Part 5: Scenario Three: Karen

Scenario Three: Karen

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Welcome back. When we left off, the Mysterious Voice was trying to goad Moon into suicide, and revealed herself to be named Alessa. That is NOT the Alessa Silent Hill fans know from the main games. I know it's confusing, and I believe it was a bad judgement call on the creators of the mobile series. It doesn't help that she actually has many things in common with Alessa Gillespie. Also, as you see we are now playing as Karen, stuck in the storage room, just like in Ben's scenario.
As I went in to record this scenario, I realized there was some flavor text here and there I completely missed the first time around. So a few times after Karen looks or interacts with something, I'll pop in a quote from Ben or Moon, being what they said when they did it. Also, The way this scenario runs, I couldn't see a good proper stopping point to split into two episodes, so I'm just going to power through it in one go.
Anyways, let's get down to business and see what we can do about getting out of this place. Like checking the shelves on the sides of the room for supplies. What's on the left?

It's littered with bottles, cans and jars of unrecognizable content.

Okay, and the right?

It's littered with bottles, cans and a jar with a preserved rat.

Huh. Well we don't need that. Also, you'll discover that this is about the only time that Karen doesn't act with total disgust at something weird and gross around her. But in any case let's check out that cupboard. The left and center doors are locked tight, but as you can see, the right door is open.

The door of the cupboard is broken, and left hanging on one hinge. There is a screwdriver in there.

Yoink. Picking up basic tools is like, Adventure Gaming 101. Say, what's that in the center of the room?

Empty potato sacks, and they actualy look rather comfortable.

Are you saying you want a nap?

Looks comfortable, but I don't feel like resting now.

Well all that's left that I can see is up in the corner there.

It's part of the ventilation system. I can't get it out of the way.

I think we all know what we should do in a situation like this. Cry.

Help!

What? Who is it!?

H... Hey! Is someone there!?

Yes. I'm Ben! Who are you?!

My name is Karen! I've been shouting for hours! I'm locked up in some sort of strange storage room!

Oh I get it! So we can talk through the ventilation system?!

Yeah, I guess! Why are you here?!

I used to live here 30 years ago! I don't know why I have returned to the orphana... Wait! Did you say your name was Karen?!

Yes?!

I think I remember you! You were that quiet girl! You got away that night, when everyone was killed?!

Who got killed?!

What?! 30 years ago in this orphanage, all of the children except three were killed in their beds!

Really?! I... I can't remember...

Listen! I'll try and get to you! Hold on!

Please Hurry Ben! It's so dark in here!

Yeah, at this moment we're still back at the beginning chronologically. That's literally the same conversation from before. Well, I do remember more conversations, let's try talking to the vent again.

Hello? ...no answer.

At this point you've run out of things to do. Logically, you'd try everything again. Then, when you try to use the potato sacks...

Yes, maybe I should rest on these a while.

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Death Count: 11

At this point the screen reverts back to the storeroom, and a loud click is heard on the game audio.

Uh... I... Did I just hear a sound from behind me?

And magically, the door is open. Let's begin our usual rounds proper. The closest door is the shower room.



Who... Who's this...? He's dead...

:Smith: And the backpack?

There's just junk in here. I don't want to take a dead person's belongings.

Next, we can go ahead and explore the first floor, but it's really dull. The only things I find of note is that when you use the hand icon on large objects and whatnot, Karen will explain that she's "too weak" to move them. Also, I found a small bug in the office, where if Karen tries to close the filing cabinet where Ben found the compass, she'll say:

Someone already took the stuff you need, go look her up.

That is NOT the voice saying that, but Karen, and what's odd is it's almost word for word what it says to Moon at the beginning of her scenario, but it properly replaces "him" with "her". Mysterious. Also, as Karen has nothing to do on the first floor Regular World, I suspect she was never meant to go there. My first playthrough of the game, I hadn't actually gone through here much. However, the programmers realized that people would want to explore all the things, so they laid a trap:





That's right, the clock puzzle is back. Even walkthroughs of the game miss this fact, because they don't have you come over here. You don't have a reason to. As you can see, the weird little thingie is on the bottom of the clock, so we have a time limit. Also, the combination has changed yet again. This time it's 5-6-12-2-9 Anyways, in case you couldn't tell, the game is trying to direct us to the last place Moon was to regain our inventory, that being the Otherworld bathroom. I'll save a trip and skip right past the bathroom for a moment to check out the dorms for a moment.



