As someone who can speak German, when I got to my ending and the line came up “I am finally me, but you are no longer you. Maybe this is hell.” Definitely hit a little different.
@@dCephei This is a rough translation from the German during the Memory ending. Didn’t want to spoil too much at the time since it was so new. There’s a lot of good interesting details in German throughout the game.
@@zekebomb139 Ikr I wish I could understand German. I might go for Memory ending on my 3rd playthrough, if my heart can take it, currently on my way to Promise ending. Thanks!
For my second playthrough of Signalis, I streamed it for my gf to watch me play it. She's a native German speaker so I was super excited to have someone there to translate the bits I might've missed. PLEASE, to any of you who might have a German friend or someone who can translate German for you, play through the game again with them there. There are so many wonderfully depressing little details that I would have completely missed if she wasn't there to tell me about them.
The style of this game is Cassete futurism. It’s a style shared by alien, dead space, and the early unsc of halo. The philosophy behind it is “what is old is now new” and personally I really like it.
i think the ‘punks are more tied in with cyberpunk though, and they tend to talk about social issues, very specifically from an anti-institutional viewpoint.
Here's a German language pun for you that's in the game: what might be considered the main antagonist is an administration replika called Adler, which is German for eagle. (Basically, if Falke is the king, Adler is their scheming advisor, but instead of plotting their demise, they are yandere for them.) But is also the name of an Austrian psychotherapist who founded the school of individual psychology. Adler's main concern was overcoming the dynamic of the superiority/inferiority complex. In a word, he was all about the psychology of power, which fits in nicely with the symbolic significance of the eagle as an image of state power and the Adler unit's role of bossing everyone around.
Elster actually follows most of the Replika rules in game. Along with the "carry a max of 6 things to stay flexible" poster/note, every level also has a poster somewhere that says something along the lines of "no running un the hallways" and that's why she doesn't really run when you hit the input, she just walks a bit faster.
Well, I think it was also because the poster mentioned about everyone being able to hear you, and that is indeed a mechanic (when you run you aggro enemies faster)
An interesting thing I noticed: in one of the movies, you can see Elster put on a white chestpiece with airvents on them that look like ☰☰☰ (although on a closer look, it appears that every line is actually 2 sets of 4 lines side by side 31:41). These could be read as taoist trigrams, which are made out of ⚋ (yin or broken) and ⚊ (yang or connected), which could correspond to 0 and 1. So you basically get a binary number system (☷ - 0, ☰ - 7). ☰☰☰ could thus be read as 512, which is a significant number in the game.
I just now realize: the lesbian Elster is 512. The point at which the other Elster from the mining colony picks up 512's armor is meant to represent straight Elster's loss of identity, as she's literally replacing her serial number, the only thing that could ever make her distinct from other Elster units.
See, I noticed that, but I can't for the life of me understand WHY that specific number is significant. It comes up multiple times in the game and in different contexts. Only thing that comes to mind is it's a power of two that's common in IT, but that's about it.
@@ajeje1996 It's lesbian Elster's serial number. It says so on her booting screens. Imo it's all over the game because Elster's memories and identity are leaking into everybody else.
In my opinion, Die Toteninsel Emptiness is at the very peak of what a haunting song should be, especially given the context in which it plays for. Man, Signalis was such a great experience, it was definitely my favorite game from 2022.
SIGNALIS is the game of 2022. It's just THAT good and almost perfection level polished. Enveloping atmosphere, captivating story, mind-boggling twists. It did wonders to my perception, last game that made me feel similar was Amnesia Dark Descent in 2010. All the references are so well done, with such respect to originals while making them perfectly legit. It never felt like a moment of plagiarism or fanboyism. SIGNALIS is a smart game, extremely well done and having a lasting impact on your consciousness. And thanks for making this vid, Bricky. SIGNALIS deserves exposure, it is a gem. 0 exaggeration. Don't spoil yourself if you haven't played it, do it yourself... the feel and impact is on another level. P.S. You do not need flashlight on you at all times, just for some specific rooms. Inventory is a puzzle here in itself. And not in a bad way. People are just used to more standartised approach, SIGNALIS really doubles down on oldschool in a good way. But I agree that this might be a point of contention as some people stated similar issue on the forums. From my side, I know that people made maps for Nowhere (guess the reference just by name :D), but I memorised it very quickly. It really depends on the person in regards of every additional complexity - for someone a small thing is a burden, another doesn't notice it, someone else loves the huge struggle. I cannot play Souls games for example, would go mad most likely. I'm happy to say that Bricky got so involved, but 2 playthroughs aren't enough for him to understand everything that is going on :) There's a bit more to discover based on what I heard in his spoiler part. And that is the beauty of the game...
Don't get me wrong the game is absolutely a banger; but to say say there was no "fanboyism" or 1:1 "inspirations" is misrepresenting it. Especially if you're familiar with the animes(Evangelion, Monogatari series, Magnetic Rose) that inspired it; takes direct imagery, themes, and even editing style. And that's anime alone, I know some fanboys are "upset" due to how closely it follows the beats of Silent Hill 2. I still loved it through and through, but it's nothing wholly original. It just has respect for its influences and executed really well.
Loved watching your playthrough. It's crazy how 2 indie devs managed to pull off something like this. Glad you enjoyed it enough to put it on the main channel.
I really don’t know why but the music in this game is both beautiful and ominous as hell and it makes any unique sounds stand out when you hear them in the world and that’s just amazing.😺
@@Thonato420 some patience is needed and its indeed not for everyone. But the endorphine reward administered into your brain, with each small step coming closer to the whole is unlike any other game I've played. Lucky if you're into the slow style exploration/adventure/atmosphere kind of games.
@@Thonato420 I wish I could say I even wanted to like it. I played it for a very brief period, then deleted it and never want to touch it again. That game is overrated and nothing will change my mind on that. Boring doesn't even begin to convey my disappointment, especially when so many people still hype it up like this. The game is downright bland. Even if the gameplay became interesting, the character designs and the graphical style are so off-putting that merely looking at it hurts.
I wish I could play it, but I swear, that game makes me shit my pants more than signalis. I played outer wild for like a couple hours once, got to the ocean planet, accidentally crashed my ship into a satellite I think (some sort of orbiting object, I forget exactly). My ship breaks, and I start falling into the center of the ocean world. Immediately shit myself, and refunded the game because my heart cant take that shit.
Finally people talking about Signalis. How this game manages to come out during the year's peak horror window and fly under the radar is beyond me. Loved it from start to finish and hope your video will inspire other to check the game out.
Knowing even a little bit of German definitely helps the immersion The first time I got to the rave party room and saw "STIRB" flashing on the screen, it gave me some proper chills ngl
The devs making inventory only 6 slots is truly an evil tactic, because it forces the player to keep running across hallways which have a large amount of enemies, all of which can get back up randomly and force you into a bad situation if you're stuck in the middle of them. Everytime I had to go through a hall with 3 or more, I always had to be cautious incase they got up while I was walking over them.
I’ve always interpreted it as the cycles of blame that the nearly dead LSTER 512 unit goes through from the Bioresonance of Ariane asking them to keep their promise. To not let them die a slow painful death, like one of the notes says. In the Promise ending, you do so. It had me in fucking TEARS for multiple minutes. Such a good game. Also: based lesbian android x human relationship in space
Ok In following Bricky's Omega Spoilers, read at your own risk: I believe that the main gameplay loop of the game is entirely fictional, and is simply Elster's slowly degrading mind going through various cycles of guilt over 'the promise' she made to Ariane while fighting through Ariane's nightmares as she is bio-resonant and dreaming within the cryo pod. There are 3 main endings, with a fourth 'secret' ending. The main premise of the story is: Ariane was heavily abused and bullied during her time at the academy due to her personality and love for art, music and some 'banned' media. Rather than continue to suffer she signed on with the Penrose initiative in an effort to see the universe and get away from people. The Penrose program was simple - Find a habitable world or don't come back. - You're given a ship, an Elster co-pilot and sent off to find a world. You're also not meant to interact much with the Elster, just let it do its job and keep it in shutdown until it's needed. However, Ariane being Ariane, she spoke to Elster, shared her love of music and arts, told her about her memories (most of the first person segments are memories that Ariane shared, and as Ariane is (likely) bio-resonant, Elster has access to the memories as if she lived them herself, and gained a personality and emotions. However, Ariane never found a habitable world, and was exposed to entirely too much radiation, either from the ship's damaged drive or just.. cosmic radiation, and her health rapidly declined, to the point where her life was torture, which brings us to the promise. The promise is that should Ariane ever get to a point where she is in so much pain, experiencing so much suffering that her life is nothing but torment, Elster would kill her. This is where the game comes in. Elster units (And all Replikas) have set lifespans they are meant to be run for, after which point they begin to degrade, think AI Rampancy from Halo for another point of reference. Because Ariane and Elster never found a world, they have just been flying their ship for years, and Elster is well and truly degraded at this point. The game is Elster experiencing a mix of her own cycles of guilt over and over again and 'sleeping' and experiencing Ariane's nightmares via her bio-resonance. There is only one Elster unit, all of the corpses in the elevator and through the gate are all her previous attempts to come to a decision over if she can bring herself to kill her lover and best friend. I do believe there are -some- parts of the game that are based in reality, but through Elster's heavily damaged and warped lens it's unclear what is real and what isn't. However there are certain objects that are definitely 100% real, namely all of the notes you find from Ariane where she writes about her gradually declining health, the fact that her hair (and I believe teeth) are falling out, that she's in pain, which culminate in the "kill me. kill me. kill me." note bricky showed in the video, showing just how badly she was suffering. The three endings are Leave, Memory and Promise Eventually, Ariane's dream finally wakes Elster up (The flashing 'WAKE UP' throughout the game are Ariane trying to awaken Elster from within her cryopod.) The endings (based on how you play the game) are briefly summed up as follows: Leave: Elster can't bring herself to enter the ship and see Ariane in the state she's in, and flees, succumbing to her own damage Memory: Elster opens the cryo pod, but Ariane has degraded to the point where she no longer remembers Elster, and Elster can't bring herself to kill Ariane, so just stays with her until they both succumb to their wounds Promise: Elster opens the cryo pod, Ariane remembers Elster and makes her keep the promise. Elster kills Ariane and then succumbs to her own wounds. The fourth secret ending 'Lily' is.. more abstract, and doesn't exactly follow the same logic. Ariane was at the academy training to be a radio operator, you need to find 3 keys hidden within Ariane's own mind which are all represented by abstract things:(a memory of the pair of you dancing, a call not to look for answers where there are only questions, and a version of verse 8:13 from Revelation) you then use these keys and enter Ariane's radio operator code and instead of fighting faulke, you find a Lily, the symbol of rebirth, in Ariane's old home on Rotfront. Elster then sacrifices the lily and multiple versions of herself in a ritual, seemingly to make Ariane aware that she is effectively the god of her own dreams, and she gives you one last happy memory of the pair of you dancing on the ship. The game is phenomenal, so well written and amazingly paced. It's obviously not a happy game, but as someone who doesn't super like horror games I was GRIPPED by this. The above is all obviously just my interpretation, but I think this is the gist of it!
