This game has its share of tear-shedding moments.
This page contains unmarked spoilers for the full release of the game! Beware!
- The main menu music is quite melancholic, as if the game is telling us we're in for a dark ride.
- The first time you stumble upon the Princess in the cabin (unless you take the Stranger route first). It's clear how tired and lonesome she is after waiting for someone to save her after so long. Doesn't help if you decide to slay her, especially if you backstab her.
- The Damsel route is mostly heartwarming... but to get there, the Princess has to stab you multiple times after the Narrator takes over your body. All the while, she's apologizing and crying out "I'm sorry!" over and over. By the time you finally succumb to blood loss, she's sobbing and cradling you as you die.
- Also happens if you stab her during Chapter II. She's still smiling, even with tears running down her face, the Narrator noting that her eyes show utter terror. The Voice of the Smitten beyond consolation at your actions, distraught and furious as he takes the knife to kill you. And there's nothing you or The Narrator can do to stop him. For one of the more jovial voices, it's heartrending seeing him break down so badly.
- For added heartstring pulling, when the Damsel resurfaces in the Long Quiet's confrontation with the Shifting Mound, from her perspective the Hero is crying as she repeatedly stabs him.The Damsel: Your Lover drives a stake into your body. And another, and another, and another. Do I miss your heart because I can't stand to see it go?
- The deconstructed version follows this up with a sobering summary of how the relationship fell apart.The Damsel: Love melted into skepticism, and you pulled back layer after layer after layer until all you were left with was the knowledge that you did not know me. You sought the truth then. Will you hide from it now that it is within your grasp?
- The Thorn route is this before it can become heartwarming. She is painted in blood drawn by the thorns that encircle her. And even though she's clearly in pain and miserable, it takes persistent coaxing to get her to let you take the blade to cut her free. The loops have clearly taken a toll, leaving her downtrodden and exhausted without hope.
- How did the Princess wind up in such a state? When you gave the Witch your Pristine Blade as a sign of trust, and she almost immediately stabbed you with it. At first, she brags about how she got you before you could betray her again, only to slowly realize that you were sincere. The sheer horror of the realization that she betrayed you at your most vulnerable breaks her, transforming her into the repentant (if drained of hope) Thorn.
- If you don't communicate the intention to help her early upon re-encountering her, she will refuse to hand you back the blade to free her; leaving you with no other option but to walk away.
- The Nightmare/Moment of Clarity route of all things is a major tearjerker, as during the Mind Rape sequence you see the Princess's constant cycle of death and rebirth.
- When she removes her mask, you see her shed a Single Tear. It is also the moment when it comes clear that the Psychotic Smirk she has been flashing you all this time is actually a Broken Smile.
- When the Nightmare removed her mask, she wanted the Player to see her innermost self, in hope that he would understand her feelings. The Shifting Mound can show you this moment from her perspective
- the way she reaches out towards the horrified player with her free hand suggests not fury, but dismay. The Shifting Mound talks about the Nightmare as lonely and only wanting companionship but only knowing how to hurt. Possibly as a result of the isolating experience of so many lifetimes alone. - When the Player reacts with pure fear and revulsion after she removes the mask with it driving him, the Voices, and the Narrator absolutely insane.
- As the Moment of Clarity, she puts the mask back on before you can see her again, likely out of shame due to the fact it broke the Player. Cracked though it might be, she didn't want the Player to see her face again.
- What's even heartbreaking is that she is so desperate for any affection from the Player, she spends an eternity tormenting and abusing him in deeply misguided attempts to show her affections.
- Both parties were broken by the mask removal, the Player's mind and the Nightmare's heart.
- And possibly the Narrator, too. In another route he coolly tells the Player that he'd happily condemn the two to endless torture to spare infinite people the terror of death, but here he's actually seeing what it's like for them. His death may involve a degree of My God, What Have I Done?.
- The Wild is a route where the Princess and the Hero are Sharing a Body and are able to regard their past mutual grievances without enmity. The Princess can sense that this is how they're supposed to be, but by focusing on the ways they've hurt each other, the player can tear free of her, turning her into the Wounded Wild — a Princess with her chest torn-open, fused with a tree. You can cut her out of it, but there's not much left of her to cut out. Just before the Shifting Mound claims her as another vessel, she says that it's cold, as most Princess variants do when they're collected. But the Wounded Wild weeps as she says it, what's left of her completely helpless in your hands."It's... so cold without you."
