In a game filled with heavy amounts of gore and dark sexual undertones, this is the only thing censored.
Remember, this is a Black Comedy game!
This page contains unmarked spoilers for the full release of the game! Beware!
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General
General
- The first trailer
has an amusing bit of Early-Installment Weirdness where the Princess can hear the Narrator's orders to the Player. Naturally, she doesn't take the premise of killing her very well.
Narrator: You're here to slay her.
Princess: (Wide eyed shock) Wait, what?!
Narrator: If you don't, it will be the end of the world.
Princess: N-now hold on a second! Don't you listen to him! What did I ever do to you?
Narrator: She will do everything in her power to stop you.
Princess: Well, yeah! I don't want to die! - The Narrator can become wonderfully petulant if you keep refusing him and cause situations that forces him to describe something he doesn't want. Very often, it's in situations where you're supporting the Princess and helping her."I can't believe you just made me say that. I hate you."
- At the start of all the Second Chapters, you can ask the Narrator if there's any point continuing if the world keeps looping, which results in him mockingly repeating the question in a dull, nasal, high-pitched voice. It's just such a hilariously jarring clash with his otherwise dignified demeanor.
- The Voices, Narrator, and occasionally even the Princess get into long-winded bouts of Seinfeldian Conversation, sometimes with dozens of lines. There's many, MANY moments of snark, sarcasm, references, and hindsight thrown in, far too many to list.
- When venturing into the basement, the Narrator describes the stairs in a tense, intent tone of voice. Usually they're pretty ominous. But he always then says a cheerful, flippant "If the Princess lives here, slaying her is probably doing her a favor!", which is often Mood Whiplash.
- Even better is if his description of a basement does not sound too unpleasant to live in, such as the Damsel & the Tower's basements (with the former being pretty ornate, with gold-trimmed carpets and beautiful torches, and the latter giving off an impression of a well-made shrine, with the pleasant smell of incense), he'll still clarify that it's a stone basement anyway, just to justify his claim that slaying her will still be doing her a favor.
- Whenever you progress to Chapter II, a mirror will appear in the cabin, but the Narrator will act like it isn't here, and will deny its existence when asked about. One of the responses you could make about addressing the mirror will be to say that you want to look into it and see how handsome you are. And every time, the Voice of the Hero will point out that you shouldn't waste time preening before addressing the Narrator's refusal to speak about it.
- Once you've played the "Princess and the Dragon" chapter and know what the lead character actually looks like and that he's actually very large and imposing, smaller Princesses like most Chapter One variants and the Prisoner being able to contend with or overpower him take a different context.
- Amusingly the Clown Princess that can be found in the files is, after a fashion, official, as it led to the Princess getting themed cards in Balatro.
- The Pristine Cut added a Memory Gallery menu that displays hints to interesting actions you can take. Each of the game's chapters is noted by a chibi icon of its corresponding vessel. Not only does this make already-cute vessels even cuter, it takes the edge off some of the more hostile vessels. For example, the Den has a Playful Cat Smile, and the Adversary is flipping the viewer off, just like she can in her chapter.
Achievements
- The 2023 Demo has "NOPE!", which features a picture of you Flipping the Bird at the cabin.
- The icon for "That which cannot die cannot die" has the you clasping hands with the Adversary like the infamous "Epic Handshake" meme from Predator.
- "Opossum", which you get by playing dead around the Beast, features a picture of an opossum looking at the camera. Doubles as Company Cross-References because said opossum is Dustin from the developers' other game.
- "And they lived happily ever after" features a picture of you sketching the Damsel Princess' Stylistic Suck form with little hearts around her. View it at full size and you can even see "Mr The Princess" written all over the notebook sheet.
- The icon for "A new and unending dawn, and everyone hates you" uses the same picture of a sun as the regular "A new and unending dawn" achievement, but with an angry face drawn on it.
- The achievement where you take the Adversary up on her offer for a free shot at her heart is called "That shouldn't have worked."
Developers and Cast
- The developers and cast did a stream of the game
on December 16 2023, in which Black Tabby Games reused a setup that a librarian had made on their behalf for a Scarlet Hollow stream. Mostly this was fine, but a mutant deer was part of the frame and couldn't be removed - so for the stream they re-positioned Nichole Goodnight's avatar over the deer's head and neck, making a Damsel-centaur.
- They then joked that "centaur princess" was one of the variants missing from the game, as was "clown princess", only to retract this as they feel the Razor counts as a clown.
- When the developers walked away from the cabin at the start, The Narrator berated them for doing so on stream:Narrator: All these people came here to watch you slay The Princess, and you're not doing it!
- The Narrator got another dig in later when the devs decided to romance the Thorn. At a pivotal decision point, the devs noted that their chat was demanding they choose the option to kiss the Princess, leading the Narrator to complain that "Chat is weak."
- The devs decided against streaming the Adversary route because the Voice of the Stubborn is hard on Jonathan Sims' throat, and obviously while reading things in real time he doesn't get to take breaks. However, they then played the Nightmare route, for which - without the help of looping - he decided to maintain the Voice of the Paranoid's Survival Mantra, chanting it constantly and even in between the lines he read for the Voice of the Hero and the Narrator. This was then followed by the Moment of Clarity, in which all the Voices appear. And later, they did the Razor route, which also features all of the Voices. This is less hard??
- As a punch line to this, when the devs reached the point in the Razor route where the protagonist shuts all the voices out of his mind, they dubbed the prompt the "give Johnny a break" button.
- During the final route, the journey to the cabin was interrupted by the news that the game had won Player's Choice at the Horror Game Awards. The voice actors then made a brief Running Gag of inserting the words "award-winning" into the game's dialogue.
- Nichole Goodnight
sometimes streams the game and rereads her lines in perfect synch with herself. The dev and cast noted in their collective stream that she can just do this, re-say the lines perfectly.
- The devs have said that if the Princess was a band it would be called Shifty and the Vessels. To commemorate the "End of Everything" update, they released a piece of art in which the Long Quiet is conducting the Adversary on violin, the Nightmare on vocals, the Spectre on cello, the Witch on French horn, and the Damsel on triangle. Then they put this on some merch and advertised it with the Damsel wearing an oversized T-shirt
.
- There was a "deep lore reveal
" on April 1st in which the Long Quiet told the Princess his name was Gary.
The Princess: No. I'm not calling you that. Sigh. What month is it? What day? - In April 2024, the devs put out a player survey. If someone attempted to choose more than one Princess while answering the question "Who was your favorite Princess?", they would get the message
"Quit it, Smitten. You have to pick a favorite."
- Streaming for Ludonarracon, Abby showed off her drawing process and made something original that was not a spoiler for the Pristine Cut - a Chapter 2 Princess called The Clown
.
But it's too late now, isn't it? Some things, when honked, can never be unhonked. Everything goes dark, and you're pied.- Even better, the chain holding The Clown? It's made of tied-off balloons forming chain links!
- The day before releasing the Pristine Cut, the developers and cast streamed together again
.
- While praising the voice actress who sang in some of the soundtracks, the composer Brandon talked about her "gripping and ripping
". Everyone else paused to be surprised and confused by this phrase he'd dropped as if it was common parlance. For the rest of the stream it kept coming back as a Running Gag.
- Nichole doesn't like Scooby Doo (the character) which shocked everyone. Matt, on the other hand, likes Scrappy Doo for his "energy".
- The Dragon Ball tangents, which include "Who would win, the Princess or Goku
?"
Matt: This is entirely dependent on the information that Goku is given in advance. If he's told that she's very dangerous he'll probably think that she is very dangerous and in his hunt for a perfect opponent just keep finding an equal. Like, I'm saying Goku would be stuck on the Adversary, but the Adversary becomes like a hyper-dimensional being who can shatter reality with a punch.
Abby: Tony has been yearning for this since Day One.- This leads to him saying that the Princess "edges" Goku and this is thrilling to him, and backpedaling since "edges" has another meaning. Everyone then teases him and brings up gripping and ripping.
- While praising the voice actress who sang in some of the soundtracks, the composer Brandon talked about her "gripping and ripping
- After the release of the Pristine Cut, one user in Black Tabby Games' Discord server commented that they couldn't believe the player managed to kiss the Thorn during her route, given the shape of the Opportunist's Slasher Smile in The Princess and the Dragon suggests the Long Quiet has a huge beak. This prompted Abby to post her own diagram
◊ showing how it would worknote , helpfully labelled as "(not Word of God)".
- It’s also both sweet and hilarious just what a happy, goofy expression he has while she’s doing it.
- The short video "Witch Doesn't Want to Take A Bath"
.
Witch: Nononono, wait, wait, wait! We can talk about this, look! I can clean myself just fine! I am a cat, after all. You wouldn't soak a defenseless kitty, especially not one that already cleaned herself so thoroughly, would you!?
(In response the Hero whips out a bottle of pet shampoo)
Witch: (slowly backing away) W-what would be the point!? '(silly mumbling)
(cut to the outside of the cabin as the subtitles read "[totally normal bathing sounds]" over the Witch screaming) - While streaming the Pristine Cut, Nichole Goodnight disagrees that the Long Quiet looks scary and in fact says he's hot
.
Chapter I
- In the initial discussion with the Narrator, you can ask if he's considered if you want the world to end. The narrator, shocked, replies that obviously he didn't think anyone would be in favor of the world being destroyed.
- One dialogue option involves wondering how the Princess has been eating if she's not seen anyone for ages. Both the Princess and Narrator insist that that's not relevant and you shouldn't bother with the details. Even better, the Narrator admits that for once he's with the princess on this when he often argues against anything she says on principle. There's some Foreshadowing here, as one of her attacks is to chew through bones, and if you reach the Beast chapter, she'll try and swallow you alive.
- If you entered the basement with a knife, one of the dialogue options results in:Princess: Are you here to kill me or something?
Player: What? No way. Why would you even think that?
Princess: That giant knife you're holding kind of gives it away, doesn't it? - If you don't drop the knife upon seeing the Princess, she will keep ordering you to drop it, refusing to hold a proper conversation until you do; though still responding in short phrases until there's nothing left to do but to awkwardly squint at each other from the other side of the room.Player: I'm sorry, can we just talk?
Princess: Oh, threatened, are we? You poor thing, drop the knife and of course we can talk.
Player: It seems we're at an impasse.
Princess: I guess we are.
[Player and Princess squint at each other]
Voice of the Hero: The two of you are going to do this forever, aren't you?
Narrator: You have to blink eventually, just make a choice. For the love of everything, just slay her already!
Voice of the Hero: Or drop the blade, do something.
Narrator: ...Eventually something is going to give, and I highly recommend you be the one to take initiative here. - Starting up a conversation with the Princess (after having brought the knife to the basement), she describes it as an awkward start to a relationship.
- If you agree that it's awkward, she will make it more awkward by lightly scolding you for repeating her, before changing the conversation as to why you're there to kill her.
- Another you could respond to her is use her wording to accuse her of coming on to you. The annoyed Princess responds by refuting your claims and stating that you two have a "relationship" by definition since you two are interacting with each other.
- When asked what her name is, she responds by listing honorifics you may address her by. If you met her without the knife she'll tell you that just "Princess" is fine while the Voice of the Hero wonders if you should actually call her "Princess Princess".
- Float leaving the softer Princess locked up for a while, and the Hero thinks this is a good compromise, but the Princess doesn't think she can stand to be in the basement much longer and the Narrator immediately says if she's left to her own devices she'll escape on her own. Sulkily, the Voice of the Hero grumbles about no one else liking that idea.
- If you tell the princess "Hi, I think I'm here to kill you?" before she sees you (having brought the knife), she will mock you for it, particularly if you hesitate later.Princess: Oh ho ho ho, are you now? Well, let me take a look at you.
The Narrator: Great job hero, you gave away the element of surprise.
Princess: (in an amused tone) You weren't kidding when you said you were here to kill me.
Player: Yeah, it wasn't a joke.
Princess: I know, you brought a knife and everything.
Princess: (if you express uncertainty as to why you're there) If you were serious about trying to kill me, you'd have a bit more gumption, don't you think?
Princess: (If she beats you senseless) Is this really the best you could do? I'd be lying, if I said I wasn't a little disappointed.- Inversely, if you tell the princess you're here to kill her without the blade, she'll nervously try to convince you that you've shown up at the wrong address.
- If you choose to immediately kill the Princess and walk right back out, no fuss no muss, and then agree to stay in the Narrator's eternal "good ending", you'll be rewarded with a shoddy card congratulating you for slaying the Princess and saving the world. And a soundtrack of people clapping and cheering!
- If you get the "good ending" before you meet the Shifting Mound, the entire credits sequence will roll with canned applause on a relentless loop. The "Our Song" playlist (appropriately renamed to "Your Song") will consist of only three tracks, the third one being a nonexistent track called "Eternal Bliss (Yay you did it!)"
- If you kill the Princess without any arguing, then choose to kill yourself afterwards rather than stay in the "good ending", the Narrator takes serious offense to your ingratitude and describes your suicide in an amazingly snippy tone.The Narrator: You pick the blade up, you stab yourself, and you die. The End. Nice knowing you.
Chapter II
Adversary Route
- The Narrator is fairly upset when he discovers that you, the Hero, and the Princess are all familiar with each other when he isn't.The Narrator: (full-on complaining) For all we know whatever happened to you last time was just a fluke, and beyond that, do you know who doesn't remember anything that happened last time? Me. I. Don't. Remember.
Voice of the Hero: Are... are you okay?
The Narrator: (frustratedly) Of course I'm not okay! As far as we're all concerned, the fate of my world is still very much on the line. Not all of us have the luxury of jumping over to a parallel universe the second we die.- If you decided to not converse with the Narrator on the topic of looping, thus leaving him to connect the dots himself, you can actually sass back at the Narrator's claims that you should take this fight seriously, either by telling him Blatant Lies that you have no idea what he's talking about or joke about how you'll only take it less seriously after his complaining."Just because it bothers you, I'm going to take this even less seriously. You don't know the depths of my apathy!"
"(Lie) No. I don't know what you're talking about, I've never died. Do you see how alive I am right now? Would someone as alive as me already have died? I didn't think so."
- If you decided to not converse with the Narrator on the topic of looping, thus leaving him to connect the dots himself, you can actually sass back at the Narrator's claims that you should take this fight seriously, either by telling him Blatant Lies that you have no idea what he's talking about or joke about how you'll only take it less seriously after his complaining.
- If you insist on trying to free the Princess this time, the Narrator resists by forcing your body to stand still until you oblige with an attack. He even forces you to flip the bird as a show of his power. The Adversary is unaware of its meaning but returns the gesture. This kinda doubles as a Visual Pun, seeing that you're a literal bird who flips the metaphorical bird along with the Adversary.
