Sympathy for the Wicked: Hindsight

What is it?

Hindsight is a horror Visual Novel, that follows three people at separate points in time. The player must help them to survive, and only after playing through each of their routes, will the player truly understand the story before them.

The Routes

Penny

The first route follows Penelope, a withdrawn young woman who has taken to isolating herself following a vaguely recalled injury. Cutting herself off from the world, Penny slaves away on her computer for her job, with her cousin, who lives across the country, as her closest confidant. She resents her mom for destroying their family, and doesn't know how to bond with her young stepsister. However, Penny's life changes when she meets the handsome detective, Ethan Steel, and feels instant chemistry with the man—only, she's rather hesitant to take the leap and risk hurting her heart. But distracted as she is, Penny is blind to the sinister presence lurking in her apartment, until it's far too late.

Penny's Route Offers:

• A heart-breaking insight into how childhood trauma can affect people well into adulthood
• A complicated, yet loving, mother-daughter relationship
• A blooming love story
• (Or two)

A struggle to survive

Bad art

Finn

Next, we join Finn on his journey. At thirteen, he longs for a dashing adventure! To be a hero—travel the world, slay monsters, lead the Freemen—just like his mom! But he's denied the chance at every opportunity, as the adults around him refuse to let Finn join their hunts. How can he be a monster slayer if they never let him meet a real monster?! But his chance comes when Finn meets a girl his age—a girl being held in the devilish clutches of a nasty vampire! Finn knows what a hero would do, so he sets out to save his new friend. Only, the further he travels into danger, it becomes increasingly clearer why his mother always warned him of wandering into the woods at night. Can Finn survive the vampire, and save his new friend, or has he bit off more than he can chew?

Finn's Route Offers:

• A frustratingly adventurous teenager
• Annoying and strange adults (who should really get a better hobby)
• Dangerous and deadly creatures
• Loneliness
• Optimism!
• Bad art

Will

Finally, we follow a young man, Will Tanning. Fresh out of high school, he's not ready to be a dad—he's no family man, that's for sure. Recruited by a mysterious organisation of monster hunters, Will feels he's finally found the place where he belongs. He rises quickly in the ranks, makes fast friends, and is even given the opportunity for revenge against the man who killed his parents. But while the Freemen have pulled out all the stops to make him feel welcome, he can't help but notice the strange ongoings of this commune in the woods, and he soon begins to suspect that there's more to this little group than he once believed. Armed with only hushed whispers, Will must decide whether he'd sooner stay settled in this new world of his, or if the truth matters more to him than the promises of a false family.

Will's Route Offers:

• Accountability (or lack thereof)
• A sense of belonging
• Dead monsters (this is a good thing!)
• A family (you wouldn't tell on family, would you?)
• A lovely home in the woods (far from civilization, just how we like it.)
• Bad art