Hot take but I loved the first game and the second. First game was good for different reasons for sure. Second game was so “fun bad” imo. Both still deliver a fever dream feeling for me. I’m glad they didn’t do the exact same thing twice. I’m just glad to get more from this series. Voice acting is so amazingly fun too.
The term you're looking for is Flanderization. Where a character or series boils away all the nuance, leaving it with nothing but its most iconic aspects - a caricature of its former self.
Why wouldn't you just say caricature or stereotype then? There is no reason for the existence of the made-up word "Flanderization". Kind of juvenile really.
@@BumboLooks Why don't you just say say iuvenilis? There is no reason for the existence of the made-up word "juvenile". Jupiter laughs at your pale imitation of poignant writing. And aside from your obvious hipocrisy of using a language that's just caveman noises with a 10 thousand years worth of made-up words added, caricature is a state of being. Flanderisation is a process. Are you a human being, or a human doing?
@@BumboLooks Because it describes a specific phenomenon that occurs to fictional characters over time, not just the end result. All words are made up. Kino, twerk, woke, these words didn't exist 20 years ago and they're in the common vernacular now. It's going to keep happening and if you don't want to be the "old man yells at cloud" meme you should put some effort into keeping up with it.
The thing that I think makes the first game's comedy land is that, like Leslie Nielsen, all of the jokes are told completely straight. No character acknowledges how ridiculous everything is. The player is the one meant to react to the comedy, not the game. Once the consumer knows that the metaphorical "comedian" is reacting to the comedy, it immediately becomes less funny. Of course this isn't the case with all comedy, but I believe it rings true with this franchise.
+it was esp funny to me cuz the amount of shitty things happening to him in such a short amount of time is so absurd that it crosses into comedic. Poor dannys having such an awful week/month
Having cancer/undergoing treatment, it's not unusual for patients to sleep in their bathroom or very near it. The sickness + drugs combo can cause lots of vomiting plus uncontrollable bowel movements, so having the bathroom close by is a must.
I hope your treatment is working effectively, I know just how bad that stuff can be, my little brother got cancer when he was 3 and that was definitely not a great time for my family. I hope everything goes well
I know, I actually forgot about the entire hour and a half of pain I listened to just cause of that ending. Game had heart, just wasn't executed very well.
It's a bit sad because in both games, the story is actually very interesting. The first dealt with trauma in men in a very compelling way and the twist with Melvin was a bit intesting. Too bad the gameplay and the tone in the second game ruined it
The most shocking thing is this game was made in 2020. If you told me this was some niche early 2000's video game I wouldn't have questioned it even once.
Yeah, I noticed that with the texture work, models and animations. I've been trying to teach myself animation with sfm (a program from 2004!) and the graphics in this game wouldn't look out of place in that era.
Ok I will admit the post-credit scene made me smile because I love how Zach and York has a text chat instead of it being a one-sided dialogue as it was in the first game. Seriously I would love to see a variant of Deadly Premonition 1 where you hear the internal dialogue.
As a huge fan of DP1, I preordered 2 on Switch and managed to get the only physical copy from my Gamestop. It ran at 5 FPS in town, 15 in shadow world segments. My favorite things to do were gaining enough speed to fly into rivers and finding out they are walkable surfaces, and punching bees. Getting high scores in all of the skipping stone mini games was a special hell. That being said, the game succeeded in being an unforgettable experience.
The real issue here is that you cannot do on purpose what you previously did on accident. The first game was not intentionally loved for the reasons it was. It was not made so that people would love it for being so bad it's good. It's very much the birdemic 1 to birdemic 2 problem; you cannot make something intentionally, knowingly bad and have it be anything but bad. The first game works because the creator was entirely unaware of how bad it was. That's why it was fun!
@@Nachisoubu There are actually 3 of them, and they get worse each time. Not entirely surprising, as the director has made the same movie about a dozen times, going back to his original movie called Jack and Jill.
