I feel like that's a bit reductive. The jump-scare is only effective because of the expectations set by previous experience. As the wiki article mentions, it at first seems like a winter version of https://fable.fandom.com/wiki/Serenity_Farm. Once the illusion is broken and you begin to leave the area, you're forced to pass by and see how all of the cozy elements that built your initial impression were transformed. And then, of course, nothing is explained; you're just left to ponder what happened. Describing it, or even seeing it divorced from some amount of contextualizing gameplay, doesn't quite convey the quale of the moment. It sobered us up in a way that I can best compare to the feeling of walking out of the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki.
I appreciate when games are confident enough to play these sorts of tricks with players. I'm also reminded of the Pitioss Ruins in Final Fantasy XV, a secret dungeon that also messes with player expectations and emotions by using your understanding of the game's mechanics against you, while also using the environment as a monumental storytelling device (in this case, your journey through the ruins serving as a metaphor for the game world's lore).
Terr_|1 year ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IdL49GA3-Dk
underlipton|1 year ago
I appreciate when games are confident enough to play these sorts of tricks with players. I'm also reminded of the Pitioss Ruins in Final Fantasy XV, a secret dungeon that also messes with player expectations and emotions by using your understanding of the game's mechanics against you, while also using the environment as a monumental storytelling device (in this case, your journey through the ruins serving as a metaphor for the game world's lore).