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Night in the Woods |OT| Come Home
- Thread starter dancrane212
- Start date
Want to bring up this point again for people who have beaten the game:
I don't think
I really wish I had a screencap of the news excerpt referring to mine gas hallucinations. It could just be a red herring but it makes perfect sense as an explanation for the 'being in the mine'. Less sure why Mae would be dreaming about that stuff but I'm sure there's an explanation somewhere. Either that or its mostly metaphorical -- someone can probably explain that stance better than I. It doesn't really come out of left field from either of these explanations, I can see how you might think so if you take it literally though.
I don't think
Kate was part of the cult. She's a relatively new member to the town so it wouldn't make sense for her to be so emotionally invested in its wellbeing. The town council people were for sure though, but unclear whether he was sacrificed or just skipping town.
Some part of me thinks
Bruce family died and he killed himself other part of me thinks his family is real and he really went to the west to see them and get his life together.
Wow I didn't get that dialogue from him so I was just speculating. In my case pastor Kate was very concerned when she didn't see him at the usual place, she even opened the conversation saying "God damn this world...", so I assumed she knew something terrible happened to him.
Damn, didn't catch that at all. I'd prefer that explanation for sure.
mcwizardry
Member
Played about an hour and it seems pretty interesting so far. Oxenfree is probably the closest recent comparison for someone looking for a point of reference.
Somewhere around 3/4 of the game.
Mudron
Member
Thankee-sai. I just wanted to know how much I should pace myself if I wanted to get this wrapped up before Christmas in March happens this week.
So I just kind of accidentally marathonned my way through the last 4 hours to beat the game. I hadn't intended that but the way part 3 transitions into part 4 I never felt like there was a great time to stop the pacing. 
Overall, I liked it a lot and I'll echo a lot of the sentiment here that the writing of the characters and the notion of working through their various relationships turned out to be the strongest part of the whole experience for me. I felt like I was pretty thorough about exploring each nook and cranny of the town each day but it still seems like I'm missing a lot in my journal, so it's hard to figure out what I missed or how to trigger it. I probably will replay this at some point because I'm curious to see some of the "who you spend your nights with" events that I didn't pick the first time, and see if I get a different ending out of it.
As for the bulk of the ending itself...I'm not sure.
Also as much as anything, I'm kind of upset that
Overall, I liked it a lot and I'll echo a lot of the sentiment here that the writing of the characters and the notion of working through their various relationships turned out to be the strongest part of the whole experience for me. I felt like I was pretty thorough about exploring each nook and cranny of the town each day but it still seems like I'm missing a lot in my journal, so it's hard to figure out what I missed or how to trigger it. I probably will replay this at some point because I'm curious to see some of the "who you spend your nights with" events that I didn't pick the first time, and see if I get a different ending out of it.
As for the bulk of the ending itself...I'm not sure.
I feel like they kind of tried to implement too many answers to the same couple of questions, and most of those only wound up generating more questions later. If we assume that whatever Mae's odd "shapes" disassociative disorder is wasn't caused by the creature in the Hole years ago, then why do the two seem to wind up related in some way anyway? If nothing else there's something in Mae's mind that's connected to the history of the town itself, but that's never exactly explained or brought to light and it seems unknown if the cultists really understood that or not. Mae was either being groomed to become a new leader of that group, or (more likely to me) was being prepped to become the next sacrifice at some point. Good thing she was save by THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. Or something. Trying to combine the dreams, the history of the town, the cosmic horror and the threat of it eventually swallowing everything up, and the cult that I guess was somehow being given longer-than-usual life by offering sacrifices, there's suddenly a lot more to juggle than the game really needed.
