Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location

An interviewer is questioning William Afton, the creator of the game's animatronic characters as well as the main antagonist of the overall series, on certain design choices he has made when building the animatronics. William lists several features of Circus Baby, such as her ability to make ice cream, inflate balloons at her fingertips, and take song requests and dance to them. The interviewer is unsatisfied with this answer, as the features William mentioned were not what he was referring to.

Some time later, William Afton's son, Michael Afton[1] is a new employee of Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, an underground facility and sister location to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, featuring animatronics that are rented out to children's birthday parties; these animatronics include new circus-themed variations of Freddy (who, unlike the other versions, is not the lead singer), Bonnie (who appears as a hand puppet on Freddy), and Foxy (who takes the role of the ringmaster) as well as several new characters (consisting of Ballora, the Bidybabs, Electrobab, and the Minireenas), including Circus Baby herself. These animatronics originated from another location named "Circus Baby's Pizza World", which had been shut down shortly before it was supposed to open due to "gas leaks".[2] As his first night starts, HandUnit (an A.I. who assists Michael) assigns him his daily tasks and explains Circus Baby's was formed in response to the success and eventual closure of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. On Night 2, the power goes out, and Circus Baby informs Michael to not listen to the instructions of HandUnit.

In one of the minigames (after it is completed), Circus Baby extends a claw from her stomach and pulls a little girl (presumed to be William Afton's daughter and Michael's sister, Elizabeth Afton) inside her. It is implied that the girl died inside Baby and that she is now possessed by the girl's soul.

On Night 3, Michael starts by checking to see if the new "Funtime" Foxy is on his stage before crawling through his room. The player then has to repair the new versions of Freddy and Bonnie.

Though Michael succeeds in his task, he is captured by Funtime Foxy and wakes up the next night trapped in an animatronic suit, in an area known as the Scooping Room containing a machine called the Scooper, which can tear endoskeletons out of animatronics. Baby explains to Michael that she kidnapped him. After witnessing Ballora's endoskeleton being torn out by the Scooper, Michael is left to survive the night against the Minireenas while stopping the suit from malfunctioning. On Night 5, two employees are found hanged, and Michael is instructed by Baby to destroy her body by sending it to the Scooping Room. However, it is soon discovered that Baby, along with the other animatronics, have combined themselves into a single body known as Ennard, and wish to use Michael's body as a disguise to escape the facility. Two endings occur from this; the "Real Ending" has Michael tricked into entering the Scooping Room, where he is presumably killed with the Scooper and his body used by Ennard. An alternate ending occurs by completing the death minigame and defying Baby's instructions on Night 5; Michael enters a private room and must fend off Ennard (who is upset that Michael ignored its instructions) until 6 AM in a manner similar to the original game, before returning home (with Ennard managing to escape the facility regardless and following him home).

The Custom Night update includes additional cutscenes following on from the Real Ending; Michael's body gradually decomposes, forcing Ennard to abandon it and enter the sewers. After that, he is left on the ground, presumably dead. Michael is then mysteriously reanimated. He then talks to his father about his time in the facility (noting that he found and freed "her", or Elizabeth, the little girl who is believed to be the soul possessing the Circus Baby animatronic), before setting out to find him. As this happens, the camera pans over to the ruins of Fazbear's Fright, from which William Afton (who is still possessing Springtrap) emerges.

The bulk of the gameplay in Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location does away with the survival aspect of previous games. Instead of remaining in one place and preventing the animatronic antagonists from attacking, the player must move from room to room in order to fulfill a series of objectives that change during each of the five nights. For example, Night 2 requires the player to sneak across Ballora Gallery and reset a group of circuit breakers, while for Night 4, the player is placed inside a spring lock suit while having to fight off Minireenas.

As in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, when a game ends, the player may be given a chance to play an 8-bit mini game, in which Circus Baby must give cupcakes to children and then bring an ice cream cone to a little girl, who gets killed as shown in the minigame. Completing this mini game grants access to a secret level during Night 5, a near-recreation of the gameplay in the original Five Nights at Freddy's. Here, the player remains in a security office and must prevent a hybrid animatronic called "Ennard" from entering it by watching surveillance cameras and closing electric doors, all of which consume a limited power supply.

Clearing all five nights unlocks a gallery of extra features: pictures and blueprints of the game's animatronics, their making-of, a map of the facility, and automatic access to Circus Baby's cupcake mini game. As of the December 1, 2016 update, clearing all nights also unlocks the non-canon Custom Night mode, which is set in a modified version of the Night 5 secret room. The player can choose from several modes and difficulty settings, facing new animatronics, and must conserve both power and oxygen supplies in order to survive. Completing these modes allows the player to view a series of cutscenes that have been declared as part of the series canon; all except the last scene are in 8-bit resolution.

An achievement system exists in the form of four stars, obtained by unlocking both of the game's endings, completing the Circus Baby mini game, and completing the hardest difficulty on each custom night preset.

Like in all Five Nights at Freddy's games, failure to defend oneself from the hostile animatronic characters will result in a jump scare.

In April 2016, Cawthon released a teaser image of the game on his website, entitled Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, featuring a clown-like animatronic, revealed to be named "Circus Baby".[3] Several teaser images followed, revealing different characters and hints at their origins.[4]

The trailer for the game[5] was released on Cawthon's official YouTube page featuring new animatronics and a new location. The release date was later confirmed to be October 7, 2016.[4][6]

In August, a teaser image was posted on Cawthon's website with the words "Cancelled. Due to Leaks." This was initially taken to indicate that the game itself had been cancelled, due to one of the game's animatronics' voices being leaked, namely Ballora's. However, it was quickly revealed to be a part of the story line, as a fictional news article was found when the image was brightened, discussing how the in-game location had been closed due to "gas" leaks.[7]

On October 4, 2016, Cawthon posted on the Steam Community forums, stating that the game has a very dark story line, and that it might not be kid-friendly. For this, he said that he might work on the game for several more months, to make the game and its story more suitable for younger players,[8] which, however, turned out to be a hoax.[9] The game was released on October 7, 2016.

On October 17, 2016, Cawthon announced on his website and the game's Steam page that a non-canon Custom Night will be added to the game in December, and that an update for it will be released prior to its original version.[10][11] It was released on December 1, 2016.

On December 22, 2016, a mobile port for Android devices was released on the Google Play Store.

On January 3, 2017, a mobile port for iOS devices was released on the App Store.

On June 18, 2020, a Nintendo Switch port was released on the Nintendo eShop.

• Heather Masters as Circus Baby
• Andy Field as HandUnit
• Julie Shields as Computer Voice
• Michella Moss as Ballora
• Kellen Goff as Funtime Freddy
• Zehra Naqvi as BidyBab
• Christopher McCullough as Vlad
• Bob Barnes as Narrator
• Amber Lee Connors as Clara
• PJ Heywood as William Afton & Michael Afton
• Jesse Adam as Angsty Teen
• Becky Shrimpton as Bon-Bon

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Metacritic aggregated a score of 62 out of 100 for the game.[12] Destructoid rated the game 6/10,[13] while GameCrate rated it 7.50/10.[14] Shelby Watson of The All State gave the game a positive review, citing it to be comparable to the first game's quality, but unlike the first game, never allowing the player to operate the mechanics on muscle memory alone. She writes, "...[E]ach night is so different, it is impossible to get comfortable with the mechanics enough that it feels like second nature. The game changes so much, you are forced to adapt and are always on the edge of your seat, waiting for what is to come."[15]