Personally i just went with "Its a great many hallucinations and neither of them ever left the ship", but your summary is a tiny bit more in depth. I like to imagine Falke is an in-dream representation of Arianne and Adler of Elster. Adler always stopping Elster from completing the promise is her just being incapable of doing the deed. She hesitates from carrying out the promise and every time she fails to make the call she degrades further. Isa (Isolde) is a representation of Ariannes will to end her own suffering, but she's incapable of doing so. After all, her goal is to get to Falke. First being stopped by her own love for Elster (Adler) and then her suffering so much she's willing to harm Adler (Elster) in order to wake her up from stasis. Isa just disappearing after and appearing at "random" supports this. Her dying in the bookstore after saying how she failed is Arianne becoming too frail to take matters into her own hands even if she wanted to. Elster mourning Isa's death is Elster understanding just how badly ill Ariannes has fallen. Every sequence outside of the ship is Elsters process of being awoken from stasis by Arianne, while the second ship sequence is Elsters actual memory. Furthermore i am convinced that all endings are cannon in a way. Memory is Elster hesitating once again, Promise is Elster finally doing the deed, and Leave is Elster now facing her own end. Lily is mostly symbolic for the sacrifices we are willing to make for those we love. Its a beautiful love story of a couple facing their looming death while raging against the dying light until finally accepting the end. Disguised with a fuck ton eldritch horror and very loud noises. 10/10 genuinely made me tear up.
Actually I'd say the only dream part is the ending. Ending the cycle only metaphorically involved coming back to the ship (metaphor for confronting her trauma). Otherwise you're throwing away all worldbuilding that has no reason to exist if it's just a dream (specific details such as Sierpinski and Nowhere, the creation of the V2 Elsters...) and would render the very interesting worldbuilding of Signalis completely meaningless.
@@Blue-hx8qu I never subscribed to the thought of dream-stories invalidating worldbuilding. After all, your thoughts shape who you are despite not being "real". Is a dreadful monster hunting someone any less important just because they're in a psych-ward? I also like the futility of such stories as they highlight how nothing really matters if you focus on the important things in life. Here we have a story of two lovers doomed to die in solitude having made a suicide pact because the alternative is just too horrible to bear. Its not about the station or the robotic zombies. Its not about the fleshy walls or the bright red screen. They are window dressing which solely exist to give the player an anchor to cling to. Another facete from which to observe the central plot. This works because there only are two characters in the entire game presented by five in total. The window dressing is just another layer of the two protagonists (assuming my theory is correct). What can i say? I like dark and gloomy lovestories. And having all of it been for "nothing" makes it just that much darker. It also explains the eldritch horror side of the story. Its a really messed up dream slowly corrupting itself until elster wakes up. Its a perfect representation of elsters psyche degrading both by being forced from stasis and facing the traumatic thought of killing her loved one. The perfect kind of messed up. I like it a lot. And to add to this: The worldbuilding doesnt have to be undone. Sierspinski is a memory. The lore found throughout the game is real, but the fucked up shit is a nightmarish representation of it. The whole eldritch horror aspect of signalis is the process of a replika units personality degrading.
@@dektarey4024 No the thing is none of them have any reason to know about Sierpinski or the very intricate inner workings and hierarchies of the facility. Or come up with such a complicated plot about the Vineta war and the V2 Elsters even, like dreams are built from your memories, nothing truly new is created (and if you resort to the sci-fi bioresonance explanation, that opens a can of worms that would have to be explained by the events actually being real). Stuff like persona degradation is also established to be kind of flimsy like many other concepts, because you don't know how much of it is sci-fi and how much is just an authoritarian government dehumanising its citizens, by calling completely normal human behaviour deviant, to justify oppression. Also that theory works by basically putting thematic parallels and dream scenarios in the same box, like just because Adler is a parallel to Elster doesn't mean he literally is Elster. I suppose you're entitled to your own interpretation, but there's a reason people don't like dream endings. It's like writers chicken out because they feel the world they've built isn't cohesive enough or might be scrutinized way too much for them to keep up, so they throw it all away. It's pretty sad to see, like an artist who's too much of a perfectionist and completely scraps projects that were good in everyone else's eyes.
@@Blue-hx8qu If you find ARA Unit hidden in one of the vents, she calls out "Persona Degradation" being simply bunch of crap to keep them obedient and working - when exposed to art they begin to deviate from carefully selected (and then lobotomised - why would a worker unit need memories of her previous life? That could give them... ideas.) mental imprint of soon-to-be perfect worker. It is interesting that PD is not like any other "AI degradation" like in other media - they simply develop creative, abstract thinking that is unnecessary for a worker-unit (from nationalistic standopoint).
16:53 the giant bulging mass of flesh is not actually an indication of a cleared room. It always manifests as long as you just pick up the tarot card of that room regardless of wether you took the other item with you.
I think he meant that when that mass claims a door, you just don't have to care about the room anymore, regardless of whether you picked it clean or not.
So normally, i disregard spoilers because TV and media are so reused that i can usually predict the ending right away. but for you Bricky, just this once i pissed off and bought the game. This game has been on my radar for a minute and you've pushed me to get it. i shall return in approximately 1-3 days to express my joy or disappointment :)
I love how I got to Signalis before Bricky, and I finally get to watch him talk about something I’m super passionate about. Also, speedrunning this game is extremely fun. When you get all 4-5 endings, there’s so much replayability when you find out what tricks this game has.
I think the inventory capacity could be fixed pretty easily with an in-lore explanation. Near the middle or after the middle of the game, you could find a note left by someone who's developing rebellious thoughts to the regime. Thus, they are developing an illegal upgrade that adds 2 more inventory slots, raising the capacity by 2. It should also be an optional upgrade that, like the revolver, should have a sort of puzzle attached to it. Like using a machine to remake a broken key that opens a locker of confiscated items in a security room. The backstory could be that the rebel was caught and their illegal upgrade was confiscated by the protektors.
That's some decently clever lore behind an inventory capacity upgrade. I know there's that +2 slots mod, but Imo using it would be breaking one of the fundamental mechanics of the game. Not only would it make the game significantly easier and less tense (in a game that's designed around tension), it would also go against the lore and its fixation on the number 6. I guess that could circle back to your idea of it being an illegal upgrade that's designed to shake up their ideologues.
The fact that this game was made by 2 people from Germany is just crazy, this game is just a masterpiece and I got the Promise Ending on my first playthrough which I would consider as the "good" and "true" ending but there is no good or bad ending in this game, espically a true ending lol Also imma say it again, I think Signalis is an alternative reality where the Germany and Japan won WW2, took over the world and then expanded throughout the galaxy!!! This is exactly the vibe that im getting from this game ... also robot waifus, who doesnt that ?
I have zero idea where you got 1940s Germany vibes from. The imagery is more evoking of east Germany if anything. Not to mention the whole point is that they are stuck in that one system and you get send on the suicide scout mission to find a way out of it
It's certainly an alt history, but no not the Axis. Rather the Russians either won the cold war or at least the soviet union persist. The nation behind all this is communist east Germany.