That doesn't even take into account some of the other things that aren't touched on very well, like the rule the cultist broke about dropping a severed arm (why did he have one in the first place?), why his foot was caught, how whoever kidnapped the kid at Harfest managed to get around the fence so quickly, why Eide felt it was worth it to try and follow and attack Mae out of the elevator having just seen the rest of the group be okay with letting them go, and any number of other things. I don't need a game where everything is neatly wrapped up and openly explained, but by the end of NitW the only thing that really feels like it might have any closure is the cult. Hell even the slightest hint of Mae actually giving some serious consideration about the state of her life would have been nice but the game seemed to feel satisfied with a sense of "well that was all really weird and hard to explain, I'm just going to act like things are normal for now" and leave it at that.
That doesn't even take into account some of the other things that aren't touched on very well, like the rule the cultist broke about dropping a severed arm (why did he have one in the first place?), why his foot was caught, how whoever kidnapped the kid at Harfest managed to get around the fence so quickly, why Eide felt it was worth it to try and follow and attack Mae out of the elevator having just seen the rest of the group be okay with letting them go, and any number of other things. I don't need a game where everything is neatly wrapped up and openly explained, but by the end of NitW the only thing that really feels like it might have any closure is the cult. Hell even the slightest hint of Mae actually giving some serious consideration about the state of her life would have been nice but the game seemed to feel satisfied with a sense of "well that was all really weird and hard to explain, I'm just going to act like things are normal for now" and leave it at that.
Also as much as anything, I'm kind of upset that
you don't get to hang out with Selmers more.
Except that was a newspaper clipping of something that happened in the past to cause the strike / civil war in the first place, was something the town was intimately familiar with and the cause and presumably was solved and all the leaks into peoples' homes were sealed off long in the past
the game makes no attempt to connect mae's home / room / sewage pipes or anything to the mine, only to germ's well
also if there was potentially explosive gas around them the whole time they're down there bea sure is smoking a cigarette the entire time not giving a fuck.
If that was their intention they definitely leaned absurdly too far away from showing and telling and should have had mae take a note in her book for reading that article, made a point of showing her house on the block was specifically older, had her or a cultist come up out of or go into the sewer system near her house / the foggy trash dump valley she walks through at the beginning of the game and show how it connects to the mine or the mine vents to it somehow.
the game makes no attempt to connect mae's home / room / sewage pipes or anything to the mine, only to germ's well
also if there was potentially explosive gas around them the whole time they're down there bea sure is smoking a cigarette the entire time not giving a fuck.
If that was their intention they definitely leaned absurdly too far away from showing and telling and should have had mae take a note in her book for reading that article, made a point of showing her house on the block was specifically older, had her or a cultist come up out of or go into the sewer system near her house / the foggy trash dump valley she walks through at the beginning of the game and show how it connects to the mine or the mine vents to it somehow.
that fuckin telescope song jesus christ
and then they give you zero instruction on how it works until you figure it out on like the third attempt
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
I really like how, even though the writing style is kind of cutesy, text-messagey, it's still more mature and developed than most games I've played. It feels like well-done graphic novel, and I'm glad it's so grounded of a story.
Mudron
Member
Yeah, I thought the game did a good job of making Mae a sympathetic character - enough for me to sometimes forget that Mae really IS her own character and not just an avatar for my thoughts and choices - that when she did something stupid or something that I thought was dumb, I had to remember that, yeah, she's a dumb 20 year-old just making her way through the world and that she's just being internally consistent.
While the 'text-messagey' speak wore on my nerves a bit as the game went on (largely because I was mainlining the game just to see how the story would pan out), I appreciated that's at least how a lot of folks -especially kids - in real like think and talk, and that not EVERYBODY in the game talks like that. The game isn't trying to be cute by presenting you a narrow world where everybody talks the same way just to be cute, it just happens to be the way the main characters think and behave, which I was ultimately fine with.
PackAPunchedMick
Member
Pre-loaded and ready to go. Can't wait.
Confused Cheeseburger
Member
Just finished. Really satisfying game. It was surprisingly lengthy and had excellent narrative pacing.
Confused Cheeseburger
Member
I think that's why it works. Games are too focused on trying to tie every loose end. I prefer narratives that feel like they begin and end beyond the credits. What's wrong with wondering and letting the imagination wander?
