This is the best story overview of these games I've seen yet! Doesn't get bogged down in the weeds of each bit of story you get from the notes, but weaves it all together into once complete narrative (or, well, one really unconvincing lie of a narrative, and one obviously accurate one). Well done!
As everyone else has said, amazing work! I especially liked the "pop-ups" when important terms came up. One thing I don't think you mentioned is my favourite little connection between the two games: one of Indra's eventual powerups is a Breach Attractor that looks just like the one on Athetos's machine. From final boss super-weapon to in-game mechanic! Athetos probably just built a big one based on hers, but I have a pet theory that they're literally the same one -- maybe dimensional travel isn't guaranteed to preserve size. Indra could've been a giant when she got to Sudra -- not like it would've mattered to the Rusalki!
Thank you! Glad you liked it. The pop-ups were an idea that came up from someone who was part of the test audience. It was invaluable help. As for the fact you mentioned, I just did not know what to make of it. It's a breach attractor and it looks the same. It's obviously A'ansur technology but if it's the same or if it is a super common device, we cannot really know yet. Also, I've read other people speculate about the size mismatch of things but did never consider those speculations plausible. Of course, I am always open to read evidence for them.
I'm still in the middle of watching the video but I really liked your explanation of the world of Axiom Verge and the realities. There's many interpretations of the world of Axiom Verge, including a lot of multi-verse stuff, and I have put a lot of thought into it myself, but I think your explanation here aligns all the pieces perfectly.
Great video explaining the game. It really feels like I am watching a Sci Fi tv show episode. Tom Happ leaves these hints for us to put together but not all of us are so smart to connect all the dots. Thank you for putting this together.
Can't complete this video just yet, this is so cool that I have get the game and experience it. Your editing and writing is superb, incredible stuff! Looking forward to any other projects you may have!
Great video which breaks things down so well. Love these two games and I've just started a re-play (beginning with 2 and then going to 1 in order to follow the story chronologically) so this was perfect timing.
Now that I realize the ending to Axiom Verge 1 was Trace in a dream, I feel like Athetos with a gun was symbolic rather than literal - If your hypothesis is correct, and Athetos' monologue was meant to plant seeds of dissent in Trace's mind, this could easily be his mind running with the metaphor and using "Athetos" (as in, Athetos' words) to break him out of his delusion and leave him in the right mindset to rebel.
After theorizing a bunch, I came to the conclusion that it was Athetos arriving to and bonding with Trace as an Arm to wake him up from his coma. Athetos is supposedly very intelligent. I cannot believe he would simply be consigned to sit in his vat at the top of Mar-Uru to eventually rot away. No, Athetos pulled a Xanatos gambit. His half-hearted attempt to sway Trace was on the off-chance he actually could, but his main plan was to put on a show of a fight so he could pretend to die (instead becoming an Arm using the machine he was in) and possess Trace, the only clone of him that was _immune to the pathogen._ Plot twist, AV2 reveals that it was never Athetos's pathogen, it was Damu's/Indra's/Ophelia's. Think about it: a patternmind Arm with a patternmind wielder. Athetos/Trace would be unstoppable.
It's an interesting idea to say the least but why giving himself to Trace as an Arm before being able to convince him he is the good guy? Is it not more likely that Trace will use Athetos to serve the rusalki instead?
@@kartacha No, because the final act of the Rusulki was to lie to Trace yet again. I wrote a post on the Axiom Verge subreddit going into a detailed breakdown on my theory.
Just so everyone (even people without reddit) could read it: www.reddit.com/r/axiomverge/comments/1g453rs/theory_athetos_xanatos_gambit_some_observations/
Awesome recap and production on the video. One other thing I haven’t seen noticed around (I could be wrong here given AVs plot nature) is the fact that they talk about submarine tech being brought into the base by Hammond corp , eventually falling into the Kazakhs (drushkas) hands…..perhaps this technology was the starting point for rusalki bodies?? They maneuver through the air similar to submarines in water, both contain weapons, tube-like construction….. Maybe they studied and refined this tech in the “time valve” chamber in the emergence??
This story is a good example of non lovecraftian Eldritch-mess. Its humans interacting with the fringes of people/creatures who are way above them in scale, understanding and purpose. Like we humans use bees to pollinate, they use us to solve problems like the breach Attractor and the pathogen.
