YMMV / Deadly Premonition 2

• Alternative Character Interpretation: There's a decent case to be made that the Forrest Kaysen that shows up in this game is not the real Kaysen, but rather another Split Personality Zach developed post-Greenvale that took over his fractured mind after York left it vacant, which would explain Zach's newfound obsession with cultivating and studying the red seeds. Twinkle the Fairy (based on Emily) and Houngan the Witch Doctor (based on Zach's expectations of the Deep South) can also be interpretated in this fashion.
• Anvilicious: York makes a pretty blatant speech about how those of the trans community shouldn't be isolated or negatively judged just for not meeting traditional gender norms. It doesn't help that it becomes a slightly Broken Aesop with York deadnaming Lena right in front of her, though Swery did apologize for this and announce his intention to rewrite the scene after it was brought to his attention.
• Ass Pull: York is unable to use his Mr. Alligator pistol against Melvin because of a "safeguard" the latter put in the gun, but it's never explained what this safeguard is or how it works. York actually calls him out on this one as something straight up from a terrible flick.
• Broken Base: The games poor framerate, which can get quite low especially in wide open areas. One part of the base (supported by Swery) thinks that it's part of the charm of ''Deadly Premonition'', while the other half argues that bad framerates don't contribute to Narm Charm or So Bad, It's Good and simply make the game unpleasant and uncomfortable to play.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Contested Sequel: Many consider the first game to have been the absolute epitome of So Bad, It's Good, making this reaction inevitable. As it is, the sequel implements several gameplay improvements but also a host of technical issues which fans are divided on as to whether it maintains that So Bad, It's Good charm, or is genuinely frustrating, with some fans divided on whether the game was made to run badly on purpose or not. Likewise, whether the writing holds up as a deeper look into York and his charmingly quirky surrounding cast with some surprisingly emotional moments, or a Flanderized mess of an attempt to capture lightning in a bottle twice.
• Continuity Lockout: The game assumes the player went through the original game, particular due to the spoiler of Zach existing.
• Creepy Awesome: Houngan, the witch doctor ghost oracle who also happens to be York's most vital ally in this game.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Fans are already speculating that the game will have some connection to D4, due to the Aaliyah sections taking place in Boston and an apartment similar to David Young's appearing in the Direct footage. Confirmed when Zach mentions that the apartment above his is used by a man searching for his wife's killer.
  • Since the game takes place in Louisiana 2005, fans are speculating that Hurricane Katrina coming in is the reason why the case wasn't fully solved. It does end up playing a role in the story.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: Despite the number of actual quality of life improvements to the gameplay itself, this is the consensus of many critics to the game, much like the first one. The story and characters remain as colorfully weird as ever, but the game is hampered by a number of technical issues including a terrible framerate and even crashes among other assorted glitches.
• Fanfic Fuel: Zach's apartment is beneath David Young's. Since this confirms that D4 takes place in the same world as Deadly Premonition, what's to say Zach doesn't help David in his search for D?
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Look closely as to how York is spelled on his FBI badge. Since it's really Francis Zach Morgan on it, the cursive and how it's briefly flashed to others, the 'Zach' looks similar to 'York'. Clever.
  • York's interest in chess didn't come out of nowhere. His interactions with Ushah in the first game indicate York is actually very good at chess.
• He Really Can Act: Despite having been retired from voice acting for years prior to returning, Jeff Kramer manages to convincingly portray York and Zach as two distinct yet similar characters. He also shows off some legitimate acting chops during Zach's breakdown near the end.
