The Path

Story

The game begins in an apartment. The player is shown six sisters to choose from and is given no information about them other than a name. When the player selects a girl, the journey begins. The player takes control of the girl and is instructed, "Go to Grandma's house and stay on the path." As the player explores the house, he/she finds various items scattered throughout. In order for the girl to pick up or examine an item, the player must either click the interaction button or bring the girl close enough for an image of the item to appear on the screen. Then release the controls. The character interacts and an image appears on the screen indicating what has been unlocked; every item the girl encounters in the forest appears in some form in Grandma's house, and some objects open up whole new rooms. Also, a small text appears, a thought from the current character. Some objects can be picked up only once and do not appear in subsequent playthroughs. However, each character says something different about an object, so the player has the option of calling up a "basket" to see what he/she has collected. This is not required to find the wolf. In this game there are no prerequisites, but the ending in the grandmother's house changes dramatically after the encounter with the wolf. The girl meets the wolf, there is a short cutscene and the screen goes black. After that, the girl lies on the path in front of grandmother's house. When the player enters the grandmother's house, the game style changes. He is now in the first-person perspective and the character moves forward along a predetermined path. When the player has made it without interacting with the wolf, he arrives safely, makes himself comfortable next to grandmother and is sent back to the apartment. The girl the player led is still there and can be played again. When the player has gone to the wolf, everything in the house is darker and if the player stands still for too long, the screen darkens and something growls. Depending on the girl, doors are scratched, furniture is knocked over and broken, or strange black threads stretch across everything. Instead of ending with the grandmother, the music gets louder as the player enters one last surreal room before falling down and everything goes black again. Images flash on the screen showing the girl being attacked by her wolf before the player is transported back to the apartment. The played girl is not there and will remain absent. When all the girls have encountered their wolves, a girl in a white dress that the sisters may have encountered earlier becomes playable and visits Grandma's house. The girl then travels through the house, which is now a combination of all the previous girls' final rooms, ending with the non-wolf room. Arriving at the grandmother's house, the girl appears in the apartment covered in blood, but alive. The sisters all return through the door and the game begins again.