Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise

A fascinating but deeply flawed game whose wild, gripping murder mystery and charming, eccentric cast shine through director Swery's distinctly bizarre tone and self-indulgent dialogue. Those charms are badly undercut by an abysmal frame rate, lengthy load times, mindless combat, and a tedious, fetch-quest-heavy structure. It is possible to walk away loving it, yet hard not to wish its unique flavor were preserved within a more capable, consistent game.

Swery's bizarre outsider style and the eccentric, likeable protagonist Francis York Morgan provide quirky charm and personality, but they are buried under crippling technical flaws. The game runs at a single-digit frame rate with five-minute load screens and a flat, empty open world, while combat is trivial and progress is gated by tediously arbitrary, clock-bound fetch quests. Defying convention only goes so far when basic game-design fundamentals are absent.

Nintendo Life gives 7/10 — janky and derivative but irresistibly wonderful and strange, full of character.

Glimpses of a good story but lacks the emotional residence of the first game. Saving grace is the main characters. Performance issues hold it back. A different bitter brew of coffee.