Chapter 2 generally goes to much wackier and sillier places than Chapter 1 did. A wacky queen, Punch-Out!! with giant robots, that sort of thing. But, depending on how you play it, it can also go to much, much darker places.
After a mere NPC appearance back in Chapter 1, Noelle Holiday becomes a playable character for a while in Chapter 2. She is timid, submissive, has a crush on Susie, and has silly combat animations. She starts with a negative Boldness score. It's implied that something happened to or with her MIA big sister December that made her the way she is.
Noelle also has a spell that can freeze enemies solid, which unlike general combat (where enemies escape after being damaged enough) leaves their bodies encased in ice on the world map.
You can order her to freeze every enemy you see. You can backtrack and have her freeze enemies in previous areas. As she turns more and more enemies into ice blocks, she starts to believe this will make her stronger.
That's when you can start emotionally abusing and gaslighting her...and turn her into a serial killer.
You insist that you and her are something more. You repeatedly demand that she get a ring to enhance her powers that you will never be able to afford until she does so; the ring seller is never seen again. Her battle animations go from comic relief to kind of cold. You have her freeze over puzzles. You force her to wear another ring that halves her magic costs but physically harms her. You can take and wear her watch.
And you have her brutally murder her friend by repeatedly ordering her to use a spell she doesn't know until she does so.
Berdly, the smug smart bird who's a wacky recurring boss throughout the chapter, sees that something is wrong with Noelle and correctly deduces that you're the cause of these problems. And you gaslight and abuse her into freezing him solid with a fatal ice spell.
Noelle, obviously broken, slowly walks away and leaves the party after this.
The rest of the chapter is largely trunctuated, with much less ground to cover. It's heavily implied that Noelle has gone off on a killing spree.
At the end, the bonus boss has taken over the final boss position the Queen would've. Near the end of the fight, the boss boosts his defense. You call for Susie and Ralsei to help a couple of times. They don't come. You call for Noelle and she immediately murders the meme puppet for you.
Back in the real world, Noelle assumes everything was just a nightmare. She tries to wake Berdly; he doesn't respond. She assumes he fell asleep and heads off to the hospital. While it's not outright stated he's pretty obviously dead for real.
If you follow her to the hospital, she is freaked out out that you followed her. And she is even moreso if you are wearing her watch. While Susie drops in before things can proceed further, it's obvious that she just realized her traumatic nightmare was very real.
On top of all of this, there are points where Kris is visibly horrified by what the Soul (READ: THE PLAYER) is making them do to this poor girl. I know the fans are desperate to assume they're a big villain or something instead of just a mischevious child whose pranks go too far, so when they're disturbed by what's they're being made to do...
I am both intrigued and heavily disturbed by what directions the full game will go in whenever it finally comes to fruition. It's one thing to just go around murdering everyone and everything, but abusing and manipulating somebody else into doing it...Goddamn...