#game ost

I've always been the type to care for a song's title at least half as much as the actual music itself. And with that said, A World Without You There to Guide It from Scarlet Hollow Episode 5 is such a good one. It directly takes from the last line of The Truth of Memory segment: "But days and daughters come and go, and you are very patient. You have to be, if you're to stop the hurt that would scar a world without you there to guide it." So it borrows a bit of its quality from Tony's and Abby's writing, which is exceptionally moving on its own, but still! It so perfectly encapsulates the thing that defines Sybil as a character (and, by means of meta/ludonarrative and character foiling, embodies YOU as a Player too). Sybil believes she needs to stay present, to keep making a hundred calculated sacrifices for the Greater Good. Because if She wasn't there, what would happen? If she weren't there, surely hugely tragic things would happen, tragedy cannot be allowed to happen at that scale, right? The world cannot be scarred like that. She consumes her daughters not out of malice, but out of necessity, because it is the least damage for the greatest outcome. And similarly, don't we as Players do a similar thing on our "canon" playthroughs? The secret is that from one angle, from the most min-maxed omniscient lens, Scarlet Hollow is just as much a strategy game as it is a narrative visual novel RPG. At the end of every day something tragic will happen. You will have to choose which people will suffer. You choose what sacrifice to make on their behalf. Sure, you can save a couple with the trait saves, but those are a scarce resource; you have to be tactical with them. After enough repeated runs you learn new things about the choices you make, not just how they feel but what they mean for Scarlet Hollow. If you let Duke die, the cops will be more suspicious of you, so it could be advantageous to you in Episode 5 if you let Gretchen die in Episode 1... If you abandon the restless spirit of Charles Shaw Jr in the Town Hall you will have the energy to gather more information in Episode 4, so it could be advantageous to forsake Oscar and Rosalina to a life of squalid housing for the time being... If you let Dr Kelly live, Rosalina and Bo have a better chance of surviving, so it could be advantageous to you to let Reese Kelly stay trapped forever in his cage of neglected humanity... If you try over and over and plan how to get the "BEST" conclusions, it becomes a game of calculated sacrifice and For The Greater Goods. Some loved ones will have to die. Some children will have to be maimed. Some demons will have to remain tormented. Some wretches will have to be locked in cages for the rest of their lives. Some fathers will have to have their children taken from them. Some daughters will have to be absorbed into something greater. But that's necessary. These sacrifices have to be made. Daughters come and go. You have to be like this. You have to do this. After all, it's the only way to stop the hurt that would scar A World Without You There to Guide It.