I recently completed a playthrough of OXENFREE II: Lost Signals, the sequel to 2016's OXENFREE. I loved the first game, but the second fell flat. It inherited what made OXENFREE good, but not what made it great.

OXENFREE II picks up narratively where OXENFREE left off, taking place a few years after the events of OXENFREE, in a nearby location, following a new group of characters. It uses the same conversation-based gameplay as OXENFREE, in which player choice is primarily expressed by the time-limited selection of dialogue options that affect the relationships between the player-controlled protagonist and the game's other characters. As in OXENFREE, the game's plot involves the late-night investigation of radio-based paranormal activity on a spooky island in the Pacific northwest. And OXENFREE II, like OXENFREE, features superb writing and voice acting. The two games have nearly identical mechanics and art, which is great, because OXENFREE nailed that stuff.

Where the two games diverge is in their characters. While OXENFREE's characters are teenagers, OXENFREE II is explicitly and intentionally about adulthood. As the studio director put it:

...we had an 'a-ha' moment where we decided to return to the same world where OXENFREE took place, and revisit it through the lens of a different character at a more mature stage in her life. We asked ourselves: What does a coming-of-age story look like for somebody in their early thirties, going through their own sets of challenges and looking back on the decisions they’ve made?

This is a cool narrative idea, and Night School definitely executed their vision. Throughout OXENFREE II, the protagonist Riley reflects upon her history, considers (or avoids) her future, and contemplates the effects she has had, and can have, on the lives of those around her. But what ends up missing is...a game. The brilliance of OXENFREE is that navigating teenage social relationships is both a narrative experience and a game to play. Since OXENFREE's characters form a true social network, every interaction with one of them affects all the rest, and social tension and tradeoffs are inherent to the gameplay.

But the relationships in OXENFREE II are almost entirely independent of each other, which means the interactions that form them have (almost) no stakes. In OXENFREE, being kind to Jonas might alienate Ren, and befriending Nona might require enduring abuse from Clarissa. But in OXENFREE II, being nice (or a jerk) to one character doesn't really affect what any others think of you, so while the interactions are a narrative experience, they're not quite a game. What ends up happening is that Riley's emotional exploration proceeds in parallel with her investigation of the island's mystery, but the two don't really intermix. It's two half-games you play at the same time, and I found myself disappointed in both. I suspect that I'm supposed to want to replay OXENFREE II to explore different dialogue paths, but unfortunately, I don't - especially because OXENFREE II, unlike OXENFREE, lacks a narrative conceit that actively pushes the player towards replaying the game.

The "paranormal mystery" half of the game does have more gizmos than OXENFREE does, and on paper, they're pretty neat. But they feel bolted on. They're novel without elevating the experience - if you ignore them, you miss some achievements, but nothing that feels fundamental. (Some of the new features also suffer from a frequent affliction of games that try to combine exploration with plot urgency: When there is a crisis RIGHT NOW, doubling back to complete a side quest is inherently immersion-breaking.)

Ultimately - to paraphrase some internet commenter I've lost track of - OXENFREE II feels more like OXENFREE nostalgia DLC than a separate game. If you've never played either, play OXENFREE. If you loved OXENFREE, you could give OXENFREE II a shot, I guess. Or you could just replay OXENFREE. I think I'm going to.