Little Nightmares vs Bramble

Fairy tales are far from the ordinary bedtime stories we all fancied throughout childhood. They are often dark tales with cruel and terrifying stories, simply not meant for the faint-hearted, and that’s what Dimfrost Studios captures in Bramble: The Mountain King. Drawing inspiration from the Nordic Legends, the video game Bramble: The Mountain King presents a perfectly scary mythological world of cruelty, with themes of infanticide, suicide, and animal and child violence.

The game inspires a platformer mood as Olle, the main protagonist, traverses the unsettling land with evil creatures, much like in the horror puzzle-platform series Little Nightmares. In fact, Bramble appears to draw inspiration from the iconic adventure series and captures the horror atmosphere a little more perfectly. But does their gameplay provide equally fearsome moments? Let’s delve into a Little Nightmares vs. Bramble comparison to find out.

What is Little Nightmares?

Little Nightmares is a horror adventure video game created by Tarsier Studios. On April 28, 2017, Bandai Namco Entertainment released the first installment of the video game series for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is the only prequel to the 2021 Little Nightmares II, with Little Nightmare III set for release in 2024. 

The game begins with a nine-year-old girl called Six, who awakens from a dream covered in a yellow raincoat. The main protagonist, Six, runs through the dark underwater vessel, the Maw, armed with just a lighter. She runs, jumps, and scales the walls and other objects in the Maw while hiding from the enemies. 

Six encounters different creatures in her adventure, some fleeing from her sight while others discreetly observe her. The Maw has prisons with captured children, so Six still has to evade the janitor who monitors the imprisoned children. She must also evade the Leeches and the rotating lights that will turn her into stone if caught in them.

Eventually, the janitor takes Six and locks her up with the other kids. She would later escape and venture into the dark room filled with shoes, all while the janitor is in her pursuit and bouts of hunger are eating into her.

What is Bramble?

Bramble is a single-player action-adventure video game title developed by Dimfrost Studio. Dimfrost released the game in 2023 and is now available on Windows, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.

Gameplay on Bramble begins with Olle waking up in the middle of the night to discover that his elder sister, Lillemor, is missing. He sets off to the wilderness against the scares of the Nordic forest to find and rescue his sister, who’s been captured by a giant troll. Olle traverses neighborhoods similar to what we see in fairy tales, where he encounters monsters and occasional puzzles. 

Olle battles the bramble running across the forest but evades some enemies too big to take on for the kid. However, the small, shiny stone Olle discovers comes in handy to illuminate the dark forest and protect him against the beasts.

Story

The games Little Nightmares and Bramble: The Mountain King fall into the same video game genre and have a much similar storyline. They both present the elements of a horror video game with a weak main protagonist pit into a rather hostile world. The characters must maneuver through possibly instant-death situations while solving not-quite-complex puzzles to proceed to the next level. 

The storyline in Bramble, however, provides more clarity on the players' mission. Unlike Six in Little Nightmares, whose goal is survival, Olle’s main goal is to survive the forest’s adversaries of unending monsters and rescue his kidnapped sister. At some point, he also deviates from his main mission and ventures to save the newborn, who wants to be sacrificed in a satanic ritual.

Characters

Like its horror-adventure counterpart, Bramble: The Mountain King has a solo main protagonist, Olle. He is the main character in the video game and takes on the beasts and puzzles alone for the most part of the game. However, when Olle finds his sister Lillemor, at some point, they venture into the forest together playfully, interacting with the mythological creatures. Six is the main protagonist in Little Nightmares, although the game also introduces Mono and the runaway kid, Seven, who explores the Maw’s hidden horrors unknown to Six.

While most of the creatures in Bramble are antagonists, Olle manages to befriend and ally with some, like the giant stone Lemus, and other allies, including the Gnomes, the Frog Prince, Lyktgubbe, and Tuva.

Villains and Gameplay

Both Little Nightmares and Bramble have weird characters that are more horror and whimsical creatures, more so in Bramble. Little Nightmares, however, has more human-like villains like the Janitor, the Lady, the Twin Chefs, and the Guests. On the other hand, Olle encounters multiple horror enemies, including the Butcher Troll, the Mountain King, Nacken, Skogsra, Pesta, Karrhaxan, and the Swamp Witch.

The gameplay similarity between Bramble: The Mountain King and Little Nightmares is apparent. However, the former embeds more features, making its gameplay even more alluring.

Features and Missions

Unlike most video game titles, Bramble and Little Nightmares keep the gameplay quite linear. Only moving from the starting point linearly, with little chance of deviating or backtracking. The playthrough is from a third-person perspective, with the horror elements adding to the emotion and thrill of the adventure. The exploration feels pretty basic for both games. You only need to solve simple puzzles, like pulling a box to scale the walls or turning a matchbox upside down to unlock a key. If not, it’s a trial-and-error quest that you ultimately figure out. 

For Bramble, the combat feature makes the playthrough a little more worthwhile, especially when Olle takes on the monsters in boss fights. 

Unlike Little Nightmares, Bramble: The Mountain King nails it with direct and clearly defined missions. It’s easy to understand the end goal from the beginning, even though the player deviates from the main missions in some instances, like when Olle attempts to rescue the newborn from the witch. For Little Nightmares, the fact that there’s little Six can do besides attempting to survive and escape the Maw makes it a bit boring.

Platforms

Both video game titles are available on multiple consoles, including Windows, Google Stadia, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation. You can play Bramble on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Little Nightmares is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and mobile.

Verdict

The Little Nightmares video game series is ongoing, with two iterations already available on various consoles. While there are some improvements in Little Nightmares II, its gameplay isn’t quite alluring, considering there’s no combat in the game. Bramble appears to have taken pretty much all of the features from the game, but Dimfrost Studio went a notch higher by embedding combat features.

So, what’s your take on our Little Nightmares vs. Bramble comparison? Let us know your thoughts here on our socials or down in the comments.