I'm the creative director of Ugly. Thank you for making such an amazing video about the game. We loved it!! Love from Barcelona and good luck with the channel 🙌
I just wanted to say I am absolutely charmed by what you and the team have produced! I am a sucker for dark fairytales and your style of storytelling for this game worked so well! Outstanding! (Also loved the ending sequence, very satisfying end personally).
Which seems odd to me when the flower wing signifies denial. Which could indicate that she stayed with Father due to thinking it was better with him and his abuse despite what happened.
@@CitrineGamer-1 Since we can't be 100% certain as to the era this game takes place in (arguably our best hint is that it was long enough in the past for them to still be using candlesticks for lighting as opposed to electricity, gaslights, or even oil lamps), it very well could have taken place in a time/place before divorce was even allowed. Back in those times, once you were married off to a nobleman or somesuch, that was **it**. No rescue, no escape, not "Until Death Do You Part", as the vows go. Of course this is just me spit-balling, so feel free to take my words with a grain or two of salt! 😅
I don’t think the father wanted to accept the reality that children are kinda ugly at first. He wanted a smaller clone of himself. Down to the coifed hair and chin. Not a developing person. So of course every baby was a disappointment. They died for the crime of being babies.
I love how at the end you can get an idea of how the son turned out. He escaped the fire, escaped his father’s cruelty, and escaped the mask. He married the maid, they had a daughter, and I can only guess he didn’t wind up as callous or cruel as the father
So the woman with the blue flower is probably Young Maid. Those flowers are the only real identifier we get for either of them (hence my calling the older one 'Green Maid'). There were actually more hints in the game that I discovered after the video was given. But I am very sure that the three of them did escape the fire.
Honestly at the beginning I was a bit sad that apparently the son after everything he went through is now a lonely alcoholic in a ruined house. The reveal kinda made it better? Since the two woman beside him are maids it's not clear what exactly happened to him, but I think he found a better life.
I see the whole game being actually after the ending, the delirium before death, as they say "your life flashes before your eyes" and that's what let him reflect. However, it was just too late for him.
@@csidesummit tbh, I was thinking that just because of the lore of the binding of Issac. But it makes sense for this game too, there is no reason for the game to be chronological, and we know that game itself is not real in some way or another. Though, I think the true answer is there own answer in this. It is for the player to interpret how this game goes.
There were a few early hints. 1:The sons head is shown to be deformed/dented in all memories, the character we play as doesn't have those. 2:The son wouldn't remember his mother being pregnant with him. The father, however, would. 3:The father is present in all memories. The son, only in almost all of them. 4:The son should not remember the father engaging with the staff, unless he was peeping. 5:The son also isn't present when the other children are disposed of.
As someone who absolutely ADORES spider imagery/symbology/mythology, it's always amazing to see a video game place spiders in a neutral/positive light.
Spiders in mythology and folklore can get quite interesting. There's the African and Native American spider tricksters Anansi and Iktomi, and in Nauru mythology, the spider Areop-Enap was a key character in the creation myth. I recommend looking those up.
@@jurtheorc8117 Oh yeah - Anansi has some awesome stories. But I did not know about Iktomi or Areop-Enap!! I will definitely research them as soon as I'm able - thank you for the tip! :O
Fun fact, there’s another highly prevalent spider spirit in Southwestern Native American group called Spider Woman/Grandma spider, who helped creat the universe and taught man how to craft such as sewing and pottery. She’s considered benevolent from what I remember.
I was surprised and have the son was shown at the end as a grown-up person, meaning he most likely escaped and aged happily with the "green" maid and "young" maid.
@@Gaminginvrrr Well, in one of the memories it appears that the gold mask was heated and likely grafted to the son’s face going by the scars and the red face.
A wise symbolic choice to have father wearing the red blazer in memories, but the exact same blue suit as his son underneath, so that you can overlook it on the first playthrough, but see it without question on replays.
@@csidesummit here is another thing that is overlooked in the first play through. each of the creatures of despair have something that shows they came from father. the mummy, glass, and drunk all have blonde hair. you see the mummy and glasses when they are defeated, while the paint and the lock giant both have blue eyes.
Something I noticed (still in the early parts of the video so idk if it's a point you also make) is how all the father's ever done is run from his problems. A son he considered ugly - he tried to change it. Babies he didn't value - tossed them away. Got scarred in an accident - hide who he was, hide who he is, from himself and the world. He never confronts himself, until this game, the totality of it is his realization of all his flaws and sins in his life. And in the end, once he's come to terms with it... he runs one last time. Kills himself instead of facing the rest of his life as a monster. Even in redemption he couldn't overcome what was wrong with him.
I love how the game spares no mercy to father's uglyness, how there is no forgiving, usually games tend to afford some sort of mercy to the player character but no this time, he had to pay and pay he did
That ending was an incredibly bold move. I was fully expecting to be allowed to take him out of the mansion and start over, try to make up for it. They dared to ask the question "When is redemption no longer on the table?"
@@recapnerd2657 Oh I agree. What I found surprising was displaying apparent (possibly) remorse and then refusing to accept it. Especially in a player character.
A vile ending for a vile person It's a refresher especially when a lot of stories missunderstand understanding the villain with sympathising with the villain (the concept of unnescessary redemption arcs).
This whole video I was like “I don’t see how this is deep at all, it seems very obvious and clear cut that the son is reflecting on his ugly traumatic past” and I was jaw dropped at the big reveal 💀
Funnily enough, I kind of spoiled the reveal for myself. I accidentally closed the video when the player was getting near to the mirror and the cover of the video showed up saying "I am you". And I thought "wait... Wait, ain't no way...". And then I continued watching the video and was like "OH HELL NAH, I KNEW IT (I learnt it seconds before the reveal, BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER)"
i just realised. The green maid is wearing a chicken mask. Chickens which are birds are known to be great at killing scorpions. Removing their tail and eating it
another thing that i noticed. Was how mother was a spider. Since spiders are known to actually be good mothers, nursing and caring for their children really well. But they do kind of kill their children
@@csidesummit yeah. I think it would be interesting and fitting if it was a centipede instead. Theyre known to cradle and care for their children. Theyll attack anything that tries to kill or eat their children.
@@WizzyTheWizkid I mean, scorpions are excellent mothers, especially for arthropods. That’s a thing they’re known for too. But scorpion males sting the females into submission during their courtship/breeding dance and then just leave a packet of genetic material so the metaphor is probably still apt.
The way this game sets everything up is horrifyingly good. Down to the scaffolding collapsing for the first puzzle, a minor detail at the start, but it sets up for a horrid ending. The same goes for the rest of the entire game.
Ugly is a work of genius. Every time I boot it up I find another hint. There's so much to learn if you're willing to look carefully. That ending did pretty much shock me.
I also like how the game foreshadows you playing as the father. At first you might think that you're playing as the son recalling everything the father did. But there are memories where the son isn't present or included in those memories. He's just absent, nowhere to be seen. Which those specific odd memories wouldn't make sense if they were the son's memories since if they were his memories he would have to had been present during those memories, which he isn't. Another detail is the fact that the father is always present in every memory, no matter what. (these details are easy to overlook at first). But when you find you're playing as the father. The memories where the son isn't present and the fact the father is always present in each memory makes sense. Because all the memories aren't the sons, they are the father's memories. It's small,subtle and easy to miss but a significant detail and i love that detail.
Ok I was rewatching this again to see more details, and I just noticed how much more sense the first memory makes with the framing of you from the dads perspective. You’re the one saying he’s ugly, ready to cover that face at any chance
@@Last_Person I think it's more that this particular memory takes place after Mother's death, and after Father has brought him to a mirror and convinced him that he's ugly. In fact I think those two memories are consecutive. WIth the first being "You're Ugly" and the second (holding the mask) being "You could be beautiful."
@@csidesummit yeah, but well (in metaphore for a game) Also I've been thinking about fennec foxes- they bite scorpion's tails before eating them, and even drop the dsarmed scorpions for their kids to learn how to kill them
Welp, that ending rocks so very much. I absolutely adored the "Just go outside. It's easy." Leading to hanging yourself on a noose. That's so fucking good.
Personally i think the reason why father hated son so much, was because he reminded him, of himself where he was also so... ugly, i think the reason why he looked like him, was because he had to see what he was before
Could be, but I don't think Father's motivations are that deep. I think he could only see people on a surface level, and so seeing his son being physically Ugly was more than enough to reject him.
The greatest theme of this game is that there is such a thing as too far and too late. The father legit sounds like a villain strait from game of thrones, so the ending is perfect for him.
It's a surprisingly bold thing to say in today's climate. Personally I don't reject the idea of anyone striving for redemption. But there is no onus on victims or the world to grant it.
Something of note in the first reflection Throughout the game, we see the son depict himself with this odd, ugly, kinda lumpy shape, while his dad is an angular, strong, beautiful trapezoid, and that’s what we see in the first part of the refrection, but as father steps out of the shadows, revealing the mask, we see his face in an irregular oval-ish shape nuch like the son’s, not sure what this means as this is the ONLY time we see him as anything but a trapezoid to my knowledge, but i’m taking this as in his everlasting feats to remove his son’s ugliness, he became ugly himself(which if that’s the case, is great foreshadowing using just shapes)
That seems likely enough. Father has different forms of 'scorpion-monster' in the memories depending on how bad he's being. Some being more monstrous than others.
25:46 it may represent emptiness; the feeling all hope has been drained. Some of the worst nightmares are of people with voids for eyes and mouths, the ones that are guaranteed to have you waking up scared stiff. These void like eyes and void like mouth make anyone look... "inhuman" and "monstrous"
@@csidesummit the gory pulp may itself be a representation of his guilt for the horrible sins he has done. he has already shown an aversion to looking to the past, and contact with the pulp may force so many terrible memories that he cannot do anything but retract the shard. a fear response. the fact that they loose their eyes and mouth seems to show that, when touching the pulp, they see themselves as a terrible husk of a man. not even worthy of humanity.
@@atheontimesconflux1067 Certainly not impossible. A few other commenters suggested that this whole thing is actually taking place IN hell. I don't personally ascribe to that but I can see how that conclusion could be reached.
I saw the gory stuff more as him being forced to see his ugly insides. AKA everything he's done. His sins are so connected to the mansion that they're literally woven into the walls, hard to avoid and even harder to confront. Fantastic video, very well done ^^
For those of you wondering what happened to the dog, they were shoved into a furnace by Father and burnt alive while Son watched And you may ask, "Why does Son's face look red and scarred during the ending song?" Let me answer that. Theres a scene where Father heats up Son's mask, which leads me to believe he tried to solder the mask onto Son permenantly, since the memory is called "You will wear the mask FOREVER!"
The one thing I find entertaining to think about is the idea that the last scene is actually happening in the main characters head as he dies. Even as he chokes on his last breath, imagining all of his victims both living and dead celebrating his death, he still can't help but make it all about himself with him being in the center of it all even to the point where his corpse is singing along. How rich, after everything he's done and all the people he's hurt and yet he still thinks he's worth any acknowledgement when in reality he's dying in the basement of a derelict mansion, completely forgotten and dismissed. A narcissist to the truly bitter end, a cruel devil here we stand who cared about nothing but him, his only worth to burn in hell and to stay away from him. One more thing to add regarding the bonus levels is what they all represent(or at least what I like to believe). Yes, they're all tied to Father's crimes and sins but it should be mentioned that since Father more or less obliterated his memory with alcohol, locking the doors and those memories away deep into the bowels of the mansion, he was able to witness his true nature with a fresh set of eyes. Now that those doors have been opened and those memories have been restored, one has to ask what all that knowledge does to a person as inhumane and self centered as Father. For narcissists, especially ones who are as pathological as Father, any flaws either perceived or realized cannot stand. The mere idea that they're flawed and in the wrong is too much for them, and with everything he's done it must be agonizing to him (hence why the red fleshy mass turns him into a husk). There's only one way for creatures like him to deal with that and it's to escape it in any way they can, including self termination. Good fucking riddance, I say.
Or could be the Opposition of arrogance finally accepting all his crimes and thinking abt how he couldve been better or Option c ITS ACTUALLY HAPPENING
i have a theory as to why the child's face looks like that, it is very likely burn marks, but i like to think only his face is damaged because of the golden mask, after all, it is a mask made of metal, and it looks very dense in some chalk drawings, i wouldn't be surprised if that's why his face is that damaged.
I think you're on the money, there. I'm almost certain the three living figures in the final scene are the Son, the Young Maid, and the Green Maid years later.
I wonder if the last "puzzle" is also a metaphor. After one final self reflection, the father realises that he doesn't deserve the outside world goes away from it and decides to game end himself.
Given how this game has worked it would not surprise me. But at the very least the player is led to believe they can get outside, and that's what I was trying to do when it happened.
Kinda sad he didn’t go more in depth on the bosses and what their defeats or actions represent, the mummified king destroying himself, being held by 3 golden objects, his attacks against others causing his own fall, the painted king, kinda self obvious but he tries to flow throughout the entire house, to cover up everything he’s done and once again falling down in his defeat by being washed away nothing covered up can remain that way forever, the mirror king breaking the mirror shards as his only attack, the shards that broke pushing his own reflection away which he falls and his head shatters if that reflection gets close enough for him to see it, the locked king defeated in the most simple method, unlocking a door that hides the crimes he committed, his hands that go through the doorways only go through to attack, or to try and throw away the mirror that shows his reflection, the drunken king the only one who doesn’t purposefully try to attack, only swiping his hand across the table to grab the alchohol he poured and being his own downfall
Those are interesting points. And in this case I didn't include them because I really didn't see that. But I also really disliked the bosses, and found some of them so quick that nothing really clicked with me on them.
What really stood out to me in the game's true ending was when the Father started singing along and changed to refer to himself in first person. From what I've seen in the video, the father throughout the game is in denial of his true self. Despite reflecting on his past, he couldn't bear to accept that he was a monster. That he was ugly. But at the very end, after facing his past and inner demons and ultimately paying the price, he finally learned his lesson and accepted that he was always ugly.