Having looked into it. Apparently the game was made in earnest, but with 1/3rd the budget and crew necessary to make an open world game. As well as having to fight a legal battle with the company that owns Twin Peaks. Leading to re-writes that basically had the crew just adding their own fun. Because they were in this nebulous area where they didn't know if the game would even be made. That part of the development is really what made the special sauce of the game.
I take some umbrage with people lumping Deadly Premonition in with other "so-bad-it's-good" media. I think it genuinely succeeds in certain aspects with the characters and atmosphere; it is supposed to be weird/over-the-top and is often truely entertaining. It does have a major failing in it's rough gameplay, but everything else kept a lot of people - me included - engaged. Now, I think it's quite possible that he was since made aware of the "meme-ability" of the game and consciously tried to lay into that a bit more in his later work, but I don't think there was an intent to make a "funny bad" follow-up. I think the failings for the sequel was poor story direction and the "eh, the first one had cheap-feeling gameplay" attitude that maybe got them feeling like they didn't have to try too hard on that front.
The ending genuinely made me happy. Bugs aside, ngl the return of York felt triumphant to watch play out. An old friend coming back for one last shootout. Didn't like the crap that came before, but watching York return is still good to see.
I was so engaged in the first video that I was actively trying to piece together the clues myself and piece together what each of the character's secrets and motives were. It was a genuinely good detective drama. Here I genuinely forgot half of the characters existed because they didn't do anything. When the sheriff betrayed Zach I actually had to double check who he was because of the lack of stage presence.
The biggest flaw of the second game is that it is cynical. "Look, this game is quirky like the first one!". The very short summary of my thoughts would be: the first game is a living breathing world, with true love and ambition put into it, the second one is a product, which very clearly had a rushed development cycle and has many loose ends by the time you finish it.
I think no small part of that is that SWERY has built himself a kinda fucked audience. You can see it in how often he apologizes and in the story of his games as of late, he is afraid of being called a "*insert buzzword here*-phobe" and as such it seems he waste so much time trying to write the story on eggshells that he loses the time he could have put elsewhere. At this point it honestly seems like he is trying to write games for game journalist (an audience that is fickle while producing no sales) and it is coming to bite him in the ass often. When SWERY realizes his main audience really doesn't give a single fuck about that stuff I think we will see classic SWERY, you know the guy who made Deadly Premonition 1, Spy Fiction, and D4 (tragic it was never finished).
@@sadscientisthououinkyouma1867 The trans debacle over this game was so dumb. It takes place at a point in the early 2000s when the hero deadnaming someone wouldn't have been nearly as controversial and would not have led to public outcry. Then they patch it out, and the same people who criticized that dialogue are now complaining that the scene makes less sense now.
@@sadscientisthououinkyouma1867 I feel like you're overselling how much the "apology" affected the game. DP2 was already DONE. The actual answer is that SWERY tried to do on purpose what he stumbled on mostly by accident. This is followed by his second flaw as a developer, he often tries to overshoot what his budget can handle. The REAL strange thing is that Swery DID make a game that had a well-written trans character in The Missing, which WAS positively received. So it's strange that he actually stumbled all over DP2 on top of "trying to bank on your The Room-esque popularity".
@@sadscientisthououinkyouma1867 I'd also like to remind everyone that when Swery leaned on his "main audience" they failed to help him fund The Good Life. TWICE. It was the third attempt at crowdfunding that got him to his goal.
Something that's amusing to pretty much no one but myself: I love that it took a decade to get a tree-based monster design in a franchise whose entire evil Mcguffin are red trees and red seeds, and it ironically does *not* come from the character *literally* named Forrest. Life is beautiful. :)
The first DP was one of those games that I genuinely loved. Yes, it was a bit odd and it had flaws, but it was so genuinely fun and clearly made with at least some love, and honestly it's quirks and strangeness made it even more endearing to me. I 100%ed it and then, when I lost my save file to corruption, it was one of the few games I GLEEFULLY went through all over again because I'd loved it so much. The second one was....not good. It had some moments where you could see that same rough-cut-diamond-weird-fun of the first one shine through, but they were few and far between, and no offence, but when an intro puts you off immediately, you're likely not really gonna give the rest of the story much chance...
