Well, hey there friends. Long time no see. I hope you didn’t miss me too much. Real life got in the way of fun stuff for a while, but I’m back now! After all, you can never truly get rid of me. And today I’m back with some spooks. It is the season, isn’t it? Today I’m going to talk about White Day 2: The Flower That Tells Lies. The name may seem familiar to you, this is indeed a follow up to White Day: A Labyrinth Named School. You may also remember I was not the biggest fan of the first game. But does the sequel fair any better? Unlike its predecessor, White Day 2 was developed by Rootnstudio LTD. Both games share PQube as publisher.
What is White Day 2: The Flower That Tells Lies?
To start with, White Day 2: The Flower That Tells Lies is a DIRECT sequel to the original White Day game. Initially, I thought this was going to be set in the same universe. But nope, direct sequel.
White Day 2 is a horror mystery, once again set in Yeondu High School, set 1 day after the original incident. The time has again come to investigate the bizarre phenomena of the school, all while trying to avoid bloodthirsty killers. The game takes place across three episodes, happening simultaneously.
Episodic Day
Episode one follows Jung Soo-jin and Jang Sung-tae. Vicious rumours have been circulating that Jung Soo-jin was involved in the death of a fellow student, and she wants to set the record straight. However, nothing is ever that easy.
Episode two follows Kang Seo-yung. A former teacher in training, she is at the school to investigate her father’s passing. However, Seo-yung has a deep knowledge of the occult, and attempts to reverse an ancient ritual on the school grounds. All the while, a malicious entity haunts her every step.
Episode three follows first year student Yoo Ji-min. Ji-min made a promise to bring peace to the spirit of Han Na-young. However this promise will lead to a fateful discovery, lifting the veil of obscurity once and for all.
Different devs, same flower?
We’ll start this out on a positive note. White Day 2 very much captures the spirit of the first game. The graphical style mimics that of the first game, or rather the remaster. On that same note, gameplay is extremely similar also. I won’t say the exact same as I did have a gameplay issue here that I don’t recall having in game one.
This is very much a first for me when it comes to a gameplay issue. Well done, White Day. Hit boxes. We’ve all had issues with hit boxes at one stage or another, usually in combat. But that’s where this one differs. This wasn’t a combat issue. It was an anything you need to interact with issue. To actually manage to interact with something, you have to be so insanely precise. Truth be told, it was infuriating. Even more so when it came to doors.
Any time you need to open a double door, you need to pick the correct door. Click the wrong door and you get a text prompt informing you that it is firmly shut. Admittedly, this got me more than once. I had multiple occasions where I felt totally lost because it seemed like no door would open to let me progress. This was something that definitely soured the experience for me a tad.
A story that tells…?
But back to the story. White Day 2: The Flower That Tells Lies just affirmed something I have been feeling a lot lately. Originality is lacking in the gaming industry right now. Despite taking a different style and going for an episodic nature, White Day 2 is just nothing new. Haunted school, dark secrets, occult rituals? I feel like that’s all we’ve been seeing over the last couple of years, with things like zombies or Cthulhu sprinkled in. Some games can take these overused tropes and create something magical, but White Day 2 is not one of them. This is very much a personal preference above anything else.
If you enjoyed the first White Day game, you will love the second game. It does pick up really well from where the first game leaves off, and it does develop the story of the school quite well. However, it just was not for me. I feel like I’ve seen this story so many times that it takes something truly exceptional for me to actually enjoy it.
Final Flower
All that being said, White Day 2: The Flower That Tells Lies has a physical release, and I AM a collector. I am no stranger to having physical versions of games I wasn’t a fan of, purely because it’s horror. Or games so broken they can barely be played (looking at you Agony). There’s a weird, twisted part of my brain that lives for this kind of thing. And friends, White Day 2: The Flower That Tells Lies may not have wormed its way into my heart, but it will definitely worm its way into my collection.
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