OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek Review

Charming visuals, quick matches, and fun monster abilities give this sequel a solid foundation, but repetitive objectives and unreliable online play hold it back.

OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek takes the familiar asymmetrical multiplayer formula and strips it down to something much closer to a supernatural game of tag. Developed and published by FREESTYLE, the sequel moves the series into a Japanese-inspired setting, with folklore-based monsters and colorful environments that include schools, temples, and city districts.

If you've played games like Dead by Daylight, the basic idea will be immediately recognizable. One side controls a monster while the other plays as humans trying to survive, but OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek doesn't aim for the same dark or violent atmosphere. Instead, the chibi character designs, bright environments, and short matches make it feel more like a fast multiplayer party game with a supernatural theme. 

There is not really a traditional plot or narrative campaign driving the experience, and that works for the type of game OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek is trying to be. 

The entire experience is built around humans being hunted by monsters, with each match functioning as its own little story. There is no lengthy adventure that you follow a character through, no intricate mystery that you explore. 

The three-minute match format reflects that simplicity. Your only goal as a human is simple: survive until the timer runs out. If even one human escapes, the human side wins, while the monster has to capture everyone before the clock runs out. 

This gives every match a clear purpose from the moment it begins, and because there is so little downtime, you are almost immediately moving, hiding, escaping, searching for teammates, or trying to work out where the monster is.

Playing as a human is mostly about understanding when to stay hidden and when to move. You get a lantern at the start of the match, which is your main defensive weapon. If you use it, you can stun the monster and escape, but it’s limited to certain situations, so you can’t just use it whenever the monster approaches close. 

Movement also plays an important role in these encounters. Dodging and other mobility options give you ways to create distance when the monster sees you, turning what might otherwise be a basic chase into a short battle of positioning. You have to make quick decisions about whether to run around an obstacle, hide, change direction, or use your lantern. 

Captured humans are not immediately removed from the match, either. Instead, they are placed in a jail cell, giving their teammates a chance to rescue them. To free a captured player, you have to find and activate two buttons. Their initial locations are near the jail, but after a jailbreak, their positions can change, so another rescue may require you to search the map rather than repeat the same route.

This rescue system is one of the game's better ideas because it gives survivors something meaningful to do besides hiding. 

You have to decide whether it is worth approaching the jail while the monster is nearby, and saving a teammate can replenish your lantern charge, giving you another reason to take the risk. The sequel also adds cooperative human actions through its Call system, letting nearby allies coordinate moves like Solo Throw, Two Person Jump, and Bond Forger. 

The monster side is arguably where the gameplay becomes more engaging. Rather than giving every monster the same basic tools, different monsters have abilities that change how you approach a hunt. Some can perform long jumps, others can move through walls, while some can detect footprints or use attacks with larger ranges. 

Charged attacks add another layer to monster gameplay. They are stronger than your standard attacks, but they take several seconds to prepare, so you have to think about when to use them. A survivor running around an obstacle can make a charged attack hard to land, while using it at the right moment near a rescue point can give you a chance to catch someone who thinks they are safe. 

The maps support these strategies by introducing environmental mechanics that become part of the chase. A district can include moving vehicles and climbable buildings, while a temple can use tall vegetation for cover and water that interferes with movement. These details are useful because the environment is not simply decoration. 

The problem is that the game does not always make those environmental differences feel substantial enough. Some map variations are essentially modified or expanded versions of locations you have already played, which can make the content feel stretched. One larger map can even gradually shrink during a match until the playable area resembles its smaller version. 

The biggest weakness in the gameplay loop is the lack of meaningful objectives for human players. Once you understand the basic rhythm, many matches can fall into the same pattern: hide from the monster, run when discovered, use the lantern when necessary, and rescue teammates when possible. 

There is no complicated objective system comparable to repairing generators or working toward an escape plan in other asymmetrical games. 

That isn't necessarily a problem, because the simplicity is clearly part of the game's design. The issue is that OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek does not always provide enough variety elsewhere to compensate for that simplicity. The three-minute matches keep the game from dragging, but they also limit how much the developers can build into each encounter.

Progression gives you another reason to keep playing. Completing matches earns currency, with wins providing more than losses, and that currency can be used to unlock additional monsters, characters, and other content. The system is easy to understand and gives you a reason to improve, rather than play without any long-term goal. 

Connectivity makes this progress problem more visible. When matches work properly, the underlying balance can feel surprisingly fair, even against players who have more experience or access to characters that take time to unlock. When the connection becomes unstable, however, it becomes difficult to tell whether you lost because of a mistake or because the game failed to register what happened.

Online connectivity is therefore one of the most frustrating parts of the experience. Latency can cause the characters to jitter or move erratically, and sometimes attacks and grabs will not register. As the monster, you can appear to be directly over a survivor and still fail to capture them, allowing them to continue running. 

That is particularly damaging because timing is the entire foundation of OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek. Matches last only three minutes, so a delayed interaction can entirely change the outcome. A game based on positioning and quick reactions needs dependable online interactions, and when they aren't, the frustration can overshadow some of the game's better mechanics.

Fortunately, local multiplayer offers a much better way to experience the core concept. Playing with friends in the same room removes many of the connectivity problems and lets the simple chase mechanics work as intended. With support for local and online play for up to eight players, the game is clearly designed around groups, and the short matches make it easy to play several rounds without committing to a long session.

Visually, OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek understands exactly what kind of game it wants to be. 

The chibi art style helps the monsters stand out without being scary in the true sense, and the Japanese-inspired designs give the game a familiar identity. Environmental details like schools, temples, districts, vegetation, and buildings also help the places feel less generic. 

The game also looks good on the Nintendo Switch 2, technically. The colorful environments and character models look good on the hardware, and the game runs at a smooth 60 frames per second even in handheld mode. That makes it a natural fit for the system, especially since a three-minute match can be played easily during a short portable session. 

The sound design is less prominent in the available material, so it doesn't make as strong an impression as the game's visual identity and multiplayer mechanics. The overall presentation works because the visuals immediately communicate the game's lighter tone, while the short matches keep the experience moving. 

OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek has a solid idea at its center, and some of its best moments show exactly why that idea works. Chasing a human around a map, narrowly avoiding a monster, stunning an attacker with a lantern, or risking everything to rescue a teammate can produce the kind of spontaneous multiplayer moments that make these games memorable. 

The problem is that the game needs more on top of that foundation. 

Limited survivor objectives make the experience repetitive, map variations don't always feel different enough, progression can slow when online matches go badly, and connectivity problems can directly interfere with the most important interactions. 

In the end, OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek feels less like a full-scale survival horror game and more like a compact multiplayer party experience built around supernatural tag. That is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you prefer something lighter and easier to pick up than the more demanding asymmetrical games in the genre. 

The sequel ultimately struggles because its simplicity is both its greatest strength and its biggest limitation. You can understand the rules within minutes and immediately start having fun, but you can also understand the entire gameplay loop just as quickly. 

With more substantial survivor objectives, stronger map variety, and a more reliable online experience, the foundation could support something much more lasting. OBAKEIDORO 2: Chase & Seek is fun when the conditions are right, but right now it doesn’t have the depth to hold up as a long-term asymmetrical multiplayer game.