How long did it take to finish?
Mudron
Member
Okay, now that I've beaten the game and flipped through a bunch of posts in this thread, I'm glad I'm not alone in being thrown by the last act of the game.
I like the actual ENDING ending just fine, but
was a step too much for me.
I like the actual ENDING ending just fine, but
the reveal of the Hot Fuzz-style conspiracy in the town and the cosmic horror angle not just being something in Mae's head
I understand that they needed a plot to hang this game on and that SOMETHING had to happen at the end to give shape to the "story" (which is ambitiously lacking in shape until that point), but I wish the creators could've been a bit bolder with keeping the end of the story a more personal, intimate thing.
That said, if having a weirdly staked-raising last act is the price the creators had to pay to keep from having to give all the characters' stories unrealistically tidy endings, then I suppose I'll take it.
That said, if having a weirdly staked-raising last act is the price the creators had to pay to keep from having to give all the characters' stories unrealistically tidy endings, then I suppose I'll take it.
In retrospect, I think in a way the climax of the story does an actually decent job of connecting the more personal issues with the wider town ones.
It makes a lot more sense to me now in the way that Mae talks about how she "thinks she gets" what the cult was trying to do. In both cases, time changed things, and in both cases the party affected was fighting to make things feel familiar again, to bring things back to the way they thought it used to be. For the town, that meant getting the mine running again, getting the factories buzzing again, feeling like the town had a real purpose and prosperity to it. For Mae, it meant wrapping herself up in what she knew when she was younger: committing small crimes with Gregg, constantly trying to reach out with the younger teens that're no longer interested in her or her stories, attending Harfest when everyone else in her generation seems completely over it, revisiting the old dying mall she used to hang at, etc etc.
But...the manufacturing base isn't coming back to Possum Springs. Mae's friends aren't going back to when they were all responsibility-free little kids. And in both cases, that means a growing sense of detachment and desperation, and that leading to some wild thoughts and drastic measures.
There's definitely still a little air of the supernatural within the game whether it's true that there's a cosmic horror in the hole or not, but ultimately the core of the game remains centered around the characters and their choices, and doing what they think is best for themselves.
But...the manufacturing base isn't coming back to Possum Springs. Mae's friends aren't going back to when they were all responsibility-free little kids. And in both cases, that means a growing sense of detachment and desperation, and that leading to some wild thoughts and drastic measures.
There's definitely still a little air of the supernatural within the game whether it's true that there's a cosmic horror in the hole or not, but ultimately the core of the game remains centered around the characters and their choices, and doing what they think is best for themselves.
The only thing events-wise that I still don't entirely get and felt really dumb for the sake of it was
why "Eide" decided to follow the group back up the elevator and try to attack Mae. Literally no idea still what that was meant to accomplish outside of the game's writers giving the group an excuse to semi-accidentally put an end to the cult.
petethepanda
Member
The sound design is so fucking good in this. Had to go with headphones while playing.
Edit: After sitting and listening to the "morning" music in part 1 for five minutes (specifically, going downstairs after finding your laptop is jacked up) I finally realized it was reminding me of the home village music from Chrono Cross. Straight to my deepest nostalgia bones, lol.
Edit: After sitting and listening to the "morning" music in part 1 for five minutes (specifically, going downstairs after finding your laptop is jacked up) I finally realized it was reminding me of the home village music from Chrono Cross. Straight to my deepest nostalgia bones, lol.
Really? Do you know the name of that song? I don't remember it at all.
TheSuperSakura
Member
Game length...I'd say for me about 9ish hours? I looked at a lot of things, and talked to a lot of people, along with playing the mini game a lot. Replayablity, IMO, I'd give it a 50% of wanting to replay it after a couple of days. I bought this on launch, and once I beat it I felt like I wanted to replay it again but I haven't yet. I also purchased Oxenfree two days ago and I have replayed through that game twice now. Oxenfree has more incentive for a replay-through I feel like.