When I first uploaded the video I had 129 subscribers. Today, about 72 hours later I'm up to 159 and commenters say I'm finally getting some help from TH-cam Recommendations. This has been my best success so far. Thanks for watching!
In the chalk drawings with the mother, the boy appears more beautiful in the mirror yet in the chalk drawings with the father he only appears more malformed. Children believe what adults tell them, and it can seriously affect how they see themselves.
I first discovered this game through a compilation of its bosses and the "first ending" (the credits roll when he falls back onto the mattress) and I am SO happy to see all of its secrets laid out for me to process as I listen. I was NOT expecting the true ending but GOD, it was so well-done. Kudos to the game devs. And kudos to *you,* for this wonderful video!
After thinking about it a bit, I think I know what all the fleshy surfaces at the end of the game symbolize: Carnal Temptation. The reason why the protagonist is rendered incapable of using the mirror while touching them is because he has been blinded by the Pleasures of the Flesh, which would also be why his eyes become hollowed out. Given the game's themes of hedonism, this seems like a likely interpretation. In essence, the protagonist's nonstop self-indulgence prevented him from engaging in the kind Self-Reflection he so urgently needed, a conclusion which I think neatly ties the games themes together.
DUDE, this video is so well put together! I've never heard of Ugly but damn, it should be more well known it is a rollarcoaster of a story and twists, this better get atleast 100k in a month, keep it up!
If I had to guess what the red stuff of the hidden puzzles mechanic was, it would be rejection. The body actively tries to stop behaviors it sees as unpleasant, and it even can push someone away from reflecting if they hate it that much, hence why it stops our protagonist from using the mirror properly. His body is rejecting properly reflecting on himself.
I think it's notable that so many theories on the red stuff have cropped up in this comments section. It seems to defy easy classification. Which...to be honest is not a great thing in my book. It suggests the design was more for visual impact than narrative implication.
@@csidesummit Normally "it's the only design choice without a clear narrative or thematic purpose" would mean "it's a bad design choice" However, in this particular context, the fact that it would normally be a bad design choice (and, more precisely, that it's the only choice that would be) is exactly why it's a good one... and, paradoxically, gives it a clear thematic purpose: reinforcing a statement that has yet to actually be made. The one you state as a possibility at 27:06
Ugly’s such a great game, at first I thought it was your usual abused protaganist looks back on his trauma and either gets over it or suffers forever. Instead all I got is the story of a piece of human garbage who despite all the reflection, needed to be punished. And him being punished by slowly suffocating while everyone he knows looks at him to see how truly ugly he is. In fact he was the most ugliest being in the world.
The game has such excellent turnabouts. Your mind gets so set for so much of it on how to view events. Then things shift, and you have to decide not where you stand on an opponent, but on your own character.
@@csidesummit I like to think the musical number didn’t actually happen and he either offed himself or tripped on the rope and it’s just a big hallucination before his death.
@@KisamaMokkorosu-qj7vh I actually cut a part from the video where I was going to speculate on how much of what we see is 'real'. It seems clear that a lot of this is metaphor. But I'm not convinced the whole thing is metaphor. I'm never a fan of something being a 'dream' as in any situation something happening is always more interesting than nothing happening.
Holy hell man I just saw this on tumblr and was so intrigued and ended up going to youtube, watching the entire thing without saying a single word before my jaw just DROPPED at the end- thank you for your account of this story it was so well put together
NO CAUSE I FOR REAL HAD THE SAME EXPERIENCE WHEN THE TWIST DROPPED I WAS LITERALLY UNABLE TO GET MY JAW BACK UP FOR THE REST OF THE VIDEO. HOLY HELL THAT IS SUCH A GOOD AND IMPACTFUL TWIST
SPOILER FOR THE VIDEO I genuinely find some sort of disturbing beauty in the final sequence of the game. This soul, having finally witnessed and reflected on how rotten it truly was, simply accepted what had to happen. His body may rot and his soul may forever burn in hell, but it accepts that it is what he deserves, and welcomes it. Morbidly happy that the world is rid of him.
I'm not entirely sure that's true. I think he genuinely did intend to leave the mansion and maybe start over. Though if we're to take the musical number as canon, he has certainly accepted it postmortem.
@@csidesummit The question of redemption really does come down to the individual. At the heart of hearts, even if the individual feels remorse for what they did, do they really have the heart or desire to change? Or is it just easier to end it all and accept the fate of the monster you were and currently are as something you always will be? I think it's possible that even in the end, even after all that reflection, he decided to take the easy way out as he always did in life. That or it's a simple cautionary tale explaining how evil people bring about their own destruction and how in the end, they'll always die alone and with nothing, either spiritually, physically, or both. Perhaps both interpretations may be true.
@@thesnatcher3616I think after reflecting and seeing all he did he took the easy way out because he himself didnt even think of redemption because he has fallen so far down that i think even as narcissist as himself considers himself unworthy of being able to have the joy of living again
This game has wormed its way into my brain, which made it all the worse when I couldn't find any videos discussing the themes of it...at least until I found your really cool video! It was so interesting to see you discuss the way that the game mechanics and the way it controls were a reflection of the father's mindset and how it ultimately dooms him in the end. I like how before the plot twist is revealed, the memories being crayon drawings can be chalked up to the son's coping mechanism for what happened to him under his father's abuse. But then afterwards, it really highlights how much of a childish person the father is, he's impulsive and prone to thinking of only himself; he's essentially a spoiled child who was given way too much power, ala Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones. And it's because of this childish nature of his, that I sort of pitied the father at the end. He's horrible, he absolutely deserved everything that happened to him, especially after all the pain and death he caused.(Not to mention what happened to the dog, he deserved a fate worse than death for that alone) But at the same time...during the entire run of the game, collecting more and more of the memories, I can't help but wonder if it's shorthand that he's reflecting on his past actions and mistakes. Every time he goes through one after the other, he usually reacts to each one with a mix of shock and revulsion, covering his eyes as if he doesn't want to believe he was ever this horrible, and yet even his own memories won't let him forget what a monster he is...which was really interesting to me because of how much of a narcissist he is. Like, maybe after becoming disfigured, he finally had to look inwards on his shitty character or something. Even more prominent with the final memory of seeing(?) what he looked like after drinking the hallucinogenic poison, it was so weirdly vulnerable to see his emotions before he smashes the mirror, like, did he always hate himself deep down? I feel like you wouldn't have such an explosive reaction to your reflection if you didn't kind of hate yourself deep down...although that might have just been the poison talking. The bosses were also a great reflection of himself too, with every single one of them being a facet of his personality and the actions he took after the accident. They're all just kind of sad and pathetic to look at in action. I have a bit of hard time to muster up any form of fear against them, I can't even say that I hate them either after the plot twist, they're just the personifications of the attempts of a horrible man trying to escape his own miserable existence. One of the endings even implying that this has been an ongoing loop for some time, that he hates himself so much now that he won't even try to even find out if there might be something better outside of his castle. I'm sorry for rambling, I promise that I'm almost done. So when he finally goes through the "epilogue" I never really understood why he was collecting all the memorabilia of everything, but like, I assume it has something to do with how he wants to get over his past? I dunno. But I digress, I never really thought about the father's appearance at the end until you mentioned that it might be possible his appearance at the end of the game might have been all in his mind the entire time and that he suffered minimal damage from the fire but because of his narcissistic personality, he considered it tantamount to having a full bodied disfigurement. And it's just so...scummy that he would think that the worst possible appearance he could have gotten would have been almost identical to his son, like you're the one who gave him those physical traits, all of the babies you killed for being born that way was all you...I wonder if he ever realized that the reason all his kids were born with physical deformities was his fault. So anyways, I think it's a great touch that the game 100% confirms that the Son grew up to be a good person in the end, proving that he was better than his father could ever hope to be, and that his father died alone and hated by everyone who ever knew him, even himself. Love that his whole character arc was him just coming to grips with what an awful SOB he was in life and that he deserves to burn in hell. (Also the song was really good)
I'm gonna give Pulitzer a ring and see if they're looking for new essays. :) Father's ending is very interesting to dissect. I'm convinced he was on the brink of turning over a new leaf. And I do think anyone can change if they want it badly enough. But no one is obligated to pave the way for that, or to forgive. Personally I approve of Father's death appearing to be an accident while attempting to leave it all behind. Both for the symbolic idea that it 'caught up to him' and for the idea that the world itself wasn't going to let him go.
This is an unbelievably good video relative to viewership. I’ve been on a sort of indie odyssey lately, between music, games, and the algorithm actively pushing my recommendations to the outskirts, and this is probably one of the best things I could have asked for. This game, its core twist, the actual plot, and the endgame of it all feel like Ugly is the closest thing the new generation will get to Braid (and from a less toxic dev, but that’s another story). I firmly believe that good art is made by the underdogs of the genre, and you and Ugly both vindicate that feeling. Half the people in this genre of video essay are either hacks, established names, or are a potent sleep aid, and you are none of those. Thank you, and may the algorithm smile upon you further. So with all that said, what the dog doin’. C’mon. You showed us a certain swing set and uh. Another thing you could bowdlerize as a swing set, what could possibly get more advertiser-unfriendly?
That's incredibly high praise. Thank you very much both for those words and for the viewing. I'm actually a little stunned with how well this video has done, and incredibly happy that viewers seem to be checking out my back catalog as well. As to the dog, it didn't really come down to advertisers. When this video went live I assumed I was still at least a year away from monetization so I haven't been worrying about it much. In fact I doubt what happened to the dog would be more unfriendly than what happened to the children. But the actual memory associated with it is significantly more traumatic in its own context. Also, I spoiled a lot of the game in this video, I feel I owe it to the developers to leave some crumbs to entice people to check it out. :)
I’m a personal believer that the red stuff represents all the gory bad memories it’s why when he’s infected, he goes hollow and just walks away. He’d rather not face his actions, but he’s actively trying.
@@csidesummit another way of looking at it is it’s Pain literally the games ending implies he hangs himself maybe the shards represent the pain that leads to confronting his actions and then the pain of the rope around his neck maybe that’s why when he touches it, he walks away hollow
Something else when we switch to the Father's real body is that he also has very minimal damage to himself, its seems to just be a small scare along his eye but i do feel like to him that small scar was so bad that he saw himself as his initial "ugly" self till he confronted everything and saw through the self made illusion
Nice plot synopsis! No honest to God spoilers. Per se. The plot is very evocative of blasphemous. Its awesome to have more compelling stories from around the world.
Well I got pretty story spoilery in there, but that's why I do the warning ahead of time. And since Ugly's been out for a while I figured we were clear on spoiler concerns. And you're right. It's very cool to see developers coming in from all over!
@@csidesummit oh I don't mean to come off the wrong way. I could tell you that you fight the miracle in blasphemous 2. I've had the luxury of enjoying vidya since Wolfenstein 3D for friggin windows 95 lol! If I told you you killed Crisanta in 1 I wouldn't be wrong. I just wouldn't be (i think you will enjoy this) 100% 😋 Personally you couldn't spoil anything for me. Until im there, have actually played, and felt can you really really understand the story. If I watched you play the game beginning to end. That may spoil me (depending on how you handle backseat drivers!) But only because I wanna play the damn thing. Thats how good your presentation is. Obviously a Dog is left undisclosed. Sure I could look it up, but THEN im spoiling for myself. As long as you give ample spoiler disclaimer screw the people who left the room. On the bigger plot points lets hear your opinions here and there and if that means you gotta drop a spoiler. Your commentary on the revelation of whatever just happened/the viewers are shown. Makes you more relatable. But thats just me! I really enjoyed your language learning game review. You sold that almost instantly. And yeah TH-cam algorithm kicked your review of this in my featured feed. Best pay tribute to the TH-cam AI lmao! Im subbed
The son escaped the fire, escaped his awful dad, married the maid who from the memory of them, apart from his mother, loves the boy without the golden mask, and had a daughter. The maid and his mother are the people who cared about the son, from the memories, they hated the mask the son had to wear, the maid was seen with the mask in her hands apparently removed it.
23:01 I'm always right our MC IS a Villains we play so that mean 5 is his own tormented symbolise His own fate Mummified person: is mean he see himself a ugly Pink blob monster: is mean he painted every photo his own as not Handsome anymore Monster crystal: he destroyed mirror as he doesn't want see his face again Lock guy: is mean he lock every room as reminder of his sins Drunk king: he drinks wine for forgot everything
Some addition I have been thinking about- the bdsm room. I do hope people read it not that "only abusive pieces of shit are into this"- the presence of the room is something that should be worrying only on the behalf of who is the Father. It's not that he's into these sorta kinks and that's some showcase how bad he is, the problem is that he is definetly someone who is not someone playing by the rules of both parties being satisfied after nor being safe durring the session- that's what makes him vile. Airing out just a pet peeve of horror games and alike using bdsm kinks as some form of signature for "the bad guy".
It's hard to say what people will and will not take from a piece of media and, unfortunately we have little control over that. Much of it will be based on their own experiences and preconceived notions. But you're doing good by bringing it up.
Right on. Safety rules (such as safe/code words and signals), trust, and Safe, Sane and Consensual are incredibly important parts of that kind of practice. You don't let yourself get tied up and be put in a vulnerable position by someone that you don't trust or feel safe with. Or rather, nobody (sane) *wants* that. But there are horrible people out there that will find more subtle, threathening and/or manipulative ways to force others to fit their own desires. If you don't follow their rules, you're in the wrong in their eyes and need to pay for it.
To be brutally honest, as someone who’s seen both sides, the vast majority of people who identify as part of the Community (versus just being into a kink or five) are like Father and use the highly rigid/ structured rules of the community as an excuse to get away with doing actual harm without consequence. Outing someone as a member or kinkshaming someone is generally considered worse than actually being a predator, which makes the kink community the ideal environment for a predator like Father. It’s a culture of permissiveness that masquerades extremely well as one of accountability. That is an environment basically tailor made for narcissists to feel good because “They didn’t say the words” or “I can’t be punished just because I didn’t hear,” or “They’re a top, so I couldn’t have violated their boundaries; they could tap out any time.” This observation is consistent across 4 major scenes in major cities I’ve tried. It’s not just one bad club/scene/community/whatever. The greater concept of a kink community lends itself to sepsis.
