I still have some doubts about this because of two things:

1. Some say that the star options are either for media or romance, but I had an star option that was not media related with Thomas, and countless others with Jessy even though LGBT+ romances aren't available in Duskwood.

2. A lot of these star options have dialogues that aren't romantic in themselves so while I might see this as just caring deeply about the character, the game might interpret it as me choosing a romantic route with said character. Because of that I accidentally made Jake fall in love with me in my first gameplay when that wasn't my intention at all.

Before I replay the game to see the other routes, I want to know how this mechanic actually works so I won't make the same mistake again.

I just want to make fun of Lilly in this post. I don't know who is dumber, if it's her, Thomas or Richy.

1. What she would do with MC's number

After Cleo decides not to call the police after the threatening video, Lilly complains and says that if it was up to her, she would have gone to the police with MC's number when Thomas told everyone.

Yeah, you would go to the police saying that some random number was sent from your missing sister's phone and you don't have the message or any kind of evidence... you think you can just go there and say to them "jUsT tRuSt Me BrO" and they'll go after MC? Seriously?

Thomas himself explained this to MC at the very beginning of the game, he knew trying that was completely pointless, especially when he was already a suspect to the police.

2. That vote

Did she actually think that the investigation would end after that?

The only thing that would happen is that the group would split: the ones who are against the investigation (and maybe Richy too, he decided to abstain) would stop investigating, while the others would continue to investigate and try to find Hannah. Lilly is not their owner and it's not like they would have to make some kind of oath that they will stay away from MC and stop looking for Hannah if the majority decided to expell MC from the group.

Sure, it would be more difficult to investigate with only two or maybe three people if Richy for some reason decided to play along, but not impossible.

3. That video accusing Jake and MC

If MC wanted to, they could have saved every single instance of what happened (the video itself, the messages of those angry strangers harassing them, Lilly's messages in the group where she says HERSELF that she only did this because she couldn't get rid of them through the vote and she didn't have any evidence, etc...) and after MC finally proved their innocence they could take her to court and make her pay for all of this.

I know I would have done that if I didn't forgive her later. If she didn't have any mercy on me (I don't blame her for distrusting Jake, after all he threatened all of them and he is pretty much apathetic towards everyone except MC and Hannah) after I did nothing but help then why should I have any mercy on her?

And once again, Thomas recognizes her dumb attitude. Even though he was first doubtful of me and asked Lilly if that was actually true, when I challenged Lilly to show everyone the evidence against me and Jake and she didn't Thomas admitted I was right and even though Lilly's accusations were plausible, she could not be so sure without any evidence.

4. Her threat while we are looking for Jake

I want to write here my interaction with her, it's one of my favourite moments of the entire game:

Lilly: But don't you think it's weird that Jake wants to lure us to this house?

MC: No, I don't think it is

That's not Jake's style

Lilly: What does that mean?

MC: He would never commit such an easily traceable crime

Lilly: Alright, I'm going to this house

But you realise that if something happens to me now, that everyone will be able to read what we've been writing?

And you would be framed as Jake's accomplice

MC: You do realise that Jake can easily delete chat histories, right?

(A minute of complete silence)

MC: Jake isn't even in Duskwood Lilly

I'll explain the way to you

(And the game continues as normal)

5. The #IAmJake stunt

Oh my god, that was one of the dumbest things in the entire game 🤦🏻‍♀️

So, you actually think that Jake's pursuers will believe that after all this time he's been hiding and putting so much effort to not be found, he will suddenly create an account on the Internet and show himself?

I don't think it took even a second for Jake's pursuers to understand what was going on, and after that all they had to do was ignore it and laugh at that stupidity.

I didn't want to be associated with that and every single time someone asked me or talked to me about this I said it was all Lilly's doing, including when Jake came back. For some reason he was happy (?!?!?!?) that "I" did this and I said "You can thank Lilly for that. She did all of it".

And she said herself that she thought everything would be over if she helped him with #IAmJake...

Just... dumb.

6. Thinking everything would be over after the police went to Michael's house

Again, this was the interaction:

Lilly: But

But he won't come that far right?

Because when the police get to Michael's house and see what we saw

Then they're gonna arrest him

And all of this will be over!

Jake: We cannot be sure of that.

MC: Jake is right

Worst case, he might just get rid of all the evidence

Right now, as we're talking

That's partially what he did. Instead of getting rid of all the evidence he just moved it to the Ironsplinter Mine, and that's why the police didn't do anything. It was obvious that that would happen. I wasn't born yesterday.

Anyway, that was all. Unless I missed something because I didn't choose specific dialogue options.

