ok! if you insist!!!
this is a self-insert game where you name your character and choose who you want to play as (rabbit, human, witch, etc). routes are locked by keys that you're given by completing certain endings, the first route is RABBIT where you can only get three short endings, all of which end in your death ambiguously at timber's hand.
the game opens up more during the witch and human routes. in these, timber is romanceable. there are many paths through the story, but again, only 3 endings: say goodbye and he takes your stuff, spend the night together and he takes your stuff, or show some interest in wolves and he opens up a little about his situation and past, then leaves without stealing anything from you. that last ending gives you the wolf key, which is where things REALLY start to get good!
this becomes clear later in the game but i'll tell you now: each ending of the rabbit, human, and witch routes are all things that have happened over the years when timber has gone out looking to bring home meat for his family. the wolf route is the first one where only one ending is canon: the twigs ending. twigs is hunted in the beginning just like the other characters, but when timber realizes they're a fellow dog, he invites them to stay the night in glaze.
importantly, you still assume this is a self-insert game at this point. but twigs has BACKSTORY. you meet a bunch of the wolves of glaze, and have a lovely time where timber cooks you a meal despite their limited food. to get the twigs ending, you have to choose all the romance options (except dodge the sex scene at the end lol that's just a fun bonus). when you do, twigs explains that they have a scar on their neck from when they were bullied in their childhood. timber is wearing neck bandages during the wolf route, which have gone unremarked on until this point--after drawing attention to them, he reveals what's underneath: a horrible scar he got from a magic collar that was put on him by some really bad dudes! twigs completely identifies with the feelings timber was left with after the incident, and starts to cry. this moment cements twigs as the only figure timber can really confide in about what happened to him, and their bond only grows from here!
by the next morning, twigs decides to join the wolves in glaze as soon as they can, discarding the name the player gave them in the beginning and choosing their new name, twigs. the art for them in illustrations was still a vague outline until they settle on their name and are given a defined portrait, no longer a self-insert character... and then you're given the captor key.
part 2: where shit gets really dark
captor route opens the same as the others, except this time you play as timber's captor: a cop named osmanthus. he's rude, violent, and very clearly corrupt. he puts the magic collar and wrist cuffs on timber and brings him to the rabbit town of frosting. during the wolf route, you hear a little bit about frosting, and how the rabbits there are the reason the wolves are dealing with food scarcity. they are persecuted by them and were chased off their land and deeper into the mountain where it's even harder to survive. many wolves were killed by them in the past, as touched on in the human/witch routes.
once you reach frosting, you're taken to a brick mansion that LWT fans will recognize... it's senbei's house. senbei is the rabbit with a witch father, the witch who built the wall surrounding frosting the previous spring. timber is led down to the basement and into a room full of gym equipment, where he is chained to one of the machines. osmanthus hands senbei a device with a big red button that delivers a shock to the collar, which he uses to torture timber over the next week or so.
senbei's goal in hiring osmanthus was to find the wolf he believes to be responsible for hunting rabbits each winter on mount sorbet. right now, all of the rabbit deaths have been classified as missing persons cases, but if he can pin all of those on the wolves, he will be able to get the backing he needs to basically exterminate the remaining wolves of mount sorbet. he makes this clear from day one of timber's captivity, which gives timber all the more reason to not cooperate and in fact be as shitty and annoying as possible to him.
but you're still osmanthus right now. there's a choice to be senbei, but it requires the torture key. you have to see this route through to the end, it's a linear story and i'm not letting you off this ride!
osmanthus gives senbei 3 days to get information out of timber. when he comes back, the collar has exploded from overuse and timber is dazed, bleeding a lot from his neck, but still alive. this freaks osmanthus out quite a bit--if senbei kills timber, he'll suddenly have to worry about being connected to a murder. he does what he can to conceal any evidence he was involved in the incident, giving timber some basic first aid in the process. senbei bargains for another 3 days to try to get a confession out of timber. osmanthus reluctantly agrees to it (for the money), but doesn't cast a new collar for him.
3 more days pass, and when osmanthus comes back, timber is uneventfully released. senbei couldn't get anything out of him. osmanthus takes timber back to the wilderness where he initially picked him up, then shoots him in the leg with his magic to make sure he won't be followed. osmanthus sucks!!!! BUT SENBEI IS SO MUCH WORSE.
torture route is gonna need its own section so here we go
i'm not gonna give you the play-by-play here. instead i will try to communicate the vibe. a slow descent to madness, teased by a near-confession of guilt--senbei was entirely correct in his theory that a wolf is responsible for the 30 or so missing rabbits he's pointing to from the past 15 years. timber explains, hypothetically speaking of course, how a rabbit might run away from a wolf on sight... and how running in the snow, near steep cliffs, could be very dangerous... senbei interprets this exactly the way timber intends him to interpret it: this is how he goes about killing rabbits, and exactly why senbei will never be able to get the proof he wants. because timber is careful to act indirectly and always make it look like an accident.
for the first three days, timber denies any wrongdoing and argues with senbei about the accusations and about his attitude toward wolves. the longer timber is stuck there, the more he tries to figure out what makes senbei tick, and says all sorts of things to get under his skin. senbei, meanwhile, does a lot of things that piss timber off, namely wasting food after timber makes fun of his lack of cooking skill.