- The fact that in a game with gore and some sexual undertones, it's the middle finger that's censored.
- If the Adversary knocks you out in a single strike, the Voice of the Hero and the Stubborn are both disappointed that it's ended so quickly, and prepare for another do-over.
- While fighting the Adversary, she makes a comment about how "Nothing exists outside of us". If you press her on this, pointing out that there's an entire forest outside the cabin, she elaborates that she didn't mean that literally, just that nothing matters to her outside of fighting you, and asks if you feel the same way. You can respond with some overwrought Purple Prose likening your violence to beautiful music, moving both the Stubborn and the Adversary to tears while the Hero and Narrator are just weirded out.The Player: "Yes! The two of us are a chorus of notes building on top of each other forever. The song we write in our blood will be the most beautiful music ever written!"
The Narrator: Great. It seems like both you and the Princess have bought into some sort of shared delusion. Just make sure that whatever you're using for that 'song written in blood' is mostly hers.
Voice of the Stubborn: Sniff.
The Narrator: I'm sorry, are you crying?
The Adversary: Sniff.
Voice of the Hero: Is she crying?
Voice of the Stubborn: Sniffling. Are you two not? That was some goddamned poetry. - If you engage her head-on, then take up the Adversary's offer to go for her heart, she collapses with a "See you soon." The Voice of the Stubborn insists that she'll come back, while the Narrator insists otherwise. After a bit of back and forth:Voice of the Hero: Can the two of you stop arguing?
The Narrator and the Voice of the Stubborn: NO!- If you chose to go back upstairs, her voice suddenly gets a bit angry that you couldn't wait for her. The Narrator's response?
- When the Adversary revives with you after your Mutual Kill, The Narrator panics and tries to stop the player from following the line of thought that comes from the Princess coming back from near certain death. Cue almost every option being "The Princess can't die" with a few amusing variations.- You mean like 'The Princess Can't Die' don't you? Well, it's too late for that. I think we've all thought that one.
- I'm not going to say The Princess Can't Die. I'm not even going to think it.
- (Lie) 'The Princess can die.' - The Narrator has a minor crisis over the Player and the Adversary being unable to die, to the point he says he's getting himself a drink because he doesn't want to witness the end of the world sober.
- Face the Adversary unarmed, and you do only minor damage to her with your claws before being killed and forced back to your feet by the Stubborn. If you keep trying to fight her without going back for the knife, she kills you again and the Stubborn says he can keep this up forever and will surely wear her down. The Princess is visibly disturbed and uncomfortable at facing you when you're mangled and twitching. The Narrator has a Hope Spot as he realizes she's afraid - then the Princess decides to give you a Mercy Kill, which she manages without a fight as you're too mangled to do anything. The Voice of the Hero and the Narrator wait, but the Stubborn grumbles until snapping that he gives up.Voice of the Hero: Everything goes dark and we die?
Voice of the Stubborn: [grumbling noises]
The Narrator: Yes. Something like that.
Voice of the Stubborn: [more grumbling noises]
The Narrator: Well? Don't you have something to say?
Voice of the Stubborn: Yeah. I quit.- The icing on the cake for this? A nice little achievement called "I Didn't Hear No Bell".
Beast Route
- There’s some humour to be found in how the Narrator keeps referring to the Beast as "just a princess" when she's now a panther-like monster stalking you through a jungle and repeatedly trying to eat you.
- One of the options you can do to attempt to avoid the Beast is to play dead. It fails, however, as the Beast can tell by her instincts that you're still alive, and she'll let you know that by getting close to your face and smugly rubbing it in that she can already see that you aren't dead shortly before eating you.The Beast: Have you seen my great big eyes? Because they see you, fledgling. They see your heartbeat pulsing in your throat.
- If you fought the Beast and got killed without letting her eat you, the Beast will assume that You Are Already Dead. The Voice of the Hero attempts to tell her that they're still alive, only for The Narrator to interrupt him by saying that you died for real shortly after.The Beast: I didn't mean to do that. I still need to devour you, and it doesn't count if you're dead.
Voice of the Hero: But we're not dead, we're-
(The screen goes black)
The Narrator: But you don't have time to protest her premature observation of your death, because everything goes dark and you die.
Damsel Route
- If you were planning on concealing what happened last time from The Narrator; The Voice of the Smitten will ruin that plan early by going on about how what the Narrator did last time made him a villain, with overdramatic prose about being there to save his "beloved".
- What makes it better is that the Smitten initially agrees with keeping quiet from the Narrator, but in the very same sentence he gives away the plan. Then he continues on as if he hadn't just done that and keeps explaining how they're going to save her.Voice of the Smitten: If we're going to save our beloved, we'll have to be sneaky about it.
The Narrator: Yes, you'll have to be very sneaky about your intentions if you're going to try and save the Princess.
Voice of the Smitten: Ah, so all of the cards are on the table!
- What makes it better is that the Smitten initially agrees with keeping quiet from the Narrator, but in the very same sentence he gives away the plan. Then he continues on as if he hadn't just done that and keeps explaining how they're going to save her.
- While discussing the Princess' threat, the Smitten swooningly suggests that maybe the Princess will destroy the world by being too beautiful for the world to endure! The Narrator, at this point desperate for anything that might make you slay the Princess, decides to go along with it.
Narrator: (Witheringly sarcastic) Sure. It's her beauty. Why not?
- When the Voice of the Hero notes that the proto-Damsel Princess was the one to slay you in the first chapter, the Voice of the Smitten insists that it was self-defense (which is true enough) and then says, “Our beloved’s hands are unstained by cruelty!”
- If you ask the Damsel whether or not she destroyed the world in the previous loop, she simply innocently asks if she should have done that and that would have made you happy. One of the responses you can answer with is that yes, you wish that the world and its people met a slow and painful ruin, much to the Narrator's frustration. Even better? The Damsel will then respond that she did end the world and made it awful for everyone, all with an innocent and adorable smile on her face. And the cherry on top is that the Voice of the Smitten will still defend her after that.The Narrator: *Sigh* I can't believe that the fate of the entire world has been left in the hands of a misanthrope.
The Damsel: Lucky for you, I did destroy the world! I destroyed all of it and made it awful for everyone.
The Narrator: I'd point out that she just admitted to obliterating the entire world, but I guess that wouldn't actually move you.
Voice of the Hero: Oh, it moves me. Whatever we do next, we should do our best to not let her out.
Voice of the Smitten: But have you seen her angelic face? She should get a pass! She just wanted to make us happy.
Voice of the Hero: By destroying the world?
Voice of the Smitten: Apparently, yes!- Conversely, saying that you wouldn't want the world to end gets her cheery response of "Then I didn't end the world!"Voice of the Smitten: See? She didn't confess anything! She is innocence herself!
Voice of the Hero: I'm... not so sure.
- Conversely, saying that you wouldn't want the world to end gets her cheery response of "Then I didn't end the world!"
- In a similar vein, if you free the Damsel and then tell her you want to end the world, she'll cheerfully agree to help you.The Damsel: Okay! If that's what you think is best, then that's what we'll do when we leave! We'll bring ruin to everyone and everything! Nothing will be left standing in the wake of the unceasing entropy we'll unleash upon all of creation.
- If you keep asking the Princess on what she wants when she keeps saying that she wants whatever you do, her artwork deteriorates to the point of Stylistic Suck, and the music will start distorting to reflect her current over-simplified characterization. If you decide to slay her in that moment, she'll retain the appearance.The Damsel: I'm gonna die now. I think that's what you want. [passes on]
- If you keep asking her, eventually the Shifting Mound will grab the crudely drawn, sketchy Princess, making your subsequent talk with her hilarious. At this point, the style has become so cheap that even as the Shifting Mound handles her, the only part that moves is her mouth.
- The Art Shift for the idealized version you meet includes the addition of Bishie Sparkles around the Princess when you leave together, while the Stylistic Suck for the most heavily deteriorated version includes her hands being hidden behind her back.
- Also, the Damsel's voice goes from a normal cheery voice to a high-pitched cute chipmunk girlie voice if you keep asking her, almost like she's a Japanese anime magical girl princess. The Voices' puzzled and shocked reactions to this are hilarious.
- If you decide to give up asking questions about her in favor of escaping, the Princess will instantly revert to her idealized version. Doing this when the Stylistic Suck has gotten especially bad is an amusing bit of Mood Whiplash. The Voice of the Hero will be relieved that she's back to normal, while the Voice of the Smitten says it doesn't matter because she's always been perfect.
- Post-Pristine Cut, one of the ways you can get on to the Happily Ever Ending chapter is to watch the Damsel's artwork devolve and say "Okay, clearly something is happening here and I'm very scared" leading to proposing that they just don't do anything and stay here. As with deciding to escape, she instantly reverts and the distorted music switches back to the usual song.
- The sheer childish pettiness the Narrator displays as he's forced to narrate you and the Princess being a pair of Sickening Sweethearts, never wasting an opportunity to vocalize his disgust.The Narrator: Ugh. Look at the way she's smiling at you. She doesn't have to be so happy about this.
- The Voice of the Smitten's insistence that the Princess is a Damsel in Distress and that he's going to rescue the Princess without hurting her is powerful enough to usurp the Narrator's control. The chain just slips off the Damsel's wrist, and the locked door just opens, much to the Narrator's confusion. The Damsel is the only princess to have opened her own shackle and door. When the Voice of the Smitten chalks it up to The Power of Love, the Narrator just gets even more angry.The Narrator: ... The lock clicks and the door creaks open. Are. You. Kidding me?
- If the Damsel opens the door without your physical involvement whatsoever, the Narrator sounds even more outraged when compared to when you do assist/open the door yourself.
- If you didn't take the blade down with you to the basement and you open the door out with her, the Narrator giddily realizes there's still a chance for you to pick it up and kill her. If you refuse, he is exasperated.The Narrator: You're enjoying this, aren't you? You're enjoying taking every opportunity you can to draw out the end of the world and make me suffer. I hate you.
- The Voice of the Smitten's insistence that the Princess is a Damsel in Distress and that he's going to rescue the Princess without hurting her is powerful enough to usurp the Narrator's control. The chain just slips off the Damsel's wrist, and the locked door just opens, much to the Narrator's confusion. The Damsel is the only princess to have opened her own shackle and door. When the Voice of the Smitten chalks it up to The Power of Love, the Narrator just gets even more angry.
- While otherwise a tragic scene, if you stab the Damsel, there's something darkly funny about the Narrator spitefully specifying that she collapses pathetically to the ground in a gloatingly smug voice.
- The leadup to the Happily Ever After route is horrifying, as Smitten undergoes Sanity Slippage at the idea that the Princess wouldn't want to stay with them in the cabin and decides to tear open your ribcage and literally show her your heart. Horrifying, yes, but the Damsel's reaction at you pulling your chest open is worth a chuckle in a bit of Black Comedy.The Damsel: Oh no, what are you doing? Are you okay? You can't do that and be okay!
- This is followed by another black comedy bit with this, when the Narrator says that the Damsel begins to reach into your exposed heart and touch it, "and then..."
- Also in the leadup, when the Voice of the Hero initially suggests staying in the cabin, the Voice of the Smitten dismisses it, as their happily ever after clearly lies outside the cabin. If you actually ask the Damsel, the Smitten swooningly says how romantic a suggestion it is, leading to the Hero indignantly asking why it wasn't romantic when he suggested it.Voice of the Smitten: Oh, did you say it? I wasn't listening.
Voice of the Hero: You answered me!
Nightmare Route
- If you respond to the Narrator's usual opening lines with anything about this being the second time, the Voice of the Paranoid pipes up, fearful that the Narrator will overhear them, to which the Narrator is extremely smug.Voice of the Hero: If He doesn't remember what happened, then maybe it's best to keep it that way.
Voice of the Paranoid: Shhh. What if He hears us?
The Narrator: (in a very smug and sarcastic tone) That's a very good question, little voice. What if He does hear you?
Voice of the Paranoid: Shit. - If you get the Narrator to claim that you're special, the Paranoid immediately calls him out over his obvious manipulation. The Hero then meekly says that he actually quite likes being special.
- When you enter the cabin in Chapter II and see that the door's already open, the Voice of the Hero asks if they could have something more than the Pristine Blade. Maybe a bomb?
- The stairs to the basement this time are just planks descending in a void, with nothing holding them up. You can decide to step off them rather than descending. It doesn't work and the Narrator demands to know why you did that. If you say you were curious, he gets very sarcastic.
- When you finally enter the basement, the Voice of the Hero points out how unnatural it is, and asks whether or not the Narrator will point out the weirdness. The Narrator, however, refuses to address its weirdness, claiming that he has to be the voice of reason since the Voice of the Hero isn't being one. Voice of the Hero isn't amused by the Narrator's words.Voice of the Hero: Excuse me? I'm being incredibly reasonable. You're the one who's just matter-of-factly describing whatever the hell we're looking at like it's an ordinary basement.
- The Voice of the Paranoid is neurotic to the point of getting on everyone's nerves, but ends up essential to preventing the player from literally dying of fright. As a result, he becomes very sassy while the Narrator and Voice of the Hero are arguing.
- As the Voice of the Paranoid is saying the Player's organs aloud in order to keep them functioning, the Voice of the Hero, confused, demands to know what he's up to, only for the Player's body to begin shutting down again.Voice of the Hero: What are you doing?
Voice of the Paranoid: I'm working! Do you want this body to function, or do you want—
The Narrator: And then experience stops once more as your body reapproaches death.
Voice of the Hero: Okay, whatever you were doing, please just start doing it again.- If you ask the Nightmare why she can't kill you, she says she would find you entertaining when you're more alive than dead, and she gets close to you, causing your organs to shut down; at which point the Paranoid, whose survival mantra starts out at normal speed, starts whispering it rapidly to keep your body functioning.
- At one time, if you ask the Nightmare and she gets close to you, causing your body to shut down again, the Paranoid gets a panicked reaction and frantically shouts out the survival mantra as quickly as he can
like a paramedic desperately administering CPR to a patient who is losing their will to live. Fortunately, when you pull through and revive, the mantra becomes calm again.
- The Paranoid gets increasingly frustrated with his own inability to talk and keeps dropping his mantra in order to comment on the situation. The Hero has to remind him to keep up with it, kindly at first but later with just a strict "Ahem".
- After twice telling the Paranoid to stop talking and get on with his job, the Hero then asks him for his input on whether the Narrator is trustworthy. The Paranoid pointedly stays silent. When the Hero presses him for his response, the Paranoid is very sarcastic about it:Voice of the Paranoid: Oh, do you want to hear from me now?