I actually think the divergence point of the Signalis verse goes further back. Don't read further if you haven't beaten the game. *Spoilers below* It seems to me like the world of Signalis is one where *IMPERIAL* Germany won the FIRST world war, survived well into the 20th and 21st century and became the premium nation of immigrants kind of like the US in our world, only instead of Hispanics, they received A LOT of Asians instead. There was no Nazi regime that rose and instead the old monarchy along with the Prussian nobility held onto power. But wait! You ask, that sounds nothing like the Eusan nation!!! As Sternkraft noted, the vibe the Eusan Nation gives out is basically German Democratic Republic in space. A lot of people (at least here in America) don't pick up the nuanced differences between right wing fascism and left wing authoritarianism. There are a lot of integrated Asians in the Eusan Nation and usage of A lot of different Asian languages in the buildings and documents, I don't think Nazi Germany would have liked for such a mixture or indulged other language usage for buildings and official documents. Communists authoritarians are big on ideological uniformity, not so much ethnic uniformity. Remember that according to some lore we find in the last area of the game (I think it was the banned book in the Itou bookstore), basically revealed that the Eusan nation is a revolutionary offshoot the *Eusan empire* which implies that the major world power in the 21st century, was a monarchy of sorts. This is the biggest thing that implies that the divergence point was WW1 NOT WW2. The lore also mentions it was "the grand empress" who was a bio-resonant and was the one who basically uplifted humans into space. Again, pointing to something more akin to *Imperial Germany.* From this, it can be extrapolated that the Eusan nation is basically a kind of delayed communist uprising sometime in the late 21st century or early 22nd century (the timeline I believe Signalis takes place in btw). Their world never had anything like the USSR it seems, but since communism didn't get a foothold here, it lingered on until "the great revolutionary" (The person Falke is based off and implied to be a powerful bioresonant as well) came around and started a civil war. This also explains why the Eusan nation is so strangely fractured. They have earth but not Mars. This makes sense as they broke away from the already existing Eusan Empire. All this tells me that it was actually *Imperial Germany* where the Eusan Nation comes from, NOT Nazi Germany.
Made the eager mistake of watching a full playthrough with all the endings BUT I’m still gonna buy it and knowing my brain, I’ll forget all the details and be able to still experience everything first hand. I love artsy psych-horror type games Signalis was so beautiful that I the temptation to watch a play through was too strong. Shout out to the indie devs for making an absolute banger
Honestly after watching how you introduced it, i'm actually going to listen to the game reviewer for the first time in my life and not finish the video until i have beaten that game, i'm stopping at 8:27 and shall come back another day, See ya soon Bricky 🙏
I never thought that a down right depressing semi-lovecraft anime game with strong horror elements would be the sole reason i finally find a colour scheme for my T'au models.
I like the fact that you can only hold six items because it forces you to risk backtracking through a room and reviving a bunch of enemies. This always filled me with tension even though it was just busywork. That is quite the achievement for a game. It led me to some interesting situations where I could opt to leave more stuff behind, but I would expose myself to the possibility of being caught without ammo or health-kits. (Notice that many of the main puzzles require five or even six items.) Being able to carry more might mean the difference between completing a puzzle in two or three trips or doing it in one. On subsequent playthroughs, I might become daring enough to leave all my equipment behind when I know for a fact that I have a clear shot to the puzzle room with all of the relevant items. I eventually decided that it wasn't worth taking any key items with me until I knew exactly what to do with them and if I wanted to heal I'd have to go back to a save room. This let my carry more guns but still didn't leave much left over for ammo pickups and key items I'd find along the way. So I was always walking this tight rope and had to steel myself before making another push into unexplored territory.
I’m really tempted to listen to the “go play it first, don’t spoil it for yourself” warning, but I’m also really fucking tired and just want to watch the new video from one of my favs Edit: Fine Bricky, you got me with the “I’m disappointed in you”, I’ll heed your warning. I’ll come back here after playing the game to say if it was worth it or not. EditEdit: I’m only half way through the game (I think) and I can already say it’s worth it. EditEditEdit: After forgetting about it for a long time, I finally went back and finished the game. I didn't realize I was less than like 30 mins from finishing the game, but I did it. 9/10 Great game, great atmosphere, great gameplay. My only complaint is that the game felt overall a little short, and it also felt like the ending was really abrupt, and didn't tie up all the loose ends. But at the same time, an ambiguous ending feels very fitting for the game. Also, I never actually found the rifle, so I suspect that there's things I may have missed in the game. EditEditEditEdit: Just watched to 28:49, there are multiple endings. Fuck. Edit 5 (because I'm getting tired of typing Edit): FUCK, I fell for the fake ending. Ughh, 1 min brb Edit 6: Ok, NOW I've finished the game. I got the memory ending. It definitely felt a lot more like satisfying conclusion, while still leaving things very ambiguous, but I feel like ambiguity is a very apt feeling to take away from this story. Game still feels a tiny bit short overall, but honestly its barely worth mentioning. ~10 hours for 1 playthrough is totally fine, not to mention going for all the endings would definitely take long enough for game length to not to be a concern anymore.
One thing that's i've noticed about the presentation, is that the "cut-in info" thingy really reminds me of the SHAFT anime (Especially Monogatari series). It conveys more information that otherwise too long for it to put in the gameplay itself. Also the artstyle really similiar to BLAME!! manga and instead going Dyson Sphere and Silicon Lifeform like BLAME does, Signalis went to Lovecraftian Horror (Or more like King of Yellow Horror). Also i would recommend BLAME manga!
I never expected you to cover this, especially knowing the anime aesthetic. It's my personal Indie GOTY in 2022, so much appreciated. Also the whole "what genre is this?" at the beginning, haha, it's just survival horror (EDIT: seems like you cleared it up farther into the vid!). A love letter to the genre, and as a childhood fan of the RE/SH games who still enjoy them from time to time these days, Signalis is a game I never thought would be made again especially in this day and age. Extremely major props to the devs, they get my loyalty. I hope they make more games.
A nice update them made to the game is that they made it an optional setting for the flashlight to take up an inventory slot, so if you don't want that headache the normal setting won't take up space....and if you're a psycho you can have it like how it use to be
I just saw the Don't Try MV, and something about it made me cry. I never played this game, but I knew where the footage came from. I need to play this.
I believe the proper term for the aesthetic/art style is “retro-futurism.” As for the game genre, Survival Horror seems to fit. Of course, “survival horror” would also include things like Dead Space or Evil Within which don’t force as much backtracking and inventory management, so “Classic Survival Horror” may be more precise
I have finally come back to this video. After beating Signalis, and getting my very own ending. And I just wanted to say, thank you Bricky for telling me to piss off. I had gotten that far in the video, the day the video came out. And now I'm back. To finish out your watch time and get you paid
That style you’re talking about with the old sci-fi aesthetic is called Retrofuturism. Another horror game that uses it is Observer, and it utilized it pretty well from what I can remember.
This game is a gem and a modern classic. Definitely one of the best modern survival horror games out there. Also the flashlight isn't really a necessity. Its used for a couple of rooms but other than that you can ditch it.
I literally just so happened to get into Signalis myself this week during some time off work so this is excellent timing for my end. Also the term I've latched onto after hearing it to describe this particular flavour of sci-fi is "cassette-futurism".
The atmosphere of this game after playing it reminds me heavily of my favorite Manga called Blame. Dark future, lovecraftian horror and little to no dialogue or context. I love it.
26:56 "Stirb" is "Die" in German aka wenn someone says "geh und stirb" They mean "go and die" Also alot of the german borrowed words you said with like 90% accuracy (Gestalt meaning in a way Thing or Creation, Adler means Eagle etc.) Anyway Great vid you got me to play my now 3rd fav game of all time (right behind Amnesia the Bunker in 2nd and Hollow Knight in 1st)
this game is so good it kinda pissed me off how a lot of my favorite channels didn't even acknowledge this game I mean I get that they review popular games but I don't like how they review even the shittiest AAA games but not non-mainstream gems like these.
One note on the radio, the frequencies that are broadcasted are unique for every save. So don´t skip picking up the note in the interrogation room like I did. had to guess which number fits at every point later in the game.
My friends and I often watch one another play through games, Signalis was one that a friend randomly brought to stream that I had no idea what to expect. Safe to say, it's absolutely excellent.
It's a little late, but I'm gonna leave it here; I completed Signalis like 3 months ago, in the middle of summer, and I got the Promise ending. Now get this: On that day, the temperature was SCORCHING HOT, as the day progressed, it got even hotter, and even more SUFFOCATING, to the point where I almost passed out as I finished this game xD And because of this, this game, and this ending, shall forever live in my head like a PTSD, that it gave me. Every time I see Elster's eye, every time I hear a piece of music from this game, I GET CHILLES DOWN MY SPINE. And I LOVE IT
I started watching this a while ago and quickly recognized how this was going, so I did what I did when MandaloreGaming recommended “No one lives under the lighthouse”, stopped watching, got it, played it, beat it, and came back Good on ya Bricky
Cool review, I think the 6 inventory slots enhances the game and the decision making involved in clearing rooms. I hope with the patch we still have the option to play that difficulty but I'm not opposed to people using that option to enjoy this stellar game. Also Bricky I'm shocked you didn't make a joke about that one track in the ost named "kentucky meat shower"
It's really good to see this one covered, Signalis was an absolute gem. I finished my first playthrough 2 days ago and still can't stop thinking about it. Definitely going back for another run
Fun fact; "Die Toteninsel" uses the exact same motif as Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead op.29", of which Rachmaninoff wrote as a musical poem to Böcklin's painting. Rachmaninoff would make several revisions and significant changes to the piece over the years, much like the painting. It adds further depth to the game's many many inspirations. I also think that it is very important that we do not label that as a "rip off" or theft in any way. I think its an homage to Rachmaninoff's compositions, which is an homage to Böcklin's paintings, and it's so thematically fitting with the game and the cutscene it plays in. It's only that motif that's the same. Die Toteninsel does something very different with that idea. Edit; Forgot mentioning that "Die Toteninsel" means Isle of the Dead.
