#ln 3

LN OCs!!!

Here is Bite.,, he was chained to a "doghouse" outside the premises of The Keepers and left there to die for misbehaving under their residence. Only he wasn't the first child to be sent there and left to die, so he had to eat in order to survive. Bite had forgone some unfortunate changes before his new friend, Bark, freed him. Who he now owes his life to.

Bark is a free spirited and rebellious girl of the wilderness. She's smart and knows her way around the dangers of the Nowhere, but still has enough compassion to go out of her way to free those much like herself.

Despite her small size, she is dead-set on destroying the artificial world the adults have started infesting her woods with. Making her way through cracks and crevices unnoticed and gnawing her way into abolishing their frivolous endeavors from the inside. Alongside her newfound help.

Using her trusty spear, she uses it to get to areas normally unreachable (think like the spears from Rain World) as well as knocking key items over and even able to snap weakened rope. Bite never had as much experience as Bark. Being taken in by The Keepers and only ever playing by their rules, staying in line in order to stay alive. Stuck inside until he was forcefully thrown out to only rely on instinct. That became his life. Live, no matter the cost. That carried over to his personal debt to Bark. What Bark lacks in physical strength, Bite makes up for. Ramming himself into areas and destroying vents and other possible ways of solving puzzles like a rabid animal. If Bark is the brains, Bite is the brute. His strength however, comes at a cost.

Bite is afflicted with a supernatural hunger, something he is ashamed of and knows he has hurt others for. Bite may be devoted to helping Bark reach her goal, but will distance himself and run away from Bark the moment he feels that horrible pain in his stomach coming back. Leaving Bark to traverse areas alone without his help, but Bite will always find his way back to her, reuniting himself with his friend through vents and other areas through a separate route. God knows what he does during that time in order to satiate his hunger. OC LORE OVER I JUS MADE SOME BULLSHITTTT

I read The Seven Year Nightmare for the first time...

and a SYN AU where Low and Alone's hot air balloon never went down and they never went into the Institute and found New Dream instead,,,,

Here's my first draft of their possible designs... and here's a better version of them

and here's an idea I had.... if Low gets critically hurt, Alone gets hurt as well. but only if it actually risks death, since Alone can't exist without Low.

Will definitely be drawing more of SYN Low and Alone :3

me when I switch between all my wips at the same time when I get bored with one that I genuinely start reaching flow state (working on thumbnails for a possible 3D LN project, rerigging Low for better animation, working on an LN comic, and progress on a MAP shot)

I've been thinking about this for a few days already, and that isn't to say that I think Supermassive disrespected Tarsier's product the way The Kin bastardizes The Lady's life and displays everything about her for sale, but I cannot deny the fact that there is the lingering factor that I really do feel like Supermassive didn't fully understand what exactly made Little Nightmares truly special, and just tried to replicate what the originals did by copy-pasting.

(I mean, they didn't really copy word for word bar for bar, but it sure felt like it)

There's a bunch of repetitive elements from the first two games and while it does offer it's own thing, it's overshadowed by the fact that they chose to go with this direction in the first place, resulting in people constantly comparing and noticing elements from the first and second games that are also present in the third. And thus, leading to a very unrealistic expectation of "Will Supermassive be able to fill in the big shoes Tarsier left behind?" instead of "Will Supermassive be able to carry on the torch further?"

The biggest factor of why people (including me) felt off about the third game is first and foremost, the atmosphere.

LN 3 loses the droning, gloomy and gritty atmosphere that came with the first two, and while they have the art direction down to a T, atmosphere is still the make or break of games.

Another would be the bosses. Supermassive has a glaring issue with this one: they immediately showcase the boss in their entirety as opposed to building tension.

Yes, the enemy will follow the protagonist to the next room, but for some reason it's chopped up into segments, instead of a continuous flow. There's just something wrong with how they executed the presentation of the bosses.

Before The Hunter's reveal in his shed, you could hear his footsteps and his grunts when you enter his house, and that's when the tension begins. And this becomes an ever present factor, everytime you make a semblance of a progress as you go around The Hunter's house.

That tension pays off, when you finally enter the shed after solving the attic puzzle and unlocking the door, and have to sneak around him as he has his back turned to you, while he's skinning an animal.

This leads to the first chase: constant gunshots ringing in your ear, quickly followed by the reloading of shells as he readies his weapon to fire another shot at you.

Then, after six shots (hehe), you and Six duck under a den, as you take a breather from the chase, now transitioning to ANOTHER tension build up as you try to make your way to the hole in the tree, avoiding the Hunter and using the grass as cover as he searches for you. See how consistent LN 2 builds up it's suspense?

