There's something so saddeningly ironic about there being an enemy in the third installment that tries to continue the legacy of it's predecessor while trying to do it's own thing, but ending up falling flat in it's execution because of lack of understanding what exactly made the original shine, resulting in a bit of a convoluted mess of an attempt.
I've been thinking about this for a few days already, and that isn't to say that I think Supermassive disrespected Tarsier's product the way The Kin bastardizes The Lady's life and displays everything about her for sale, but I cannot deny the fact that there is the lingering factor that I really do feel like Supermassive didn't fully understand what exactly made Little Nightmares truly special, and just tried to replicate what the originals did by copy-pasting.
(I mean, they didn't really copy word for word bar for bar, but it sure felt like it)
There's a bunch of repetitive elements from the first two games and while it does offer it's own thing, it's overshadowed by the fact that they chose to go with this direction in the first place, resulting in people constantly comparing and noticing elements from the first and second games that are also present in the third. And thus, leading to a very unrealistic expectation of "Will Supermassive be able to fill in the big shoes Tarsier left behind?" instead of "Will Supermassive be able to carry on the torch further?"
The biggest factor of why people (including me) felt off about the third game is first and foremost, the atmosphere.
LN 3 loses the droning, gloomy and gritty atmosphere that came with the first two, and while they have the art direction down to a T, atmosphere is still the make or break of games.
Another would be the bosses. Supermassive has a glaring issue with this one: they immediately showcase the boss in their entirety as opposed to building tension.
Yes, the enemy will follow the protagonist to the next room, but for some reason it's chopped up into segments, instead of a continuous flow. There's just something wrong with how they executed the presentation of the bosses.
Before The Hunter's reveal in his shed, you could hear his footsteps and his grunts when you enter his house, and that's when the tension begins. And this becomes an ever present factor, everytime you make a semblance of a progress as you go around The Hunter's house.
That tension pays off, when you finally enter the shed after solving the attic puzzle and unlocking the door, and have to sneak around him as he has his back turned to you, while he's skinning an animal.
This leads to the first chase: constant gunshots ringing in your ear, quickly followed by the reloading of shells as he readies his weapon to fire another shot at you.
Then, after six shots (hehe), you and Six duck under a den, as you take a breather from the chase, now transitioning to ANOTHER tension build up as you try to make your way to the hole in the tree, avoiding the Hunter and using the grass as cover as he searches for you. See how consistent LN 2 builds up it's suspense?
Little Nightmares 3 doesn't have that all that much, the closest you have to that is The Supervisor closing the shutters before meeting her in her office space. And for progression tension, the sequence in where The Kin prepares a meal for Mini-Kin (which is FUCKING HILARIOUS at how feral Mini-Kin is, slamming his food bowl down aggressively to signal Kin's attention LMFAO)
And yes, both were teased as a silhouette, but it wasn't enough to build tension. Too much time has passed before they appeared again. There's not enough consistency on making the monsters memorable because the formula is simply: Encounter the boss in it's idle state > go to next room > solve a puzzle > proceed to a chase/next few rooms without the boss appearing again.
You don't feel like you're constantly on the edge and looking around your shoulder if they're ever going to show up, it just feels like a "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER" ambush.
I guess what I'm saying, is that The Monsters aren't nearly as aggressive and persistent as they should be. Well... That, but also the sound design is kinda like... repetitive. Nearly all the monsters in this game sounds like cracking joints and stretchy leather, coupled with screeching and wheezing.
Like, yes, I know. These things have jobs other than trying to get children. But I'm so disappointed at how there's no consistent build up with most of the bosses. I think the reason why Monster Baby worked more than the Supervisor did for me, is because Monster Baby wasn't fully shown to me, even when it became active. Only her gigantic hand was.
And it continued that way, it continued to showcase me Monster Baby's mannerisms and silhouette as she interacted with the surroundings and the protagonists, before I got to see her face in full view. But even with that, Monster Baby still suffered from the same "lack of tension build up" that the other monsters did because she was sparsely placed around the Necropolis map, eliminating the element of thrill and scares, and leaving the players feeling like there isn't much of Monster Baby showcased. Especially since MB was the face of promotional material.
Which brings me to my next point: pacing. The pacing is off with this game. A lot of the times, exploring either felt repetitive, or inconsistent. I think this is the reason why I felt like there was a lot of repeating elements, because the only time this game managed to capture my attention was when it showed me an area that was remotely even familiar to the first two. Which, you might think to be partially be my fault, but that's actually because the starting area literally is just the boat that the Guests exit out of, and the inside looks like the train concept art from LN2/Six's starting position in LN1.
It subconsciously installed this mindset onto me that I should be looking for references to the first few games, instead of having a brand new, completely unrelated area. Games do often control and influences player thought patterns based on environments and atmosphere, so if what it shows me the first time the game starts is a reference to concept art/the first game, of course I'm going to start thinking, "What else are they going to reference"
... Which is what LN 2 avoided. LN 2 started off completely opposite to LN 1's dilapidated, fully metal and industrial starting point, taking place in a forest full of deactivated TVs.
Keep in mind, regardless of my criticisms I'm enjoying LN 3 more than I initially did. To the point that I would encourage replaying it. But with that, also comes more flaws that I see with how Supermassive handled this third installment. I'm not saying this is a bad game, but unfortunately, I cannot deny that it is the weakest in the franchise thus far.
I can't call this a trilogy, because of how much the third game strays away from it's first two predecessors in terms of it's story. In fact, it feels like a new entry in the franchise, but one that is very much peppered with so much references and repeating segments that it makes you sneeze in confusion at what it's trying to achieve.
I guess all I can do is, to quote a legendary youtuber who played it:
"It's got the skin of Little Nightmares, but the bones are all wrong." - Jacksepticeye
