It is 1998. The air in the city of Kassidy smells like wet asphalt, cheap cigarettes, and desperation. Kathy Rain is back, but she isn’t exactly thriving. Her bank account is a joke. Her bike, the legendary Katmobile, is coughing on fumes. To be blunt, she is one missed payment away from being homeless.
That’s where things kick off in Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer, the follow-up to the 2016 indie hit that proved point-and-click adventures weren’t just for the nostalgia crowd. Developed by Clifftop Games and published by Raw Fury, this sequel landed on May 20, 2025. It’s a lot darker than the first one. Honestly, it makes the original investigation into Conwell Springs look like a Sunday morning cartoon.
The Brutal Reality of the Soothsayer Case
The core of the game centers on a serial killer. People call him the "Soothsayer." He’s been carving a bloody path through Kassidy, leaving the police baffled and the mayor desperate enough to slap a $200,000 bounty on the killer's head. For Kathy, this isn’t just about justice. It’s about survival.
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You’re not just clicking on pixels here. You’re doing real, grimy detective work. One of the early puzzles involves digging through microfilm in a library—remember those?—to cross-reference murder dates with moon cycles and old newspaper clippings. It’s involved. It’s satisfying. It makes you feel like you actually have a brain, which is a rarity in modern gaming.
Kassidy itself feels like something out of a David Fincher movie. Think Se7en but with more purple and blue neon. The world is rain-soaked and gorgeous in that high-resolution pixel art way that Clifftop has perfected. They’ve added dynamic lighting and surface reflections this time around, so the puddles on the street actually look like they belong there.
Why Kathy is a Different Beast This Time
In the first game, Kathy was the rebel searching for her past. In Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer, she’s a professional—mostly. But she’s also a mess. She has pushed away her best friend, Eileen. She’s stubborn to a fault.
- The Mentor Factor: Kathy gets a lead from her former mentor, Lucas. He’s a grizzled PI who thinks they should team up.
- The Lone Wolf: Kathy, being Kathy, decides she can handle it alone. It’s a classic noir trope, but it works because we’ve spent years getting to know her.
- The Notebook: The notebook mechanic is back and it’s been beefed up. You’ll use it to connect narrative threads, which is basically the game’s way of letting you play Sherlock Holmes without the hat.
The voice acting is top-tier. Arielle Siegel returns as Kathy, and she still nails that perfect blend of "I don't care" and "I'm actually terrified but I'll never show it." It’s the kind of performance that carries the narrative through its slower moments.
Beyond the Grounded Mystery
Now, if you played the first game, you know it eventually took a hard turn into the weird. Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer does the same thing. Some players find the supernatural stuff a bit distracting, but this sequel handles it much better than the original. It closes those lingering loops from Conwell Springs.
The "Mending" and the "Old God" are back in the mix. It gets metaphysical. There are discussions about "translation errors" and signals from other realms. It’s heavy. Some critics, like those over at RPGFan, noted that the grounded serial killer investigation is arguably more compelling than the cosmic horror stuff. But even when it gets weird, it stays grounded in Kathy’s personal psychology.
Technical Specs and Accessibility
If you’re planning to jump in, you don’t need a NASA supercomputer.
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- OS: Windows 10, macOS High Sierra+, or Ubuntu.
- RAM: 8 GB (though some versions run on 2 GB).
- Storage: A tiny 2 GB of space.
The game is available on Steam and GOG. One weird omission is the lack of native controller support at launch, which is a bit of a bummer for those who like to play on a Steam Deck or from the couch. You’re sticking to the mouse for this one.
How to Get the Most Out of the Investigation
If you want to actually solve this thing without reaching for a walkthrough every five minutes, you have to change how you look at the screen. Clifftop Games didn't make this easy.
First, stop trying to use "moon logic." The puzzles in Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer are mostly logical. If you need information from a book, you might actually have to type the name of the book into a library computer. If a location is greyed out on your map, it means you’ve exhausted it. This is a huge quality-of-life improvement that prevents the "walking back and forth forever" syndrome that killed so many 90s adventures.
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Second, pay attention to the cutscenes. They aren't just there to look pretty—though the hand-drawn character portraits are stunning. They often contain subtle visual cues about the killer's motives or Kathy's mental state.
Actionable Insights for New Players:
- Read everything: The newspapers aren't just flavor text; they contain the dates and names you need for the library puzzles.
- Talk to everyone twice: Dialogue options change after you find new evidence.
- Check the notebook frequently: It often highlights connections you might have missed in the heat of the moment.
- Embrace the atmosphere: This is a 10–14 hour game. Don't rush it. Let the mood sink in.
This sequel isn't just a repeat of the first game. It’s a bigger, bolder, and significantly more polished urban thriller that cements Kathy Rain as one of the best protagonists in the genre. It’s gritty. It’s depressing. It’s fantastic.