There's no voice acting, and I don't know of any
multiple endings
Thanks, going to get it on PSN on Tuesday I think. Looking forward to it. Going to squeeze it in at some point after the Horizon launch
I made a dumb, important thing.
Really enjoyed playing through this. The biggest downside was just how imbalanced the plot it. I wish it was more explicit about Mae's mental experience. By the end, I just had to take her actual anguish at her word, which was a bummer given how connected we're supposed to be to her. Also, almost all of the dream sequences and uses of platforming were weak.
Still, I enjoyed the plot and would like to go back and play again to spend more time with different characters and see if that tweaks the ending.
Really enjoyed playing through this. The biggest downside was just how imbalanced the plot it. I wish it was more explicit about Mae's mental experience. By the end, I just had to take her actual anguish at her word, which was a bummer given how connected we're supposed to be to her. Also, almost all of the dream sequences and uses of platforming were weak.
Still, I enjoyed the plot and would like to go back and play again to spend more time with different characters and see if that tweaks the ending.
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
This game is great! Been watching my girlfriend play it. It is wonderful.
In regards to replayability:
I don't believe there are entirely different endings, however you do affect some aspects of it with your playthrough, and there is entirely different content that can happen on each playthrough depending on choices, so you would want to play through multiple times regardless.
Crash55118
Member
Just finished up.
Everything about the game was pretty amazing, the characterizations, the dialogue, and the general mood was excellent.
I enjoyed the ending - I think it wrapped up without leaving a sour note like Firewatch.
Everything about the game was pretty amazing, the characterizations, the dialogue, and the general mood was excellent.
I think Eide came after them because Mae is not that stable, and they were angry about Gregg shooting them in the first place, looks like Eide is the oldest in the cult and I think maybe has stuff against Mae, maybe is the old man living next door or maybe someone in the fucked up past of Mae.
Regarding the ending,
I'm still confused by a few things but, I get the whole idea of "Unwanted and Mandatory Change" the theme of the whole game is change or grow up, everything in the daily lives of the characters is changing, from Bruce who is going back to his family, to the new place for Angus and Gregg and the family situation of Bea, everything is changing and most of the time, they don't want to.
I think the cult is a metaphor of Mae, they are doing bad things and ignoring the present because they want "a greater good" and that situation leads to murder and changing nothing, that's pretty much an extreme of the Mae's initial attitude; you rather do stuff that actually facing problems. Be carefree and someday, in the future, things will get better.
I loved this game and all the representation of bad stuff that are actually real like a family struggling BUT they are not crying or depressed all the time, they are trying to hold up everything together for the family and not for the house, I think Mae suffers from dissociation, when she talks about everything losing the "meaning" and now they are nothing but "shapes" I think she had dissociation problems. Like she disconnects the being from the form
I can't remember any game where dissociation is present so THANKS
I think the cult is a metaphor of Mae, they are doing bad things and ignoring the present because they want "a greater good" and that situation leads to murder and changing nothing, that's pretty much an extreme of the Mae's initial attitude; you rather do stuff that actually facing problems. Be carefree and someday, in the future, things will get better.
I loved this game and all the representation of bad stuff that are actually real like a family struggling BUT they are not crying or depressed all the time, they are trying to hold up everything together for the family and not for the house, I think Mae suffers from dissociation, when she talks about everything losing the "meaning" and now they are nothing but "shapes" I think she had dissociation problems. Like she disconnects the being from the form
I can't remember any game where dissociation is present so THANKS
I loved NITW, please buy it
I beat this game over the weekend, and I love it so very much. I'm a sucker for strong characters, and Night in the Woods does a fantastic job of establishing character identities. The dialog is written such that I feel like I *know* what these characters sound like, I can hear the way their lines are delivered without any direction. I love the way it looks, sounds and feels. I can't wait for the soundtrack to come out, I'd love to score my workday with the lovely sounds of Possum Springs.
