Rootnstudio Ltd. / PQube (studio)
18 (certificate)
15 August 2024 (released)
29 August 2024
War and School is Hell. It is a simple fact, especially if you’re a Korean high school student haunted by ghosts. The original Whiteday was a cult classic horror game which was truly ahead of its time, bringing in a grounded setting, filled with creepy supernatural elements, and the stalking enemy which we see now all the time in modern gaming. All these elements we see now quite commonly in contemporary gaming, but the stalker/defencelessness attributes here pre-dated the likes of Outlast, Amnesia and even Forbidden Siren. Coming out back in 2001, Whiteday was brought back in the late 2010s for the PS4, and PS5, and while having aged somewhat in places, the concept and horror still held up phenomenally well. So after 20 years, an official sequel is finally out. How does it compare?
I don’t wanna go to haunted school mom!
We see the return of the spooky Yeondu High School, which has seen better days after the events of the first game. Its haunting secrets and bizarre on-goings with murderous janitors have kept the locals, former students and teachers intrigued since the great fire. Now it’s time to uncover the dark truth that has been long hidden but beware of spooky ghosts, bloodthirsty security guards, and the terrifying notion of having to return to school.
The sequel puts us in the bodies of three students and a teacher of the school, returning one night to Yeondu High to finally uncover the mystery. We get three episodes where the threads of the narrative come together, as our foolish trespassers explore the school, cross paths with vengeful ghosts, and learn more of the shady events between students, teachers, and things far, far worse. The plot revolves around a cursed flower, that reveals the deepest and darkest secrets of a place or person, to those who possess it.
The original game, much like other classic horror titles such as Project Zero, managed to set up a simple narrative, and thrilling twist for the finale, but do so effectively with a slow burn reveal, and interesting character exchanges throughout. There were multiple choices, and different endings to unlock too. The sequel follows a similar path, providing multiple choices and endings, but also allowing us to explore and unravel the mystery through three perspectives. This is a nice touch, as the knowledge of the three characters, and their discoveries all differ somewhat, and piece together well enough in the conclusion for the most part.
White Day 2 excels in its horror and atmosphere, making up for any shortcomings in the narrative. There are a plentiful number of ghosts, horror set-pieces, and decent jump scares that will leave you unnerved for the duration of the game. I will acknowledge that certain technical aspects do ruin a good scare here and there, but the intensity and overwhelming creepy vibes, eerie sound design, and lighting for various set pieces and encounters are handled incredibly well.
White Day 2 suffers from quite a few missteps, down to the poor English dub (which can be reverted if you play in the Korean dub – which you should do), but also a lack of consistency in the story and what character’s exposition. They refer to the same event in different conversations happening the night before, and many years ago. Possibly this is all down to bad translations, and having the original game come out over 20 years ago, could cause some confusion in the voice work.
However, the heart of the mystery is still quite fascinating and delivers some new information which the first game didn’t expose. Not to forget the immense horror elements which are incredibly unsettling and gripping for much of the venture.
What is this ghostly vision before my eyes?
When it came to presentation for the original game, there was a clear-cut anime inspiration, even for the original 2000 PC release. The re-release from 2017, and its PS5 update, managed to polish things up nicely, and the game did look great!
The style and art direction have changed, and what may be small changes do add up quite significantly. I do understand the developers may have wanted to make this sequel more “grown-up” and “photorealistic” looking, and while some bits do look better, there are plenty of others which don’t hold up, even when not compared to the first game.
The original game has a slight cell-shaded effect to the graphics, where it had an anime-like sheen to it, but it looked pretty good and had all the small details to push the presentation forward. And it’s these small details the sequel lacks that add up. Don’t get me wrong, there are some neat visuals, and the character models look generally good, despite some odd artifice, and their deadpan nature. But small things are noticeably gone, and it hit hard.
