"Signalis isn't a horror game, it's a romance and tragedy. It's about two people exploited and thrown away by an uncaring society." don't make me cry. amazing video.
@@arkham666 when you said that I had to pause the video and just think for a good second, I didn't even think about it like that. I'd love to get another Signalis game but I think one is enough, I have so many unanswered questions.
@@kronkchopp I think we're supposed to have our own story to be honest. That's one reason I didn't want to dive too deep into what I thought was going on. Maybe we'll get another game like this but in another time and place. Kinda like how silent hill 2 is completely separate from one and three.
@@arkham666 true, I could honestly see a completely different genre of game in the Signalis universe like an over-the-shoulder fps game you playing a replika fighting against the Empire, but a man can dream
@@kronkchopp the potential and lore for the universe it creates is so rich and exciting. It feels fresh/refreshing in the experience it delivers while completely familiar at the same time due to all the homages it makes. All that, but at the same time, the *unfamiliarity* and mysteries within the game are just so alluring! I haven't had a chance to play Metal Gear Solid 1, but Signalis plays much like how I imagined a horror would play out in that type of top down style with similar gunplay. I would love to see that come full circle with an espionage replica game.
Signalis's 8 year "dev cycle" wasnt always signalis. It started out looking like an upbeat metroidvania side scrolling adventure game, went through a lot of iteration. A lof of elements from the developer's non video game work also made it in but in a more cohesive and mature fashion. Its development history is the creators' personal journey itself. While most game feel like a retrospective or a race to finish certain ideas
Indeed. How does one really separate the lives of solo developers working on hobby projects from the rest of their lives. When I'm writing stories it only takes a good movie in a different genre to drop and I'm scrapping weeks of work to start something new.
Whoah, did you just say “on a frozen moon called Leng?” Like, the Plateau of Leng by HP Lovecraft? That is described as a cold and frozen place in the dreamlands, something hidden within. Yep. Definitely looking forward to playing this and I heard the opening quote to this game is from Lovecraft from his novel, The Festival. As it says: “Great holes secretly are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl." And seeing the book: the King in Yellow? Yeah, this game has themes or is about cosmic horror, mixed with cyberpunk and resident evil/silent hill in space. I’m GETTING IT! Always wanted a game like this. This is why I fully support Indie devs, especially as they make it mainstream as well on all platforms. That’s a big bonus to me. And you’ve convinced me with your way of words. Well done.
Did you play it? I must know! Also, I hate that the fandom keeps associating "The Festival" quote to the "King in Yellow", the quote literally states the source in-game.
One thing that I didn't even really think about until you were talking about the voice acting section, is that in Signalis I really enjoy the fact that the sound they use for the text boxes audibly reminds me of something like Morse code messages sent over radio.
An excellent analysis video, especially when you said that this isn't a horror but a romantic tragedy. This game will stay with me for a very long time. I wish rose engine made another game in this universe.
I think what I love about Signalis is the fact you can play this game over and over and always find new details or information you missed. And that even when you do find a hidden crumb the main message of the game only gets amplified as a result. This game will always be about Ariane and Elster and there is nothing that you discover or secret you unearth that would change that only reinforce it.
The ocular implant being an equipable instead of an upgrade baffled me. As a result i never used it more than once because while it was a minor annoyance to write down or remember things, the inventory slot was so much more important. It's a really neat and well contextualized feature most people won't ever use.
Agreed. It's very clumsy to just say "survival horror games have 6 inventory slots" and to handle equipment that way. There are many other factors that go in to creating the ideal inventory for a game. If you get it wrong it leads to features that someone spent hours creating not getting used to avoid the inconvenience. It's a smaller gripe when weighed against everything this game gets right but it's hopefully something they'll consider for whatever they do next.
An update dropped that made the flashlight and the eye upgrades and not take up a slot. Along with a possible setting for 8 objects, quality of life fixes, etc...
"I think we're supposed to have our own story to be honest." honestly, for me half the fun is figuring out what did and didn't happen, what theory has most and least proof. I love discussing this stuff with other fans. Like dream theory, multiple dreamer theory, reality warp theory, 'rofront lookalike theory' and so forth. but thats me, that's what i enjoy. My way isn't necessarily the correct way, just what i enjoy.
I love the extremely limited inventory since it forces you to make decisions about what you carry. I love it went the better decision is not taking the flashlight. And you don't need the optical camera, it's a trick. Pen and Paper is all you need.
I posted this elsewhere but I want to share it here as well It is most likely what happened in game is a merger of a recurring dream and reality. So who's dream? We know of two entities who were dreaming in the game: Ariane and Falke. Ariane might not be "alive" at this point, and we never know exactly how strong is her bioresonance power. Maybe she only has a little bit of bioresonance. Ariane also never went to Sierpinski. So it's not that reasonable for her to have such a strong and detailed connection with Sierpinski. Falke on the other hand, the commander of Sierpinski, is strongest known bioresonanator on Leng, who have a lot of classified information in her head in the first place. SO here is my theory: We are not playing as Elster at all. When NPCs say "No Elster was ever deployed at Sierpinski", they are speaking the truth. Elster was never there and cannot physically be there. WE ARE FALKE. Or rather, we are Falke who embodied a character of Elster in her own dream. This whole situation was the result of Falke's dream leaking into reality. Falke went through the threshold and found what's left of Penrose-512, or got in contact with Ariane somehow. The bioresonance residue from Ariane influenced Falke just like how Kolibris can mentally drag each other down. Falke went back and got "sick". She got trapped in her own recurring dreams of Ariane and Elster. She knows what Ariane wants, and tried to end the dream by fulfilling the promise. So she created Elster as her avatar in the dream. Adler who is closest to Falke, got corrupted by Falke first. He started to share a dream with Falke, and ran into Elster in his dream. This is how Kolibrie saw an Elster in his memory. This is also how Adler remembered his Gestalt past, by influence of Falke. Adler tried to resist the corruption by killing Elster in his dream over and over, hence the elevator shaft. Unfortunately Falke's dream only went deeper, and with each recurring dream, her creation of Elster gets stronger, more independent, and more real. To the point her psyche effectively split and "Falke ended and Elster began". When we the player started the game, it was the last straw. The dream fully merged with reality, and we the dream character of Elster took on physical form, or rather is finally visible by all other survivors at Sierpinski, not just Adler. And not just us, other dream characters also came out, like Isa Ito. I also believe this is the first time Adler actually run into Isa. He knew she's another dream character, but without any experience dealing with her, he decided to be careful and pull out that rifle, yet still lost the fight. By the time of fake ending, Adler realized who Elster really is. Which is why in that scene at the threshold, Elster replaced Falke's position. When Elster walked through the threshold stating "it doesn't matter", Adler lost all hope, knowing his beloved Falke have "changed", changed into Elster. Hence his "I hate everything" statement. This is also why, in the fake ending, in the scene where a line of several Elsters turn their heads, the first in the line is Falke; When a line of Ariane, Ito, and Alina turn their heads, the first in the line is also Falke. Falke is the host of this dream, and these are all effectively her dream characters. And you know the saying about meeting yourself in a dream is a sign of inner conflict? By the end of the game the Falke who became Elster run into Falke herself, or "return" to herself. The "we are incomplete, let us become whole again" is a very literal statement. When Falke told Elster "This god won't forgive you", she's talking about herself. She got so into Ariane and Elster's memory, she embodied both of their emotions. As the host of the dream, the creator of the current situation, as the "god" of the messed up world, she cannot forgive Elster. Then again I could be totally wrong. I just felt the fact Ariane and Elster's story dragged the entire Sierpinski down is somewhat unreasonable if the only connection to the place they have is that letter and Alina. Eventually, just like Elster said, it doesn't matter. We know what the tragedy is and we share Elster's goal. That's enough for this game.
