The Curse of Utaho 2 (Utahonotatari 2) English Translation

OH NO! The giant head of the developer is back from the first game! (I don't know if that's really the developer, still I like this idea A LOT!)

Hello players!
Do you remember The Curse of Utaho (Utahonotatari), that weird translated japanese game that I reviewed some time ago?. If not check that game, and also the review, because at the time (in June) I was aware that the game had a sequel, but I didn't know that this was going to be translated! Oh yes, MikoEffect did it again, translating this second episode of the series made by Payaaaaan with the WOLF RPG Editor.
If you played the previous game you know what this means: bizarre situations and deadly giant heads! Scary, isn't it?

The Curse of Utaho 2 (Utahonotatari 2) is the continuation of the story of the curse (DUH!) and a curse can move from a person to another person, so expect a totally new adventure with a new protagonist and new locations: Shizune Kito is in fact a normal girl that experience strange events after the night she forgot the phone at work. Many weird things happens, she sees strange entities and her mother starts behaving in a strange way. What's going on?


Ok, thanks but please next time tell me something I don't already know from the beginning!!!

Even if this game is totally a new adventure, it's still set about ten years after the first game and sees the return of more than a couple of important characters, especially the mysterious girl with the grey hair (encountered a couple of time in the first game) that seems to be not really human and apparently knows a lot about the curse. Well at least she talks, unlike the ever-present giant heads that will kill you with a touch, exactly like in the first game. Oh yes, this adventure includes some chase sequences, of course so save often especially when everything becomes red!

The game follows a similar style of the previous one but I found it better structured, except for the final part, for the reasons that I'll explain lated. To be honest there are many parts in which you have to wander around the various rooms and interact to figure out what will trigger the next event, and that's a bit meh, still I must say that there are a lot of improvements. The last part, the temple was instead annoying due to extremely dark areas, the presence of some fetch quests that make you walk around a lot, some hidden objects (I dunno why some items like the scroll are indicated by a sparkling effect, while the rope is totally hidden until you interact with a particular object... and that's needed to unlock the stairs!).


The game includes cutscenes and videos too! Yes! Not just animated but even videos with real people! And guess what? These parts are scary!

I also did not like that if you make a particular choice you're locked to a bad ending, and I stupidly saved after doing that, do I had to reload from an earlier save. Uffff... ok it's my fault but when you reach that point you have not enough informations to realize that it was a bad choice, unfortunately! Same happens later with an apparently random choice, but this time I was lucky (technically knowing that the game is japanese I made a reasoning, but uh I dunno if it was important... still I chose well!). In the end my advice is: save often! And interact with everything if you're stuck!

Graphically the game is good: it uses the classic First Seed Material / REFMAP assets despite being made with Wolf Rpg Editor, and mapping is pretty good compared to the first game, I only hated the temple area since it was really dark (and also required lots of walking back and forth). But there is a really important addition and it's the amount of cutscenes and real life pictures and videos, some with edits and other featuring real people (I wonder if the actor seen in one is the developer with a blonde wig!). Cool, I mean the armosphere of horror is powerful even if I did not encounter lot s of jumpscares, also there is no visual violence at all. Well done.
Also well translated, I think that this time the dialogues and descriptions were better than in the first game, maybe because the game is serious and there were no jokes like in the previous adventure.


Well when everything becomes red and giant heads starts appearing I know that there will be trouble, so... let's RUN!!!

Final Verdict
The Curse of Utaho 2 (Utahonotatari 2) is horror game that you can finish in 1 hour and 45 minutes (to get a decent ending, even less if you want a bad ending!). It's a lot better than the first game under every aspect (and also more terryfing due to the lack of puns and silly dialogues), BUT the description says that that this sequel has also never gotten out of Beta... and in fact it has some impecisions and minor issues that prevent it to become a classic.
But if you like horror games, this is pretty cool, I liked the story more (it's better than the one in the first game, there are more characters involved, and we even play as a coprotagonist for a short part of the game).
Overall not a classic but still a pretty good horror adventure game!

This is an error I found while visiting the shrine area, a part a bit confusing, anyway do not go on that spot!