@@Axqu7227 I can see the logic in that and it makes me sad. I'm sorry to hear that such duplicity, rule-bending and manipulation is a thing and that you've witnessed it more often than should be the case. Things like these (amongst having seen how horrible kink/NSFW art can get) make one apprehensive of engaging in it. Regardless if it's just to meet people and not even the proverbial play yet. Perhaps in smaller cities and circles, or perhaps in other countries, it's... safer, if that's a good word, compared to your own observations (good on you for mentioning that, by the way). Perhaps not. I don't know, and I am apprehensive of looking into it to proverbially burn myself. From a stranger on the internet, I hope that such horrible structures and green cards for narcissists will become a lot less prevalent and that people are better able to recognize and act against it it in the future to make such a scene a safer place with less judgmenet.. Especially because of how vulnerable one can be. Appreciate seeing this perspective.
@@Axqu7227 Corelation does not mean causality. It's shit and it annoys me too (not just in kink scene sense, but also in other communities which have a track record of not weeding out wrongdoers earlier) I sincerely hope someone didn't get the read from your replly that prohibition is an answer, because with prohibition we get to a crime market. Either way- I hate it too when concern for someones well being is being brushed out as "kinkshaming" and alike. I don't have concrete solutions if you hope for one- scanning someones psyche and intent is practically impossible outright and only solution so far is reactive community response when bad behaviour is found (which I know is a very anger inducing thing as people want proactivness, not reactiveness)
Btw, I think that flowers represent the maids, or just generally the help around the estate, since all of the maids are depicted with flowers on their aprons.
@@csidesummit Yeah. I'm still unclear about how that connects with the rest of the story's symbolism, but it's just something I thought of. Plus, remember that the Flower Wing contained all of the supplies and such. It may not be where the staff are kept, but it is certainly where they are shown off the most to guests.
Wow...um you may have come up with a far worse fate for the dog than actually occurred. It wasn't *that* bad. No lust was involved. The dog actually barks a couple more times during the song.
@@darkcrydotmrihavetoomanyst1440 You don't wanna know. But if you're too curious to help yourself. I'll spoil it. But don't say i didn't warn you The father burned the dog alive in a furnace. What's worse is that the Son was forced to watch it unfold.
Was so shocked I had to watch twice. I'm not a gamer but I LOVE watching game storylines, and I seriously did NOT expect that we were playing as father 😭🙏
I forgot where I found it but I once saw the most beautiful piece of literature in existence... And it was a fanfiction of Ugly. The premise is that in this alternate story Father denies himself the right to die, reasoning that he would rather curse his own son with his mask than have his final action be the selfishness of thinking that he has even a modicum of the right to his own life, if anything each of his dead children, each of those poor maids, they all deserve to be one of the many many knives he deserves on his back, he cries as he cannot give them their due Justice except... Maybe he can at least do a miniscule amount of it. His son, his poor poor boy, the only one who deserves to see his death. And so, as Father changes his very fate and swears to himself that his son shall be his killer he wraps himself with the very bandages that kept him from his own ugliness and ventured off with his mirror shard. Along this journey he sees both the beauty of the world, the birds chirping, the almost enchanting sound of water running, and the vibrant colours of a butterfly's wings steels his derermination. He also sees all of the consequences of his actions, his purple robed and hedonistic friends now shudder at imagining him, they push his name off topic like as if it was a curse, and yet he realizes that just now is when he had started realizing names. He also visits villages and, to his horror, they contain the families of the maids he had wronged, each new maid's name he found out only more guilt resided in his heart and more determination coursed through his veins, he helps everyone of course, he is no longer as heartless as he once was, providing the few coins he has to the poorer maid families and providing truths to the more isolated. His journey eventually concludes when he finds the Young Maid, recognizing her for how vibrant she seemed and for how kind she is, much a grim reminder to his own sins. He asks her about The Son and to his utter and sheer horror his son has taken residence in the one place he hoped he wouldn't have to visit, the Spider's Nest, Mansion Spider. The Son had been hired by his grandfather on his mother's side as his own musician, and so, in a desperation that comes from knowing how much your late wife's family hates you, Father throws away his pride several times in order to infiltrate Manor Spider without anyone noticing, even having to hold back tears when one of the younger heirs of House Spider beckons him to her bed in order for him to get hired, why do my sins follow me even in my wife's own home!?, until eventually near the end of the story he gets him, The Son, and the Young Maid (All of whom he now knows the name of after realizing he never gave his own son a name, commonly referring to him as "it" or "that") into a private room and reveals his identity, The Son and The Young Maid, now in a relationship, scream but it is cut short as Father pulls out a knife, the same one Mother used to defend herself from Father's hordes, and offers it to The Son, who instead of taking the blade in order to have his deserved revenge, he slaps it away and looks at Father in horror, it is at this point that Father realizes his darkness, he never wanted to be killed by his son for his son's sake, it was to satisfy himself that he wanted his son to be his murderer, in an attempt to avoid doing a selfish act as his last, he did yet another selfish act, this entire journey... Was it all for naught? Have I bathed in my sins so much that I can't differentiate my righteousness from my selfishness!? The guards of House Spider bust into the room and kick Father out of Manor Spider, but not before a lengthy trial before the patriarch of House Spider, his own Father in Law, the father of the caring and kind woman he never deserved and killed, as the trial goes on he is banished instead of killed, much to Father's surprise, only to find out in horror that his own son vouched for his life, he is then kicked out from Manor Spider and with nowhere else left to go, forced to journey back to his own Manor, on the way back he is stoned, shunned, and even nearly beaten to death by the families of the maids, the ones he helped, the ones he wronged, untol eventually he gets back home and finds his wife's grave, and, as his final act, he walks to the other side of the Manor, collecting as many bottles as he can, and once reaching a certain spot, plans to drink himself to death, if my son cannot get what he so deserves then at least I shall, by dying as pathetically as I have lived, but as he's about to take his first swig, he dies of a broken heart and so ends the story. What a beautiful redemption for such an ugly man.
I got tricked too cause looking back on it , it makes more sense that you were the father the whole time. We take things in through the drawings but many of them had context the son would never know about
Having completed this game myself, I decided to give this video a watch and it inspired me to do another play through of the game just to explore the story more deeply. I’ve already found things that have depressed me: the first room you are forced to explore in the butterfly wing is a memorial to mother. The chalk drawing depicts the mother in the stars and the son looking up at her from below. Below the son is her coffin drawn and the framed picture of her has several candles around it. Of all the rooms to be first in that wing, I believe the developers chose this one specifically to show how much the son loved his mother. The dog has a smaller memorial, but the entire lower section of the first room is dedicated to being a memorial for mother. The fact it’s in the lower section of that room also leads me to believe son hid the memorial from father. I don’t think any game I’ve played has managed to make me feel this depressed.
It never made me feel depressed. But that was probably because it felt like a big mystery to unravel. And as horrified as the events made me, they were always balanced by the thrill of discovery. But I can easily see how this narrative could inspire that feeling.
The scorpion and spider symbols might be about their actions in nature. Some spider mother's willing let they're babies eat them, giving them their first meal and allowing them to have a better start to life while some scorpions will eat their own children for their own meal.
I'm going on a bit of spoiler territory so beware anyone that didn't watch the video/played the game I'm surprised a game with such undertones had a happy ending
Well happy in a way that is not the usuall meaning of "happy ending"- I would rather call it "cheery", like watching something done by Tim Burton in his prime- a comical tragedy that whiplashes you with a musical number at a funeral.
@@masterzoroark6664 I mean, it is a happy ending, since we see the Father dying for his mistakes, the souls he killed resting in peace and his son growing up to have a healthy and happy family
28:01 I do like that with all the ghosts that are haunting Father, the living do the same. The son grew up, still bearing the scars of his father’s cruelty, including a marred face and a hunched back, but he’s happy. The green maid, vengeful and ready, was prepared and willing to protect her loved one, and in the end won against the scorpion. A spider not in blood, but in action. Their daughter, bearing the same blue blue that her father wears, and the same green flower of her mother, smiles and stands by her family. They seem to be well to do, dressed in nicer clothes and wearing jewelry, but not lavish, probably out of preference. The ghosts sing in spite of father, in celebration of a devil finally returning to hell.
Okay, so I'm probably going to have to make a post on this at some point. The woman with the blue flower isn't their daughter. That's Young Maid. If you look at the drawings she's always depicted with a blue daisy and a bow in her hair. The scar on her face in the musical was likely done when Father attacked her. But otherwise I do really like the idea that the son went on and had a happy life. Personally I hope he inherited all of the bastard's wealth. And got a dog.
@@csidesummit oh, that’s fair. Then… does that mean that the young maid is young enough to be the son’s daughter? Cause she looks very young, while the son is fully grown. I guess it could be more of an older brother and younger sister moment. Maybe the mum or older sister of Young Maid, who I’m guessing is the green lady due to her green dress, is the one who poisoned the father? Young Maid is shorter than the Son, and the one who poisoned Father is fully grown (both in height and width), and is wearing a green dress. Maybe the Young Maid befriended the son, and the son met the Green Lady, and they fell in love?
Actually, I’m looking at a screenshot of one of the chalk drawings, and I don’t think the Young Maid is the shorter girl. While yes, the girl has a bow, just like Young Maid, Young Maid is taller than the son in the chalk drawings, and is perceivably older (since while the son is still a child, the young maid is old enough to have a job). While yes, most of characters are relatively the same size, the younger characters are shown as smaller. I get where you’re coming from, but I don’t think the young girl in the ending credits is Young Maid. (Also, not saying this to sound rude, I just want to have discourse, cause I see where you’re coming from, and I don’t think your take is invalid. Sorry if I come off as rude. And I do agree, the son having a happy family with a dog sounds like a perfect ending.)
@@monroerobbins7551 No worries, I'm kind of glad to see that I'm not the only one fascinated by this game. So if we look at memory 23 (17:08) we can clearly see both the Bow and the blue daisy. We never get clear views of these characters in-game, only crude drawings. So those clues carry a lot of weight. I would find it strange for them to deck the girl on the bench out in the same symbols but expect us to extrapolate that she was the son's daughter. We also don't know how old the Son is at the time of the musical as we don't know how many years have passed since the events of the game. His scarred face could be making him look older than he is. Or the difference in age might not have been as pronounced as it seemed (girls hit puberty before boys do). A child of a nobleman would of course not be working. But a lower-class child almost certainly would. Particularly if she was Green maid's daughter. Which I don't have any evidence of, but it's another possibility.
Weither or not father had reconsiled with his past didn’t matter, as his fate was determined from the very start. Also, i like how the game would occasionally try to startle or make you second guess yourself on if you saw something. Even at the beginning, if you paused at the right time when you encounter the mirror shard, a single frame of the protag’s face, in very disturbingly high detail, appears. little things here and there to psyche you out.
@@csidesummit as someone who has watched JJBA, even DIO doesn’t come this close the the level of depravity, especially as a father. At worst he is a dead beat
@@BIGTHANKSHEESH Glad for that clarification. I really need to watch that show at some point. The art style has never been my thing so I've never really sought it out.
You know there's a piece of me that feels bad that I didn't play it when it came out. But Chants of Sennaar was such a cool and novel concept. And then it was October and time for horror games, you know? Good stuff slips through sometimes. I hope this video has helped gain it some popularity.
So here are my two cents: As overused as the trope is, I do think that - given the massive implications that we're seeing the game through an unreliable narrator - basically all of the game itself falls into the "it was just a dream" category. I know someone below said that the whole game was father's reflection (pun) on his life before killing himself, and I do agree by and large. I think that the true ending is where everything clicks - given that the platform that collapses under him is in the same position as the one that collapsed at the start of the game, this reinforces my theory that the game never actually happened, including father's scavenger hunt in the new game +. In reality, what father did was collect all the artifacts that reminded him of all the violence he ever inflicted on everyone and then added one last item (the noose) which he then used on himself, with himself being the last victim of his own wrath. In my mind, the end sequence is part of the dream as well, with father's singing not being an act of narcissism, but of him realizing for the first time in his life how much of a bastard he was and how much he deserves to be punished. Having spent all of his life surrounded by sycophants, for the first time in his life he's truly alone, and in his last minutes thinks of all the people he's harmed. If nothing else, you can't expect the son (who hasn't once made a real appearance in the game) to come out of nowhere with a piano in tow. In brief, my takeaway is that the story is about a narcissist taking one long look in the metaphorical mirror and for the first and only time in his life deciding to make any attempt at penance for his actions. While he looks outside and sees the possibility of a happy life and new beginnings, he also realizes that he's done so much harm that he also doesn't deserve it.
I do get that. It probably is all metaphorical, or happening inside Father's head. But for me the idea is less interesting than if it were all real in some fashion. A bit like my issue with SPiritfarer. The game was so much more interesting to me in the early part where your afterlife seems to be about helping others reach their afterlives, rather than *spoiler alert* it all being the last hallucinations of a dying mind.
I like that each boss has a subtle hint to their design that they are connected to Father. They either have yellow hair at some point like with the Bandaged, the Crystal or the Poisoned, or they are shown to have blue eyes like with the Covering or the Gatekeeper
This was my first exposure to your channel, and I'm hobestly impressed by the quality of this video and some of the others like your reviews on Batboy and Minishoot Adventures. I've also seen nothing about this game, I'm honestly shocked the plot is darker than a lot of horror games.
It's kind of weird how Ugly flew under the radar. Because it was very highly reviewed. I think Chants of Sennaar stole some of the thunder. And of course Baldur's Gate 3 had come out the previous month. And thank you! Honestly I have a hard time looking at some of the old stuff. I've learned a lot this past year, and got a much better mic.
@@csidesummitYou're welcome. Also, I don't know if you take suggestions but since you like Minishoot Adventure, there's another game slightly similar to it. It's called Archvale, it's a bullet hell adventure game but it's progression is less like Zelda and more like a mix of Terraria and Paper Mario.