Really interesting theory, it makes a lot of sense to me as well. The only thing I don't see is how Falke would have gotten into contact with Ariane's bioresonance. How did the Penrose-512 get to Leng if it was on a deep space exploration mission for over 5000 cycles? The 1500 cycles briefing update says they should be approaching the Oort cloud at that point, which means they would be way past Leng if it is (or is analogous to) one of Jupiter's moons, or any other place in our solar system. Perhaps they tried to go back when they got the 3000 cycles briefing but didn't make it alive and crash landed on Leng, or Ariane's bioresonance powers steered them there somehow after she went into stasis... Ariane's medical document says she was born on Leng and there is the alternative of her going to the Sierpinski facility if she hadn't been accepted for the Penrose program, so there are more nebulous connections there too
@@adriaan224 Yeah I agree. given the style of ship the Penrose was, there is no way they could get back to solar system on their own. Unless the trajectory they were on was naturally sending them back, which was unlikely. And yes there is connection between Ariane and Sierpinski, just not that strong, at least on the physical plane. The only two way I can think of to have Falke contact Ariane is either the main story happened after the ship indeed came back after drifting in space for hundreds of years, or the bioresonance power is eldritch-level and could function on a galactic scale. Or... since the thing happened after Sierpinski dug something out deep under ground, there maybe an unseen eldritch-level thing on Leng itself and is functioning as conduit.
@@HanJia879 Bioresonance is, judging by some of the material found in the game, eldritch reality-warping. Leng also is a reference to, well, Leng, from the Cthulu Mythos, a planet half-in and half-out of the dream world.
I'm not saying you're wrong, since this game loves throwing out confounding variables to any and all interpretations. But there probably really was an Elster on Sierpinski. Specifically LSTR-2301. You can find her requisition form and a few other references to her. Interestingly that LSTR identification does sometimes show up on the death screen instead of LSTR-512. Late in the game you can also get LSTR- and then a glitch instead of a number. Feels like it might be relevant to your theory, that it's really Falke slowly losing touch with her identity
Many theories I've seen bank heavily on Ariane's bio-resonance, essentially positing that the whole game is a fragmented reconstruction of her memories with repeating motifs plastered over any cavities like the collagen composing scar tissue that grows in the human body after injury or infection. I began to feel the cogency of this theory when I replayed the game and noticed just how often the same paintings would appear in multiple locations around what is supposed to be the same facility or even on distant planets. Not only that, different iterations of the same painting would serve different purposes to different individuals; Falke has one in her reception area just as a painting, there's another that has a keyhole for use as a safe, and another that has a tarot card adhered to it by the paint. This is far from the only out of place repetition of this kind, but it stands out as one of the most convincing for the idea that this is either Ariane and Elsters' shared dream or Ariane tainting reality with her cryogenic degeneration (the cancerous state of the replika units seems to mirror her symptoms of tumors, as well has hair and tooth loss.) Conversely, this video agrees that bio-resonance is the source of the disturbances, but instead attributes it to Falke having stared into the abyss and contracted Lovecrat-itus, something proponents of the former theory handwaves because Falke resembles Ariane. I might ask, why not both? A kind of "signal" could be at play with Ariane as the sender and Falke as the receiver. When Elster emerges onto the surface of that frozen planet (which is clearly not Leng by the way) she encounters a gate identical to the one that supposedly resides under the Sirpenski mining facility. It's possible the Penrose crashed on this distant world after it's eight year journey and this artifact interacted with her bio-resonance sending a signal back to the solar system she originated from where the sirpenski gate is. A signal telling Elster to remember her promise. But Falke isn't Elster, resulting in Falke losing her persona, going berserk and the collapse of reality.
Loved this essay, this was just as passionate as the game and the developer's themselves. As you mentioned earlier on, horror, is a rather broad and subjective term, thus, I must disagree with following statement "Signalis isn't a horror game, it's a romance and a tragedy. It's about two people exploited and thrown away by an uncaring society." The loss of a loved one, the realization that you're just another cog in the machine, taking that one last breath before moving on into the unknowable, failing to truly accomplish your intended goal, being left with more questions, rather that a definitive answer, would one not consider these to be the epitome of horror? Is tragedy often times nothing but a horrific event one must endure? I think all of these things are not mutually exclusive, I think these can all be true at the same time. Lster's journey is one filled with dread, violence, and traumatic events, and in my opinion, a rather horrific saga. While I didn't find Signalis to be particularly scary, I do believe it is a horror game, more so for the characters in the game, rather than to us as spectators, but it is a horrifying experience non the less.
I finished the game the other day and I've been tearing through as many videos on it as I possibly can! Such a great game, and there's so many ways to interpret it. I love it.
@@arkham666 as it happens, it's really my true introduction to the genre. Previously, I've only ever played a few minutes of RE2 psp and remake as well as a few minutes of dead space. This was my first time experiencing the classic style in full, and I think my lack of context and understanding of the homages it pays really enhanced my awe at the game. After having watched videos on the game at nauseum today while cleaning my house, my appreciation is twofold! I experienced it fresh and without anything to compare it to and now I've gotten to play a bit with a lot more context. Two very different experiences. Very good either way, and definitely qualifies as a certified classic in my book! Thanks for the content! I appreciate having resources to turn to about the game!
Great review, I recently finished the game and loved it. Also the devs made an anniversary update that made the flashlight and camera eye not count towards your inventory limit. That's the version I played and I had little issue managing my inventory.
I love this game so much, from the moment I first played it I could tell that I was going to love it. Like you said an extension on this particular story would make the end less powerful, I would love more content from this universe.
You are amazing I subbed. I couldn't stop thinking about this game for a whole week. I got the Promise ending which I am happy with since you finally stop the cycle and end her then yourself. The Memory and Leave ending seems to fit well for the previous Elster units that failed and so the loop begins again.
@@ms.greywolf8228 You are rushing thru the game too fast. Endings are based on how you play the game and how aggressive you are in gameplay. Promise ending requires you to be the most aggressive and you need to take your time thru the game. By that I mean kill a lot of enemies, die a lot, take a lot of damage, and don’t speedrun the game.
@@arkham666 I think it does because there is a countdown timer hitting 0 when you both die concluding that the cycle is finished. That specific scene did not show up for the other 2 endings or even the Lily ending. Its a tragic romance I really dont think theres more to it like its Inception lmao.
Thank you for this lovely video covering this fantastic game. It really shows just how passionate you were for the game in the detail and quality of the video, thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into it!
*SLIGHT SPOILERS* Signalis is such a magical game, having lost someone I loved dearly at a young age my memory of her began to blur as I've gotten older which this game reflects so very well as Elster looks so desperately for Ariane and she "remembers" things about her. The core memories however are absolutely unbreakable. The phrase Elster keeps hearing as she tours this nightmarish horror show "remember our promise" always hits so deep. There exists the promise that Elster made and she has to be able to keep it and find Ariane. I haven't seen a better intro to a video game before either, It begins so normal and standard for survival horror then you get a photograph that perplexes you- then you find a literal hole in the ground, another hole that leads to a retro looking room with a copy of the king in yellow on the desk- it's so damned odd and I love it. The rendition of Chopin's raindrops while you hear Ariane repeat the same numbers while you see the Elster unit slowly rot. The people who designed this game are on the same par as some of the greats. In an effort to avoid spoilers because it's important to learn the game yourself and interpret it yourself it's so important that one does.
