The concept of a standalone sequel feels like a relic of a bygone era. Sequels that co-exist within an established game world but can be enjoyed on their own. And as studios emphasize building franchises, sequels that are an immediate continuation of what came before it is almost entirely the industry’s standard approach. Color me surprised when I discovered that Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is largely a standalone sequel crafting a wholly new story that doesn’t require the original to play.
If you had played the original Oxenfree, you’d have more insight into what is happening and pick-up nods to past events, but it is absolutely not required. Rather than directly continuing Alex’s journey in the original, the player meets newcomer Riley, who has taken a summer job in her coastal hometown of Camena. Oxenfree II picking up five years after the original game’s events,...
If you had played the original Oxenfree, you’d have more insight into what is happening and pick-up nods to past events, but it is absolutely not required. Rather than directly continuing Alex’s journey in the original, the player meets newcomer Riley, who has taken a summer job in her coastal hometown of Camena. Oxenfree II picking up five years after the original game’s events,...
- 7/28/2023
- by Neil Bolt
- bloody-disgusting.com
We have strived to champion the importance of stepping stones into the horror genre on the show. Adolescent age-appropriate games within the horror sphere are less concerned with gore and guts and more focused on atmosphere and relationships. A formula that Night School Studios more or less perfected in 2016 with Oxenfree.
In returning to Edwards Island for the first time since the game’s release, Oxenfree is a strong example of twee horror. The game emphasizes character relationships just as much as the game’s lo-fi analog haunting. The intuitive dialogue branching system allows the momentum of uncovering mysteries of the island never to slow, while the player can have an active say in which conversations they wish to influence.
Oxenfree was and remains the game that convinced me to give more games not aimed at my age group a shot. My high school days may be long behind me,...
In returning to Edwards Island for the first time since the game’s release, Oxenfree is a strong example of twee horror. The game emphasizes character relationships just as much as the game’s lo-fi analog haunting. The intuitive dialogue branching system allows the momentum of uncovering mysteries of the island never to slow, while the player can have an active say in which conversations they wish to influence.
Oxenfree was and remains the game that convinced me to give more games not aimed at my age group a shot. My high school days may be long behind me,...
- 7/21/2023
- by Neil Bolt
- bloody-disgusting.com
Despite the legal definition, or even what well-meaning boomers might like to tell us, adulthood isn’t some magical badge you get to wear when you turn 18. Rather appropriately for Oxenfree, it’s more of a rope, anchored to one’s youth, that you must climb down at a glacial pace while attached to a variably heavy boulder, stretching your patience and skin out of shape while the anchor at the top starts fading into the foggy distance. And ever so often, something makes the boulder heavier, and a strand of the rope frays away.
This, it feels like, is more of the plot to Night School Studios’s Oxenfree II: Lost Signals than all the business about geometric trans-dimensional portals opening over the Pacific Northwest. Our heroes, Riley and Jacob, have both found themselves at the mortifying part of their descent into adulthood where the anchor is invisible. They...
This, it feels like, is more of the plot to Night School Studios’s Oxenfree II: Lost Signals than all the business about geometric trans-dimensional portals opening over the Pacific Northwest. Our heroes, Riley and Jacob, have both found themselves at the mortifying part of their descent into adulthood where the anchor is invisible. They...
- 7/16/2023
- by Justin Clark
- Slant Magazine
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