For example, when you look out of any window there’s nothing at all. There could be an argument that the empty nothingness utilises a sense of dread and isolation, but in all honesty, it just feels empty in a cheap way. The original game included a city landscape in the distance and trees shadowing the rest of the world. This added a better sense of isolation and dread, being so close, yet so far away from help and civilisation. Plus it felt real, knowing there was a world around you, while horrible supernatural things occurred before your eyes. It just works objectively better this way.
Other technical issues popped up, such as missing icons for doors that can be opened and having them visible in cutscenes when they shouldn’t be there. But this could be down to the pin-point nature of highlighting objects for interaction. I did find myself spotting a key item, and going to it, and the interact icon wouldn’t appear, unless in a very particular spot. However, for a door, I should be able to just stand before it, and open it, especially when someone or something is chasing me. Other tidbits did appear, such as assets popping in and out of a scene, and other small things which didn’t break anything but didn’t look good at all.
As mentioned, certain ghoul encounters do lack impact when the framerate stutters and the quality thus dips massively.
I do hope many of these issues can be patched out soon enough, but in its current state, as this review goes out, it’s incredibly frustrating to see so many problems crop up together. Especially when the first game was so polished, had working mirrors, and other details that this sequel is missing.
Tag, you’re it! Ghost-tag
As you might expect from a survival horror game, the gameplay boils down to puzzle solving, key hunting, exploration/backtracking and evading enemies via stealth. There are a lot of problems to solve, codes to locate, and an immense amount of ground to cover while creepy perusers come after you. The core gameplay has changed very little from the first game, and for good reason, as it worked so well. But some minor inclusions have been added to flesh out some of your defences and options in dealing with enemies, namely disposable cameras with flashes.
The puzzle side of things works quite well, with even the early problem-solving offering some great lateral compensation. Much of the problem-solving is code/key-based and while this can become a little tedious, the UI and management of key items is very good. Meaning you won’t lose track of the code you need, or what key to use on what door. I do wish the map was updated but the problem-solving never becomes vastly overcomplicated or breaks up into multiple tasks, so following your objective and progression is easy enough.
What is an interesting design choice is the lack of healing items, regenerative health, and being able to save anywhere. I am quite happy these features for accessibility are here but feel that having them as options or removing one would have made the game much better and more tension-filled. Manual saves would have been great, as the health system is nice for the relentless nature of the pursuers.
But I’m overall glad (and not for a good reason) that health regeneration and unlimited saves are in place, as the stealth and evasion gameplay can be gut-wrenchingly broken at times. It was clear when playing that enemy AI and placement felt unbalanced. So much to the point where enemies will always know in general where you are, have erected movement speeds and patterns, and often appear out of thin air to get you.
What I do like greatly for White Day 2, is the additional content, which harkens back to a time in gaming where extra content and rewards were given place, and not downloadable paid content. There are plenty of additional costumes and all, enough to keep you coming back and playing just for a change of scenery.
Overall?
While I had some problems with the original White Day, I did greatly admire the design, pacing, and balance of the haunting and evading. I loved the art style, horror, and compelling narrative. White Day 2 keeps an interesting narrative and great horror, but for design, presentation, and performance, it futters quite a lot.
The technical issues can be patched out, and hopefully soon enough, but certain design choices, the unbalanced nature of the stalking enemies, and the lack of presentation in key areas make this a humdrum sequel. It doesn’t elevate the concept, nor add in anything truly remarkable to warrant a sequel, but instead feels like a retread, that doesn’t capture the same magic the original game had. I do think White Day 2 is worth checking out if you’re a fan of the original and want to bathe in the great atmosphere and horror. But this should happen after the major issues have been resolved.
++ Great atmosphere, and strong horror elements
+ Interesting story
+ Fantastic selection of extra content and replay value
-- Treacherous performance and plenty of technical issues
- Unbalanced enemy AI, and broken gameplay moments
- Does not add anything new or meaningful to the core gameplay
- Presentation is lacking compared to the original game
A review copy of White Day 2: The Flower that Lies, was kindly provided by PQube.
