So About The Ending (MASSIVE Spoilers)

[gen3king]

I am going to be talking about the ending here so, don't read this before beating the game as it is overall pretty great.

Overall, the ending does a lot well. It has all the pieces and clues click in a very satisfying way. It explains all the seemingly "supernatural" elements in a way that makes sense while not throwing away the menace of the villain.

So, why make this post?

Cause the ending made me dislike most of the people I was tasked with saving.

A kid dies and everyone keeps their mouths shut for their own selfish ends.

Is the killer in the right? ♥♥♥♥ NO! However I felt very sympathetic for them, as I began to listen to them, even if their killings were unjust and evil, the reason they were pushed this far made sense. Someone she loved died unfairly, the killer, who showed no remorse or even much care for others, was a selfish bastard who frankly would run the town to the ground for personal gain. That guy, that piece of ♥♥♥♥ gets away with it. She is kicked out by her parents who also keep their mouths shut for themselves. The killer is a terrible person, but I'm expected to be more sympathetic to corrupt cops and cowards? Sure they had sympathetic motives, some more than others (a dying sister is way more sympathetic than a jazz studio at least the whole saving a human life point has ethical merit) but at the end of the day the vast majority of the cast come across selfish and shallow. Peggy doesn't and maybe that was the point? Like a critique for small town America? If that's the case, spot on.

Overall I just walked away satisfied but hating everyone involved as characters.

Well... almost satisfied.

I do wonder if Garrows ended up losing the election and most of his power over the town after this. I hope so, but unless I missed it it's never confirmed or denied in the epilogue. Not many listened at that time of night so, maybe not. Which would worsen the ending cause that would be deeply unsatisfying. Just sorta a "everyone loses" ending. Which, what does that say thematically "corruption. Life is ♥♥♥♥ lol." ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ theme if ya ask me. I assume this is NOT the intent, because it would be in bad faith to assume anything about Garrows one way or the other. Benefit of the doubt.

I also do wonder what happened to Forrest. Does he get unblacklisted for his feats that night of saving lives? Did he have a chance to leave and choose to stay? Is the ambiguity intentional? I dunno. Why was he blacklisted? I think I missed that or forgot.

I just feel these two plot lines were never followed up on.

Overall a good game with great atmosphere and mystery, but it just felt weird to try to play Forrest as someone trying to be nice. Turn over a new leaf, and see the best in the town only to feel by the end he was right to be bitter to the town.

Which feels to me like a narrative disconnect. The story felt like it wanted to endear the player and by proxy Forrest to the town only for me to be bitter at it and its people by the end.

What do you all think am I just misreading the text or something?

[Truffle]

I don't know if I would call the bulk of them selfish. All of them were essentially being blackmailed, higher rent, medical bills they couldn't keep up with, etc. If even one person speaks out, what does that get them? The blackmail follows through, and rich Gallows does something else to discredit the person who tried to speak out. Don't get me wrong, they were totally unjustified.

With the exception of the coroner and jazz lady, everyone was just a 'kid' that night. Caught up in the aftermath of a prank that went terribly wrong, to afraid of having their lives ended before they even begin because the all rich and powerful Gallows family could keep it quiet no matter what.


Also, for what it's worth, the killer was psychotic before the prank even happened, dormant? maybe. But you're wrong in the head, from birth, if you literally spend 20 years raising the kid of your dead high school boyfriend to be a serial killer right alongside you. One that decides to kill the next best thing, Eugene, Peggy, encourages a father to be killed just because he called the killer out on the radio even though he had no affiliation to the prank.

If I recall, she wasn't kicked out, she ran away because she was tired of them not doing anything about it.

As far as why was Forest blacklisted? While not explicitly stated his reactions to Ponty and the pranksters during the night strongly suggest he has serious anger management issues. Going so far as to have a "no prank segments" clause in his contract. So the logical conclusion is that while on his show with millions of listeners his anger came through, did something leading to major FCC fines, loss of sponsorship, etc.

I really didn't come out of it hating anyone except for Gallows, a bit annoyed at one or two of them sure. But the killer was just comical levels of psychotic, I mean, she seriously raised a killer murder baby, to exact her revenge, I can't stress that enough. Because of how extreme she took it, rather than, you know, using the evidence that is easy to compile if she took the time to expose the whole cover up.

It's all a sequence of events, the OG pranksters are the only ones truly worthy of hate.