Little Nightmares 3 doesn't have that all that much, the closest you have to that is The Supervisor closing the shutters before meeting her in her office space. And for progression tension, the sequence in where The Kin prepares a meal for Mini-Kin (which is FUCKING HILARIOUS at how feral Mini-Kin is, slamming his food bowl down aggressively to signal Kin's attention LMFAO)

And yes, both were teased as a silhouette, but it wasn't enough to build tension. Too much time has passed before they appeared again. There's not enough consistency on making the monsters memorable because the formula is simply: Encounter the boss in it's idle state > go to next room > solve a puzzle > proceed to a chase/next few rooms without the boss appearing again.

You don't feel like you're constantly on the edge and looking around your shoulder if they're ever going to show up, it just feels like a "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER" ambush.

I guess what I'm saying, is that The Monsters aren't nearly as aggressive and persistent as they should be. Well... That, but also the sound design is kinda like... repetitive. Nearly all the monsters in this game sounds like cracking joints and stretchy leather, coupled with screeching and wheezing.

Like, yes, I know. These things have jobs other than trying to get children. But I'm so disappointed at how there's no consistent build up with most of the bosses. I think the reason why Monster Baby worked more than the Supervisor did for me, is because Monster Baby wasn't fully shown to me, even when it became active. Only her gigantic hand was.

And it continued that way, it continued to showcase me Monster Baby's mannerisms and silhouette as she interacted with the surroundings and the protagonists, before I got to see her face in full view. But even with that, Monster Baby still suffered from the same "lack of tension build up" that the other monsters did because she was sparsely placed around the Necropolis map, eliminating the element of thrill and scares, and leaving the players feeling like there isn't much of Monster Baby showcased. Especially since MB was the face of promotional material.

Which brings me to my next point: pacing. The pacing is off with this game. A lot of the times, exploring either felt repetitive, or inconsistent. I think this is the reason why I felt like there was a lot of repeating elements, because the only time this game managed to capture my attention was when it showed me an area that was remotely even familiar to the first two. Which, you might think to be partially be my fault, but that's actually because the starting area literally is just the boat that the Guests exit out of, and the inside looks like the train concept art from LN2/Six's starting position in LN1.

It subconsciously installed this mindset onto me that I should be looking for references to the first few games, instead of having a brand new, completely unrelated area. Games do often control and influences player thought patterns based on environments and atmosphere, so if what it shows me the first time the game starts is a reference to concept art/the first game, of course I'm going to start thinking, "What else are they going to reference"

... Which is what LN 2 avoided. LN 2 started off completely opposite to LN 1's dilapidated, fully metal and industrial starting point, taking place in a forest full of deactivated TVs.

Keep in mind, regardless of my criticisms I'm enjoying LN 3 more than I initially did. To the point that I would encourage replaying it. But with that, also comes more flaws that I see with how Supermassive handled this third installment. I'm not saying this is a bad game, but unfortunately, I cannot deny that it is the weakest in the franchise thus far.

I can't call this a trilogy, because of how much the third game strays away from it's first two predecessors in terms of it's story. In fact, it feels like a new entry in the franchise, but one that is very much peppered with so much references and repeating segments that it makes you sneeze in confusion at what it's trying to achieve.

I guess all I can do is, to quote a legendary youtuber who played it:

silly idea/headcanon

LN 3 DLC spoilers below

IN DEFENSE OF THE GODDAMN FROG SCENE

Neither anime nor mangas were sufficiently delicate in their portrayals of this scene, but in the novel, it's even more apparent that Jinshi crawling over her wasn't too far off from the "pleasure district" humor Maomao used when scaring that Crystal Pavilion lady-in-waiting

The whole "Want to find out for yourself" is literally the same as "I'll just have to do things to your body you'd be too ashamed to tell him" and you know what happens next?

He doesn't move for a WHOLE ASS MINUTE! Maomao also doesn't say or think of anything beyond "this position looks pretty compromising"

She even mentions that he "looked lost for a beat" that's because he expected an immediate "get off" reaction/apology for not listening, or even some retort on her end, but from his point of view, Maomao just stayed there and maybe that's a sign to take thing further and lean down for a kiss (NOT A FUCK)

Their relationship had had a lot of mild flirting at this point, so I wouldn't put it past him to interpret it that way

If anything, had Lihaku's dog not interrupted them, the scene would've probably ended up not too different from how LN 5 epilogue/ LN 6 prologue did