Flash Game Retrospective: "From Heaven to Hell: The Cries of Lost Souls" (part 1)
I've been looking back at Flash games that I remember playing several years ago. One game series that comes to mind immediately was called "From Heaven to Hell: The Cries of Lost Souls". It was made by a developer that goes by a couple of names. They go by "Flash Dreams Studios" nowadays. However, they have also gone by "Lonely Boy16", "lifeisadream52", and "Michael Hernandez".
The protagonist of the series, Henry, is dealing with grief on the anniversary of his mother's death. For reasons unclear, he wasn't allowed to see her in the hospital to say goodbye. He plans to visit her grave. And then, one morning, he wakes up to discover that something strange has happened in his home.
The first chapter was released back in 2006. The second chapter was split into two parts and released in 2008. Then, the series sat without updates for about 10 years. The third chapter was released in 2018. However, it was very short, and it ended on a cliff-hanger. The developer has plans to re-make the games in the Unreal engine and tell the rest of the story.
A short demo for the remake of chapter 1 was released with a new title, "A Havens Descent: Cries of Distant Scars". However, development is currently paused in favor of an unrelated game, "Tracks of Denial". The last communication from the developer in 2024 indicated that they wanted to use the experience gained from "Tracks of Denial" to learn what they needed to know for the FHTH remake.
I want to talk through the games (including the Unreal demo) and give my thoughts. The series is a big point of nostalgia for me. This will spoil the series, of course. Mind you, the games have been out for several years now. As I said before, the story ended on a cliff-hanger, so only the developer can tell us the final story. Plus, if the Unreal engine remake is developed, it could have story differences from the flash version.
So, let's start with Chapter 1: Home Alone.
We start with a journal entry from Henry.
Dec. 19
It's almost been a year since I last saw you. It's different not having you around here... You allways [sic] loved Christmas. It gave you and I lots of hope in our hearts every year ... together. There's just a few more days left... I'm not sure what I will do but I will come see you ... The weather looks like it's getting pretty bas. But hey it's getting late, I'll write more tomorrow....
Love you and miss you,
Henry
And then we get some narration.
Henry then leaves his lamp on while falling asleep in his bed giving thoughts to memories of his mother. The nightmares get worse over night. But as soon as Henry wakes up in the morning, he then looks around the room and has a feeling as though something is wrong....
We wake up to the sound of someone or something knocking on the door.
It's snowing outside.
We proceed into the living room. All seems normal so far.
To our right, we find a locked room, our mother's old room.
Henry: This is her room... I haven't been in her room ever since the day she passed away...
Henry: Strange... I don't even remember locking this door. I must of put the key somewhere...but where?
We are startled to hear the knocking again.
Henry: ... ?!... What was that? ...
We decide to read the book that we found on the coffee table.
The English text on the first page is as follows:
Upon the heavens of the world, there rests darkness that lays deeps [sic] in the pits of restless souls. Leading paths of good or evil stand in every corner waitng [sic]. Gods of the depths of hell await their come by thy one gift that shall be enternal [sic] - the soul. Resting and waiting for their days do awaken. The day when all will be free, the doors shall open to thy slef [sic] and release and fate which no other has even receved [sic] before.
The section on the second page, which is in the Wingdings alphabet, is translated to English here.
❄︎♒︎♋︎🕯︎●︎●︎ ⬧︎♒︎♋︎●︎●︎
♑︎♓︎❖︎♏︎📬︎ ⬧︎♒︎♋︎●︎●︎
❒︎♏︎♍︎♓︎♏︎❖︎♏︎📬︎
☝︎□︎□︎♎︎ ♑︎♓︎❖︎♏︎■︎
⧫︎♒︎♏︎■︎ ♓︎⬧︎
❒︎♏︎♍︎♓︎♏︎❖︎♏︎♎︎
☜︎❖︎♓︎●︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♑︎♓︎❖︎♏︎■︎
♌︎◆︎⧫︎ ♓︎⬧︎
◻︎◆︎■︎♓︎⬧︎♏︎♎︎📬︎
Tha'll shall
give. shall
recieve [sic].
good given
then is
recieved [sic]
evil is given
but is
punised [sic].
The final section on the second page, which is in English, is as follows:
The ones who shall obey this rule and will live thier [sic] way eternaly [sic] for all time.
The next page features a single word in the Wingdings alphabet, which is translated here.
♒︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎
hate
The page is also marked with symbols. We get a fingerprint, followed by a slash mark, followed by another fingerprint, and followed by one final fingerprint.
The next page features another single word in the Wingdings alphabet, which is translated here.
◻︎♋︎♓︎■︎
pain
The next page features another single word in the Wingdings alphabet, which is translated here.
