At the end of Dreamfall, what is the fate of April Ryan and Zoe Castillo?

Question

At the end of Dreamfall, April Ryan (spoilers hidden)

appears to have been killed, and Zoe is in a coma.

Are there any hints throughout the game that their fate is really different than what it appears to be on the surface?

Answer 1

Unfortunatly there is some speculation as to whether there will be a sequel. The head writer Ragnar Tørnquist seems to be very involved in getting Funcom's latest offering The Secret World MMO developed and launched. He has however indicated that an episodic format of Dreamfall Chapters is floating around at Funcom. I enclose an excerpt of what he said as his blog seems to be down to link to:

Nothing major is currently happening on Dreamfall Chapters. The people who will be involved when it does happen – myself included – are tied up in other projects, primarily The Secret World. TSW will continue to be my (and their) primary focus for a while longer…but that doesn’t mean nothing at all is happening with Chapters. It just means that it’s not (at least not officially) in production – for now.

Answer 2

Yes, there's at least one hint to the fate of April in The Longest Journey.

While it's never explicitly stated, but Lady Alvane, (the mysterious old woman who tells the story) appears to be April herself. At least if you take into account that she knows the story of April very detailed and that Crow is with her, and as it seems he was for a longer time as he asks "You don't plan to go on an adventure again, do you?" (or similar) at the end of The Longest Journey.

Answer 3

It's a cliffhanger. They're planning to do a sequel, so the characters can't all be dead/incapacitated. I'm guessing at least Zoe is going to come out of the coma somehow and April might not be completely dead after all.

According to wikipedia work on the sequel has not (yet?) begun, so there's nothing definitive on the fate of the characters.

Answer 4

Lady Alvane could also be Zoe:

1. Remember how she says at the very end of TLJ that it had been a long time since she remembered "April Ryan"? Unless she is refering go herself in third person, it could be that it's someone else, talking about april.

2. Remember how Crow tells Zoe "From now on, I'll be your sidekick" after both of them are mad at april for not wanted to help them out? In that last scene from TLJ we see him in Lady Alvanes house.

Answer 5

Technically the following count as out of game hints, but they do clarify the in game occurances at the end of Dreamfall. I also include this info here because some of the other answers are now out of date.

Dreamfall: Chapters, the sequel to Dreamfall, has been funded via Kickstarter and is in development. The Kickstarter description indicates that while it focuses on wrapping up Zoe's story, it is also a continuation of April's story wherein we learn her destiny. It also notes that April was "fatally wounded" at the end of Dreamfall, which presumably means she will not be dead at the start of Chapters.

As a further OOC hint, Red Thread tried unsuccessfully to raise enough extra money to start work on The Longest Journey home which concludes April's story. This also strongly implies April will survive Dreamfall and Chapters.

So, Zoe is definitely in a coma, and April is fatally wounded but not dead yet. However, both their stories will continue in Dreamfall: Chapters and possibly The Longest Journey Home. So things are either not as they seem, or more plausibly, likely to change quickly within Dreamfall: Chapters.