the initial area is relatively easy, but then you are thrown into other places, like the sewers and Bunker 7, where you find a friend and also a "friend". Like the first game, this one will contain disturbing scenes, but what I liked here is that it didn't appeal to the shocking value.
Something I didn't like and still doesn't like about "dark fantasy" games or media, in general, is the use of sexual abuse and rape, and if you've played the first one, you are aware of such things. It is a meme within the community, and while I don't honestly see a problem in that, it is undeniable that "being raped" is one of the reasons this game got popular.
Nonetheless, unlike other media that I am also not a fan of but I still recognize them as good, I think Miro did a good job in the second game. It is not the focus, it is hardly mentioned (if ever), and I like to think Miro as well didn't want the game to be remembered as "lose and you get your ass fucked".
While some sexual aspects, nudity and genitals are still within the game, it was toned down a lot and I feel it was much more shocking than seeing your character get their butts fucked. But this is just a nitpick of mine, F&H1 is not bad because of it, nor is F&H2 better because of the lack of said scenes.
The scenes in F&H2 are much more shocking to me, and I like that. The few instakills I got were disturbing enough to make me never slack around said enemies. But despite having instakills quite around, this game feels much, much more easier than its sibling. You are given a bigger world to explore, after all, so Miro handed out a few goods to keep you alive, because killing you everytime is not good - especially since saving is scarce here.
Anyway, once you are past the initial village, you enter the city - and this is where the fun begins. It is a whole new area to explore, and this is where you will want to pass the days, because most if not all of the events happen around here. And if you don't see them and act, you will lose participants and potentially party members. Talking about party members, let's quickly go over what they do and what they don't do.
They are helpful, each of them coming with a few handpicked skills and besides ONE party member, all of them are useful. Karin can open doors, Marina can engrave, O'saa is a tremendous hitter, and so is Marcoh, and Abella can carry you through the whole game if you let her. Levi, however, is trash unless you revive him with Daan.
So, what's the deal with Levi? Well. He's addicted to drugs, and unless you are constantly feeding him with needles, he will mostly be a punching bag for enemies. He can be helpful, sure, he is still better than a ghoul, but you don't want him around.
Talking about needles, there is someone you should meet, which is one aspect I really liked about F&H2. You are not safe, even if you think you are. Needles is a famous enemy that happens to chase the player around if they get too cocky, and running into him can be the end of your run - alongside Bobbys in the city and the Mob.
So, the city is much more dangerous than the village, but still doable, it is not unfair, but it isn't entirely fair either. If you didn't get it, this game does not reward you at all for fighting. You don't get EXP, and you don't often get soul stones. Fights are dangerous unless you're well equipped and there's always a chance you get ganked by some people.
So, here is a brief summary. The gameplay is perfect, it requires a bit of strategy, and you are expected to die a few times. You are expected to walk around without an arm or a leg, and you are also expected to kill your fellow members.
Why? Because that's what Termina is all about. It is a battle royale, and the only fights you're 100% rewarded for are the ones you murder your friends. Not only do you get their equipment (which might or may not be helpful), you get their souls, allowing you to learn their skills. You can also chop their heads off and trade them with Pocketcat, someone you might remember from the first game.
And no, you can't save them all and yourself. The "best ending" requires at least your character to sacrifice themselves.
Okay, so you got what F&H2 is all about. Kill your friends (or don't), survive a big scary city, and wait until the third day.
Now, this game has three different endings, one of them will require you to explore the game a bit, and it goes off-rails with the whole Termina Festival thing. The other two are closely related to the festival, asking you to kill your friends.
So, for ending A, you will discover along the game that something bizarre is going on. The bunkers, the weird technology, the mystery, they all lead to this big door in the depths of the museum, which takes you to yet another hidden bunker. Once you're inside the "white bunker" as it is called, there is no going back.
You and your party explore this place, and you discover Kaiser, a man dressed in yellow who is the leader of the army invading the city you are in. He tells you about creating a god out of technology, the Machine God, so to speak. The Gods had forsaken humanity, and the new gods were too weak to do anything. If you played the first game, you would RECOGNIZE this man as Le'garde. What happened to him is up to interpretation, however, but it is definitely him.
You fight him eventually after his explanation, and you meet the Machine God. Another fight with yet another divine being and what happens is... you are absorbed by it, you become part of it, and she soothes you by telling you everything is fine.
So, the Machine God is a god made by humans, to care for humanity, and when you finally set her free - so does the festival end.
As for the other endings, they both involve the Moon God, and the revelation that Rher is actually gone. What you see, and what the antagonist uses to fuel his power, are but traces of him.
The main villain explains to you that the last few festivals were, in fact, used to further the plans of his cult and master, the Sulfur God, which is basically Satan. The Sulfur God is not talked about much, but he is clearly the counterpart to All-mer (basically Jesus). The Festivals are used to choose souls to serve him and just sacrifice in his name, in general.
So, depending on the ending, you will fight this handsome antagonist and the moon, and escape the festival alive - but with memories that will never fade...
Or you will be sacrificed to the Sulfur God.
Both endings are lacking, and it is a letdown towards the game's premise. Sure, the plot twist that Rher is dead did catch me and I loved it - but hearing that it was actually a plan to take Satan out of his pit? I didn't like that.
I'm sure Orange/Miro has some plans for him, and it was nice to see another God introduced. Don't get me wrong, the Sulfur God is not a bad thing, but I feel the way he was shown was lacking. Why would the Termina Festival (which is hosted for Rher) be used as a 'cover' for the Sulfur God? From what the villain says, the Old Gods are gone, and it's not like the participants actually wanted to be part of Termina; they were forced to.
So, why the cover-up? Did the villain think people wouldn't want to play his game if they knew it was actually a festival for the Sulfur God? Or was he fearing other cults to try and take him down for worshipping a god which is, from my point of view, "bad and evil", one that should be forgotten, one that is taboo even within the other cults (who are just as bad)?
Nonetheless, the OST of this game is fantastic, and so is the ambiance. Miro clearly took inspiration from Silent Hill and a few other games, and he certainly didn't lose his touch with the art style or the sprite work. The design of the enemies (in particular Bobby) kept the essence of the first game, and the Lovecraftian Horror was tuned to a max, even if the endings were unsatisfying for me.
Though, one thing that disappointed me was that you really don't get to know much about your character if you play as them. In my eyes, they are just an empty shell, with few moments where they actually truly shine through, well, the character. Of course, I won't ask Miro to change every dialogue and make it unique to all characters, but there are a lot of things you don't truly see about them. There are unique scenes, of course, but they are so rare and specific that... they don't fill the void in my soul, I want more, I NEED more.
Despite that, this game will go down as one of my favorites of 2023, and I expect to play it quite a few times until the end of this year. I do hope there are some S-Endings as there were in the first game.
I am excited to see what Miro is planning.
Happy suffering!