Perhaps the most contentious point of discussion regarding Little Hope, the latest installment of The Dark Pictures Anthology, is the trope that each of its endings falls under: “It Was All A Dream.” In this case, it may be more accurate to say, “It was all a product of psychosis” befalling the emotionally traumatized main character, Anthony. Regardless, many players reacted to this plot point with frustration: The element of choice is rendered pointless! Nothing that takes place is actually real! While I typically would agree with these sentiments (I’m not the biggest proponent of this particular trope and can see the glaring flaws that come with it), I couldn’t help but feel that the ending was actually the perfect narrative conclusion to Little Hope.
Little Hope immediately encourages players to ask questions about what is actually happening. Why does the main cast of characters resemble the family killed during the house fire at the beginning of the game? Where is the bus driver? Is Mary evil or innocent? This element of uncertainty and fear of the unknown intertwines with the plot’s source material: The Witch Trials of the 1600s. Suddenly, the players are the paranoid townsfolk, uncertain of what is real and what isn’t. The stakes are high for the cast of characters—The Curator ominously warns that the choices players make will determine whether they escape the nightmare, or suffer a fate “worse than death.” Players are pressured to quickly jump to whichever conclusion will protect the characters, just as the troubled townsfolk of Little Hope try to find a solution to the perceived witchcraft taking place.
The actual Salem Witch Trials inherently hold a great deal of mystery that has made them so interesting to often reexamine. The social and political agendas that influenced the trials are clear in retrospect, but the notion that people could be driven to such extremes based on hearsay and lack of evidence has made them such an interesting topic in history. Little Hope plays with this idea in a very clever way. It never explicitly defines whether the plot is approaching the trials the way that the people of the 1600s experienced it—that witchcraft actually was transpiring—or in the way, we look back on the Witch Trials now—that the townsfolk of Little Hope were being influenced by insidious falsehoods.
Instead, Little Hope leads players to come up with their own conclusions of how the Witch Trials are taking place through multiple timelines. The system of “Secrets” and clues littered throughout the town allow the player to uncover the puzzle on their own. When the clues are observed together, there are lines drawn between each to demonstrate how they may connect to one another—for example, the “Poppet” clue will have a line drawn to the “History of Paganism Book” clue, with the text, “Poppets are a focus for sympathetic magic.”
But what exactly does that mean? Mary holds a poppet throughout the game. Megan’s doll catches fire and starts the house fire during the prologue. Were either of them being influenced by magic? Is this just a coincidence? Little Hope doesn’t give you an answer to these questions, but it gives you the room (and additional clues) to come up with your own conclusions.
One of the last clues that can be found is at the end of the game in the ruined house, which is revealed to be the very house that burned down at the beginning of the game. The clue, a key found in a grandfather clock, is the same key that Megan is shown to be holding right before the fire broke out. The position of this clue is unique when looking at it with every other clue, because it is the only clue that doesn’t have lines that link it to any other, and reads, “The remains of an old grandfather clock, an old key is hidden inside.”
It can be argued that the key being in the grandfather clock reflects the fact that Megan never actually had it to begin with, thus eliminating the argument that she intentionally set the house on fire to kill her family. On the other hand, it can be argued that the key was “hidden” in the clock by Megan, after locking her mother in the bathroom and the rest of the family inside and starting the fire. Players aren’t given the answer either way, but it causes you to think about the rest of the evidence that you’ve discovered, and draw your own conclusion. This conclusion can ultimately decide for players whether they believe that witchcraft is taking place—that Megan was possessed by the dark figure that appears next to her just before the fire starts—or that all of the events transpiring are the result of a tragic accident.
This is further emphasized by the flashbacks that take place throughout the game. Each of the main cast’s doubles genuinely do appear to be innocent as they are condemned to death by the testimonies of Mary and Reverend Carver. While it may seem obvious to some that Reverend Carver is the mastermind behind executions, and that he is manipulating Mary to achieve some sort of ulterior goal, there are also instances in which Mary seems to be demonstrating sinister behavior. She smiles on multiple occasions after successfully duping the townsfolk into performing the executions, even so far as grinning as she watches her sister burned at the stake. Could both of them be evil? Could both be innocent?
Mary’s fate ultimately determines the ending that players reach. While the endings vary in what happens to Anthony, they each link back to the general idea that Anthony is suffering from hallucinations of his deceased family that did actually die in a house fire at the beginning of the game. But is it really that simple?
Some would argue that yes, it is that simple, and that the journey is essentially pointless because it’s all a dream. But the nature of the ending doesn’t eliminate many of the unexplainable aspects of the game. The secrets and the clues still exist. The evidence that points to the occult still exists. The mystery behind the town of Little Hope still exists. The strange, dark figure with claws that appears next to Megan before the house fire still exists. The key in the grandfather clock exists. Why would all of these aspects exist if the answer was that Anthony is simply crazy?
Could it be more that the characters Daniel, Taylor, John, and Angela are trapped in a purgatory that exists in Little Hope? Is the town of Little Hope its own universe in itself, similar to Silent Hill? Is Anthony actually suffering from mental disorders triggered by the emotional trauma of the past, or is there something more sinister taking place?
Little Hope is a game that leaves more questions than it does answers, and while that can be frustrating, it works well for a choice-based narrative. It beckons you to revisit the events and make different choices. It encourages players to spot that one subtle clue missed in an initial play through that completely alters the way you look at the story. I’ve replayed it over 5 times now, and I still find myself looking at the events differently when I reexamine certain cutscenes or certain clues. Just like the Salem Witch Trials, there is no easy answer about what happened. There will always be a significant element of mystery and tragedy attached to it, and the journey to the end leaves you paranoid and uncertain.
While the ending is vague, it maintains that sense of mystery, and leaves players with questions about how it all happened in the first place.
source https://bloody-disgusting.com/video-games/3647034/exploring-divisive-ending-dark-pictures-little-hope/
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