Game Theory!

Fnaf 2, Gaming's Scariest Story SOLVED!

Trigger Warnings:

Animatronics

Gore Descriptions (these first two are gonna be in basically all of them)

In-game child murders

Swearing

Hello, internet! Welcome to Game Theory!

Do you know what I love? These games! Not because I'm freaked out the rosy-cheeked, Tingle-looking emotionally dead animatronics. Okay, well, Balloon Kid is pretty messed up, but whatever. No, what I appreciate about these games is the level of thought that went into every element of the story. When you create a game that has people rage-debating about where it's a sequel or a prequel, you've done something right. Unless that was never your intent, in which case you've done something wrong.

 

Anyway, the point is Five Nights at Freddy's 2 looks to be everything you'd want in a sequel: More camera, more danger, and more FAN. But that also comes with more questions; questions about the game's lore. And while others will provide you with the jump-scares, I provide you with what everyone wants: ANSWERS. So grab yourself a slice of Freddy Fazbear's signature pizza, 'cause we're about to dig in.
Let's get the big one out of the way first: is the game a sequel or a prequel-sequel? And what I mean by that is, contrary to popular belief, just because it has a big "2" slapped next to the name doesn't automatically mean the game comes after the first one in a timeline sense. It's a sequel, yes, but it tells a prequel story.

 

So, where does Five Nights at Freddy's 2 fit in? Knowing its place in the timeline is crucial for understanding its story. Well, to figure that out, let's focus on the paycheck you receive at the end of your fifth night. The date places the events of the game in 1987, a whole six years ahead of when we determined the first game took place in our first video (1993). Sounds like a prequel, but we found that date in the first game by calculating Mike Schmidt's hourly pay and comparing that to the minimum wage of the '90s. if Scott Cawthon, the game's developer, is just picking random numbers for the payments, this bit of evidence would be meaningless. Except that he's not. At the end of Five Night's 2, you get paid $100.50. Divide that by the 30 hours worked, and you get $3.35 an hour: the EXACT minimum wage for 1987. This means that us using minimum wage calculations to identify the year of Five Night's 1 IS a perfectly valid way to prove it, and shows that it takes place AFTER the events of Five Night's 2.

 

Still don't believe me? Players brave enough to survive the extra night six are rewarded with a bonus check and a newspaper clipping that says the toy robots are getting scrapped, and that the old ones are going into storage for a new, smaller version of the restaurant. That would explain why the old models reappear in Five Nights 1, and the toy models don't. And notice how it mentions a SMALLER version of the restaurant. The building in Five Nights 1 is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than the setting of Five Nights 2. Need more evidence? What about the fact that on the first night in the office, the phone guy explains that the robots used to walk around during the day, just like they do in Five Nights 2, but not anymore. OR the fact that Phone Guy DIES in the first game, making it hard for him to also be the phone guy in Five Nights at Freddy's 2 if it takes place after. Call me the Phantom Menace, 'cause every way to Sunday, this game is a prequel.
So with that revelation out of the way, we're able to piece together the rest of the timeline and dig a little deeper. Posters everywhere in Five Nights 2 welcome you to this new location, implying that there was another Freddy Fazbear's pizza somewhere before this one.