This game is wild, and incredibly deep! It’s so amazing how the metaphor is so easily misunderstood, until the true reality basically slaps you in the face. Seriously amazing
I think it comes from an assumption that if someone is evil, they are evil all the time. By putting us in the body of a somewhat blank slate whose only actions are determined by us, it leads us to assume that because *we* wouldn't have such crimes in our history, neither could our avatar.
@@csidesummit yeah! And genuinely living through the eyes of someone who’s done something so awful, even if we don’t understand it when we empathize with the character. It’s a really hard perspective to take sometimes
I've seen a few people wishing for an alternate ending where Father can be saved or can start a new. While forgiveness can be important, this is a man who was horrible and beyond redemption, even if he did see how ugly he truly was. I think there's something interesting about that-If the game had you play as the son, where you fight the father in the end or something along those lines, I don't think anyone would have sympathy for Father. Throughout the game, you're learning about the horrible things he has done, all the people he's hurt who only showed the son love or tried to stand up to Father. Thinking you're the son, you want justice, and don't feel any sympathy for him. It's only after the discovery that you play as Father that I see people's opinion shift.
Could be the case. But I've also seen people pine for redemption arcs with characters who are known to be evil from minute one. Evil rarely recognizes itself. But if we can recognize that evil could be within us, it might drive us to desire redemption for everyone.
@@csidesummit The main artstyle- yes. But I mainly talk about the portraits on the walls. Tho thinking about it all- the artstyle of the game itself is like a fusion of Braid and Isaac (especially with the big heads and noses and the fluidness of motion)
I finally got the chance to play this severely underrated gem and ooooooh boy was it a rollercoaster. The highlight absolutely being that twist. I mean I knew the father was bad, seeing his actions in the cage wing memories was pretty much the point of no return for forgiveness to me, but knowing now that we the player were all along controlling this monstrous husk of a man had me shook. Something I'd like to highlight more is how great the background art (and art in general) is. While the camera pane movements work really good for viewing and adjusting your reflection it's almost a tragedy that you can't always take a closer peek at everything in the backgrounds! There's so much love and attention to detail that I could've spent a solid half hour just admiring it in each room! (The butterfly and spider wings were my favourites.) As grim as the story was, this has probably been one of my most enjoyable game playthroughs in a long time. It's going right there next to Little Nightmares. And what a perfect game to play near Father's day...... : )
Honestly I struggled to keep a decent resolution in several of these clips. Bigger rooms were harder to keep in place and in some cases I re-recorded in higher resolution. Though I kept it to a minimum as that takes forever to export.
@@csidesummit True..... It was tricky enough when taking screenshots on my switch. Annnnd it got worse when I was sharing them with a friend after. 😆 (Darn you Insta photo compression.....)
Spoilers below This game has such interesting themes of reflections, not only with the mirror theme but with how much of the game is the father reflecting on his past and realizing how bad he is. He realizes he was always ugly.
Ahhh one of my favorite games. Couldnt tell you why this one stuck out so much to me, maybe its just the grim style ive always grown to appreciate but i always love to see people going through it. Its fun, its dark, and it left me sitting there for a whole 2 minutes processing what the hell just happened when i got to the end LMFAO The best stories to me are the ones that are able to hit you in the back of the head like that honestly. Making all the details early on come back to you, its good stuff :]
The way I see this game, it serves a powerful message. As humans, we are all imperfect beings. But sometimes that ugliness helps us embrace who were are, it helps us grow as people. However, there are people that are blind to the true ugliness they have inside. The evil that this single man has caused can never be forgiven. Instead of learning to accept his son and embrace his ugliness like the mother did, he let himself be poisoned by his own arrogance until he became a slave to his ego doing more and more unspeakable things to his family and others. That by the time he got a glimpse of his true ugliness, it was too late. His actions will never be forgiven. But at the same time, I think its a good lesson to show people to not let themselves be consumed by either their ugliness or their ego. That just like how they are people who will reject you, there will always be people willing to accept you. Learn to embrace your ugliness, cherish the bonds you do have, and don't let yourself drown in the TRUE ugliness of humanity.
I thought the ending would be that we would confront father and he will be a completly changed person. He would ask the player (who i thought is his son) to forgive him. The son in a furious rage would attack him and that would be how the final fight would start. And i also thought that in the beggining the father would make you put on the golden mask so you can't turn to your reflection. And when you would get the mask off in some way you would be able to attack father back. And at the end you would have been given a choice to either spare or kill the father. But the ending we have is also really cool and shocking.
Just found out about your channel through this video and i've been watching every single one, the fact that you recommend such amazing games that i've known and avoided or completely went under my radar and still bring my interest to it makes me so happy that i found out about this channel. Its surprising how little subscribers you have! You have my full support and i can't wait for the future of your channel
Glad to hear people are starting to check out the back catalog! I've been working on this for a year and it's been great to see it starting to gain momentum. I hope you enjoy the other videos!
SPOILER CONTENT: I think all the gorey bits in the finale puzzles are a representation of the Father’s sins themselves. Not necessarily the consequences, but perhaps something more esoteric: scars on his very conscience. Funny little detail: one of the puzzle levels, the one where you need to navigate your reflection through a maze, has sperm swimming around in the background, which I take as having one of two meanings: 1: it’s a representation of his wanton lust, and how it ruined (and inevitably ended) the lives of those four maidens. 2: This one is kind of a stretch, but given he actually committed infanticide on his own progeny, they may be a representation of the lives he wasted before they had a chance to experience life. For the sake of his own image, he swept them away, treating them as little more than the mess he made on the bedsheets they were conceived on.
I'm pretty sure its #1. Another nightmare room has fetuses floating in the background (god this game went hard...) and I'm sure that's the one representing his infanticide.
The ending of the video didn't just hit me like a truck. It hit me like a fucking tactical nuclear warhead directly to the head. I thought the stuff with the bright, clear morning was how Father finally faced his sins in that mansion; realized just how ugly he was. Boy was I wrong
For those that don’t know what happened to the dog. [SPOILER] I’m memory VII (7), it displayed a fight with the father and mother, in which the dog attacked the father. In memory VIII (8), we saw that mother lost an eye, and the father taking the dog as the dog’s eyes were crossed out, implying that it died. And finally, in memory IX (9), we can see the son crying next to a furnace with his father, and the father holding, *the dog’s collar.* If we go in chronological order, we can connect the dots… *That the father, f🔥king burned the dog’s corpse…* And after you beat this section of the nightmare, 25:15 , you *would’ve* seen the dog’s collar, and the *bones of the dog…* Thank me later.
SPOILERS I noticed in the room with the exotic animals that the Orangutan starts shaking whenever you approach it. Knowing that you’re the father going through the whole mansion gives it an entirely different context especially because of what happened to the dog.
I hadn't considered that but you're probably right! The man had no respect for anything. It says a lot that an animal probably near death from starvation or dehydration still had enough energy to recoil from the player character.
It seems unlikely to me. I don't really see grief as a theme in Ugly. The first boss, the bandaged, would be Denial in that situation. But I think the Covering is more on that theme. And I don't think any of them represent 'bargaining'. There's also a sixth boss I didn't reveal in the game, and he is definitely not 'acceptance'. Always worth considering, though.
as someone with a narcissist father myself (thank god my mom was strong enough to keep me away from him) and who's terrified of becoming him... this game rings true to me. thank you for the video.
@csidesummit thank you! I hope to see more amazing videos from your channel! May I suggest White Shadow? (Jacob Geller- another great video game essayist- recently made a video talking about it)
Hmmmm, nearly 30 min long video game essay of an underrated game I've never heard of, from a small channel of a guy who knows how to properly edit a video? Yeah, i already know this will be worth the watching
This game reminds me of something I'd find for free on xbox. In a good way. Just some random hidden gem that I'd stumble upon and be enchanted by for a while. Great video.
I saw this on the Steam store page but didn't pay it much mind, who knew this was a hidden gem the whole time. I like this video, you did a good job of highlighting what made this game special.
just stumbled across this channel and this is an extremely strong first impression. clear, to the point, not overly laden with jokes that dont need to be there, connecting dots where they can be connected and giving the audience a clear idea of your point (i enjoyed tou overlaying each boss fight with what it represented). stating both praises and criticism for the game. Good video 👍
I've never watched a video without pausing and you did a wonderful job keeping me hooked onto your storytelling! Its a really good one and i hope to see more of your content!
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm the creative director of Ugly. Thank you for making such an amazing video about the game. We loved it!! Love from Barcelona and good luck with the channel 🙌
I love when I hear positive feedback from the creators! You guys did a fantastic job with this game. I only wish I'd gotten into it sooner!
You deserve it little bro🙏
You did an amazing job mate.
Please make more videogamed
I just wanted to say I am absolutely charmed by what you and the team have produced! I am a sucker for dark fairytales and your style of storytelling for this game worked so well! Outstanding! (Also loved the ending sequence, very satisfying end personally).
The spider protects flowers against pests to allow flowers to grow, flowers that butterflies rely on for nectar
Very true. Not sure if scorpions ever serve the same function. I did more scorpion vs spider research than expected for this video.
Which seems odd to me when the flower wing signifies denial. Which could indicate that she stayed with Father due to thinking it was better with him and his abuse despite what happened.
@@CitrineGamer-1 That's an angle I hadn't considered.
@@CitrineGamer-1 Since we can't be 100% certain as to the era this game takes place in (arguably our best hint is that it was long enough in the past for them to still be using candlesticks for lighting as opposed to electricity, gaslights, or even oil lamps), it very well could have taken place in a time/place before divorce was even allowed.
Back in those times, once you were married off to a nobleman or somesuch, that was **it**. No rescue, no escape, not "Until Death Do You Part", as the vows go.
Of course this is just me spit-balling, so feel free to take my words with a grain or two of salt! 😅
@@submariNervous Doesnt matter the era unless its more modern. This is true. Hell its still true in modern times at times
I don’t think the father wanted to accept the reality that children are kinda ugly at first. He wanted a smaller clone of himself. Down to the coifed hair and chin. Not a developing person. So of course every baby was a disappointment. They died for the crime of being babies.
So I showed this video to my Mom, and she said basically the same thing "But all babies are ugly at first!!"
I can't express how big of a compliment that is. Thank you!
Maybe If the father was patient, the spider would have learned what the scorpion saw at their own pace.
Maybe If the father was patient, the spider would have learned what the scorpion saw at their own pace.
@@TrulyBS-QJ That would mean Mother would come to agree with father. Did you mean the other way around?
I love how at the end you can get an idea of how the son turned out. He escaped the fire, escaped his father’s cruelty, and escaped the mask. He married the maid, they had a daughter, and I can only guess he didn’t wind up as callous or cruel as the father
So the woman with the blue flower is probably Young Maid. Those flowers are the only real identifier we get for either of them (hence my calling the older one 'Green Maid'). There were actually more hints in the game that I discovered after the video was given. But I am very sure that the three of them did escape the fire.
Guess? Nah we can already tell. He was an elite father. Although he gonna need therapy
At least it's a happy ending
Honestly at the beginning I was a bit sad that apparently the son after everything he went through is now a lonely alcoholic in a ruined house. The reveal kinda made it better? Since the two woman beside him are maids it's not clear what exactly happened to him, but I think he found a better life.
@@Alexander-gb4rr perhaps they got a small home together and formed a found happy family
I see the whole game being actually after the ending, the delirium before death, as they say "your life flashes before your eyes" and that's what let him reflect. However, it was just too late for him.
Huh, that's a really good interpretation. I like that.
@@csidesummit tbh, I was thinking that just because of the lore of the binding of Issac. But it makes sense for this game too, there is no reason for the game to be chronological, and we know that game itself is not real in some way or another. Though, I think the true answer is there own answer in this. It is for the player to interpret how this game goes.
There were a few early hints. 1:The sons head is shown to be deformed/dented in all memories, the character we play as doesn't have those.
2:The son wouldn't remember his mother being pregnant with him. The father, however, would.
3:The father is present in all memories. The son, only in almost all of them.
4:The son should not remember the father engaging with the staff, unless he was peeping.
5:The son also isn't present when the other children are disposed of.
I....didn't catch those hints the first time. 😅 I thought that the character was the son until it was revealed at the end that it was the father.
As someone who absolutely ADORES spider imagery/symbology/mythology, it's always amazing to see a video game place spiders in a neutral/positive light.
It really is a nice way to interpret it.
Spiders in mythology and folklore can get quite interesting. There's the African and Native American spider tricksters Anansi and Iktomi, and in Nauru mythology, the spider Areop-Enap was a key character in the creation myth.
I recommend looking those up.
@@jurtheorc8117 Oh yeah - Anansi has some awesome stories. But I did not know about Iktomi or Areop-Enap!! I will definitely research them as soon as I'm able - thank you for the tip! :O
@@jurtheorc8117 Thank you for the tips! I'm somewhat familiar with Anansi but the others are new to me.
Fun fact, there’s another highly prevalent spider spirit in Southwestern Native American group called Spider Woman/Grandma spider, who helped creat the universe and taught man how to craft such as sewing and pottery. She’s considered benevolent from what I remember.
I was surprised and have the son was shown at the end as a grown-up person, meaning he most likely escaped and aged happily with the "green" maid and "young" maid.
It does seem like he was able to move past this horrible time and live his own life. And stayed in touch with what family he had left. :)
I dont. Bs
@@csidesummitprobably was a musician from the piano
@@Gaminginvrrr Well, in one of the memories it appears that the gold mask was heated and likely grafted to the son’s face going by the scars and the red face.
A wise symbolic choice to have father wearing the red blazer in memories, but the exact same blue suit as his son underneath, so that you can overlook it on the first playthrough, but see it without question on replays.
This was really clever. I don't think I had put the blue uniform clue together until after I'd finished this video.
@@csidesummit here is another thing that is overlooked in the first play through. each of the creatures of despair have something that shows they came from father. the mummy, glass, and drunk all have blonde hair. you see the mummy and glasses when they are defeated, while the paint and the lock giant both have blue eyes.
Something I noticed (still in the early parts of the video so idk if it's a point you also make) is how all the father's ever done is run from his problems. A son he considered ugly - he tried to change it. Babies he didn't value - tossed them away. Got scarred in an accident - hide who he was, hide who he is, from himself and the world. He never confronts himself, until this game, the totality of it is his realization of all his flaws and sins in his life.