Seeing your video made me flashback and cry (again) about this ... even after months i still dont know how call it... i cry again about this lovely horribly beautiful story. Even if it's painfull to think about all of it, it's was a pleasure to hear your point of view aboute and i'm pretty agree with you by the way. But even after finish it again and again, i'm not sure at 100% about all truth of this story. Maybe it's a dream, maybe it's hell, maybe it's memories... but i'm sure that was true love :)
Thank you for your kind words. I too am still not entirely sure what is real and what is not. But yes I agree that what those two had was truer love than in any fairy tale.
One way to cheat your way with eidetic module in some spots is with plain pen and paper. Infact i found myself using those on few occasions. First is the encoded pad lock on a safe with alphabetic code, so that i can keep track of which number belongs to which letter, and second time i simply wrote down the symbol and the code for it on radio station on Nowhere.
Slight correction on you setting things up: Replikas aren't just the worker class of society, at least not in the Eusan Nation. They might be within the Empire, it's never made clear, but within Eusea, replikas are considered fully human and equal to gestalts. Within Serpinsky, for instance, all the workers/miners are _gestalts_ while the replikas serve as the staff, guards and command crew of the facility.
I find it amusing that literally every video on Signalis involves the player shooting the cook. A completely harmless, inert character, who just happens to be creepy.
@@arkham666 It was particularly funny to hear "the game offers very little ammo" soon after that. (the entirety of Workers' Quarters has exactly one fight where you have to shoot!)
My take was all the gestalt 'citizens' are cloned variations of the empress, and replicants are then copies of those, or at least the empresses 'best' daughters. Then, the empress is just a renegade psychic who created her own clone empire. No wonder everyone loses their disconnected minds. As for ariane...shes an extremely bioresonant clone variant raised in the styx by her individualistic 'mother'. After crasing in the stasis pod, she drew countless elsters' minds into her persistant nightmare in order to fulfill her promise to end her suffering. A+++++++
The six item inventory is unfortunately important to the game's symbolism as the number six comes up a lot. However, I do think the flashlight and the screenshot modules acting as permanent upgrades that don't take up inventory space would have alleviate the inventory problems greatly. The screenshot module in particular feels particularly useless as you have no reason to use it when the print screen key on your keyboard or using a pen and paper accomplish the same thing without taking up an inventory slot. A separate slot for a sup-weapon however might be a bit luxurious given that autoinjectors are the most powerful healing item in the game and having them at no cost would trivialize some sections.
Честно говоря, Signalis стал для меня как глоток свежого воздуха с(from) далёкой и загадочной планеты, которую я никогда не видел и врятли когда-нибудь увижу. Странное описание, но это правда. Я не играл и почти ничего не знаю ни о Resident Evil, ни о Silent Hill, поэтому игра вызвала у меня ни на что непохожие ощущения. Эта игра останется в моей памяти навсегда, а попытки осмыслить всю историю будут ещё долго волновать и будоражить мой мозг. И вот, видео подошло к концу, итог подведён и внезапно происходит анонс одной из моих самых любимых игр - Prey. Как только найду свободный часик - пойду смотреть это уже вышедшее видео об, откровенно говоря, шедевре. Спасибо
@@arkham666 Just finished it today, man what a ride - I got the "memory" ending, might play it again (I think I'm gonna pick up the switch physical edition just to put it on my shelf). Totally agreed on the inventory - the worst part about this otherwise excellent indie game. The 6 item limit creates WAY too much "annoying logistics" at times.
@ yeah I got memory the first time. You've got to be hella violent to get promise. Still it's pretty tragic either way. You can get the keys for the secret ending and just save before going through the hole in Rotfront. Then you can reload and try for another regular ending. They're all potentially canon though. Glad you loved the game. I had no idea I had that much power. I should have gone into crypto scams.
I just cheated and took pictures of my TV with my cellphone so I didn't have to use the optical implant. Even still, the limited inventory was often too small and frustrating
@@arkham666 honestly I respect their decision, even if I personally disagree with it. I found myself just using workarounds like my actual phone instead. Maybe some more diehard fans of PS1 era games enjoy the smaller inventory system though
I wouldn't be so sure that it is replica who is a slave caste. I mean - just look at the gestalt quarters and replica dorms. First ones is a literal barracks with multiple fenced bunks, it's like a prison or forced labor camp. On the other hand, replica have a quite nice dorms, with 4 decent beds at most, they have decorations, carpets, mirrors and tape players. And who is Serpinski's authorities? They are all replica - Falke, Adler, Kolibris. They allowed to have their personal comfortable apartments. Not even one gestalt in the command chain. Not only on Serpinski - on the Rotfront as well, blockwart protectors are replica again! Replica have all the command positions, they serve as law enforcement, secret police. It is replica, who arrest, interrogate, torturing and executing gestalts. Humans isn't even allowed to be called humans anymore, they just "gestalts"
"It's too precious to share with anymore at the moment" What, the tears in your eyes, the existential questions and bulge in your pants? Don't worry bro, we all have the tears, the questions and complementing bulge :3 SPOILERS: Edit: No proof the events occurred at Leng. You only see the insides of Sierpinski. The hole in the ground has no direct correlation between Sierpinski as far as I'm concerned. The idea that anyone one can believe they'll find habitable worlds in just a few years after being shot away from home at sub-relativistic speeds is also kind of sad. The Penrose Program is just a very nice form of AEON propaganda and while expensive, also a very easy and nice way of getting rid of undesirables of higher profile like Ariane. Too bad her Bioresonance was also their achilles heel in the end. Her fantasy and dying mind is most likely what bled through the gate at the Snowy place into the gate where Falke entered.
I've got it on epic and plan to dig my teeth into it eventually. I wasn't trying to rag on them specifically just pointing out that on general there is a lot of trend chasing. I'm hoping it's a good time when I get to it.
What if the Ariane we meet at the end of the game is not actually Ariane but Alina that, since we know that in Alina's notes her hair turned white and she looked very similiar to Arianne, also noting the fact that Arianne's memories might have transfered to Alina in A wish to be her while she was dying. Also In one of the endings Arianne is not able to recognise the elster unit. So maybe Elster never meets Arianne but Alina. Amazing game regardless
I'd call that a stretch myself but the devs have made it clear that there isn't a true ending. They wanted people to do exactly what you're doing, hence why so much of the story is left out.
@@arkham666 Oh yeah, I played this 1 month ago but Im still thinking about it and watching vids about it so it for sure left an impression. Also great vid!
@@Arjin_ thanks man. It's clearly had an incredible impact on so many people and there's been so much discussion about it. I hope we see more stories like this in the future.
That would make an interesting parallel to Elster herself, since the LSTR on the ship is LSTR -512, but the one were playing as is implied to (potentially sometimes) be LSTR-2301. You can find the requisition form for LSTR-2301 and the Ara in the duct and Adler recognise her. Plus the death screen will sometimes come up as being LSTR-2301, and later in the game as just LSTR-and then glitching instead of a number. Plus you already know Beos name when there's no way for you to know that as beo never introduced herself by name. It could be very turn of the screw, two individuals being forced to act out the love story of two other individuals
How many times ? Capcom did try to re-make Silent Hill and Resident Evil ..again. strange thing is the one who really did make it is tiny indie game developers from germany. my god this game is so beauty.
