This review contains spoilers
I decided to replay this game today to get some of the other endings. Also ended up going through this game's bonus dungeon, which I kind of stumbled upon accidentally, to unlock the True Exhibit. Here's some brief spoiler-heavy thoughts to accompany my other review.
Mary actually ended up being my favorite character of the trio, which wasn't what I expected would happen at first. When first meeting her during my initial playthrough, I didn't think she'd end up being a character I particularly cared for, yet here I am considering her to be among the ranks of my favorite antagonists in all of gaming. Nonhuman characters trying to become human is a sweet spot for me, and a villainous spin on the idea is very much welcome.
I ended up getting both A Painting's Demise and Together, Forever during this replay session, the only two endings where Mary makes it out of the gallery. A Painting's Demise is one of the game's more interesting endings even though it's probably the worst ending you can get. Garry loses their sanity after failing the Doll Room, and Ib is unable to move as a result, staying beside Garry. Mary ditches them and makes it to the Fabricated World portrait, arriving in the real world. Mary is shown to care deeply for her fellow exhibits throughout the game and potentially has some control over them, one such example being right before she makes it to the exit, where she politely asks a statue to move so it stops blocking the stairs, and it gladly obliges and walks out of the way. Moments like these make it all the more shocking when the gallery itself turns on her once she steps out of it and Mary is forbidden to leave. Mary slowly succumbs as the area around her darkens, begging for Ib, Garry, and her Father to help her. It's fascinating to see her cry out for the people she gladly backstabs and attempts to murder in other endings, it also shows a moment of weakness for an antagonist who is truly lonely and not really that evil or heartless; one of the many reasons why I really adore her as a character. Overall, a really good bad ending.
Together, Forever also lets Mary escape the gallery, this time without consequence, presumably because Ib also accompanies her. Mary is officially recognized as Ib's sister through some bizarre cognitive rewriting, and Mary happily accompanies Ib's family to dinner while also discarding any evidence that may cause her to recall Garry and the events of the game. I don't exactly know what kind of pact Guertena signed in order to allow his art museum to do stuff like this, my best guess has to do with this game taking place sometime after the year 6223 and technology has evolved to the point where you can put together galleries with the ability to alter cognitions en masse. Anyway, while this was only added in the 2022 remake and not present in the original, I really like the subtle detail where Mary's shadow on the ending image is still scribbles, implying her transformation into a real girl wasn't entirely perfect. In most other endings, Mary's portrait is burned using Garry's lighter and she collapses into ash, a rather sad fate despite everything she made Ib and Garry go through. Mary's "boss fight" consisting of a short sprint through a corridor isn't really anything compared to fights against other antagonists I love, but I can't hold it against her due to the style of the game, its good for what it is. It's a shame you can't have an ending where all three characters make it out alive, but it makes the ones you can get all the more intriguing.
The final area of the game, the Sketchbook, is a very stunning location. The visuals and music stuck out to me on my first playthrough and made it a standout final level to accompany a standout villain. The entire area is drawn in scribbles, implied to have been made by Mary, and featuring crude drawings of the people and exhibits she's encountered throughout alongside parts of nature such as trees, butterflies, the sun, and many other things from someone who only has their desperate imitations instead of the real outside world. The Sketchbook heavily contrasts the palette swapped corridors you travel through in the rest of the game, making it a location I'm not going to forget anytime soon. On the topic of Mary's artstyle, one of my favorite details I caught during the replay was seeing the bizarre skit that shows up in the early game, which I had completely forgotten about, and being able to piece together that Mary likely drew it due to its artstyle matching her scribbles. I love the way her amateur MS Paint Spray Can artstyle acts as a calling card of sorts, and can be noticed in a few other places before she joins your party. It's moments like those that really made the replay just as special of an experience as my first playthrough.
Mary actually ended up being my favorite character of the trio, which wasn't what I expected would happen at first. When first meeting her during my initial playthrough, I didn't think she'd end up being a character I particularly cared for, yet here I am considering her to be among the ranks of my favorite antagonists in all of gaming. Nonhuman characters trying to become human is a sweet spot for me, and a villainous spin on the idea is very much welcome.
I ended up getting both A Painting's Demise and Together, Forever during this replay session, the only two endings where Mary makes it out of the gallery. A Painting's Demise is one of the game's more interesting endings even though it's probably the worst ending you can get. Garry loses their sanity after failing the Doll Room, and Ib is unable to move as a result, staying beside Garry. Mary ditches them and makes it to the Fabricated World portrait, arriving in the real world. Mary is shown to care deeply for her fellow exhibits throughout the game and potentially has some control over them, one such example being right before she makes it to the exit, where she politely asks a statue to move so it stops blocking the stairs, and it gladly obliges and walks out of the way. Moments like these make it all the more shocking when the gallery itself turns on her once she steps out of it and Mary is forbidden to leave. Mary slowly succumbs as the area around her darkens, begging for Ib, Garry, and her Father to help her. It's fascinating to see her cry out for the people she gladly backstabs and attempts to murder in other endings, it also shows a moment of weakness for an antagonist who is truly lonely and not really that evil or heartless; one of the many reasons why I really adore her as a character. Overall, a really good bad ending.
Together, Forever also lets Mary escape the gallery, this time without consequence, presumably because Ib also accompanies her. Mary is officially recognized as Ib's sister through some bizarre cognitive rewriting, and Mary happily accompanies Ib's family to dinner while also discarding any evidence that may cause her to recall Garry and the events of the game. I don't exactly know what kind of pact Guertena signed in order to allow his art museum to do stuff like this, my best guess has to do with this game taking place sometime after the year 6223 and technology has evolved to the point where you can put together galleries with the ability to alter cognitions en masse. Anyway, while this was only added in the 2022 remake and not present in the original, I really like the subtle detail where Mary's shadow on the ending image is still scribbles, implying her transformation into a real girl wasn't entirely perfect. In most other endings, Mary's portrait is burned using Garry's lighter and she collapses into ash, a rather sad fate despite everything she made Ib and Garry go through. Mary's "boss fight" consisting of a short sprint through a corridor isn't really anything compared to fights against other antagonists I love, but I can't hold it against her due to the style of the game, its good for what it is. It's a shame you can't have an ending where all three characters make it out alive, but it makes the ones you can get all the more intriguing.
The final area of the game, the Sketchbook, is a very stunning location. The visuals and music stuck out to me on my first playthrough and made it a standout final level to accompany a standout villain. The entire area is drawn in scribbles, implied to have been made by Mary, and featuring crude drawings of the people and exhibits she's encountered throughout alongside parts of nature such as trees, butterflies, the sun, and many other things from someone who only has their desperate imitations instead of the real outside world. The Sketchbook heavily contrasts the palette swapped corridors you travel through in the rest of the game, making it a location I'm not going to forget anytime soon. On the topic of Mary's artstyle, one of my favorite details I caught during the replay was seeing the bizarre skit that shows up in the early game, which I had completely forgotten about, and being able to piece together that Mary likely drew it due to its artstyle matching her scribbles. I love the way her amateur MS Paint Spray Can artstyle acts as a calling card of sorts, and can be noticed in a few other places before she joins your party. It's moments like those that really made the replay just as special of an experience as my first playthrough.