It's been two weeks since the video dropped and today I finished Signalis. First Darkwood, now this. Thank you Bricky for opening my eyes to Indie masterpieces
I saw the reviews today, and they were usually one of 2 things. Cosmic Horror. Robot Lesbians. And after watching this review.. *Yeah, It's time to play some fucking Signalis.*
Coming back to this after playing the game and goddamn did it give me brainworms too. Even more as a queer woman, it just breaks your brain in the best way possible. 11/10 game.
It’s also funny that the “rule of six” also bleeds into the world design as well. Like, not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but when you pay attention, you start seeing hexagons and triangles everywhere. Noticing that the radio has six distinct frequencies was a highlight for me.
I saw this video when Bricky first put it out, but followed his advice and waited to watch it. I finally bought and finished my first play through of Signalis and I'm so glad that I waited! I'm not usually a horror person, and can be very jumpy, so this game was definitely pushing my comfort levels a lot (especially when it came to the gore). However, it also became quite the brain worm for me too, and now all I can think about is how to get other endings, if there are any! Thank you Bricky for highlighting this game! It deserves every single bit of praise it's getting!
19:27 Pitch black in my room, late at night, watch this part Yeah, well, back on with every light in the goddamn house, I'm going to be hearing that in my sleep
I like the ammo are named “后羿”. its a pretty deep cut into chinese lore. which is an acient story about how in ye old time there were 10 suns in the sky and everybody was dying cause you know 10 suns. and this guy named hou yi decided fuck that shit I amma shoot them down. and he did shoot down 9 suns. the last one was like oh shit he about to kill my ass I amma run. and you yi just gave chase. and that's why the sun rises and sets. cause hou yi is still chasing his ass. and houyi 后羿 being the ammo brand is a pretty dope idea.
The signalis community experience is one moment seeing the best 1min animation that has more emotions into it than any big animation movie in the past 5 years, and then you see Elster dancing over Adler's dead body
Real quick for anyone who has YT Premium: You can leave to play the game and still support Bricky's viewer retention if you hit the download button before leaving. It counts as an entire watchtime view by TH-cam, and I use it constantly to support creators when I'm a little too busy to view in full.
Why would you make a certified bricky video to make me play a game that I need to finish before I watch your video cause it has now picked my interest? Don't deny me this embrace!!
"Security cameras are following your every move." No, they were supposed to do that when the facility was still functional. I've found that best practices is to avoid any lone enemies. Even if they spot you, it's fine since they're not fast enough to catch you. Things get more complicated the more enemies you add, the more confined of a space it is, if the there are any ambush enemies that burst up from the floor tiles, and how often you need to pass through that room. The more of a thoroughfare the room is, the more opportunities the game will have to revive enemies and lead you to potentially waste more ammo. I can't speak for the high difficulty mode, but the game is generally fairly lax about reviving enemies, but I did notice a pattern where there would be a recurring room with exactly two enemies that would frequently revive, so i figured this was the best place to apply a strategy with my thermite: I'd down both enemies then incinerate one of them. That way if the enemies revived there would be only one of them which can always be easily evaded as often as necessary. That said, evading enemies and judicious use of thermite is small time. if you really want to save ammo, you're going to need to learn crowd control. You don't have to spend bullets on any target you don't have to fight, so naturally the game puts you in situations where there are so many zombies you can't possibly get past without something tearing your spleen out in the process. The shotgun is underwhelming against single targets, barely seeming to deal more damage than the pistol, but is the absolute king of crowd control. There is even a room that exists specifically to teach you just how good it is by sicing a horde of a dozen enemies on you in a tightly packed together. Three shots and they're basically gone. It's unreal. You need best pick is to load grenades into your signal flare. It'll pretty much one shot any unarmored targets in the blast radius. You might thing the rifle is powerful, but the recoil is so terrible your enemies will almost be back on their feet by the time you stomp on them. It's a death sentence against multiple zombies and should be reserved for single targets to conserve ammo for your crowd control sources. The revolver deals good damage and is about as reliable as the pistol which goes a long way to compensating for the comparative scarcity of it's ammo. Deals knock-back which can be useful for punting zombies away from you so you can barge past without necessarily having to finish them off. The SMG deals good damage but is otherwise unremarkable. It's high rate fo fire might make it good at suppressing waves of enemies.
![กี่หมื่นฟ้า | Your Sky Series EP.1 [1/4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vLGjxFL6U_I/mqdefault.jpg)
At this time I'd like to invite someone with an especially warm memory of Ariane to come up here and share it with us...
Sex
Sex
you complaining about shitposting is probably the most hypocritical thing ive ever heard mr orchid.
signalis is a survival horror game big dog
Finde it fun how you finde the word stirb so funny even thou it means die
The genre is called Survival Horror Brick-man.
The sign of a masterpiece is always the subreddit that unanimously developed shizophrenia at the same time.
bioresonance irl
As being part of the Titanfall subreddit, I feel very called out here.
Not really a game but Bocchi the Rock 🗿
Yep
Stalker subreddit be like
The second I saw that the name of the book was "The King in Yellow" all my cosmic horror bells went off and I thought "oh this is going to be good"
Thank goodness someone else noticed that.
literally me lmao. I saw it on the table and thought "ah fuck who read the book that ruins the lives of everyone who reads it"
Oh come on, don't tell me you think this is about H.P. Lovecraft.
Go read more about Chambers.
@@salieri_sg9413 No one mentioned Lovecraft 😂
@@salieri_sg9413the "great holes are digged" quote is from H.P. Lovecraft, but I didn't mention him anywhere else in what I said
As someone who can speak German, when I got to my ending and the line came up “I am finally me, but you are no longer you. Maybe this is hell.” Definitely hit a little different.
Hello, from which ending was that?
Is that a translation of some German saying?
@@dCephei This is a rough translation from the German during the Memory ending. Didn’t want to spoil too much at the time since it was so new. There’s a lot of good interesting details in German throughout the game.
@@zekebomb139 Ikr I wish I could understand German. I might go for Memory ending on my 3rd playthrough, if my heart can take it, currently on my way to Promise ending. Thanks!
For my second playthrough of Signalis, I streamed it for my gf to watch me play it. She's a native German speaker so I was super excited to have someone there to translate the bits I might've missed. PLEASE, to any of you who might have a German friend or someone who can translate German for you, play through the game again with them there. There are so many wonderfully depressing little details that I would have completely missed if she wasn't there to tell me about them.
The style of this game is Cassete futurism. It’s a style shared by alien, dead space, and the early unsc of halo. The philosophy behind it is “what is old is now new” and personally I really like it.
Also Bladerunner has some of it as well!
i've also heard it referred to as retro-futurism
Retro futurism ftw
You mean cassettepunk.
i think the ‘punks are more tied in with cyberpunk though, and they tend to talk about social issues, very specifically from an anti-institutional viewpoint.
Here's a German language pun for you that's in the game: what might be considered the main antagonist is an administration replika called Adler, which is German for eagle. (Basically, if Falke is the king, Adler is their scheming advisor, but instead of plotting their demise, they are yandere for them.) But is also the name of an Austrian psychotherapist who founded the school of individual psychology. Adler's main concern was overcoming the dynamic of the superiority/inferiority complex. In a word, he was all about the psychology of power, which fits in nicely with the symbolic significance of the eagle as an image of state power and the Adler unit's role of bossing everyone around.
Elster actually follows most of the Replika rules in game. Along with the "carry a max of 6 things to stay flexible" poster/note, every level also has a poster somewhere that says something along the lines of "no running un the hallways" and that's why she doesn't really run when you hit the input, she just walks a bit faster.
Well, I think it was also because the poster mentioned about everyone being able to hear you, and that is indeed a mechanic (when you run you aggro enemies faster)
@@VValkyrYeah but it's more a programming thing for Replikas. Elster CAN'T disobey the rules even if she wants to.
An interesting thing I noticed: in one of the movies, you can see Elster put on a white chestpiece with airvents on them that look like ☰☰☰ (although on a closer look, it appears that every line is actually 2 sets of 4 lines side by side 31:41). These could be read as taoist trigrams, which are made out of ⚋ (yin or broken) and ⚊ (yang or connected), which could correspond to 0 and 1. So you basically get a binary number system (☷ - 0, ☰ - 7). ☰☰☰ could thus be read as 512, which is a significant number in the game.
