One benefit of looking over brand new games is the chance to see grand new ideas based on things that you'd have never imagined getting a game. There's so many fresh and new concepts that are bouncing around the collective minds of humanity every single day that never see the light of day, so for something unique to get a spotlight is really a situation to celebrate. So with all that in mind, why in the fresh hell are we getting a 'Deadly Premonition 2'? Are we truly that far gone as a community, as a society of creative folk, that we have come around to making a sequel out of the weird, and bad, cult game from Hidetaka Suehiro? And why, oh why, do I want to play it so badly? Why do my very cells yearn to subject myself to an experience that made me feel physically ill the first time around. (That was due to monotonous visuals, by the by, and not some ingeniously grotesque imagery.) Bear with me as I try and figure myself out.
For those unfamiliar with his work, Hidetaka Suehiro is a Japanese developer and writer who has become somewhat famous for his frankly insane storylines and plotthreads, even for a Japanese game developer. These are often coupled with baffling scripts, call back lines, running themes and gameplay choices for good measure. When I first came across his work, it was all the way back in 2015 when I picked up his succinctly named game D4, or how I was introduced to it; 'Dark Dreams Don't Die'. What I discovered was a heavily narrative driven short story that straddled the line between a serious thread about a detective who lost his wife due to a psychedelic new drug, and the same man who has the ability to travel back into the past using items he calls 'memento's only to find himself unable to change anything. He desperately attempts to break the rules of his odd time travel to prove his actions have consequence and maybe even save his wife somewhere down the line. Oh, and also the new drug has the power to turn people into roid-monsters straight out of Cowboy Bebop. And there's a side quest that revolves around finding a map in order to prove to a flight attendant that the capital of Brazil isn't Rio de Janeiro but rather Brasilia. (I wish those three sentences captured even an ounce of that game's full weirdness.)
Of course, I never managed to be subjected to the full experience of a Hidetaka narrative, as D4 was to be released in episodes... until it wasn't anymore. I still don't know what happened, they just stopped communicating with anyone and confirmed several years later that there wouldn't be a second episode. (Or third if you count that prologue episode. Which I certainly don't.) So I was left with giving his other, much more famous, title a try and it was... oh god, it was certainly something special. 'Deadly Premonition' is an experiment of what would happen if you wrote a script whilst on acid, and somehow the final product isn't a complete train wreck. Or rather it is, but in a manner that is weirdly playable. I'm not even sure if this title fits in the 'so bad it's good' category, because I'm not convinced that the title fails at achieving anything that it attempts. You may have noticed that I'm being very non-specific about my time with DP, and that's because I'm even more at a loss to describe it, (and I never finished it) so you'll have to hit up someone else for a full plot breakdown.
Everyone who gets through one of these titles is inevitably hit with an existential crisis as they come to terms with the fact that their world view will never be so roundly challenged again. At no other point in a person's life are they going to be locked into a serious conversation about the moral leanings of a cup of coffee. (Did that conversation even actually happen in the game, or am I just remembering a serious stroke?) Nevermore will you be forced to drive somewhere in real time with the only obstacle in your way being a suspiciously easy-to-drain gas tank. (Unless you ever play Mafia 2, in which case your gas tank is literally the final boss of Act 1.) So you can understand why the general public mostly decided to file 'Deadly Premonition' away as a once in a lifetime experience that can never be recaptured or relived. But now they're making a sequel.
It's almost fitting for a game that hails from a franchise this uncomfortably indefinable to be announced by way of Nintendo Direct rather than through traditional trailers. In fact, it's been several months since that reveal and we still have little more to go on regarding this title over than a curious sizzle-reel accompanied by the jaunty voice of the Nintendo voice-over guy. (Just doesn't really set the mood right, now does it?) However, one benefit of this turn of events is that we don't have to shift through confusing trailers in order to figure out what we're seeing, we have a mascot from a kid-friendly game developer to explain to us the intricacies of this serial killer centric-story.
So in keeping with the theme of 'Quantum Leap' meets 'Silence of the Lambs', Deadly Premonition will follow two stories separated by fourteen years. One plot line will take place with FBI Agent Aaliyah Davis holding an interview with a serial killer in an abandoned apartment in Boston. (Hang on, isn't Dark Dreams Don't Die set in Boston? And doesn't that apartment strangely resemble David Young's? I smell a crossover...) Meanwhile, fourteen years in the past the player will also be following the journeys of Francis York Morgan, back from the first game, right dab in the middle of New Orleans. His investigation won't just be tied to the modern day story, either, but apparently back to the original title in what's shaping up to be a grand wrap up of loose story threads that I assume exist because I never finished the original. (Crucify me, whatever.)
The rest of the trailer consists of a brief run-through of screen shots that I can best describe as 'interesting'. These include a brief first person shot of York (presumably) riding a boat through the bayou (When in New Orleans...) and a hellish Silent Hill-esque dreamscape in which he faces off against an obscure monstrosity that appears to have a coffin chained to it's back. (So everything looking as normal as these games get.) If there is one sticking point that I have to point out, and I hate to do this, it's the graphics. I mean what am I looking at in 2020? D4 sort of managed to brag off having lower gen graphics by being stylised, but this game looks like it came out the week after the first game. (Which was literally 10 years ago.) I understand that visual fidelity isn't really the point here, (or really fidelity in any aspect aside from gas consumption) but these aren't exactly visually demanding games, it wouldn't have killed the team to shoot for 1080p textures at least. (And don't give me anything about "The Nintendo Switch's capabilities", that thing can run 'The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt')
That's all there is to tide fans over for now, but I'd imagine that there may be some more exciting info heading this way in an upcoming Nintendo Direct. (Or at least I hope there is, Mr. Suehiro doesn't seem to operate through normal marketing rules so literally anything is game at this point.) Although I must say there already is some strange force within me that's attracting me to this title, even when everything should be pulling me away. I just can't shake the feeling that avoiding this title would be one of the biggest mistakes of my life, and I have enough of those racked up already. So perhaps it's time I dusted out my copy of 'Deadly Premonition' (Digital copy, but what are you gonna do) and finally push myself forwards to completion. Maybe I'll even make a blog about it. Who knows anymore, I clearly don't.
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