Hello Neighbor Hide and Seek!
The only game where part of the puzzle is figuring out what the puzzle even is - now
then.
This Hello Neighbor prequel did a full drop in this lovely month of December and promised
to answer questions.
Questions like...why was our progress in Chapter 1 measured by a clock which has 12 hours even
though there were more than 12 plushies to collect?
What REALLY happened to the neighbor’s beloved family?
How exactly did he spiral into an insanity so intense that from his hands spawned a house
which haunts our mortal soul?
And why does something haunt it?!
I’ve given my explanation for the shadow but with Hide and Seek coming in full blast...we’ll
finally know for sure.
ALSO WHAT’S WITH THE CROWS?!
I DUNNO ABOUT YOU BUT I THINK THAT’S A LOT OF QUESTIONS.
I’d say I can’t handle this but I’ve been through worse.
Before I get into it I’d just like to point out that the story elements are...sparse.
Most of Hide and Seek is just playing around in the childrens’ imagination, which by
definition is NOT the real world.
However!
What IS the imagination but a portal to a place where the emotions and knowledge of
our life roam free from conscious thought?
WE’RE GOING DEEP PEOPLE.
SO...prepare yourself ... FOR THE STORY OF HOW HOWDY HOE NEIGHBORDIDOO CAME TO BE!
OF CHILDHOOD FEARS AND DREAMS TAKING THE REIGNS OF CRYPTIC STORYTELLING.
THIS IS THE STORY OF HELLO NEIGHBOR HIDE AND SEEK PARTS 1, 2,3, 4 and 5 THE STORY YOU NEVER
KNEW!
HOOBLY GOOBLY DID YOU KNOW IT’S THE HOLIDAY SEASON???
You know what you need for those right?
Presents!
For Yourself!
Cuz you matter most!
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Now back to it
Alright, like I said, the story of this game isn’t exactly dense.
Chapter 1 taught us to hate stuffed animals and love happy families.
Chapter 2 could be summed up in three sentences if I REALLY wanted to do that but, I’m an
in depth kinda guy so we’ll go more in depther.
We begin in a bedroom, the childinz are all ready to play cops and robbers because cowboys
and indians is racist and it’s pretty cute.
The cops and robbers, not the racism.
Nobody seems to be around but them.
And just as in chapter 1, we play as the sister and open a door to reveal a landscape teaming
with unrestrained, childlike wonder.
The inner city!
Clearly these kids have never been to the city before cuz I don’t see homeless people
anywhere.
What’s a city without some guy yelling at me about the apocalypse and another trying
to sell me Q-tips?
Anyway, clearly the standard of living in Imagination City isn’t too shabby.
So naturally our goal is to steal as much money as possible and place it in this giant
basket in the middle of everything.
And don’t get caught by the brother/cop.
A flawless plan.
And look!
With every bag placed, the clock ticks forward.
Tiny build really doubling down on the clock thing... it ticks me off.
We move on.
More money bags must be collected to fulfill our insatiable hunger for material wealth
but wait...the streets and the buildings accessible from them are empty now.
In fact, I had no idea where to go until Ooooh you get hit by a car to get propelled onto
a balcony-thing!
Wait a minute...get hit by a car...hit by...a car!
STOP RIGHT THERE!
I’VE JUST HAD A PROFOUND revelation.
Recall from Hello Neighbor the non-prequel that during a dream sequence we see our Neighbor
chivalrously help someone into a car only to see him sobbing by the side of the road
moments later with a pink high-heel nearby.
HIS WIFE DIED BY CAR.
OUR MOM.. or a high priced lady of the night.
WAS HIT BY A CAR...WHILE SHE WAS IN A CAR.
Therefore...TO BE SMACKED UPWARDS BY AN ONCOMING LOCOMOTIVE SO AS TO PROGRESS IS NO DOUBT A
FACING OF OUR FEARS.
Either that or our character didn’t want to continue playing this lifeless game so
opted to jump in front of a moving vehicle instead - EIther or.
It’s called symbolism people and this is rock solid stuff.
And so we continue upwards across planks of wood until finally...a steam vent.
THAT PROPELS US UPWARDS STILL.
Then blah blah blah we get more money and a key.
Unlock this gate, bouncy, bounce off this trampoline, then that one up here and GASP!
A DEAD GUY!
He’s definitely dead.
And the inside of his apartment is...messy.