At this point I was a little surprised to find out I could raid the dressers again for bullets and first aid kits prior to regaining my inventory. I would find out later that this is another bug, making you able to break the inventory limit temporarily, until you drop down below it again. Examining the first rooms beds meanwhile,

So many died in these beds...

And in the next room, the familiar bed on the left,

This was Moon's bed, another girl who survived. She slept in one of these.

And the other three beds all just read as-

Two girls slept here but I don't remember who.

I find it odd that Karen doesn't remember which bed she slept in. I guess we can infer that she was Moon's bunkmate. Also, it's even stranger to me that 4 of the twelve original orphanage children never get named in the game. And we're left with only one more room to explore in the Regular world.



The days got very long when sitting here...

And what's your opinion about the homework assignment?

It looks like a Latin sentence. I remember the sound of nails on this.

And that does it for things to do in here, unless we wanted to jump out the window again. Now we'll finally go into the bathroom.



Hey, Miss squeamish. I have a surprise for you. Go look in the sink.

There are teeth in the basin! Ew!

Before I transfer to the Otherworld, one thing I never did was try touching the Halo of the Sun instead of just looking at it.

Oh my, what a strange mark.


And with that, we're never coming back to the Regular world this game, except if we need supplies, which if we did the inventory bug, we really won't need to. On to where we last saw Moon.

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While it might seem a little vague, yes, I'm 99% sure that Alessa is a ghost. I'm not changing the death count.



There's not much interesting Karen says here, but that's uh, that's a lot of blood on the ground that wasn't there before.

Death Count: 12

We get different dialogue for trying to touch this version of the Halo.

It's glowing...


Let's see what you see in the mirror, Karen.

A bleeding mirror? That's so sick! I don't want to use that!

There's a bag in the middle of all blood. (sic)

Okay, let's go ahead and steal from the dead again...

There are a few items I could borrow.

As a nice touch, the bag crumples upon raiding it. Again, we get the map and compass, the lighter, the gun, and the consumables. Due to the glitch, I ended up with 26 bullets and 5 first aid kits. (Kit #3 was grabbed by Moon in the dining room). Speaking of Moon, she was awful nervous about that toilet stall that's now open...

It's the only booth standing. It's open and I can see a lot of blood inside. There is a crescent shaped stone tablet lying on the toilet seat.



It should be pretty obvious what we're supposed to do with the moon-shaped peg if you've been paying attention. But first let's finish up the second floor. The dorms are all empty, so there's no point in dwelling on them.



What do you think of the desk, Karen?

I don't like this at all...

There's only one chair in the room. That looks weird.

At this point I notice that on the far left is the Otherworld blackboard, which I completely missed with Moon. Luckily, she has the same dialogue here.

There are strange symbols and diagrams all over it.

Surprisingly, Karen is pretty much non-reactive over the bloody nails.



Also, I never showed what everyone says for a couple things here, it's the same regardless of character. If we look at the new door, they all say

What? There are gates and stairs to another floor? That's not right...

So not only is there a new room in the Otherworld, there's a whole new floor. Also, the gate lock is a puzzle like the Latin, in that it won't let you solve it without the hint in hand, which we don't have yet. If we try to do anything to it, everyone gives the hint:

This reminds me of that childish drawing I saw somewhere in the orphan. (sic).

After that interesting typo, we're ready to head downstairs.



I see no handle on the door, but there are two holes in the door. One round and one crescent shaped.

Yeah, she says the same thing as everyone. I repeated it just to remind you of the puzzle to the door. Obviously we have the moon tablet, so we put that in the hole.



That takes care of the moon, so what would the round peg be? Yes, obviously the sun. Do you remember where we saw something with a sun on it? Down the path we go! Unfortunately the Dining room is locked, making it the one room in the game Karen can't get into. I wonder why they did that.



