Aria's Story Lore

Review and story-telling written by The Lore

Image taken from https://lyd1a.itch.io/arias-story 

Aria’s Story is an RPG Maker game. It’s story-based horror game that was inspired by the game Ib. In Ib, a young girl got lost in a museum and is in a Wonderland in the museum. In Aria’s Story, Aria is a little girl who falls asleep in a library, and when she wakes up, it’s dark and empty. The story is of her trying to escape. This game references many famous books and their stories. It glorifies the wonders of stories and the magic authors make. The developer, art and story was written by ‘Lydia’.

The game starts on a black screen with only text of two people talking about a book one of the people wrote. The reader character encourages the other to write a happy ending. The author calls the reader Aria.

The screen then shows a cute small blonde girl with pink eyes entering her library and talking about how much she loves it and the books. She claims to have read all the books in the library. The library is unique as it has plants growing in it, including a large tree. The library/garden has lots of white rabbits running around. On one of the walls is a large painting of the tree and one of the white rabbits.

Aria finds a new book for her to read as it arrived in a new shipment. She sits under the tree and falls asleep. When she wakes, it’s dark out. She is confused as to why the librarian didn’t wake her before they locked up for the night. She discovers she’s locked in. The painting with the rabbit on the tree is different, with the rabbit having a horrific expression. It unnerves Aria.

She looks around for a spare set of keys in hopes of leaving. She passes by the painting again and discovers the rabbit is missing from it. The books appear creepier with their titles “Come with us” and “Stay with us”. Aria finds a hidden door behind a bookshelf.

She starts down a path, answering riddles and solving puzzles with it always seeming like there is someone nearby but not someone who would help her. The is red ‘paint’ on bookshelves saying ‘play?’ on them? The creepy rabbit from the painting pops up in unexpected places.

Aria finds a book in the wrong shelf and places it where it belongs, then the book starts talking to her. It says all the books know and love Aria, and she is in the hallway connecting the two libraries. To show their appreciation of her, the books all fly off the shelves and create a stair case for her to continue to ‘the other library’.

Aria finds a pretty girl with brown hair and golden eyes at the top of the book staircase. Aria recognizes her voice and identifies her as the person who has been nearby but not helping her. The girl introduces herself as Narrator, and it is her job to narrate what happens to Aria. She cryptically advises Aria not to die too early as it would make for a boring story.

Image taken from http://allrpgmakergames.wikia.com/wiki/Aria%27s_Story 

Aria progressed without Narrator into a new library. The first section is the comedy section. Balloons and merry music decorate the shelves.

Image taken from https://lyd1a.itch.io/arias-story 

Aria can talk to the books and tries to help each of them with each of their small problems. After solving puzzles and completing tasks, Aria progresses. Hen she leaves the comedy section, a boy steps out of the shadows. The boy has his right hand bandaged.

He stares after where Aria went. “That girl… She can’t be… But… What is she doing here? Now I see. Then… I don’t have a choice. Aria. I will find you, and I will kill you. That’s a promise.”

Image taken from https://thesoundoffreedom.deviantart.com/ 

Aria progressed into the Fairy Tails section. Narrator shows up periodically, making vague statements and generally ignoring Aria’s questions. An owl flies to Aria, lovingly giving her an invitation. The invitation asks Aria to come to a party on the 3^rd floor. The floor is similar to the comedy section, in which she solves puzzles and completes tasks in order to progress.

In one room, she comes across the boy the audience recognizes from earlier. He is examining a bookshelf and Aria asks him if he likes books. Aria immediately tries to be friendly, but the boy rebuffs her attempts and leaves without her. Aria wonders if she said something to offend him.

Aria soon finds the party she was invited to. Animals happily talk to Aria, and the owl who gave her the invitation whistles happily. The party room is filled with rabbits and the theme is ‘Alice in Wonderland’. The rabbits tell Aria that Alice is always chasing the white rabbit, but this time it’s the other way around. The scary rabbit we’ve been seeing around then chases Aria. She runs down hallways but eventually passes the boy from before. He throws a knife and kills the rabbit chasing her.

Image taken from https://www.tumblr.com/search/easter%20bunny%20horror

Aria happily thanks the boy for saving her. The audience sees him thinking to himself, “I was aiming at you.” Aria proposes they travel together. The boy thinks, “If my hand wasn’t in this state, I would have hit the right target. Argh! It was the perfect opportunity!” He accepts, thinking that another opportunity to kill Aria will present itself. He introduces himself as Lewin.

