The Evil Within 2 breaks the fourth wall to communicate the changed player/character relationship. After the "impossible space" transition, Sebastian slams into a ceiling, which rotates into the crypt's floor. He lies, stunned, in the exact profile as on The Evil Within's cover, now unbound from barbed wire.

We see the power balance's shift in this image. The game speaks to the player through metanarrative and visually communicates that Sebastian has more freedom than when under the player's control. Sebastian gets better without us. In this way, The Evil Within 2 uses metanarrative much like its forebearer, Metal Gear Solid 2, which gave Raiden power over the player. That game had a low opinion of the player's value, denying us any place in the fiction.

The Evil Within 2, however, uses metanarrative in service of its theme, healing. It criticizes the player's influence on the character, creates distance between the two, and gives the character control without cutting the player out. The character shares his new strength, allowing us to "heal," in a sense, from the first game's unorthodox approach to the survival-horror action genre.

The Evil Within ended with leftover expectations. Our moments of control highlighted Sebastian's weakness, and we confirmed no persistent enemy dead. Ruvik escaped, and Sebastian never turned entirely from hunted to hunter. He merely became haunted.

Players of survival-horror action games want to overcome powerful threats from small beginnings. The shift from weakness to strength brings catharsis. We desire the moment when Ethan can run Jack down with a car — when Jill Valentine, having exhausted ammunition and healing items, can wreck the Tyrant with a rocket launcher.

Finally, after the ambiguity of power in The Evil Within, the player experiences catharsis by overcoming a once-indestructible monster. The Evil Within 2 arms us, not with a roadster or heavy materiel, but with a character strong enough to resist our bad decisions. Sebastian simultaneously separates from and "heals" the player by fulfilling once-denied genre expectations.