Fear & Hunger 2: Termina

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Early this year I played Fear and Hunger for the first time and loved my time with it. I praised its worldbuilding and gothic dark fantasy aesthetic while also acknowledging that some of the challenges the game presents can be extremely offputting to new players. I originally felt the difficulty was something you have to push past initially and then the game becomes immensely easier. When getting into Termina, my first thought was how this game was going to tackle difficulty compared to the first game given its larger scope, larger array of mechanics and completely different setting.

Termina takes place roughly 400 years after the first game and is now adopting a more modern European gothic look rather than dark fantasy. What I find cool is how seamlessly this updated setting creates a more character-driven game while also putting more of an emphasis on the story of the world. The plot centers around a battle royale between 14 different characters, 8 of which are playable. I don’t think I've ever seen this concept used outside of a multiplayer setting and it is utilized to great effect to create a hopeless setting where at some point you will have to kill companions or characters you enjoy. What makes this situation harder is how good the writing is for each of the characters as they all have their own comprehensive backstory that makes you feel sorry for them. The inclusion of all these characters also makes progression more interesting as I valued discovering new interactions and set pieces with the characters over finding new items.
The new mechanic Termina includes that works hand in hand with the large roster of characters is the new three-day mechanic. The three-day time limit the game sets up at the start sets a tension to make the most of your time between each save as well as to discover all the hidden events that take place during each day. Each of the 14 contestants can be located all across the map during each day, with their locations changing almost every time you save and the day progresses. This is a fascinating mechanic as you can potentially miss out on recruiting or killing other characters as well as witnessing events where other contestants kill each other or encounters where contestants turn into horrible Silent Hill monsters. These events all have the potential to occur each day and there appears to be more on the way in future updates that will hopefully make this mechanic even more comprehensive to all the characters.

Now the main point of comparison for the two games is how Termina handles difficulty compared to the first entry. The starting hours were near identical as I was plagued with frustrating enemies and mechanics that forced me to restart the beginning section of the game over and over again. Knowing now that I had limited saves put more stress on me initially as I didn’t want to waste one on a run where I lost a limb or gathered crappy resources. But just like the first game, once I finally started to grasp what the game allowed me to do and get away with the game became infinitely easier. Some examples of this include finding an infinite health farm, learning how to regrow my limbs, and utilizing my party to kill every enemy during the first term. The amount of customization on offer is pretty incredible as you can build your character and party in a way that accounts for almost every encounter. The inclusion of numerous additional skills, items, and equipment makes it hard pressed to find players that had the exact same build as you. With each playable character having unique skills, starting items, and interactions in the game, there is a lot of replayability and mixing and matching if one finds playing as one character difficult. The tools are all there to help you maximize your experience and when I finally reached that point it was incredibly thrilling to backtrack through areas that once gave me a challenge and instead become a walking god of death.
Fear and Hunger Termina is the ideal sequel where it greatly adapts and expands upon the original designs and mechanics of the first game. The art and aesthetics are much stronger and more realized culminating in a very disturbing and ethereal horror RPG experience. The amount of details and secrets on offer is mind-numbing that is simply impossible to encounter them all in one playthrough. With the game also continuing to receive updates that promise to add more events encounters and maybe even endings, Termina is a smorgasbord of content. I can already tell this game will adopt a cult following as there is truly nothing else like it. I am so excited to see what fans and creatives will do with the ideas and mechanics this game presents hopefully culminating in a new era of horror-themed RPGs.
My first playthrough clocked in around 19 hours, with 8 of those hours being counted by the in-game clock. So much of my playthrough was trial and error as I wanted to see what was possible in this sandbox and how I could maximize my experience. During my time with Termina, I couldn’t help but be astounded by all the creative designs, locations and story beats that just made me so happy that I chose video games as one of my favorite hobbies. One of my favorite details is how the entirety of ending A correlates to post World-War in a way that I feel is one of the strongest depictions of how the whole world changed. Just like the first game, Termina is not for everyone as it is so heedlessly cruel, especially on the higher difficulties. But I think if you are someone who appreciates it when a medium accomplishes something wholly unique to its genre you need to do yourself the favor and try it out. It’s one of the coolest games I’ve ever played and I am so happy I got into this series.

You need to shut up and sit the fuck down for whenever you say you've played a "hard" game. I can't find dark souls or any other difficult series even comparable to Termina. F&H 1 was even too much for me, and I never got around to beating it simply for my lack of taste in its design. As I found Termina just days into its release, I jumped blindly into a soul-tearing and assaulting experience in which I was nervous to even progress. I loved it, and had a stupid amount of patience for the bullshit that was inside of this game, but for me that is what I found to make it so enjoyable. Everything is so fleshed out without going too deep into the spoils of it, that it led me wanting to lose just to see what would happen. I wouldn't be mad over losing a RNG based fail, because I wanted to see what unique animation would happen once I lost. The game isn't fun, its brutal and honestly rough and with bullshit all around. I will bet you however that you will never have such a tip-toe experience with a game that will have you try to play as least of it as possible while trying to beat it. Coin flip 10/10