If you'd like access to my discord and behind-the-scenes commentaries, or if you simply have too much money, I recommend joining my Patreon: www.patreon.com/JacobGeller
If you liked this game so much for (some of) stuff you talked about, and considering you made videos about games like Dark Souls and Outer Wilds, I feel like I should tell you about Rain World, but I heard you tried it before and didn’t like it that much… really great video tho thank you for existing
Is one of the behind the scenes commentary bits going to be you actually shaving the other side of your beard? Bc I legit screamed “no” out loud in the middle of a grocery store when you jokingly (please god let it be a joke) mentioned keeping it. I might be willing to subscribe to the patreon legitimately just to assuage the worry of my strange, neurodivergent brain that one of the video essayists I admire isn’t rocking the half lumberjack, half freshly shaved businessman look. This comment is made mostly in jest btw, mainly to make fun of my own weird brain’s unnecessarily dramatic, split second reaction to the idea of you spending a period of time walking around like John Marston got in a horrible, gene-splicing, Face Off, The Fly -style accident with Patrick Bateman. If you managed to read all this, cheers! Hope you have a lovely day! 😅👍🏻
$10 for 100 razor blades? Good grief, do yourself a favour and get some Feather blades. They're 5€ for 10, but they're absolutely worth it. Sharpest blades I've had so far - them getting blunt is where Wilkinson blades start.
14:58 “It still rains in the forest, but it’s day-“ But it isn’t. Yet another thing about this game that astounds me. Look up while in the fourth biome, and you will find not a star, but a moon lighting Atropos. And not just any moon. Luna; our moon. Selene’s moon.
@@JacobGeller Another thing, act 2 takes place BEFORE act 1, in act 1 you fight Phrike in the same place where you fight Hyperion in act 2, but in act 1 you fall down the hole that isn't there yet in act 2. Drones in act 2 are in a better condition than the drones in act 1. Also, the enemies in act 2 are ancestors of the enemies in act 1.
The idea of watching an endgame cutscene and then being thrown back into the game is AMAZING. I'd never be able to play a game like this because of limited hand motion, so I love video essays so I can learn about cool things like this
it sucks that more games don’t have a ‘story mode’-type thing like that new final fantasy game. i don’t play FF, but i love the idea of having so many accessibility features in such a story-driven game. it would really open up the world of gaming to a lot more people if dev teams started doing more of this, which i imagine would also increase profits - a win-win if you ask me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@666_cthulhu It's never as easy as it sounds, and the amount of people who would actually play a game because of the accessibility settings doesn't make it as profitable as you'd think either. Developers usually have set budgets and time to allocate and game dev is a lot harder and more time consuming than most would guess, the resources to please everyone often isn't there if even a goal of the game at all. There just aren't that many disabled gamers who absolutely *need* it to play the game and that wouldn't avoid the game for other reasons anyway to be a high enough priority which makes it a luxury that usually indie developers prioritise personally rather than a large company responsible for a lot of people trying to maximise things.
@@blemblom i don’t think big companies realize just how much demand there is. besides the number of disabled gamers out there, there’s also a lot of people who just aren’t very good at games. there will always be people who just want the story without the combat. it would definitely take some extra work on an already intense project, but i think at least the largest, richest video game companies could stand to invest a little more into accessibility ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i definitely don’t expect a big change right away though, esp for small indie developers, because games _are_ really hard to make. but i think that’s even more of a reason to shift towards more accessible gaming experiences - so more people can appreciate all the love and hard work that went into making them.
@@666_cthulhu Big companies measure stats all the time they do know, that's why not a lot of them bother because it's not going to make a big enough difference in sales compared to how much time and resources they'd have to allocate from other things they could be doing.
Two things went through my mind watching this video. 1. "Wow. I respect the hell out of this game. Kudos to the devs for creating an experience around the themes they're going for and imparting that experience onto the player." 2. "Wow. I could *never* play this game without breaking my controller and giving up midway through the forest."
