Ghost Suburb II: From Beyond Sleep Into The Eyes of Madness

All of my Moga games are in a folder called "Moga Games" inside of another folder called "Dreamscapers," which is where I put classics like lol's .flow and Kikiyama's Yume Nikki. This is not because they are Dreamscapers in the traditional sense - you're not collecting effects and wandering surreal realms as a substitute for gameplay in I'm Scared of Girls - but because they tend to be similar to Dreamscapers in feel and I initially didn't know where to put it.

This has taken that expectation and turned it on its head.
Were you expecting quaint piano and rain-sodden life stories?
Perhaps violence against the presumably-innocent while you explore a ruined city?

No - instead you get Ghost Suburb II.
A gritty and satisfying world of Final Fantasy-esque battles, medical themes, and psychological thrill narrated by an insomniac by the name of Nurse Okay.

I don't think I can think of a better way to explain this game's execution than your initial inability to save:

As monsters of unknown origin begin to flood your workspace you find yourself with little access to healing items and a profound inability to save where it is ideal for you. Nurse Okay and Gertrud are bickering, and have a very basic skillset as you engage your first couple of boss-types.

Why can't you save?
The Interface Overlay for Ghost Suburb II is Nurse Okay's broken phone.
This is ingeniously used as a plot device later on, when its condition is explained in a flashback.

The boss-fights are challenging and almost metaphysical (including such entities as Sensationalism - yes, Nurse Okay fights Sensationalism) and the enemies are all hand-drawn, with little explanations and backstories to be discovered every time you use the Medical Examination skill on them.

Which brings me to my next point: the Medical overtones and Moga's humor here are great.
Dodge-animations consist of a halfhearted 'Whatever' floating over your character. Status-effect inducing skills range from 'Minor Injection' to 'Forced Overdose', and you'll find yourself using splints, mental stabilizers, and defibrillators to make it through Operations - Ghost Suburb II's equivalent of a battle.

Dialogue is great, fraught with humorous bickering between Gertrud and Nurse Okay and amusingly forward sales-pitching from Amanda Panda. As the outlook becomes increasingly dark, you're treated to realistic frustrations and fears conveyed through relatable vernacular between characters like Okay and the Short-Order Cook.

Set in Midland - a running theme in Moga's games - we're treated to rain, vibrant colors, inhospitably industrial places, and surreal characters further expounded upon by Nurse Okay's questionability as a narrator given her worsening mental state.

I really don't know what more to say.

Ghost Suburb II: from Sleep into the Eyes of Madness is an amusing, dark, medical, psychological tale of extraordinary circumstances presented by a morally ambiguous and questionable narrator. The gameplay is nice, the difficulty's bearable, and everything is beautifully hand-drawn in a way that appeals to you in the manner Ib may have.

Stylistically superior for an RPGmaker game, both amusing and gripping in dialogue, and with that Moga-touch that words can't always do justice, I see no reason for this game not to get a full five.