• Good Bad Bugs: Aside from the subpar framerate and crashes, some have argued that the game's various glitches and animation quirks actually add to the game's surreal charm.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Just 24 hours prior to the September 4 2019 Nintendo Direct, Jim Sterling — who famously gave a 10/10 of the first Deadly Premonition — posted a tweet about both a Switch Port for Deadly Premonition and a sequel. They were ecstatic when they saw the news to say the least.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Unfortunately the elements that made it such a Contested Sequel as well as the insensitive elements of the plot, combined with Swery's response to them, appalled Jim so much that they ended up putting the game very high on their "Shittiest Games of 2020" list, Jim even apologizing for having any potential responsibility in getting the game a sequel, and somberly noting that despite seeing the elements that made the original work, it had turned out to be what Jim feared from a Deadly Premonition sequel.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • PJ Clarkson is ruthless, cold and has no qualms in feeding James' arm to an alligator. Yet in his final moments, he sadly notes that he truly loved Lena — his transgender daughter — and just didn't know how to react to her coming out.
  • Aaliyah Davis acts overly forceful and even hostile when interrogating Zach but she has a good reason to. Her little brother is in a coma after overdosing on the drug Saint Rouge and she's hoping that getting answers from Zach will help in getting her brother to recover.
  • Zach has become gruff and cynical by the time we meet him in the present day, but that's because he's still hurting from being unable to save Emily and desperately wants to see York again in the afterlife.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Fans jokingly observing the many flaws that would usually deride a AAA videogame (low frame rate, bad sound quality and stiff voice acting)...and then comment on how it's exactly what they wanted from a Deadly Premonition game. This became Harsher in Hindsight, with the game's technical issues becoming a major point of criticism.
  • Another joke is gamers stating that the "Big Five" achievement in the bowling alley is the scariest thing ever.
• Obvious Beta: This game runs very badly on the only console the game was available for, never leaving 10fps, and barely reaching 25fps in indoor areas. Even one of the first game's most vocal supporters, Jim Sterling, felt that the problems were so bad that they suggested waiting until they were fixed.
• Porting Disaster: The PC port has zero keyboard and mouse support. Not only that, but it doesn't support Playstation and Nintendo Switch controllers, despite having a Switch release. Something that wouldn't be hard for the Unity engine to be coded into.
• Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer: Many fans have admitted to wasting a lot of time and in-game money at the bowling alley due to trying to obtain certain achievement.
• That One Achievement: The "Big Five" in the bowling alley has been noted to be one of the most elusive achievements to get.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • There's actually a lot of build up for P.J. Clarkson as a potential major obstacle for York to deal with while in Le Carre, but that more or less ends up amounting to nothing, since Lena manages to kill him in the climax of Chapter 2 before he can do anything to get in York's way.
  • The game builds a good mystery surrounding Candy Woods, but the character ends up as nothing more than a glorified victim.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Avery Smith is essentially given a quadruple life sentence for his actions in the game. Many fans thought this was a bit too much for a character that's obviously suffering from an extreme case of mental disability, especially when the game frequently points out that Avery is still mentally a child, which is further emphasized by his One-Winged Angel form, and the fact that he's under the effects of the red seeds, which would naturally affect him more than anyone else.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Aaliyah can come off as a bit too much of a jerk due to her constant antagonizing of a cancer victim. To be fair, Zach is an unstable, unpredictable cancer victim with mysterious ways of working, but still a cancer victim nonetheless.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Patricia. She learns that her father, Melvin Woods, drugged her mother with Saint Rouge, making her a blissed out blimp. Then to make matters worse, her father indoctrinates her into a cult and raises her to believe she has to be sacrificed to purify her family's bloodline (as she's born Patricia Clarkson). When Melvin gets pinned down by burning debris during Patricia's intended sacrifice, she outright begs him to flee to safety and leave her behind to die. Instead, Melvin regains his mind and protects his daughter as he and Candy die when the burning warehouse they're in completely collapses.
  • The primary suspect of the 2019 portions, Zach, doesn't have it very well either. The events of the first game left him in a sorry state, still feeling incredibly guilty over the death of his love interest Emily years later, having lost his closest friend and guardian angel in York, and seemingly even his prodigious investigative abilities. On top of that, he's also slowly dying of cancer.