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The Evil Within 2 - Shinji Mikami & John Johanas on the sequels focus & direction

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
 

Erevador

Member
This really does sound like the Silent Hill 2 of this franchise. A focus on subtler and more psychological fear over the purely grotesque, and a much stronger emphasis on story and character, along with more open hub environments.

I am predicting that this game will be something truly special. The survival horror we've been waiting for.
 

-MD-

Member
Nightmare unlocked from the start? Now I need to decide if I wanna start on Nightmare or save it for my 2nd playthrough, that was my favorite difficulty in the first one.

Wish it was October already.
 

Apdiddy

Member
I wonder if Akumu Mode will make a return and allowing different ways to play will make it slightly easier. I dread/look forward to trying it but I already know how difficult Akumu Mode was on TEW1.
 

Orb

Member
Literally everything im hearing is making me so goddamn excited. Im legit shivering.

Im excited to try out the new stealth, and im glad theyre pandering to me with pushing casual difficulty :p
i say as ive beaten bloodborne and ds3 multiple times
 

Rarius

Member
This really does sound like the Silent Hill 2 of this franchise. A focus on subtler and more psychological fear over the purely grotesque, and a much stronger emphasis on story and character, along with more open hub environments.

I am predicting that this game will be something truly special. The survival horror we've been waiting for.

This is really what I wanted from the first game. I felt like they went back on a lot of choices that would have made the game way more interesting.

Character design was one of them for sure. A lot of the character's original outfits in the first game looked more surreal and sorta not of our reality in the first place, sorta time displaced. Hell, the Antagonist of the new game looks like the original design for Ruvik
 

Orb

Member
This really does sound like the Silent Hill 2 of this franchise. A focus on subtler and more psychological fear over the purely grotesque, and a much stronger emphasis on story and character, along with more open hub environments.

I am predicting that this game will be something truly special. The survival horror we've been waiting for.
Id agree if Silent Hill 1 wasnt the superior game
👌
 

BadWolf

Member
Good stuff.

I'll mostly be on media black out moving forward, especially now that they seem to be really focusing on story.

Psychological horror over gore is a welcome direction change.

RE7 failed me, hope this delivers.
 

Pilgrimzero

Member
Id agree if Silent Hill 1 wasnt the superior game
👌

I'd agree if SH didn't shit on this series from a great height.

Was not a fan of TEW 1, but keeping an eye on 2 and hoping to be surprised. Always on the look out for a good horror game.
 

BadWolf

Member
The hub world/mission thing is actually pretty interesting in that they are mixing up on the kind of progression people have become used to in the genre.

Feels like they are taking some inspiration from Siren and their old timeline/mission structure.

This could go either really wrong or allow for a lot of replay value.

Oh and on the story front, here's hoping they aren't dumb this time and don't put most of it in DLC.
 
I'm still sad that none of the original actors are returning.

I see you're point, that it makes the sequel feel more like a continuation than a direct to dvd one instead, that has none of the same actors yet play the same characters or maybe you have an other reason for wanting too keep the original cast, the thing is Sebastian and Kidman voice actors were bad or average if you want to be kind. I didn't feel anything for them, they sounded bored, disinterested especially Jennifer Carpenter, voice actress for Juli Kidman. So the new most likely cast will be an improvement.
 
Thanks for keeping us posted, Dusk! So excited for this game.

Though I wonder if Lord Mikami is directing his own project since he's only producing here. Would be amazing.
 

Voliko

Member
On one hand I am wary of having "'many options" and the game sounding much more open, but on the other hand I think it's good that they are doing something new. Very glad to hear Nightmare is unlocked from the start.
 

BadWolf

Member
Thanks for keeping us posted, Dusk! So excited for this game.

Though I wonder if Lord Mikami is directing his own project since he's only producing here. Would be amazing.

On the one hand yeah, I was kinda hoping that he was working on something else but then again the more he is involved with TEW2 the better its chances of being great.
 