I do appreciate the arguments about balance and horror being factors in how they designed the inventory, and the rule of 6 being something hard coded meaning we can’t break that rule even if we wanted to. The end result though is that I basically never used the RB tools, outside of specific instances where I went back to grab them knowing I’d be burning a body or stunning my way past something. It was way more detrimental to have them waste inventory and that resulted in my having a surplus at the end, and I think that’s a mark of poor design. It led to many instances of me having to drop everything because I found an ammo type for a weapon I didn’t have yet, and I had to run it back to the box before progressing, which became more tedious than scary. Maybe if items were marked on the map when you didn’t pick them up I could have approached inventory a little differently.
As much as I aabsolutely adore this game in almost every way, I did find it odd that, despite pulling sooo much of its inspiration from Silent Hill, they decided to go with RE's more limited inventory. Odd choice that I think can wreck the pacing more often than not.
Yeah as I said in the video it's not as simple as saying "resident evil had a six item inventory so that's what we'll do." Your map and your puzzle layout need accommodate it create risk reward moments and allow players to make smart decisions and feel clever about their loadouts for each run. There are areas in signals like that but just as many that are straight up frustrating.
@@arkham666 I'm actually sorta sour about holidays and discovering this game _right now_ lol I was gonna dungeon master a tabletop one-off over a spring vacation and I was gonna do a Silent Hill, _in space!_ I was gonna use android, cyberpunk cyborg, and regular human as stand-ins for the usual fantasy races. Signalis is literally everything I was thinking of just done far, _FAR_, better lol Just gonna have a couch gaming session now with Signalis and let my one-off ideas simmer and wait until next holdiay 😅
Great video dude I definitely enjoyed your take compared to many people acting as if it's the 2nd coming of christ or the worst game ever made. Looking forward to your upcoming videos, Especially Prey one if my all time favorite games. I gotta cover rit again myself and even have a planned video analyzing it and Weird West as morality thought experiments.
It's a damn good game. And good games produce hype that create hot take click bait. It is what it is. Glad you enjoyed it. I'm almost finished recording prey but I've been having some writing issues that have recently cleared up so I should be good to start producing in another week or so.
Just wanted to note that the 6 item inventory limit is perfect... and the game focuses more on challenge than what is convenient/easier/"best" for the player. No knock on your video or opinion, but are modern gamers so fickle that games like this, Alien Isolation (the notorious IGN review comes to mind), and others like those in the modern horror space of gaming really at a disadvantage for challenging the player with whatever mechanics the game feels puts more stress on the player? When I was a kid... if you sucked at a game... you were told to "get good." I still pretty much think this is true given if pretty much everything else works in the game very well. If I am being challenged in a game that dots off all the other checkboxes, it is by design.
I'm 40 mate and got my start in survival horror with re1. Rewatch that part of the video. I'm very experienced and I'm very interested in game design. I'm not some fickle modern gamer.
@@arkham666 Age isn't the point really... but okay, I'm 38 now and also played RE1 basically at the time of release. Our opinions differ - that will happen. I'd be more curious your reasoning behind why the inventory mechanic doesn't work for you. If you grew up playing games like RE1, didn't you frequently make multiple runs to sometimes "play it safe" when working on a specific puzzle? You basically allude to this in your video but don't provide much detail regarding why it isn't to your liking in this game. To be clear, I do love this game but find elements to definitely not be perfect from a story perspective, but I do really appreciate the gameplay itself.
@@Batman1084CK you threw out the "when I was a kid line" and the "are modern gamers line" so you wanted to make a point about my age and experience so don't backtrack on that. As to what my issues with the inventory are, they're all clearly explained in the video. If you don't know then you didn't watch or if you did you clearly already had your response mapped out in your head and then disregarded everything I said about it.
@@arkham666 I clearly mentioned that "when I was a kid" - this has no correlation to however old you are (I couldn't care) but you grasped for that straw and dropped your age. I can't help you there. Nobody is backtracking, but interpretation is key here and you definitely have misinterpreted. I watched your video and you basically state the need to backtrack - but this isn't new to the genre by any means. RE1 original did the same thing which you yourself point out. Did you hate it back then when you were first playing it? I watched your entire video - nothing was mapped out. You sounded like you had a real big problem with it but basically mention something that isn't uncommon in the genre (albeit for different reasons depending on the game). It seems odd to me to say the least. But you're entitled to that opinion.
@@Batman1084CK well this is going wonderfully. I'm not gonna say I don't have a part to play in how this has gone down so let's start again. You're 38, we are of similar age, likely we have had similar life experiences and we both clearly like survival horror and signalis. Where in the world are you right now? I'm in Japan. It's 6:41. I'm on my way to work. How's your day going/gone?
Well we all want different things from our games. Look at the wildly different reviews of Callisto Protocol. It goes to show just how differently two people can experience the same game.
Am genuinely curious as to what your expectations could have been for something as incredible as this game to be a disappointment to you. Unironically curious as to what it could be.
I enjoyed the game, but couldnt say I liked it as much as other people. Probably because the game didnt really scare me that much lol, still enjoyed it a lot.
"Signalis isn't a horror game, it's a romance and tragedy. It's about two people exploited and thrown away by an uncaring society." don't make me cry.
amazing video.
Thank you. I'm not trying to make people cry but it's nice to know my words have an impact.
@@arkham666 when you said that I had to pause the video and just think for a good second, I didn't even think about it like that. I'd love to get another Signalis game but I think one is enough, I have so many unanswered questions.
@@kronkchopp I think we're supposed to have our own story to be honest. That's one reason I didn't want to dive too deep into what I thought was going on. Maybe we'll get another game like this but in another time and place. Kinda like how silent hill 2 is completely separate from one and three.
@@arkham666 true, I could honestly see a completely different genre of game in the Signalis universe like an over-the-shoulder fps game you playing a replika fighting against the Empire, but a man can dream
@@kronkchopp the potential and lore for the universe it creates is so rich and exciting. It feels fresh/refreshing in the experience it delivers while completely familiar at the same time due to all the homages it makes. All that, but at the same time, the *unfamiliarity* and mysteries within the game are just so alluring!
I haven't had a chance to play Metal Gear Solid 1, but Signalis plays much like how I imagined a horror would play out in that type of top down style with similar gunplay. I would love to see that come full circle with an espionage replica game.
Signalis's 8 year "dev cycle" wasnt always signalis. It started out looking like an upbeat metroidvania side scrolling adventure game, went through a lot of iteration. A lof of elements from the developer's non video game work also made it in but in a more cohesive and mature fashion. Its development history is the creators' personal journey itself. While most game feel like a retrospective or a race to finish certain ideas
Indeed. How does one really separate the lives of solo developers working on hobby projects from the rest of their lives. When I'm writing stories it only takes a good movie in a different genre to drop and I'm scrapping weeks of work to start something new.
Whoah, did you just say “on a frozen moon called Leng?”
Like, the Plateau of Leng by HP Lovecraft? That is described as a cold and frozen place in the dreamlands, something hidden within.
Yep. Definitely looking forward to playing this and I heard the opening quote to this game is from Lovecraft from his novel, The Festival. As it says: “Great holes secretly are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl."
And seeing the book: the King in Yellow?
Yeah, this game has themes or is about cosmic horror, mixed with cyberpunk and resident evil/silent hill in space.
I’m GETTING IT! Always wanted a game like this. This is why I fully support Indie devs, especially as they make it mainstream as well on all platforms. That’s a big bonus to me.
And you’ve convinced me with your way of words. Well done.
It's been 6 months since this comment and It's apparent that you're a person who enjoys cosmic horror, so, did you like the game?
Did you play it? I must know! Also, I hate that the fandom keeps associating "The Festival" quote to the "King in Yellow", the quote literally states the source in-game.
One thing that I didn't even really think about until you were talking about the voice acting section, is that in Signalis I really enjoy the fact that the sound they use for the text boxes audibly reminds me of something like Morse code messages sent over radio.