Voice of the Hero: Yes!
Voice of the Paranoid: Well, I thought you needed me to run the autonomic nervous system... - The Hero offers to run the body so the Paranoid can speak, but has trouble at first, when he asks, "Brain?" The Paranoid teaches him the mantra, and he starts struggling to learn it. If you listen to him a little longer, though, he's clearly having a lot more trouble with it. While Paranoid whispers heart lungs liver nerves
rapidly, Hero struggles
, saying heart... lungs... liverrr... nerves as if he's in danger of forgetting the sequence. Sometimes he says ''arts', with a plural!
Voice of the Paranoid: You're terrible at this!
Voice of the Hero: I know, but I'm doing my best—
Voice of the Paranoid: Yes, it's very hard to stay focused on running things when other people are talking to you, isn't it? - When the Hero learns to recite the mantra again, he becomes a lot more focused than the first time
, leaving the Paranoid finally able to speak, and the latter's response to the Narrator is very blunt.
Voice of the Paranoid: Finally, I can talk. Now, what were you asking me?...
The Narrator: They were asking you for your blessing to trust me.
Voice of the Paranoid: Oh, that's right! Yeah, fuck this guy. Don't trust him.
- As the Voice of the Paranoid is saying the Player's organs aloud in order to keep them functioning, the Voice of the Hero, confused, demands to know what he's up to, only for the Player's body to begin shutting down again.
- Killing the Nightmare leads to you either being trapped forever in her basement hellvoid or falling through a regular void for eternity, depending on whether you let her lead you out of the basement first or not. In either case it gives you time to badger the Narrator for answers.The Narrator: The Narrator ignores you.
Voice of the Hero: You can't just describe yourself ignoring us.
The Narrator: I can.- If you ask the Narrator whether he's stuck with you or if he can go elsewhere:The Narrator: I'm stuck here with you. I wish I wasn't.
Voice of the Paranoid: Feeling's mutual.
Voice of the Hero: At least we're all being honest! - If you choose the "(Explore)" options, the ensuing discussions come across more like an exasperated dad trying to placate his unruly children on a long road trip.
- If you ask the Narrator whether he's stuck with you or if he can go elsewhere:
- If you didn't bring the knife with you, the Nightmare will mess with you to prevent you from retrieving it, including lengthening the stairs and insisting on leading the way back up. Both Voices tell you to get to it as soon as possible, the Voice of the Paranoid voices his agreement to when he sees it, forgetting that his survival mantra is the only thing preventing your vital organs from shutting down. As a result, you momentarily lose consciousness as the Nightmare gleefully throws the knife into the abyss, while the Narrator curses, and says he'll need a stiff drink as he'd rather not face what comes next sober.Voice of the Hero: I guess we're not stabbing her in the back.
- At the final door leading to the outside world (having brought the knife), Nightmare becomes impatient upon seeing you hesitate while the voices in the head debate with you. She will enunciate the words "Open the door!" slowly, loudly and one at a time as though she is addressing someone who is very hard of hearing.
Prisoner Route
- If you press the Narrator
about evidence on how the Princess can end the world, he'll ask you to check your pockets. You retrieve an envelope with "The Evidence" crudely written onto it, and inside is a letter reading "The Princess will end the world if you don't stop her. This is an immutable truth."
- This is the only reference to the player having pockets or clothes at all. The Narrator says the note is in your handwriting - said writing is terrible, a very shaky and irregular script, and yet the Voice of the Skeptic immediately suspects that the Narrator's forged it.
- Even better, the Skeptic can't figure out any other reason to doubt the extremely crude note, implying that your handwriting actually is that bad.
- This is the only reference to the player having pockets or clothes at all. The Narrator says the note is in your handwriting - said writing is terrible, a very shaky and irregular script, and yet the Voice of the Skeptic immediately suspects that the Narrator's forged it.
- After the Narrator finishes his "she will lie, she will cheat" warning about the Princess, the Voice of the Skeptic proceeds to "fake-agree" with him while still trying to stealthily nudge you into going against him behind his back. Keyword: trying.Voice of the Skeptic: Yes, yes, don't believe a word she says. Just go in, take the knife, and do what you're supposed to. Wink.
The Narrator: Did you just say "wink" out loud?
Voice of the Skeptic: No, I didn't. Wink.
The Narrator: Just ignore this clown and focus on the Princess. - Attempting to leave the basement after you've already sat down to talk with the Prisoner will anger her, and she promises that you'll regret it. The Narrator, too, is having none of it and swiftly locks the door behind you until you've finished the job, prompting a smug, victorious smirk from the Prisoner as she hears the lock click into place.The Prisoner: I told you that you'd regret saying that. But I didn't think you'd regret it so fast. And with so little effort on my part.
- Should you decide to go along with the Prisoner's plan, the Narrator will refuse to let you perform the action, even trying to take the control away from you by trying to force you to rigidly remain in place. However, the Voices of the Hero and the Skeptic proceed to point out that the last time the Narrator tried to take control of you, the Princess retaliated by killing you, which, by his own admission, ended of the world, thus reminding him on how futile his attempt to stop them is. The Narrator, in response, is reduced to angrily grumbling.
- Even better is that he's mumbling somewhere along the lines of, "No, you're the one who took over our body, and used it to try and kill her." Sounds like he's using some grumbling Copycat Mockery of the Voices' protestations.
- If you approach the Princess to talk to her, she wants you to keep a certain distance. If you decide to sit closer, or she asks for the knife and you either try to cut her from the chains yourself or slay her, she'll become angry and try to throttle you with her chains, saying she's not helpless. If you chose to sit closer, the Skeptic begins trying to figure out which of you is being unreasonable here:Voice of the Skeptic: I can see where she might have gotten the wrong idea. She doesn't have much agency here. Would we have trusted her if the roles were reversed?
Voice of the Hero: I don't know! How about we think about the nuances of interpersonal relationships when we're not being strangled?! - If you carry the Prisoner's head out with you, the Narrator starts going into his spiel for the Good Ending. But he interrupts himself when he realizes that the world still exists around the cabin; the Princess may be headless, but she hasn't been slain.[Leave the cabin and claim your reward]
The Narrator: You open the cabin door, ready to return to a world saved from certain doom. Only, a world saved from certain doom isn't what you find. Instead, what you find is—wait, no, that's not right.- Alternatively, if you go back upstairs without her head or after slaying her, the Voice of the Skeptic will immediately notice that the view from the windows has become an empty black void and call attention to it. When you open the door for a better look, the Narrator still gives his Good Ending speech with all the same gravitas, as if his 'dramatic reveal' hadn't just been spoiled.The Narrator: Where a lush forest stood mere minutes ago, the only thing in front of you now is the vast emptiness of some place far away.
Voice of the Skeptic: You don't have to act surprised. We could see this 'vast emptiness' through the windows. - If you let the Skeptic kill you, either after you refused the Narrator's reward or accepted it before the Skeptic pulls you away from the reward card, the Narrator will throw into a hissy fit and rant like a spoiled child on a temper-tantrum who is denied from getting anything they want! This really fits the mood of a Black Comedy death.
- Alternatively, if you go back upstairs without her head or after slaying her, the Voice of the Skeptic will immediately notice that the view from the windows has become an empty black void and call attention to it. When you open the door for a better look, the Narrator still gives his Good Ending speech with all the same gravitas, as if his 'dramatic reveal' hadn't just been spoiled.
- Beside the Princess, a short chain dangles, bearing an empty shackle. The Narrator absolutely does not want you to investigate it. The Voice of the Skeptic think this concern is silly - obviously putting it on and snapping it closed is a terrible idea, but he's interested in anything the Narrator doesn't like, and just looking at or touching it is surely fine. Decide to take a look, and the Narrator grimly says he doesn't want to say what he's supposed to now. As if magnetized, it leaps out of the player character's hand and snaps closed around his neck. That same force yanks the Pristine Blade out of his hands, flinging it out of reach.
- If you become trapped beside the Princess, you can try talking to her but she gives very short, mostly one word answers. When you comment that she's not one for small talk, she says in a tone that sounds just slightly amused:The Prisoner: Nope.
Voice of the Hero: Rude. - Later, when the basement starts deteriorating from the passage of time, you can ask if she's noticed.The Prisoner: I don't like small talk, remember?
Voice of the Hero: Still rude. - The Voice of the Hero unsuccessfully tries to assert that the Princess cannot end the world because she's chained up. The Narrator retorts that the Princess's very existence is a threat, but refuses to offer up any reason. Upon the Skeptic questioning this, The Narrator offers this killer line:The Narrator: Your question is interrupted by the passage of even more time, and after that, even more time passes again.
- The Voice of the Hero whines about how boring it is to sit shackled to the wall and wait in a very childish tone.
- If you become trapped beside the Princess, you can try talking to her but she gives very short, mostly one word answers. When you comment that she's not one for small talk, she says in a tone that sounds just slightly amused:
Razor Route
Can we just say this entire route is Black Comedy almost from start to finish and move on? No? Alright then, proceed.- Choosing to just walk away rather than go to the cabin leads to the Voice of the Cheated calling the Narrator a "son-of-a-bitch" for (seemingly) deleting the world rather than letting him escape.Voice of the Cheated: That son-of-a-bitch flipped over the table, didn't he?
- Every dialogue option upon first encounter with the Razor, has her respond with some reference to stabbing or rather her supposed intention not to stab you in an insincere and cheerful tone (like in the video example).The Razor: And why would I stab you to death? I don't know you. You haven't given me a reason to stab you to death. It would be so silly of me to cut you open and look at your insides.
- If you ask for proof:The Razor: Hands without anything to stab you with! And empty sleeves too! Look at how few stabbing implements I have, it's practically zero!
- If you ask if the Razor has a knife hidden "somewhere secret" she'll deny it in her typical insincere tone of voice. Only to realize she sounds like she's lying when she's not. So then she'll actually drop the damsel act to plainly and clearly state that there is nothing hidden in her "secret zones." Even the Voice of the Hero accepts that she's telling the truth.
- Becomes more hilarious later on, when she reveals her final form - a skeleton-like humanoid made of blades - that she kept hidden inside her human-looking shell. Meaning that, while technically she didn't have any sharp blades inside her "secret zones", all her "secret zones" are sharp blades.
- If you ask the Razor what she's going to do if she's let out, her response boils down to: all sorts of activities. If you follow up on that:The Player: Activities like stabbing or murdering?
The Razor: Yes! I mean, maybe! I've never done any of those things but there is something alluring about the sound of it. I think it would also be fun to do other things like "look at a bird" or "touch a tree".
Voice of the Hero: Okay, now listen.
Voice of the Cheated: You're not actually buying this, are you?
Voice of the Hero: Listen.
The Narrator:...Yes?
Voice of the Hero: ...I would like to look at a bird.
The Narrator: You can look at a bird later.
Voice of the Hero: But if we look at a bird now, we wouldn't have to be here.
Voice of the Cheated: He has a point.- This is rather humorous as the Player character is a Birdman. Especially since the mirror in which the Player (and by extension the Voices) could see a bird is either not there when the Voices are or is there when the Voices aren't.
- The Razor's rant to the Player when he goes on about her being suspicious is full of hilarious mental gymnastics.The Razor: That's so rude of you, passing judgments on strangers you've never met just because they're different from you! How would you like it if I did that, huh? Silly little birdface thinks he's so serious coming down here but doesn't know anything! [Thinks he can tell me to get rid of all the knives I don't even have while he gets to wave one around right in front of me!]/[He doesn't even have a knife for stabbing!] I bet you didn't like that, did you? I bet you didn't like being judged for no reason.
- If you buy into the Razor's damsel act and decide to approach her or decide to rush in and kill her, she slices you open with an arm/leg blade with a flat "Hehe.
"
- If you keep asking her questions, on meeting her again, she'll eventually tell you: "I'm bored now", before rushing forward ready to stab you, with a goofy grin on her face.
- Immediately afterwards, she will stop because her arm is still chained. Her expression will change to a mix of confusion and sad disappointment. You almost expect her to go "awww..." Then she will nonchalantly slice off her arm, which due to her treating it as casually as ripping off a caught shirt sleeve means it's still quite chuckle-worthy.
- No matter your choices, Chapter II will end with the princess staring at you with wide eyes as she flatly declares, "I'm going to kill you now," or "You're going to die now" and doing just that. It's a lot more silly than nightmarish, which fits with the Black Comedy throughout the route.
Spectre Route
- When the Spectre makes her appearance, we learn that the Voice of the Hero is afraid of ghosts, with the Voice of the Cold responding to it with his usual bout of sarcasm.The Voice of the Hero: A g-g-g-ghost!
The Voice of the Cold: Oh. Wow. How absolutely terrifying. What's a ghost supposed to do to us? - If you "slay the Princess", your blade harmlessly passes through her ghostly form and she mocks you for it. If you "slay the Princess harder", you'll just do the same thing again, which just leaves her exasperated.
- Should you offer the Spectre killing yourself as an apology for killing her in the previous loop, she'll decline but not before remarking that it's "sweet for you to offer", the Voices will object, and the Narrator proceeds to request that you abstain from making such suggestions in the most darkly hilariously-worded way possible.The Narrator: It would seem that everyone here is in agreement except for you. I shouldn't have to tell you that you shouldn't kill yourself. So please, try to keep your suicidal tendencies in check.
- There's several options to apologize to the Spectre for killing her, and one is so particularly pathetic and self-pitying that the Spectre is completely turned off.The Player: I'm not cold! I'm just... dumb! I'm just a big dumb stupid idiot! Stupid stupid stupid what was I thinking just believing what I was told?
Voice of the Cold: Oh, cut it out. You don't need to be so pathetic.
The Spectre: Eugh. Sure. Did that make you feel better?- Even better, if you visited her without a knife and made no attempt to grab her, she'll remark that she "wouldn't mind seeing a little begging" for forgiveness, but when you do, she'll proceed to take her words back."Nevermind. I don't think I want to see you beg. That's just sad. I shouldn't feel sad about my murderer."
- And afterwards, you can note that everyone sounds disappointed in you and that you should grovel even more to rectify that. The Voice of the Cold straight-up denies you that opportunity, while the Narrator tries to use that opportunity to try to bait you back on his side.The Player: Shit. Everyone sounds disappointed in me. I should grovel even more.
Voice of the Cold: No. You're not doing that.
The Narrator: That's right, don't you dare grovel. Mine is the only opinion that matters and I'll never be disappointed in you. So long as you do as I say.