[Sammun Mak]

This game is a "small" story, the story of a single night. It takes place over, what, 5 hours? Everything that happens outside of that small window into this universe is up to only our speculation. This includes why he was blacklisted (which I either also missed, or it's not in the game). It also includes how the events of the night end up changing Forrest. I actually really like that.

As for how opinion towards the "victims" changes: Yeah, I think there is that ambiguity/duality that's introduced at that point and it intentionally casts doubt on who or what justice is in this case. We can easily understand these characters motives. They all simply agreed to be a tiny part of a plan where all they had to do was cloud the circumstances of an accident. They were both threatened and bribed into accepting it. Does that mean what they did was right? No! They helped cover up a murder and let a murderer go free, it's inexcusable.

I really got the opposite impression about what impact the night would have on Forrest and this view of the town. Especially over the course of the night he came to really care about the people of the town, he put everything he had into trying to save everyone. And well, I think he can understand the conspirator's justifications even if he doesn't agree with them. And there's also other characters he interacts with like the medic, the frat bros, the neighbors.

Personally, I also didn't detect much bitterness... anywhere, really, but maybe that's a reflection of my dialogue choices. Forrest plays it very cool. He's surprised or even shocked about how things are so different in a small town, but has no inherent judgement going along with that in my view.

[gen3king]

Originally posted by Sammun Mak:

This game is a "small" story, the story of a single night. It takes place over, what, 5 hours? Everything that happens outside of that small window into this universe is up to only our speculation. This includes why he was blacklisted (which I either also missed, or it's not in the game). It also includes how the events of the night end up changing Forrest. I actually really like that.

As for how opinion towards the "victims" changes: Yeah, I think there is that ambiguity/duality that's introduced at that point and it intentionally casts doubt on who or what justice is in this case. We can easily understand these characters motives. They all simply agreed to be a tiny part of a plan where all they had to do was cloud the circumstances of an accident. They were both threatened and bribed into accepting it. Does that mean what they did was right? No! They helped cover up a murder and let a murderer go free, it's inexcusable.

I really got the opposite impression about what impact the night would have on Forrest and this view of the town. Especially over the course of the night he came to really care about the people of the town, he put everything he had into trying to save everyone. And well, I think he can understand the conspirator's justifications even if he doesn't agree with them. And there's also other characters he interacts with like the medic, the frat bros, the neighbors.

Personally, I also didn't detect much bitterness... anywhere, really, but maybe that's a reflection of my dialogue choices. Forrest plays it very cool. He's surprised or even shocked about how things are so different in a small town, but has no inherent judgement going along with that in my view.

I picked up some bitterness early on and in SOME choices but it's on the player to choose whether to say the more "mean dialogue", which I avoided doing.

[gen3king]

Originally posted by Sammun Mak:

This game is a "small" story, the story of a single night. It takes place over, what, 5 hours? Everything that happens outside of that small window into this universe is up to only our speculation. This includes why he was blacklisted (which I either also missed, or it's not in the game). It also includes how the events of the night end up changing Forrest. I actually really like that.

As for how opinion towards the "victims" changes: Yeah, I think there is that ambiguity/duality that's introduced at that point and it intentionally casts doubt on who or what justice is in this case. We can easily understand these characters motives. They all simply agreed to be a tiny part of a plan where all they had to do was cloud the circumstances of an accident. They were both threatened and bribed into accepting it. Does that mean what they did was right? No! They helped cover up a murder and let a murderer go free, it's inexcusable.

I really got the opposite impression about what impact the night would have on Forrest and this view of the town. Especially over the course of the night he came to really care about the people of the town, he put everything he had into trying to save everyone. And well, I think he can understand the conspirator's justifications even if he doesn't agree with them. And there's also other characters he interacts with like the medic, the frat bros, the neighbors.

Personally, I also didn't detect much bitterness... anywhere, really, but maybe that's a reflection of my dialogue choices. Forrest plays it very cool. He's surprised or even shocked about how things are so different in a small town, but has no inherent judgement going along with that in my view.

Like it seemed like it was sorta on the player to fill the role of Forrest in that sense, if that makes sense

[Mornandil]

To be honest I got worried that the killer might get caught 🤣 I didnt care as as much for her, but him... well he was just a kiddo too, raised by an insane mom to fullfill her delusions. I dunno... I was worried. After finishing the game, the only ones I was emphatizing with were the bunch of teens, Eugéne and Ricky.