Two years ago I reviewed White Day: A Labyrinth Named School which I gave a 7/10 as I thought the game was OK. Now PQube is back with White Day 2: The Flower that Tells Lies and Woo Boy, this was a rough one.
White Day 2: The Flower that Tells Lies takes place the next day following the events of the first game in an episodic format where three stories intertangle as three high school students and a former Teacher sneak into the school to find answers about the events that occurred on campus and the secrets the school holds.
Unfortunately, during my playthrough there was nothing positive I can say about this game. To be blunt, right from the first cinematic, I knew this was an unfinished (potentially asset-flipped) mess, and the more I played, the more that feeling was validated. To start, the cinematics of the game are out of sync, BAD. I attribute that to how poorly rendered the game’s graphics are as the game stutters with the constantly loading textures and props. When you see the game trailer versus the final product, it’s two different games (graphics-wise).
I don’t think there’s a human voice cast (for the English dub anyway) for two reasons, one, I can’t find a cast list anywhere for this game, and two, a real actor would not read the line “They got died” (YES, that was a real spoken line in this game!), which leads me to think a text-to-speech AI program was used. Another thing about the game’s dialogue, the game seems confused about what period it’s supposed to be. The first game takes place in 2001 (if I remember correctly), this game takes place the following day/night, but the characters are wearing mid-late 2010s fashion, and some of the dialogue mentions (in the same breath mind you) that the event of the first game took place both last night and many years ago… WHICH IS IT?!
At the time of writing this, the game is unplayable in my opinion, not just because of how jittery the graphics are, but the AI cops chasing you around in the game, there’s no reprieve from them following you around, and at times seem to warp to different locations without rhyme or reason while in the first game, the guards follow a path.
Overall, till there’s any news about a massive patch to fix this game, I would avoid it at all costs if you can. I think the concept is good BUT the game needs to be remade from the ground up. With poor graphics, stuttering animation, lack of good scares, annoying AI, unplayability, and false advertising with two different-looking games from the trailer vs. the final product, this game itself is a flower that tells lies.