- Even better, if you visited her without a knife and made no attempt to grab her, she'll remark that she "wouldn't mind seeing a little begging" for forgiveness, but when you do, she'll proceed to take her words back.
- She will swap between two distinct faces, usually using the friendly one, but occasionally using a more menacing (smiling) face to make a point. If you tried to attack her as she appears, she uses the latter one more frequently, having fun with the attempts to put you on edge.
- There are a number of Insane Troll Logic assertions you can make from the options, including one implying that her threatening you before being stabbed was at least as bad as the actual stabbing. She will calmly reason out every one of them, with a smile and a bit of sarcasm.The Player: Stop playing the victim. You threatened me last time.
The Spectre: Well, yeah. You brought a knife with you. Was I supposed to just welcome you with open arms when you obviously had stabbing on the mind?
The Player: That knife could have been for anything!
The Spectre: It could have. But it wasn't. You can't blame me for threatening a would-be-knife-wielding-murderer, especially when that would-be-knife-wielding-murderer became an actual-knife-wielding-murderer. - If you tell her that you were trapped in a timeless void and had to slay yourself to escape, she'll feign sympathy before gleefully telling you otherwise:The Spectre: You poor thing. That must have been so frightening for you.
Voice of the Hero: You know, after everything we've been through, it's nice to see someone finally sympathizing with us. This whole thing's been an ordeal, hasn't it?
Voice of the Cold: She doesn't mean it.
The Spectre: (gleefully puts on menacing grin face) It serves you right! I was pretty scared, too, when you stood there not saying a word with a knife clenched in your fist. But now you know how bad it hurts to get stabbed in the chest. (puts on a scary face) It sounds like you got exactly what you were owed. - If you ask her if the possession is temporary, if she's irritated (from being attacked again) she'll tell you not to worry as she doesn't want to be stuck with you longer than you want to be stuck with her. Otherwise, she'll tease you about not knowing:The Spectre: For all we know, that's not how it works. Maybe I'll wind up stuck with you for a very long, long, long, long time.
- If you ask her why you're not floating around like a ghost like she is, she will reassure you by grabbing your arm, which the Narrator describes as a cold, and slightly painful tingling sensation:The Spectre: You don't look dead, killer. And you don't feel dead, either.
- After possessing the Player's body, the Spectre makes comments (these can be politely curious or snarky depending on whether or not you tried to grab/stab her in her spectral form) about the Player's mind already being inhabited by the Voices and Narrator and their constant bickering.The Narrator: You push yourself off the ground. The Princess is nowhere to be seen—
Voice of the Cold: Obviously she's nowhere to be seen.
The Spectre: Because I'm in here with all of you. Everybody knows that.
The Narrator: I'm setting the stage.
The Spectre: But if I'm stuck in here, I'll be making some renovations. It's too crowded. [If attacked prior and after arguing with the voices]
"Okay I've heard enough from those two, let me see if I can pop out!" [unpossesses the player's body]- Once you're about the leave the cabin with the Spectre, with the Voice of the Cold noting that the Narrator doesn't do much to actually stop them, the amicable Spectre proceeds to tease the Narrator that maybe he doesn't actually hate her as much as he says, which only serves to irritate him further.Voice of the Cold: For how much you hate her, you aren't doing a whole lot to stop us from leaving this place.
The Spectre: Maybe the bossy one doesn't actually hate me. Maybe He even likes me! Or... maybe He just knows that He's been in the wrong. Maybe He's trying to make amends, too.
The Narrator: Not at all. I'll have you know that I do hate you, and I will continue to hate you for so long as I am able. - As you and the Spectre leave, the Narrator tries his best to stall your escape from the cabin, but it's obvious that his control over the situation had already waned.The Narrator: You lift your shaking hand and rest it on the door handle, but you pause before you open it, exhaustion sapping what's left of your will.
Voice of the Cold: Was exhaustion really the best you could muster up? It's over. There's no use stalling. Let's see what happens next.
- Once you're about the leave the cabin with the Spectre, with the Voice of the Cold noting that the Narrator doesn't do much to actually stop them, the amicable Spectre proceeds to tease the Narrator that maybe he doesn't actually hate her as much as he says, which only serves to irritate him further.
- If instead the Spectre decides to make good on her threat to crush your heart, her reaching into your chest doesn't seem to do anything. The Voice of the Cold says of course it's not doing anything, a ghost can't hurt you. Then she pulls out your heart, and the Voice of the Hero gasps in outrage."That's ours!"
- There's some Black Comedy in the lead up to the Princess and the Dragon route, when you stab yourself while possessed by the Spectre. She manages to pull free of your body and takes you with her in the process - and the body's not quite dead and can't speak, but is a "writhing pile" that she regards with some dismay.
Stranger Route
- It can come off as funny or creepy depending on your perspective, but the Narrator making every path you take to try to get away from the cabin lead right back to it, and then making an infinite number of cabins when you keep trying anyway. He then unceremoniously kills you and the rest of the world just to be an extra petty bastard because you wouldn't listen to him.
- Again, it can come off as funny or creepy, but once you're on the Stranger's path in Chapter II, you'll notice that a wall has been built around the woods, the path and the cabin. Just so you can't turn around and try to leave again.
- If the Stranger is not the first vessel you will meet, choosing to stay where you are will cause the world to fade away, which leads to this line from the Voice of the Contrarian:Voice of the Contrarian: We're somewhere interesting for once.
- If the Stranger is not the first vessel you will meet, choosing to stay where you are will cause the world to fade away, which leads to this line from the Voice of the Contrarian:
- The Contrarian exists only to be a spoiler to the Narrator and find as many creative ways to "ruin his day." This includes questioning him, making him repeat instructions, suggesting that you throw the Pristine Blade out the window, or wanting your interactions with the Princess to be worse.
- He tells you to hold your blade in a Reverse Grip just because it looks cooler that way and it annoys the Narrator. Whether you agree to do so or not doesn't affect gameplay but it does change your mouse cursor.
- If you do throw the blade out of the window, the Hero will get on the Contrarian's case for suggesting it, because now they don't have a useful tool. The Contrarian tries to shrug it off the same way a child tries to get out of trouble.
Tower Route
- The Hero getting annoyed with the Broken just moments after first meeting him:Voice of the Hero: Can we tone down the pessimism just a smidge?
Voice of the Broken: I'm not being a pessimist. I'm just being realistic.
Voice of the Hero: You're being annoying. - There's a bit of Fridge Humour when you realise that the Tower's mocking nickname of "Little Bird" isn't in fact a Dehumanizing Insult, but a completely literal description of what you are.
- When the Tower commands you to slit your throat, the Narrator reminds you that you're still in a position to slay her and urges you to end this. The Voice of the Broken takes up his vaguely-worded command and points the blade at your throat, and the Narrator quickly corrects himself.The Narrator: Your hand lifts the blade and brings it towards your throat. Okay—I apologize for the unclear language. End her.
- If you choose not to resist the Tower, the Hero decides to sit this one out.Voice of the Hero: All right. I'm done with this. I'm just going to sit in the corner. Let me know when we get our agency back.
- Amidst the Broken's normally tragic surrender, he at one point says that you can't go get the knife and slay the Tower. After all, the stairs back upstairs are too tall.
Witch Route
- If you walk away rather than going to the cabin, the world will start to fade away before your eyes. The Voice of the Opportunist still tries to find something positive in this, but the best he can come up with is that it has "great acoustics".
- The moment you come down the stairs and the Witch acknowledges your presence, one of the responses you can give to her? Retort to her calling you nasty with "I'm not nasty!", and she'll just tease you with it more.
- This leads to both voices arguing, until the Narrator breaks in:The Narrator: You need to stop lingering. Your task is to slay the Princess, not endlessly debate about what to do with the Princess.
- This leads to both voices arguing, until the Narrator breaks in:
- You can apologize for your actions, but the Witch isn't particularly impressed:
- After you give the knife to the Witch, you have an option to call her beautiful and say that this is why you want to save her. She actually gets caught off-guard and finds herself blushing while having the most Tsundere-ish expression on her face, as the Narrator is exasperated that you not only said that "nonsense", but actually meant it.
- If you let the Witch lead you out of the basement, she'll lock the door in front of you and mock you about you two being stuck in the cabin forever. Soon after, the world ends and the door disappears, and you can see the Witch standing smugly before she realizes that she can see you too.
- One of the ways to trigger the Witch route is by letting the Princess slip out behind your back and lock the basement door on you in Chapter I. If you let her lock you away again in Chapter II, she has an extra line of dialogue cackling that she couldn't believe you fell for the same trick twice.
- If you give her the knife, one of the dialogue options becomes:The Witch: What do you think happens now?
Player: If you're like someone else I know, you'll stab me.
Voice of the Opportunist: That someone would be me!
The Witch: You know me too well! - If the Witch pulls you down the stairs, breaking both of your backs, the Voice of the Opportunist chimes in with some unheard-of: an opinion of his own.Voice of the Opportunist: You know what. I'll say it. That sucks! I don't like having a broken back.
Chapter III
Apotheosis Route
- The Voice of the Hero gets remarkably sassier after what he's been through prior (if the Paranoid is present, of course).The Narrator: This is bad.
Voice of the Hero: Oh, is it now? I hadn't noticed! Do you need a primer, Mr. Amnesiac?
The Narrator: No, I'm quite alright, but if all of you would take a moment to settle down, there's something important I'd like to get across to you before it's too late.
Voice of the Hero: Is it about the Princess? We already know all about the Princess.
The Narrator: No! I-I mean yes. It's about the Princess, but whatever you think I'm going to say, it's probably not that.
Voice of the Hero: Look, fine. Just out with it already, yeah? But if I hear the words "you're here to slay her" or "if you don't, it will be the end of the world" you'll have lost speaking privileges.
Voice of the Broken: You two are just wasting your time. It's all going to end when we open that cabin door, which means it's already all over. What's the point of dawdling when the end is already written? - If you slew yourself as commanded by the Tower, you end up in this route with the Voice of the Contrarian.The Narrator: You're on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path—
Voice of the Contrarian: Oh, let me guess! And at the end of the path is a cabin!
The Narrator: [confused] Excuse me?
Voice of the Contrarian: Come on, man. We can see it right in front of us! And besides, we're been here like... what, five times already?
Voice of the Hero: I think this is three.
Voice of the Contrarian: Who cares?! The woods are always the worst part, anyway. Nothing ever happens in them.
The Narrator: I care! Every single time you've been here, it means an entire other reality has been damned to oblivion. One reality is already an incalculable loss. And there is a massive difference between three and five.
Voice of the Contrarian: It feels like the numbers getting thrown around here are too big not to be abstract.
Voice of the Hero: Numbers like five?
Voice of the Contrarian: Numbers like entire realities. At the end of the day it's all just silly, isn't it? None of us can count to a whole reality, and He's asking us to think about the difference between three and five.
The Narrator: *Sigh* You're already starting to lose the thread. Just because you can't personally sum up the contents of an entire reality doesn't mean that the people inhabiting it don't contain moral value. If you have any sense of ethics left in there, if you have any moral compass... please. You have to stop her.
Voice of the Broken: Don't you get it? Might makes right. And she didn't even have to touch us last time to prove her power.
Voice of the Contrarian: So what, just because she made us kill ourselves we're supposed to submit to her authority without question?
Voice of the Broken: I knew when to surrender to our better. You would have lost eventually anyway, and it would only have made her angry. It would only have made things worse for all of us.
The Narrator: Oh for the love of— can you all please just get on with it? You're not making this any easier for yourselves.
Voice of the Hero: Do we even have agency right now? We either do what she wants, or we do what He wants. Either way we're listening to somebody.
Voice of the Contrarian: Please! Nothing in life is a binary. Obviously we find a third choice that nobody wants.
Voice of the Broken: You all talk about choices and freedom, but there is no choice when it comes to the will of a god.
The Narrator: I'm going to cut you off right there. She is not a god, and the more times you fail, the harder it becomes for you to succeed. But the fact that you're still here means you still have a chance to pull this off. So, Princess. Dangerous. Cabin. Slay. Now! - When the Narrator admits that your perception of the Princess can change her, the Voice of the Paranoid starts chanting "Make her small" over and over, only to panic and wondering if he's just making her stronger. Given the Apotheosis is a giant, it either didn't work or actually made her stronger.
- The Voice of the Paranoid apparently has a complete mental breakdown and keeps ranting about how reality isn't real while giggling to himself. It's to the point where the Voice of the Hero gets concerned.Voice of the Hero: Are you okay?Voice of the Paranoid: Of course I'm not okay! I've never been okay! But maybe I needed to never be okay for us to make this happen!
- If you have the Voice of the Contrarian and you throw the blade at the Apotheosis' eye, she lets out a scream and use her holy light to incinerate you.The Narrator: The inferno incinerates everything that is you, and with it... no. No, that's not right! Why is it hot? I'm not supposed to be able to feel anything oh no, oh no no no no no... [fades away]
Arms Race and Mutually Assured Destruction/No Way Out and The Empty Cup Routes
- After the first death at the Razor's hand, the Voice of the Cheated snaps and cuts off the Narrator with a swear filled rant to skip the introduction and get to the cabin. And then he actually wills the player into the cabin, taking the Narrator by surprise.The Narrator: You're on a path in the woods—
Voice of the Cheated: No, fuck that! If we're going to have to keep doing this over and over and over again, we're not starting in the goddamn woods every time. We're starting in the fucking cabin.
The Narrator: You're what?!
(Smash Cut to inside the cabin)
The Narrator: The interior of the cabin is sharp, a constricting mess of curved and battered sheet metal pushing you towards—wait, excuse me?! What just happened? What did you just do?
Voice of the Hero: I feel dizzy.- The Narrator variants are altogether bewildered for this route. He's reset not just at the start of the chapter but every time the Player is killed, and that's a lot of times.The Narrator (after you’re killed for the third time): You're on a— No, you’re in a— where the hell are you?
- The Narrator variants are altogether bewildered for this route. He's reset not just at the start of the chapter but every time the Player is killed, and that's a lot of times.
- As you enter the cabin in Chapter III, you are inevitably confronted with the mirror blocking your path. If you have the Broken with you, he'll object to the idea of touching it and demands that the Player moves it away without looking, believing that "[they] all look awful after dying twice". Inevitably, you are forced to touch it, and the Broken responds with a long and drawn-out pitiful groan.
- If you didn't take the pristine blade in Chapter II, the Contrarian will automatically throw it out the window at the start of Chapter III. A few minutes later, when you confront the Razor, she'll taunt you about not having a weapon, and the Contrarian will immediately speak up, saying that whoever got rid of it was extremely silly.Voice of the Hero: That was you!