Furthermore,
gregg rulz ok
edit:
have some gorgeous, slightly Part 3-spoilery fan art
http://birbyarts.tumblr.com/post/157748228181/the-visuals-and-dialogues-in-night-in-the-woods
Furthermore,
gregg rulz ok
edit:
have some gorgeous, slightly Part 3-spoilery fan art
http://birbyarts.tumblr.com/post/157748228181/the-visuals-and-dialogues-in-night-in-the-woods
Regarding chapter 4,
It does auto-save after changing maps everytime. At least on PS4.
I wish the game would be more ambiguous about whether all the cult stuff really happened or not, that way I could take the whole incident as a metaphor, but as it stands it's hard not to dismiss all of Mae's issues as just "lol cosmic horror stuff" instead of genuine mental illness (which yes, I realize it's still the point of the game to portray, but having stuff like that be linked to it kind of undermines the intent). It's a pity because I found the portrayal of depression and dissociation pretty great before that...
It does auto-save after changing maps everytime. At least on PS4.
spookytapes
Neo Member
I finished the game last night. It's very very good.
I have some thoughts on the ending but I also think that I liked it a lot more than most of the people here. I personally did not feel the same "da fuq, really?" feeling I did at Firewatch, FWIW.
But I also basically lived this game being from a small depressing western PA town who dropped out of college in the city and came back home. I also have known Scott IRL for probably like 15 years at this point so... it makes sense that this would resonate with me and probably make me more forgiving of it. I think I would have liked it a ton regardless.
I do wish there was some sort of a "chapter select" or something after finishing because as much as I liked the game, there are some things I didn't get to do but going through the entire game again is kind of a big ask. I probably spent 10-12 hours playing the game and only got about 25% of the trophies and I felt like I was being pretty thorough. I guess I could probably blast through much much faster and just do the things I missed though.
I have some thoughts on the ending but I also think that I liked it a lot more than most of the people here. I personally did not feel the same "da fuq, really?" feeling I did at Firewatch, FWIW.
But I also basically lived this game being from a small depressing western PA town who dropped out of college in the city and came back home. I also have known Scott IRL for probably like 15 years at this point so... it makes sense that this would resonate with me and probably make me more forgiving of it. I think I would have liked it a ton regardless.
I do wish there was some sort of a "chapter select" or something after finishing because as much as I liked the game, there are some things I didn't get to do but going through the entire game again is kind of a big ask. I probably spent 10-12 hours playing the game and only got about 25% of the trophies and I felt like I was being pretty thorough. I guess I could probably blast through much much faster and just do the things I missed though.
Crash55118
Member
Really want a tshirt that just says "Crimes? Crimes."
It does auto-save at points. Luckily got saved from one situation where I said no to someone and there wasn't an option to take it back like usual thanks to this.
One of my favorite moments of the game.
Angus
you actually get the opportunity to hang out with him solo. Jumped on that as soon as the 3 options were given.
Yeah, I can imagine that game definitely hits certain notes much harder for different people. Being from a small town where my parents still live, going back to visit I get a lot of the same reaction to changes -- game was almost too real for me. God forbid the
good restaurant in town close down (unless it's replaced by an equally awesome taco place)!
Also agree on the replay bit; maybe its something they could patch in. Even a VN-style fast forward button would be great.
Would wear. Maybe one that just says 'Crimes' in the NitW font.
You have to be hanging out with Gregg all the time and not Bea so you go to the Donut place instead of the party
---
I saw one of the devs on twitter talking about removing Bea's cigarette from some scenes because it's always attached to her character.
That was
one of the main things stopping me attributing Mae's talking to the cosmic horror stuff and mental illness outside of her depression at school as hallucinations from the mine's gas. Because I kept expecting the cigarette to be a problem or for her to put the cigarette out before they got too deep and you'd have a reason that a group of 10 people in the depths of the earth think a hole is talking to them.
still really disappointed in the dream sequences
the aesthetic is fantastic the first few times you encounter them and when you see mae breaking up the town with a bat and the big scary bear the first time you really think there's going to be some deep symbolism in them, but its just a bunch of celestial looking animals and 4 weird band members that repeat over and over, and I can't get anything tying those animals to the dusk stars or the stars you look at with Angus. Who are those band members? Are the dreams supposed to be related to every night the cult murders someone?
