It never gave me little nightmares of my own, but the game's focus on a minimal roster of horrors has an effective way of drilling images of those enemies into your mind. One of the most notable effects of Little Nightmares II is its sticking power after the credits roll. Skills learned in Little Nightmares 2 are seldom learned without reason. The character offers silent suggestions at times that'll be useful to pay attention to should you find yourself on your own. Six, the protagonist from the first game who joins Mono's plight as an AI-controlled character in the sequel, often serves as your guide throughout the game. Little Nightmares 2 has an impeccable way of building on itself as well. That's an unfortunate side effect of the constant tension of Little Nightmares II which might call for those occasional breaks to get a reset of sorts, but the longer – though still relatively short – length of the game at around 7-10 hours or so feels optimal for that sort of experience. There was more than one occasion during my Little Nightmares II playthrough where I stepped away from the game for a break after being stumped on a puzzle only to immediately see its solution when returning. Some of them require a bit of finesse to time everything just so in order to proceed while others are frustratingly simple to the point of having their answers easily overlooked. (Photo: Bandai Namco)īut combat is only one part of Little Nightmares II, and it wouldn't be what it is without its many puzzles. You feel after every battle as if you've just barely won with one second or two able to make all the difference, an effect that keeps things taut throughout. Victories in battle don't feel like victories as much as they feel like survival, a superb way to integrate that sort of feature into a horror game. Though the combat evolution is appreciated, it in no way assuages the uncomfortable feeling that permeates Little Nightmares II. That feeling's explored in different ways throughout Little Nightmares II, but your first encounter is a special one. Everything up until that point had certainly been disturbing enough, but seeing the signature stretchiness of Little Nightmares II's inhabitants in person for the first time is enough to make you hold your breath and think on the fly while you try to adapt to these broken laws of anatomy.
Take the Teacher, for example, a recurring enemy in Little Nightmares II who's one of the first boss-type creatures players come across. The puzzle-platformer nature of Little Nightmares II with its unique mastery of the grotesque feels like something that's best experienced the first time, so I'm happy to experience the evolved and refined product first and go back to the original later should the desire arise (and it likely will). I never played the first Little Nightmares, but after playing through the sequel and having seen plenty of the original, I think I might prefer it that way.