And in the end, once he's come to terms with it... he runs one last time. Kills himself instead of facing the rest of his life as a monster.
Even in redemption he couldn't overcome what was wrong with him.
I love how the game spares no mercy to father's uglyness, how there is no forgiving, usually games tend to afford some sort of mercy to the player character but no this time, he had to pay and pay he did
That ending was an incredibly bold move. I was fully expecting to be allowed to take him out of the mansion and start over, try to make up for it. They dared to ask the question "When is redemption no longer on the table?"
@@csidesummit I mean he is a child murder, redemption has been off the table for a very long time
@@recapnerd2657 Oh I agree. What I found surprising was displaying apparent (possibly) remorse and then refusing to accept it. Especially in a player character.
A vile ending for a vile person
It's a refresher especially when a lot of stories missunderstand understanding the villain with sympathising with the villain (the concept of unnescessary redemption arcs).
@@csidesummit without religion as a narrative frame thats a great expectation to subvert for the grand rug pull.
This whole video I was like “I don’t see how this is deep at all, it seems very obvious and clear cut that the son is reflecting on his ugly traumatic past” and I was jaw dropped at the big reveal 💀
Oh yeah, that's basically how playing the game went.
Funnily enough, I kind of spoiled the reveal for myself. I accidentally closed the video when the player was getting near to the mirror and the cover of the video showed up saying "I am you". And I thought "wait... Wait, ain't no way...". And then I continued watching the video and was like "OH HELL NAH, I KNEW IT (I learnt it seconds before the reveal, BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER)"
@@losos0205 Love that :) I wasn't sure if the title card would give it away, but it doesn't seem to have done so.
i just realised. The green maid is wearing a chicken mask. Chickens which are birds are known to be great at killing scorpions. Removing their tail and eating it
Wow that is a really good take that went completely over my head.
another thing that i noticed. Was how mother was a spider. Since spiders are known to actually be good mothers, nursing and caring for their children really well. But they do kind of kill their children
@@WizzyTheWizkid Yeah that last bit is why I didn't really go into anything about spiders as caretakers. A bit too much cannibalism there.
@@csidesummit yeah. I think it would be interesting and fitting if it was a centipede instead. Theyre known to cradle and care for their children. Theyll attack anything that tries to kill or eat their children.
@@WizzyTheWizkid I mean, scorpions are excellent mothers, especially for arthropods. That’s a thing they’re known for too. But scorpion males sting the females into submission during their courtship/breeding dance and then just leave a packet of genetic material so the metaphor is probably still apt.
The way this game sets everything up is horrifyingly good. Down to the scaffolding collapsing for the first puzzle, a minor detail at the start, but it sets up for a horrid ending. The same goes for the rest of the entire game.
Ugly is a work of genius. Every time I boot it up I find another hint. There's so much to learn if you're willing to look carefully. That ending did pretty much shock me.
I also like how the game foreshadows you playing as the father.
At first you might think that you're playing as the son recalling everything the father did. But there are memories where the son isn't present or included in those memories. He's just absent, nowhere to be seen. Which those specific odd memories wouldn't make sense if they were the son's memories since if they were his memories he would have to had been present during those memories, which he isn't.
Another detail is the fact that the father is always present in every memory, no matter what. (these details are easy to overlook at first).
But when you find you're playing as the father.
The memories where the son isn't present and the fact the father is always present in each memory makes sense. Because all the memories aren't the sons, they are the father's memories.
It's small,subtle and easy to miss but a significant detail and i love that detail.
@@yeetyeet-qm5yx It really is well done. ON my second playthrough it seemed so obvious...
Ok I was rewatching this again to see more details, and I just noticed how much more sense the first memory makes with the framing of you from the dads perspective. You’re the one saying he’s ugly, ready to cover that face at any chance
@@Last_Person I think it's more that this particular memory takes place after Mother's death, and after Father has brought him to a mirror and convinced him that he's ugly. In fact I think those two memories are consecutive. WIth the first being "You're Ugly" and the second (holding the mask) being "You could be beautiful."
It's hard to take away spiders fangs
But it takes one precise strike to ruin a life of a scorpion
Big boot will work, too, though.
@@csidesummit yeah, but well (in metaphore for a game)
Also I've been thinking about fennec foxes- they bite scorpion's tails before eating them, and even drop the dsarmed scorpions for their kids to learn how to kill them
@@masterzoroark6664 And I thought this game was dark...
@@csidesummit Honestly, that is less dark and just quite clever of the foxes. And it's also basically a toy for the baby foxes :D
@@toolatetothestory See, I'm getting flashbacks to the Exposito boss from Blasphemous.
Welp, that ending rocks so very much. I absolutely adored the "Just go outside. It's easy." Leading to hanging yourself on a noose. That's so fucking good.
If it's even a possibility, can you use the mirror to go outside?
My brain is so turned around right now, I think I need to go watch it again to fully understand …
Let me know if it makes more sense the second time. It's certainly possible for me to have gone incomprehensible.
Personally i think the reason why father hated son so much, was because he reminded him, of himself where he was also so... ugly, i think the reason why he looked like him, was because he had to see what he was before
Could be, but I don't think Father's motivations are that deep. I think he could only see people on a surface level, and so seeing his son being physically Ugly was more than enough to reject him.
The greatest theme of this game is that there is such a thing as too far and too late. The father legit sounds like a villain strait from game of thrones, so the ending is perfect for him.
It's a surprisingly bold thing to say in today's climate. Personally I don't reject the idea of anyone striving for redemption. But there is no onus on victims or the world to grant it.
Something of note in the first reflection
Throughout the game, we see the son depict himself with this odd, ugly, kinda lumpy shape, while his dad is an angular, strong, beautiful trapezoid, and that’s what we see in the first part of the refrection, but as father steps out of the shadows, revealing the mask, we see his face in an irregular oval-ish shape nuch like the son’s, not sure what this means as this is the ONLY time we see him as anything but a trapezoid to my knowledge, but i’m taking this as in his everlasting feats to remove his son’s ugliness, he became ugly himself(which if that’s the case, is great foreshadowing using just shapes)
That seems likely enough. Father has different forms of 'scorpion-monster' in the memories depending on how bad he's being. Some being more monstrous than others.
25:46 it may represent emptiness; the feeling all hope has been drained. Some of the worst nightmares are of people with voids for eyes and mouths, the ones that are guaranteed to have you waking up scared stiff. These void like eyes and void like mouth make anyone look... "inhuman" and "monstrous"
That fits quite a bit, considering the graphical change to Father's design. Though I still don't get why it takes the form of gory pulp.
@@csidesummit the gory pulp may itself be a representation of his guilt for the horrible sins he has done. he has already shown an aversion to looking to the past, and contact with the pulp may force so many terrible memories that he cannot do anything but retract the shard. a fear response.
the fact that they loose their eyes and mouth seems to show that, when touching the pulp, they see themselves as a terrible husk of a man. not even worthy of humanity.
@@Rustylorde I can see that.
@@csidesummit What if its less of a metaphor and more literal?
It could be the realization of father being like "Oh God, I'm going to hell aren't I?"
@@atheontimesconflux1067 Certainly not impossible. A few other commenters suggested that this whole thing is actually taking place IN hell. I don't personally ascribe to that but I can see how that conclusion could be reached.
I saw the gory stuff more as him being forced to see his ugly insides. AKA everything he's done. His sins are so connected to the mansion that they're literally woven into the walls, hard to avoid and even harder to confront.
Fantastic video, very well done ^^
Thank you! The game was excellent and it has been very thought provoking on this channel :)
For those of you wondering what happened to the dog, they were shoved into a furnace by Father and burnt alive while Son watched
And you may ask, "Why does Son's face look red and scarred during the ending song?" Let me answer that. Theres a scene where Father heats up Son's mask, which leads me to believe he tried to solder the mask onto Son permenantly, since the memory is called "You will wear the mask FOREVER!"
Jojo reference
How dare he burn the dog AND the son
JoJo reference?
@@Maelthel yes
@@Magnus_Frausthe only difference is that while Dio did it without anyone suspecting it was him, the father did right in front of the son
The one thing I find entertaining to think about is the idea that the last scene is actually happening in the main characters head as he dies. Even as he chokes on his last breath, imagining all of his victims both living and dead celebrating his death, he still can't help but make it all about himself with him being in the center of it all even to the point where his corpse is singing along. How rich, after everything he's done and all the people he's hurt and yet he still thinks he's worth any acknowledgement when in reality he's dying in the basement of a derelict mansion, completely forgotten and dismissed. A narcissist to the truly bitter end, a cruel devil here we stand who cared about nothing but him, his only worth to burn in hell and to stay away from him.
One more thing to add regarding the bonus levels is what they all represent(or at least what I like to believe). Yes, they're all tied to Father's crimes and sins but it should be mentioned that since Father more or less obliterated his memory with alcohol, locking the doors and those memories away deep into the bowels of the mansion, he was able to witness his true nature with a fresh set of eyes. Now that those doors have been opened and those memories have been restored, one has to ask what all that knowledge does to a person as inhumane and self centered as Father.
For narcissists, especially ones who are as pathological as Father, any flaws either perceived or realized cannot stand. The mere idea that they're flawed and in the wrong is too much for them, and with everything he's done it must be agonizing to him (hence why the red fleshy mass turns him into a husk). There's only one way for creatures like him to deal with that and it's to escape it in any way they can, including self termination.
Good fucking riddance, I say.
This game has inspired some serious essay work in the comments :)
@@csidesummit I know, right? XD
Or could be the Opposition of arrogance finally accepting all his crimes and thinking abt how he couldve been better or Option c ITS ACTUALLY HAPPENING
I mean, the song was always about him. He is the "cruel devil" talked about.
Please stop using narcissist for selfish people. NPD is stigmatized and people who have it have hard lives.
i have a theory as to why the child's face looks like that, it is very likely burn marks, but i like to think only his face is damaged because of the golden mask, after all, it is a mask made of metal, and it looks very dense in some chalk drawings, i wouldn't be surprised if that's why his face is that damaged.
I think you're on the money, there. I'm almost certain the three living figures in the final scene are the Son, the Young Maid, and the Green Maid years later.
Also Father put the mask in fire at one point SO...
@@brontegoodman6238 It's a pretty clear cut case, yeah.
The father was that fucked up by trying melt the metal onto his child face.
@@mythicaldrawer7072 There was a great deal of 'messed up' to go around in this game.
I wonder if the last "puzzle" is also a metaphor. After one final self reflection, the father realises that he doesn't deserve the outside world goes away from it and decides to game end himself.
Given how this game has worked it would not surprise me. But at the very least the player is led to believe they can get outside, and that's what I was trying to do when it happened.
Kinda sad he didn’t go more in depth on the bosses and what their defeats or actions represent, the mummified king destroying himself, being held by 3 golden objects, his attacks against others causing his own fall, the painted king, kinda self obvious but he tries to flow throughout the entire house, to cover up everything he’s done and once again falling down in his defeat by being washed away nothing covered up can remain that way forever, the mirror king breaking the mirror shards as his only attack, the shards that broke pushing his own reflection away which he falls and his head shatters if that reflection gets close enough for him to see it, the locked king defeated in the most simple method, unlocking a door that hides the crimes he committed, his hands that go through the doorways only go through to attack, or to try and throw away the mirror that shows his reflection, the drunken king the only one who doesn’t purposefully try to attack, only swiping his hand across the table to grab the alchohol he poured and being his own downfall
Those are interesting points. And in this case I didn't include them because I really didn't see that. But I also really disliked the bosses, and found some of them so quick that nothing really clicked with me on them.
What really stood out to me in the game's true ending was when the Father started singing along and changed to refer to himself in first person. From what I've seen in the video, the father throughout the game is in denial of his true self. Despite reflecting on his past, he couldn't bear to accept that he was a monster. That he was ugly.
But at the very end, after facing his past and inner demons and ultimately paying the price, he finally learned his lesson and accepted that he was always ugly.
I really appreciated that touch. It might not have redeemed him, but it was worthwhile that he understood himself in the end.
30 minute vid essay on a game i did not know existed from a channel with 135 subs. Fuck yes
worth
When I first uploaded the video I had 129 subscribers. Today, about 72 hours later I'm up to 159 and commenters say I'm finally getting some help from TH-cam Recommendations. This has been my best success so far. Thanks for watching!
nah fr cause who let bro cook?
it’s always the ones nobody expects
Wait this is a smaller scale channel?
In the chalk drawings with the mother, the boy appears more beautiful in the mirror yet in the chalk drawings with the father he only appears more malformed. Children believe what adults tell them, and it can seriously affect how they see themselves.
Very true. It makes me wonder if, growing up, he would have been as ugly as he seemed as a child.
I first discovered this game through a compilation of its bosses and the "first ending" (the credits roll when he falls back onto the mattress) and I am SO happy to see all of its secrets laid out for me to process as I listen. I was NOT expecting the true ending but GOD, it was so well-done. Kudos to the game devs. And kudos to *you,* for this wonderful video!
Thank you! It was an amazing game!
After thinking about it a bit, I think I know what all the fleshy surfaces at the end of the game symbolize: Carnal Temptation. The reason why the protagonist is rendered incapable of using the mirror while touching them is because he has been blinded by the Pleasures of the Flesh, which would also be why his eyes become hollowed out.
Given the game's themes of hedonism, this seems like a likely interpretation. In essence, the protagonist's nonstop self-indulgence prevented him from engaging in the kind Self-Reflection he so urgently needed, a conclusion which I think neatly ties the games themes together.
That is a really good conclusion and I could 100% see that. I just..uh...the stuff looks so gross and un-tempting.
Or being more literal or metaphorical, the sins of the flesh.
@@csidesummitas a warhammer fan it’s a sign that you have gone too far when you find immense pleasure in gore, especially to a hedonistic degree
DUDE, this video is so well put together! I've never heard of Ugly but damn, it should be more well known it is a rollarcoaster of a story and twists, this better get atleast 100k in a month, keep it up!
