- "We cannot choose in this unfair world."
A rich boy named Hao-Chen Jiang is tied in a dim and dreary room that he has not seen before. As soon as he opens his eyes, a mysterious girl appears before him, asking him for a ransom. It is at that moment he realizes that he has been kidnapped, and he needs to figure out how to escape from the captors.
A Light in the Dark is a visual novel game developed by CreSpirit, Storia and Narrator. It was released on Steam on 16th June 2018. An official novelization of the game was released on 11th July 2018, which provides additional information for the story.
The player takes control of Hao-Chen Jiang, the hostage who gets kidnapped by two girls. During his days of imprisonment, you will need to examine the items around the room to formulate a plan to escape from the kidnappers or learn more about them. You will also need to interact with the kidnappers by answering their questions through various time-limited options. You can build your trust with them, or sometimes, outright berate your kidnappers when necessary.
Can you help him escape from the kidnappers?
Not to be confused with A Light in the Darkness.
This work contains examples of:
- All Are Equal in Death: In the bad ending called "Same Warmth", the little sister accidentally kills Hao-Chen, making big sister mad and her crying constantly. In his last moments, Hao-Chen only feels little sister's warm hand trying to reach him. That makes him realize that the only time rich and poor are equal is during this moment of death, where everyone share this same warmth.
- Author Filibuster: The visual novel doesn't hide it's anti-capitalist views, making most of the plot be about the protagonist trying to debate big sister that capitalism has good sides too and failing to do so.
- 1000 Origami Cranes: Little sister makes 1000 origamis by herself to wish for a good future for her sister. Considering the game got a good ending later on, she suceeded.
- Capitalism Is Bad: A worldview of the big sister. She despises the rich due to her circumstances. The main character also starts thinking in this way after understanding their situation.
- Golden Ending: An alternative ending is added in a later update where you decide to go back to prevent the mysterious girl from committing suicide. The game ends with a shot of the mysterious girl and her younger sister eating in a cafe together.
- Greed: The main obstacle of this story. While it's not good that the girls kidnaped the main character, everything would have ended quickly if his father just agreed to give them money they want. Instead, he tried to waste time by ensuring his son he will somehow save him. That action makes Hao-Chen dissapointed with his father for real and urges him to support these girls.
- Multiple Endings: The novel has 8 endings including the Golden Ending.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When the negotiations with a Jiang Hao-Chen's father failed, Big Sister came back fully mad and started brutally beating up Hao-Chen to the point you lose many, many life points.
- Press X to Not Die: All the dialogues are answered in a series of quick time events, as the kidnappers wouldn't wait for the hostage to answer patiently.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: The Golden Ending that was added after an update is this, considering how huge debt was and a despair the big sister felt to the point of trying to killing herself.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: The reason why girls kidnapped the main character. Parents of the sisters got in a very huge debt and when the time to pay came in, they commited suicide to escape from it, giving the debt to them. They want money out of his rich father to clean it.
- Happily Failed Suicide: In a Golden Ending, the Hao-Chen prevents big sister from dying from overdose, which makes her able to clear the debt and make her sister finally happy.
- Hit Points: Unusually for a visual novel format, this vn has hit points too. Subverted Trope, since they don't exactly corellate to the ending you get, and just act as a narrative view of your health.