SOMEONE KILLED HIM AND SEARCHED HIS PLACE FOR VALUABLE GOODS!
Jokes on them the moneys behind this painting and it’s ours now.
Not like this guy needs it anymore.
And if these signs of death weren’t enough LOOK!
The crow.
Perched...watching.
Waiting.
For us to finish this game!
Put the money in the basket, collect some more, throw it in, and BAM!
The clock strikes 12 and its finally over.
And the cutscene we see is...sad.
The parents still aren’t home.
The children must fend for themselves and eat dinner made of nothing.
See kids.
YA CAN’T EAT IMAGINATION!
Were these occurrences in this imaginative playground just a coincidence?
Let’s find out!
Onto Chapter 3!
It’s time to play fire vs. firefighter.
Our brother is fire and we the sister are a firefighter.
Turns out, the door knob is too hot to handle because of the imaginary fire burning on the
other side of it.
This is some realistic fiction of the mind, people!
So get that oven mitt, open the door and HOLY BALLS everything is on fire.
Smokey the bear would have an ulcer.
AND LOOK!
A crow.
ANOTHER OMEN OF DEATH.
Even more than the fire.
Anyway we have to collect these creepy doll things and put them in the basket to please
the stupid clock and meanwhile, one must wander around aimlessly trying in vain to figure
out what the puzzles even are.
Eventually frustration turns to victory, doll-things are put into the basket and all is well.
Kind of.
The game ends and the cutscene plays...and this time our dad comes home...carrying his
wife’s purse.
Now I know why we were stealing money, Dad taught us to!...Or he’s in the early stages
of his path as a drag queen...or his wife is dead.
Probably the last one.
He falls to his knees in deep despair, embracing what’s left of his family.
He then feeds his children a dinner made of nothing.
The sister gestures...hey man are you...and the brother kind of acknowledges this is weird
but doesn’t seem to care.
Finally!
Something concrete to analyze!
The fact the neighbor brings home this purse and gets all sad combined with the wife car
bing bang boom cutscene is proof the wife is dead, and was not for purchase.
Pretty obvious.
BUT!
The dinner made of nothing is what’s really interesting here.
The fact dad would bother to set the table and not actually make dinner is clear evidence
this moment is when cracks begin to form in the neighbors mind.
Look at the kids, they’re confused.
Reality is fuzzy when you’re knee deep in tragedy.
This part ends and we move onto the next stage STAGE 4!
Daddy sits depressed, watching TV in the living room.
Apparently he likes shows with lots of screams and agony.
A weird way to unwind (Must be desperate housewives).
The brother is frustrated, angry...even less able to deal with the loss than his father.
The sister tries to comfort him as well.
He shrugs her off but she’s persistent until...BAM!
Kids got a gun.
Pointed at her.
Is this foreshadowing?
Nah definitely not.
GASP!
Yam.
Okay.
She pretends to be a zombie and now she IS!
A zombie.
Definitely not foreshadowing.
We’re transported to a snowy, mountain location and we (as a zombie) must obtain many brains
and put them all in..you guessed it!
A basket.
Per usual.
The number 13 is abundant...a demonic and unlucky number.
Definitely not foreshadowing.
And turns out the number 13 is right next to a book we pick up.
Also there’s a creepy graveyard and within that graveyard is tombstone with a coffin
with our mom’s purse in it.
Because she’s dead!
And weirder still during this level we come across another book but this one has strange
symbols on it.
Looks like something out of full metal alchemist and I’ve seen enough to know bringing your
mom back by alchemical means doesn’t end well.
It’s found in a room with an older man watching TV who has a tiny brain presumably because
he’s watching TV.
It’s only when we set the first book we picked up in front of him that his brain begins
to grow.
Hmmm.
Then we can put the weird alchemy lookin’ book on a tree stump and it causes zombies
to raise from the ground and vomit brains out for us.
Cool.
After collecting all the brains we win!
We get a cutscene with our brother being a poophead.
Geeze dude WHAT THE FUARK.
Speaking of forks, we once again get no dinner and this time our brother acts up at the table,
causing a plate to break and dad to tell him to go to his room.
Dad’s having trouble keeping this family together.
The next stage gives us the brother keeping his sisters doll away from her until she agrees
to yet another game of hide and seek.
This time we actually get to play IN the house, albeit a kind of imaginary version of it but
one that is clearly based in reality.
The place is a mess, odd things are starting to appear like gates on staircases.
Then the outside happens.