The blog of Filip Tsonkin (the illustrator of the thumbnail): filip_tsonkin.artstation.com/ The official Axiom Verge Discord: discord.com/invite/hngJJgz Another video that you could treat as a companion to mine. It's more speculative in nature but still a great watch and very insightful: th-cam.com/video/Kl_Sd4dryRE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Fi1uLHB3ijfjnSjh
I am first and foremost amazed that someone got reccomended the video. I like it. But I love that you will play the games. Making you guys do it was a goal of mine from the get go.
@@kartacha your presentation style is really gripping, thank you for making this video and introducing people to this. Might be the STEM bias from my career, but just exploring a grand story with simulation-theory philosophy is really interesting!
Yeah, Thomas Happ is a genius whose ideas and theories may not be entirely fiction. And the series' worldbuilding is masterclass. Fun fact, Tom Happ has the entire saga already mapped out, and his goal is to tell the entire story over the course of 5-6 games. The only problem is that he develops each game all by himself. Being a solo developer, it takes Tom 5-6 years to complete a retro-style game like this.
AV1 is awesome and definitely worth trying out. Banger soundtrack and fun exploration with some (very minor) randomness mixed in (there are glitched-out secret levels spread randomly throughout the map whose placements are determined at random when you begin the game). 2 is also good, but be aware that you’ll be following a different character who plays slightly differently from the first game’s protagonist. So don’t expect it to be exactly like the first.
So I have a theoretical rinkle for this franchise. In AV1 you are actually much smaller than in AV2. I think the Xedurs in 2 are actually the same size as the one from AV1.
Interesting idea. What about the Sudrans then? Were they undersized. If so, were they smaller from back when they were on Kiengir or did they become smaller somehow after they travelled to Sudra?
Did you also notice the difference between the 1st and 2nd time visiting The Emergence? When going there the first time, enemies are not hostile and smaller than in AV1 - noticably the snails are tiny and the nests of hostile bees are not hostile. But when revisiting The Emergence later, we get full scale snails from AV1 alongside a larger, now hostile nest. And Drushka has also grown by the end of the game. The transformation of NPCs happens when the player infects them with the pathogen - and according to the wiki the growth of the enemies in The Emergence also happens the same way. If the scale was truly different then the snails and nest would never look the same as AV1 and remain tiny. But since AV1 snails (which already have pathogen) and post-pathogen AV2 snails look identical the scale must be identical too.
Rusalki are not mermaids. That's a relatively modern fusion of different folklore creatures. Whereas mermaid is a half-woman half-fish creature, rusalka is all-woman malicious spirit.
In my native language they are used completely interchangeably nowadays. Honestly, I did not know that rusalki existed in mythology and are just water spirits. I always thought that in our mythology the role of the antropomorphic fish woman was taken by the kikimora and the role of the seductive spirit was taken by the vila, samodiva etc. Never knew that rusalka was refering to an actual mythological creature. Thanks for that note.
24:24 how is this possible? Easy. Carbon dating doesnt work unibersally. Only eith closed systems, like earth. You can do carbon dataing on another planet, sure, but you can't compair it to earth directly, if at all. Not to memtion, to do carbon dating, you need relics containing carbon, of which you know the age ahead of time, as well as know the chamges of the world your on. Like for example, if someone did atom bomb testing between then and now.
That's very insightful. Thanks for the explanation. So that means that we basically cannot take the carbon dating of the Sagigan ruins into account at all?
This is the best story overview of these games I've seen yet! Doesn't get bogged down in the weeds of each bit of story you get from the notes, but weaves it all together into once complete narrative (or, well, one really unconvincing lie of a narrative, and one obviously accurate one). Well done!
As everyone else has said, amazing work! I especially liked the "pop-ups" when important terms came up.
One thing I don't think you mentioned is my favourite little connection between the two games: one of Indra's eventual powerups is a Breach Attractor that looks just like the one on Athetos's machine. From final boss super-weapon to in-game mechanic! Athetos probably just built a big one based on hers, but I have a pet theory that they're literally the same one -- maybe dimensional travel isn't guaranteed to preserve size. Indra could've been a giant when she got to Sudra -- not like it would've mattered to the Rusalki!
Thank you! Glad you liked it. The pop-ups were an idea that came up from someone who was part of the test audience. It was invaluable help.
As for the fact you mentioned, I just did not know what to make of it. It's a breach attractor and it looks the same. It's obviously A'ansur technology but if it's the same or if it is a super common device, we cannot really know yet.
