The Dark Side of Red Riding Hood

The original title screen (translated)

**The Dark Side of Red Riding Hood** (赤ずきんダークサイド *Akazukin Dakku Saido*) is a 2013 Japanese horror game developed by Studio Charon, using the RPG Maker 2000 program. Like *Mikoto Nikki*, it was originated in Japanese-language released in 2013, with provided in English translation by Terriball on Tumblr released in late 2014.

## Premise

Little Red Riding Hood is sent at her mother's request to visit her ailing grandmother.

## Gameplay

Like many RPG Maker games, Little Red Riding Hood, sometimes name it **Red**, allows to move through two-dimensional fields by the player.

In spite of a sole "bad" ending, there are five different routes depending on player's choices, each one of these leads your "true" fate, alive or unambiguous.

## Endings

Bad End: Good Girl

If Red doesn't stray from the road and goes straight to her grandmother's house, she finds her there alive and well.**NOTE**: It's left ambiguously if her grandmother is the wolf or if she is faking herself at her granddaughter in possibility to eat her as a similar way in ending 4.
True End 1: Mother's Bloodlust

If Red takes the first road, she will find a flower field. She will take a yellow flower from there and then go to her grandmother's house and kill her with axe.

After that, it is revealed that her mother sent Red to kill her grandmother.**NOTE**: It is, though, unknown if it was because the previous Little Red Riding Hood was killed because of a similar way as Grandma's cannibalism in ending 4.
True End 2: Lost Woods

If Red takes the second road, she will find a huge lake. After that, she became lost in a labyrinth and kept walking until the sun had set.
Red has become lost in the woods, and she is late to go to Grandma's house, but instead of turning back, she decides to keep moving and following the path that she thinks is right but is mistaken. She feels hungry and reaches for her basket where she only finds a bunch of rocks. No one saw Red after that.

True End 3: Wolf Man

If Red takes the third road, she will find the Hunter. He warns her that a wolf lives in the forest and tells her to be careful. Red then goes to her grandmother's house and finds her corpse and the Hunter there who says that the wolf got her.
Red thinks he was the one who committed the crime, he later confesses that he is a pedophile who hunts little girls as "brats" instead of hunting animals. They get into a fight, but he pushed her down, tears her clothes off and tells her that from now on, she's going to be his slave. Obviously, the hunter rapes her for the rest of her life but beginning in Grandma's house.

True End 4: Cannibal

If Red takes the fourth road, she will find a flowerless field. After that she goes to her grandmother's house and finds her alive and fine. Red asks why her ears are rather big: "The better to hear your cute little voice with, my dear!". Red asks why her eyes are quite large: "The better to see your cute little self with, my dear! No need to be afraid".
Red says that her hands are too big: "I wouldn't be able to hug you without these big hands!". Red says that her mouth is big: "You see, my dear... THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH". Then her grandmother eats her alive and wonders how the next Little Red Riding Hood that her mother sends would be.

True End 5: Human Trafficking

If Red takes the fifth road, she will find a lake where two swans are swimming. After that she goes to her grandmother's house.
A man comes in after her and tells her that she has no idea about what is going to happen to her. He says that she has been thrown away because he paid her mother for it, making her his slave for the rest of her life until she dies. Red can do nothing but cry and resign to her fate.

## Trivia

* In the original Japanese version, the True End 4: Cannibal is called "Cannibaba", which is a pun on portmanteau words "cannibal" and "baba" (grandmother in Japanese).
* Unlike her previous projects developed in originality, it was her first project based on literary works under "public domain"; regarded as a darker adaptation of European fairy tale *Little Red Riding Hood*.
* Unlike the fairytale, the wolf's appearance was omitted in the game in order to subvert the former's personality and main appearance into neutral, traumatize, or violent depending on player's choices.
* All characters, except Red, served as main antagonists of which different routes in the game.
* The game's fourth ending drew similarities to the fairytale where Red had a conversation with her grandmother.
* Each five "true" endings were depicted such mature contents: **Murder** (1), **Abandonment** (2), **Rape and Slavery** (3), **Cannibalism** (4), and **Human Trafficking** (5).