One thing I 100% agree on is Hannibal series was AMAZING, it's just a shame it got cancelled so they had to pile got knows how many series into 1 in the 3rd just so it at least finished.
If nothing else, I'm glad they used the opportunity to turn the third season into a psychedelic arthouse romance. They knew they were bound to get cancelled, so what did they have to lose? As the years go by I come to appreciate the ending more and more. It both serves as a satisfying conclusion to the character arcs, but also leaves just enough room for a continuation if, hypothetically, the opportunity ever arose. Honestly I could ramble for hours about how, because the show was always on the brink of cancellation, the first two seasons would have also made for satisfying endings to the series, because of how they play into the 'lore' of the books and films.
At least they ended it on a somewhat high point and didn't drag it out for the money. Too many shows are getting renewed despite the story being done. That is how they lose their soul and what makes them great.
Holy shit you have no idea how much I love your first Deadly Premonition video I am so happy to see this! You do phenomenal work with these essays man, keep it up!
Watching him skate around in the city is the most funniest things I’ve ever watched. I guess the developer was playing Tony Hawk, and decided to feature it in Deadly Premonition 2.
This game is a chore to play, but a joy to watch. I gave up playing it half-way through and decided to just watch the cutscenes on RU-vid. I ended up enjoying it a lot more that way. So many games coming out these days feel like bland, soulless, corporate junk, so I really do appreciate Swery's quirky style. Every character felt unique and memorable, the music is upbeat and fun, and I found the ending to be legitimately touching.
it's a shame the nuance despite the already low expectations of the first game dragged it from a potential cult classic to a disrespect towards the original fanbase that being said your analysis and ability to trudge through it is appreciated I've been subscribed since the original analysis and I've liked every video you've put out since breathing new life into these forgotten franchises, and I'm glad this video came out, congrats on 500k
The investigation scenes in this one sort of reminded me of AI: the Somnium Files, particularly with some of the UI elements. And yet I feel it’s a decent comparison because Somnium does the investigation stuff well; the second game even has its own crime scene recreation bits. Honestly, I’d love to see you cover those games someday. You do an excellent job digesting the calculated madness of the stuff you cover (when it IS calculated at least, Black Bat says hi), and the Somnium duology would give you a lot to chew on.
I'm surprised you never pointed out how similar the apartment Zack's living in is to the one in D4, Swery's *other* game that had the most unsatisfying end to it
The "touching" ending feels hollow.The tragedy of the first game's ending is what solidified it as more than just a jumbled mess. Thank you for playing it so we don't have to.
A nearly 2 hour long video just intime for Halloween night? Hell yeah! I remember hearing about the sequel being released but then never talked about, which probably was a precursor for how well it was received
Today hasn’t been all that great, but seeing this in my feed just put a smile on my face. I loved your analysis and coverage of the first game and I’ve been looking forward to you covering the sequel ever since. This just made my day 🤙
Could probably be modded in, its only two animations already present in the game files, and an adaptation of the "followers" script. Its honestly possible, idk how moddable this game is.
I was dedicated to finishing the game, but when I reached the sidequest to try every cocktail of the day, I experienced a glitch every single time I tried doing the last cocktail (where you must drive to the bartender's house on the day the bar is closed). I can only guess the NPC model and York model are meant to "meet" at a point between each other to make animations look correct, but it turns out that NPC drives around town on his day off (because why have an NPC at home when that NPC very specifically needs to be at home on their day off for their only quest) and the game would instead warp York halfway across town about twenty feet in the air... directly above the house surrounded by a wire fence. York discovered yet another form of teleportation and managed to trap himself in the single area that is impossible to escape. I set the game down and only picked it up so I could finish that specific quest after the game updated.
