Sadness

About

Sadness was a survival horror title announced for the Wii that never actually reached players. Nibris planned to set it in pre-WWI Russia where Maria Lengyel protects her blind son Alexander after a train crash. The developers promised black and white visuals and a focus on psychological dread instead of gore. Players would face creatures from Slavic myth like the likho while making choices that led to one of ten different endings. Despite years of hype and early concept art, no playable version ever leaked online. The game became famous for its long development hell rather than its actual content. Internal conflicts with external studios and missed deadlines killed the project by 2010 when Nibris shut down completely. Fans still discuss what could have been since it was one of the first major games announced for the Wii system. The story concept of a blind child acting strangely in a horror setting remains a popular topic among gaming historians who track cancelled projects. It stands as a notable example of how high expectations can lead to total failure when production runs into trouble.

Storyline

Set in pre-World War I Russian Empire (modern Ukraine), Sadness was to follow the player character Maria Lengyel, a Victorian era aristocrat of Polish-Hungarian descent who has to protect her son Alexander after their train to Lviv derails in the countryside. Alexander, who is struck blind by the accident, begins to exhibit strange behavior that progressively worsens. The game's scenarios and enemies, such as those based on the werewolf and the likho, are inspired by Slavic mythology. In order to "make the player feel that he is participating in events [and] not merely playing a game," the game was planned to feature a branching storyline, influenced by the player's actions and concluding with one out of ten possible endings.