Holy shit, that's next level narrative easter eggs
Every fucking detail in this game is like that, it's like the developers want us to develop schizophrenia
I just now realize: the lesbian Elster is 512. The point at which the other Elster from the mining colony picks up 512's armor is meant to represent straight Elster's loss of identity, as she's literally replacing her serial number, the only thing that could ever make her distinct from other Elster units.
See, I noticed that, but I can't for the life of me understand WHY that specific number is significant. It comes up multiple times in the game and in different contexts. Only thing that comes to mind is it's a power of two that's common in IT, but that's about it.
@@ajeje1996 It's lesbian Elster's serial number. It says so on her booting screens. Imo it's all over the game because Elster's memories and identity are leaking into everybody else.
The graphic may be simplistic but holy, the shadows in this games are perfect.
It play really well with the different sources of light.
Ritley appreciation comment for getting Bricky to play a masterful game he wouldn't have even looked at otherwise.
Melvin*
Thanks brother. I do what I can
@@Ritley what a lad
@@Ritley Gigachad behaviour
Melvin aka Rit is a good boy
Signalis: "Stirb Stirb Stirb" (Die Die Die)
Bricky: heh stirb
"The King in Yellow"
Forget weird disappearing captains or holes, THIS is the ultimate red flag
Yeah I saw that and immediately knew this game means business with that "Psychological Horror" tag.
Along the shore....
... the cloud waves break.
@@void-creature The twin suns sink....
... behind the lake
@@tartarustrommler5454 The shadows lengthen...
in Carcosa
As a man who’s gone through hell twice to reunite space lesbians, I’m really excited to finish this review now
In my opinion, Die Toteninsel Emptiness is at the very peak of what a haunting song should be, especially given the context in which it plays for.
Man, Signalis was such a great experience, it was definitely my favorite game from 2022.
Agreed. That song is just... man. Speechless. Every time I hear I almost want to break down into tears, it is *that* hauntingly beautiful.
Agreed, it's a absolutely haunting translation of a classic piece, beautifully distilled. The sections it plays in are always heart rending as well.
SIGNALIS is the game of 2022. It's just THAT good and almost perfection level polished. Enveloping atmosphere, captivating story, mind-boggling twists. It did wonders to my perception, last game that made me feel similar was Amnesia Dark Descent in 2010.
All the references are so well done, with such respect to originals while making them perfectly legit. It never felt like a moment of plagiarism or fanboyism.
SIGNALIS is a smart game, extremely well done and having a lasting impact on your consciousness.
And thanks for making this vid, Bricky. SIGNALIS deserves exposure, it is a gem. 0 exaggeration.
Don't spoil yourself if you haven't played it, do it yourself... the feel and impact is on another level.
P.S. You do not need flashlight on you at all times, just for some specific rooms. Inventory is a puzzle here in itself. And not in a bad way. People are just used to more standartised approach, SIGNALIS really doubles down on oldschool in a good way. But I agree that this might be a point of contention as some people stated similar issue on the forums.
From my side, I know that people made maps for Nowhere (guess the reference just by name :D), but I memorised it very quickly. It really depends on the person in regards of every additional complexity - for someone a small thing is a burden, another doesn't notice it, someone else loves the huge struggle. I cannot play Souls games for example, would go mad most likely.
I'm happy to say that Bricky got so involved, but 2 playthroughs aren't enough for him to understand everything that is going on :) There's a bit more to discover based on what I heard in his spoiler part. And that is the beauty of the game...
Hear that Bricky? We're gonna need a part 2!
Don't get me wrong the game is absolutely a banger; but to say say there was no "fanboyism" or 1:1 "inspirations" is misrepresenting it. Especially if you're familiar with the animes(Evangelion, Monogatari series, Magnetic Rose) that inspired it; takes direct imagery, themes, and even editing style. And that's anime alone, I know some fanboys are "upset" due to how closely it follows the beats of Silent Hill 2. I still loved it through and through, but it's nothing wholly original. It just has respect for its influences and executed really well.
its a grate game but FUCK THE INVINTORY SISTOM
@@Momgetoftheroof Agreed
You should say best of (year) instead one of the game of (year) cuz it sounds like that meme
I really like "cassette futurism" as a descriptor for the art style invoked in this game and the media it draws inspiration from
Add “bitcrushed” to that and it might be perfect
The name is cassettepunk.
@@ErebosGRIts cassette futurism. Cassette punk might be another name for it, but its definitely Cassette futurism.
Loved watching your playthrough. It's crazy how 2 indie devs managed to pull off something like this.
Glad you enjoyed it enough to put it on the main channel.
Where there is a will, there is a couple of German guys doing mad cocaine and pulling off a masterpiece, way.
I really don’t know why but the music in this game is both beautiful and ominous as hell and it makes any unique sounds stand out when you hear them in the world and that’s just amazing.😺
After completing the game I listened to the ost for like a week straight
i got a super metroid music vibe, i think one of the music sections has the same tone as the begining im not sure though.
Glad to see the outer wilds is still being recognized as one of the greats of all time
I wish I could love it or at least like it but it's unfortunately too boring 😔
@@Thonato420 some patience is needed and its indeed not for everyone. But the endorphine reward administered into your brain, with each small step coming closer to the whole is unlike any other game I've played. Lucky if you're into the slow style exploration/adventure/atmosphere kind of games.
@@Thonato420 I wish I could say I even wanted to like it. I played it for a very brief period, then deleted it and never want to touch it again. That game is overrated and nothing will change my mind on that. Boring doesn't even begin to convey my disappointment, especially when so many people still hype it up like this. The game is downright bland. Even if the gameplay became interesting, the character designs and the graphical style are so off-putting that merely looking at it hurts.
I wish I could play it, but I swear, that game makes me shit my pants more than signalis. I played outer wild for like a couple hours once, got to the ocean planet, accidentally crashed my ship into a satellite I think (some sort of orbiting object, I forget exactly). My ship breaks, and I start falling into the center of the ocean world. Immediately shit myself, and refunded the game because my heart cant take that shit.
@@ds90seph I have heard many things about outer wilds but the graphics being "off-putting" is certainly a new one
Signalis deserves all the praise it gets and more, it's nice seeing this tiny gem get the recognition it deserves.
it ain't really "tiny gem", I thought this game had decent anount of praise back when it launched
6:47 that intro literally activated my fight or flight in my own kitchen
Finally people talking about Signalis. How this game manages to come out during the year's peak horror window and fly under the radar is beyond me. Loved it from start to finish and hope your video will inspire other to check the game out.
Peak horror window but also peak game release window, and the same day as Call of Duty :/
@@swans184 I didn't even know a new CoD had come out that day. Most gaming youtubers don't cover CoD so I don't think that was a factor.
@@ayuvir o I'm just talking about gaming media. No major outlets reviewed it as the release window was just too packed.
@@swans184 Ah yeah makes sense.
It got into my radar because of the gay fanart
Knowing even a little bit of German definitely helps the immersion
The first time I got to the rave party room and saw "STIRB" flashing on the screen, it gave me some proper chills ngl
The devs making inventory only 6 slots is truly an evil tactic, because it forces the player to keep running across hallways which have a large amount of enemies, all of which can get back up randomly and force you into a bad situation if you're stuck in the middle of them. Everytime I had to go through a hall with 3 or more, I always had to be cautious incase they got up while I was walking over them.
started video, stopped video, bought signalis, came back two days later, paused video, beat signalis, now we here
I’ve always interpreted it as the cycles of blame that the nearly dead LSTER 512 unit goes through from the Bioresonance of Ariane asking them to keep their promise. To not let them die a slow painful death, like one of the notes says. In the Promise ending, you do so. It had me in fucking TEARS for multiple minutes. Such a good game. Also: based lesbian android x human relationship in space
Ok In following Bricky's Omega Spoilers, read at your own risk:
I believe that the main gameplay loop of the game is entirely fictional, and is simply Elster's slowly degrading mind going through various cycles of guilt over 'the promise' she made to Ariane while fighting through Ariane's nightmares as she is bio-resonant and dreaming within the cryo pod.
There are 3 main endings, with a fourth 'secret' ending.
The main premise of the story is: Ariane was heavily abused and bullied during her time at the academy due to her personality and love for art, music and some 'banned' media. Rather than continue to suffer she signed on with the Penrose initiative in an effort to see the universe and get away from people.
The Penrose program was simple - Find a habitable world or don't come back. - You're given a ship, an Elster co-pilot and sent off to find a world. You're also not meant to interact much with the Elster, just let it do its job and keep it in shutdown until it's needed. However, Ariane being Ariane, she spoke to Elster, shared her love of music and arts, told her about her memories (most of the first person segments are memories that Ariane shared, and as Ariane is (likely) bio-resonant, Elster has access to the memories as if she lived them herself, and gained a personality and emotions.
However, Ariane never found a habitable world, and was exposed to entirely too much radiation, either from the ship's damaged drive or just.. cosmic radiation, and her health rapidly declined, to the point where her life was torture, which brings us to the promise.
The promise is that should Ariane ever get to a point where she is in so much pain, experiencing so much suffering that her life is nothing but torment, Elster would kill her.