Glad you remembered your promise about making a sequel after reaching 500k subs, looking forward to seeing more of your videos Edit: I thought this video was funny, i feel bad about your psyche was damaged by this game but it was hilarious all the same lol
as someone who lives in mississippi (and louisiana, moms in louisiana and dads mississippi) this portrayal of louisiana/new orleans is Painful actually
@Pwnners Idk if it's a serious question or just a joke but the short answer is that Louisiana and most of the midwest was a French territory until Napoleon decided he wanted his soldiers doing more important things (like invading the rest of Europe) than guarding it. So he sold it to the US government in 1803 for dirt cheap. So that's why Louisiana has the most French influence of any of our states.
@@SamAnthem2 Thanks, it was sarcastic but i didnt know. Maybe this is going to weird you out, but in France they dont teach us anything in school. So ye, learning something today 👌😎 (they nearly dont speak about Napoleon cuz he's a far right icon or smtn 🤡)
I wouldn't PLAY Deadly Premonition but.. watching it played? Yeah. RU-vidr SuperGreatFriend did an LP of it like ten years ago and it's still one of my favorite things to re-watch. He explored every inch of that entire game and it's a hell of a watch.
Oh no, that made me so said because that playthrough got me to buy the game. I wanna watch it again but knowing they broke up it's very abstract to sit through. Clint never paid for his crimes Super Best Friends btw lol
Maybe someday we'll get a reboot and Zach and York will get the love they deserve. Great video even though you struggled with the content the video came out really well!
The good old sinner's sandwich. I made it in 2012 after watching a playthrough of the first game. Fried turkey breast, strawberry jam and plain cornflakes on white bread...and you know what? It was not bad, certainly not what you'd expect. I then described it to a friend of mine, and he could not believe it tasted good, so I made it for him. He took one bite, looked at me, and said "I hate you, this is so good."
14:12 Its a little detail (and I believe it was in the first game as well) but I love that Francis Morgan's middle name on his card is messily scrawled in such a way that it could plausibly be read as either York or Zach
Awful... I am sorry man that you had to go through this. I've seen your video of the first game so many times (it helps me sleep, for some reason) and I was looking for this second part for a while now but it has been soo bloody dissapointing. If one hour and forty eight minutes have been this hard to swallow I can't imagine the hours you had to spend playing and editing it. Love your dedication, keep up with the amazing work and don't let this crappy game get into you.
Just wanted to leave a comment saying I really enjoy your videos! What I love about them is that even though some of them could be long they always end up being the perfect length to cover the story and add comments around the topic. I find myself treating your videos like a movie night experience. Also the tempo of your voice keeps me invested. What I dislike is when a video i enjoyed watching ends. Keep it up man
I greatly appreciate your time and suffering to bring us to the conclusion of this wonderfully wacky circus that was the Deadly Premonition series. It's sad to see this was how it is currently wrapped up but, it certainly seems to have been an experience. Here is to the next one 👍
What a coincidence, I just watched Videodrome as a part of a Cronenberg movie marathon (Crash is also really good) and was wondering how I had never heard of or seen it before. It has more and more relevance as time moves forward. Awesome vid my guy, I been waiting on this one for a while and was very excited when I saw it in my feed. It's also pretty gratifying to see your channel steadily growing, and I loved the glitch art transitions
Dude, I'm not sure you'll ever see this. It's 16h since the video went up, so it might get buried, but I just wanted to say that I'm sure most of us appreciate the absolute hell out of the work you put in to these videos. More and more every day, this platform is turning into a tiktok knockoff, and long form videos are going the way of the dinosaur. Again. We appreciate the time and work that you put into this and every video you make. It's awesome and engaging, and I know for sure that each one of these videos is some of the most worthwhile content on this platform. Keep it up, and thank you again, chief.
I love the "That's how mafia works" NPC model that's used for random ppl. I get it's just bought asset, but it's really noticeable if you know the meme.
