Little Nightmares & Little Nightmares 2
Little Nightmares (2017)
"A nine-year-old hungry girl named Six tries to escape The Maw - a surreal underwater resort catering to the whims of the power of sick fictional creatures."
- IMDB Synopsis
What's so unique about Little Nightmares is it's use of story telling. It takes a page out games like Limbo and Inside in the fact that it has great story telling given through audio and visuals only, without any use of words or dialogue to literally spell anything out. Games like this take advantage of the absence of dialogue or notes to keep players interested so we explore more and play the game to the end in hopes for answers and insight. With Little Nightmares, there is plenty of visual symbolism throughout - the shoes, Six's size difference with the world, the eye, Porcelain Face Lady, the fat monsters. The setting is still unclear somewhat. Thanks to the camera, physics, and a moment outside, we know we're on some boat or floating structure of some kind. But why? It seems we're given so much information based on what we see, but so much thought and analysis is needed to piece the puzzle together. And I love that.
The gameplay revolved around platforming and puzzle solving, and while tricky at times, it's pretty straight forward. The physics of this game is as fun as physics can be in any game, and is implemented well with gameplay. There are also fun physics moments where objects will move to the sway of the boat you're in, which is really appreciated detail.
The graphics and art style of Little Nightmares is beautiful. The world design is beautiful to look at and the enemy designs were disgusting and ugly while Six and the little gnomes were adorable. I would say the art style follows a surrealist world design. Everything just seems so warped and crooked. Music was eerie and beautiful and mostly played during important moments. The iconic hum lullaby gets louder as the game goes on, hinting at Six's evolution by the end of the game.
The camera did a good a job of hinting important aspects of any puzzle and also had a bit of a sway to give that feeling of being on a boat. Sometimes it's hard to tell where you're walking and instead of going straight, you walk diagonally off a platform into the abyss. This was due to awkward camera angles and an unfortunate circumstance of 3D motion with a 2D perspective. Although the 3D-2D combo really help to add some depth of field and was a nice stylistic aspect to the game.
The ending of this game is truly iconic. You go through the whole game thinking your this innocent little gnome child trying to escape the evil giants from the oversized world around her. That's only partially true. Turns out Six was as evil as everyone else. The pure shock of seeing Six eat the little gnome friend who tried to give her food surprises even those who saw it coming as Six got progressively more carnivorous. But as someone who has seen the ending a few times now, seeing Six walk down that dining hall sucking the lives of all the fat monsters is still both as eerie and epic as seeing it for the first time.
Who was the porcelain face lady? Why was she humming the theme? What powers did she have and did Six absorb them and how? What was her connection to Six to begin with, if any? What species is Six and why was she the only one like her? What species was everything else? Is anybody even human? So many questions just left to interpretation and that's a huge attractive feature to the series because nothing is handed to us through lore, it's a whole mystery, and it's such a unique aspect to the Little Nightmares franchise.
My Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Little Nightmares 2 (2021)
"Little Nightmares II is a suspense-adventure game in which you play as Mono, a young boy trapped in a world that has been distorted by the humming transmission of a distant tower."
- IMDB Synopsis
Little Nightmares 2 sees a return of elements from the first game, like game play, physics, art style, graphics, and the silent way the story is told through only visuals. While the first game did so well with these elements, camera and motion were wonky at times and lead to frustrating deaths. These camera and motion issues were polished with the sequel, so it was a basically perfect game. There was also a couple new welcoming features such as the swinging weapon mechanic, teamwork with Six, and adorable hat collectables to find for Mono.
Something that deserves its own shout out is the audio design. Music is as chilling as it was in the first game, and the the first game also did a good job with audio design given the prominent visual aspect with these games. But Little Nightmares 2 did it so much better some how. You're not playing the game right if you're not wearing headphones. The way you can hear disturbing noises of hidden foes from three rooms away raises the intensity and suspense.
Again, the visual design of the world was the only clues as to what is happening with the story and the world. I liked how we saw an expansion of the world as the game started on land before transitioning to the floating island. There was no camera sway, so I'm assuming it's completely different form the boat we found Six in in the previous installment.
Speaking of Six, the twist that Mono was travelling with Six the whole time was a jaw dropper, even if you suspected it before. This doesn't just confirm the sequel as a true prequel, but we also see more hints of how demented Six really is. I mean, can we talk about her warming her hands by the flames of the burning corpse? And so many more questions are presented to us about her too, as if we didn't have any lingering after the first game. Why did that guy have her locked in the basement? Does her bloodlust develop from similar times in imprisonment? Where do Mono and Six come form? Are they from the same place?
And the biggest question: why did Six abandon Mono like that? I get it if her murderous tendencies are derived for vengeance against the "bigger people." But if that were the case, why leave him behind that way, especially after what they went through together? Whatever the case may be, Little Nightmares has once again left us one heck of a cliffhanger that we will be thinking about for a long time.
I hear that Little Nightmares has come to end, which is disappointing because this is a horror game franchise that could possibly rival that of Five Night's At Freddy's, in terms of convoluted story at least. Not only do we still have so many unanswered questions, but Little Nightmares 2 conjured a theory that I've been pondering to myself for a while.
My theory, which may never be confirmed or debunked, is that Mono and Six, and possibly others, semi represents the Seven Sins. Six represents Gluttony - she was hungry the whole game, encountered fat gluttonous monsters, and after eating Porcelain Face lady, Six consumed the souls (?) of all the beings she passed. Mono represent Sloth - his whole gimmick was a television, the freaky people we see are glued to their television or to the weird satellite tower, and Mono ends up sucked onto the TV land and sits on a chair for who knows how long before becoming the Tall Man.
Is my theory to far fetched, or do I have a point? All I know is that I wish there were more installments, not just because of the unique experience these games provide, but I'd love to see if my theory has any validity.
My Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