Voice of the Contrarian: I know! I'm just trying to add some levity to this.- The other Voices refusing to let the Contrarian live down throwing away their only weapon becomes a Running Gag for the rest of the chapter, with the Contrarian weakly trying to claim it will be funny in retrospect. At the beginning of Chapter IV, he caps this off by complaining that the blade refusing to respawn is the universe's sick idea of a joke on him.
- If the Contrarian and the Paranoid are there, the Paranoid will get fed up with the Contrarian and the Cheated's constant bickering and claim a corner for himself just so he can get away from them.Voice of the Paranoid: Oh. Is this how things are going to be now? All of us vying over a single body? Fine. See this corner? It's mine. And I'd better not see any of you trying to invade my personal space!
[some time later]
Voice of the Paranoid: I take it back. Having my own corner clearly isn't working because I can still hear you three yelling at each other! - You can still try to flirt with the Razor after she's established to be hellbent on killing the Hero. The other voices are really unsure about this decision; the Cheated only decides to roll with it to see where it goes.[Give her The Look]
Voice of the Hero: The Look?
Voice of the Hunted: The Look. We've all used it.
Voice of the Cheated: Yeah, do you not know about The Look?
Voice of the Broken: Even I know about The Look.
The Narrator: You flash the Princess The Look.
...and a rosy blush rushes to the Princess' cheeks as she breaks into a wide grin. Unbelievable.
The Razor: Oh? Is that how it is? Yeah, okay, I feel that. I like you too. Neat!
Voice of the Cheated: I'll be damned. This is actually going to work, isn't it?
The Razor: Still going to kill you, but now we can enjoy a mutual romantic subtext to the murder!
Voice of the Hero: ...Or not.- The other voices may not be sure about flirting with the Razor, but aside from the Hero and the Hunted they're not exactly against it. Apparently, almost all of the voices with you in this route are into her.Voice of the Broken: She doesn't want us.
Voice of the Contrarian: You're just saying that because you want her to be into you.
Voice of the Broken: I know. I thought I was being obvious.Voice of the Stubborn: I'm into it.
Voice of the Cheated: I can't say I mind either. If it weren't for all the cheating, I'd say she's pretty cute. - Note that it's The Contrarian who calls out The Broken. Who better to point out when someone else's inner feelings are in contradiction with their very nature?
- If you chose to fight her head on previously, the Voice of the Stubborn will appear at the start of the next chapter and if you choose to give her "The Look" he will drop these golden responses:Voice of the Stubborn: The Look, eh? So we're getting serious about this.Voice of the Stubborn: Oh, I like her. I like her a lot!
- The Contrarian teasing the Paranoid by implying that he'd enjoy flirting with the Razor, despite the latter voice's obvious fear of her. The Paranoid is not amused.Voice of the Paranoid: Maybe it'll work! Maybe it'll throw her off. I know I'd be thrown off if she started flirting with us.
Voice of the Contrarian: Yeah, because you'd be into it.
Voice of the Paranoid: No comment. - Regardless of how you chose to flirt with the Razor, she'll charge you, blades sprouting out of her arms, but with the goofy blush and grin still plastered across her face.
- The other voices may not be sure about flirting with the Razor, but aside from the Hero and the Hunted they're not exactly against it. Apparently, almost all of the voices with you in this route are into her.
- If you came down to the basement to confront the Razor again without a knife (thanks to the Contrarian throwing it out the window on a whim), attempting to fight her will result in her mocking you before she decides to give you a free shot for the heck of it, right before you proceed to punch her in the face. It doesn't work, since she retaliates and skewers you anyway, but the sight of you punching the Princess is still a very amusing sight.The Razor (in a fake monotone): Ow ow ow ow ow! That hurt! What are your bones made of, metal? ... Because mine are.
The Narrator: Before you can react, she returns a punch of her own, only it isn't really a 'punch.'
Voice of the Cheated: Yes, we all know she has swords for arms. We have eyes.
The Narrator: Well, she skewers you.
Voice of the Hero: Ow. - Choosing to "not feel anything" with the Paranoid present gives you this line from the Cheated:Voice of the Paranoid: If we can't feel things, how are we supposed to know what's true?
The Narrator: You could always just trust what I tell you.
Voice of the Cheated: Ha! No.- Choosing to "not feel" with the Broken and Contrarian has the latter call the former out on his constant misery:Voice of the Cheated: Sure! Why the hell not! Let's see if we can turn off the part of us that feel things.
Voice of the Broken: I turned that off ages ago...
Voice of the Contrarian: If you'd managed to do that, you wouldn't be such a whiner.- And the end result of "not feeling anything":The Narrator: And then she skewers you.
Voice of the Hero: And? Does it hurt?
Voice of the Cold: [spawns in] No.
- And the end result of "not feeling anything":
- Choosing to "not feel" with the Broken and Contrarian has the latter call the former out on his constant misery:
- If you try to butter up the Princess, you'll simply be met with her single-minded defiance. If the Contrarian is present, this will make him suddenly realise how irritating he can be:Voice of the Contrarian: Is this what it's like dealing with me?
Voice of the Cheated: Yeah, it is. You're the worst one of us. You know that, right?- Even better, if you also have the Broken with you, the Contrarian will take the opportunity to criticize him once again:Voice of the Broken: We're screwed. Again. I'll see you all when we die.
Voice of the Contrarian: Really? I'm the worst one? Do you hear how whiny and un-fun he is?
- Even better, if you also have the Broken with you, the Contrarian will take the opportunity to criticize him once again:
- One of the options that also comes up is: "She wins by killing us, right? So let's beat her to it!" You skewer yourself to no visible outcome, resulting in the Voice of the Contrarian joining you, and the Voice of the Cheated getting disappointed that you can't off yourself.
- Choosing to panic unsurprisingly achieves absolutely nothing. Afterwards, the Paranoid will show up and sheepishly apologize for letting his fear take over:Voice of the Paranoid: (sounding embarrassed) Sorry about that. I... gave into a bit of a fear response there, and I don't think it was very helpful...
- With every death, you spontaneously reincarnate and have a new Voice joining the crowd. If you have the knife on you, you enter a montage of the Razor repeatedly stabbing and the Narrator repeating the words "she skewers you" as you try your utmost to fight back. Within the next options to engage, you can still skewer yourself, though it will happen somewhere in the montage eventually. Naturally, it's the Contrarian who suggested it.It doesn't work, and she kills you again. And again, and again, and again. Your memory blurs as your consciousness leaps from life to life to life, holding only snippets of the conflict that transpires.
The Narrator: And then, you skewer yourself.
The Razor: I thought we both understood that dying doesn't get you anywhere.
Voice of the Contrarian: Huh. That didn't do much of anything. We're tougher than I thought.- If you didn't flirt with her before she kills you for the third time, you'll end up doing so anyway in the montage:Voice of the Smitten: Compliment her on those gleaming blades! There's nothing better than a capable woman.
The Narrator: She skewers you.
The Razor: You're cute.
- If you didn't flirt with her before she kills you for the third time, you'll end up doing so anyway in the montage:
- When the Razor reveals her final form that's entirely razor blades, each Voice has their opinion of the result:
- The Voice of the Smitten is still madly in love with her. Surprisingly there is one voice that agrees, the Voice of the Stubborn.Voice of the Smitten: She's gorgeous! Absolutely divine!
Voice of the Stubborn: Yes! Behold, the perfect woman! - Much like in "The Stranger" route, the Contrarian suggests throwing the Pristine Blade out the window just for fun. (And if you didn't initially take the blade with you into the basement in the second chapter, he will in the third.) When the Razor reveals her final form, which is a skeleton of blades built around a beating heart, he wonders aloud if they can throw her out the window.
- In Mutually Assured Destruction, The Voice of the Opportunist is disappointed that she doesn't have a back anymore so she can't be stabbed in it.
- The Voice of the Cheated, true to his Sore Loser nature, just decides to Rage Quit:Voice of the Cheated: We're screwed. I quit! I'm done! Forget it!
- The Voice of the Smitten is still madly in love with her. Surprisingly there is one voice that agrees, the Voice of the Stubborn.
- The rest of the Voices simultaneously freak out, and everything descends into a cacophony of arguments until the only option you're left with is to shut them all out. The Narrator is surprised at the sudden tranquility, but he doesn't get to properly react before another dialogue option appears: "[Him, too.]"
- There's also the fact that the entire route can be summed up as "You and the Voices resort to Save Scumming to try and slay the Razor". The Narrator becomes increasingly annoyed at them skipping the scenery and his prose about them:The Narrator: Fine! I'll just shut up then and speed this whole thing along! Are you sure you don't want me to describe the stairs? Or the room? Or anything? It feels like I'm hardly a part of this.
- On the final iteration of this route, the Narrator gets fed up with being overridden by the Cheated and decides to just hand the reins over to the Voices. Once you meet with the Razor who's ready to "show you something", nothing happens as the Narrator is still idle, quietly humming a tune to himself, and the Voices have to coax him to return to get the story to progress.
- If you didn't take the blade with you in Chapter II, the battle with the Razor ends with her being reduced to a disembodied heart that's still beating in your hands when a divine wind starts blowing. When the wind blows, that's usually a telltale sign of the Shifting Mound taking a vessel with her many hands (as with many Princesses). Here, when the Razor is just a heart? Only a single hand appears from the portal, snatches the heart from yours with a "yoink", and pulls it back in. Pretty funny and playful.
Cage Route
- If the Skeptic killed you against your wishes in the Prisoner's chapter, the Narrator will quickly be interrupted by an absolutely outraged "Are you fucking kidding me?!" from the Cheated. Apparently he did not take losing his "happy ending" very kindly.The Narrator: You're on a path in the wo—
Voice of the Cheated: Are you fucking kidding me? We had everything we ever could have wanted and you killed us?
Voice of the Skeptic: We didn't have 'everything we ever could have wanted.' That's just what He told us. I want the truth, not some made-up eternal happiness.
Voice of the Cheated: But it was nice! Who gives a shit about truth?
Voice of the Skeptic: I do. He said we were happy, but what does happiness like that even mean? It was just another prison.
Voice of the Cheated: And this isnt?! There are chains everywhere.
Voice of the Skeptic: That just means we're on the right track, you numbskull. That we're finally starting to see reality for what it is.
Voice of the Hero: Can you two stop fighting? It's not very productive.
The Narrator: No, it isn't, is it? So let's focus up. *sigh* You've clearly already been here before, and judging by how deranged you all are, you're already been here more than once. I'll spare you my full introduction, but I would like to remind you that the people in my world are living, breathing, suffering entities and not pawns for you to sacrifice in pursuit of some vague truth. - If you get the Broken as your new voice, he'll be characteristically morbid and depressed. But when the Skeptic tells him to toughen up, he'll indignantly call the other voices a bunch of freaks while pointing out that being morbid and depressed is actually a perfectly reasonable response to seeing a woman cut her own head off and then being forced to kill yourself. It's a great line in itself, and even funnier with the realization things have reached the point that The Voice Of The Broken has ended up the Only Sane Man.
- If you have the Paranoid with you, he'll team up with the Skeptic to stop you from throwing away the blade. The Hero will try to protest, only to be interrupted as the Paranoid does... something to him.Voice of the Hero: Hey, what are you- Are you serious? That's no fair, let me go!
Voice of the Paranoid: Sorry! Has to be done.- The choices presented to you next have three greyed-out options atop the last (only) option that show the protagonist internally fuming, but unable to do anything about it:Are you seriously not letting me toss it?
Real mature.
When this goes sideways, it's on the two of you.
Fine. Then I guess we're keeping it. - Even better, if you pick the last choice:The Narrator: Yes, great. Now will you get to the cabin already? In case you've forgotten, the Princess, the fate of the entire world, et cetera et cetera.
- The choices presented to you next have three greyed-out options atop the last (only) option that show the protagonist internally fuming, but unable to do anything about it:
- If you decide to tell the Narrator that you weren't happy with the eternity of "bliss" he put you through and the Skeptic chimes in that you weren't happy with his "happy little prison", the Narrator gets flabbergasted: after all, it has "happy" right there in the name!
- If you ask Him of the Princess, "Are you sure we even need to slay her? She cut her own head off last time", you get this:The Narrator: She what?! Why would she ever do that? She's not supposed to be suicidal. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. More importantly, if she did 'cut her own head off,' why are you here?! You shouldn't have died. You should be enjoying your reward.
Voice of the Paranoid: We killed ourself. Obviously. You were insisting that we were happy, but we knew we weren't. We could see right through you.
Voice of the Skeptic: Yeah, what he said. We weren't about to be stuck somewhere, being fed nonstop bullshit forever. We want answers, and we weren't gonna find them in your fake little paradise.
The Narrator: There are no answers to find! If she was dead, then that was it, that was the solution. All you managed to do was reset the board, and you put the pieces back all wrong while you were at it. This is probably worse for you, if I had to guess.
Voice of the Skeptic: Ha. So there is a board.- If you got the Voice of the Cheated when you asked this or any other question, you get this:Voice of the Cheated: I was fine with it, but that spiteful bastard gave us a heart attack and killed us. For no reason!
Voice of the Skeptic: I had a great reason, we were stuck with no answers! And now we're not. You're welcome.
Voice of the Cheated: And you don't think we're stuck now? We're still in a cage, it's just bigger.
Voice of the Hero: You know, if you think about it, isn't life just a really big cage?
The Narrator: Oh don't you start philosophizing! Just get to the cabin and settle this already! - Even weirder is that the Voice of the Hero is starting to sound like the Voice of the Cheated on "You know..." before quickly going back to his normal accent and tone, as if his voice actor kinda fumbles a bit on the accent and tone itself.
- If you got the Voice of the Cheated when you asked this or any other question, you get this:
- When you get to the cabin, Skeptic says that "it's time to check in with the missus", much to the Narrator's shock. Between the narrator's confusion, the implication that the Skeptic took the infamously romance-free Prisoner route as a marriage, and the general Mood Whiplash of the random joke with the otherwise bleak and morbid route, it comes off as surprisingly hilarious.
- The Cheated viciously mocking the Narrator's usual response to the mirror (if you examined it beforehand in the Prisoner route). Considering how many times the player is likely to have heard the mirror dialogue, it's both hilarious and cathartic.Voice of the Cheated: Oh, not the damn mirror again. I hate the mirror. It gets us nowhere!
The Narrator: [confused] 'The... mirror'—
Voice of the Cheated: "What mirror? There is no mirror! Why would I lie about there being a mirror?" Whose fucking idea was this? It's awful.