I don't feel any anger towards Lilly anymore, and I was happy to see her and everyone else in Moonvale's episode 3, but that won't make me blind to her mistakes and dumb actions. I could make a post similar to this talking about every important character in Duskwood if I wanted to (including MC themself, there are so many dumb things that they did and said that I would never do, and I didn’t have the option to choose different 😑).

1. Thomas Apologised

What he did at the end of episode 10 was the one thing that made me stay upset for a long time. When someone did something terrible I would normally forgive them and move on quickly, but with Thomas was different (well, maybe Lilly is another exception but I still forgave her mostly during my gameplay, while I was still upset with Thomas even after finishing Duskwood).

I was so upset that after everything I did for him: defending him when everyone was sure he was the kidnapper, I was the one who had the courage to tell him about the body, when he made us lose the connection to Hannah's phone I swallowed all the fury I was feeling and gathered all the tolerance and patience I had in me because I saw how terribly sad and desperate he was, I was the one who was always conforting him when his world fell apart again, and again and again, I decided to call the police instead of letting him "risk his life" to "save Richy" even though I KNEW the police would come for me after that because I was the last one to see Richy and all... but still, he asks me to throw myself into the arms of "certain death" without ANY hesitation (it wasn't really, Thomas WAS right but he couldn't possibly know that... and let's be real here, even if he did know I would die it's very likely that he would ask me to go anyway) when EVEN LILLY didn't want to sacrifice me in exchange for Hannah and Richy and I wasn't even that close to her.

But now that he asked me for forgiveness, I can finally let it go. It'll take a bit of time, but I'll manage, I want to.

I even cheered him up saying that he did contribute to something crucial to save Hannah: he was the one who contacted me.

2. Charlie's offer to help

I thought that was so strange. I'm thankful that he explained everything to me obviously (and I guess I owe him two favors now 😅), but wanting to just help me out of nowhere?

You can even question him about it, my interaction was like this:

"MC: Thank you for telling me all of this.

Charlie: Of course. If you want, I can keep a look out for any new information.

MC: You'd do that for me?

Charlie: Sure I would. Right, I've got to get going.

MC: Hey, by the way, why are you helping me?

Charlie: I could ask you the same thing, couldn't I?

MC: Well... that's just who I am.

Charlie: See, there's your answer. See ya, MC."

I don't know... for some reason I can't just trust him. And no, I'm not being paranoid because of the events of Duskwood. Before I played Duskwood I was already pretty suspicious of Charlie and I didn’t really like him or his personality until episode three, and even after liking him I still don't think he's completely trustworthy. I don't know, something about him just screams insincere and ulterior motives, at least partially.

3. The way the MC acts distant with Adam's Group

This is something I noticed right when starting the first episode of Moonvale after playing Duskwood. The MC is distant towards Adam's friends. I like to act kind, supportive and understanding and I actually thought I was behaving like that before I played Duskwood, but seriously, compared to how you can act in Duskwood that is nothing! This was something that was actually bothering me thorought my entire gameplay and I hope this will change in the future.

4. Thomas is avoiding Hannah

I think that's pretty weird. As I said above he wanted Hannah back SO MUCH that he was willing to throw me into the arms of death to have her back, and now that he's with her again... he doesn't want to even answer her messages?! Those "I'm busy" and "I forgot" excuses are obviously lies, something is up and I don't know what it is.

(And that made me upset as well, I was like "Dude, all of the trouble and hurt you caused until the very end just for you to ghost Hannah like that? Seriously? 😑")

He had told me before that he didn't know if he could forgive Hannah for all of this or even move on, and of course I tried to convince him that Hannah needed us and that she deserved forgiveness, and I seriously didn't believe that he would leave her or avoid her even after all of that because of all that he was doing for her.

Well, guess I was wrong. That was unexpected.

5. I couldn't talk to Hannah myself... for now.

One of the things I want the most is to talk to Hannah personally. I feel so sad for her, she's been through so much. I want to confort her AND I want to know her better because she seems like a great person, and maybe she can even become one of my friends!

I don't hate Hannah for causing Jennifer's death, it was an accident and Hannah was feeling so bad and guilty about it that she got depression and even started to hallucinate. This is not something that happens to an apathetic and heartless murderer. I believe that since she truly regrets what she did, she deserves forgiveness (and she should also forgive herself) and to be able to move on with her life without all of this pain.

Her guilt should be the thing that makes her do all the effort to be better and not make the same mistakes again, not to be the weight that will make her sink into the depths.

6. Richy is alive... THAT'S GREAT!

I'm so happy! The same way I don't blame Hannah and I don't hold it against her, I also forgive Richy.

