Hope: The Other Side of Adventure is a free-licensed mobile game released on April 7th, 2013. The story depicts the most classic tale of a princess getting kidnapped by an evil duke, prompting her knight to come to her rescue. However, rather than controlling the knight on his quest to find his princess, this time you'll play from the perspective of the Damsel in Distress locked away in the tower as she waits for her knight to come.
The game is noted for being less about the actual gameplay and more about the somber and incredibly dark narrative of the taken princess; you don't so much fight enemies as you do wander around inside a room, cry, and monologue. There are two endings to the game, one of which is hidden behind a paywall (which you don't actually have to pay any money for).
Spoilers will be marked.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Deconstructed and Played for Drama; the Duke kidnaps the Princess to force her into marriage, and the game doesn't shy away from the implications of such a union. The Princess is completely terrified and starting to break down psychologically, because the Duke is physically abusive and almost certainly going to rape her.
- Art Shift: The beginning of the game and the Knight's updates are all told in this upbeat, colorful pixel art style, while the Princess's more somber narrations are told with spindly 3D graphics. The pixel art style starts to wane as the game continues, before vanishing completely by the fifth day. In the good ending, they come back once the Princess and Knight reunite.
- Damsel in Distress: Deconstructed, as the game delves into the psychological trauma that would likely ensue from a young woman being kidnapped and held against her will, on the cusp of being forced to marry an abusive man, with absolutely no means to escape or fight back. It's not pretty.
- Decoy Protagonist: At first, you play as the Knight on his way to rescue the Princess, and do a short level of platforming for good measure. Then the game abruptly ends the level, assuring you that you can probably guess what happens to him, and then moves on with the Princess' story. The Knight is then only mentioned in brief updates on his progress. In many runs of the game, he even ends up dying. In the good ending, he shows up at last to rescue the Princess.
- Downer Ending: In the bad ending, the Knight is killed when trying to rescue the Princess and dies never knowing whether she'll be okay, and the Princess, realizing that no one is going to save her, takes matters into her own hands and commits suicide to prevent herself from being forcibly married to the Duke.
- Driven to Suicide: The Princess in the bad ending hangs herself while listening to the preparations of her Arranged Marriage with the Duke, as a last resort to prevent herself from being forced into a miserable life as his bride.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: The evil Duke whose ordered the Princess' kidnapping in the first place is never seen. All that we know of him is what we hear the Princess and the narration say, and what results there are of his actions.
- Knight in Shining Armor: The knight is a classic idealized example, chivalrously traveling the land to save the Princess, although his actual personality seems quite flat; we never even see his face or hear him speak. The Knight also deconstructs this, as, since he's the sole person looking out for the princess' wellbeing, once he's killed in gameplay, it basically dooms her by proxy.
- Marital Rape License: It's clear the Duke will be sexually abusive towards the Princess if the wedding goes through, assuming he isn't already.
- Mood Dissonance: In the good ending, the Princess is covered in blood from destroying her wardrobe and is clearly on her last legs, and its vaguely implied that she's about to harm herself if it means that she can't get pregnant with the Duke's children. Then, out of nowhere, cartoony sound effects are heard outside of the room, before the Knight breaks through the door, and the two silently hug and spin while holding hands as happy music plays, with no narration of what exactly will happen afterwards.
- Perspective Flip: It's right there in the title. Most stories with a kidnapped princess being held in a tower by an evil man who wishes to marry her focus on the brave hero coming to rescue her. This story is about how the princess handles being in captivity. Specifically, what if she can't handle it?
- Princess Classic: The Princess herself is a deconstruction of this. She has all of the traits of a cliche fairytale princess, and is locked away in a tower by an evil duke, but rather than this being brushed off as a mild inconvenience to an otherwise fantastical story, she is deeply traumatized by her ordeal and undergoes Sanity Slippage, and unveiling her as more rich and downcast than other stereotypical examples.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: While we don't see anything graphic, the game pulls no punches in the implications of a villain kidnapping someone for marriage. It's vaguely suggested that the Duke is sexually abusive on top of physically, and it's made clear the Princess is disgusted by what would happen on her wedding night. During one monologue she also suggests her mother might have gone through the same thing. She hangs herself in the Bad Ending to avoid this fate.
- Sanity Slippage: The game takes place over the course of five days, and with each one, the Princess gives in more to her despair, slowly loses hope of rescue, and becomes more notably disheveled (by the fifth day, of the good ending, her dress is tattered and smeared with blood from her destroying her dresser). In the bad ending, this comes to a head when she's Driven to Suicide.
- Secret Test of Character: The good ending isn't actually hidden behind a paywall. If you click the option to pay for it, some text comes up saying that they won't actually charge you; they just wanted to see if you were willing to pay to save the princess. After saying thanks, the game shows you the good ending.