Thank you so much! As a small creator comments like this are the best. 🥰
@csidesummit WHATD I SAY, congrats dude, you earned it!!
@@paptrisha Wow...I forgot about this milestone. Still very hard to believe.
If I had to guess what the red stuff of the hidden puzzles mechanic was, it would be rejection. The body actively tries to stop behaviors it sees as unpleasant, and it even can push someone away from reflecting if they hate it that much, hence why it stops our protagonist from using the mirror properly. His body is rejecting properly reflecting on himself.
I think it's notable that so many theories on the red stuff have cropped up in this comments section. It seems to defy easy classification. Which...to be honest is not a great thing in my book. It suggests the design was more for visual impact than narrative implication.
@@csidesummit Normally "it's the only design choice without a clear narrative or thematic purpose" would mean "it's a bad design choice"
However, in this particular context, the fact that it would normally be a bad design choice (and, more precisely, that it's the only choice that would be) is exactly why it's a good one... and, paradoxically, gives it a clear thematic purpose: reinforcing a statement that has yet to actually be made.
The one you state as a possibility at 27:06
Ugly’s such a great game, at first I thought it was your usual abused protaganist looks back on his trauma and either gets over it or suffers forever.
Instead all I got is the story of a piece of human garbage who despite all the reflection, needed to be punished.
And him being punished by slowly suffocating while everyone he knows looks at him to see how truly ugly he is. In fact he was the most ugliest being in the world.
The game has such excellent turnabouts. Your mind gets so set for so much of it on how to view events. Then things shift, and you have to decide not where you stand on an opponent, but on your own character.
@@csidesummit I like to think the musical number didn’t actually happen and he either offed himself or tripped on the rope and it’s just a big hallucination before his death.
@@KisamaMokkorosu-qj7vh I actually cut a part from the video where I was going to speculate on how much of what we see is 'real'. It seems clear that a lot of this is metaphor. But I'm not convinced the whole thing is metaphor. I'm never a fan of something being a 'dream' as in any situation something happening is always more interesting than nothing happening.
damn small channels really do be making high quality video essays
If you would prefer lower quality, I highly recommend my early videos and/or game streams. :)
Holy hell man I just saw this on tumblr and was so intrigued and ended up going to youtube, watching the entire thing without saying a single word before my jaw just DROPPED at the end- thank you for your account of this story it was so well put together
Thank you! This really is what I was going for so it's a huge relief that it came across that way. :)
NO CAUSE I FOR REAL HAD THE SAME EXPERIENCE WHEN THE TWIST DROPPED I WAS LITERALLY UNABLE TO GET MY JAW BACK UP FOR THE REST OF THE VIDEO. HOLY HELL THAT IS SUCH A GOOD AND IMPACTFUL TWIST
@@SobreDunas Believe me it was very much like that playing the game!
SPOILER FOR THE VIDEO
I genuinely find some sort of disturbing beauty in the final sequence of the game.
This soul, having finally witnessed and reflected on how rotten it truly was, simply accepted what had to happen.
His body may rot and his soul may forever burn in hell, but it accepts that it is what he deserves, and welcomes it.
Morbidly happy that the world is rid of him.
I'm not entirely sure that's true. I think he genuinely did intend to leave the mansion and maybe start over. Though if we're to take the musical number as canon, he has certainly accepted it postmortem.
@@csidesummit The question of redemption really does come down to the individual. At the heart of hearts, even if the individual feels remorse for what they did, do they really have the heart or desire to change? Or is it just easier to end it all and accept the fate of the monster you were and currently are as something you always will be? I think it's possible that even in the end, even after all that reflection, he decided to take the easy way out as he always did in life. That or it's a simple cautionary tale explaining how evil people bring about their own destruction and how in the end, they'll always die alone and with nothing, either spiritually, physically, or both. Perhaps both interpretations may be true.
@@thesnatcher3616I think after reflecting and seeing all he did he took the easy way out because he himself didnt even think of redemption because he has fallen so far down that i think even as narcissist as himself considers himself unworthy of being able to have the joy of living again
SOUL CHONNY JASH REFRENCE
I love how they didn’t just deny father a good ending, they made a party scene to his end
This game has wormed its way into my brain, which made it all the worse when I couldn't find any videos discussing the themes of it...at least until I found your really cool video!
It was so interesting to see you discuss the way that the game mechanics and the way it controls were a reflection of the father's mindset and how it ultimately dooms him in the end.
I like how before the plot twist is revealed, the memories being crayon drawings can be chalked up to the son's coping mechanism for what happened to him under his father's abuse.
But then afterwards, it really highlights how much of a childish person the father is, he's impulsive and prone to thinking of only himself; he's essentially a spoiled child who was given way too much power, ala Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones.
And it's because of this childish nature of his, that I sort of pitied the father at the end.
He's horrible, he absolutely deserved everything that happened to him, especially after all the pain and death he caused.(Not to mention what happened to the dog, he deserved a fate worse than death for that alone)
But at the same time...during the entire run of the game, collecting more and more of the memories, I can't help but wonder if it's shorthand that he's reflecting on his past actions and mistakes.
Every time he goes through one after the other, he usually reacts to each one with a mix of shock and revulsion, covering his eyes as if he doesn't want to believe he was ever this horrible, and yet even his own memories won't let him forget what a monster he is...which was really interesting to me because of how much of a narcissist he is. Like, maybe after becoming disfigured, he finally had to look inwards on his shitty character or something. Even more prominent with the final memory of seeing(?) what he looked like after drinking the hallucinogenic poison, it was so weirdly vulnerable to see his emotions before he smashes the mirror, like, did he always hate himself deep down? I feel like you wouldn't have such an explosive reaction to your reflection if you didn't kind of hate yourself deep down...although that might have just been the poison talking.
The bosses were also a great reflection of himself too, with every single one of them being a facet of his personality and the actions he took after the accident. They're all just kind of sad and pathetic to look at in action. I have a bit of hard time to muster up any form of fear against them, I can't even say that I hate them either after the plot twist, they're just the personifications of the attempts of a horrible man trying to escape his own miserable existence. One of the endings even implying that this has been an ongoing loop for some time, that he hates himself so much now that he won't even try to even find out if there might be something better outside of his castle.
I'm sorry for rambling, I promise that I'm almost done.
So when he finally goes through the "epilogue" I never really understood why he was collecting all the memorabilia of everything, but like, I assume it has something to do with how he wants to get over his past? I dunno.
But I digress, I never really thought about the father's appearance at the end until you mentioned that it might be possible his appearance at the end of the game might have been all in his mind the entire time and that he suffered minimal damage from the fire but because of his narcissistic personality, he considered it tantamount to having a full bodied disfigurement.
And it's just so...scummy that he would think that the worst possible appearance he could have gotten would have been almost identical to his son, like you're the one who gave him those physical traits, all of the babies you killed for being born that way was all you...I wonder if he ever realized that the reason all his kids were born with physical deformities was his fault.
So anyways, I think it's a great touch that the game 100% confirms that the Son grew up to be a good person in the end, proving that he was better than his father could ever hope to be, and that his father died alone and hated by everyone who ever knew him, even himself. Love that his whole character arc was him just coming to grips with what an awful SOB he was in life and that he deserves to burn in hell.
(Also the song was really good)
I'm gonna give Pulitzer a ring and see if they're looking for new essays. :)
Father's ending is very interesting to dissect. I'm convinced he was on the brink of turning over a new leaf. And I do think anyone can change if they want it badly enough. But no one is obligated to pave the way for that, or to forgive. Personally I approve of Father's death appearing to be an accident while attempting to leave it all behind. Both for the symbolic idea that it 'caught up to him' and for the idea that the world itself wasn't going to let him go.
I love your narration. It works with the twisted fairytale aesthetic and works well with the editing.
Thanks so much! So many things lined up well in this video that I barely planned for...
This is an unbelievably good video relative to viewership. I’ve been on a sort of indie odyssey lately, between music, games, and the algorithm actively pushing my recommendations to the outskirts, and this is probably one of the best things I could have asked for. This game, its core twist, the actual plot, and the endgame of it all feel like Ugly is the closest thing the new generation will get to Braid (and from a less toxic dev, but that’s another story). I firmly believe that good art is made by the underdogs of the genre, and you and Ugly both vindicate that feeling. Half the people in this genre of video essay are either hacks, established names, or are a potent sleep aid, and you are none of those. Thank you, and may the algorithm smile upon you further.
So with all that said, what the dog doin’. C’mon. You showed us a certain swing set and uh. Another thing you could bowdlerize as a swing set, what could possibly get more advertiser-unfriendly?
That's incredibly high praise. Thank you very much both for those words and for the viewing. I'm actually a little stunned with how well this video has done, and incredibly happy that viewers seem to be checking out my back catalog as well.
As to the dog, it didn't really come down to advertisers. When this video went live I assumed I was still at least a year away from monetization so I haven't been worrying about it much. In fact I doubt what happened to the dog would be more unfriendly than what happened to the children. But the actual memory associated with it is significantly more traumatic in its own context.
Also, I spoiled a lot of the game in this video, I feel I owe it to the developers to leave some crumbs to entice people to check it out. :)
I’m a personal believer that the red stuff represents all the gory bad memories it’s why when he’s infected, he goes hollow and just walks away. He’d rather not face his actions, but he’s actively trying.
Could be the case. Personally I think it's a little too vague. Especially compared to everything else in the game.
@@csidesummit another way of looking at it is it’s Pain literally the games ending implies he hangs himself maybe the shards represent the pain that leads to confronting his actions and then the pain of the rope around his neck maybe that’s why when he touches it, he walks away hollow
@@popculturekenku8400 Oh yes, I'm certain about the shards. Reflecting on himself hurts.
Something else when we switch to the Father's real body is that he also has very minimal damage to himself, its seems to just be a small scare along his eye but i do feel like to him that small scar was so bad that he saw himself as his initial "ugly" self till he confronted everything and saw through the self made illusion
I strongly suspect that to be the case :)
Nice plot synopsis! No honest to God spoilers. Per se.
The plot is very evocative of blasphemous. Its awesome to have more compelling stories from around the world.
Well I got pretty story spoilery in there, but that's why I do the warning ahead of time. And since Ugly's been out for a while I figured we were clear on spoiler concerns. And you're right. It's very cool to see developers coming in from all over!
@@csidesummit oh I don't mean to come off the wrong way. I could tell you that you fight the miracle in blasphemous 2. I've had the luxury of enjoying vidya since Wolfenstein 3D for friggin windows 95 lol!
If I told you you killed Crisanta in 1 I wouldn't be wrong. I just wouldn't be (i think you will enjoy this) 100% 😋
Personally you couldn't spoil anything for me. Until im there, have actually played, and felt can you really really understand the story.
If I watched you play the game beginning to end. That may spoil me (depending on how you handle backseat drivers!) But only because I wanna play the damn thing.
Thats how good your presentation is. Obviously a Dog is left undisclosed. Sure I could look it up, but THEN im spoiling for myself.
As long as you give ample spoiler disclaimer screw the people who left the room. On the bigger plot points lets hear your opinions here and there and if that means you gotta drop a spoiler. Your commentary on the revelation of whatever just happened/the viewers are shown.
Makes you more relatable. But thats just me!
I really enjoyed your language learning game review. You sold that almost instantly.
And yeah TH-cam algorithm kicked your review of this in my featured feed. Best pay tribute to the TH-cam AI lmao!
Im subbed
The son escaped the fire, escaped his awful dad, married the maid who from the memory of them, apart from his mother, loves the boy without the golden mask, and had a daughter. The maid and his mother are the people who cared about the son, from the memories, they hated the mask the son had to wear, the maid was seen with the mask in her hands apparently removed it.
Honestly, this is a great plot synopsis, and I ship it.
@@beanslayer2216 yeah the prince deserves to be happy 😊 and not have to wear a golden mask that I would not be surprised if he hated the thing.
@@ellesandralady8596 Do you fucking blame him? I still ship it after 2 weeks.
@@beanslayer2216 yea I totally see him melted the mask into the rings that he and the maid wears and sold the rest
I’m pretty sure the girl with the blue bow is the young maid
23:01 I'm always right our MC IS a Villains we play so that mean 5 is his own tormented symbolise His own fate
Mummified person: is mean he see himself a ugly
Pink blob monster: is mean he painted every photo his own as not Handsome anymore
Monster crystal: he destroyed mirror as he doesn't want see his face again
Lock guy: is mean he lock every room as reminder of his sins
Drunk king: he drinks wine for forgot everything
That does seem to be what the bosses are representing.
hey, fantastic video dude! youtube recommended it to me at random and i was blown away by how clear, concise and polished it all is.
Thanks so much! This is probably my favorite video so far. The game was impossible to stop thinking about.
Some addition I have been thinking about- the bdsm room.
I do hope people read it not that "only abusive pieces of shit are into this"- the presence of the room is something that should be worrying only on the behalf of who is the Father. It's not that he's into these sorta kinks and that's some showcase how bad he is, the problem is that he is definetly someone who is not someone playing by the rules of both parties being satisfied after nor being safe durring the session- that's what makes him vile.
Airing out just a pet peeve of horror games and alike using bdsm kinks as some form of signature for "the bad guy".
It's hard to say what people will and will not take from a piece of media and, unfortunately we have little control over that. Much of it will be based on their own experiences and preconceived notions. But you're doing good by bringing it up.
Right on. Safety rules (such as safe/code words and signals), trust, and Safe, Sane and Consensual are incredibly important parts of that kind of practice. You don't let yourself get tied up and be put in a vulnerable position by someone that you don't trust or feel safe with.
Or rather, nobody (sane) *wants* that.
But there are horrible people out there that will find more subtle, threathening and/or manipulative ways to force others to fit their own desires. If you don't follow their rules, you're in the wrong in their eyes and need to pay for it.
