It's the sequel to the last game I beat, which I'm sure was hotly anticipated by at least one person while otherwise being an impulse purchase.
Once again we're following a streamer who's managed to rope her friends into exploring an old abandoned and most certainly haunted building (a dead mall this time) in hopes of getting lots of views, only for everyone to find themselves chased by a cheesy mascot turned murderous monster whilst also dealing with the odd deathtrap that produces gratuitous panty shots here and there. Clearly qureate liked this formula. Nana, Mio, and Azusa have thoroughly retired from this kind of nonsense after the events of their game so we follow a new trio here. And honestly I'm gonna call that a gain since our new protagonist group—Himari, Aina, and Miyabi to give their names—are substantially more interesting than their predecessors. They've got much better chemistry, their arguments actually feel like they have weight to them, and not only do they have significantly more consequential baggage but it's actually very relevant to how things play out.
On the other hand, the actual situation our heroines are thrust into is a lot less interesting. Unlike in Escape from Hotel Izanami where the mystery of what's going on has a few different layers to it, here we've got a much more one-note monster to deal with and a backstory that, if I'm being perfectly honest, is kinda boring. Which leads the game to be almost entirely character-driven with the monster's involvement being just kinda there for a lot of it. A shame, really—I see no reason why they couldn't have fleshed out the monster and the circumstances surrounding it more.
(I will also note that unlike the first one, Escape from Togaezuka Happy Place actually has a substantial amount of livestreaming that happens during its events, if only because that's how the cast keep tabs on each other.)
Anyway, if you know the last game you know what to expect from the gameplay. It's a sidescrolling graphical adventure game where your exploration is broken up with randomly getting chased by an ambulatory and extremely deadly mascot costume. You can now run at any time, which is a welcome change from Escape from Hotel Izanami after how many times that game demanded I go all the way back to room 204. But the mall's also simpler to navigate, with looping corridors instead of the last game's C-shaped areas. Which on the one hand is nice and convenient, but on the other hand it kinda lessens the tension, even moreso considering how every area that branches off of the main corridors now has somewhere to hide.
Which isn't the only way qureate have made the chases less dangerous, because they went and added a health system. Being caught doesn't kill you straight away, the monster drops you off in the nearest bathroom and your madness level gets ramped up by one. This goes from low to medium, then to high, and you only game over if you're caught while it's at high. It's not the most forgiving mechanic since opportunities to lower madness level are extremely limited and there's also plot reasons to want it low, but it does make things easier.
Also of note: the three characters are now separated from each other for the entirety of the game instead of travelling as a group. Himari's stuck on the first floor of the mall, Aina's got the second, and Miyabi is on the third, and you don't get to move them between those floors. At all. Each of the girls has a separate inventory and independently tracked madness value, and yes, the latter is important. The character selection interface is the best part of this, honestly, since it imitates a not-Youtube user page with the profiles for each of the girls getting increasingly corrupted if you let their madness values go up.
Also of note is that the first method of transferring items between characters is Aina and Miyabi dropping things down to the first floor for Himari, which leads to a bit of silliness since one of the first things you need to use it on is a crystal ball...
There's also substantially more puzzle-solving than the first one. In Escape from Hotel Izanami, puzzles outside of the fanservice segments were few and far between. Here, though, there's a lot more of them, and a fair bit of variety as well. There's also no stupid Lights Out puzzle that you forget how to solve every time you take your eyes off it, which is much appreciated considering the last two qureate adventure games I've played both used that particular nightmare.
Oh yeah, and there's still loads of fanservice. While there's a lot more non-fanservice puzzles to deal with, you can't expect qureate of all people to abandon the latter. If anything they've focused more on it here, though this is still part of their all-ages line so you're not gonna be getting nudity outside of a single CG. The absolute silliest demonstration of this is one of the new types of hiding places being cardboard boxes that only cover the girls' upper bodies, leaving you with what is quite possibly the most absurdly gratuitous panty shot this side of Senran Kagura. Again, there are games that are much more overt about their sex appeal even within the limits of a T rating but you ought to know what you're getting into here.
Also of note: the localization quality is up significantly from the last game, and what I'd expect from Medibang in general. Still has some issues that pop up, but far better than I expected. Good job, whoever it is who did that.
All told, this is a fine sequel that probably could've benefited from more work put into its scenario and horror elements