Post by Alectric in Type Help comments

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I really enjoyed this! I share a lot of the thoughts/questions others have already posted, and some I haven't seen mentioned. (SPOILERS)

Is there any way to view the intro again (without resetting your save data)?
Tony, as the second pregnancy, seems to be younger than Eve, but Helen's story about only knowing Tony's father briefly before he never returned from war doesn't explain Eve? She was forgotten at that point, but why would it change the memory of Tony's father so drastically, and what actually happened to him?
Victoria introduces herself with Damian's last name, implying that they're married, but then also is told something like that he would "make a good husband someday," implying that they're not married?
Why didn't Martha call the police?
Does the hangman game imply that @ had to kill himself to stop the curse? Didn't Annie's death already disprove that suicide stops it? Also, the curse doesn't appear to spread unless you actually knew the previous victim before they died, so @ shouldn't pose much danger of that, right? Since he seemed to be a recluse anyway.
It would be nice to get some sort of lead at least on why the curse exists in the first place.
The curse only affected a single chain, but was it ever actually determined if remembering someone in the chain other than the most recent victim would also curse you? I guess John not being forgotten proves that it wouldn't?

someone1065165 days ago(+2)

1. You can open the game in an incognito window.

5. Re-read the final note you get after completing the game (other than a single secret file).

Alectric164 days ago(+1)

Incognito mode works, thanks, though it would be nice if there was a way to revisit it in-game.

Reading over the final note, it leaves a lot of things unclear for me...

(Spoilers)

His plan wasn't to remove all traces of the case ("I know I ought to wipe the drive, but I'm sorry.").

He didn't intend/expect to stop the curse from taking him, even by suicide ("I guess none of you will remember me!").

He didn't seem to have been specifically planning/expecting to die, since he reacts with shock/realization and as if his fate only just dawned on him, rather than having thought it through before ("I guess this is what everyone was expecting.").

And since it didn't seem like he'd have time to create the hangman game after already being doomed, it must have been created earlier. So I would conclude that it wasn't meant to imply a specific plan or known outcome. But then what was it meant as?

He also seemed to think that the case will/should remain a total mystery ("I suppose I'm the only one who knows what happened, and that information will likely die with me."), but if the only danger is in remembering specific people, what would be the harm in describing what happened and the nature of the curse, just without identifying the people? But the fact that he leaves the audio transcriptions with everyone's names mentioned throughout leaves a real danger.

And I don't get what he means by "I see this as the best possible outcome. And I'm honoured to have played my part." What part did he play, exactly? If no one ends up discovering his work, as seemed to be his expectation, how is it any different than if he had done nothing at all? And leaving the case files behind means he didn't even do "his part" of eliminating the danger.

The last three lines are ambiguous, too ("Write something important before you drop dead, you idiot! Never mind. God I hope this works"). Does the "never mind" imply that he gave up on trying to write something important, or did he suddenly come up with a plan to avoid death? Does the last line refer to this plan, and if so, what could it be? If not, what might he have been referring to? Maybe it was the "instructions" mentioned in the Brief ("we were given strict instructions as to when it could be examined. They also detailed a list of names prohibited from ever learning its contents, myself included.")?

And the last thing I don't get is that in the case of every other victim, no memory of them or their actions remained whatsoever. But in his case, the fact that everyone still remembers that there was a man hired to work on the case doesn't fit the pattern. Only his name seems to have been forgotten. Is it because they had records left behind of his involvement that they accepted to be true despite not remembering them, or did he actually avoid the curse somehow after all, or maybe just partially?

Lots to think about.

Sylocat162 days ago (3 edits) (+1)

Spoilers
.

Yeah, the hangman game does seem a bit out of place. Especially since he already knew you can't beat the curse that way.

I do have thoughts on a couple of your other questions though:

but if the only danger is in remembering specific people, what would be the harm in describing what happened and the nature of the curse, just without identifying the people?

Trouble is, since the curse wipes memories, it's tricky to figure out who did and did not know the last victim well enough to be at risk of having a memory jogged... and in at least a couple of the cases, it doesn't seem to take all that much to jog the fatal memory. Richard might have been worried that a random offhand remark in his report could spark a buried recollection and thus start a new chain of deaths.

But the fact that he leaves the audio transcriptions with everyone's names mentioned throughout leaves a real danger.

I think it's specifically remembering the *most recent victim* that triggers the curse, so it's only people who knew Richard specifically who would be in danger. Which brings me to...

What part did he play, exactly? If no one ends up discovering his work, as seemed to be his expectation, how is it any different than if he had done nothing at all?

I think the implication there is, since Richard was such a recluse, he's happy that no one knew him well enough to remember him, and thus the chain of deaths will end with him (and I think he realizes that's why he was picked for the job).

in the case of every other victim, no memory of them or their actions remained whatsoever. But in his case, the fact that everyone still remembers that there was a man hired to work on the case doesn't fit the pattern. Only his name seems to have been forgotten. Is it because they had records left behind of his involvement that they accepted to be true despite not remembering them, or did he actually avoid the curse somehow after all, or maybe just partially?

I think it's the first option. Whoever is running this operation that we work for, they knew to make a list of people who aren't allowed to see the computer's contents, and if they knew enough to do that, they've probably also figured out that written records are more reliable than memories in this case.

Alectric162 days ago (1 edit)

Thanks for the reply. You might want to hide the spoilers, though.

(Spoilers)

That's a good point about only knowing the last victim being a danger.

I assumed those instructions about barring people from knowing the case came from Richard, left behind along with his work. Otherwise, wouldn't others knowing enough about it to give those instructions also be in danger of triggering the curse? It would explain how they could have known to hire a recluse like Richard and even keep his name secret, but how would they have gained that knowledge in the first place without significant exposure risk themselves, and isn't the fact that Richard happened to know that last victim the only reason he was able to serve his purpose? But how could they have known that he did without themselves also knowing the last victim?

Now that I think about it, it even seems kind of contrived that Richard not only had the kind of occupation to let himself be hired for this kind of thing and was enough of a recluse to prevent the curse from spreading by not knowing many people, but somehow one of the few people he did know just happened to be the last victim.

Sylocat162 days ago (3 edits)

Spoilers

The curse doesn't seem to care whether you know its "rules" or not (Richard's memory of Sarah was jogged by reading the case file about her specifically). And the fact that it only affects one person at a time could give a (narrow but meaningful) advantage to an organization that keeps detailed records and already knows to watch out for something paranormal.

You could be right that Richard himself left the list behind of people who shouldn't read his files, though the fact that the organization (aside from Alan Thomas) knew to follow those instructions could still imply they'd figured out at least a little of how it works.

Richard's lack of connections was convenient, sure, but I'm wondering... maybe he wasn't always a recluse, maybe he was just the last one of his friends to get erased from the world's memories? The final note listed a lot of names on the chain in between Katherine and Richard, after all...

Aquillion110 days ago

Regarding point 7:

Spoilers .

John was never forgotten because the curse never infected him in the first place. He committed suicide before it could; and besides, it had jumped to Katherine at that point anyway.

itch.io

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