An excellent analysis video, especially when you said that this isn't a horror but a romantic tragedy. This game will stay with me for a very long time.
I wish rose engine made another game in this universe.
Pi really hope they do too. I had such a good time with this.
I think what I love about Signalis is the fact you can play this game over and over and always find new details or information you missed. And that even when you do find a hidden crumb the main message of the game only gets amplified as a result. This game will always be about Ariane and Elster and there is nothing that you discover or secret you unearth that would change that only reinforce it.
The ocular implant being an equipable instead of an upgrade baffled me. As a result i never used it more than once because while it was a minor annoyance to write down or remember things, the inventory slot was so much more important. It's a really neat and well contextualized feature most people won't ever use.
Agreed. It's very clumsy to just say "survival horror games have 6 inventory slots" and to handle equipment that way. There are many other factors that go in to creating the ideal inventory for a game. If you get it wrong it leads to features that someone spent hours creating not getting used to avoid the inconvenience.
It's a smaller gripe when weighed against everything this game gets right but it's hopefully something they'll consider for whatever they do next.
An update dropped that made the flashlight and the eye upgrades and not take up a slot. Along with a possible setting for 8 objects, quality of life fixes, etc...
"I think we're supposed to have our own story to be honest."
honestly, for me half the fun is figuring out what did and didn't happen, what theory has most and least proof. I love discussing this stuff with other fans. Like dream theory, multiple dreamer theory, reality warp theory, 'rofront lookalike theory' and so forth.
but thats me, that's what i enjoy. My way isn't necessarily the correct way, just what i enjoy.
Mate you're doing it right. There's no right way to enjoy any game or story. As long as we're all having fun then you have at it friend.
I love the extremely limited inventory since it forces you to make decisions about what you carry. I love it went the better decision is not taking the flashlight. And you don't need the optical camera, it's a trick. Pen and Paper is all you need.
Idk, i loved the optical mod. Great to solve most puzzles. I wouldnt turn down just oooone more inventory slot either 😂
Wow, this is a really underrated channel. You earned a new sub man, hope you cover darkwood in the future.
Thank you. It is what it is with the algorithm unfortunately. Maybe I'll get my lucky break one day.
@@arkham666 hopefully man, hopefully.
He really is
Dark wood actually freaks me out. Looking forward to playing this one.
I posted this elsewhere but I want to share it here as well
It is most likely what happened in game is a merger of a recurring dream and reality. So who's dream? We know of two entities who were dreaming in the game: Ariane and Falke. Ariane might not be "alive" at this point, and we never know exactly how strong is her bioresonance power. Maybe she only has a little bit of bioresonance. Ariane also never went to Sierpinski. So it's not that reasonable for her to have such a strong and detailed connection with Sierpinski. Falke on the other hand, the commander of Sierpinski, is strongest known bioresonanator on Leng, who have a lot of classified information in her head in the first place.
SO here is my theory: We are not playing as Elster at all. When NPCs say "No Elster was ever deployed at Sierpinski", they are speaking the truth. Elster was never there and cannot physically be there. WE ARE FALKE. Or rather, we are Falke who embodied a character of Elster in her own dream. This whole situation was the result of Falke's dream leaking into reality. Falke went through the threshold and found what's left of Penrose-512, or got in contact with Ariane somehow. The bioresonance residue from Ariane influenced Falke just like how Kolibris can mentally drag each other down. Falke went back and got "sick". She got trapped in her own recurring dreams of Ariane and Elster. She knows what Ariane wants, and tried to end the dream by fulfilling the promise. So she created Elster as her avatar in the dream.
Adler who is closest to Falke, got corrupted by Falke first. He started to share a dream with Falke, and ran into Elster in his dream. This is how Kolibrie saw an Elster in his memory. This is also how Adler remembered his Gestalt past, by influence of Falke. Adler tried to resist the corruption by killing Elster in his dream over and over, hence the elevator shaft. Unfortunately Falke's dream only went deeper, and with each recurring dream, her creation of Elster gets stronger, more independent, and more real. To the point her psyche effectively split and "Falke ended and Elster began". When we the player started the game, it was the last straw. The dream fully merged with reality, and we the dream character of Elster took on physical form, or rather is finally visible by all other survivors at Sierpinski, not just Adler. And not just us, other dream characters also came out, like Isa Ito. I also believe this is the first time Adler actually run into Isa. He knew she's another dream character, but without any experience dealing with her, he decided to be careful and pull out that rifle, yet still lost the fight.
By the time of fake ending, Adler realized who Elster really is. Which is why in that scene at the threshold, Elster replaced Falke's position. When Elster walked through the threshold stating "it doesn't matter", Adler lost all hope, knowing his beloved Falke have "changed", changed into Elster. Hence his "I hate everything" statement. This is also why, in the fake ending, in the scene where a line of several Elsters turn their heads, the first in the line is Falke; When a line of Ariane, Ito, and Alina turn their heads, the first in the line is also Falke. Falke is the host of this dream, and these are all effectively her dream characters. And you know the saying about meeting yourself in a dream is a sign of inner conflict? By the end of the game the Falke who became Elster run into Falke herself, or "return" to herself. The "we are incomplete, let us become whole again" is a very literal statement. When Falke told Elster "This god won't forgive you", she's talking about herself. She got so into Ariane and Elster's memory, she embodied both of their emotions. As the host of the dream, the creator of the current situation, as the "god" of the messed up world, she cannot forgive Elster.
Then again I could be totally wrong. I just felt the fact Ariane and Elster's story dragged the entire Sierpinski down is somewhat unreasonable if the only connection to the place they have is that letter and Alina. Eventually, just like Elster said, it doesn't matter. We know what the tragedy is and we share Elster's goal. That's enough for this game.
Really interesting theory, it makes a lot of sense to me as well. The only thing I don't see is how Falke would have gotten into contact with Ariane's bioresonance. How did the Penrose-512 get to Leng if it was on a deep space exploration mission for over 5000 cycles? The 1500 cycles briefing update says they should be approaching the Oort cloud at that point, which means they would be way past Leng if it is (or is analogous to) one of Jupiter's moons, or any other place in our solar system. Perhaps they tried to go back when they got the 3000 cycles briefing but didn't make it alive and crash landed on Leng, or Ariane's bioresonance powers steered them there somehow after she went into stasis... Ariane's medical document says she was born on Leng and there is the alternative of her going to the Sierpinski facility if she hadn't been accepted for the Penrose program, so there are more nebulous connections there too
@@adriaan224 Yeah I agree. given the style of ship the Penrose was, there is no way they could get back to solar system on their own. Unless the trajectory they were on was naturally sending them back, which was unlikely. And yes there is connection between Ariane and Sierpinski, just not that strong, at least on the physical plane. The only two way I can think of to have Falke contact Ariane is either the main story happened after the ship indeed came back after drifting in space for hundreds of years, or the bioresonance power is eldritch-level and could function on a galactic scale.
Or... since the thing happened after Sierpinski dug something out deep under ground, there maybe an unseen eldritch-level thing on Leng itself and is functioning as conduit.
@@HanJia879 Maybe the mysterious artifact from the secret ending is what they found mining into Leng and that became the conduit...
@@HanJia879 Bioresonance is, judging by some of the material found in the game, eldritch reality-warping. Leng also is a reference to, well, Leng, from the Cthulu Mythos, a planet half-in and half-out of the dream world.
I'm not saying you're wrong, since this game loves throwing out confounding variables to any and all interpretations.
But there probably really was an Elster on Sierpinski. Specifically LSTR-2301. You can find her requisition form and a few other references to her.