Also, I've read other people speculate about the size mismatch of things but did never consider those speculations plausible. Of course, I am always open to read evidence for them.
I'm still in the middle of watching the video but I really liked your explanation of the world of Axiom Verge and the realities. There's many interpretations of the world of Axiom Verge, including a lot of multi-verse stuff, and I have put a lot of thought into it myself, but I think your explanation here aligns all the pieces perfectly.
Great video explaining the game. It really feels like I am watching a Sci Fi tv show episode. Tom Happ leaves these hints for us to put together but not all of us are so smart to connect all the dots. Thank you for putting this together.
I am not that smart myself. It's a community effort putting those together.
Fantastic video. The universe of Axiom Verge is really intriguing and appealing. Even few years after finishing the game, I want to go back to it.
Can't complete this video just yet, this is so cool that I have get the game and experience it. Your editing and writing is superb, incredible stuff! Looking forward to any other projects you may have!
Thank you! I am giving it my all. I will work on my pronunciation as well in order to improve the production quality even more.
Great video which breaks things down so well. Love these two games and I've just started a re-play (beginning with 2 and then going to 1 in order to follow the story chronologically) so this was perfect timing.
I am glad you liked it. I hope it is a good companion for your playthroughs.
Now that I realize the ending to Axiom Verge 1 was Trace in a dream, I feel like Athetos with a gun was symbolic rather than literal - If your hypothesis is correct, and Athetos' monologue was meant to plant seeds of dissent in Trace's mind, this could easily be his mind running with the metaphor and using "Athetos" (as in, Athetos' words) to break him out of his delusion and leave him in the right mindset to rebel.
Interesting idea. I never even considered it. If I could pin two comments, I would have pinned yours now too.
After theorizing a bunch, I came to the conclusion that it was Athetos arriving to and bonding with Trace as an Arm to wake him up from his coma.
Athetos is supposedly very intelligent. I cannot believe he would simply be consigned to sit in his vat at the top of Mar-Uru to eventually rot away.
No, Athetos pulled a Xanatos gambit. His half-hearted attempt to sway Trace was on the off-chance he actually could, but his main plan was to put on a show of a fight so he could pretend to die (instead becoming an Arm using the machine he was in) and possess Trace, the only clone of him that was _immune to the pathogen._ Plot twist, AV2 reveals that it was never Athetos's pathogen, it was Damu's/Indra's/Ophelia's.
Think about it: a patternmind Arm with a patternmind wielder. Athetos/Trace would be unstoppable.
It's an interesting idea to say the least but why giving himself to Trace as an Arm before being able to convince him he is the good guy? Is it not more likely that Trace will use Athetos to serve the rusalki instead?
@@kartacha No, because the final act of the Rusulki was to lie to Trace yet again. I wrote a post on the Axiom Verge subreddit going into a detailed breakdown on my theory.
Just so everyone (even people without reddit) could read it: www.reddit.com/r/axiomverge/comments/1g453rs/theory_athetos_xanatos_gambit_some_observations/
Awesome recap and production on the video.
One other thing I haven’t seen noticed around (I could be wrong here given AVs plot nature) is the fact that they talk about submarine tech being brought into the base by Hammond corp , eventually falling into the Kazakhs (drushkas) hands…..perhaps this technology was the starting point for rusalki bodies??
They maneuver through the air similar to submarines in water, both contain weapons, tube-like construction…..
Maybe they studied and refined this tech in the “time valve” chamber in the emergence??
This story is a good example of non lovecraftian Eldritch-mess.
Its humans interacting with the fringes of people/creatures who are way above them in scale, understanding and purpose.
Like we humans use bees to pollinate, they use us to solve problems like the breach Attractor and the pathogen.
The blog of Filip Tsonkin (the illustrator of the thumbnail): filip_tsonkin.artstation.com/
The official Axiom Verge Discord: discord.com/invite/hngJJgz
Another video that you could treat as a companion to mine. It's more speculative in nature but still a great watch and very insightful: th-cam.com/video/Kl_Sd4dryRE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Fi1uLHB3ijfjnSjh
I love all things AV, so thank you for this!
This is so easy to follow, thank you for the info cards!
I am glad they helped someone. They were the idea of the test audience. Their participation in this project was a game changer.
Got recommended this randomly, man I am getting myself this game and the sequel when I get home, this is gripping stuff!
I am first and foremost amazed that someone got reccomended the video. I like it.
But I love that you will play the games. Making you guys do it was a goal of mine from the get go.
