"Fear and Hunger 2: Termina" is the sequel to one of my favourite modern horror games, "Fear and Hunger". Miro, the developer of this game, had a very hard job maintaining the expectations without even knowing it already (he had published this game before funger became what it is today). If you ask me, he did create another frightful experience, but, like its predecessor, not an incredible game. Let me explain.

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Firstly, this game is enormous compared to its prequel. It expands more on the lore of the original game from the start, and every area you encounter is full of characters, enemies, tense moments and events that make the world feel alive.

The level design is delightful, especially in the main "dungeons" , with a lot of areas to explore, shortcuts to uncover, puzzles to solve and so on.

The enemy variety is also consistent throughout the whole experience, while their designs are gorgeous as always. Especially the moonscorched forms of the main characters are what have stunned me the most, representing perfectly the inner beings suppressed by each one of them. And, to top it off, the final bosses are perfect, each one scarier than the other.

While we're here, why not talk about the characters, which, in my opinion, are even more diverse and fascinating than the ones from Fear and Hunger. You are captured from the dialogues with them while "party talking", and always want to know their opinion about the situation you find yourself in. The only thing that bothers me a little is them not reacting to some in-game events or, for example, them losing a limb and so on. Still, I think that would be too much to ask of a single developer.

Last but not least, the atmosphere. Miro has perfectly captured the meaning of a horror game: every time you explore a new zone, hear a new OST or fight an enemy for the first time, you are met with a sense of dread that resembles perfectly what your playing character might be feeling at that very moment. I don't want you to spoil anything, but be prepared for pure fear (and hunger).

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Now comes the critical part of the review. We all know what RPGmaker is capable of doing. At the same time, it's also known that it's a mess once you get to debugging, and fixing some issues might even be impossible due to the limitations of the software. But, I kid you not, Miro has probably spent 95% of the whole development time trying to implement things, and the remaining 1% fixing the issues (4% was him laughing at us when he encountered a game-breaking bug or mechanic and left it there). This game is a total mess, and I'm talking purely from playing it, because whoever has entered the code knows that it's even worse there.

There are game-breaking bugs and softlocks in nearly every main area. Also, the game has serious programming issues. For example, the events which I mentioned earlier in this review have very specific triggers or are not implemented fully, so it's easy to encounter them randomly at some point during the run or skip them entirely. Another example is the skills, which, from what I understand by going through the wikis and playing myself, sometimes don't work as intended or absolutely. And the worst part is the community, which thinks they're actual features and tries to justify them.

So, from cutscenes freezing the game, party members disappearing from your run entirely, skills not working, you unlocking Dash from the first game sometimes (this one feels pretty good ngl), events bugging and so on, you'll have to throw away one or more of your luckiest runs due to them.

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There are some more problems, tho. First of all, the combat system added a lot of new features, but the enemies themselves are not as brilliant as the ones from Fear and Hunger. The main problem for me is the body parts. In the first game, fights felt like a puzzle: you could kill enemies using skill and knowledge, like what limbs to cut first, what to say to a particular enemy, etc; you did not have to rely purely on brute force, which was, especially in your first runs, to avoid totally. Termina has instead decided that these side mechanics have to be more difficult than actually just killing the enemy in front of you. And so, to fight effectively in this game, you only need one thing: target the torso . For the most fragile enemies, it makes sense, but for literal pillars, it doesn't. There are some exceptions, but they're nothing like the past.

Also, I find the bosses a little dull when it comes to actually fighting them, because they don't feel unique enough and sometimes don't even use the limb mechanic at all (like the platoon or the mob). This was something I had experienced before in "Fear and Hunger", so it's not a big deal for me.

And lastly, I don't see the vision with the plot of this game. While there is an expansion of the lore from the original Fear and Hunger, there's also a lot of new content and retcons which, in my opinion, aren't as profound or fitting (although it introduces some of my favourite areas and characters). After the events of Fear and Hunger, I expected the story to take a new turn, but it instead crawls back inside and fails to evolve. This last part is mostly personal; in fact, I could see people liking the happenings and endings of this game, but they left me a bit unexcited for a possible sequel, whose plot may be easily predictable when reaching Ending A.

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So, I don't consider this game a masterpiece, and I don't think Miro will listen and fix the game and will probably focus instead on adding new content (please don't do it...) BUT it is a wonderful experience I recommend to every fan of horror games or hardcore RPGs. The OSTs are all incredible, the designs and areas you explore are wonderful and terrifying at the same time, and even if it has some basic gameplay and a lot of problems, you will probably have more good moments than bad ones.

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Now, if you don't mind me, I'll return searching for my Marina, WHERE THE ♥♥♥♥ IS SHE NOW

dbd is like cocaine...
...you know it's bad for your health but you still end up going back. until they don't rework twins at least.

Il metallo pietra! Comunque consigliato per chi voglia ascoltare buona musica mentre spamma tasti in compagnia dei suoi amici

...non molte parole da dire, semplicemente stupendo.
Mi ha tolto il fiato più di una volta. L'unica pecca erano alcuni plot points fin troppo scontati, ma per il resto è un capolavoro di scrittura (lato videogioco, non intendo di trama), design del suono e molto altro. Veramente consigliato, vale molto di più dei 10 euro spesi.

se avete un amico che gioca rhythm games non compratelo, per l'amor del cielo

deh tettolone pefforza

Se guardate i requisiti di sistema, troverete in basso la dicitura "1/2k in banca da poter investire in UR"

it didn't steal me

Uno dei migliori giochi indie che abbia mai giocato. Divertente, frenetico e non dimentichiamoci della storia, che nella sua semplicità risulta cruda e di grande impatto.