Voice of the Skeptic: I'm sure whoever put it there put it there for a reason. It's obviously important. It has to be. - Unlike almost every other route, there's no staircase to the basement. Instead, the room itself is an open pit— something you only notice once you've already stepped into it. As you fall, your body is impaled with metal hooks, you're strung up and bound with chains, and immediately find yourself face-to-bloody-neck-stump with the Cage. Even in a situation this dire, the Narrator can't help but throw in an "If the Princess lives here, slaying her would probably be doing her a favor."
- If you have both the Skeptic and the Paranoid here, that means that the Voice who's constantly distrustful and trying to notice anything that sticks out, and the Voice who's always obsessively looking for threats, both fail to notice that the cabin doesn't have a floor, just loose chains.
- If you try to cut yourself out of the chains, the Paranoid and the Hero have figured out the Clap Your Hands If You Believe aspect of the Construct and try to will themselves into accepting the plan will succeed. Alas, the Skeptic is still unconvinced, and is firmly sure the chains are too thick. Cut to them frantically trying to convince Skeptic, with the Paranoid trying "er...it just does?", and the Hero coming up with ever more contrived Hand Waves for why the chains can be cut with a small knife, sounding for all the world like a player-character trying to talk his GM around. (Maybe they're rusty! He's pretty sure rust was mentioned! And maybe the weight is stretching the links!)
- If you still have the blade with you and the Voice of the Cheated is here, the Cage uses her chains to drop it. The Cheated realizes that this was all doomed from the start.Voice of the Cheated: Ahahahahahaha. Well at least she gets it. This whole damn thing's a pile of flaming bullshit and there's nothing we can do to put it out!
- The Narrator realizes this whole endeavor was doomed from the start. If you reconcile with the Princess and start to escape together (carrying her head), unlike in every non-Happily Ever After route he doesn't talk about last-second ways to turn it around and isn't angry, just resigned and thinking it's his duty to narrate the ending. But, when you ascend from the pit and talk to the Cage rather than making your way out immediately, she'll jokingly suggest throwing her back down into the pit. Which you can then do. The Narrator comments, with genuine surprise, that he hadn't even included that as an option for dealing with the Princess!
- After convincing the Cage to free herself (and you), the Skeptic, feeling triumphant, will get a bit too into his Hardboiled Detective shtick and try to give The Summation in hilariously hammy fashion as if he were unmasking a Scooby-Doo villain, leading to a priceless line before the other voices shut him up.Voice of the Skeptic: Looks like we've seen through your lies at last, Mr. The Narrator. If that even is your real name.
Voice of the Cheated: Oh shut up. We got lucky. And you especially got lucky.
Voice of the Hero: Both of you talk too much. Give her a chance to say what she wants to say. I'm sick of treating this like some puzzle or bullshit game. - If you lead the Cage into her freedom with the Voice of the Cheated around, we get this:Voice of the Cheated: Ha. Haha. Hahahahahaha. We did it! That wasn't so bad! ... Now I guess we'll need to find a new game to play.
- The thing that determines whether you can throw the knife away in "The Cage" is how eagerly you accepted death in the "happy ending" last chapter, with the options where you refuse to kill yourself and either let or force the Skeptic to do it for you giving you the Broken or the Cheated respectively and thus allowing you to do it. In other words, you can be cut out of one of the happier endings in this route (and two achievements) by not being whiny enough.
Den Route
- If you have the Voice of the Stubborn around, you can try smashing the mirror blocking the entrance hole for added hilarity!
- If you manage to get the Princess stuck in the tunnel of her lair, the Narrator gives you a soulful description of the pleading look in her eyes...before telling you to ignore it and slay her. The voices indignantly demand to know why He told you that.The Narrator: It's not my fault her eyes had something to say!
- If you and the Den end up buried in her basement, the Hero will worry that thinking about the tunnel collapsing somehow collapsed the tunnel, leading to this great moment of meta self-deprecation.Voice of the Skeptic: It was physics. You can't change things just by thinking about them, that's ridiculous.
- While the route where you escape together with the Den is both awesome and heartwarming, the Narrator's ever-increasing pettiness with you bonding with the Princess as you both (figuratively and literally) claw your way to escape provides some amusing levity, especially with the Voices continuously shutting him up and how his attempts to convince you that the Den doesn't care about you end up failing miserably.
- At one point, when the Den seemingly abandons you to your fate once you successfully dig your way to freedom, the Narrator smugly rubs it in that the Den's bond with you was merely an alliance of convenience, and that she left you to die the moment she got what she wanted. However, the Voice of the Hunted then states that he hears her coming back, as the Narrator in panic tries to brush it off, only for the Den to reveal herself, netting a glorious response from the Skeptic.Voice of the Skeptic: How many times do you have to be wrong before you stop talking?
- At one point, when the Den seemingly abandons you to your fate once you successfully dig your way to freedom, the Narrator smugly rubs it in that the Den's bond with you was merely an alliance of convenience, and that she left you to die the moment she got what she wanted. However, the Voice of the Hunted then states that he hears her coming back, as the Narrator in panic tries to brush it off, only for the Den to reveal herself, netting a glorious response from the Skeptic.
Eye of the Needle Route
- As you approach the cabin, you are told that there is no time to scream.Voice of the Hero: I don't know. Screaming sounds pretty good right about now. I could use a little catharsis.
Voice of the Hunted: Catharsis is for when we're finished. For now, we need to hold it out in front of us, something to chase. - If you attempted to free the Adversary in the last chapter, the Voice of the Stubborn is so tired of the Narrator's bullying that he wants to help bust the Princess out now.The Narrator: You know what? I should have tried to intervene earlier, because I can't let you do that, I won't—
Voice of the Stubborn: Tough shit. We're the ones in control here.
The Narrator: [grumbling noises]
Voice of the Stubborn: Yeah, doesn't feel nice to be yanked around against your will, does it? - While most of the route is rather serious, if you manage to lure the Princess out of the cabin and then taunt her about how she fell into your trap, she'll deliver an answer that sounds hilarious out of context:The Eye of the Needle: Oh, we'll see about that! Traps aren't real. The only thing that's real is bloodshed.
Fury Route
- If you got here by killing the Tower, instead of the first thing you hear being the Narrator starting his spiel, you start with the Voice of the Broken sobbing hysterically over the Tower's death, which throws the Narrator off as he starts and makes the other voices uncomfortable.Voice of the Broken: [moaning and sobbing]
The Narrator: You're on a path in the woods, and at the end of the path—okay, what the hell is that?
Voice of the Broken: [continued sobbing]
Voice of the Hero: I think he's upset.
Voice of the Stubborn: And what's he got to be upset about? We just killed a god.
Voice of the Broken: Exactly! You heathens destroyed the most beautiful thing that ever was and ever will be.
Voice of the Hero: I can't say I have much sympathy for you. She was bad for us, and you almost got us killed.
Voice of the Stubborn: You're being too generous. He did get us killed. - If you got here by disappointing the Adversary, the Contrarian says being killed by her had been "a great way to go."Voice of the Stubborn: Does it matter? We lost.
Voice of the Contrarian: Oh, why so glum, rage-boy? I thought you were brave! I thought you were proud! Or was all that bravado just hot air?
Voice of the Stubborn: Look, it's just — the fight was better the first time.- Attempting to take the Pristine Blade results in the Contrarian teasing the Stubborn about not wanting to fight fair, until the Stubborn throws the blade out the window himself and forces the stunned Narrator to, well, narrate it. All of this happens without your input, and one of your reactions is to just silently fume about it like in the Cage:
- If you skipped commenting on the mirror the first time, when the Narrator goes on his usual spiel of saying there is no mirror, Contrarian interjects by asking if they were playing a game where they lie to people about things, and goes on to say that he respects and admires everyone and is happy to be here. The Narrator only responds with a Flat "What".
- Depending on your choices, particularly if you choose to engage with the Fury, the Curb-Stomp Battle in her favor can be quite humorous for how much of an Anti-Climax it is.Voice of the Stubborn: It's now or never, let's make it a beautiful blaze of glory!
[Cue the Fury instantly turning the player's organs inside out as the music comes to an abrupt halt.]
The Narrator: With a horrifying squelch, you are unwound. - In the updated version of the Adversary-Fury's route given by the Pristine Cut, the Voice of the Stubborn can deliver this unusual sentence when the Narrator is counting how the Fury is reducing the Player to sub atomic particles.Voice of the Stubborn: You can't just count us into oblivion.
- The Hero's response to being "unwound", reduced to a mangled pile of meat, possibly forever?
- The Contrarian's response to the Hero's reaction to being "unwound" takes the cake if you have the former one:Voice of the Contrarian: Pah, who needs 'stuff' anyway? Look at us! We might be all over the place, but we're fiiiiiine.
- The Contrarian's response to the Hero's reaction to being "unwound" takes the cake if you have the former one:
- After getting unwound by the Fury, if you have the Contrarian and Stubborn with you, you can choose to keep pushing further and further, with the Fury stripping off more and more of your body as the Contrarian, Stubborn and even the Fury herself goad you to keep going while the Hero keeps complaining about how much getting your skin, tissue and muscles ripped away hurts. Eventually, you get reduced to a skeleton, and you have the option to still keep pushing, with the Contrarian pointing out how cool that is. At this point, the Fury disintegrates your skeleton, too, erasing the Narrator mid-narration. None of the voices are bothered by this.Voice of the Hero: Until what?
Voice of the Contrarian: I think [the Narrator] gave up on us.
Voice of the Stubborn: Figures. He always seemed weak to me.- If you give up during the stripping procedure, you get treated to this:Voice of the Contrarian: Boooooo!
Voice of the Stubborn: Yeah, what he said. Boo! - Even after all of that, you still have the option to slay the Fury despite the fact that you don't have any type of physical presence anymore. In a rare moment of solidarity, both the Stubborn and the Contrarian support this decision.Voice of the Hero: What are we supposed to do, hit her with nothing?
Voices of the Stubborn and Contrarian: ...
Voices of the Stubborn and Contrarian: Yes.
- If you give up during the stripping procedure, you get treated to this:
- If you came here from the Tower, then after being unmade, the Voice of the Stubborn comes up with a simple solution: just die and respawn. Cue a sequence of the Fury repeatedly unmaking the player, only for them to reappear instantly back in the room, much to the confusion of the Narrator, who (from his perceptive) is starting a new route once more, with the player midway through already trying to slay the princess. Stubborn refuses to give him a speck of context, demanding faster narration with each new body.
- The montage is also accompanied by Voices appearing and disappearing just as quickly, with two references to the Razor: The Smitten reacts to the Fury the exact same way he reacts to the Razor's final form, and the Cheated is baffled that they aren't starting on a path in the woods.The Narrator: You're on a path—
Voice of the Cheated: [interrupts] We are not on a fucking path! I have no idea where we are! - During all this time, the Narrator tries to say his opening Catchphrase before either stopping himself the first time you die and are reborn or getting interrupted by each voice every subsequent time, up to the point of exaggeration. But during the final time, when the Fury starts atomizing you into nothing and the Voice of the Cold is present, the Stubborn insists that you can still slay her while what's left of your body still remains; this is when the Narrator starts going for the closing Character Catchphrase as the wind of the Shifting Mound begins to blow...The Narrator: But it doesn't last. You are disintegrated. Everything goes dark—
But there is no you to die.
- The montage is also accompanied by Voices appearing and disappearing just as quickly, with two references to the Razor: The Smitten reacts to the Fury the exact same way he reacts to the Razor's final form, and the Cheated is baffled that they aren't starting on a path in the woods.
- The torture you and the Voices can get put through is horrifying. But if the Voice of the Contrarian is there, he leaves so soon it becomes funny again. At this point, the pain from the torture hasn't even started, so it appears that the Contrarian got so bored from waiting he gave up existing.
- Bringing the Voice of the Cold gets some funny moments too, such as his nonplussed, Seen It All reaction to the Meat Moss environment:Voice of the Cold: It's just meat. If you cut us open, I'm sure we'd look the same inside.
Voice of the Hero: That's why it's horrible!- His reaction to being tortured by the Fury, meanwhile, is to comment that the most torturous part of the whole ordeal is the waiting. And as the Voice of the Hero gives up and fades out, what is the Cold's response? A bored sigh. Followed by the Stubborn's strong "YES!".
Grey Route
- In the Burned Grey route, having the passionate Voice of the Smitten and the detached Voice of the Cold together in one place is a recipe for funny bickering. It's one of the few times the Hero and the Narrator are on the same page, considering the two drastic personalities they need to contend with.Voice of the Smitten: You killed her. And so I killed you.
Voice of the Cold: And you clearly didn't do a good enough job. I'm still here.
Voice of the Hero: Oh, and I'm still here too. - And while the Voice of the Smitten and Voice of the Cold are arguing, the Narrator tries to get a word in, but they just talk over him.Voice of the Smitten: I'll make you feel what I feel if it's the last thing I do! And mark my words, you won't like it when it happens!
Voice of the Cold: Oh, how exciting. I'd love to see you try.
The Narrator: Can I-
Voice of the Smitten: Well I'm not just going to try. I'm going to actually do it! - When the Princess' ghost locks the basement and sets it on fire so she and the player can be Together in Death:Voice of the Smitten: See! Everything's fine! She wants to be with us.
Voice of the Hero: Yeah. In a bad way.
Voice of the Smitten: She just has a unique way of expressing things! - The Smitten's loosening grip on reality is normally played as scary and tragic, but it does lead to this great line. The delivery really sells it, with the normally flamboyant and overblown Smitten speaking the end of third sentence in a very fast, businesslike voice as if trying to avoid drawing attention to it.What foul trickery is this? How can this be? We just saw her alive and well a moment ago... floating away transparently!
- The Burned Grey has trapped you in the cabin, and she makes you join her in being burned alive. All the while the Voice of the Cold likes the idea that being burned alive doesn't hurt, while the Voice of the Smitten is still being delusional.Voice of the Cold: See? That wasn't so bad.
Voice of the Hero: It was so bad! But somehow, the nothing is so much worse.
Voice of the Cold: You'll get used to it.
Voice of the Smitten: There are still the feelings of the heart. Those never go away.
Voice of the Cold: Oh, they always do in the end. You just haven't experienced enough. Eventually you'll want them to stop, too. You'll make them stop. Trust me. - If you ended up in the Drowned Grey route after you refused to reject the Narrator's reward for slaying the Prisoner (not letting her cut her own head off, of course), you can choose this:The Player: I'll have you know that I didn't want to kill myself last time.
The Narrator: That's great to hear, but it doesn't matter, because you still died.