This is where the game comes in. Elster units (And all Replikas) have set lifespans they are meant to be run for, after which point they begin to degrade, think AI Rampancy from Halo for another point of reference. Because Ariane and Elster never found a world, they have just been flying their ship for years, and Elster is well and truly degraded at this point. The game is Elster experiencing a mix of her own cycles of guilt over and over again and 'sleeping' and experiencing Ariane's nightmares via her bio-resonance. There is only one Elster unit, all of the corpses in the elevator and through the gate are all her previous attempts to come to a decision over if she can bring herself to kill her lover and best friend. I do believe there are -some- parts of the game that are based in reality, but through Elster's heavily damaged and warped lens it's unclear what is real and what isn't. However there are certain objects that are definitely 100% real, namely all of the notes you find from Ariane where she writes about her gradually declining health, the fact that her hair (and I believe teeth) are falling out, that she's in pain, which culminate in the "kill me. kill me. kill me." note bricky showed in the video, showing just how badly she was suffering.
The three endings are Leave, Memory and Promise
Eventually, Ariane's dream finally wakes Elster up (The flashing 'WAKE UP' throughout the game are Ariane trying to awaken Elster from within her cryopod.)
The endings (based on how you play the game) are briefly summed up as follows:
Leave: Elster can't bring herself to enter the ship and see Ariane in the state she's in, and flees, succumbing to her own damage
Memory: Elster opens the cryo pod, but Ariane has degraded to the point where she no longer remembers Elster, and Elster can't bring herself to kill Ariane, so just stays with her until they both succumb to their wounds
Promise: Elster opens the cryo pod, Ariane remembers Elster and makes her keep the promise. Elster kills Ariane and then succumbs to her own wounds.
The fourth secret ending 'Lily' is.. more abstract, and doesn't exactly follow the same logic. Ariane was at the academy training to be a radio operator, you need to find 3 keys hidden within Ariane's own mind which are all represented by abstract things:(a memory of the pair of you dancing, a call not to look for answers where there are only questions, and a version of verse 8:13 from Revelation) you then use these keys and enter Ariane's radio operator code and instead of fighting faulke, you find a Lily, the symbol of rebirth, in Ariane's old home on Rotfront. Elster then sacrifices the lily and multiple versions of herself in a ritual, seemingly to make Ariane aware that she is effectively the god of her own dreams, and she gives you one last happy memory of the pair of you dancing on the ship.
The game is phenomenal, so well written and amazingly paced. It's obviously not a happy game, but as someone who doesn't super like horror games I was GRIPPED by this. The above is all obviously just my interpretation, but I think this is the gist of it!
Personally i just went with "Its a great many hallucinations and neither of them ever left the ship", but your summary is a tiny bit more in depth.
I like to imagine Falke is an in-dream representation of Arianne and Adler of Elster. Adler always stopping Elster from completing the promise is her just being incapable of doing the deed. She hesitates from carrying out the promise and every time she fails to make the call she degrades further.
Isa (Isolde) is a representation of Ariannes will to end her own suffering, but she's incapable of doing so. After all, her goal is to get to Falke. First being stopped by her own love for Elster (Adler) and then her suffering so much she's willing to harm Adler (Elster) in order to wake her up from stasis. Isa just disappearing after and appearing at "random" supports this. Her dying in the bookstore after saying how she failed is Arianne becoming too frail to take matters into her own hands even if she wanted to. Elster mourning Isa's death is Elster understanding just how badly ill Ariannes has fallen.
Every sequence outside of the ship is Elsters process of being awoken from stasis by Arianne, while the second ship sequence is Elsters actual memory.
Furthermore i am convinced that all endings are cannon in a way. Memory is Elster hesitating once again, Promise is Elster finally doing the deed, and Leave is Elster now facing her own end. Lily is mostly symbolic for the sacrifices we are willing to make for those we love.
Its a beautiful love story of a couple facing their looming death while raging against the dying light until finally accepting the end. Disguised with a fuck ton eldritch horror and very loud noises. 10/10 genuinely made me tear up.
Actually I'd say the only dream part is the ending. Ending the cycle only metaphorically involved coming back to the ship (metaphor for confronting her trauma). Otherwise you're throwing away all worldbuilding that has no reason to exist if it's just a dream (specific details such as Sierpinski and Nowhere, the creation of the V2 Elsters...) and would render the very interesting worldbuilding of Signalis completely meaningless.
@@Blue-hx8qu I never subscribed to the thought of dream-stories invalidating worldbuilding.
After all, your thoughts shape who you are despite not being "real".
Is a dreadful monster hunting someone any less important just because they're in a psych-ward?
I also like the futility of such stories as they highlight how nothing really matters if you focus on the important things in life. Here we have a story of two lovers doomed to die in solitude having made a suicide pact because the alternative is just too horrible to bear.
Its not about the station or the robotic zombies. Its not about the fleshy walls or the bright red screen. They are window dressing which solely exist to give the player an anchor to cling to. Another facete from which to observe the central plot.
This works because there only are two characters in the entire game presented by five in total. The window dressing is just another layer of the two protagonists (assuming my theory is correct).
What can i say? I like dark and gloomy lovestories. And having all of it been for "nothing" makes it just that much darker.
It also explains the eldritch horror side of the story. Its a really messed up dream slowly corrupting itself until elster wakes up. Its a perfect representation of elsters psyche degrading both by being forced from stasis and facing the traumatic thought of killing her loved one. The perfect kind of messed up. I like it a lot.
And to add to this: The worldbuilding doesnt have to be undone. Sierspinski is a memory. The lore found throughout the game is real, but the fucked up shit is a nightmarish representation of it. The whole eldritch horror aspect of signalis is the process of a replika units personality degrading.
@@dektarey4024 No the thing is none of them have any reason to know about Sierpinski or the very intricate inner workings and hierarchies of the facility. Or come up with such a complicated plot about the Vineta war and the V2 Elsters even, like dreams are built from your memories, nothing truly new is created (and if you resort to the sci-fi bioresonance explanation, that opens a can of worms that would have to be explained by the events actually being real).
Stuff like persona degradation is also established to be kind of flimsy like many other concepts, because you don't know how much of it is sci-fi and how much is just an authoritarian government dehumanising its citizens, by calling completely normal human behaviour deviant, to justify oppression.
Also that theory works by basically putting thematic parallels and dream scenarios in the same box, like just because Adler is a parallel to Elster doesn't mean he literally is Elster.
I suppose you're entitled to your own interpretation, but there's a reason people don't like dream endings. It's like writers chicken out because they feel the world they've built isn't cohesive enough or might be scrutinized way too much for them to keep up, so they throw it all away. It's pretty sad to see, like an artist who's too much of a perfectionist and completely scraps projects that were good in everyone else's eyes.
@@Blue-hx8qu If you find ARA Unit hidden in one of the vents, she calls out "Persona Degradation" being simply bunch of crap to keep them obedient and working - when exposed to art they begin to deviate from carefully selected (and then lobotomised - why would a worker unit need memories of her previous life? That could give them... ideas.) mental imprint of soon-to-be perfect worker.
It is interesting that PD is not like any other "AI degradation" like in other media - they simply develop creative, abstract thinking that is unnecessary for a worker-unit (from nationalistic standopoint).
16:53 the giant bulging mass of flesh is not actually an indication of a cleared room. It always manifests as long as you just pick up the tarot card of that room regardless of wether you took the other item with you.
I think he meant that when that mass claims a door, you just don't have to care about the room anymore, regardless of whether you picked it clean or not.
1:11
You sure as hell are not alone in this awkwardly specific passion my dude
So normally, i disregard spoilers because TV and media are so reused that i can usually predict the ending right away. but for you Bricky, just this once i pissed off and bought the game. This game has been on my radar for a minute and you've pushed me to get it.
i shall return in approximately 1-3 days to express my joy or disappointment :)
So what are your thoughts?
This was 6 days ago! Don't keep us in suspense!
The game ate his soul. Nice
@@jackmesrel4933 as the game, I can confirm I ate his soul
My man died playing Signalis. Pour one out for the real one.
I love how I got to Signalis before Bricky, and I finally get to watch him talk about something I’m super passionate about.
Also, speedrunning this game is extremely fun. When you get all 4-5 endings, there’s so much replayability when you find out what tricks this game has.
What's the 5th ending? I know about promise, remembrance, leave and the secret one
I think the inventory capacity could be fixed pretty easily with an in-lore explanation. Near the middle or after the middle of the game, you could find a note left by someone who's developing rebellious thoughts to the regime. Thus, they are developing an illegal upgrade that adds 2 more inventory slots, raising the capacity by 2. It should also be an optional upgrade that, like the revolver, should have a sort of puzzle attached to it. Like using a machine to remake a broken key that opens a locker of confiscated items in a security room. The backstory could be that the rebel was caught and their illegal upgrade was confiscated by the protektors.
That's some decently clever lore behind an inventory capacity upgrade.
I know there's that +2 slots mod, but Imo using it would be breaking one of the fundamental mechanics of the game. Not only would it make the game significantly easier and less tense (in a game that's designed around tension), it would also go against the lore and its fixation on the number 6.
