Sweet Middleground 2 ~the birthday cake~

Yeah, really sweeter! That's why!

Welcome to the review of this second episode of the series Sweet Middleground by Zorga, the visual novel with puzzles! Unlike the first episode that took me an hour to complete, this is shorter and need about 30 minutes to finish, probably because the first took some time to introduce Antigone and Vincent, and explain their backgrounds. Now that the characters are already esablished, this episode starts more or less immediately after the first: Vicent and Antigone are hanging out with friends and soon it will the birthday of one of them, so they decide to make a cake, no wait, as Antigone mentioned in the pic above this will be THE cake!

I mentioned in the review of the first episode that the game was about completing tasks about cooking and clocks... and this time it's more or less the same, just without the clocks (just because Antigone didn't want, but you will see!), so prepare to make a cake, but this will be no easy task and will require to complete some activities, puzzles and minigames... I mean each step of the cake requires one, of course!


Crack those acorns!

But yeah, things are never easy! Prepare to steal eggs (that puzzle took me 15 minutes, about half of the playtime!), escape the crowded library (again!) and make some other little actions in this short put cute and funny simple adventure. There are some new puzzles in which you have a first person views and you have to manipulate the objects in front of you to complete some tasks, nothing particularly complex but still a nice addition and something new (that is also intuitive and well realized)!

Something I really liked, besides the puzzles that are clearly well designed and realized, is the graphics: not only I saw some little improvements on the old familiar map of the neighborhood (except for the presence of those ugly doormats), but also the busts of the main characters this time are nicely animated (and also dressed more appropriately, I do not know why but the first time the characters looked like Rtp or slight edits, anyway I prefer this new more casual look!). Anyway the introduction of animations really makes them more lively and feels natural, really nice!
I also liked the music, the first one comes to hear and gave me a sense of urgence, even if this isn't clearly a dramatic game, overall I liked them as much as those of the first episode.

The only problema that one player may have is that he has not played the first episode since there is no tutorial (even if the map is still present and updated, but no one tells you about it, so be sure you played the first before trying this one! There is no reason to start the series from episode two!).


Oh no the old trick (see the first episode) won't work this time!


The Final Verdict
Sweet Middleground 2 is a good sequel, it's a bit short compared to the original BUT improves almost every aspect, from graphics to gameplay. Not that the first felt repetitive, but this one has more unique tasks, my only complaint besides the shortness is probably the lack of tutorial or just indications for those who do not know the setting... but I think that these person should NOT even start this game before completing the first!

The animations (and gestures) of the custom portraits are very well done and probably these are biggest new feature, not that is world-changing but still it would have been easier leaving everything as it was before. So, due to the improvements over the first I can probably........
WAIT! Oh no, my bad, I just realized that there is SM2.5! I will play that, it should be pretty short...

Ok, done!
It was a pretty short addition of 3 minutes or maybe less with an interactive scene, no puzzles here, just narration and some actions required, plus some dialogues and the usual animated busts seen before (only defect I noticed is a typo, "sine" > since). This is a little bonus scene following the events of Sweet Middleground 2, but I like having it as an extra, since the ending of SM2 was so good that this would not have been an optimal final scene as it feels a bit of a side aftermath!


A mystery scenario in 3 minutes!


The Final Verdict... this time for real!
I'm starting to like Sweet Middleground even more, because the locations feels familiar and I'm growind attached to the characters. Ok, they aren't doing any special quest or changing the world, still these little "adventures" are heartwarming and enjoyable. This time the puzzles (well, one in particuolar) were a bit more difficult, but this made satisfactory solving them and yeah, I lamented the shortness of the game because I've liked something more even just dialogues and wandering around this small and friendly world.

Ok, so SM2 + SM2.5 = 4/5! Good idea! Now I am curious about what is going to happen next!