Voice of the Skeptic: No hard feelings, right?
Voice of the Cold: Of course not. No feelings at all.
Voice of the Hero: Speak for yourself.
Voice of the Skeptic: What, you wanted us to stay in the happiness void forever? I doubt that.
Happily Ever After
- As the Narrator starts his usual "You're on a path in the woods" spiel, the Voice of the Hero immediately snarkily points out that this isn't the case, catching him off-guard.The Narrator: You're on a path in the woods-
Voice of the Hero: Mate, we're clearly already in the cabin.
The Narrator: Excuse me? You're clearly... oh. Huh. So you are. How do you know about the cabin? I didn't get to the cabin part of my opening monologue yet. - Should you reach the chapter with the Voice of the Skeptic, the Voice of the Hero hypothesizes that you only get one "bonus" voice per loop, noting the Voice of the Smitten's absence. The Skeptic is offended by being called a "bonus" voice, but the Hero stands by his statement, claiming he's been here every loop, while trying to spare the Skeptic's feelings. The Narrator meanwhile grows impatient to proceed with his usual spiel:The Narrator: I'm going to describe the room now.
- If you ask a question on how no one is going to talk about the mirror, you get the Voice of the Skeptic's witty-yet-suspicious response:Voice of the Skeptic: Oh, I see it. I've just been preoccupied with everything else going on. Like the fact that we can rip our own heart out without deciding that's what we're going to do!
- When you get back to the cabin, the Princess greets you with a "You're home. Dinner's ready." The Narrator is torn between avoiding giving you too much information and trying to figure out just what the hell happened in the last loop.
- The Narrator is forced to admit that if the Princess lives here, slaying her is definitely not doing her a favour. When the Voice of the Hero asks if this means they don't need to kill her, you get this undeniable but highly unusual counterargument:"No, you absolutely do. Just because she lives in a nice, exit-less house doesn't mean that she doesn't pose a direct threat to all of reality. It's in her very nature."
- The Smitten's overzealous hospitality: forcing you to take a seat and resetting the feast in an attempt to keep you and the Princess entertained. The Voice of the Skeptic is uneasy about being caught in the whole setup; conversely the Voice of the Opportunist is gleeful at getting things for free.
- If the Voice of the Opportunist is there when you start playing games with the Princess, he immediately forgets about the horrifying nature of their existence in favor of winning the game against the Princess.The Narrator: Time passes, you play the game. You win.
Voice of the Opportunist: Boom! And there you have it! What did I tell you, am I great at games or am I great at games? - Speaking of the Voice of the Opportunist, if you get him in this route and try to leave the Cabin at the beginning of the route and find it blocked, he'll "agree" with the Narrator that it's convenient that the wall is there because it means that you're quickly "crossing off avenues of exploration", obviously trying to suck up to the Narrator at that moment. The Narrator will then exclaim that he's starting to like him, causing the Voice of the Hero to express his own amusement through snarking.The Narrator: You know, I'm starting to like you.
Voice of the Hero: Because he's blowing smoke up your ass?
The Narrator: Because he's being reasonable. - If you help the Princess break free from the illusion, it ends with the once luxurious cabin being plunged into cold darkness after all its delights are finally eroded into nothing. You're sat in the dark, the only sound the Princess sobbing hysterically, the Smitten gone and maybe never to return. You have a variety of dialogue options here, most of them compassionate or empathetic, and some apologetic. But the one that sticks out in the middle?
- If you decide to slay the Princess after exposing her to the truth, the Narrator questions your motives of whether or not you want to kill her. The Voice of the Skeptic seems more suspicious about the Narrator's sudden change in behavior.Voice of the Skeptic: [in stunning dismay] This is... this is some sort of trick! You're trying to use reverse psychology on us. Or... what if this is reverse-reverse psychology?
The Moment of Clarity
- Despite the seriousness of the route, every Voice being present leads to quite a few funny interactions, including large arguments with the Voices taking different sides, or the Voices ganging up on the Narrator collectively.
- The Opportunist ranking all the other voices if you decide to do nothing but stay here (until the Shifting Mound appears), calling the Broken "the worst" and backhandedly complimenting the Paranoid ("The jumpy one tries.").Voice of the Stubborn: Who cares? All of you just yap about nothing.
Voice of the Opportunist: Now that kind of attitude is why you're in the top half.
Voice of the Stubborn: Great.
Voice of the Opportunist: And that's why you're not the top.
- The Opportunist ranking all the other voices if you decide to do nothing but stay here (until the Shifting Mound appears), calling the Broken "the worst" and backhandedly complimenting the Paranoid ("The jumpy one tries.").
- After you take the Moment of Clarity's hand, the Narrator describes it like this. It's worth noting that this is a route with almost no romance in it, making this line come out of nowhere on the Narrator's part.The Narrator: You extend your hand to hers. For all her past cruelties, the moment feels gentle, tender even. I can't believe you just made me say that. I hate you.
The Princess and The Dragon
- When you're first brought into the Princess' mind, any option you pick will alert her to your presence.
- Even picking [Say Nothing] results in:The Sharp Princess: 'Say nothing'...? Was that...you? Great. So you hitched a ride.
- Even picking [Say Nothing] results in:
- If you keep asking what else there is to do but wait, an annoyed Princess will tell you that she's going to stop answering until you say something else, even the gentle version of her tells you that you've become a broken record (queue achievement: "You don't have to keep picking the same option"). The harsh version of the Princess will start humming to drown out the repetition.
- The Princess comes up with the chapter title for this one herself. You have the option to be really psyched about being called a dragon, protest that you thought you were "some sort of... bird?", or call her an egotist for giving herself top billing.
- This route shows you what the game's constant use of Talking Is a Free Action looks like outside of your own head when the Long Quiet arrives in the basement, and spends several minutes just standing there, only giving a Quizzical Tilt. You can speculate that this is because the Voices are all arguing with each other in there, and add that you didn't realise it happened in real time, leading the Princess to ask if that's why you're always silently staring at her.
- While simultaneously horrifying it's somewhat amusing seeing the voices you've been acquainted with arguing over themselves about how they want to deal with you and the Princess.
- If you ended up with the soft Princess, she spends the first part of the Voices' argument trying to get a word in to let them know you're trapped in her body, but keeps getting interrupted before she can say anything. In the end, she comes back to you with an adorably whiny "They're not listening to meeee..."
- If the Voices are already aware of you being inside the Princess, when you advise the soft Princess to be assertive, she ends up adorably complaining "But I don't want to be assertive!" before relenting. And her idea of being "assertive" is just to meekly ask "Um... excuse me?".
- Alternately, if the Voices still remained unaware from beginning to end about you being inside of her head and spent all the time arguing without letting the Princess speak up, that would get the soft Princess to heed your advice to be assertive and decide to forcibly bring the Voices' attention. Hearing the soft Princess unexpectedly raise her tone in such a sudden and aggressive manner after finally losing patience with the Voices can be quite amusing."HEY I SAID I'M TALKING NOW WILL YOU LISTEN TO ME?!"
- While she is shouting, the Long Quiet's body gets startled with an Eye Take, almost as if it's giving out a "WTF?!" look. Hilarious.
- If you're with the sharp Princess, then she tells the Voice of the Opportunist that she can take him and he, characteristically, waffles, suddenly realizing that she might be a threat. He'd back off, he says, but he's already over-committed so he'll just have to pretend she's bluffing! She's probably bluffing! The Princess taunts him and he says a flustered "Shut up" before rushing her.
- No matter what, the Voice of the Opportunist steps in real close with a Slasher Smile and says they've voted to slay you/the Princess. The Voice of the Hero takes control of the body... to uselessly say that it was not a unanimous decision, and then Opportunist takes over again. Thanks, Hero, big help there.
- The moment you return back to your original body and let the Voices know that by making a decision, the first thing the Voice of the Opportunist does is to immediately revert back to being a Professional Butt-Kisser he usually is, expressing joy that you're back and proclaiming that bringing you back was always his intention.
- When you decide to leave the Cabin with the Princess and the Voices welcome you back, the Opportunist declares that he missed you the most of all Voices. Voice of the Hero proceeds to call him out by pointing out that he wasn't even present before the Decider was gone.
- As you're given plenty of time to bond with the Princess this route, along with being forced to experience one of your attempts on her life from her perspective, it's likely that by the time you finally swap back into your original body, you'll have gained some empathy and won't hurt her. On the off-chance that you haven't or just want to be an ass, however, the game gives you this hilariously callous dialogue option to get right back to slaying:Good to be back, boys. [Finish the job]
- When you return to your body and choose to not slay the Princess, you can signify this by dramatically hurling the Pristine Blade to the floor. The Princess awkwardly says that while she appreciates the symbolic gesture, you do need the blade to cut her out of the chains, so you're going to have to pick it right back up.
- If you trust the gentle Princess with your blade or successfully convince the harsh Princess to spare you, she'll use it to free herself before chucking it out the window. The Narrator ends up having a breakdown as he witnesses this.The Narrator: Then, as her chains clatter to the floor, she turns her back on you and hurls the blade through the basement window, never to be seen again. No no no no no! You need the blade to deal with her!
- Speaking of the Narrator, this chapter is one of the ones where he's at his most petulant should you decide to free the Princess. He starts up a rant that likely would've lasted a lot longer and become more rage filled if he didn't fade out as quickly as he did.The Narrator: You twist the doorknob in your hand and step forward into the world you damned. You and the Princess fall to the ground, exhausted. I hope this all comes back to bite you, do you hear? I hope you're forced to feel the weight of all the regret there's ever been...
But He doesn't get to finish his thought before disappearing entirely. And you find yourself free of any of the regrets He wished upon you. - If you and the Princess end up fighting each other and the Princess has her "timid" personality, the resulting scene is a somber Heel Realization moment for both of you as you both realize how futile the cycle of violence between you is. If the Princess has her Aloof personality, other, she defensively points out that you started it when you tried to fight her when she was the Spectre.
- Opportunist is silent for this section, though the other Voices aren't - until right at the end, where he cheerfully says "To new beginnings!" as if he hadn't tried stabbing you.
- If you try to cut the soft Princess out, you immediately jump back into her body when you cut her, leading to this great little scene.The Princess, warmly: Oh. I... felt that. You're back!
Menace permeates the hollow eyes in front of you.
The Princess, horrified: ...Oh no, you're back!
Voice of the Opportunist: Sorry, girlie, but we're seeing this through! - With the harsh version of the Princess, she gains the upper hand in the fight and punches her attacker across the room, before using the knife she was just stabbed with to free herself. The voices scold each other over the comically failed attempt.Voice of the Cold: You are such a disappointment.
Voice of the Opportunist: I'd like to see you do better!- Arguably the Cold has shown he can do better depending on if you attribute the pre-Spectre actions to him or not: This whole route began with effortlessly killing the Princess in one strike.
- The Princess then unsurprisingly decides to return the knife, pointy-end first. If you tell her to wait after switching back to the body, she still resolves to stab, except for the reason that she prefers to keep you in her mind:The Princess: I'm taking you back!
- This little gem occurs regardless of whether you convinced the sharp Princess to kill you or not:The Narrator: As she closes the distance, she raises the blade to strike and...
Voice of the Hero: Kills us?
- This little gem occurs regardless of whether you convinced the sharp Princess to kill you or not:
- It's rather amusing that the Opportunist, while very effective about knifing people in the back in the Witch route, can't manage to kill the Princess in this one, despite the X-shaped scar over her heart showing him exactly where to aim. Presumably he's not used to stabbing someone in the front.
Thorn Route
- At the beginning of the path, if you decide to free the Princess, the Voice of the Opportunist kinda disagrees with your plan. The reason?Voice of the Opportunist: Well, we're not out of the game yet, are we? And again, I'll have you know I wouldn't have gotten us killed last time. I wanted to stab her in the back, not hand over our precious back-stabbing implement!
- There's something darkly funny about how, in this heartwrenching chapter about learning to rebuild trust and break the cycle of violence, you do still have the option of laughing in the Thorn's face and stabbing her again. Take that, character growth!
- Like with the Damsel and Moment of Clarity routes, the Narrator gets annoyed (again) when you cut the Thorn free from the vines and declares his hate for you (again).The Narrator: The Princess falls into your arms, tears streaking down her cheeks. I can't believe you're making me describe this. I hate you.
- The Narrator's reaction to you kissing the Thorn if you brought the Voice of the Smitten with you. His disdain with the entire situation and the other Voices' reactions to it make for one of the funniest scenes to go along with how generally heartwarming this part of the Thorn route is.Voice of the Hero: Can we actually do that?
The Narrator: No! You can't! Absolutely not!
Voice of the Smitten: You know as well as I do that we can.
Voice of the Opportunist: And we wouldn't want to throw away a chance for a special moment, now would we?
The Narrator: If I were only capable of throwing myself off a bridge.
Voice of the Smitten: Well, are you going to describe our steamy, romantic kiss?
The Narrator: Sigh. You lean in and you kiss her.
Voice of the Hero: (goadingly) ...And?
The Narrator: And she reciprocates. Enthusiastically. You kiss. It's done. Are you happy now?- Of course, such Beige Prose doesn't satisfy the Smitten and he prods the Narrator for something more passionate. The Narrator begins speaking as though he's trying to read through a script as fast as possible before slowing down for some overblown Purple Prose.Voice of the Hero: He's making fun of us.
Voice of the Smitten: It doesn't matter either way, because this is good stuff.
The Narrator: (begrudgingly) I'm aware of my skills.
- Of course, such Beige Prose doesn't satisfy the Smitten and he prods the Narrator for something more passionate. The Narrator begins speaking as though he's trying to read through a script as fast as possible before slowing down for some overblown Purple Prose.
- The Narrator's clearly waning sense of control as you free the Thorn is a highlight. The voices even note how pathetic some of his attempts to thwart your plans are.Voice of the Cheated: Is that all you've got? Threatening us with an accidental misstep? I expected more from you.
Voice of the Opportunist: Our blade didn't even waver when he said that. Yeah, you're right! He's a bit of a nobody, isn't he? Good thing I've been on your side of all this since the beginning. - The narrator continues to reluctantly describe your happy ending with the Thorn while trying to dampen it, not very successfully:The Narrator: Hands clasped, the two of you open the door, and set forth into a new day. You irredeemable murderers!
Wild Route
- If you got here by playing possum in front of the Beast, you're here with the Voice of the Contrarian, who allows that being one with the Princess is "pretty great" but isn't sure what, if anything, they can do now. Surely not just passively exist! He hates that idea. One of the options you can select at that point is [passively exist], being contrary at him.
