STORY
The first game is a direct parody of a parody game of the Five Nights At Freddy's universe, using cartoon characters made by CryptiaCurves. This time around, developer Nightfox brings self-developed characters to his universe, which are based on the original AFAFF designs. All the animatronics in the second game are written with intent and pack just as much personality as the original robots from the first game.
You are Gregory Wood, chief engineer at a new animatronics club. This new club is run by Seraphina, Lilith's sister and Mr. Smith's sister-in-law. Your job is similar to that of Josh Black, the engineer of the original game - fix all electronics in the club, keep the animatronics running and investigate weird stuff. You remember the rule not to fuck the Animatronics, right? Well, it's still applicable... for the most part.
This club holds a pack of four different animatronics, who as opposed to the characters in FNAF, supposedly chose to continue life as animatronics inside the club instead of being forced. Pretty soon, Gregory will need to fix up the girls - Mia, Chi, Roxy and Aurora, the first tiger animatronic. They all have their own defects in ways and it's up to you to figure out why and how they happened before you can even think about implementing fixes.
Pretty soon in the story, you'll find out you have around 14 days to fix them and from that point, the pressure is on. The second game is definitely more story-focused than the first, doing away with point allocation in favor of just experiencing the story. Add to that a couple callbacks from the original game and you have got yourself a nice cocktail of nostalgia and curiosity that benefits the game style.
In AFAFF2, it's actually harder to find the path that you want to take because you can't always access all the women all the time. The game also feels a bit shorter because there aren't many sidestories or horror segments within the 14 days. The characters however, do feel fleshed out to the point where they have their own distinct ways of responding to things. You won't easily mistake Roxy for Aurora and vice versa.
Even Seraphina, the club's owner, has her own backstory which explains a lot about who she is and why she runs the club. You want to take screenshots or notes while having a conversation with her, because you'll need to remember a few things she says to open her up. It's not mandatory, but adds a nice extra story to the somewhat heavy stories the animatronics have.
Overall, the story works to service the game's vision of having you puzzle routes in order to keep the club running. Throw in the fact you'll see familiar and new faces from Nightfox, and you understand a bigger world is being built across his games.
PRESENTATION
Much of what worked in AFAFF 1 is here. Vector club environments, sexy cartoon sprites and a bunch of funny situations. Being a straightforward novel, the recognizability of locations make the story easier to navigate and understand. We see less of the club than we did in AFAFF1, but the locations help sell the story. It's a perfect blend between minimalistic backgrounds and the colorful style this game is known for.
Between all the new animatronics, Roxy and Aurora are clearly the breakout characters. While Aurora has the tiger looks that would make any animatronic lover blush, Roxy clearly has the main character energy instilled with her: She sings for the club, lives the rockstar lifestyle and isn't easily swayed. Meaning you'll have to work to win Roxy over. It's creates a fun dynamic that keeps characters fresh.
Dialog choices make sense and for most of the face value things, you know what you're potentially getting yourself into. It's a pretty smooth ride that has been thoroughly worked on by the developer. Personally, I wish we could have seen more of the world around Gregory. The game mostly sticks to the story it tells, and doesn't allow much worldbuilding outside of it like in the first game.
While in the first game the sexual content was sprinkled across a few single moments, this game does away with most of the sexual allure. Fapping players have no business playing this for visuals only, as this is a story-driven game. Every piece of lewd or explicit content you get to see, has to be earned and has to make sense for the story. While the intimate images are drawn more loosely than the sprites, they do definitely evoke that anime feeling that fits the aesthetic.
That said, I can't help feeling we needed more visual content from this story. More interaction between Gregory and the animatronics, and a few more interesting locations within the club. Additional sexual scenes would be nice, but at this point they might as well be taken out unless they further the story plot. The scenes are static and without sound design, and I didn't miss both for a second. The style just works as it did in the first game.
GAMEPLAY
The AFAFF games are choice-based novels that let you help animatronics by the choices you make. The points allocation system from the first game is gone, and it's a welcome change in pace. While the game might miss one of its puzzle elements because of it, the story branches enough to keep you guessing which animatronic you want or need to spend time with next.