Interestingly that LSTR identification does sometimes show up on the death screen instead of LSTR-512. Late in the game you can also get LSTR- and then a glitch instead of a number. Feels like it might be relevant to your theory, that it's really Falke slowly losing touch with her identity
Many theories I've seen bank heavily on Ariane's bio-resonance, essentially positing that the whole game is a fragmented reconstruction of her memories with repeating motifs plastered over any cavities like the collagen composing scar tissue that grows in the human body after injury or infection.
I began to feel the cogency of this theory when I replayed the game and noticed just how often the same paintings would appear in multiple locations around what is supposed to be the same facility or even on distant planets. Not only that, different iterations of the same painting would serve different purposes to different individuals; Falke has one in her reception area just as a painting, there's another that has a keyhole for use as a safe, and another that has a tarot card adhered to it by the paint. This is far from the only out of place repetition of this kind, but it stands out as one of the most convincing for the idea that this is either Ariane and Elsters' shared dream or Ariane tainting reality with her cryogenic degeneration (the cancerous state of the replika units seems to mirror her symptoms of tumors, as well has hair and tooth loss.)
Conversely,
this video agrees that bio-resonance is the source of the disturbances, but instead attributes it to Falke having stared into the abyss and contracted Lovecrat-itus, something proponents of the former theory handwaves because Falke resembles Ariane.
I might ask, why not both? A kind of "signal" could be at play with Ariane as the sender and Falke as the receiver. When Elster emerges onto the surface of that frozen planet (which is clearly not Leng by the way) she encounters a gate identical to the one that supposedly resides under the Sirpenski mining facility.
It's possible the Penrose crashed on this distant world after it's eight year journey and this artifact interacted with her bio-resonance sending a signal back to the solar system she originated from where the sirpenski gate is. A signal telling Elster to remember her promise.
But Falke isn't Elster, resulting in Falke losing her persona, going berserk and the collapse of reality.
Loved this essay, this was just as passionate as the game and the developer's themselves. As you mentioned earlier on, horror, is a rather broad and subjective term, thus, I must disagree with following statement "Signalis isn't a horror game, it's a romance and a tragedy. It's about two people exploited and thrown away by an uncaring society." The loss of a loved one, the realization that you're just another cog in the machine, taking that one last breath before moving on into the unknowable, failing to truly accomplish your intended goal, being left with more questions, rather that a definitive answer, would one not consider these to be the epitome of horror? Is tragedy often times nothing but a horrific event one must endure? I think all of these things are not mutually exclusive, I think these can all be true at the same time. Lster's journey is one filled with dread, violence, and traumatic events, and in my opinion, a rather horrific saga. While I didn't find Signalis to be particularly scary, I do believe it is a horror game, more so for the characters in the game, rather than to us as spectators, but it is a horrifying experience non the less.
I finished the game the other day and I've been tearing through as many videos on it as I possibly can! Such a great game, and there's so many ways to interpret it. I love it.
This is going to become an all time survival horror classic for sure.
@@arkham666 as it happens, it's really my true introduction to the genre. Previously, I've only ever played a few minutes of RE2 psp and remake as well as a few minutes of dead space. This was my first time experiencing the classic style in full, and I think my lack of context and understanding of the homages it pays really enhanced my awe at the game.
After having watched videos on the game at nauseum today while cleaning my house, my appreciation is twofold! I experienced it fresh and without anything to compare it to and now I've gotten to play a bit with a lot more context. Two very different experiences. Very good either way, and definitely qualifies as a certified classic in my book!
Thanks for the content! I appreciate having resources to turn to about the game!
Great review, I recently finished the game and loved it. Also the devs made an anniversary update that made the flashlight and camera eye not count towards your inventory limit. That's the version I played and I had little issue managing my inventory.
That's wonderful news. I may have to revisit it over the holidays.
I love this game so much, from the moment I first played it I could tell that I was going to love it. Like you said an extension on this particular story would make the end less powerful, I would love more content from this universe.
You are amazing I subbed. I couldn't stop thinking about this game for a whole week. I got the Promise ending which I am happy with since you finally stop the cycle and end her then yourself. The Memory and Leave ending seems to fit well for the previous Elster units that failed and so the loop begins again.
Thanks I really appreciate it. I do find myself wondering if the promise ending finishes the cycle. Maybe Adler knew more than we thought.
I have done about four runs and still get Memory ending...
@@ms.greywolf8228 You are rushing thru the game too fast. Endings are based on how you play the game and how aggressive you are in gameplay. Promise ending requires you to be the most aggressive and you need to take your time thru the game. By that I mean kill a lot of enemies, die a lot, take a lot of damage, and don’t speedrun the game.
@@arkham666 I think it does because there is a countdown timer hitting 0 when you both die concluding that the cycle is finished. That specific scene did not show up for the other 2 endings or even the Lily ending. Its a tragic romance I really dont think theres more to it like its Inception lmao.
Thank you for this lovely video covering this fantastic game. It really shows just how passionate you were for the game in the detail and quality of the video, thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into it!
You're very welcome. Thanks for this wonderful comment.
I’m happy I found you. I look forward to future content!
Thank you. I'm really glad you enjoy my work.
*SLIGHT SPOILERS*
Signalis is such a magical game, having lost someone I loved dearly at a young age my memory of her began to blur as I've gotten older which this game reflects so very well as Elster looks so desperately for Ariane and she "remembers" things about her. The core memories however are absolutely unbreakable. The phrase Elster keeps hearing as she tours this nightmarish horror show "remember our promise" always hits so deep. There exists the promise that Elster made and she has to be able to keep it and find Ariane. I haven't seen a better intro to a video game before either, It begins so normal and standard for survival horror then you get a photograph that perplexes you- then you find a literal hole in the ground, another hole that leads to a retro looking room with a copy of the king in yellow on the desk- it's so damned odd and I love it. The rendition of Chopin's raindrops while you hear Ariane repeat the same numbers while you see the Elster unit slowly rot. The people who designed this game are on the same par as some of the greats. In an effort to avoid spoilers because it's important to learn the game yourself and interpret it yourself it's so important that one does.
Thank you for making a video about this underrated gem!
Seeing your video made me flashback and cry (again) about this ... even after months i still dont know how call it... i cry again about this lovely horribly beautiful story.
Even if it's painfull to think about all of it, it's was a pleasure to hear your point of view aboute and i'm pretty agree with you by the way.
But even after finish it again and again, i'm not sure at 100% about all truth of this story.
Maybe it's a dream, maybe it's hell, maybe it's memories... but i'm sure that was true love :)
Thank you for your kind words.
I too am still not entirely sure what is real and what is not. But yes I agree that what those two had was truer love than in any fairy tale.
One way to cheat your way with eidetic module in some spots is with plain pen and paper. Infact i found myself using those on few occasions. First is the encoded pad lock on a safe with alphabetic code, so that i can keep track of which number belongs to which letter, and second time i simply wrote down the symbol and the code for it on radio station on Nowhere.
prey is such a good game, when i heard the music starting i got gooserbumps
Great stuff man!!! MASSIVELY underrated channel! ❤
Thank you.
Slight correction on you setting things up: Replikas aren't just the worker class of society, at least not in the Eusan Nation. They might be within the Empire, it's never made clear, but within Eusea, replikas are considered fully human and equal to gestalts. Within Serpinsky, for instance, all the workers/miners are _gestalts_ while the replikas serve as the staff, guards and command crew of the facility.
I find it amusing that literally every video on Signalis involves the player shooting the cook.
A completely harmless, inert character, who just happens to be creepy.