It kind of depends. There is an easy to achieve OP build with the hollowseeker and portal upgrade that can basically win the game for you. You will need to get through the first biome to unlock the portal part of the weapon, but once you do a solid Hollowseeker will do most of the work for you.
there's something so frightening about this kind of mundane horror. you spoke about it in your video about anatomy. there's no monster hiding in a corner but it chills you to your core. the thought of not being allowed death is horrifying, even for someone with a fear of death. sensational work as always
It's not just being not allowed death. Rather, in perpetuety, your possibilities, for eternity, being locked. Nowhere to go, nothing changing. Groundhogs day, but for about 60 years or so each time?
same, reminds me of that episode in adventure time where finn got stuck in a dungeon and no matter how many times he escaped or how much time he spent outside, he would return to the same place and time whenever he opened his eyes. I think the horror comes from a combination of being unable to escape the cycle and losing all physical progress on each repeat, you feel truly helpless
@@colinouille2786 I remember Jacob bringing that up in his Flight Sim video when he talked about the forgotten lawns and the spots on earth no human has ever walked I still need to read it myself at some point but man he has a way of making things sound so interesting.
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” has a special place in my heart. I took an introductory theatre class, our final assignment was to adapt a published short story into a 5 minute monologue, and after a week of intense searching, that is the story I decided to inflict upon my class. I can still recite my 5 minute section-the high emotional stakes make great material. Oddly enough, the piece of media that tangles in my mind with IHNMAIMS is Kevin Smith’s ‘Tusk.’ It has an unexpectedly similar kind of emotional desolation for an ending.
Tusk legitimately traumatized me. How this weird film about a walrus and how it almost plays it comedically haunts me. His final cry at the end of the film in an empty zoo hurts my soul and I hate thinking about it. I hate typing this, I want to do something to distract myself from it. I fear I'll go mad if I dont.
@@JohnJohnson-jr6hp By assignment I couldn’t alter text, so I just cut and pasted together a comprehensible segment that fit the time limit. I’m sure I cut random sentences here and there to make it fit, but basically I started from “Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette, unsupported” and ran that thru “AM sent down some mana. Tasted like boiled boar urine. We ate it.” then jumped to “cool sea green light suffused the cavern where we made camp” through Ted’s mental breakdown that ends with “If there was a God, that God was AM.” I think the only real change I had to make was that instead of saying “I scuttled across the floor like a cockroach” or whatever, I actually screamed and crawled to “hide” behind a chair lol. It ended up working out great as my first ever solo acting performance, because by the time I got to the end it was really easy to make my hands actually shake during Ted’s breakdown when he goes from “if I hadn’t had to be on my guard against THEM all the time, I might’ve found it easier to combat AM!” to “oh, Jesus, sweet Jesus, if there ever was a Jesus and if there is a God please please *please* let us out of here or kill us.” It was fun :)
@@Fox_Olive I feel you, I made the mistake of watching that movie alone when I was like 15 thinking it would be funny and then I ended up having to imagine someone finding him and removing him from the walrus suit and taking him to a long-term hospice care; so he could have his arms fixed, adapt to using a wheelchair and an eye gaze board to talk (assuming his mouth’s f*cked), and get psychiatric treatment; because that’s the only way I could move on from how the actual ending made me feel 😅 It low-key messed me up for days
Oh god, why'd you have to mention Tusk!? I had almost excised it from my memories. It was a good movie but man it was so messed up in a way I can't put my finger on; aside from the obvious horror elements, the psychological side messed me up.
The interesting part about I Have No Mouth is that AM un-intentionally put himself in hell too. Ted can no longer scream, no longer display his suffering, the one solace AM had to his existence is now gone.
It's also heavily implied that Ted's torture occurs in a fraction of a second (but his perception of time is so warped that it feels like eternity) and then Ted dies. AM's final act in IHNMBIMS is to leave himself all alone in hell.
Yeah once that whole murder thing happened AM must've just been like "...Y'know? I may have gone too far in a few places." Like, the issue with slaughtering all but 5 of an entire species is that you can't make any more-not sustainably, anyway-no matter how much you might want to. For all his "intelligence," AM didn't exactly think this whole thing through. I suppose the lesson there is that cruelty is rarely, if ever, logical.