I think we're meant to interpret
Mae talking about how she sees the world and everyone as "just shapes" as everyone being super stylized animal people, as they seem to have a completely normal society with normal animals like pet cats and squirrels and characters like gregg and the lizards and birds are made up of incredibly simple geometry.
More praise and adoration for the notebook when I looked back at it again. She draws that doodle of Gregg being ok or happy or sad or whatever that looks samey on like 20 pages of the journal just like how I used to draw samey doodles almost every day when i was a depressed highschool senior / college kid about to drop out. Just enough art to feel expressive but just noncommital enough to fuel and be fueled by depression..
Reading this, I think
it doesn't matter where you go. I went with Bae and still found them.
Bae's party: While dancing go to the right at some point, and... yeah, you will see. The third one comes naturally I think.
Bae's party: While dancing go to the right at some point, and... yeah, you will see.
The third one comes naturally I think.Here's my review of the game...
12. Night in the Woods
~8 Hours
+ The artstyle is very cool
+ Some of the characters are gold, first and foremost Gregg & Angus. Gregg Rulez ok. Same goes for Mae's parents.
+ The humour can be veeery quirky at times, it hits mostly, though
+ The day to day stories range from emotional, funny to interesting.
+ The notebook is a nice way of denoting your progress both in the main story, but also all the other random stuff you encounter.
+ The game has a game in a game and a fake Computer interface. That's amazing no matter how you slice it.
o The music while not outstanding is fitting and a nice backdrop. Sound effects and the like are great, though.
- Mae can be very annoying, which in itself is not much of a problem. If you give me dialogue options though and I can choose between "You suck" and "Youuuuuu suck!", there is a certain disconnect. One party scene in particular made me vomit.
- I am sick of ambiguity in these types of indie games... to a certain degree.
- The calender system just like in Persona can get on my nerves at times and put the game into an unnecessary rigid corset.
3/5
Regarding this question in particular,
if you manage to unite the two people in town playing instruments in present day, you'll wind up getting more background information about the dream band. It appears that they used to be a 4-piece band that actually lived in Possum Springs waaaay back in the day, very talented but apparently at some point they all went kind of crazy, went out into the woods to build the bandstands that you find them at in Mae's dreams, and eventually all died of exposure.
I find it turns into a pretty relevant point because Mae doesn't learn about the existence of this band until long after she's started having the dreams in which they appear, meaning they're not just something her mind conjured up out of nowhere. It's proof that outside of Mae's own issues, there really -is- something larger going on and lends some credence to the idea that there really is some connection between Mae and whatever's in the mine.
I find it turns into a pretty relevant point because Mae doesn't learn about the existence of this band until long after she's started having the dreams in which they appear, meaning they're not just something her mind conjured up out of nowhere. It's proof that outside of Mae's own issues, there really -is- something larger going on and lends some credence to the idea that there really is some connection between Mae and whatever's in the mine.
Knowing from the ending what I know now, I'm looking forward more and more to going back for a second playthrough, not just for scenes I missed the first time around but also with new context to view some of the major stuff.
I want to pay more attention to the story of Possum Springs' founding, as it seems the Witch's curse might have been something real after all. Also want to review the dream sequences, maybe stuff like the town-on-a-train will make a little more sense another time through.
Demoskinos
Member
Can anyone help me with the
dream sequence after you go with greg and knife fight and talk about his depression in the woods? I CANNOT find this 4th band member and it is KILLING the flow of the game for me.
Its almost always four corners? Might be something you're not realizing you can jump up onto or jump down from.
All of those segments were incredibly samey and didn't have any hard jumps so you're not missing any dexterity or agility challenges
Demoskinos
Member
I found it literally after I posted that. Ran around for a good 10 minutes though. Only part of the game i'm not enjoying. Fantastic otherwise.