I guess that could circle back to your idea of it being an illegal upgrade that's designed to shake up their ideologues.
The fact that this game was made by 2 people from Germany is just crazy, this game is just a masterpiece and I got the Promise Ending on my first playthrough which I would consider as the "good" and "true" ending but there is no good or bad ending in this game, espically a true ending lol
Also imma say it again, I think Signalis is an alternative reality where the Germany and Japan won WW2, took over the world and then expanded throughout the galaxy!!!
This is exactly the vibe that im getting from this game ... also robot waifus, who doesnt that ?
I have zero idea where you got 1940s Germany vibes from. The imagery is more evoking of east Germany if anything. Not to mention the whole point is that they are stuck in that one system and you get send on the suicide scout mission to find a way out of it
@@MrSternkraft Probably the fascism-ness.
It's certainly an alt history, but no not the Axis. Rather the Russians either won the cold war or at least the soviet union persist. The nation behind all this is communist east Germany.
That's a very interesting way of putting the story signalis is so full of mystery
I actually think the divergence point of the Signalis verse goes further back. Don't read further if you haven't beaten the game. *Spoilers below*
It seems to me like the world of Signalis is one where *IMPERIAL* Germany won the FIRST world war, survived well into the 20th and 21st century and became the premium nation of immigrants kind of like the US in our world, only instead of Hispanics, they received A LOT of Asians instead. There was no Nazi regime that rose and instead the old monarchy along with the Prussian nobility held onto power. But wait! You ask, that sounds nothing like the Eusan nation!!!
As Sternkraft noted, the vibe the Eusan Nation gives out is basically German Democratic Republic in space. A lot of people (at least here in America) don't pick up the nuanced differences between right wing fascism and left wing authoritarianism. There are a lot of integrated Asians in the Eusan Nation and usage of A lot of different Asian languages in the buildings and documents, I don't think Nazi Germany would have liked for such a mixture or indulged other language usage for buildings and official documents. Communists authoritarians are big on ideological uniformity, not so much ethnic uniformity.
Remember that according to some lore we find in the last area of the game (I think it was the banned book in the Itou bookstore), basically revealed that the Eusan nation is a revolutionary offshoot the *Eusan empire* which implies that the major world power in the 21st century, was a monarchy of sorts. This is the biggest thing that implies that the divergence point was WW1 NOT WW2. The lore also mentions it was "the grand empress" who was a bio-resonant and was the one who basically uplifted humans into space. Again, pointing to something more akin to *Imperial Germany.*
From this, it can be extrapolated that the Eusan nation is basically a kind of delayed communist uprising sometime in the late 21st century or early 22nd century (the timeline I believe Signalis takes place in btw). Their world never had anything like the USSR it seems, but since communism didn't get a foothold here, it lingered on until "the great revolutionary" (The person Falke is based off and implied to be a powerful bioresonant as well) came around and started a civil war. This also explains why the Eusan nation is so strangely fractured. They have earth but not Mars. This makes sense as they broke away from the already existing Eusan Empire.
All this tells me that it was actually *Imperial Germany* where the Eusan Nation comes from, NOT Nazi Germany.
I can only imagine how painful it must have been watching bricky do some of these puzzles live
Surprisingly he was quite perceptive for the most part!
@@Jormyyy except the revolver part… and explosive rounds…
@@KooffeeK I did say for the most part 😂
Made the eager mistake of watching a full playthrough with all the endings BUT I’m still gonna buy it and knowing my brain, I’ll forget all the details and be able to still experience everything first hand. I love artsy psych-horror type games Signalis was so beautiful that I the temptation to watch a play through was too strong. Shout out to the indie devs for making an absolute banger
Honestly after watching how you introduced it, i'm actually going to listen to the game reviewer for the first time in my life and not finish the video until i have beaten that game, i'm stopping at 8:27 and shall come back another day, See ya soon Bricky 🙏
Make sure to remember your promise. Godspeed
Welp i just finished the game, what a ride holy shit
Future Bricky was quite the nice fellow. Would love to see you collab more with him in the future.
I never thought that a down right depressing semi-lovecraft anime game with strong horror elements would be the sole reason i finally find a colour scheme for my T'au models.
I like the fact that you can only hold six items because it forces you to risk backtracking through a room and reviving a bunch of enemies. This always filled me with tension even though it was just busywork. That is quite the achievement for a game. It led me to some interesting situations where I could opt to leave more stuff behind, but I would expose myself to the possibility of being caught without ammo or health-kits. (Notice that many of the main puzzles require five or even six items.)
Being able to carry more might mean the difference between completing a puzzle in two or three trips or doing it in one. On subsequent playthroughs, I might become daring enough to leave all my equipment behind when I know for a fact that I have a clear shot to the puzzle room with all of the relevant items.
I eventually decided that it wasn't worth taking any key items with me until I knew exactly what to do with them and if I wanted to heal I'd have to go back to a save room. This let my carry more guns but still didn't leave much left over for ammo pickups and key items I'd find along the way. So I was always walking this tight rope and had to steel myself before making another push into unexplored territory.
I’m really tempted to listen to the “go play it first, don’t spoil it for yourself” warning, but I’m also really fucking tired and just want to watch the new video from one of my favs
Edit: Fine Bricky, you got me with the “I’m disappointed in you”, I’ll heed your warning. I’ll come back here after playing the game to say if it was worth it or not.
EditEdit: I’m only half way through the game (I think) and I can already say it’s worth it.
EditEditEdit: After forgetting about it for a long time, I finally went back and finished the game. I didn't realize I was less than like 30 mins from finishing the game, but I did it. 9/10 Great game, great atmosphere, great gameplay. My only complaint is that the game felt overall a little short, and it also felt like the ending was really abrupt, and didn't tie up all the loose ends. But at the same time, an ambiguous ending feels very fitting for the game. Also, I never actually found the rifle, so I suspect that there's things I may have missed in the game.
EditEditEditEdit: Just watched to 28:49, there are multiple endings. Fuck.
Edit 5 (because I'm getting tired of typing Edit): FUCK, I fell for the fake ending. Ughh, 1 min brb
Edit 6: Ok, NOW I've finished the game. I got the memory ending. It definitely felt a lot more like satisfying conclusion, while still leaving things very ambiguous, but I feel like ambiguity is a very apt feeling to take away from this story. Game still feels a tiny bit short overall, but honestly its barely worth mentioning. ~10 hours for 1 playthrough is totally fine, not to mention going for all the endings would definitely take long enough for game length to not to be a concern anymore.
Maybe the Penrose Program was the friends we made along the way
I didn't play this before editing it. Pain.
One thing that's i've noticed about the presentation, is that the "cut-in info" thingy really reminds me of the SHAFT anime (Especially Monogatari series). It conveys more information that otherwise too long for it to put in the gameplay itself. Also the artstyle really similiar to BLAME!! manga and instead going Dyson Sphere and Silicon Lifeform like BLAME does, Signalis went to Lovecraftian Horror (Or more like King of Yellow Horror).
Also i would recommend BLAME manga!
I never expected you to cover this, especially knowing the anime aesthetic. It's my personal Indie GOTY in 2022, so much appreciated.
Also the whole "what genre is this?" at the beginning, haha, it's just survival horror (EDIT: seems like you cleared it up farther into the vid!). A love letter to the genre, and as a childhood fan of the RE/SH games who still enjoy them from time to time these days, Signalis is a game I never thought would be made again especially in this day and age. Extremely major props to the devs, they get my loyalty. I hope they make more games.
Im sure others have noted it but they did update the game so the flashlight and other mandatory items dont take up one of the 6 slots anymore
A nice update them made to the game is that they made it an optional setting for the flashlight to take up an inventory slot, so if you don't want that headache the normal setting won't take up space....and if you're a psycho you can have it like how it use to be
I just saw the Don't Try MV, and something about it made me cry. I never played this game, but I knew where the footage came from. I need to play this.
I believe the proper term for the aesthetic/art style is “retro-futurism.” As for the game genre, Survival Horror seems to fit. Of course, “survival horror” would also include things like Dead Space or Evil Within which don’t force as much backtracking and inventory management, so “Classic Survival Horror” may be more precise
I have finally come back to this video. After beating Signalis, and getting my very own ending.
And I just wanted to say, thank you Bricky for telling me to piss off. I had gotten that far in the video, the day the video came out.
And now I'm back. To finish out your watch time and get you paid
That style you’re talking about with the old sci-fi aesthetic is called Retrofuturism.
Another horror game that uses it is Observer, and it utilized it pretty well from what I can remember.
This game is a gem and a modern classic. Definitely one of the best modern survival horror games out there.
Also the flashlight isn't really a necessity. Its used for a couple of rooms but other than that you can ditch it.
"Their is this genera of games their isn't really a word for yet"
Describes Survival Horror as a genera.
Bricky your a gem.
I literally just so happened to get into Signalis myself this week during some time off work so this is excellent timing for my end. Also the term I've latched onto after hearing it to describe this particular flavour of sci-fi is "cassette-futurism".
The atmosphere of this game after playing it reminds me heavily of my favorite Manga called Blame. Dark future, lovecraftian horror and little to no dialogue or context. I love it.