@@kartacha your presentation style is really gripping, thank you for making this video and introducing people to this.
Might be the STEM bias from my career, but just exploring a grand story with simulation-theory philosophy is really interesting!
Yeah, Thomas Happ is a genius whose ideas and theories may not be entirely fiction. And the series' worldbuilding is masterclass. Fun fact, Tom Happ has the entire saga already mapped out, and his goal is to tell the entire story over the course of 5-6 games. The only problem is that he develops each game all by himself. Being a solo developer, it takes Tom 5-6 years to complete a retro-style game like this.
I am all in on the Axiom Verge saga. Will be there making videos about it in the future to come.
@@kartacha Glad to hear it.
Never heard of this game but I really enjoyed this video!
You can always try it out. I bet you won't regret it, if you liked the video.
@@kartacha I think I will! Just saw it’s on switch so I’ll check it out this week :)
AV1 is awesome and definitely worth trying out. Banger soundtrack and fun exploration with some (very minor) randomness mixed in (there are glitched-out secret levels spread randomly throughout the map whose placements are determined at random when you begin the game).
2 is also good, but be aware that you’ll be following a different character who plays slightly differently from the first game’s protagonist. So don’t expect it to be exactly like the first.
Wonderful video, thank you for your hard work!
Very deep theory, amazing video .
I hope you do one for Axiom Verge 2 as well. Never mind, I see that you covered both games.
I fulfil requests even before they were made.
Holy crap, THANK you man!
Great video brother. I hope you cover more games.
Reminds me of deep scp lore. Looks cool
My congratulations, Мосю Karacha…!!!! 🎉🎉🎉
Do you still have the link to the blog mentioned at 1:07 ?
That's the one. I am glad you are asking for it. It's a wonderful read.
www.thomashapp.com/omniverse
@@kartacha Insane, thanks a bunch!
Indeed, from the snippets shown in the video, it looked wildly interesting!
So I have a theoretical rinkle for this franchise. In AV1 you are actually much smaller than in AV2. I think the Xedurs in 2 are actually the same size as the one from AV1.
Interesting idea. What about the Sudrans then? Were they undersized. If so, were they smaller from back when they were on Kiengir or did they become smaller somehow after they travelled to Sudra?
Did you also notice the difference between the 1st and 2nd time visiting The Emergence? When going there the first time, enemies are not hostile and smaller than in AV1 - noticably the snails are tiny and the nests of hostile bees are not hostile.
But when revisiting The Emergence later, we get full scale snails from AV1 alongside a larger, now hostile nest.
And Drushka has also grown by the end of the game.
The transformation of NPCs happens when the player infects them with the pathogen - and according to the wiki the growth of the enemies in The Emergence also happens the same way.
If the scale was truly different then the snails and nest would never look the same as AV1 and remain tiny. But since AV1 snails (which already have pathogen) and post-pathogen AV2 snails look identical the scale must be identical too.
@kasPWI I hadn't considered that angle. And now I've gotta replay both of them to look for this. Also, what wiki? I gotta devour all of it.
@ The Wiki page for The Emergence
Rusalki are not mermaids. That's a relatively modern fusion of different folklore creatures. Whereas mermaid is a half-woman half-fish creature, rusalka is all-woman malicious spirit.
In my native language they are used completely interchangeably nowadays. Honestly, I did not know that rusalki existed in mythology and are just water spirits. I always thought that in our mythology the role of the antropomorphic fish woman was taken by the kikimora and the role of the seductive spirit was taken by the vila, samodiva etc. Never knew that rusalka was refering to an actual mythological creature. Thanks for that note.
24:24 how is this possible?
Easy.
Carbon dating doesnt work unibersally.
Only eith closed systems, like earth.
You can do carbon dataing on another planet, sure, but you can't compair it to earth directly, if at all.
Not to memtion, to do carbon dating, you need relics containing carbon, of which you know the age ahead of time, as well as know the chamges of the world your on.
Like for example, if someone did atom bomb testing between then and now.
That's very insightful. Thanks for the explanation.
So that means that we basically cannot take the carbon dating of the Sagigan ruins into account at all?
TIL touching people turns them into monsters in 2.
Oops.
Thought this was a Warhammer vs Star wars fan vidya
Due to the cover art?
@@kartacha the name mainly never knew axiom was a game
The channel name is a fan with too much time. It's pretty good. Long and is a audio drama
Milcho Kartacha got nothing on you 😄🔥