@@SashaS-s2z he had it coming.... For some reason
@@arkham666 It was particularly funny to hear "the game offers very little ammo" soon after that.
(the entirety of Workers' Quarters has exactly one fight where you have to shoot!)
@@SashaS-s2z I honestly don't remember much of what I wrote for this. It's safe to assume I was drunk and or tripping balls.
I adore signalis music, like the "cigarettes wife". 10/10
Yeah that one's really popular. There's some good covers of it on yt as well.
IT TOOK THEM 8 YEARS.....wow thats really hard....wish we know all the lore
My take was all the gestalt 'citizens' are cloned variations of the empress, and replicants are then copies of those, or at least the empresses 'best' daughters. Then, the empress is just a renegade psychic who created her own clone empire. No wonder everyone loses their disconnected minds. As for ariane...shes an extremely bioresonant clone variant raised in the styx by her individualistic 'mother'. After crasing in the stasis pod, she drew countless elsters' minds into her persistant nightmare in order to fulfill her promise to end her suffering. A+++++++
The six item inventory is unfortunately important to the game's symbolism as the number six comes up a lot. However, I do think the flashlight and the screenshot modules acting as permanent upgrades that don't take up inventory space would have alleviate the inventory problems greatly. The screenshot module in particular feels particularly useless as you have no reason to use it when the print screen key on your keyboard or using a pen and paper accomplish the same thing without taking up an inventory slot. A separate slot for a sup-weapon however might be a bit luxurious given that autoinjectors are the most powerful healing item in the game and having them at no cost would trivialize some sections.
Честно говоря, Signalis стал для меня как глоток свежого воздуха с(from) далёкой и загадочной планеты, которую я никогда не видел и врятли когда-нибудь увижу. Странное описание, но это правда. Я не играл и почти ничего не знаю ни о Resident Evil, ни о Silent Hill, поэтому игра вызвала у меня ни на что непохожие ощущения. Эта игра останется в моей памяти навсегда, а попытки осмыслить всю историю будут ещё долго волновать и будоражить мой мозг.
И вот, видео подошло к концу, итог подведён и внезапно происходит анонс одной из моих самых любимых игр - Prey. Как только найду свободный часик - пойду смотреть это уже вышедшее видео об, откровенно говоря, шедевре. Спасибо
"leave some space for school books"...
uh sh*t
Hey, I just wanted to say I was your 1000th subscriber. Good job on the milestone friend :)
Thank you so much!!!!!!!
I guess I need to play this after all... Love your videos man, but I can't watch this till the end until I play this for myself...
Yes you do lol. It'll be worth it.
@@arkham666 Just finished it today, man what a ride - I got the "memory" ending, might play it again (I think I'm gonna pick up the switch physical edition just to put it on my shelf). Totally agreed on the inventory - the worst part about this otherwise excellent indie game. The 6 item limit creates WAY too much "annoying logistics" at times.
@ yeah I got memory the first time. You've got to be hella violent to get promise. Still it's pretty tragic either way. You can get the keys for the secret ending and just save before going through the hole in Rotfront. Then you can reload and try for another regular ending. They're all potentially canon though.
Glad you loved the game. I had no idea I had that much power. I should have gone into crypto scams.
I just cheated and took pictures of my TV with my cellphone so I didn't have to use the optical implant. Even still, the limited inventory was often too small and frustrating
It has been addressed in a recent update it seems. Though it sounds like the devs were prepared to die on that hill for quite a while.
@@arkham666 honestly I respect their decision, even if I personally disagree with it. I found myself just using workarounds like my actual phone instead. Maybe some more diehard fans of PS1 era games enjoy the smaller inventory system though
Great video and love this game. Really pops on the switch OLED 👍 and yes, I couldn't believe it was released on the switch man I was so happy 😂
In my opinion their's always something to love about indies always something that is unique and fun
Yup they thrive on innovation and quirky ideas
Hey guys! whats the game showing at 3:10???
It's the demo of Bramble and the mountain king. There's a link to the steam page in the description.
Thank you for this video.
You're welcome. Thank you for this comment.
Tunic was my GOTY but tbh Signalis is pretty much tied with it. What a fuckin wild release go just come up like it did. MASTAHPIECE
Yeah I need to keep a closer eye on what indie devs are up to. Then I'll see this kinda stuff coming much further off.
Do androids dream of electric feet?
Okay that made me laugh.
@@arkham666:)
Good bladerunner refrence.
At 11:15 is that footage from a beta build? I don't re all that room and I _definitely_ don't recall having that same Isa interaction!
Nope. The first time you take the elevator you can go up a floor and get this scene.
I wouldn't be so sure that it is replica who is a slave caste. I mean - just look at the gestalt quarters and replica dorms. First ones is a literal barracks with multiple fenced bunks, it's like a prison or forced labor camp. On the other hand, replica have a quite nice dorms, with 4 decent beds at most, they have decorations, carpets, mirrors and tape players. And who is Serpinski's authorities? They are all replica - Falke, Adler, Kolibris. They allowed to have their personal comfortable apartments. Not even one gestalt in the command chain. Not only on Serpinski - on the Rotfront as well, blockwart protectors are replica again! Replica have all the command positions, they serve as law enforcement, secret police. It is replica, who arrest, interrogate, torturing and executing gestalts. Humans isn't even allowed to be called humans anymore, they just "gestalts"
"It's too precious to share with anymore at the moment"
What, the tears in your eyes, the existential questions and bulge in your pants? Don't worry bro, we all have the tears, the questions and complementing bulge :3
SPOILERS:
Edit: No proof the events occurred at Leng. You only see the insides of Sierpinski. The hole in the ground has no direct correlation between Sierpinski as far as I'm concerned.
The idea that anyone one can believe they'll find habitable worlds in just a few years after being shot away from home at sub-relativistic speeds is also kind of sad. The Penrose Program is just a very nice form of AEON propaganda and while expensive, also a very easy and nice way of getting rid of undesirables of higher profile like Ariane. Too bad her Bioresonance was also their achilles heel in the end. Her fantasy and dying mind is most likely what bled through the gate at the Snowy place into the gate where Falke entered.
Mortal Shell is great tbw. It was made by people that understood the appeal of the genre. They weren't just chasing a trend.
I've got it on epic and plan to dig my teeth into it eventually. I wasn't trying to rag on them specifically just pointing out that on general there is a lot of trend chasing. I'm hoping it's a good time when I get to it.
What if the Ariane we meet at the end of the game is not actually Ariane but Alina that, since we know that in Alina's notes her hair turned white and she looked very similiar to Arianne, also noting the fact that Arianne's memories might have transfered to Alina in A wish to be her while she was dying. Also In one of the endings Arianne is not able to recognise the elster unit. So maybe Elster never meets Arianne but Alina. Amazing game regardless
I'd call that a stretch myself but the devs have made it clear that there isn't a true ending. They wanted people to do exactly what you're doing, hence why so much of the story is left out.
@@arkham666 Oh yeah, I played this 1 month ago but Im still thinking about it and watching vids about it so it for sure left an impression. Also great vid!
@@Arjin_ thanks man. It's clearly had an incredible impact on so many people and there's been so much discussion about it. I hope we see more stories like this in the future.
That would make an interesting parallel to Elster herself, since the LSTR on the ship is LSTR -512, but the one were playing as is implied to (potentially sometimes) be LSTR-2301. You can find the requisition form for LSTR-2301 and the Ara in the duct and Adler recognise her. Plus the death screen will sometimes come up as being LSTR-2301, and later in the game as just LSTR-and then glitching instead of a number. Plus you already know Beos name when there's no way for you to know that as beo never introduced herself by name.
