And while all seems to become clear during those closing moments of Little Nightmares 2 – the girl intentionally withdraws her arm away and watches on, unflinching, as Mono plummets to what can only be presumed to be his death – it's easy to dismiss the many, many times she chose to save his life, too.

It's this that makes Six such a compelling character, isn't it? A complex being with imperfect thoughts, ravaged not just by physical starvation but a desperate hunger for revenge, too. Maybe time here isn't just looping as much as it's just… well, broken, like everything else in this city. As the Tenth Doctor so eloquently put it: 'People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a nonlinear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. Instead, perhaps inexplicably, I wonder if it's somehow both a prequel and a sequel, an imperfect soup of both past and present and maybe even future events. And the fact it looks demonstrably different from the first game means we cannot be looking at a linear sequel.īut given what we know of the loop poor Mono and Six are stuck within – a monstrous merry-go-round with no happy ending for either child – I don't think it's strictly a sequel, either. Beyond Six herself and her rain slicker, there are no distinct props that tie us to the original game other than that suitcase. The suitcase isn't smushed in the first game though, is it? If the suitcase isn't broken at the beginning of the first instalment, then Little Nightmares 2 simply cannot be a prequel. That even twisted and deformed, she still sought out the comfort of her little suitcase bed, just like the music box. That even in that state, she craves something familiar.

It's heartbreaking, spotting that smushed up makeshift bed, because it was a sign that Six was still there inside this wailing monster, hidden within. That same suitcase - complete with the two photos taped carefully to the underside of the lid - can be spied near the end of the second game, too, although it has now been crushed beneath the weight of Nightmare Six. Six starts the first game by jolting awake in an oversized suitcase.

Partway through, however, it felt as though it may actually be a prequel, and Six had perhaps actually discovered the coat for the very first time. When Mono leads his companion to a yellow raincoat, I figured - perhaps like you - Six had, against all odds, relocated her missing coat after somehow losing it after the events of the first game. Like many of us, I started Little Nightmares 2 thinking it was a sequel. There is simply no time to huddle in a corner and indulge a crisis of conscience. It's hard to hold it against her, of course from the brutal playground games of the hollow-skulled puppets to the abominations waiting for you in the darkness of the hospital wards, the odds of surviving this place are already shockingly low. But while Mono will fight to survive, Six's actions hint at a malevolence that continues to shock, even after that final scene in the preceding game. While the sequel focuses on a different protagonist here – a small boy known only as Mono – Six feels omnipresent, even when the brave duo are forced to separate.

Little nightmares 2 story explained