To be brutally honest, as someone who’s seen both sides, the vast majority of people who identify as part of the Community (versus just being into a kink or five) are like Father and use the highly rigid/ structured rules of the community as an excuse to get away with doing actual harm without consequence. Outing someone as a member or kinkshaming someone is generally considered worse than actually being a predator, which makes the kink community the ideal environment for a predator like Father. It’s a culture of permissiveness that masquerades extremely well as one of accountability. That is an environment basically tailor made for narcissists to feel good because “They didn’t say the words” or “I can’t be punished just because I didn’t hear,” or “They’re a top, so I couldn’t have violated their boundaries; they could tap out any time.”
This observation is consistent across 4 major scenes in major cities I’ve tried. It’s not just one bad club/scene/community/whatever. The greater concept of a kink community lends itself to sepsis.
@@Axqu7227 I can see the logic in that and it makes me sad. I'm sorry to hear that such duplicity, rule-bending and manipulation is a thing and that you've witnessed it more often than should be the case.
Things like these (amongst having seen how horrible kink/NSFW art can get) make one apprehensive of engaging in it. Regardless if it's just to meet people and not even the proverbial play yet.
Perhaps in smaller cities and circles, or perhaps in other countries, it's... safer, if that's a good word, compared to your own observations (good on you for mentioning that, by the way). Perhaps not. I don't know, and I am apprehensive of looking into it to proverbially burn myself.
From a stranger on the internet, I hope that such horrible structures and green cards for narcissists will become a lot less prevalent and that people are better able to recognize and act against it it in the future to make such a scene a safer place with less judgmenet.. Especially because of how vulnerable one can be.
Appreciate seeing this perspective.
@@Axqu7227 Corelation does not mean causality.
It's shit and it annoys me too (not just in kink scene sense, but also in other communities which have a track record of not weeding out wrongdoers earlier)
I sincerely hope someone didn't get the read from your replly that prohibition is an answer, because with prohibition we get to a crime market.
Either way- I hate it too when concern for someones well being is being brushed out as "kinkshaming" and alike. I don't have concrete solutions if you hope for one- scanning someones psyche and intent is practically impossible outright and only solution so far is reactive community response when bad behaviour is found (which I know is a very anger inducing thing as people want proactivness, not reactiveness)
Btw, I think that flowers represent the maids, or just generally the help around the estate, since all of the maids are depicted with flowers on their aprons.
Huh. I didn't put that together, the connection between the flower wing and the flowers on the maids' dress.
@@csidesummit Yeah. I'm still unclear about how that connects with the rest of the story's symbolism, but it's just something I thought of.
Plus, remember that the Flower Wing contained all of the supplies and such. It may not be where the staff are kept, but it is certainly where they are shown off the most to guests.
decided to watch the true ending song and then the dog barking after the lust line made me know all that I needed to know
Wow...um you may have come up with a far worse fate for the dog than actually occurred. It wasn't *that* bad. No lust was involved. The dog actually barks a couple more times during the song.
@@csidesummit THANK GOD
@@olive4097 I found out what happened to the dog and trust me, you do not want to know what happened to the dog. He went out a horrible way.
@@yeetyeet-qm5yx what happened to the dog
@@darkcrydotmrihavetoomanyst1440 You don't wanna know. But if you're too curious to help yourself. I'll spoil it. But don't say i didn't warn you
The father burned the dog alive in a furnace. What's worse is that the Son was forced to watch it unfold.
Was so shocked I had to watch twice.
I'm not a gamer but I LOVE watching game storylines, and I seriously did NOT expect that we were playing as father 😭🙏
I was literally in denial at that moment.
I forgot where I found it but I once saw the most beautiful piece of literature in existence... And it was a fanfiction of Ugly.
The premise is that in this alternate story Father denies himself the right to die, reasoning that he would rather curse his own son with his mask than have his final action be the selfishness of thinking that he has even a modicum of the right to his own life, if anything each of his dead children, each of those poor maids, they all deserve to be one of the many many knives he deserves on his back, he cries as he cannot give them their due Justice except... Maybe he can at least do a miniscule amount of it. His son, his poor poor boy, the only one who deserves to see his death. And so, as Father changes his very fate and swears to himself that his son shall be his killer he wraps himself with the very bandages that kept him from his own ugliness and ventured off with his mirror shard.
Along this journey he sees both the beauty of the world, the birds chirping, the almost enchanting sound of water running, and the vibrant colours of a butterfly's wings steels his derermination. He also sees all of the consequences of his actions, his purple robed and hedonistic friends now shudder at imagining him, they push his name off topic like as if it was a curse, and yet he realizes that just now is when he had started realizing names. He also visits villages and, to his horror, they contain the families of the maids he had wronged, each new maid's name he found out only more guilt resided in his heart and more determination coursed through his veins, he helps everyone of course, he is no longer as heartless as he once was, providing the few coins he has to the poorer maid families and providing truths to the more isolated. His journey eventually concludes when he finds the Young Maid, recognizing her for how vibrant she seemed and for how kind she is, much a grim reminder to his own sins. He asks her about The Son and to his utter and sheer horror his son has taken residence in the one place he hoped he wouldn't have to visit, the Spider's Nest, Mansion Spider.
The Son had been hired by his grandfather on his mother's side as his own musician, and so, in a desperation that comes from knowing how much your late wife's family hates you, Father throws away his pride several times in order to infiltrate Manor Spider without anyone noticing, even having to hold back tears when one of the younger heirs of House Spider beckons him to her bed in order for him to get hired, why do my sins follow me even in my wife's own home!?, until eventually near the end of the story he gets him, The Son, and the Young Maid (All of whom he now knows the name of after realizing he never gave his own son a name, commonly referring to him as "it" or "that") into a private room and reveals his identity, The Son and The Young Maid, now in a relationship, scream but it is cut short as Father pulls out a knife, the same one Mother used to defend herself from Father's hordes, and offers it to The Son, who instead of taking the blade in order to have his deserved revenge, he slaps it away and looks at Father in horror, it is at this point that Father realizes his darkness, he never wanted to be killed by his son for his son's sake, it was to satisfy himself that he wanted his son to be his murderer, in an attempt to avoid doing a selfish act as his last, he did yet another selfish act, this entire journey... Was it all for naught? Have I bathed in my sins so much that I can't differentiate my righteousness from my selfishness!?
The guards of House Spider bust into the room and kick Father out of Manor Spider, but not before a lengthy trial before the patriarch of House Spider, his own Father in Law, the father of the caring and kind woman he never deserved and killed, as the trial goes on he is banished instead of killed, much to Father's surprise, only to find out in horror that his own son vouched for his life, he is then kicked out from Manor Spider and with nowhere else left to go, forced to journey back to his own Manor, on the way back he is stoned, shunned, and even nearly beaten to death by the families of the maids, the ones he helped, the ones he wronged, untol eventually he gets back home and finds his wife's grave, and, as his final act, he walks to the other side of the Manor, collecting as many bottles as he can, and once reaching a certain spot, plans to drink himself to death, if my son cannot get what he so deserves then at least I shall, by dying as pathetically as I have lived, but as he's about to take his first swig, he dies of a broken heart and so ends the story. What a beautiful redemption for such an ugly man.
That's heavy stuff
@@csidesummit All I remember is that its title was "Beautiful", don't remember where I read it but it truly was beautiful.
I NEED to find this fanfiction. There is like. 3 people in the Ugly fandom
@@thepanzerofthelake732 If you know where the fanfic is located please let us know.
@@angeypork Do you know where the ugly fandom is? Because reading that summary I have decided I really want to read that fanfic.
I got tricked too cause looking back on it , it makes more sense that you were the father the whole time. We take things in through the drawings but many of them had context the son would never know about
It's one of those twists that re-contextualize what you already know. Which are the best kind.
Having completed this game myself, I decided to give this video a watch and it inspired me to do another play through of the game just to explore the story more deeply. I’ve already found things that have depressed me: the first room you are forced to explore in the butterfly wing is a memorial to mother. The chalk drawing depicts the mother in the stars and the son looking up at her from below. Below the son is her coffin drawn and the framed picture of her has several candles around it. Of all the rooms to be first in that wing, I believe the developers chose this one specifically to show how much the son loved his mother. The dog has a smaller memorial, but the entire lower section of the first room is dedicated to being a memorial for mother. The fact it’s in the lower section of that room also leads me to believe son hid the memorial from father. I don’t think any game I’ve played has managed to make me feel this depressed.
It never made me feel depressed. But that was probably because it felt like a big mystery to unravel. And as horrified as the events made me, they were always balanced by the thrill of discovery. But I can easily see how this narrative could inspire that feeling.
The scorpion and spider symbols might be about their actions in nature. Some spider mother's willing let they're babies eat them, giving them their first meal and allowing them to have a better start to life while some scorpions will eat their own children for their own meal.
Might be. It's honestly hard to parse since so many scorpions and spiders have different behaviors towards their young.
God this game is so great! And the ending death, with the circle in and fun song? What a perfect undignified death for such a POS.
It really was great. And such a relief after a game that had been tense as hell.
I'm going on a bit of spoiler territory so beware anyone that didn't watch the video/played the game
I'm surprised a game with such undertones had a happy ending
Yeah...it was a huge tone shock to have it end on a musical number.
Well happy in a way that is not the usuall meaning of "happy ending"- I would rather call it "cheery", like watching something done by Tim Burton in his prime- a comical tragedy that whiplashes you with a musical number at a funeral.
@@masterzoroark6664 I mean, it is a happy ending, since we see the Father dying for his mistakes, the souls he killed resting in peace and his son growing up to have a healthy and happy family
@@thechosenone5421 on that I can agree.
(sorry for missreading your intent)
Ahahah, I know right?
From what you’ve shown here, the game has a really nice and polished aesthetic, I especially love the bosses designs and animations!
9:58 SO SMOOTH
Animation in this game was high quality stuff
28:01 I do like that with all the ghosts that are haunting Father, the living do the same. The son grew up, still bearing the scars of his father’s cruelty, including a marred face and a hunched back, but he’s happy. The green maid, vengeful and ready, was prepared and willing to protect her loved one, and in the end won against the scorpion. A spider not in blood, but in action. Their daughter, bearing the same blue blue that her father wears, and the same green flower of her mother, smiles and stands by her family. They seem to be well to do, dressed in nicer clothes and wearing jewelry, but not lavish, probably out of preference. The ghosts sing in spite of father, in celebration of a devil finally returning to hell.
Okay, so I'm probably going to have to make a post on this at some point. The woman with the blue flower isn't their daughter. That's Young Maid. If you look at the drawings she's always depicted with a blue daisy and a bow in her hair. The scar on her face in the musical was likely done when Father attacked her.
But otherwise I do really like the idea that the son went on and had a happy life. Personally I hope he inherited all of the bastard's wealth. And got a dog.
@@csidesummit oh, that’s fair. Then… does that mean that the young maid is young enough to be the son’s daughter? Cause she looks very young, while the son is fully grown.
I guess it could be more of an older brother and younger sister moment. Maybe the mum or older sister of Young Maid, who I’m guessing is the green lady due to her green dress, is the one who poisoned the father? Young Maid is shorter than the Son, and the one who poisoned Father is fully grown (both in height and width), and is wearing a green dress. Maybe the Young Maid befriended the son, and the son met the Green Lady, and they fell in love?
Actually, I’m looking at a screenshot of one of the chalk drawings, and I don’t think the Young Maid is the shorter girl. While yes, the girl has a bow, just like Young Maid, Young Maid is taller than the son in the chalk drawings, and is perceivably older (since while the son is still a child, the young maid is old enough to have a job). While yes, most of characters are relatively the same size, the younger characters are shown as smaller. I get where you’re coming from, but I don’t think the young girl in the ending credits is Young Maid.
(Also, not saying this to sound rude, I just want to have discourse, cause I see where you’re coming from, and I don’t think your take is invalid. Sorry if I come off as rude. And I do agree, the son having a happy family with a dog sounds like a perfect ending.)
@@monroerobbins7551 No worries, I'm kind of glad to see that I'm not the only one fascinated by this game. So if we look at memory 23 (17:08) we can clearly see both the Bow and the blue daisy. We never get clear views of these characters in-game, only crude drawings. So those clues carry a lot of weight. I would find it strange for them to deck the girl on the bench out in the same symbols but expect us to extrapolate that she was the son's daughter.
We also don't know how old the Son is at the time of the musical as we don't know how many years have passed since the events of the game. His scarred face could be making him look older than he is. Or the difference in age might not have been as pronounced as it seemed (girls hit puberty before boys do). A child of a nobleman would of course not be working. But a lower-class child almost certainly would. Particularly if she was Green maid's daughter. Which I don't have any evidence of, but it's another possibility.
That is beautiful. A story that shows the damage your actions cause. And that they will always find you.
You can only pretend to be god for so long before the flock will bring you down.
Can’t believe I got recommended this hidden gem of a video
That's awesome to hear! This is the first of my videos to get well recommended. :)
Weither or not father had reconsiled with his past didn’t matter, as his fate was determined from the very start.
Also, i like how the game would occasionally try to startle or make you second guess yourself on if you saw something. Even at the beginning, if you paused at the right time when you encounter the mirror shard, a single frame of the protag’s face, in very disturbingly high detail, appears. little things here and there to psyche you out.
I came close to using that frame for the title card, actually.
That frame is the icon for the game in the switch library. Total jumpscare in and out of the game
The father reminds me a lot of Dio (especially what he did to the dog)
That is the second time a commenter has brought that up. Two nickels moment. Unfortunately I barely know Jojo.
@@csidesummit as someone who has watched JJBA, even DIO doesn’t come this close the the level of depravity, especially as a father. At worst he is a dead beat
@@BIGTHANKSHEESH Glad for that clarification. I really need to watch that show at some point. The art style has never been my thing so I've never really sought it out.
The detail with the noose is that there’s no one sin attached to it, but there *is* one sinner it claims.
heyy, very good.
Thank you for doing a deep dive into this game it infuriated me that this game didn't get the coverage it so rightly deserves your amazeballs
You know there's a piece of me that feels bad that I didn't play it when it came out. But Chants of Sennaar was such a cool and novel concept. And then it was October and time for horror games, you know? Good stuff slips through sometimes. I hope this video has helped gain it some popularity.