Together they enter the romance section. They bump into Narrator who teases Lewin, knowing him name. She says extra characters can really add to a story. She wonders out loud if she should narrate what happens to Lewin as well as Aria. She states, “I’ll have to consult him about it”, and leaves.

Aria and Lewin travel together, solving puzzles and riddles like in the previous sections. Finally, Aria asks Lewin why his hand is bandaged. Lewin initially tries to brush off the question but finally admits to being a writer. He tells her that he has a book he was writing but couldn’t get the ending right. He wrote over and over and neglected his health. He wrote until he hurt his hand, and now has his hand bandages and can’t write again until it heals. Lewin sighs, stating no one wants to read a book written by a kid. Aria giggles and happily says she’d read his books. Lewin smiles at Aria, and they continue forward together.

They come into a room with a doll on the couch. Finding nothing in the room, Aria and Lewin try to leave. The door is locked. “Why are you leaving?” the doll asks. “Don’t you want to stay with me for a while? Why does everyone want to leave me? I don’t want to be alone. I want to be with you.” Lewin orders Aria to force the locked door open and he’ll take care of the doll. He promises he’ll come find her. Aria runs for it. True to his promise, Lewin finds her later. Aria happily thanks him for saving her again. Lewin mutters to himself, “Why did I save her? That’s the opposite of what I’m trying to do.”

Image taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6WSOmMBqDo 

They continue helping books and statues alike in the library. At one point, Aria gets distracted by a beautiful view from a window. She calls Lewin to look out of it with her. Lewin thinks to himself that now is the opportunity he’s been waiting for, with her back turned to him. He pulls out a silver knife they acquired by solving a puzzle. With resolve, he approaches her. Without looking back at him, Aria suddenly speaks his name. Lewin stops. Aria tells her backstory to him. That she was considered strange by the other children by loving books. She was sad but respected their opinion. One day her parents took her to a library, and she loved the place and that people of all ages read in the library. Aria tells him that she has found happiness in the library. Aria then approaches Lewin and asks him to be friends with her. She promises to read the books he writes. She says she’s sure he’ll be a famous writer. Lewin backs away, telling her to stop talking.

“Stop worrying about me. You’re making everything more complicated. I don’t want to get you involved in my affairs”, he says. Lewin then runs away. Aria runs and catches up with him. Lewin apologizes, but the moment of opportunity had passed. They continue together.

They walk into a room where Narrator is sitting on a large comfy chair. She narrates Aria’s actions, then states that Lewin is not important, and she doesn’t have to narrate what he does. Narrator gets up and walks to Aria. “Aria, are you sure you want to stay by him? If you’re the protagonist and I’m the narrator, then Lewin might be the antagonist.” Lewin freezes at this suggestion, but Aria denies the possibility. Narrator once again suggests that Lewin might be dangerous. Aria claims that Lewin has saved her many times and is a good person. Aria states she believes Narrator is a good person, too. She invites Narrator to leave the library with them.

Image taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbZxiUV1S3M

Narrator gets upset at this, claiming she is not a human, only a narrator. Narrator says that it doesn’t matter if the characters live or die. The characters are only for her entertainment. She claims that she isn’t a good person. She isn’t a boring human. Narrator then leaves, angry.

Lewin muses to himself, “Boring human? I think I’m starting to understand.”

Aria and Lewin then enter the horror section. Some of the books are transparent and are dead because no one read them. The books ask Aria to read many other books in order to keep them alive. She promises.

Aria eventually gets distracted by an interesting book, so Lewin says he’ll continute on without her for a bit but will come back. After he leaves, Aria notices a new door and goes through it. A book there explains the area to connect all the sections of the library in that area. There’s one pink door that doesn’t belong to one of the four sections. The book explains it to be the center of the library. She goes through the pink door and the room she is in… is an exact copy of her room back home. The game states she ‘finds something’ before leaving. Lewin is outside the room, upset that she went in. He won’t say why he didn’t want her going in, but when Aria says she didn’t find anything strange in there, he calms down.

Eventually they come across Narrator again. She says, “Behold, my true appearance”, and shows that she’s wearing glasses. Narrator says she is only a human. A boring human. So boring that no one ever wanted to be her friend. So she would copy the personalities of characters in books. Now she’s confused for she doesn’t know what about her is real and what is a copy. Narrator looks at Aria and says that ‘Narrator’ doesn’t exist. ‘Narrator’ is just another copied personality. Aria asks Narrator why she was narrating everything. Narrator says she doesn’t know, only that she was asked to do it. This confirms Aria and Lewin’s suspicions that there is someone else in the library.