Fisty

Member
More story focus, more "open" structure and not being shackled to 7th gen make me really excited about this.

Hoping they dropped Akumu and just make Nightmare balls hard. I love a challenge, but Akumu being just one-hit kill was kind of a cop out imo
 

Aesnath

Member
I really wanted to like the first one, so I'm viewing this as a chance at redemption. I still suspect that there was a good game in TEW, but I wasn't willing to chew through the crap to get there. Hopefully streamlining and a more cohesive narrative will help this realize its potential.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
 
This all sounds very promising, but I have two concerns:
1) making both stealth and action playstyles viable in every encounter. I'm hoping this won't homegenize the encounters into sort of samey combat bowls with lame enemy patrol routes rather than the string of super creative, but more restrictive, encounters of the first game, especially if a lot of the gameplay takes place in more multipurpose hub areas. I'm less worried about this one tbh just based on what we've seen from the trailers and that they said some sections it will be harder to do one playstyle versus another.

2) the emphasis on story. I definitely hope the story is better this time around, but not if it means more forced walking narrative moments or unskippable cutscenes or something.

But other than those, neither of which I'm super concerned about right now, this sounds like it's gonna be a fanstastic evolution of the first game.

Oh and on the story front, here's hoping they aren't dumb this time and don't put most of it in DLC.

Almost all that stuff was in the main game, you just had to figure it out for yourself instead of having periodic expository dumps that spell it all out.
 

SilentRob

Member
Knowing that the director of the DLCs is the director here is giving me confidence, I loved those. Everything they are talking about regarding the story is great, too, that was one of my biggest gripes: THe game just never went anywhere with its great premise.
 

UrbanRats

Member
I thought the story in EW was pretty cool tbh, despite the bland characters and general corny-ness (Resident Evil style).
Especially with the twists in the Kidman DLC.
For being the first entry in the franchise, it got me hooked into the lore, in a way no RE ever did.

I'm interested in seeing how they play with that.

EDIT: But yeah it was a dick move to put 90% of the story in the DLC.
 

SomTervo

Member
My god this sounds phenomenal. Think it's day one for me.

Playing the original's DLC right now and it is awesome.
 

Neff

Member
Buying day one, no question, since I loved the original, but I'm still not sold on the choice of director. I'd be much, much happier if Mikami himself was steering the ship.

This really does sound like the Silent Hill 2 of this franchise.

yuck
 

J3nga

Member
Replaying the 1st one for the 3rd time, while I really like gameplay it definitely lacks a story, until late chapters it's mostly running around shooting muertos and thinking "is it for real or I'm going nuts". If they will improve story telling like they claim then we will have damn good survival-horror game and one of the 2017 highlights.
 
Not really a fan of all the "play the game your own way" talk in interviews since one of my favorite aspects of TEW was how focused it was.

I've beaten TEW on Akuma a few times in the past so I think I'll ignore the warnings and start it up on Nightmare. :)
 
Buying day one, no question, since I loved the original, but I'm still not sold on the choice of director. I'd be much, much happier if Mikami himself was steering the ship.

I dunno, given that he only had those barebones stealth mechanics to work with (and limited team and time) I thought he did a remarkable job bringing the variety of encounter design and pacing of the main games over. Stuff like the glow stick segment and Joseph boss fight were hella intense.

I think with the full breadth of mechanics and development team and timetable, with Mikami right there along side to help steer the ship, this will turn out just fine. I don't know if it will be able to top the first game on every respect yet, but I think it will definitely be a worthy sequel.
 

J3nga

Member
Not really a fan of all the "play the game your own way" talk in interviews since one of my favorite aspects of TEW was how focused it was.

I've beaten TEW on Akuma a few times in the past so I think I'll ignore the warnings and start it up on Nightmare. :)

My guess it's for those people that are more like a casual gamers if I may express myself that way and so they simply don't abandon the game due to picking up difficulty too high for them.
 

tesqui

Member
The fact that it's structured like a Mario game with chapters representing worlds and a bunch of levels within is really amusing to me. Pleasantly surprised how different this seems to be from the first.
 