So here are my two cents:
As overused as the trope is, I do think that - given the massive implications that we're seeing the game through an unreliable narrator - basically all of the game itself falls into the "it was just a dream" category. I know someone below said that the whole game was father's reflection (pun) on his life before killing himself, and I do agree by and large.
I think that the true ending is where everything clicks - given that the platform that collapses under him is in the same position as the one that collapsed at the start of the game, this reinforces my theory that the game never actually happened, including father's scavenger hunt in the new game +. In reality, what father did was collect all the artifacts that reminded him of all the violence he ever inflicted on everyone and then added one last item (the noose) which he then used on himself, with himself being the last victim of his own wrath.
In my mind, the end sequence is part of the dream as well, with father's singing not being an act of narcissism, but of him realizing for the first time in his life how much of a bastard he was and how much he deserves to be punished. Having spent all of his life surrounded by sycophants, for the first time in his life he's truly alone, and in his last minutes thinks of all the people he's harmed. If nothing else, you can't expect the son (who hasn't once made a real appearance in the game) to come out of nowhere with a piano in tow.
In brief, my takeaway is that the story is about a narcissist taking one long look in the metaphorical mirror and for the first and only time in his life deciding to make any attempt at penance for his actions. While he looks outside and sees the possibility of a happy life and new beginnings, he also realizes that he's done so much harm that he also doesn't deserve it.
I do get that. It probably is all metaphorical, or happening inside Father's head. But for me the idea is less interesting than if it were all real in some fashion. A bit like my issue with SPiritfarer. The game was so much more interesting to me in the early part where your afterlife seems to be about helping others reach their afterlives, rather than *spoiler alert* it all being the last hallucinations of a dying mind.
I like that each boss has a subtle hint to their design that they are connected to Father. They either have yellow hair at some point like with the Bandaged, the Crystal or the Poisoned, or they are shown to have blue eyes like with the Covering or the Gatekeeper
The game is full of hints. Really, the game makes you so certain early on that you're the son you don't even consider it.
This was my first exposure to your channel, and I'm hobestly impressed by the quality of this video and some of the others like your reviews on Batboy and Minishoot Adventures. I've also seen nothing about this game, I'm honestly shocked the plot is darker than a lot of horror games.
It's kind of weird how Ugly flew under the radar. Because it was very highly reviewed. I think Chants of Sennaar stole some of the thunder. And of course Baldur's Gate 3 had come out the previous month.
And thank you! Honestly I have a hard time looking at some of the old stuff. I've learned a lot this past year, and got a much better mic.
@@csidesummit Even though the game is only half of my cup of tea, I do hope more people who do like that stuff will enjoy it.
@@csidesummitYou're welcome. Also, I don't know if you take suggestions but since you like Minishoot Adventure, there's another game slightly similar to it. It's called Archvale, it's a bullet hell adventure game but it's progression is less like Zelda and more like a mix of Terraria and Paper Mario.
This game is wild, and incredibly deep! It’s so amazing how the metaphor is so easily misunderstood, until the true reality basically slaps you in the face. Seriously amazing
I think it comes from an assumption that if someone is evil, they are evil all the time. By putting us in the body of a somewhat blank slate whose only actions are determined by us, it leads us to assume that because *we* wouldn't have such crimes in our history, neither could our avatar.
@@csidesummit yeah! And genuinely living through the eyes of someone who’s done something so awful, even if we don’t understand it when we empathize with the character. It’s a really hard perspective to take sometimes
@@Animezingly Just another way Team Ugly raised the bar on storytelling.
@@csidesummit Agreed!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
I've seen a few people wishing for an alternate ending where Father can be saved or can start a new. While forgiveness can be important, this is a man who was horrible and beyond redemption, even if he did see how ugly he truly was.
I think there's something interesting about that-If the game had you play as the son, where you fight the father in the end or something along those lines, I don't think anyone would have sympathy for Father. Throughout the game, you're learning about the horrible things he has done, all the people he's hurt who only showed the son love or tried to stand up to Father. Thinking you're the son, you want justice, and don't feel any sympathy for him. It's only after the discovery that you play as Father that I see people's opinion shift.
Could be the case. But I've also seen people pine for redemption arcs with characters who are known to be evil from minute one. Evil rarely recognizes itself. But if we can recognize that evil could be within us, it might drive us to desire redemption for everyone.
@@csidesummit That’s true, I didn’t think of that.
The artstyle in this gmame, especially on the portraits around the mansion, reminds me of the artstyle in Braid
I can see that. For me it looked more like a cleaned up Binding of Isaac.
@@csidesummit The main artstyle- yes.
But I mainly talk about the portraits on the walls.
Tho thinking about it all- the artstyle of the game itself is like a fusion of Braid and Isaac (especially with the big heads and noses and the fluidness of motion)
@@masterzoroark6664 OOOoh yes okay somehow I completely missed the word portrait up top. My bad.
I finally got the chance to play this severely underrated gem and ooooooh boy was it a rollercoaster. The highlight absolutely being that twist. I mean I knew the father was bad, seeing his actions in the cage wing memories was pretty much the point of no return for forgiveness to me, but knowing now that we the player were all along controlling this monstrous husk of a man had me shook.
Something I'd like to highlight more is how great the background art (and art in general) is. While the camera pane movements work really good for viewing and adjusting your reflection it's almost a tragedy that you can't always take a closer peek at everything in the backgrounds! There's so much love and attention to detail that I could've spent a solid half hour just admiring it in each room! (The butterfly and spider wings were my favourites.)
As grim as the story was, this has probably been one of my most enjoyable game playthroughs in a long time. It's going right there next to Little Nightmares. And what a perfect game to play near Father's day...... : )
Honestly I struggled to keep a decent resolution in several of these clips. Bigger rooms were harder to keep in place and in some cases I re-recorded in higher resolution. Though I kept it to a minimum as that takes forever to export.
@@csidesummit True..... It was tricky enough when taking screenshots on my switch. Annnnd it got worse when I was sharing them with a friend after. 😆
(Darn you Insta photo compression.....)
Spoilers below
This game has such interesting themes of reflections, not only with the mirror theme but with how much of the game is the father reflecting on his past and realizing how bad he is.
He realizes he was always ugly.
Reflections abound in Ugly. A whole game where you learn just how awful you are.
Ahhh one of my favorite games. Couldnt tell you why this one stuck out so much to me, maybe its just the grim style ive always grown to appreciate but i always love to see people going through it. Its fun, its dark, and it left me sitting there for a whole 2 minutes processing what the hell just happened when i got to the end LMFAO
The best stories to me are the ones that are able to hit you in the back of the head like that honestly. Making all the details early on come back to you, its good stuff :]
The secret wing, I say, the buried wing
That's a good name.
I called it, the catacombs 💀
The way I see this game, it serves a powerful message. As humans, we are all imperfect beings. But sometimes that ugliness helps us embrace who were are, it helps us grow as people. However, there are people that are blind to the true ugliness they have inside. The evil that this single man has caused can never be forgiven. Instead of learning to accept his son and embrace his ugliness like the mother did, he let himself be poisoned by his own arrogance until he became a slave to his ego doing more and more unspeakable things to his family and others. That by the time he got a glimpse of his true ugliness, it was too late. His actions will never be forgiven. But at the same time, I think its a good lesson to show people to not let themselves be consumed by either their ugliness or their ego. That just like how they are people who will reject you, there will always be people willing to accept you. Learn to embrace your ugliness, cherish the bonds you do have, and don't let yourself drown in the TRUE ugliness of humanity.
The true end song needs a proper spot in the game ost playlist. It’s catchy despite the meaning of the lyrics
It really does. I had intended to use that instead of a recording off the game, but had no way to do so.
I thought the ending would be that we would confront father and he will be a completly changed person. He would ask the player (who i thought is his son) to forgive him. The son in a furious rage would attack him and that would be how the final fight would start. And i also thought that in the beggining the father would make you put on the golden mask so you can't turn to your reflection. And when you would get the mask off in some way you would be able to attack father back. And at the end you would have been given a choice to either spare or kill the father. But the ending we have is also really cool and shocking.
Huh...I can visualize that boss fight and that could have been a really cool way to do it. That said, I think I prefer what we got.
Just found out about your channel through this video and i've been watching every single one, the fact that you recommend such amazing games that i've known and avoided or completely went under my radar and still bring my interest to it makes me so happy that i found out about this channel. Its surprising how little subscribers you have! You have my full support and i can't wait for the future of your channel
Glad to hear people are starting to check out the back catalog! I've been working on this for a year and it's been great to see it starting to gain momentum. I hope you enjoy the other videos!
Thank you for reminding me about this game, man was it horrifying and fun to play. Seriously, this story and gameplay is absolutely amazing!
It hit a LOT of bases. I was astounded with how impressed I was given that I slept on it at first.
SPOILER CONTENT:
I think all the gorey bits in the finale puzzles are a representation of the Father’s sins themselves. Not necessarily the consequences, but perhaps something more esoteric: scars on his very conscience.
Funny little detail: one of the puzzle levels, the one where you need to navigate your reflection through a maze, has sperm swimming around in the background, which I take as having one of two meanings:
1: it’s a representation of his wanton lust, and how it ruined (and inevitably ended) the lives of those four maidens.
2: This one is kind of a stretch, but given he actually committed infanticide on his own progeny, they may be a representation of the lives he wasted before they had a chance to experience life. For the sake of his own image, he swept them away, treating them as little more than the mess he made on the bedsheets they were conceived on.
I'm pretty sure its #1. Another nightmare room has fetuses floating in the background (god this game went hard...) and I'm sure that's the one representing his infanticide.
These vids hit hard at 3 am
Glad you're tuning in at optimal hitting time!
The ending of the video didn't just hit me like a truck. It hit me like a fucking tactical nuclear warhead directly to the head.
I thought the stuff with the bright, clear morning was how Father finally faced his sins in that mansion; realized just how ugly he was.
Boy was I wrong
Some of the plot twists in this game are sharp enough to cut diamond.
This is one of the only videos about this game, it's incredibly underrated.
So incredibly so. Frankly I feel lucky I gave it a chance. I didn't know what I was missing.
I like gow the corpse of father is singing along even his own body hates hime
I appreciate the video! Really great rundown of the game!
Thank you! The quality of this game really took me by surprise.
I'm glad the son was able to leave and have a life.
Very much so.
Quite a cautionary tale that showed it in misleading reflections, revealing a horrific tale of abuse, death and self-destruction.
Truly a beautiful use of the medium.
For those that don’t know what happened to the dog.
[SPOILER]
I’m memory VII (7), it displayed a fight with the father and mother, in which the dog attacked the father.
In memory VIII (8), we saw that mother lost an eye, and the father taking the dog as the dog’s eyes were crossed out, implying that it died.
And finally, in memory IX (9), we can see the son crying next to a furnace with his father, and the father holding, *the dog’s collar.*
If we go in chronological order, we can connect the dots…
*That the father, f🔥king burned the dog’s corpse…*
And after you beat this section of the nightmare, 25:15 , you *would’ve* seen the dog’s collar, and the *bones of the dog…*
Thank me later.
The only thing I disagree on is that in memory IX, you can hear the sound of a dog. I do not think he died in Memory VIII.
@@csidesummit Oh gosh, that means…
*The dog didn’t die, but was unconscious, and woke up to be burned alive in memory IX…*
@@lillianruiz9474 Yeah...that's why we're not talking about the dog...
SPOILERS
I noticed in the room with the exotic animals that the Orangutan starts shaking whenever you approach it. Knowing that you’re the father going through the whole mansion gives it an entirely different context especially because of what happened to the dog.
I hadn't considered that but you're probably right! The man had no respect for anything. It says a lot that an animal probably near death from starvation or dehydration still had enough energy to recoil from the player character.
now i do wonder if this game has the 5 stages of grief, seems fitting for it to have it
It seems unlikely to me. I don't really see grief as a theme in Ugly. The first boss, the bandaged, would be Denial in that situation. But I think the Covering is more on that theme. And I don't think any of them represent 'bargaining'. There's also a sixth boss I didn't reveal in the game, and he is definitely not 'acceptance'. Always worth considering, though.
as someone with a narcissist father myself (thank god my mom was strong enough to keep me away from him) and who's terrified of becoming him... this game rings true to me. thank you for the video.
As long as you have empathy for others and treat others like humans you have nothing to worry about
Narcissists refuse self reflection. Just the fact that you are capable of it is a great sign you are not.
@csidesummit thank you! I hope to see more amazing videos from your channel! May I suggest White Shadow? (Jacob Geller- another great video game essayist- recently made a video talking about it)
@therealkoolhero2762 guess who's also in the same boat
Ended up finding your channel through this video and have started binging through the others. You definitely deserve more subs
I love hearing that! I hope you enjoy the other videos!
Hmmmm, nearly 30 min long video game essay of an underrated game I've never heard of, from a small channel of a guy who knows how to properly edit a video?
Yeah, i already know this will be worth the watching
Thank you! Though since that video went up my channel has grown 12x what it started as!
@@csidesummit as you deserve, and hopefully much more to come!
@@csidesummit as you deserve, and hopefully much more to come!
This game reminds me of something I'd find for free on xbox. In a good way. Just some random hidden gem that I'd stumble upon and be enchanted by for a while. Great video.
It kind of has a 'summer of arcade' feel to it, doesn't it?
I’ve heard of one’s life flashing before their life when they die, but this was on a whole other level.
*insert Ballad of Buster Scruggs meme here* First time?
I saw this on the Steam store page but didn't pay it much mind, who knew this was a hidden gem the whole time. I like this video, you did a good job of highlighting what made this game special.
Thank you! I slept on this one, too. But to be fair it was up against Chants of Sennaar and I adore investigation puzzles.
just stumbled across this channel and this is an extremely strong first impression. clear, to the point, not overly laden with jokes that dont need to be there, connecting dots where they can be connected and giving the audience a clear idea of your point (i enjoyed tou overlaying each boss fight with what it represented). stating both praises and criticism for the game. Good video 👍
Thanks so much! Glad you liked it!
I've never watched a video without pausing and you did a wonderful job keeping me hooked onto your storytelling! Its a really good one and i hope to see more of your content!
Thank you! That's awesome to hear!