The only difference is that, unlike him, you are building instead of tearing down and acting to fix what he started. Like him, assuming the player acts as the Ancestor expects his heir to behave, you churn through vast quantities of dead bodies doing it, often abandoning those who are no longer useful. Like the Ancestor, you are expending vast quantities of treasure and other people's blood puttering about with the occult.

The ending shows a ghostly form implied to be the Heir, haunting the estate in death, but it's skeletal enough to remain featureless. This isn't strange, since the protagonist is you. No other information is ever given about what the heir looks like.

Featureless Protagonist: The only time you ever see the protagonist is a featureless silhouette in a cutscene.

Apparently, knowledge of the Heart of Darkness was too much for the Heir to bear.

Driven to Suicide: The Heir is implied to commit suicide in the ending.

This is somewhat Enforced, as why not make optimal use of them when you've already invested so much time and money into their development? You pay for their medical treatment, provide them any luxury they want so they stay sane and happy, equip them with the finest weapons and armor money can buy, give them the best instructors and trainers so they're the best of the best, and make sure they have everything they need to fight the evil lurking in the dark.

Benevolent Boss: To the heroes that you spend the money on, you're their best friend.

Giving them insufficient supplies, letting them die and firing the crazies so you can hire new ones? This kind of depraved pragmatism is downright encouraged by both the intro, and the Ancestor himself in a few lines of dialogue.

Bad Boss: You are allowed to play in this manner after all, keeping heroes sane and healthy takes a lot of work and money.

Furthermore, there are hints that the Estate is trapped in an endless time loop, condemning the Heir, their heroes, and the monsters of the Estate to an endless struggle against the Heart of Darkness.

Ambiguous Situation: The ending to the game hints that the Heir commits suicide after defeating the Heart of Darkness, but the entire thing is ambiguous enough to be open to interpretation.'You answered the letter… now, like me, you are a part of this place.'Īs the last living member of a disgraced noble household, the Heir came to the hamlet at the request of the now-deceased Ancestor, who, after releasing a 'crawling chaos' and other monstrosities onto their ancestral home, has begged the Heir to return and fix the damage the Ancestor brought forth.

Darkest dungeon cove items