Replay - A Henry Stickmin Creepypasta

The Story

I recently decided to replay The Henry Stickmin Collection. I had 100% it a while back, around when it first released, but after getting reminded of it by a friend I thought it'd be fun to revisit it. So, I cleared my data and started a new playthrough of it... Things didn't really go how I wanted them to, though.

It started pretty normal. Breaking the Bank was really nothing special, I just rewatched all the fails then clicked the correct option, disguise. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, maybe Henry's expressions were a bit different, but I couldn't tell. I hadn't touched the game in a few years after all. Things actually picked up in Escaping the Prison.

I went for the fails first, of course. I went for the file option first, going to use it on the window. Henry stared at the window for a few seconds, hesitating, before using it on the door instead. I immediately failed the following quick time event, because I was confused- Why wouldn't I be? My choice was just ignored!

I went back to the start and tried to do the other fails, where the scenes played out mostly as expected. Henry was reluctant to use the items again, though. I know Henry is implied to remember fails, like with the teleporter in every game, but stuff like this isn't meant to happen.

I continued going through the game, going with the Sneaky Escapist rank for Escaping the Prison, then Unseen Burglar for Stealing the Diamond- Nothing particularly interesting happened for either of them, just the same hesitance with the fails I saw earlier.

I didn't know why he was doing that. Again, I know Henry is implied to remember fails, but I'm sure that's not supposed to be changing previous games, right? Especially after I completely reset my data...

I decided to keep going. I was confused, but I was too curious to stop now. For Completing the Mission, the final part of the game, I'd go for Special BROvert Ops, because I remember Charles being my favorite character. And, honestly, I really just wanted to see how this Henry would react to all the things Charles did.

I started by choosing the earpiece in Infiltrating the Airship, to begin the Government Supported Private Investigator route. I decided to get fails first again, choosing acid, which was... Completely ignored. The correct option, vacuum, played out instead. I went back and tried to choose knock instead. Henry used the vacuum instead again.

Next set of options, I tried to use disguise, which Henry again ignored. The whole fun of the game is supposed to be seeing Henry fail a bunch of times, I didn't want to just speed through it like this.

But, the next set of options would be Charles' help, so Henry couldn't ignore that.

Selecting the "Charles" option, Henry looked panicked the moment I selected it, trying to run off before the helicopter could actually crash into the Airship. It still resulted in a fail though, so that's something. The other two options also resulted in a fail. A similar thing happened with the next choices, with Henry trying to escape from the situation before dying anyways.

The last few options again just had Henry act on his own. After completing Infiltrating the Airship I took a short break and came back to start up the game again after an hour or so.

Henry on the title screen wasn't posing at all. Just staring at me.

I continued anyways. For some reason. I guess it was just out of curiosity.

Next was Fleeing the Complex, going for the International Rescue Operative path. It goes pretty much the same as the last game did, Henry always going for the correct option despite what I chose, unless the fail was caused by Charles "helping". Henry looked tired.

In Completing the Mission... I couldn't even start it, actually.

The opening cutscene didn't have Henry there, only Charles. After Charles entered it cut to just the outside- I couldn't see what was happening in the tent it took place in, I couldn't hear any of the dialogue, there weren't any subtitles either, so I can just assume it was the same as the original, just without Henry. No gameplay happened after, just going back to the menu.

I still don't know why the game did that. Or what happened to Henry there.

I checked around posts and forums for any answers on what happened and I got nothing. I just decided to go watch videos of all the endings afterwards.

Maybe I'll pick up the game again some other time and try to figure this out.