It could be very turn of the screw, two individuals being forced to act out the love story of two other individuals
Signalis and va11halla are so cool to have cool androids and lesbians
How many times ? Capcom did try to re-make Silent Hill and Resident Evil ..again. strange thing is the one who really did make it is tiny indie game developers from germany. my god this game is so beauty.
i also cried both times i finished signalis
Yeah it really does have that affect on people.
I do appreciate the arguments about balance and horror being factors in how they designed the inventory, and the rule of 6 being something hard coded meaning we can’t break that rule even if we wanted to. The end result though is that I basically never used the RB tools, outside of specific instances where I went back to grab them knowing I’d be burning a body or stunning my way past something. It was way more detrimental to have them waste inventory and that resulted in my having a surplus at the end, and I think that’s a mark of poor design. It led to many instances of me having to drop everything because I found an ammo type for a weapon I didn’t have yet, and I had to run it back to the box before progressing, which became more tedious than scary. Maybe if items were marked on the map when you didn’t pick them up I could have approached inventory a little differently.
this game came out to xbox gamepass, and i thought the cover looked really cool. I played through it, and ive never been the same.
It has that affect on all of us.
As much as I aabsolutely adore this game in almost every way, I did find it odd that, despite pulling sooo much of its inspiration from Silent Hill, they decided to go with RE's more limited inventory. Odd choice that I think can wreck the pacing more often than not.
Yeah as I said in the video it's not as simple as saying "resident evil had a six item inventory so that's what we'll do." Your map and your puzzle layout need accommodate it create risk reward moments and allow players to make smart decisions and feel clever about their loadouts for each run. There are areas in signals like that but just as many that are straight up frustrating.
The game is _so_ friggin' good...
I know right. It's a probably gonna be one of my regular Christmas vacation games from here on out.
@@arkham666 I'm actually sorta sour about holidays and discovering this game _right now_ lol
I was gonna dungeon master a tabletop one-off over a spring vacation and I was gonna do a Silent Hill, _in space!_ I was gonna use android, cyberpunk cyborg, and regular human as stand-ins for the usual fantasy races. Signalis is literally everything I was thinking of just done far, _FAR_, better lol
Just gonna have a couch gaming session now with Signalis and let my one-off ideas simmer and wait until next holdiay 😅
@@bradl.602 Had exactly the same thing happen to me with an indie game concept once. Ah well we live and learn.
What is the game with the girl and the giant hedgehog, and leaping across the lily pads?
Bramble The Mountain King. It's just a demo but the link is in the description. Looks very promising.
Perhaps, this is hell
That's the first thing I think when I wake up every morning.
@@arkham666 we're both British so I can relate to that very hard 😂 great video! 😁
@@InfiniteBeak At least we have crumpets.
I side with Adler, I'll simp for Big Tall Lady.💪
Haha there's only one tall horror lady I simp for. I'll be talking about her in March.
Chadler did nothing wrong
call that a signalisis
That's not a Signalis... this is a Signalis!
You should play these two indie games cloudpunk and ruiner.
Both of those have been on my radar for a while. Cloud Punk especially.
Great video dude I definitely enjoyed your take compared to many people acting as if it's the 2nd coming of christ or the worst game ever made. Looking forward to your upcoming videos, Especially Prey one if my all time favorite games. I gotta cover rit again myself and even have a planned video analyzing it and Weird West as morality thought experiments.
It's a damn good game. And good games produce hype that create hot take click bait. It is what it is.
Glad you enjoyed it. I'm almost finished recording prey but I've been having some writing issues that have recently cleared up so I should be good to start producing in another week or so.
@@arkham666 Sounds awesome dude, I'm pumped for it.
it's a minor thing, but I love how you're using german pronounciations for words and names!
Lol I listen to a lot of Rammstein. I just comes out that way.
Love signalis 🥰
Me too.
I love the game to I love the dark atmosphere and puzzles
@@aaronatkinson177 a person of culture.
Thanks your very welcome friend 👍😁
Lesgooooooo
Legsoooooo wait....
Just wanted to note that the 6 item inventory limit is perfect... and the game focuses more on challenge than what is convenient/easier/"best" for the player.
No knock on your video or opinion, but are modern gamers so fickle that games like this, Alien Isolation (the notorious IGN review comes to mind), and others like those in the modern horror space of gaming really at a disadvantage for challenging the player with whatever mechanics the game feels puts more stress on the player?
When I was a kid... if you sucked at a game... you were told to "get good." I still pretty much think this is true given if pretty much everything else works in the game very well. If I am being challenged in a game that dots off all the other checkboxes, it is by design.
I'm 40 mate and got my start in survival horror with re1. Rewatch that part of the video. I'm very experienced and I'm very interested in game design. I'm not some fickle modern gamer.
@@arkham666 Age isn't the point really... but okay, I'm 38 now and also played RE1 basically at the time of release. Our opinions differ - that will happen.
I'd be more curious your reasoning behind why the inventory mechanic doesn't work for you. If you grew up playing games like RE1, didn't you frequently make multiple runs to sometimes "play it safe" when working on a specific puzzle? You basically allude to this in your video but don't provide much detail regarding why it isn't to your liking in this game.
To be clear, I do love this game but find elements to definitely not be perfect from a story perspective, but I do really appreciate the gameplay itself.
@@Batman1084CK you threw out the "when I was a kid line" and the "are modern gamers line" so you wanted to make a point about my age and experience so don't backtrack on that.
As to what my issues with the inventory are, they're all clearly explained in the video. If you don't know then you didn't watch or if you did you clearly already had your response mapped out in your head and then disregarded everything I said about it.
@@arkham666 I clearly mentioned that "when I was a kid" - this has no correlation to however old you are (I couldn't care) but you grasped for that straw and dropped your age. I can't help you there. Nobody is backtracking, but interpretation is key here and you definitely have misinterpreted.
I watched your video and you basically state the need to backtrack - but this isn't new to the genre by any means. RE1 original did the same thing which you yourself point out. Did you hate it back then when you were first playing it?
I watched your entire video - nothing was mapped out. You sounded like you had a real big problem with it but basically mention something that isn't uncommon in the genre (albeit for different reasons depending on the game). It seems odd to me to say the least. But you're entitled to that opinion.
@@Batman1084CK well this is going wonderfully. I'm not gonna say I don't have a part to play in how this has gone down so let's start again. You're 38, we are of similar age, likely we have had similar life experiences and we both clearly like survival horror and signalis. Where in the world are you right now? I'm in Japan. It's 6:41. I'm on my way to work. How's your day going/gone?
more
I don't have much more to say about Signals at this time but I talk about lots of games that I like all over this channel lol.
good video, good game, awful community
Bruh, again. The algorithm is unkind to you. Lol
Thank you. I really appreciate it. You never know how the next video will go though.
It was all in le head. Just not yours.
I hate that. It's still a fucking "it was in le head" twist. It's bullshit.
Wanted *Signalis* to be great, but it ended up being a disappointment for myself personally.
Well we all want different things from our games. Look at the wildly different reviews of Callisto Protocol. It goes to show just how differently two people can experience the same game.
Am genuinely curious as to what your expectations could have been for something as incredible as this game to be a disappointment to you.
Unironically curious as to what it could be.
Did you complete the game or did you cease to play it after the fake ending. xD
I enjoyed the game, but couldnt say I liked it as much as other people. Probably because the game didnt really scare me that much lol, still enjoyed it a lot.
I honestly think signalis is way better than the callisto protocol I don't know maybe I'm a sucker for the atmosphere and puzzles of signalis