"Kimiko Yui has been unable to leave her house for over ten years. When her daughter comes down with a mysterious mental illness that requires a chaperone at school, Kimiko finds herself more desperate than ever to conquer her agoraphobia once and for all."

Likes:
+ Hi.

Dislikes:
- Logic is not this game's strong points.
- No keyboard control. :(

Hates:
- The protagonist.

Notes:

Bear with me on this please, as I think it's really impossible to talk about this game without giving spoilers. Oh, and... I have to warn you, this is probably more like a rant than a review, hahaha, I am so sorry.

There's an easter egg.

Anyway, here we go again, getting a glimpse on the messy life of Kimiko Yui. As you know, she's the agoraphobic protagonist of Nowhere Safe 1, and she's here to make a comeback on the sequel, Nowhere Safe 2. She's no longer alone now, though, as [spoiler?] she and the domatophobic guy from the prequel, Kento, is finally married and with a child of their own.

There's one really big problem, though. And that's the protagonist, Kimiko. No kidding.

Um, as some of you may know, I'm quite easy to please. Give me something to hold on to in a visual novel, and I'll be fine. Even if the art's not that good, or even if there are a lot of typos and whatnot, I could still end up liking a VN because of some seemingly insignificant little thing. That's why I tried my hardest to like Kimiko Yui. I did, I really did.

Granted, it's alright with me even if the protagonist is unlikable. I won't be biased against that, because sometimes, it could be a good plot point. Do you know The Pirate Mermaid? At the start of the game, I actually didn't like the protagonist there, because she was (for me) greedy and rude. That's actually the point, to fit with her pirate persona. But throughout the game, she actually became pretty lovable, and I started liking her. But that didn't happen with Nowhere Safe, unfortunately.

Kimiko is agoraphobic, and that's actually like, the main point of this whole visual novel. Like in the prequel, that in itself present a whole array of problems for Kimiko, since she can't go outside for her groceries, personal stuff, etc. I understand that it's a phobia, so it's meant to be "irrational" and "unreasonable". But come on. There's no excuse for her attitude, even with the phobia. As with the prequel, Kimiko is still the same spoiled girl who wants everything to go her way and wants people to do everything for her. No, seriously. You know how many issues I had with her?

In one conversation with her therapist (who, if you guys have forgotten, is the lying sister of Kimiko's stalker from the first Nowhere Safe), the therapist tells her that she has to do more for her child (who supposedly has selective mutism), like accompany her to school. That would mean Kimiko would have to go outside. But of course, she can't do that, right? She's agoraphobic. How dare the therapist suggest that?

Aya, her "best friend", is also present in this story, but she has to leave for Australia, so she instead sends her friend, Naoki, in her place, who turns out to be Kento's gay brother that has never been mentioned before. Woah there. Kimiko, you've been married to a guy for 6 years, and you still don't know that he has a brother? Anyway, Kimiko's daughter, Kazumi, asks Kimiko about Aya, and her awesome mother says something along the lines of, "I don't like her, but without her, you have nobody to play with." Tell me that doesn't scream "USER!" more than anything. I usually don't say this, but... oh man, I hate this woman.

There's also one scene where Kimiko gets mad at Kento for not coming home, because because because... without him around, there's nobody to take Kazumi to school or to the doctor. I swear, she gets really angry, saying that she can't raise Kazumi alone, etc., etc. Okay, fine, I'll let this one pass, because after all, Kazumi is their daughter and Kento is responsible for her too. But then, you'll realize how ridiculous Kimiko is behaving when you come across the plot twist [spoilers!] that Kento isn't actually Kazumi's dad. Woah there, girlie. Um, if you haven't noticed, your daughter likes Kento better than you, her real mother. I don't think you should be screaming at Kento for anything regarding the child, since he seems to be doing a good job as a father, even though she's yours. Just yours. Ah, and, um, the real dad is the stalker from the prequel, who had apparently raped Kimiko when he broke into her house.

...

So... let me get this straight, Kimiko. A stalker raped you in your house years ago, his sister is still your therapist despite everything that happened, your husband has a brother that you've never heard of before, said brother is gay and tried to rape your husband when they were younger, you dislike your best friend who has been running errands for you for around ten years now, and your daughter has psychic powers and is utterly psychotic. And you're daughter's teacher is crazy. Man, there's a scene where the teacher calls Kimiko, telling her that accidents seem to happen a lot around Kazumi... and not just plain accidents! Kids around her are mysteriously getting diarrhea, so it must be her fault! Gosh, are you such a big fan of supernatural/paranormal stories that you can't distinguish them from reality anymore, Ms. Teacher?

I actually feel bad for Kazumi. All throughout the game, [spoilers], she's painted as this evil, messed-up kid, and we're meant to sympathize with Kimiko for having such a psychotic child, I think. No, really. This whole game is practically all about the clash between Kazumi and Kimiko. There's practically no good ending, as each one ends in death, or something similar. I actually pity Kazumi a lot, since I think the only reason she became "messed up" is because of her mom. Yes. Kimiko, you're a horrible mom, (I can't believe I can say this to anyone, even just a fictional character)

Anyway, enough with the rant! And I'm sorry if I was a bit... um, emotional with that one. Hahaha. Presentation-wise, it was decent. There aren't that many options, but I didn't mind it much. It's actually a flash game which took... so long to load, huhuhu, even longer than the first Nowhere Safe game. But I never experienced any lags or hiccups or anything, The soundtrack was  pretty good. I'm not sure if they're custom (but seeing as the art itself isn't custom, they probably aren't) but they were pleasant to the ears, adding to the atmosphere of the game. Plus, they fit the scenes rather nicely, I believe.

You gotta be kidding me. Ah, but this is from the third game, so...

Actually, the presentation itself is decent, the writing (grammar, spelling, etc), was okay, the soundtrack was pretty nice, and I have to admit, it was not a boring read. It was actually fairly interesting. (Or maybe I was just interested because I actually like the genre... wait. What am I saying, I'm actually not that sure what the genre is.) However, like I said above, logic is DEFINITELY not one of these game's strong points, and the protagonist simply sucks. It's obvious that we are meant to pity her and everything, but I can't help but think that she's Kimiko Yui is the real problem to this VN. With her around, there's nowhere safe [title drop! Hahahaha!] for any of the other characters.

Anyway, if you wanna try it out... feel free. I won't stop you. :) Who knows, maybe I'm being completely unreasonable here, hahaha. Check it out here!