WhenLittle Nightmares 2was first announced and being promoted by Bandai Namco, most fans of the original assumed it would be a sequel. ThefirstLittle Nightmaresgamefollows Six, a young girl with a yellow raincoat making her way through a dark, twisted world, somehow corrupted by a mysterious tower signal. Players learn that Six is plagued by a mysterious and all-consuming hunger that forces her to consume other characters or absorb their life forces. Six is not a normal child, that much has always been clear.
At the end ofLittle Nightmares,Six finds herself on the Maw, a ship run by a dangerous woman known as the Lady. The Lady has the ability to absorb life from the guests that visit her ship, but she meets her fate consumed by Six. The game ends with Six still aboard the Maw, and many fans believed that Six would grow up to become the next Lady, having obtained her powers.Little Nightmares 2,which showed Six traveling with a young companion wearing a bag over his head, had the potential to disprove that theory. However, it didn’t.
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Little Nightmares 2 is Not a Sequel
So far, neitherBandai Namco nor Tarsier Studioshave come out and officially said thatLittle Nightmares 2is not a sequel, but they don’t need to. All the clues are there. The most obvious clue is Six’s iconic yellow raincoat. In the originalLittle Nightmares,Six is never seen without her raincoat, but she doesn’t have it at the start ofLittle Nightmares 2.After being rescued by her companion, Mono, she discovers the raincoat and puts it on during their journey.
In addition to the raincoat clue, fans of the first game will notice that Six isn’t plagued by her infamous hunger in the second game. InLittle Nightmares,Six was forced to eat constantly, but inLittle Nightmares 2it doesn’t seem to be an issue at all. Players will also remember that Six was haunted by a shadowy figure of herself throughout the first game that also isn’t present inLittle Nightmares 2.
While part of the appeal ofLittle Nightmareshas always been the mystery and the way each player interprets the story, there are a few concrete story beats that help confirm whenLittle Nightmares 2takes place. At the end of the second game,Six shocked fans by abandoning Mono, letting him fall to his dark fate as the signal tower’s Thin Man when they could have both escaped. Maybe Six felt threatened by Mono’s powers or maybe she felt like he might be a liability.
Whatever her reasons for abandoning her friend, the horrible act doesn’t come without a heavy dose of karma. MostLittle Nightmares 2players saw Mono become the Thin Man and then the credits rolled, but players who made a point to obtain all the hidden collectibles throughout the game were treated to a secret ending.
In it, Six escapes the signal tower where she is immediately confronted by that shadowy figure that follows her inLittle Nightmares.She also experiences that hunger for the first time. These two elements in the secret ending, as well as the raincoat, confirm thatLittle Nightmares 2is a prequel. Time isn’t exactly linear in the game’s universe, but in its simplest form,Little Nightmares 2ends right whereLittle Nightmaresbegins.
Will There Be Another Little Nightmares Game?
AlthoughLittle Nightmares 2did a lot to expand the dark and twisted world Six and Mono live in, as well as provide some context for the events ofLittle Nightmares,there are still a lot of questions that need answers. Both major characters have rather ambiguous endings with Mono being stuck in a signal tower, the origins of which remain unknown, andSix’s ultimate fate is subject to fan theories.
Mono’s true identity as the Thin Manreveals the characters are stuck in a time loop of some kind; Mono had to battle the Thin Man earlier in the game, but will he ever escape it? Does Six really grow up to be a new Lady, or is she the existing Lady stuck in a time loop of her own? Her fate could be something else entirely, and theLittle Nightmarescommunity has no shortage of theories about what it could be. What is the signal tower, and who controls it?Little Nightmareswouldn’t be the franchise that it is if there were definitive answers for all of these questions, but there’s definitely more story to tell.
IfLittle Nightmares 3does happen, it could be another prequel or a true sequel toLittle Nightmaresand expand upon the already tricky, somewhat circular timeline. Bandai Namco has expressed interest in continuing the series, soLittle Nightmaresfans shouldn’t lose hope for a third game.
Little Nightmares 2is available now for PC, PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox.