what drives timber to give senbei the near-confession though, is... the night before osmanthus is supposed to come back to release him, senbei tries to offer a plea deal. he will return the remains of timber's father, who was killed by rabbits ~20 years ago and made into taxidermy. his head is currently mounted on the wall of an apartment building's lobby in frosting. it's timber's first time hearing of this, and he finds the offer to be quite offensive--there's no reason he would ever agree to something that would lead to the extermination of the rest of his pack, even if he was promised impunity for it. senbei, realizing timber is going to be released and there's nothing he can do to bend him to his will, starts feeling very desperate here. that's when timber rubs it in by effectively telling him he was right about his theory all along, but timber will never, ever give him exactly what he wants.
so senbei holds down the button to activate the collar, leaves the room, and doesn't let go until he falls asleep that night.
um, i should mention there's an underlying element of sexual tension throughout all of this! it's mostly coming from senbei's end but also egged on by timber. it's clear from the narration that senbei finds timber attractive, he just can't be normal about it. which timber finds a bit confusing, but he really doesn't want senbei to make a move on him either. they really hate each other, but senbei's growing obsession sure does twist it into something special.
the latter 3 days go by more quickly. on the fourth day, timber is no longer responding at all. he's mostly just sitting there in pain, much to senbei's frustration. senbei continues asking questions that won't be answered, until he gives up and starts talking about his own motivations. he just wants to exterminate predators, there's no particular reason for it, he just feels the world would be improved by doing that.
on day 5, he is desperate to shock timber out of his unresponsive state, and decides to let him take a shower. it works (I CAN'T GET INTO HOW IMPORTANT THIS SCENE IS OR I'LL BE THROWING ANOTHER THOUSAND WORDS AT YOU). timber gives irritated responses now, but still doesn't really engage, which means senbei still can't get anything out of him.
in the end, senbei is forced to give up. his parents are worried about him. they're asking him to please go outside. when timber makes him so angry that he wants to strangle him to death, he does decide to take his dad's advice and go outside, but it doesn't make him feel any better. he cooks timber one last meal before osmanthus comes to release him, and timber gets one last insult in. "the seasoning's better than last time."
OH, YOU THOUGHT WE WERE DONE? HOW ABOUT ONE YEAR LATER!!!
AFTER THIS I HIT U WITH THE BLACK RABBIT KEY AND YOU START FROM THE BEGINNING, BUT SURPRISE!! YOU'RE SENBEI AGAIN!!! he's been thinking about timber all year long, he couldn't let it go! going off of what little info timber did give him, he was able to find the rabbit corpse from the second ending, the one that died in a cave where timber couldn't safely retrieve it!
timber bolts as soon as he realizes you're senbei, and you chase him all around, echoing the original paths from the rabbit route, except timber is the prey now... he does what he can to try to get away, but senbei is relentless. you end up on the cliff, and timber pulls out twigs' pocket knife (which you'd recognize from the wolf route) to defend himself, but senbei doesn't back down.
his plan, this time, was to create the conditions timber specified to him in order to force an attempt on his life. if he lives, he will get to use his experience as evidence that timber is a murderer. the only problem is... timber laughs in his face for it. he's not stupid enough to try to kill senbei, he knows he can't win, so he folds up the knife and tries to walk away, telling senbei to go home.
senbei does not go home. he demands an explanation. but whatever timber says won't satisfy him. and then timber derides him for relying on witch's magic rather than his own power, something he picked up on about senbei during torture route... his complex about not having the power of a witch. this really strikes a nerve for him, and he snaps, grabbing timber by the throat and holding him over the edge of the cliff.
it's fucking action-packed, dude, a summary doesn't do it justice. timber kicks him in the chest and launches off of him, over the cliff and into the freezing lake below. IS HE FUCKING DEAD??? roll credits. no, he's ok, thank god, he's in wolf form and he's ok.
in the post credits scene, senbei laments what happened and figures out what to do next. he doesn't believe timber is dead (because he never thinks timber would die from anything) but because of what timber said, he also can't ask the witch who could help him make sure. TOTAL DEFEAT!!! OH, WE LOVE TO SEE IT!!!! that's the end of the game!!!!
except there's also epilogues for every route
*frothing at the mouth* i wrote 50,000 words for this game and i think you should hear all of them. the epilogues are really good, you get to see more from tundra's perspective, you get to see her reaction to her son getting hurt over and over again due to sending him out scavenging but she still doesn't back down, because she thinks if they don't scavenge the pack will have no other choice but to starve. it's so fucking sad.
most important is the black rabbit epilogue, which plays out from twigs' perspective. they see timber come home, he immediately passes out from exhaustion, he's still in wolf form and they keep him warm that night after tundra helps stabilize him and everything... it's scary for them because they were never told about the scavenging thing, and once timber is okay again he actually decides to go ahead and tell them everything.
and twigs, because they love timber so much, completely accepts him... he's been afraid to go out after what senbei did to him, and he wants to find an alternative. twigs is hit hard by having to grapple with the stuff timber has done for the pack's survival, but ultimately they're willing to become his accomplice because they don't believe he's a bad person. THE STRUGGLE!!! PAIN!!!!!! timber feels bad for hurting twigs in this way, but he doesn't regret a single thing he's done and doesn't make excuses for it.
if you enjoyed NWT, PLEASE look forward to the sequel, where twigs will continue to embrace their role as timber's accomplice (i mean, he's stopped killing rabbits but they still need to cover for him because senbei is not going to stop chasing his ass). i'm writing it now, it's happening. see you in a few months probably.