♒︎◆︎❒︎⧫︎
hurt
The next page features another single word in the Wingdings alphabet, which is translated here.
♍︎❒︎⍓︎
cry
The next page features another single word in the Wingdings alphabet, which is translated here.
●︎□︎■︎♏︎●︎⍓︎
lonely
The final page features more Wingdings, which are translated here.
⧫︎♒︎♏︎
⬧︎□︎◆︎●︎
□︎♐︎
♐︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎
the
soul
of
fate
Since someone was knocking earlier, we go to the front door and look outside. Nobody is there.
We go to the kitchen.
We observe the clock in the kitchen, as well as the words written upon it.
Henry: The clock has stopped at 7:00
Henry: "At Every Hour A Soul Is Lost"
Henry: I don't remember this on it...
The kitchen cabinet is locked.
We turn to face the living room, and we see the TV remote sitting on the divider between the kitchen and the living room.
Henry: Hm. Guess the cable is out. Must be the power.
Henry: I don't feel like watching tv right now anyways.
We turn to face two doors. One leads to the bathroom, while the other leads to the basement.
We remember that the door to the basement is jammed, and we contemplate breaking it open.
Henry: The downstairs door has been jammed for a while.
Henry: I'v [sic] never really needed to go down there though..
Henry: The knob wont [sic] budge or move at all.
Henry: Mabe [sic] there's something around here that I can use to take off the knob.
I've hit the image limit, so I will pick this up in another post.
Flash Game Retrospective: "From Heaven to Hell: The Cries of Lost Souls" (part 2)
This is my second post in my retrospective of the game series "From Heaven to Hell: The Cries of Lost Souls".
When we left off, we were aware that something wrong had happened in our house. We've been hearing knocking, but nobody seems to be there. We cannot get into our mother's old room, as it has been locked. The power is out. Now, we are considering breaking down the door to the basement, since it is stuck.
Let's continue with Chapter 1: Home Alone.
We decide to check out the bookshelf in the living room.
There is a box on the shelf with something leaking out of it.
We look inside.
Henry: There's a key in here? I'v [sic] never seen this box here before.
Henry: It says "Cells" on the key
We decide to take the key and try it on the cabinet.
Henry: The key fits into this small lock?.. Thats strange
Henry: But why does it say "Cells" on it?
And now, we have a sledgehammer for the jammed basement door.
Henry: I knocked the door knob off.
Henry: What's this cell door doing here?
Henry: There's a lock on the door.
Henry: The key fits perfectly.
Henry: I'll leave the hammer here.
Henry: I found a flashlight.
We can see the stairs heading down into the basement.
As we enter the basement, we can see a table and a bookshelf. More troubling is that the basement wall is lined with prison cells, all locked. There is something on the floor in front of each of them, possibly blood.
Editors Note: When I played this game years ago, I remember each cell door having Wingdings on the central bar. However, this version doesn't have them. I discovered that there is an older version of the SWF that had the Wingdings, so I will include screenshots and translations from that version.
Cell #1:
●︎□︎■︎♏︎●︎⍓︎
lonely
Cell #2:
♍︎❒︎⍓︎
cry
Cell #3:
♒︎◆︎❒︎⧫︎
hurt
Cell #4:
◻︎♋︎♓︎■︎
pain
Cell #5:
♒︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎
hate
Well, this is all very strange.
There is some sort of panel on the wall above the table. There are four buttons underneath a set of four symbols.
Using the clue from the book from earlier, we pick the first, third, and fourth buttons, which reveal a switch.
Pulling the switch reveals a mechanism behind the panel, as well as a shotgun.
We pull the lever.
Henry: What is this lever for? I heard a noise to my right.
Henry: Theres a shotgun here. I'll take it. I might need it later...
Now, there is a noise coming from behind the bookshelf. We move it.
Henry: What's this door doing here? ...I'v [sic] never seen it here before...
What the hell is that thing?!
Whatever it was, it is dead now. We can proceed to the next door.
Henry: Great, another locked door. I don't have the key or anymore bullets. I need to go back and get the hammer I left upstairs.
Just then, a light turns on behind the door, and we hear something like footsteps.
And so, we finish Chapter 1.
Our protagonist, Henry, is a bit odd, isn't he? He had no reaction to the blood inside that box, and he had no reaction to the blood pooling under the jail cells. And yet, based on his reaction to the cell door behind the regular basement door, he had no idea about any of this. Was his mother hiding all of this?
And what the hell were those monsters at the end?
This game was mostly about exploring the house and reading the story, with light puzzle-solving and light FPS combat at the end. The later chapters have more FPS combat.
This chapter was pretty short. I enjoyed the story that they were setting up here.
