angelofROOM302 wrote:Well okay I kind of remember now.
Sheesh, I had to take some asprin and a shower to clear my head of the frustrations of this game! Lol
'Cheryl' was going through a box of toys and I think it was a flash back memory which looked like 'Heather' but I guess I'll just say that it was 'Dahlia with blonde hair' slapping Harry, kinda of what you said yours was like. She slapped him and poor Harry looked miserable. I didn't understand it one bit. I thought 'Dahlia' was crazy, not that Harry was a drunk?
Gosh... screw this stressing over the game.
It makes absolutely no sense. Does the ending make sense to anyone? Seriously?
And did it piss anyone else off like it did to me? Lol
Ugh I'll feel better about it in the morning. I really did like it though, just a couple of holes.
The ending made plenty of sense to me, and I agree with Aura: I found it heartwrenching.
The way I see it, regardless of how you play, the story is about Cheryl dealing with the reality of who her father was and how dysfunctional her family life was--and the effects that it had on the rest of her life. But the way you play the game determines the man that the real Harry Mason was, and establishes the dynamic of the dysfunctional family life that Cheryl's trying to cope with.
For instance, my first play through I got "Love Lost," and Harry wasn't a drunk, Dahlia didn't abuse him, and there was no indication that he ever cheated. His marriage to Dahlia just didn't work out, and from everything I got out of the back story hints, he was just a normal dude without severe character flaws who went through a failing marriage. Hell, there was plenty of indication that Dahlia and Harry actually liked each other and made a lot of effort to work through their differences; in the tunnel of love in particular, they were really very sweet to each other.
Thus in my first game, the basis of the Masons' suffering seemed split between the three family members, and not specifically the result of a severe character flaw of Harry's.
I'm playing through it again now, shooting for the Drunk Dad ending, and now every echo message and hint I get points at Harry being a severe alcoholic. Soda cans in my first playthrough have been replaced with beer; On my first playthrough in the cabin on the woods, Dahlia complained about Harry but not in any specific way, whereas this time through she specifically complains about his drinking--and the fact that its getting worse now that they're at the cabin.
In my first game the real Harry wasn't a drunk, so Dahlia didn't complain about his drinking at the cabin. In this playthrough, I'm getting a different backstory due to the way I'm playing, so Harry was an alcoholic and Dahlia complains about his drinking. So I'm experiencing a different back story with a different Mason family.
In your version, Harry was a wuss and Dahlia was abusive, and that's because of how you played.
(Keep in mind there are different theories on this matter, though; Aura has one that you will probably want to consider)
