Hanako Games

Best ending?. .

#1 by blyatbnavalny - May 15 2023

Sorry for necroposting but what is the best ending in your opinion? My experience with LLTQ made me believe that each ending is supposed to have some downside (somebody is dead or is suffering) but I think that one of the endings in Fatal Hearts might be optimal.

I think that my first ending was the best. It was Fresh Start and after binging through everything else I'm still holding onto this one.

Bastien, his cultists and Wolf Belts are not very good people despite their "good endings" suggesting otherwise. It's unclear which faction was responsible for Kirsten's death, but they are very destructive in any case. Christina might not even be the first "Kirsten" Bastien found. Lucy, on the other hand, is perfectly innocent and your actual best friend, despite both factions giving you red herrings.

Some could consider endings where everyone dies, or nobody dies the best. Thing is, you play as a normal person. Christina doesn't know any details about this fictional world to try and play supernatural politics at 15.5. She also isn't a genius like Jeremy, she is literally just a girl. She can't be a superhero and try to save people from both threats one way or another. What if there is a third faction which is worse and would take place of those local to this environment? What if her chosen faction backstabs her, what if Bastien is a psycho and will hurt her or Katie afterwards? He isn't just adult, he is supernaturally older than her. Even if his "Kirsten" genuinely connects with him there is too much potential for abuse, even if they are truly equal.

In most plots like that I really enjoy when protagonist takes action despite terrible odds, but Christina lacks any skills those unlucky protagonists tend to have. I think it's perfectly fine for her to run away while trying to empower herself and find out more about this world before taking any sort of action. The only possibly bad circumstance in the ending is that here their magical power belongs to Bastien. If he dies they lose it and become powerless. Or maybe he now gains some control over both of them and will try to bring them back? Perhaps Christina and Lucy are like Mina and Lucy from Dracula, with Lucy ultimately becoming the agent of evil forces. In that case "Runaways" ending might be the best.

I would be happy with making peace between factions if it didn't require giving away to Bastien either Kirsten. That alone makes me believe he might be more unreasonable than presented.

Re: Best ending?. .

#2 by blyatbnavalny - May 15 2023

Checking on Lucy's fictional biography just to remember things and I notice how she has "three suitors and wishes to marry all of them so nobody feels sad". Adding Dracula himself it makes four, just like the number of possible hetero shippings. Coincidence??? I think not! Perhaps the hidden moral of the story really is she shouldn't be with either of the men? That lines up with game constantly making you do your research (which is probably so much easier in 2023 than 2007...). I probably missed some other references as well.

Re: Best ending?. .

#3 by LiaTabris - Jun 2 2023

I'm happy to see I'm not the only person playing this game in 2023! Lucy is my favorite character and so I naturally prefer her ending(s), but I'm a lesbian so I feel like that's not exactly surprising.

My favorite sequence in the whole game was Lucy's confession, between the part about being your own self and "I love you. Just the way you are." Not only is it sweet, but I always liked themes about subverting or defying destiny. Though, I personally would still like to try and do something about the whole cult situation and wish there was an ending with Lucy that also resolved some of the rest of the conflict, even if her aversion to really confronting that her parents are in an evil magic cult and always have been is understandable. The best place I can think of where it might fit is probably a romantic choice with Lucy and/or Randy in the Hopeful Future ending. (I saw that one pretty positively; being with Bastian might not be a choice I'd enjoy, but it beats an early death.) I think that Fresh Start would also be a good backstory for a whole magical girl adventure, with a return and confrontation with the cult being the big finale, but I suppose that's too ambitious for one ending out of 14.

As far as the factions go, I feel like most of the main characters are understandable and have some sympathetic motivations, though Jeremy is just evil and I don't think most of the generic cultists are much better. Anybody who goes off about 'zero population growth' and not letting certain kinds of people have kids is just not a good person. Certainly in a realistic way, though; I have encountered people who believe things like that. But ultimately, I don't think there's much of any good outcome on his branch; just killing everyone in the mansion is indiscriminately destructive, and it's even worse in the version where Lucy is there specifically because she did something that you told her to. I did not anticipate that turning down Jeremy's offer would lead to anything that drastic. (Though I admit, the thing I really want from that branch is to offer the vampire plan to Lucy. Give me my evil lesbian ending! )

Also, having looked through the forum recently, it's interesting to see old posts in some of the threads surprised that Lucy is an option. I feel like if a version of this were released today we'd get people instead asking why one of the women in the Wolfriemen, Elizabeth, or both aren't also options. Though if it was made today they probably would be.