A precarious rooftop, then a long series of planks leading to nowhere.
The neighbor’s Dr. Seus house has begun taking shape!
If we fall off the crows save us.
IT’S STILL AN OMEN OF DEATH BUT….
Interesting.
And finally at the edge of this bizarre add-on presumably built by dad, is our doll.
Our brother is still frustrated, he smacks it off the roof and then…
We were right!
The brother killed the sister!
WOOOOOOO!
Check out part 1 of our Hello Neighbor SYNK if you didn’t see it.
Then we get a scene of the dad burying his daughter, the crows, are hanging out, the
church bell is tollin’ and the credits roll.
So what does all this mean???
Well really it confirms everything I said in our last SYNKs about Hello Neighbor.
Go me.
The neighbor had to bury his daughter because his son killed her right?
THAT’S why we see that weird reality simulator in the basement during the non-prequel game.
He’s trying to keep his son locked away and reasonably content so that: ONE nobody
will find him and get him in trouble for killing his sister and TWO because that way the son
can’t get hurt or killed.
That’s why the son unlocks the door for us that one time...because he lives down there
and wants to get out...and the best way to do that is for us to get the word out.
And let’s not forget about the wanted posters from the original game!
As I pointed out, our neighbor puts them up around the neighborhood to play the part of
a confused father who has no idea where either of his kids are.
If he can just keep pretending...at least nobody will come and take the last of his
family away.
But what about the crows...THE CROWS!
Did anyone else find it odd they’d catch the sister when she fell on her own but when
her brother accidentally pushed her they didn’t do anything?
THESE CROWS AREN’T JUST HARBINGERS OF DEATH...they are unfolders of fate.
Think about it.
The brother HAD to kill his sister.
Why?
Because it makes for good storytelling.
Seems reasonable.
But what of the shadow?
Welp.
This one is a bit more mysterious.
Many have speculated it is the manifestation of the neighbor’s guilt.
But I stand by my previous statements.
This shadow has nothing to do with the neighbor...it has everything to do with the protagonist
from the original games.
Recall we played through the first two Acts of OG Hello Neighbor as a child and Act 3
as an adult.
During the sparse encounters with it in the early acts this shadow was small...however
dangerous.
By Act three we encounter it in a dream sequence where the shadow has grown to be HUGE...tearing
away the building our childhood self is cowering inside of.
If we interpret the shadow as the conglomeration of the repressed memories of what the neighbor
made us endure it makes sense why it’s grown to be so gargantuan by the time we’re an
adult: because we hadn’t dealt with our traumas yet.
It’s only after fighting through our fears in those dream sequence minigames that we
gain the courage to make the shadow explode!
The fact we never see the shadow in hide and seek is very strong evidence it isn’t the
neighbors guilt or any emotion of the neighbor at all!
Speaking of the shadow, you may remember we encounter it that one time at the burned out
neighbor’s house in Act 3.
Did you ever wonder why the house is ruined?
The ruined house was the only thing we had not yet figured out.
We didn’t have a reason for it being destroyed...until now.
Remember in part 3 of Hide and Seek when our brother is playing as fire?
It’s no coincidence our brother is the angry one.
It’s no coincidence he played as a flame and it’s no coincidence we find the once
terrifying maze of sadness a burned out husk.
OUR BROTHER BURNED THE PLACE DOWN.
Fire and rage brought Home Depot’s #1 customer to his knees.
Sometime after our heroic escape, internal flames turned to external inferno and the
protagonist’s childhood hell was no more.
A child, once part of a happy family unleashed his anger over his mother’s death, killing
his sister, so too tormenting his father.
This father locked his son away as a last ditch effort to keep his family together,
resulting in the same son he was trying to protect burning down his last safe haven.
That’s the story of Hello Neighbor Hide and Seek.
The Story you never knew.
...But you know what wouldn’t have caused this brother to kill his sister and burn down
his parents house?
If ALIENS had abducted his mother instead of her being run over by a car.
Then she could have visited once in a while.
Know what else wouda helped?
A Nintendo Switch.
AND YOU CAN GET BOTH OF THESE THINGS!
If you click the giveaway link in the description, you can get entered into the Super Smash Bros
Ultimate Nintendo Switch Bundle giveaway!
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Pretty cool huh.
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We worked hard on these shirt designs with Pixel Empire so I hope you love them as much
as we do.
Thanks for watching everybody!
And I’ll see you in the next video.
Bye.