AFAFF 2 is split up over a series of days, where you get to decide which problem you want to fix that day and which animatronic you want to visit. The key is to figure out where to be when and what moments you can skip out on in favor of others. This time, developer Nightfox has done an even better job of letting us see the different choices at hand. Where the first game became a bit convoluted due to choice paralysis, this game keeps the choices short and sweet while keeping the story moving.
This time, I did have more trouble figuring out in what order I had to help the animatronics in order to fix most, if not all the issues they brought up to me. From Chi being stuck to Roxy's audio circuits being fried, the robots will put some stress on you. Maintain a level head, sacrifice what can't be salvaged and make sure you focus on the end goal. There's always another playthrough.
Speaking of which: the game offers five endings which will all require separate playthroughs. Two good endings, two bad endings and a true ending. The bad endings often involve you severely messing up or dying, so those are probably the easiest to reach. Gameplay in AFAFF2 is simple, but effective.
OVERALL
Breaking away from the original Five Nights At Freddy parody story was the best choice developer Nightfox could have made. With a different cast, a new plot to solve and the option to now hack into animatrons to figure out their 'other personalities', the game draws you into its storybuilding with its simple, strong setup. For lovers of suspense, the first entry might be a better game. But in terms of creativity, A Fortnight At Frenni Fazclaire's 2 opens up the world to a lot more stories with the cute animatronics.
Rating: 8 / 10
Original review: A Fortnight At Frenni Fazclaire's 2 (v0.2)
Developer: Nightfox Itch.io
Tags: VN, Cartoon, Humor, Robots
Game Walkthrough
WARNING: Because this game features a puzzle-like structure, fans of the game have been quick to give out 'True Ending' walkthroughs and schematics. Read beyond this point at your own responsibility. Try the game first before you resort to this knowledge.
So in AFAFF2, it felt a bit harder to find the right way to reach the true ending. You won't get any extras or specials with it, so you will have to play at least three times to get the other content. This is only usable for getting the 'True Ending' of the game. All other content, like the raging scenes, you will have to look for by yourself.
'True Ending' flowchart, shared by James The Mighty on F95, originally made by Spartan 94575 and shared on Nightfox's Discord.
For those who have trouble seeing the picture or would like a written-out list, here's a list courtesy of Nightfox's Discord:
'True Ending' Choices List
Night 1
> Aurora
> Chi
> Luxury flower hairpin -> The pin is for Seraphina
Night 2
> Consult Seraphina
> I can't walk away now
> Say something cheerful
> Chi
Night 3
> Flick her nose
> Aurora
> Chi
> Chi's AI
> Aurora
Night 4
> Roxy
> Mia
> Go find Seraphina
> One of the AIs -> Chi
> Encourage taking credit
> One of the girls -> Chi
> Explain AI problem
> Seraphina
Night 5
> Bring up what Chi's AI told you before
> Seraphina
Password: cobaltbahamut
> Mia
> One of the AIs -> Roxy's AI
> One of the girls -> Roxy
> Tell Roxy about her AI
> Shut it down immediately
> Roxy
Night 6
> One of the AIs -> Roxy's AI
> One of the Girls -> Aurora
> Have some fun with Lexy
Night 7
> Tell Seraphina
> Seraphina
Password: tomnovember
> One of the girls -> Chi
> One of the AIs -> Aurora's AI
Night 8
> Start a transfer -> Chi's AI
> One of the AIs -> Aurora's AI
> Offer to create a bridge
> One of the girls -> Aurora
> Reveal Aurora's past
Night 9
> One of the AIs -> Aurora's AI
> One of the AIs -> Aurora's AI
> Run the Gestalt program
Night 10
> One of the girls -> Seraphina
> One of the girls -> Mia
Night 11
> One of the girls -> Seraphina
> One of the AIs -> Mia's AI
> One of the girls -> Mia
Night 12
> One of the girls -> Mia
> One of the girls -> Roxy
Night 13
> Start a transfer -> Mia's AI
> One of the girls -> Seraphina
> One of the girls -> Roxy
There you go, that's the true ending. Now go out there and chase those other scenes!
