5 things we would like to see from the Stray sequel

Stray was one of the best indie games of 2022, released on the PlayStation Plus Extra tier on day one. It was received positively by fans because of its cute cat protagonist and immersive open world. Stray is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans no longer exist and robots live in harmony in a cramped city.

The gameplay has you play as the aforementioned cat, who has a small robot companion that becomes your guide in this empty-feeling dystopia as you try to restore natural sunlight into the world.

Even though the title was short, its amazing graphics and characters made up for it. The city where all the robots live in harmony and have a special connection with each other can be comforting, even in a post-apocalyptic setting.

While there is no hint or rumor of a sequel, we surely wish to see the next installment come out someday. If the developers decide to make it, here are five things the game needs.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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These are 5 things we would like to see in the sequel of Stray

1) Strictly next-gen

The game was graphically impressive but suffered performance issues on older hardware (Image via BlueTwelve Studio)

Stray was released for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and more. This meant that the potential of the title was held back because it had to run on previous-gen consoles. This not only affected the scope of the game, it also impacted the title's performance.

Because of this, it presented massive frame drops in later sections of Stray on the PlayStation 4. As such, to reach its full potential, the sequel should be next-gen only.

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2) Deeper lore exploration

The next game needs a deeper lore exploration (Image via BlueTwelve Studio)

The first title had plenty of lore and NPCs you could talk to spread across the game that could tell you about its world. The post-apocalyptic setting was interesting, and players would have loved to explore further and learn more about the past of this mysterious place. The next Stray title should go deeper into the lore of how things came to be this way and how the robots took over the world.

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3) Longer playthrough

A speedrun achievement required players to finish the game in under 2 hours (Image via BlueTwelve Studio)

The first game was well-paced and had fun gameplay sequences that didn't overstay their welcome. However, the title was ultimately too short — clocking in at about five hours — and should have been longer. Finishing the game feels like you didn't get enough of the world, which is why we believe that the sequel should be around 10 hours long. This way, players can get more playtime for their money.

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4) Enhanced cat abilities

Our favorite orange cat needs more abilities (Image via BlueTwelve Studio)

Stray featured only a handful of cat abilities that were useful, but they never felt enough. These skills included jumping on things, knocking down stuff, and scratching certain surfaces. In the sequel, we would love to see our favorite orange cat have more abilities, such as swimming to clear gameplay sections and purring to scare off Zurks or cause distraction.

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5) More side quests for enhanced NPC interaction

Stray needs more side quests in the sequel (Image via BlueTwelve Studio)

One of the most liked features of Stray was the NPC interactions. You could communicate with other robots. These interactions were either related to the main story or educating us about the lore of this title's post-apocalyptic world.

However, they sometimes led to side quests, which were fun to do. In the sequel, we would like to see more such optional missions that make interacting with NPCs more engaging.