He let despair and panic take over him and acted rashly, not everyone has the emotional strength and cool head to act calm in those situations and do the right thing. And you can clearly see in his face and his words that he feels a lot of pain and guilt for all that he did to Hannah and Amy, and for the suffering he made me and all the others go through.

For some reason, Cleo thought I would be angry at the discovery that Richy was alive when I had demonstrated nothing but compassion and sadness towards him 😆.

She asked me to keep this a secret... this is going to be difficult because of Jessy, I want to tell her that Richy is alive so much so she can stop feeling so terrible.

And there's Jake. He is still hiding and all but he will come back, and when he does he will see all of the conversations and the video with Richy so I won't be able to keep this only between Cleo, Richy and I. (This is under the assumption that he hasn't found a way to check up on me and the others already after the network began working again, and the assumption that it wasn't Jake that saved Richy from the fire).

And Richy... even with all of this, he was still smiling when he saw the camera because he knew I was at the other side of the screen.

This is a trait we both have in common, smiling through terrible pain and joking and laughing at our own suffering. I remember that he and I used to joke around a lot about the terrible danger "we" were in, and Jessy was always scolding both of us for joking about something so terrible.

At the end of episode ten, when he joked about laughter being a medicine that doesn't apply to gunshot wounds I honestly laughed, and I still chuckle when I remember that moment, I told him I missed his jokes.

Richy and I had so many good, funny and happy moments together, both the two of us and us with Jessy, I can't just throw everything out of the window like Dan wants to.

And call me naive if you want, but even though I know he was acting a lot of the time because he was the kidnapper, I also think that many moments we spent together meant a lot to him and he was being genuine with his friendship towards me.

Final Thoughts

I'm really glad that I didn't play Duskwood first and only decided to play it after episode 3, the wait would have killed me! 😆

And I feel for all of you who had to be so patient until this moment, but at least it was worth it. The only thing that needs to happen so things can be 100% okay is Jake contacting us again, but at least we can be certain that he is out there somewhere just waiting for the best opportunity to contact us.

I want to see the reactions of everyone when they finally find out I'm solving another case, that will be SO FUNNY 🤣

I want the others in Adam's group to know that I'm the girl who solved the Duskwood case, since Ash and Charlie were so supportive I feel a bit more calm about the reactions of the others.

Another thing I want is to speak to Alan again, I like him and I didn’t interact with him as much as I would have liked.

This turn of events makes me hopeful that we will be able to have a happy ending and save Adam, if after all that happened in Duskwood things managed to not end as bad as they could, maybe Adam and the others will be okay in the end as well.

Well, I finally finished Duskwood yesterday and decided to put the code in Moonvale. I just got to the part that Ash questions us about it and I decided to be completely honest (Well, almost... I didn’t tell her that someone else was in the mines).

And she was so kind and understanding!

I thought she would point fingers at me or something but she did the complete opposite. I was so touched. I still can't believe it. Well, I'll see how the others will react now 😅

I'm almost at the end of Duskwood and I need to find out Hannah's PIN. But I'm asking for help because I feel the game is being very unfair with how you must solve it.

I went to look for answers and I saw people saying that you can't win. Which would make me pretty angry because it's one thing when you're incompetent and another completely different when you don't even have a chance to win 😡.

Anyway, if you can win, I would like help solving this puzzle.

If I buy the pack, will I unlock all of the media of the entire game or just the episode I'm playing?

In Moonvale, you need to buy a pass for each episode, but since Duskwood is already complete I was wondering if the pack includes the media of the entire game.

Over the course of these three episodes, Unknown seems (at least to me) to be pretty clueless about a lot of things.

This is more of a discussion post about Unknown rather than a theory, I wanted to talk about his behaviour.

This is going to be a long post.

First Interaction: Unknown confuses us with Eric

In the first interaction ever with Unknown, the only thing he got right about us was our name and he thinks we're the ones in the forest when in reality it was Eric.

If you're playing with a male MC, that mistake can be easily explained. But if you're playing with a female MC then that mistake becomes completely absurd.

Like, how on Earth could he make such a mistake!?

"Oh, but since the only thing Unknown knew about the MC was her name and she was the one supposed to be there, he assumed that Eric was her because he was the one who showed up".

That explanation only works if your female MC has an unisex name, since that kind of name without any other piece of information doesn't make it clear if the person is male or female. But if she has a clearly female name like Laura, Alice, etc... then that explanation stops making sense.

Third Interaction: "Forget about him (Adam) and that he ever asked for your help"

After Charlie goes to speak with Ash, Unknown messages us for the third time.

At one point, Unknown says that we should forget about Adam and that he ever asked for our help...

But he didn't ask for help even once?????

