Lists of characters of A Light In The Dark.
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The Three Main Characters
The Player Character
Hao-Chen Jiang
- "Find someone else to vent to. I have nothing to do with your misfortune."
- The Many Deaths of You: He dies in the "Choose Death", "Parallel Line", and "Same Warmth" endings.
- A Match Made in Stockholm: If you follow a peaceful route, he will begin to empathize with the kidnappers through understanding and learns that they are by no means evil, but rather, people born poor, desperately trying to stay alive in a cruel world. Eventually, in "A Light in the Dark" ending, he promises to help the poor and is entrusted with the well-being of the young girl by the mysterious girl, her older sister, before she commits suicide for the sake of her younger sister.
- Player Character: You play as the hostage throughout the story, and you will need to figure out how to escape from the kidnappers.
- Survivor Guilt: In the "Indelible Mark" ending, he manages to untie himself with a shard of a broken glass and escapes by attacking the mysterious girl, killing her in the process. However, he becomes traumatized for the rest of his life as his memory of the young girl begging him to save her older sister keeps haunting him even after the event.
The Mysterious Girl
Mysterious Girl / I-Yu Huang
- "The world is just unfair. Isn't that your favourite line?"
- The Many Deaths of You: She gets killed in the "Indelible Mark" ending, and she commits suicide in the "New Beginning" and "A Light In The Dark" endings.
- Doomed Protagonist: Initially, there's no way you can save her in all the endings, and the best thing you can do is to befriend her and take care of her younger sister after she commits suicide in the best outcome. However, a new ending has been added in a later update, allowing you to save her.
- Driven to Suicide: In "New Beginning" and "A Light In The Dark" endings, the mysterious girl is nowhere to be found because she committed suicide with sleep pills.
- Heroic Sacrifice: As revealed in "A Light in the Dark" ending, it turns out the reason why she commits suicide is so her younger sister can receive welfare payments, and she entrusts her younger sister's well-being to Hao-Chen before committing suicide in that ending.
- Interrupted Suicide: In the hidden ending added in a later update, you can actually prevent her from commiting suicide.
- Lima Syndrome: If you spend time gaining her trust and understanding her situation, she will warm up to Hao-Chen and eventually let him leave peacefully in the "New Beginning" ending, or even entrust her younger sister's well-being to Hao-Chen in "A Light In The Dark" ending.
- No Name Given: Her name is not mentioned throughout the entire game. However, in the official novelization, her younger sister tells Hao-Chen that her real name is I-Yu.
- Parental Abandonment: Her father abandoned the family after he accumulated numerous amount of debts, and her mother has committed suicide due to being broken by her work and the debt collection attempts.
- Tragic Villain: As it turns out, the reason why she kidnaps Hao-Chen is because her father has accumulated numerous amount of debts and abandoned the family, and her mother has committed suicide due to being broken by her work and the debt collection attempts. She and her younger sister are being harassed by a cruel debt collector. As a result, she kidnaps you in a desperate attempt to pay the debt.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to the young girl's Blue Oni, she has a rather aggressive personality compared to her younger sister.
The Young Girl
Young Girl / I-Ling Huang
Click here to see the grown up Young Girl.
- "I never thought... we'd be the bad guys in the story."
- Please Wake Up: In the "Indelible Mark" ending, shortly after Hao-Chen attacks the mysterious girl, she yells at Hao-Chen and begs him to save her older sister. It falls on deaf ears as he leaves.
- Parental Abandonment: Her father has abandoned the family after he accumulated numerous amount of debts, and her mother has committed suicide due to being broken by her work and the debt collecting attempts.
- The Reveal: Her real name is revealed to be I-Ling Huang, and as it turns out, she's the younger sister of the mysterious girl.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to the mysterious girl's Red Oni, she is quiet compared to her older sister.
- She's All Grown Up: Four years after the kidnapping event in "A Light In The Dark" ending, she has grown up, is wearing a new coat, and is trying to catch up with society.
- Sole Survivor: She winds up becoming the last living person in her family, after her older sister has committed suicide for the sake of her well-being. This changes in "A Light in the Dark" ending, where Hao-Chen becomes her caretaker. Averted in the hidden ending, where her older sister is saved by Hao-Chen.
Other Characters
Ms. Wang
Ms. Wang
The co-worker of the mysterious girl's mother.- Mr. Exposition: She explains the background of the mysterious girl, filling up the last piece of the puzzle.
- Walking Spoiler: She is only met in the "A Light in the Dark" ending, as the mysterious girl will only give you Ms. Wang's contact number if you're on good terms on her and have tried to understand her.
Spoiler Character
Mr. Ken
The man behind the kidnapping incident.- Karma Houdini: He doesn't get punished for his crime, and the police investigation team only treat the kidnapping as a regular abduction incident.
- The Ghost: He never appears in person.
- The Man Behind the Man: He's the person behind the kidnapping incident, and he's the mastermind who manipulated the girls to kidnap Hao-Chen.
- Walking Spoiler: His existence becomes a huge spoiler for the whole kidnapping incident, and is only mentioned by the mysterious girl in the "A Light In The Dark" ending. Hao-Chen's mother has an affair with Mr. Ken, and Ken tells the mysterious girl Hao-Chen's information. Apparently Hao-Chen's mother always likes to cry about her family every time she gets drunk, and Ken takes advantage of the whole situation, which eventually leads to the kidnapping.