Narrator says she must tell Aria something. The truth. Before she can say anything else, Narrator disappears. Lewin says they must find the other person in the library. Aria doesn’t move. She speaks the name “Dahlia”, clutches her head, then collapses.

The same scene as was first played at the beginning of the game shows again: of a black screen and two characters talking.

Aria wakes up in the same place, alone. She says she needs to tell Lewin something important. From the way she says ‘Dahlia’ again, the audience can assume that Dahlia is the real name of Narrator. Lewin left a letter behind with the same owl that gave Aria the party invitation in the Fairy Tail section. The letter says he’s fine and went on without her.

Aria then leaves the horror section and goes into The Final Chapter.

Immediately in the next section, Aria sees a boy on a ledge out of reach. She recognizes him as the librarian from her world. He asks her which library she likes best. This decision effects which ending you get. I’m going to first describe the good ending. The boy talks about memories with Aria before leaving.

Image taken from https://twitter.com/ariastory_rpg

Aria comes across a book talking about a magic quill that could write things into existence and erase them. It says that wars were waged over such a powerful item, and eventually a family took it into hiding.

The next scene has Lewin, ‘Dahlia’, and the librarian talking. The librarian seems to have just finished explaining something when Aria comes in. Aria calls the librarian Clyde, somehow knowing his name. Aria then apologizes to Lewin for lying to him and shows the ‘something’ she found in her room. It’s a photo of all four characters as young kids, showing that they’ve all known each other for a long time.

Image taken from https://www.tumblr.com/search/aria's%20story%20spoilers 

Aria explains that she remembers everything. She remembers their friendship, and she remembers dying.

Clyde them pulls out a quill and confesses that it is the magic quill that has been hidden away in his family for generations. After Aria had died, he stole the quill and tried to resurrect Aria, but the quill can’t bring someone back from the dead. Lewin then explains he had started writing a book that he became obsessed with and hurt his hand in writing. The book was about Aria and her adventures in the library. Clyde then explains that this book is the library they’re in now. Clyde made the book real with the quill. His plan was so that the four of them could leave and go back to the real world.

Image taken from http://funtvkids.com/videokids-Aria-39-s-Story-BAD-ENDING_fLnLu1vAB_R4.html

Aria realizes that she is only a book character based on someone else.

Aria states that though she may be like the real Aria in every way, she is not her. “I don’t have the right to be the replacement of someone else’s life.” She then steals the quill out of Clyde’s hands. Aria tells them she is going to erase this world. She thanks everyone for showing her what friendship was, then sends Clyde and Dahlia back to the real world.

Aria tells Lewin that he now knows how his story should end. Lewin says that he knew from the start that she wasn’t real. He thought that if he killed her, the story would end. He doesn’t want to write this ended, as it isn’t a happy one.

Aria tells him that her version of a happy ending is that after all the characters have endured, they still smile and keep going. Aria says that she will smile and make this ending a happy one. The screen goes white.

The final scene shows Clyde, Lewin and Dahlia talking in the real library. Lewin says he finished the book about Aria. Clyde says he’ll draw pictures for the book. Dahlia says she’ll narrate the characters. Lewin tell them that the title of his book will be called ‘Aria’s Story.’

That’s the end.

Image taken from http://dailystarmovies.com/videomovies-Aria-39-s-Story-(True-Ending-Finale)-Horror-Game-Final-Part-6_fSpA0sVJ7z7g.html 

The bad ending is much more of a dark tale, and is personally my favourite for being such a twist. ‘Aria’ realizes she’s not real, steals the quill from Clye, and says, “I’m the protagonist of this story… but it’s much more fun to be the antagonist.” She writes nooses into existence and hangs her friends. She goes to Lewin’s body and tells him, “You like writing tragedies, right? Don’t worry, I just wrote one for you.” She walks away, claiming to be the author of this world.

Image taken from http://dailystarmovies.com/videomovies-Aria-39-s-Story-(Part-1)-Pixel-Horror-Game-Vero-Plays_fu3DnQYG42yA.html 

The normal ending goes according to Clyde’s plan. Aria never realizes she was only a fictional character, and they all return to their world. The other three act like it never happened and Aria only dreamed of the other library.

I felt this game truly captured the love of books and the emotions it brings. The stories and how valuable libraries, authors and the readers are. I wish I was able to list and show every book reference in this game. The good ending was bittersweet for the story, but those are the best. Happy endings feel complete and we forget about them. Bittersweet endings give us tears and a reason to smile and comfort ourselves. The story stays with us forever. Aria’s Story would forever stay with her friends.

Images taken from Google Images. I own none of the story or images used.