Let's recap all of the interactions we had with Adam:

1. His first call:

He asks us where we are, as if we were supposed to meet him somewhere for whatever reason. After that he says that he wants to tell us something important. That something is that he wouldn't make it to the Greenside but because of the terrible reception you can't understand anything he said, the only thing clear being the "I'm sorry" at the end.

Not a call for help.

2. His second call:

He says a lot of things in that call but the most important ones to the point I want to make are these:

"[...] But he was there. I saw him. And that means... that there's only one thing left for me to do now. I have no other choice.

But that also means I cannot help you anymore. You'll have to make it on your own now. Even though it might be hard. Even though it might seem absolutely impossible. It's up to you now... I'm counting on you."

He says that HE cannot help us anymore, that there's only one thing left for him to do and that we need to make it on our own from now on. Those are the words of someone that thinks everything is over for him, not someone that is asking for help.

3. His third and last call:

He doesn't say a single word, it's very difficult to see him and especially to even understand what the heck is happening at that moment, so there can be a lot of interpretations.

The game gives us two interpretations: the first one from Eric that says that it's obviously a call for help and the second one from Ash that says the call was a warning for us so we don't go after him.

I don't think it's either of those.

I think it's a farewell. The MC is very important to Adam for some reason and based on everything he said to us before, I think he wanted to see us one last time before whatever was going to happen to him occurred.

Again, not a call for help at all.

If anything, Adam seems to be asking us to leave him/not go after him and finish this on our own. We are the ones who decided to go after him, risking ourselves and all of his friends in the process.

So, what is Unknown's deal?

And how does he expect us to just trust him when he not only lies to us (I'm referring to when he said that "Whitmore wouldn't allow us to leave the forest" but Whitmore threw Eric out without harming him) but also seems to not even know what is actually going on?

I want to know what y'all think but I especially ask for the opinion of the players who trust/like Unknown or think that he actually wants to help. I'm curious to know your opinions since it contrasts a lot with what I think of him and I really want to know your reasoning 🙂.

I don't know if other people discussed this before in this subreddit, but I think the relationship between Jessica and Preston is really peculiar.

Preston was hired to Playtime Co. without being completely aware of what he was signing for. He was wondering at the beginning why the heck a toy factory would need a biologist. And when he finally found out what he was supposed to do, he couldn't leave anymore... not alive at least. The guilt started to consume him day by day: he would spend hours locked in those lockers we see in Project:Playtime, and he stopped greeting the kids because he knew what their fate would be. His guilt eventually made him help the Prototype with the hour of joy and the result was all the misery we see in the game.

Then, we have Jessica. She grew up in Playcare, knew of the absolutely terrible conditions and treatment of that place towards the kids and chose to keep the cycle of suffering but this time playing the role of torturer instead of victim.

I think Playtime Co saw potential in her and even though she was smart, they decided not to turn her into an experiment and let her become a scientist to help with "the work."

How can such contrasting people have such a close friendship?

I think both of them deluded themselves into thinking the other understood their point of view.

In Restricted_Condemnation, Preston says that he and the others who helped with the hour of joy knew that the experiments were wrong and that he knew deep down Jessica was aware it was wrong too.

Jessica the whole time was insisting to Preston that she and the company were right and that the catastrophe was the fact that Preston couldn't "stomach the work", so at some point she must have thought that Preston got used to it and at that moment he was beginning to think he was wrong again until he confessed everything to her.

Even after such discovery and argument, Preston worries about Jessica and calls out for her before he was captured by Chum Chopkins, and Jessica is also looking for Preston in Restricted:Salvation.

They like each other so much that they decided to ignore these massive differences.

What do you think?

(If anything written here is worded strangely, I apologize, English is not my first language)

There's a song from Blackbriar that's called "A Long Cursed Sleep" that I think fits the theme of reality shifting. I bet it many here feel that way or at least felt before shifting... honestly I felt called out 😅 and I think that song perfectly describes my relationship with all of this.

A Long Cursed Sleep - Blackbriar

Here are some of the lyrics so you know what I mean:

"It feels like waking up from a long, cursed sleep

But I deeply loved all of my dreams

Oh, I've been wanting it so bad

Never would’ve believed you if you’d said

That I'd lose some of my devotion

It would've broken my heart in slow motion

To know that right now…

It feels like waking up from a long, cursed sleep

But I deeply loved all of my dreams

Just wish they were lucid

For I believed them to be real

But years did go by

It wasn't just this one delirious night

I had dreams of becoming a poet

A time traveler, and a songstress too

And I've spent decades creating this world For us, but did it outgrow you?"

She uses the term "dream" here but many people confuse shifts for realistic dreams when they don't know about shifting. The character of the song (at least in my interpretation) seems to be in that same scenario, someone who has just returned back to her OR after spending years in another reality.