The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters Review (Nintendo Switch)

Review code used, with many thanks to Brown Betty

When I Say Horror, You Say: COMA!

Horror! COMA!

If you didn’t like singing that, we could always sing this coffee commercial jingle! Who’s with me?

There is just something about horror from Asia that really hits maximum spook factor.
If I think about the horror genre off the top of my head – keeping in mind that I am a horror-movie wuss – North America seems to really like to go for more of a gore and murder kind of horror… which I don’t really like.

But over in Asia, they really have a corner on the market of spooky paranormal horror (which I DO like a lot!). The Coma 2 is a 2D Korean survival horror adventure game that puts you into the shoes of Mina Park. Mina is a studious and high achieving high school student who manages to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and run amok of some supernatural spooks.

Some cool artwork collectibles are what Mina would look like in real life. Such a beautiful model they got for her!

When Your Teacher Isn’t Who You Think She Is…

…Suddenly you aren’t just innocently learning English anymore, but rather RUNNING FOR YOUR LIFE!

Our story starts with Mina in school; Mina is a normal high schooler: chatting with friends, having boy troubles, getting a grade that isn’t perfect and feeling super bad about it. The regular school finishes up, and now it’s time for… MORE SCHOOL. (Seriously, look at this screenshot):

I think North American children would revolt if school ended at 10pm.

So it’s 10pm and school is finally over, which is a totally normal everyday occurrence. Mina is the last one to leave… but what’s this down the dark hallway? Why is Seho still here? OF COURSE Mina had better go check it out, right? Nothing bad ever happened from checking out a spooky, usually locked, storage room when it’s completely dark and you’re the only one still at school and it’s after 10pm! Right?!

WHOOPS! More like, HUGE MISTAKE! The storage room is covered in weird tentacles, and you get knocked out. While Mina is passed out, you (the player) are privy to the brief chat of some very shadowy, yet somehow vaguely familiar, people. They mention a ritual, and the blood moon, and necessary sacrifices. You know, the usual.

When Mina wakes up, the world is a little bit different. Nasty black tentacles are now growing everywhere, bodies are falling from the roof and clawing at your ankles from under chairs… But the biggest difference is that your beloved teacher Ms. Song is now a freaky, bloodstained, tentacle-haired, sharp-toothed demon with a penchant for violence! And she’d really like to use that violence on Mina.

Uh, no thanks! I think I’ll start skipping school from now on.

The coma isn’t all bad though, other sentient beings exist here as well. Helpful spirits, and other people like Mina who exist in the coma to make sure the baddies don’t escape into the real world. So thankfully, it’s not all doom-and-gloom.

He may be devoid of colour, but at least he’s not trying to kill me.

Still, get your run-button ready because you really don’t want evil Ms. Song to get her bloody hands on you.

The Ritual During the Blood Moon

There’s ALWAYS a ritual… amirite?!

The controls in this game feel really smooth. There is a handy-dandy tutorial every time a new technique is introduced; for example, you can press the right trigger to run, but you do have a stamina bar, and if Mina runs out of stamina you will be very slow and useless for several seconds while she catches her breath.

There are several menus, all of which are accessible using the D-pad: check the healing items in your backpack, look at the collectible notes you pick up, etc.

These collectible notes provide a lot of cool story stuff.

After getting sucked into the coma, you are given a lighter, this item lets you see things around you, but it also puts a huge target on your back and makes the monsters come after you quicker.

You could be like me when I first started and just walk around with the lighter off at all times, but if you don’t have the lighter on you can’t see the collectible items. So any of the story-notes or healing items can’t be collected unless you have light. THAT is a really good, true survival horror element: having an item that you NEED to use but it will attract trouble.

There’s also a very handy little dodge move: if you hit ZR Mina will do a little duck and a quick step in whatever direction you are facing. It will use some of your stamina, but it will get you past most slow-moving enemies and make you invulnerable to their swipes whilst dodging. The funny thing was that the game never gave me the tutorial for the dodge move; I just got lucky while freaking out and being chased that I pressed it and watched Mina do a strange movement. I would highly recommend the ZR dodge move though; as soon as I knew I had it in my arsenal, I actually felt a lot safer in the game. Is that strange?

Mind Games

I have mentioned before in previous reviews that I used to be an avid survival horror game fan and player. I loved Silent Hill and Resident Evil and Fatal Frame, but that was when I was younger and, apparently, had a much stronger constitution.