Ngl, York telling the little girl the chances of dying of lung cancer are lower than youd think almost made me laugh as much as his skull cup dialogue from the first game!!
This game is basically an incarnation of "so bad it's actually good" trope. It's so obscure and unusual, at some points I can't even believe it's an actual game and not just the footage you've made for fun. And this is the kind of stuff I enjoy the most, so thank you for both reviews, it's a rare occasion when I manage to watch a looong RU-vid video without a single break.
I just watched the first video this morning as a Halloween treat for myself, and then you dropped this on me a few hours later. I'm blessed this Halloween. Thank you
Dude! You’re making it, man. This has been out only 1 day & you have 239K views. That’s amazing, man! I’ve been with ya since just a couple thousand subs & early in the Fake Martial Arts videos (which, I hope you decide to still do some shorter form videos cracking on some group bd sure you’re really good at it!). Good work, man. It’s good to see & gives this 41-year old hope he can still do it, too.
I bet the inspiration for the ice encased body was from Dexter. I think it's either season 1 or 2, but his long lost brother drains his victims' blood and skillfully cuts the body into smaller pieces and preserves them in a refrigerated truck.
You know what would have been better for Deadly Premonition 2, have it written like a Sam and Max game. Have the world still be weird but have intelligent writing and characters to go with it, and remove all the fluff to give the story and mystery more time to develop.
It blew my mind to find out this was released in 2020 and was not a remake release on the switch. It was straight up released, for the first time, on switch in July of 2020. The pc port came about a year later in June of 2022. This is a current gen game, released for current gen hardware.
After playing the game I came away happy that I saw the conclusion to one of the first games I ever played, and my heart breaks at every missed opportunity SWERY missed. I could see so clearly what the goal was but the execution was torturous. Still I look forward to the next game they release but I have no clue why.
I would call "Deadly Premonition" one of my favourite video game series, It's one of the few cases where I don't prefer the original over the sequel but love them both equally. I still agree with many of the points you made during this video, if the first game didn't make me want to give up at times then 2 certainly one ups it. Despite that, because of the connection I had built with York and Zach it made the story reward enough I guess it’s just one of those eye of the beholder arguments . Thanks for another great video Pointless, Happy Halloween.
For me its a testament to the first game that I felt attached enough to York/Zack that it carried me through the sequel. Seeing Zack being sick made me really sad because the first game did a great job of making the player love him. So basically I only completed it because I enjoyed spending more time with York. But I realized I only had fond memories of the first game despite it crashing all the time because I played the bad PC port while I basically remembered nothing about the sequel beside Zack not dying at the end. Even though it should have been fresher in my mind. All in all the emotional scenes with York/Zack in the sequel carried everything bad around it and that itself is a testament to the first game doing a fantastic job.
Well that’s finally cleared up the biggest mystery from the first video: the ingredients of the mad sandwich! I could be wrong but I’d swear its never actually given. I assumed it was never said in game, left to the imagination like the glowing suitcase in pulp fiction!
I’ve just been enjoying these videos and was vibing out when I hear “hurricane Katrina washed them away” and I burst out laughing. That and “pizza will never betray me”.
Really thoroughly enjoyed this video as I do all of yours, but by far my favourite moment was you calling him a slag😂 it caught me very off guard and pushed me into a giggle fit 😅
@@Peasham You are correct. The fact still stands that a Western studio could secure said budget for a project Eastern investors assumed didn't work in the West. I assume that Japanese millionaires think that No More Heroes is a documentary.
I want to suggest game named Lobotomy Corporation Your deep analysis and finding references and searching for equivalents of what going on make me want to see you play the game as it is really good and well written story
Deadly Premonition 1's biggest fans excited to watch an analysis of the sequel & by the end of the video pretend it never existed Thanks for suffering so we don't have to
I have enjoyed watching all your commentary’s three or four times now, you have an amazing ability to tell a story and it’s not just me my partner doesn’t like video games but she finds your videos fun to watch due to your interesting way of writing. Keep it up loving the vids