- The Narrator agrees that the player should separate from the Princess. The Contrarian changes his mind instantly.
- If you select an Explore option and ask the Princess about the Narrator, he tries to get you and the Princess to separate from each other, trying to play the "she'll end the world" card again, which gives you another option on how to reject the Narrator and take the Princess' side..."I've had enough of this guy. How do we stop him?"
- The Voice of the Stubborn manages to offer a lot more funny quips than the Contrarian, managing to appear in both ways you can get to the route:
- If you got to the Wild by fighting the Witch even after the basement starts crushing you, he immediately starts arguing with the Opportunist.Voice of the Stubborn: And what should we have done, let you draw things out with all that conniving? Everyone knows a straight fight is best. It’s honest.
Voice of the Opportunist: There’s no need to bicker about it. I wasn’t trying to start anything. I don’t mind what happened to us. I kind of like it now that we aren’t actively being crushed.- If you forget your past conflict and manage to make a crack in the construct, the Opportunist will congratulate himself for planning this whole thing like he normally does, but the Stubborn immediately tells him that it was a team effort. Most notable is that if you got him in the Beast, he’ll just say it was a team effort.
- If you got here from killing yourself in the Beast’s stomach and choose to separate, the Stubborn has this to say:Voice of the Stubborn: At least we didn't have to sit through it to the end. But I think she owes us, don't you, lads? She barely felt more than a little indigestion when we burned away inside of her.
- If you got to the Wild by fighting the Witch even after the basement starts crushing you, he immediately starts arguing with the Opportunist.
- The Opportunist's reasoning for why he can't be one with the Princess:Voice of the Opportunist: Right. She really does hate us. And we hate her. It hurts thinking about us as separate things, but we're separate. We can't hate ourself. I love me.
Wraith Route
- If you got here from the Spectre route and claim you're even since you killed her and she killed you, she will tell you it's adorable that you forgot that the latter only happened because you tried to kill her again.
- If you teamed up with both the Cold and the Paranoid (either through the Spectre or the Nightmare), you get some tidbits on pain and survival:Voice of the Paranoid: Do we need to explain to you why pain is bad?
Voice of the Cold: You need to explain to yourself why it isn't. - A few good ones from the Opportunistic version of the route, in which the Player manages to stab the nightmare at the top of the stairs after agreeing to leave the basement.
- The Voice of the Opportunist is all for welcoming our new Princess overlord but his overly ingratiating behavior straddles the line between wanting to butter her up so the player will survive and genuinely flirting with her because she's a strong woman.Voice of the Opportunist: "We might as well ingratiate ourselves to our terrifying new overlord."
"It takes a bullshit artist to recognize a bullshit artist, and I'm one of the best in the business."
"She at least takes what she wants. She's inspirational, really."
"And look at the bright side: at least everybody knows exactly where worms stand in the pecking order! At the bottom. Which is the most important part if you think about it, because it gives everybody else something to stand on. The bedrock, if you will."
"The two of you are being incredibly rude. Hi! Hello! Welcome! I live here, along with him and him, and, well, I've never been clear on whether He lives here." - With the voice of the Opportunist, the Narrator is so exasperated that he tells you to let her out and see what happens, as there's no talking sense into the voices with you.
- After the Princess performs a Demonic Possession, the Opportunist greets her like a host at a house party. Although she's too vengeful to be swayed by his sales pitch, she still enjoys it because it makes everyone else uncomfortable. It's also funny how she briefly bickers with him over the events of the Nightmare route.The Wraith: YOU STABBED ME IN THE BACK!
Voice of the Opportunist: That was then! This is now. I'm a big fan of winners, and you're the biggest winner around.
[...]
Voice of the Hero: You should stop talking.
The Wraith: NO, HE SHOULD KEEP SAYING THESE THINGS. I LIKE TO FEEL YOU WRITHE IN DISCOMFORT. - If, on the other hand, you get the Cold, you get this exchange, both said in a uninterested monotone.Voice of the Cold: It's rather rude to show up in someone else's body and boss it around like this.
The Wraith: [through the Spectre] AND IT IS RUDE TO MURDER.
The Wraith: [through the Nightmare] AND IT IS RUDE TO LOCK SOMEBODY AWAY IN A DARK DARK BASEMENT FOREVER. IT IS RUDE TO LEAVE SOMEBODY TO ROT.
- The Voice of the Opportunist is all for welcoming our new Princess overlord but his overly ingratiating behavior straddles the line between wanting to butter her up so the player will survive and genuinely flirting with her because she's a strong woman.
- The narrator finally describes the feeling of Being Watched, after carefully avoiding doing so all through The Nightmare. If you have the Paranoid with you, he's very unimpressed.Voice of the Paranoid: Oh, do we? Do we feel like we're being watched?! I hadn't noticed!
- After the Princess breaks your ankle, the Paranoid tries to reassure himself by chanting, "this is fine, this is fine". If you came here from The Nightmare, the Hero will miss the point completely and ask him incredulously how he could possibly think that the situation is fine. If you came here from the Spectre instead, the Paranoid will start arguing with himself about whether or not everything actually is fine.
- The Narrator, in a desperate attempt to keep the Wraith from leaving, deliberately narrates such that the hallway to the exit lengthens with each step you take. The Wraith counters with her own narration which moves the door into her grasp, with a very unusual retort.YOU CANNOT DESCRIBE ME INTO SUBMISSION. THE DOOR IS RIGHT THERE.
- The Princess gets some really funny lines if you decide to chuck yourself into oblivion with her riding your body.WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT HAPPENS NOW YOU WANTED THIS.HE LEFT. GONE. IT'S JUST YOU AND YOU AND YOU AND ME. (Beat) IDIOT.
The Finale
- In your final conversation with the Narrator, you can ask why he always denied the looping. While he can't know for sure why alternate versions of himself did what they did, one theory he'll bring up is that alternate versions of himself might have had different understandings of how the construct worked where looping wasn't possible, and in a world where reality is subjective, who can truly say which perspectives are right or wrong? Except for him, of course. He knows he's right.
- If you make it all the way to the finale the Shifting Mound brings back her vessels to try and convince you to agree with her. Yes, the Damsel will still be in her deteriorated state if she got that way, and the Razor is as amusingly Ax-Crazy with her speech as ever, and if you defeated her in the "Empty Cup" route by destroying her body in the Long Quiet until all that's left is her heart, she'll appear as a disembodied heart.
- Post-Pristine Cut, if the Deconstructed Damsel (with a creepy monotone voice) is one of the five harsh vessels you brought for the "Your New World" ending, you can deliver the harsh rebuttal (in blood red text) to her as with every other harsh vessel... And it works!
- During the argument against the Shifting Mound, when she brings back the Beast vessel to argue her point, you can give her a very unheard-of rebuttal."You cannot use eating me to prove that you're right."
- If you chose to bring the dagger with you in your first entry through the cabin, a cynical Princess will await you in the cabin in the heart of the Shifting Mound. In the "And? What happens next?" ending where you leave with her, she has an amusingly Tsundere response to a Love Confession.I...love you too.
But I'm trying to not get all sappy about it! Don't make me get all emotional. - If you did bring the knife with you, and agree to the cynical princess' plan to reset the timeline, she will also return the "I love you too" response, albeit with a completely stunned expression as she stabs you with the knife you just gave her.
- The End of Everything update included adding to the "And? What happens next?" endings. The Player can choose to apologize to the Shifting Mound's Heart for hurting her on his journey and these lead to both funny and heartwarming moments.
- If you started with the Damsel, the Shifting Mound's Heart will call you sweet... and apologizes for stabbing you poorly 50ish times and that despite being possessed by the Narrator to kill her, she could've thought of doing anything that didn't involve killing you. She also looks away briefly almost as if she's embarrassed.Timid Princess: You are so sweet, but the first time we met you tried to rescue me and I stabbed you like fifty times in the chest. And you know how bad of a job I did. You were the one getting stabbed. I mean, yes, you were possessed by that freaky voice living in your head, but I also could've maybe tried doing anything else before deciding to kill you.
- If you start with the Beast:Timid Princess: Don't apologize! The first time we met I ate you! I'm really sorry about that! And I also think that it kind of outweighs anything you did to me.
- If the Long Quiet apologizes, the Princess will say no she is sorry, embarrassed about the various ways she killed him in their first encounter... but if the first encounter led to the Spectre (meaning that he just rushed over and stabbed her without a word) then she's not sorry. She didn't do anything wrong, and just accepts the apology.
- If you started with the Damsel, the Shifting Mound's Heart will call you sweet... and apologizes for stabbing you poorly 50ish times and that despite being possessed by the Narrator to kill her, she could've thought of doing anything that didn't involve killing you. She also looks away briefly almost as if she's embarrassed.
- If you ask her if she's the same as the Shifting Mound outside, the timid version of the Shifting Mound's Heart will drop this surprisingly playful and snarky line to tease the Player.Timid Princess: I am She as much as She is me and all of us are both everything and also...not everything. Hehe. I had you there for a second, didn't I?
- If you've found your way back to the Stranger's cabin, the Voice of the Contrarian joins you with the Voice of the Hero. Pick up the blade, and the Hero snarks that the Contrarian might toss it out the window again, but the Contrarian admits that there's no Narrator to mess with so it's not fun. You can still do it anyway, leaving the Contrarian both amused and proud of you.Voice of the Hero: So you're not gonna suggest we throw it out the window?
Voice of the Contrarian: No, we've been through too much for that. And He's gone, so there's no one left to mess with but ourself.
Voice of the Hero: You've gotten serious.
Voice of the Contrarian: Besides, what's the third beat? It isn't as funny if I suggest that twice.
Voice of the Hero: (upbeat) There's the guy I know.
[Throw the blade out the window.]
Voice of the Contrarian: (laughing) You actually did it! I know I just told you not to, but I'm proud that you did it anyways. It's like you've finally left the nest.
Voice of the Hero: Yeah. Just like that it's gone, isn't it? Blade tossed. Glass shattered. I guess we'll have to make do without it. There's your third beat.
Voice of the Contrarian: Hey! You're right. Good work, that was really funny.- For added hilarity, when the knife gets tossed out of the cabin it ends up stabbing one of the Princess' bodies swarming outside of the window, which even turns its head slightly as if wondering what the hell just happened.
- If you slay the Princess for good, you'll normally be greeted with the "A new and unending dawn" ending, with you and the Voices now free to shape the universe in peace...that is, unless you told them it was their end at the mirror; in which case they decide to taint your hard-earned ending. You only need to tell them this twice at the mirror, so it can seem petty if you reassured them at the other times. If you did mock them You'll get an alternate version of the ending, called "A new and unending dawn, and everyone hates you", where the Voices decide to get their payback on you. It's a darkly humorous moment that comes in an otherwise pretty somber ending, especially with how eager some of the Voices are with deciding to torment you for a very long time. Let's hope you learned where the mute button is (if you fought Razor).. they even draw an angry face on the achievement icon for good measure.Voice of the Broken: We didn't forget what you told us.
Voice of the Stubborn: You thought we'd be gone. Thought you could taunt us with death.
Voice of the Hunted: We never left. We've just been quiet. Hiding somewhere else. But we don't need to be quiet any longer.
Voice of the Cheated: We're the house now. We get to make the rules, and I'm not so sure you'll like those new rules.
Voice of the Skeptic: You should never make assumptions about things that you don't know. Like whether or not the voices in your head will be gone for good.
Voice of the Paranoid: Torturer. And to think I thought we could rely on you. Can't even trust ourself.
Voice of the Cold: This is going to be fun, isn't it?
Voice of the Smitten: Slaying our beloved and threatening us with damnation. There's no good ending for you.
Voice of the Contrarian: You all need to lighten up! Telling us we were going to die was funny!
Voice of the Hero: [I'm not sure they agree with you.] / [I'm sorry. They all know what you did.] Voices get around.
Voice of the Opportunist: Knives out, boys. It's time to get to work.
Cut Content
The Apotheosis
- The fact that this time, the Voice of the Paranoid doesn't appear due to your previous actions, but instead because he's absolutely sick of the Voice of the Broken and he wants to be around to keep him in check.
The Cage
- The Narrator starts his usual "What mirror?" spiel and the Voice of the Paranoid quickly tells him to shut up, but his voice sounds unusually angry and with a slight growl to it. Whatever the reason, it sounds as if the Paranoid has really, really had enough of hearing about the damn mirror.
- The Voice of the Skeptic calling out the Voice of the Cheated on his constant complaining. The Cheated's response, of course, is to complain some more.Voice of the Skeptic: You've been no help at all. Why don't you come up with something to do instead of just grousing?
Voice of the Cheated: Sure. I say we let her kill us. See how you like dying against your will. Plus, maybe we can respawn with better stuff next time. Oh, like a sword, maybe. - The Voice of the Paranoid somehow convincing himself that he's his own enemy.Voice of the Paranoid: Everything here is an enemy. She's an enemy, He's an enemy, the world's an enemy... are we... are we also an enemy?
Voice of the Skeptic: Pull yourself together! Of course we can't be our own enemy! - The Cheated absolutely laying into the Skeptic due to the latter's insistence that he can think his way out of being trapped in chains.Voice of the Cheated: Are you daft? It just means she's wrong. Do you actually think we can use 'logic' and 'reason' to convince her not to kill us? Do you really think that would work?
Voice of the Skeptic: I mean... It'd work on me.- The Hero then steps in to suggest that perhaps they should both save the arguing for later:Voice of the Hero: Have you all forgotten about the part where we're being strangled to death by a bunch of chains? Maybe we save the arguing for after we get out.
Voice of the Cheated: Or maybe after we inevitably die!
Voice of the Hero: Yeah. Sure. Fine. Save it for woods, then!
- The Hero then steps in to suggest that perhaps they should both save the arguing for later:
Happily Ever After
- The Narrator losing faith in you after the Hero tells him that you've already died twice.The Narrator: While I appreciate your "can-do" attitude, I can't say the fact that you've been here, what, two times...?
Voice of the Hero: Three.
The Narrator: Three. Great. I can't say the fact that you've been here three times inspires much hope in your decision-making capabilities. - The Voice of the Opportunist getting very excited about sitting at the head of the table, because it makes him feel more important. It's somewhat reminiscent of a small child who gets to sit at the grown-ups' table for the first time.
- The Voice of the Paranoid gets very snarky with you if you don't take his advice to not eat the food.Voice of the Paranoid: I warned you not to eat it, but did you listen?!
[[some time later, after the food has steadily gotten worse]]
Voice of the Paranoid: What a surprise! If only someone had warned you not to eat it!
Voice of the Hero: Oh, don't rub it in.