26:56 "Stirb" is "Die" in German aka wenn someone says "geh und stirb" They mean "go and die" Also alot of the german borrowed words you said with like 90% accuracy (Gestalt meaning in a way Thing or Creation, Adler means Eagle etc.) Anyway Great vid you got me to play my now 3rd fav game of all time (right behind Amnesia the Bunker in 2nd and Hollow Knight in 1st)
this game is so good
it kinda pissed me off how a lot of my favorite channels didn't even acknowledge this game
I mean I get that they review popular games but I don't like how they review even the shittiest AAA games but not non-mainstream gems like these.
One note on the radio, the frequencies that are broadcasted are unique for every save. So don´t skip picking up the note in the interrogation room like I did. had to guess which number fits at every point later in the game.
My friends and I often watch one another play through games, Signalis was one that a friend randomly brought to stream that I had no idea what to expect.
Safe to say, it's absolutely excellent.
It's a little late, but I'm gonna leave it here;
I completed Signalis like 3 months ago, in the middle of summer, and I got the Promise ending. Now get this: On that day, the temperature was SCORCHING HOT, as the day progressed, it got even hotter, and even more SUFFOCATING, to the point where I almost passed out as I finished this game xD And because of this, this game, and this ending, shall forever live in my head like a PTSD, that it gave me. Every time I see Elster's eye, every time I hear a piece of music from this game, I GET CHILLES DOWN MY SPINE.
And I LOVE IT
Thank you for doing the Signalis reference, finally I can get my friend's signalis malarky
The genre name you are looking for is survival horror and the art style is called cassette futurism.
Deep rock galactic review when bricky.
I started watching this a while ago and quickly recognized how this was going, so I did what I did when MandaloreGaming recommended “No one lives under the lighthouse”, stopped watching, got it, played it, beat it, and came back
Good on ya Bricky
Cool review, I think the 6 inventory slots enhances the game and the decision making involved in clearing rooms. I hope with the patch we still have the option to play that difficulty but I'm not opposed to people using that option to enjoy this stellar game. Also Bricky I'm shocked you didn't make a joke about that one track in the ost named "kentucky meat shower"
It's really good to see this one covered, Signalis was an absolute gem. I finished my first playthrough 2 days ago and still can't stop thinking about it. Definitely going back for another run
This is the first games in years, that I didn't regret buying for multiple platforms.
RE1 gave you the option to play as Chris with 6 inventory slots or Jill with 8 slots. I like that system
Not even a minute into the video and brick is already talking about fuckbots. Im ok with this.
"Gun, healing, ammo, flashlight is basically the minimum,"
Me, leaving the safe room with just an uzi and a puzzle item "Maybe, if you're weak,"
Do you think Bricky learned about the secret grenade launcher after his own second playthrough? I hope he did.
3:40 the name of the style is "shit gets rusty all doors locked".
I have a feeling Bricky would like manga "Blame!"
Fun fact; "Die Toteninsel" uses the exact same motif as Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead op.29", of which Rachmaninoff wrote as a musical poem to Böcklin's painting. Rachmaninoff would make several revisions and significant changes to the piece over the years, much like the painting. It adds further depth to the game's many many inspirations.
I also think that it is very important that we do not label that as a "rip off" or theft in any way. I think its an homage to Rachmaninoff's compositions, which is an homage to Böcklin's paintings, and it's so thematically fitting with the game and the cutscene it plays in. It's only that motif that's the same. Die Toteninsel does something very different with that idea.
Edit; Forgot mentioning that "Die Toteninsel" means Isle of the Dead.
When Bricky giggles at the german word for DIE, you know we got a banger of a game
7:33 That's Raindrop! such a melancholy yet somehow uplifting composition. It was also used in the classic Halo 3 'Believe' commercials
It's been two weeks since the video dropped and today I finished Signalis. First Darkwood, now this. Thank you Bricky for opening my eyes to Indie masterpieces
5:09 It's called cassette futurism and I love its aesthetic
Games like these make me wish I could stomach even mild horror.
I'm glad I listened to Bricky and pissed off. You sold the game to me in the first 8 mins and I loved my playthrough
I hope more people hear about this game. Truly excellent.
I saw the reviews today, and they were usually one of 2 things.
Cosmic Horror.
Robot Lesbians.
And after watching this review.. *Yeah, It's time to play some fucking Signalis.*
Damn bricky pumping out content like a sweatshop this month
Coming back to this after playing the game and goddamn did it give me brainworms too. Even more as a queer woman, it just breaks your brain in the best way possible. 11/10 game.
I'm so happy that this game is getting the credit it deserves
It’s also funny that the “rule of six” also bleeds into the world design as well. Like, not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but when you pay attention, you start seeing hexagons and triangles everywhere. Noticing that the radio has six distinct frequencies was a highlight for me.
The word I think you were looking for was “cassette-punk”.
Or CRTpunk.
I saw this video when Bricky first put it out, but followed his advice and waited to watch it. I finally bought and finished my first play through of Signalis and I'm so glad that I waited! I'm not usually a horror person, and can be very jumpy, so this game was definitely pushing my comfort levels a lot (especially when it came to the gore). However, it also became quite the brain worm for me too, and now all I can think about is how to get other endings, if there are any! Thank you Bricky for highlighting this game! It deserves every single bit of praise it's getting!
This was a great video never seen nor heard of the game so thank you for introducing me to this
Bro watched the complete video in 2 minutes
@@idkusername5789 he has a time machine
19:27
Pitch black in my room, late at night, watch this part
Yeah, well, back on with every light in the goddamn house, I'm going to be hearing that in my sleep
I like the ammo are named “后羿”. its a pretty deep cut into chinese lore. which is an acient story about how in ye old time there were 10 suns in the sky and everybody was dying cause you know 10 suns. and this guy named hou yi decided fuck that shit I amma shoot them down. and he did shoot down 9 suns. the last one was like oh shit he about to kill my ass I amma run. and you yi just gave chase. and that's why the sun rises and sets. cause hou yi is still chasing his ass. and houyi 后羿 being the ammo brand is a pretty dope idea.
1:58, Can't Killean the Zilean.. Mr Brick house, you continue to win my favor
At 27:00 you should know that stirb mean die. So the game is telling you: die die die...
Coming back to finally watch this video after beating signalis. Holy shit what a fuckin game
The signalis community experience is one moment seeing the best 1min animation that has more emotions into it than any big animation movie in the past 5 years, and then you see Elster dancing over Adler's dead body
Thanks for spoilers knob...
@@Lubble-trust me, it's not a spoiler
Real quick for anyone who has YT Premium: You can leave to play the game and still support Bricky's viewer retention if you hit the download button before leaving. It counts as an entire watchtime view by TH-cam, and I use it constantly to support creators when I'm a little too busy to view in full.
Saw video. Stopped video. Played Signalis. Had existential crisis. Came back to watch the rest.
The Brick never misses with his recommendations.
Why would you make a certified bricky video to make me play a game that I need to finish before I watch your video cause it has now picked my interest? Don't deny me this embrace!!
"Security cameras are following your every move."
No, they were supposed to do that when the facility was still functional.
I've found that best practices is to avoid any lone enemies. Even if they spot you, it's fine since they're not fast enough to catch you. Things get more complicated the more enemies you add, the more confined of a space it is, if the there are any ambush enemies that burst up from the floor tiles, and how often you need to pass through that room. The more of a thoroughfare the room is, the more opportunities the game will have to revive enemies and lead you to potentially waste more ammo.
I can't speak for the high difficulty mode, but the game is generally fairly lax about reviving enemies, but I did notice a pattern where there would be a recurring room with exactly two enemies that would frequently revive, so i figured this was the best place to apply a strategy with my thermite: I'd down both enemies then incinerate one of them. That way if the enemies revived there would be only one of them which can always be easily evaded as often as necessary.
That said, evading enemies and judicious use of thermite is small time. if you really want to save ammo, you're going to need to learn crowd control. You don't have to spend bullets on any target you don't have to fight, so naturally the game puts you in situations where there are so many zombies you can't possibly get past without something tearing your spleen out in the process.
The shotgun is underwhelming against single targets, barely seeming to deal more damage than the pistol, but is the absolute king of crowd control. There is even a room that exists specifically to teach you just how good it is by sicing a horde of a dozen enemies on you in a tightly packed together. Three shots and they're basically gone. It's unreal.
You need best pick is to load grenades into your signal flare. It'll pretty much one shot any unarmored targets in the blast radius.
You might thing the rifle is powerful, but the recoil is so terrible your enemies will almost be back on their feet by the time you stomp on them. It's a death sentence against multiple zombies and should be reserved for single targets to conserve ammo for your crowd control sources. The revolver deals good damage and is about as reliable as the pistol which goes a long way to compensating for the comparative scarcity of it's ammo. Deals knock-back which can be useful for punting zombies away from you so you can barge past without necessarily having to finish them off.
The SMG deals good damage but is otherwise unremarkable. It's high rate fo fire might make it good at suppressing waves of enemies.
That sci-fi aesthetic is called Cassette Futurism.
Also a Pre-B short cut CZ-75 in spess, noice.
Great video! I'm playing through it again and you didn't even really seem to spoil all that much. Love your content!