Neiteio

Member
Main thing I want out of TEW2 is more amazing iconic monsters you encounter multiple times. The first game's trifecta of Sadist/Keeper/Laura was so good, especially the latter two. So far it looks like Obscura (I believe that's what the camera-headed creature is called) and what fans are calling "Sawblade Laura" are among the recurring baddies we'll encounter. Really looking forward to them, because the first game's stalker monsters were memorable to the point they could carry their own horror film franchises. I hope the monsters in TEW2 make an equally strong impression. :)
 

Anung

Un Rama
Very pleased with everything I'm hearing about this. Sounds like they are really trying to up their game. I just hope they do the same with the technical aspects.

I'll probably be going into black out mood as I want everything else to be a surprise.
 

Wanderer5

Member
One of these days, I am going to get around to the first game, or just skip to this one! (Nah probably not)

The whole whatever playstyle you want thing is going to be a bit interesting.
 

ST2K

Member
-Instead of dictating the way to play like the original game did (and clarifying the original game sort of had a certain style you had to play in chapter by chapter, often with limited options in what you could and couldn't do), they want players to be able to play The Evil Within 2 anyway they like. They restrained forced stealth and combat sections to instead rather have multiple options in about any scenario, allowing players to choose whether to fight, sneak, flee, or use traps/the environment to kill. There will be scenarios where certain methods will certainly be much tougher to pull off, but they designed TEW2 so all options should almost always at least be possible.

...Dammit.

I had written this series off completely based on how frustrating and inconsistent the first one was, but this bit makes me wonder if they've actually addressed it.

Now I have to put another game on my watch list this year. *sigh*
 

UrbanRats

Member
My guess it's for those people that are more like a casual gamers if I may express myself that way and so they simply don't abandon the game due to picking up difficulty too high for them.

That was actually one of the reasons i skipped this when it came out.
It just sounded very intimidating, difficulty-wise, and the people playing it also blew that aspect out of proportion, i think (bit like the "prepare to die" bullshit with Dark Souls).

So it's good that they're trying to get more people in that way.
 
Main thing I want out of TEW2 is more amazing iconic monsters you encounter multiple times. The first game's trifecta of Sadist/Keeper/Laura was so good, especially the latter two. So far it looks like Obscura (I believe that's what the camera-headed creature is called) and what fans are calling "Sawblade Laura" are among the recurring baddies we'll encounter. Really looking forward to them, because the first game's stalker monsters were memorable to the point they could carry their own horror film franchises. I hope the monsters in TEW2 make an equally strong impression. :)

There's also that flamethrower wielding dude that looks like a boss character that was briefly seen in the first gameplay trailer. The monster design looks incredibly on point so far (although I think I like the more gruesome designs for the haunted in the first game with gaping wounds and torture implements sticking out of them).

Hoping that black bars are not a thing this time around or at least it's optional.

Not a thing this time
 

dlauv

Member
Sounds like they're really aiming to make this game less of a mess. I might enjoy it this go around.

Altho I hope the "fears humans have" doesn't mean mannequins.
 
The first game had pretty phenomenal (and yeah, focused) combat encounters, so I definitely hope that the sequel doesn't feel too open and watered down. I felt like the first game did a decent job of making stealth just another part of your toolbox (once you got past the first few chapters, anyway).

Glad that Nightmare will be available from the start this time.
 
This really does sound like the Silent Hill 2 of this franchise. A focus on subtler and more psychological fear over the purely grotesque, and a much stronger emphasis on story and character, along with more open hub environments.

Yeah there even seem to be some more overt nods to Silent Hill 2. We've seen some scenes where it looks like Sebastian is wearing the same jacket as the SH2 protagonist, the ballerina-like Obscura monster looks like one of the monsters in SH2, and trying to find a loved one in an American small town gone wrong all feel like they were inspired by SH2 to me.
 
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