Something about getting older (not that I’m THAT old) has made me much more chicken when it comes to horror stuff.

Me too Mina… I always have bad dreams after I watch spooky stuff.

Now, I’ve ALWAYS been very bad with horror movies… I think it has something to do with the fact that while watching a movie you can only be a passive viewer, unable to affect the outcome. Whereas in a game, there’s already that mentality that “there’s an ending where my character will survive, and I am affecting the outcome”.

MY POINT: I had to play a mental mind game with myself while playing The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters. I was super freaked out, and I had to take frequent Animal Crossing breaks in order to feel good about life. I had to mentally, and out loud, tell myself that it’s just a game and nothing can actually hurt me.

Honestly, once I did that I became much more excited and enthralled with The Coma 2. I just think it’s super neat, and the testament to a really great game, that I had to alter my mental state in order to play this game. Once I did that, I also had a trillion times more fun too.

If you are like me – a horror genre wussy but you used to be super into them – I think The Coma 2 is a great way to get back into these kinds of games. It was for me.

Atmospheric to the Nth Degree

The Coma 2 is delightfully atmospheric. All of the locations feel dark and spooky, especially the ones full of tentacles and gross slimy poison things.

The cutscenes are done in a comic book style. The various still-image panels will pop up on the screen, and the text is in speech balloons or thought bubbles. There is some cool voice acting in Korean as well during the cutscenes, and every time a Vicious Sister goes “SCREEEEE!” there’s a horrible screaming sound effect that is quite chilling.

One thing I really loved about the game, and probably the thing that freaked me out the most, was the footsteps sound effects.

I’d be running about collecting bandages and notes, minding my own business, and all of a sudden you hear the telltale sound of high heels hitting the concrete floor (or boots, the footwear of whomever is the current baddie of the area). When I’d hear this noise, I’d immediately get panic-y. I’d run any which way to find a hiding spot. You’ll hear the footsteps get louder and louder, and if you don’t find a place to hide you will hear the war-cry of the baddie, and then BAM they will be on you!

The Butcher wears boots… big stompy-clompy boots.

If you do happen to get caught – should you have some mace in your inventory – you have one chance to do a couple of quick time button presses in order to use the item to get out. BUT, if you fail even one, you’re dead. You’ll see the sight of Mina’s decapitated corpse sitting in a pile of garbage with the “helpful” message letting you know you died.

It’s freaky… best not to get caught. The game is pretty generous with places to hide. If you see a locker, cabinet, or even a table, a little arrow icon will pop up to let you know you can hit A to hide.

I thought the hide animation was a bit funny, took me a few tries to get this screenshot.

Hiding will automatically put out your light; but if the baddie is hot on your heels when you hide you will still have to do the up/down/left/right quick time events in order to keep Mina’s breath quiet long enough for them to leave you alone.

All in all, it’s an excellent mechanic that made me feel confident enough to play it. I still died several times, but the game didn’t feel unfair, too easy, or too difficult.

I think it’s a really well paced game.

Each level will have a sort of side quest where you can use a crafting table. You can collect items that might be useful (for example, the first one in the police station is to build a taser). Doing these quests is not mandatory, but I always did them. I’m not sure what happens to Mina during the end-of-level cutscenes when she doesn’t have the helpful item she’s built (maybe you still survive, but take damage?).

Anyway, one of the best – and worst – things about crafting the extra sidequest item is that, obviously, once you figure out what it is you need, you have to backtrack all over the map to find the required parts.

This, of course, puts you in constant danger of the roaming mega-baddie; as well, it really adds to the delightful survival horror element of the game. I love it!

Final Verdict

The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is a wonderful survival horror game full of spooky demonic things, Lovecraftian-esque tentacle spooks, Korean legend stuff, and lovely artwork and sound.

I really liked the graphic novel cutscene art.

I haven’t played The Coma: Recut (the first game) but I read some brief reviews, and it seems like controls were the main sticky issue with that one.

I honestly felt like the controls in Vicious Sisters were really good, nicely responsive and smooth. I noticed a character on the first game’s cover art that also appears in 2, so I’m sure if you’ve played the first game there will be lots of fun character and story things carrying over into the second game.

Even without playing the first game, I would definitely recommend the second. It makes me want to play more mind games with myself and get back into the genre.