# ittakestwo: an alternative storyline and ending to It Takes Two

Anyone else finish It Takes Two and feel like the story... fizzled out at the end? The gameplay is top-notch, but I feel the story has some missed opportunities, especially in the second half. In this post, I propose minor storyline modifications that could add more depth and choice.

# My gripes

The game is about a family where the parents want to divorce. The game features 4 main characters:

• May: the wife.
• Cody: the husband.
• Rose: the daughter.
• Dr. Hakim: the sentient therapist book.

I'm not going to do a full recap, just the stuff that is relevant to my points below. Read the full plot on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Takes_Two_(video_game)#Plot.

Rose transforms the parents into small dolls that were lying in the woodshed. The first half of the game is about the couple trying to get to Rose, then to Rose's room to reverse the curse. The parents become small, the world becomes huge. As the players, you see and interact with the world from a completely new perspective. And the story flows quite naturally: you have specific goals and the obstacles to those goals feel natural. This half is amazing; I have no gripes here.

In the second half of the game, the characters just randomly teleport to different worlds. The levels are still set around the house, but there is no organic transition between them. This made the game feel like a drag. The journey at this point was more like a checklist rather than emotional progression.

The last two levels are about reviving their passions. It starts with Cody's passion: gardening. The couple moved to the countryside so that Cody could work on his flower garden. But he stopped working on it and now it's full of weeds. In the game, you clear the weeds, kill the final weed boss, and then Cody feels better and promises to take care of the garden.

May's passion level was about getting her to sing. She used to love singing, but now she's too shy and it doesn't interest her anymore. But after a lot of encouragement (and the fact that it was their only way out) she sings. Not a full song though, just a loud single "aaaaah".

After the "song" the characters kiss and then they go back to their real bodies. Meanwhile, they learn that Rose was sad because she thought they were fighting because of her. They find their daughter, and they explain it wasn't because of her and the game ends.

What? That's it?

Throughout the whole game Rose's perspective is never really mentioned in detail. But there's an unfinished extra chapter available via special command line hackery (check on YouTube). That is about Rose. But it is in the horror style; it doesn't really fit the rest of the game. It's probably better that it was cut. Torturing Cutie was more than enough brutality in the game.

# My revised story

I don't want to just complain, though. So here's my take how a few tweaks could have elevated the story.

First, create better transitions between the levels. Here's an example: Rose finds a photo of them skiing where they looked very happy. She wants to see them happy again, so she picks up the dolls and plays with them next to the snow globe, as if they were at the ski resort. In response, Dr. Hakim teleports them into the snow globe and the snow level can start. It gives more context as to why they are suddenly in the snow level.

Develop the characters more in the passion levels. Reveal in Cody's garden level that May fell in love with Cody because he used to give her beautiful flowers all the time. But that is no longer happening and that's another reason why May felt distant. Restoring the garden to its full glory makes May feel warm again.

Reveal in May's song level that Cody fell in love due to May's beautiful singing. In the final scene May actually sings something while looking at Cody. Cody then warms up as well. During that singing moment they are leaning in to kiss but then Hakim stops them.

They get annoyed at Hakim. They want to burn him, believing that destroying the book might be the way out. By now, Hakim is out of pages, so he is out of magic. It cannot defend itself or fly away, so the couple starts to chase him, intending to burn him. A completely new final chapter begins.

This chapter explores Rose's perspective. The game is light on mechanics; it's more about storytelling. As they are chasing Hakim, they find themselves in Rose's room again. In it they find Rose's journal.

The players have to make a choice together whether to open the journal. Both players have the button mash prompt to open or they can continue chasing the book. If only one player is trying to open the book, their partner scolds them, arguing it's an invasion of Rose's privacy. The other one counters that it might explain what Rose did to them and how to break the curse.

When you open the journal, you notice it's actually an "argument diary". The pages are a table with 3 columns: "date", "count of my name", "note". The last entry is the one from the intro; the count is 6, and the accompanying note is "take me to the dentist". The previous ones are like "7, cost of my school", "4, not brushing my teeth", etc. The couple then realizes that Rose thought that all the fighting was about her. She didn't understand the arguments, all she heard was her name over and over again. That's why she was sad. This should be an emotionally heavy scene and a key moment for character development. If the players open the book, Hakim scolds them for not respecting Rose's privacy. If they don't open it, Hakim scolds them, saying they don't care about their daughter.

Then the couple continues to chase Hakim. They catch up with him but in the meantime Hakim managed to recover a little bit of magic power. He shouts a question at them, "Where will Rose live after your divorce, huh?" The players cannot get to the book until they answer this question. It's a button mashing game: the person who mashes harder gets Rose. As the players mash, the couple verbally fights each other. Cody accuses May of not taking care of Rose while May accuses Cody of not having a job. However, if one player doesn't mash at all, their character concedes to the other's arguments in the following dialogue.

They continue chasing the book and the book would continue to ask such questions:

• "Which of you gives more to Rose?"
• "Whom does Rose love more?"
• "Which of you creates the problems in this relationship?"
• "Which of you gave up more for this relationship?"

Basically Hakim wants them to be against each other rather than chasing him. It's also a reference to the game "A Way Out" where, in the final moments, the players are forced to fight each other. These questions don't have consequences in the final scene; they just affect the banter between the couple in this scene. It's only for the emotional effect.

# The final scene

In the final scene they catch up with the book. The button mash prompt is for igniting the book. Hakim's final sentence is, "Don't burn your relationship down!" before May stuffs his mouth with her shoe. Then there are 3 endings (or perhaps more based on the journal decision):

• The separation ending (if both players ignite the book): They wake up and write off the experience as a nightmare, so everything continues as before. The scene cuts to evening when Rose is going to bed. The parents send her to bed, and then May firmly asks Cody to reschedule the dentist appointment and the credits roll.
• The distance ending (if only one player ignites the book): They wake up, write off the experience as a dream/nightmare. In the evening, when Rose is in bed, the person who ignited the book explains to Rose that she is not the problem. The speaker continues, "I have grown apart from mom/dad. I feel sad, and I need some distance for a while." And then the speaker assures Rose that both parents still love her. There are two variants of this ending depending on who ignited the book.
• The rekindle ending (if none of the players ignite the book): After ~20 seconds of inactivity they slowly look at each other. They say to each other, "You know, for once let's try what the book says" and then kiss each other. This kiss also breaks the curse. Most players won't find this ending due to the delay, but it's intentionally long to highlight that fixing a relationship takes patience. (Perhaps as a hint, the game could tell the players in multiple places throughout the campaign to not feed the fire.) When they wake up, they tell themselves what a weird dream they had. The scene fades to the evening when Rose is going to bed. Rose brushes her teeth on her own. May asks where Cody was all day, and he answers that he was weeding his garden. He gives May a nice flower. She thanks him and puts it in her hair. Then as Rose goes to bed, May starts singing her a bedtime song. Cody hears this and a tear appears in his eye. Credits roll.

With such a story the game would be flawless for me.

I now wonder how likely it would be for the first-time players to find the rekindle ending. Would your duo realize that patience is the key to finding it?

published on 2025-07-07

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