I have to admit, I was initially skeptical as to how much I'd enjoy a sequel to Loner Dog. But having finished it, this is the perfect sequel. Mild spoilers.
The exploration of Harsh Noise's pathology through the psychosexual disconnect between body and sign was powerful on its own, but foiling that with Death Industrial's outsider fetishism really helps accentuate it.
Building upon the foundation set by Loner Dog before it, the game is content presuming knowledge of its supporting cast and deploying them as an incredibly flavourful backdrop without the baggage of reintroducing them, or reimagining or resolving character arcs.
In the latter half, as the game collapses in on itself as a self-referential, self-annihilating series of discordant epilogues punctuated by the personal address and postmortem contextualisations of video commentary, it really comes into its own as a sincere reflection on transsexuality, trauma, death, depression, nihilism, and anything else it can strike out at.
In particular, that discussion of the loss of your voice during puberty, the loss of any love for your basic human communication and expression... it really struck home for me, and I'm sure it will for many others.
A sequel that tried to do Loner Dog again could have been a bit of fun. But I'm so, so glad this is what it was instead.
Little bit rambly.
Thank you so much for making this.