Oxenfree II: Lost Signals arrives on July 12, seven years after the first Oxenfree cemented itself as an all-time indie darling. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy to review, and my take on the game will drop on Wednesday.
So, with limited time before the release, do you need to play the original Oxenfree? I’ve rolled credits on the game and have my own (entirely spoiler-free, and all screenshots are of the first game) opinion on this specific question, but first, let’s hear what developer Night School Studios has to say.
The developer’s take
In 2021, GameReactor spoke to Night School Studios head and co-founder Sean Krankel. Krankel was asked whether players must have completed the first Oxenfree to enjoy its sequel and said:
“You don’t have to have played the first game. You can jump into the sequel kind of cold. We think this one does a good job giving any information that you should have or need to know from the first one, about the rules of the world, about the main town. We kind of give you hints that we established, there are a lot of nice references to the first one, so you get a lot more out of it if you have played but you absolutely don’t have to.”
Perhaps it’s a little cynical to think “Well, he would say that”. After all, telling potential customers they don’t necessarily need to have beaten an entirely different game to enjoy their new one can only be a boost to sales.
Then again, broadly similar games like the Life is Strange series do tell standalone stories with only minor links to what came before, so you’d be forgiven for concluding you can leap straight into Oxenfree II and hit the ground running storywise.
The reality
I played Oxenfree back on launch in 2016 and had a blast, though in the seven and a half years since my memory of the plot had gotten hazy. About half an hour into Oxenfree II, it started throwing concepts and lore at me that I very vaguely remembered from the original, sending me scurrying to the game’s wiki to look stuff up.
This happened a few times and I soon paused the game, watched a full plot recap of the original on YouTube, and returned with a much better idea of the whos, whats, whys, and wheres of Oxenfree.
So, my take is that you absolutely won’t get the full experience of Oxenfree II without being familiar with the first game. You’ll be able to complete it, but large chunks of the story won’t have any emotional resonance and you’ll be left scratching your head at what’s going on in this surreal world.
If you’ve played the original I recommend watching or reading a story recap before getting into the sequel. Or, if you have the time and/or you skipped the first game, just play Oxenfree. The game is only four hours long, doesn’t present a gameplay challenge, and has been given away for free so often that you likely already own it.
Even if you don’t, Oxenfree is available for free to anyone with a Netflix account and we’ve given details on how to access it (and Oxenfree II later this week) here.
Conclusion
My full opinion on Oxenfree II will have to wait until the review embargo lifts, though right now I’d urge anyone hyped up or curious about this release to refresh their memory of the characters and events of the first game. The developers are technically right in that you can play Oxenfree II without knowing anything about Oxenfree, but you simply won’t enjoy the new game as much.
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is released on Windows, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS (Via Netflix) on July 12.