I realized too late that I totally forgot to bring Moon into the Otherworld Lobby to look at things. Luckily, there's only two items of note in this room, and she has nothing to add over Ben in the office.

I think I've had nightmares of this doll. It's too frightening.


Meanwhile, I had up until this point completely missed that the barbed wire strung along the ceiling was point of interest at all.

That makes me sick!


And if we try to touch them?

My God, Never!

The other two just say "No Way!" Time to go into the office.



Oh dang it. Now that we're in scenario three, the flesh-spiders take SEVEN hits to take down. It's nearly impossible to go damage free in this fight, as you can get lucky with the shakey hands and recoil only so many times before it takes you just barely too long to stun-lock the beast. Also, I realized that I had never said what happens if you look at the monsters instead of drawing your gun. Everyone has the same dialogue:

Damn, is it ugly. Looks like a child has morphed into this form. I'd better not get too close. Oh my God! It is starting to move! Pick up the gun and kill it!

Looks like a child...? I don't really see it. What an odd thing to say. Before we get down to business, I'd like Karen to look at the shelf.

Jars with bodies in them. That's too sick!

And the bowl?

Flesh and blood! Disgusting!

There. That made up for getting hit in the fight. Okay, to the back wall, for some reminder text.

It's a round stone tablet, looking like a sun. It's loose but I can't get it out with just my hands.

Darn. If only we had some sort of tool to get it out. Like a screwdriver. Anyways, we use it to get the sun tablet. Now back to the door to the Otherworld Kitchen.



For the record, I checked and the graphics are indeed there in case you insert the Sun first. Let's go in.



What is THAT?

A frightening tree with fruits that...wear faces of children!

Should...Should we touch it?

I'm too afraid.

Me too Karen, me too. What was that about the fruit now?

I recognize that face...

I'm not sure I like this game any more...

No, I can't bear to touch them!

Let's uh, move away from the uh, tree of dead children. You can't see it in the screen shot, but on the far right is a little stroller which entertained me by being called a "Perambulator", which is apparently what "pram" is short for.

It's covered in a blood stained cloth. I dare not see what's in there.

Yeah, I really don't think that's any better than the tree. Anyways, lets look at that conspicuous bench in the middle.

Looks like a park bench, made of iron. A drawing lies on the bench.

Naturally we take it and look at it:



Yep, looks like a kid's drawing to me. Let's get out of here.



Do you remember when you were a child and we used to talk about running away from all that's bad? ...That we would find the good place.

I'm sorry but I don't remember much of my childhood at all.

That's ok. You will remember. When you gave me that promise I kne we would make it all come true ...together.

What promise? I...

I found the good place Karen. I found it.

The good place? What are you talking about?

Alessa?

...



Okay, let's finally take a look at that gate lock:



This, the last puzzle of the game, is probably my favorite because it's not 100% handed to you, and actually feels creative. If you click on the orbs in the upper corner, they cycle through basic colors. The slider bars aren't actually sliding, but rather swap with each other. The drawing is your blueprint. The orb on the left is green, and the one on the right is red. The children indicate where each slider goes. If you numbered them left to right as 1-2-3-4, the correct order would be 3-1-2-4. and with that, the door unlocks and we can go upstairs.



You are finally here, sister. Do you remember now? Do you remember how you killed all those seeds of evil for me? For us! Just like you promised we cleaned this place of the bad things, together.

What? I didn't kill... I... I didn't... I... I did all those horrible things... No!

You did good sister. But why aren't you happy?

I finally remember what happened that night. It was me. I killed them all. How could I do such a thing?

You did what had to be done! You helped me find us the good place, just as you promised!

No! I never wanted to kill anyone. It's you! It was you back then, making me do all those horrible things. I never wanted this!

So you are turning against me now? I see. You are evil as well and can't be allowed to be in the good place.

Alessa, what... What are you doing?

My God, no...

No!

And now all we have left is to kill one last spider. I admit I lost track of how many bullets it took to kill the thing, as I missed several times, thanks in no small part to the battle starting right up after the dialogue window instead of letting me prepare for combat. I suspect it might be a tiny bit stronger than the previous one, requiring one or two more bullets. But regardless, it goes down.

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END OF SCENARIO AND GAME