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

HELLO, AND WELCOME TO THE REVIEW OF...

Ghost Suburb II: From Beyond Sleep Into The Eyes of Madness is another game made by Moga years ago (2013-2014) that I never played before. The last one I reviewed was Halo's Mixtape, while last one I played (besides this one) was xOMBYCAPYSE, so I guess I knew what I could expect from this Ghost Suburb II (the number I does not exist, mind that!): weird stories, interesting characters and unique visuals and sounds.

But GS II: FBSITHoM (mind that there is no part I, ok?) is also a sort of Final Fantasy-sh jrpg adventure game that includes traditional battles and exploration to find chests of loot, unlike the two other Moba games I played before (that had no combat system at all), all included in creepy adventure with a medical theme told by the protagonist, Okay (yes, that's the name, great choice!), an insomniac nurse.


OH-HO! A KEY! GUESS WHAT? NOW WE CAN CONTINUE THIS WILD ADVENTURE!

Okay is a a nurse in Midland Research Hospital Center, in the middle of a Hospital Zone and together with her friend Gertrud (a floating eye) she will have to fight strange and surreal creatures (as weird as those seen in other surreal games like Middens or Off, to name two similarly weird surreal adventures) in random encounters, and some unique boss monsters too in those that are called "operations". She has a skill that can let her diagnose the opponents (that look like tumors, mutated pigs and disemboweled bodies), in order to select the best and most effective abilities to defeat them. Being a nurse in training, she will also learn the ability to heal or cure some negative status, and this happens levelling up after defeating some enemies (and so happens for Gertrud). Oh and you can also equip various items and run away from random combat encounters. But this is nothing new, isn't it?

The new feature is instead the absence of the menu! Oh yes, it seems that Okay's Pda broke, so you are forced to use terminals and save/healing stations to manage the inventory or save (still you can use the consumables during combat, of course). The reason for for which it is broken it's explained later, anyway it was a brilliant move!


MEET LOT OF QUIRKY, CRAZY AND CREEPY OR CUTE CHARACTERS, INCLUDING MY FAVOURITE,AMANDA PANDA!

But now let's move on other aspects of the game, for example the graphics!
Well, as you can see this time I placed many pics here and there because it's a pretty cool game visually speaking. The charsets and chipsets are all custom and have then same cute style already seen in Halo's Mixtape, just more colorful. Well some areas are colorful and bright, others are colorful and dark, and there are also some maps that are almost monocromatic, in any case there is a lot of variety of locations, from interiors to outdoors, dungeons, laboratories and so on.
Some characters are rather bizzarre and/or nicely animated, but there are also cutscenes,some are fixed and others animated, and all contribuite to give a distinct and original look to this game. And then there is combat, the party members have not many distinctive animations and the background is always the same black void, still the design of the monsters is pretty cool: there are many and most of them aren pretty scary and creepy. I loved them, considering the good variety.

Mapping is ok, quirky and bizarre especially in some parts (like in the zone with the moon where the entry ed exits are messed up, but I am pretty sure it's planned) and exactly what you can expect from a surreal game. As mentioned before I liked the variety of places and characters. I also liked the music of the game, really original and fitting.


HELLO DOC! OH NO IT SEEMS THIS DOCTOR IS NOT FRIENDLY AT ALL!!!

Is it a perfect game? Well not really, so now let's see the bad things. For example the combat mechanics are sometimes unfair, for example when you have only Okay in the party and the enemies can cast Trauma or some other kind of spell effect to paralyze your only party member! On the other hand bosses are not immune or resistant to status effects, exactly like the other normal opponents abilitirs like Injection can make the game quite easy... ok , not that I will complain too much, but there are some balancing problems!
Other issues are that some maps can be a bit confusing and will take some times to realize what you are supposed to do and where you are supposed to do, but obscurity is a part of the game, like are those items/value written in black on a black background that make it impossibile to read of course. And it's a also difficult verifying what you are currently selecting since there is a minimum variation that highlights the selected option, and it's hardly noticeable.


VERY WELL GERTRUD, BUT FIRST LET'S END THIS REVIEW WITH THE...

Final Verdict
I think I completed Ghost Suburb II (etc etc) in about 2 hours, not sure because Rpgmaker 2k3 does not indicate the time in the savegames, anyway more or less this is the time needed to finish the game. Oh the game also has different endings, some are good and some are bad, of course, but most of them have nice animated cutscenes!
This game really stands out and will probably deserve more popularity due to its original graphics, plot and creativity. Ok, the gamplay is rather classic and nothing new at all, still it's a solid basis to a surreal and dark original adventure.
Recommended, if you did not play this before!