- ...and that's not even counting that you still have the option to slay the Wounded Wild. With all of the voices, and especially the Hero, not really wanting to do it at all. It's mostly the Narrator urging you on. And the Princess just gives one last apology before the Shifting Mound claims her.
- The realization that the Wild is right. Sharing a Body is how the Hero and the Princess are supposed to be, because they used to be that way, each of them being the Literal Split Personalities of the same being. And whatever the Creator did to render that original being asunder has only worked far too well. The Split-Personality Merge that the Wild offers is powerful, but is only ever going to be temporarily. The two halves, the Shift Mound and the Long Quiet, have had their fundamental natures changed too much for the rift the Creator created to ever be completely mended and are doomed to drift back to individual existence again.The Shifting Mound: Though that was us before we were us, there is no turning back. For all the Echo's delusion, he still managed to reshape reality itself, though he could not destroy what could not be destroyed. We are intertwined, but we are separate.
- The Spectre is one of the friendlier Chapter II Princesses. She's not happy about having been killed, but cares more about being free, or "going home" as she calls it — she doesn't remember who or what she actually is but knows she's supposed to be out there, part of things. Intangible as she is she's searched everywhere she can reach, even behind the walls, and has concluded that the only way out is with the player's help. Help her, and she's grateful even to an unrepentant killer. Leave her behind and she panics.But if you're just leaving me then...Then I'm really just going to be stuck here forever. Th-There's nothing I can do, it's just going to go on and on and on and on, lonely and sad and hurting and empty. No... Nnnno. Not that.
- The Stranger route happens when you refuse to go to the cabin altogether in Chapter I, which results in the infinite cabins appearing before the world collapses. When you finally meet the Princess in Chapter II, she initially appears as either a gentle person, a snooty one, or a nondescript one, and each time you speak to her, a new Princess will appear. When you make a choice to make multiple decisions at once, the reality will collapse, and the five Princesses will merge into one, but the result will be a horribly misshapen amalgamation of all five Princesses, all of whom will be left mortified by what they have become. Left scared, confused and hurt, all they could do is to helplessly ask you to help them in some way or form. Even the Voice of the Contrarian, who normally doesn't take anything seriously, comes to regret what his actions turned the Princess into, dropping his contrarian attitude and sincerely stating that you should help her, acknowledging that it's his fault that they've become that way. And no matter what you say to her, the Shifting Mound's arms will take her away before you'll get to know whether or not she heard your response.
- Near the final endings in the Cabin, both the player and the Voice of the Hero can express sadness at the Narrator's demise. Despite all the hell he causes you, the pair can't help but feel conflicted, since he's been with you from the beginning. If you started the game with the Stranger's route, the Voice of the Contrarian will be there too, but much less mocking that he usually is and he will express sincere sadness that the Narrator's is no longer there be it only because without him, there is nobody left to make fun off.
- While ultimately heartwarming the " And? What happens next?' ending is still sad in aspects, as the Player parts ways with his voices.
- The whole loop the Narrator created has caused endless suffering for the Hero and Princess. The worst part of it all is that he genuinely believes that this is saving everyone. His saving everyone is putting them into eternal stagnation, one they most likely never wanted or asked for.
- In certain conditions inside the final cabin, the Voice of the Hero and the Contrarian will have a discussion about throwing the pristine blade out of the window, with the latter going against it because it's not funny if he does it again. "What's the third beat?" Well, if you bring the blade down into the basement, the Princess will tell you the answer: since the Construct follows the rule of a narrative, if you bring the knife you must use it — either to let the Princess kill you and reset the loop, or to kill the Princess permanently.Voice of the Hero: (voice cracking like he's trying to not cry) There's your third beat.
Voice of the Contrarian: Hey! You're right. There it is. (with a tone of slow realization) Can't say it's very funny though. - "You're on a path in the woods" ending, before the Princess stabs the Player to restart the loop, the Player can tell her "I love you". She ends up bursting into tears saying "I love you too!" before burying the blade into his heart.
- The "Just as you once were nothing" ending. To trigger it, you need to repeatedly refuse to enter the cabin during chapter 2. Each time, the Shifting Mound will react with bewilderment as she can do nothing without being brought a vessel. She rages against the player that she hates him, pleads with him, falls into melancholy, before finally accepting it as both she and the player fade away. Into nothing.
