Little Nightmares 3; a new yet familiar direction

Source: Bandi Namco

Little Nightmares 3 was revealed to the world at Gamescom Opening Night Live. Bandai Namco came out on stage to reveal a trailer for another sequel for their beloved Little Nightmare's franchise. However, in the trailer, fans of the games could immediately notice something different about this installment.

Goodbye Tarsier Studios

A while ago, I covered Tarsier Studios when there were officially acquired by Embracer Group. I even discussed the uncertain future of the Little Nightmares games. Today, it was officially announced by Bandi Namco themselves that Supermassive Games would take on the franchise.

From the trailer, there is an immediate difference in tone compared to the previous games. For example, locations are very bright and seem more 'open' then they have ever been. Also, there are new protagonists. Previously, Mono and Six were the two main characters (one for each game) with the Little Nightmares 2 being a prequel to the first game. This time around, new characters could mean many different things. A prequel? Spinoff? Sequel? We won't know until we play the game as we get to know these two characters.

Hello Supermassive Games (again)

It was officially confirmed that the studio to replace Tarsier would be Supermassive Games. They are most known for there original work in The Quarry and Until Dawn. So, as far as horror experience, they have a pretty solid track record of good horror games.

They also have experience in the Little Nightmares IP themselves. They helped port an enhanced edition of Little Nightmare's 2. That edition of the game brought RTX and modern features for both pc and consoles.

With their experience in narrative horror games and their work in one of the Little Nightmares games, they seem capable of delivering a great sequel to a great franchise.

Skepticism

Even though I just said Supermassive Games is perfectly capable of making good horror games. I'm not really "impressed" with what I saw in the trailer. The biggest driving force to Little Nightmares 2 was the direct connection to the first game. However, with change comes risk as Supermassive games has to craft a new story with these characters. In today's industry, sequel-bait is is a driving force to ruin perfectly good franchises (Gears of War). I'd wait and see just what kind of story they are making for these new characters and if there is any consequence to the larger world of Little Nightmares. I'm not expecting them to do the same thing as the first two games but it's going to be hard to top them.