WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!
"You won't be able to save everyone. You might not even be able to save yourself."
Scarlet Hollow stays true to its introduction, but I never expected it to do so to this extent.
This is a game that is very, very frustrating. I'd be lying if I said it didn't piss me off at times while playing it. But it frustrated me for a reason: it felt real.
One of Scarlet Hollow's greatest strengths is how it handles people. You cannot simply talk characters into changing their opinions of one another. You can't convince someone that a person is good or bad just because you say so, because of what you’ve seen. Unless they witness something that challenges their perception, they will continue to believe what their experiences and proof of others has taught them to believe. And even then, they may cling to those beliefs despite the evidence. Just like real people.
You can try, try, and try again, but you can't make someone understand, much less like or respect another person, if those people don't give each other a reason to. The game understands this in a way few choice-driven narratives do.
What's funny is that, in all their biases and resentment toward one another, the characters often aren't wrong.
Tabitha was completely on the mark when she said she and Kaneeka aren't that different. They occupy similar roles in different orders and for different reasons, shaped by who they are and what they've experienced. Yet under normal circumstances, they would never truly understand or respect one another.
Kaneeka puts it best:
"If a dog bites you because it's scared, it still bit you, and you have every right to never trust it again. It doesn't matter if that dog is nice to other people, or if it bit you because it wanted to seem tough. She's never done anything to me to prove she's a good person inside. All she does is snap and bark at people."
And she's right.
Tabitha often resorts to cruelty, distance, and callousness when she's afraid. The game never excuses that behavior simply because we, the player, understands where she comes from when doing it. Understanding someone doesn’t give them the right to forgiveness for their actions and behavior. And when Tabitha gets scared, really scared, she becomes even more active and direct, which brings me to another thing Scarlet Hollow does exceptionally well: urgency.
The game often gives you the illusion of choice, something it knowingly acknowledges through its own achievements. And nowhere is that clearer than the Forbidden Wing.
Whether you're closer to Stella or Tabitha doesn't matter. You cannot convince Tabitha that you didn't bring Stella there to gang up on her, nor can you convince her that Stella didn't drag you there for that purpose. In her eyes, she's being conspired against regardless of anyone's intentions.
Stella doesn't help matters either. She's terrified by what she's discovered and constantly interrupts any attempt you make to explain yourself. You're trapped in the consequences of another person's fear and assumptions, and all you can do is watch events unfold. It's infuriating. It's also incredibly believable.
That leads into trust. I don't think you can honestly trust anyone in Scarlet Hollow until you've completed multiple playthroughs and uncovered the town's secrets from every angle. Only then do you begin to understand who is being honest, who is lying, and more importantly, what they're lying about. Every character is withholding something. Every character has reasons for doing so. The game forces you to navigate uncertainty rather than rewarding blind faith.
And then there's consequence.
This is the foundation Scarlet Hollow is built on, and it's one of my favorite aspects of the game, aside from how the characters are handled. I honestly struggle to think of a choice that doesn't matter later, no matter how small it seems at the time.
You can lie to Kaneeka about being related to Tabitha, have that lie discovered later, and even earn an achievement for it. You can mention Truck, the cat you left at home in passing conversation, only for Stella to remember him during one of the game's major endings when she offers to pick him up. The game remembers. Constantly.
Scarlet Hollow pays attention to what you say, what you do, what you don't do, and what you choose not to tell people. The result is a world that feels reactive in a way most choice-based games only promise. "Those are the rules. Every bargain has it's rules." As Sybil says. And you feel every rule reels it's head with every action you take.
Despite all the frustration, the sacrifices, and the dense, often heartbreaking lore, I love this game.
In many ways, it reminds me of Slay the Princess. Both games thrive on repeated playthroughs, forcing players to recontextualize everything they thought they knew. Scarlet Hollow, however, feels grittier. More grounded. More interested in the damage people do to one another than in abstract ideas.
Every time you press play, something is taken. Here's hoping it isn't you.