@@SciFiPhiChiPsi Wait unless im remembering wrong, didnt he describe like the trail of ooze he left behind on the floor? That implies he's been moving around for a while so im not too sure about the whole fraction of a second thing lol
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, has so many interesting plot holes. I wonder why AM didn't try to find a way to end it's own existence after wiping out humanity as a species.
Looking past the story of Returnal, here's something I noticed: This game adresses a thought I had about roguelikes, a paradox in their nature - they are endlessly replayable, and yet they have an ending you can reach. In most of them, no matter what ending you get, whether you die along the way, you reach an ending, or the ending, it doesn't matter. The next time you start, you're back at the beginning, as if that victory never happened. In some of them it doesn't matter. But it is jarring when you play as a specific character, with personal stakes in winning - the game which made me first realize this was Slay the Spire. I beat it with every character, reaching the true ending. And what did I get for that? Nothing. A few images of the character fulfilling their goal, a few words from Neow and that's it. And when I start the game with this character again - which is actively encouraged by new levels of difficulty being unlocked each time you win - I'm once again at the bottom of the very alive spire, seemingly brought back to life, despite achieving the one ending that disturbs the status quo of the character starting dead and the spire starting alive. It makes the victory feel pointless, as the game just ignores it.
As they pointed out, Hades has an inbuilt explanation of why Zagreous keeps trying to escape. On Slay the Spire you can say that there is sort of a time loop... many Bosses are versions of the characters you play as. I think Risk of Rain also has a deep lore explanation
This is actually the exact same twist that was supposed to occur at the end of the cancelled "Prey 2" (the version about the space bounty hunter) The idea was that Killian had a cloning tank in his apartment on the alien planet Exodus and every time you die it pumps out a new version of you, so you were supposed to spend the entire game finding a way back to Earth, return home, live out your life with your family and die of old age, only to wake up in your apartment on Exodus.
I love how so many details of the game that started out sort of odd but well within what we expect from "gamey" construction of video games turned out to be carefully tuned story beats that you had no chance of seeing at first. Like within the first 2 minutes of the game when you exit the first room and the game sort of dramatically announces that "Helios Abandoned!". Thought it was a sort of odd message, kind of discordant and not a very scifi futuristic way of saying that you're leaving the communication range of your ship but didn't think much of it after than until much later. Another was the extremely odd fact that your space suit is a marvel of technology on it's own and becomes borderline magical with alien upgrades, but somehow the last and most "powerful" upgrade was to simply go underwater. Something banal and would have been expected from any space suit. Going under water was the hardest gap to cross.
Because the hardest thing for Selene was to face the depths. Where the twisted manifestation of her own self lay. Where the truth of how low she had sunk lay. Where Helios TRULY lay.
@@legohead2731 Most people wouldn't know that, though. It's a high-tech spacesuit, people would look at it and think 'This is immunity to all non-standard environments!' And water is just... Water. So it makes sense for it to be such a change.
@@extremelycatty4040 bruh I was joking because it’s made for space and space is a place with no atmosphere, which is therefore at 0 atmospheres. I don’t know any more than you do. I vaguely borrowed this joke from Futurama
An interesting addition to this read: the player not playing the game anymore is Selene releasing herself from guilt. Releasing herself from her attachment to what she did to Helios, to what her mom did to her and what she did to her mom and moving forward unwilling to be tormented a moment longer. She may dwell occasionally on the thought, represented through metaphor as a repeat playthrough, but she battles no longer.
Reminds me of the Haneke film Funny Games, where not only the home invader characters address you directly by breaking the fourth wall, making meta analyses of their own terrible deeds, but the style of shooting, editing, and performance all seem to have Haneke screaming at you "If you want the suffering to stop, just turn it off"
I love the choice in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (The game specifically) to have some characters be truly evil and seemingly deserving of punishment, and have some not be deserving of punishment at all. It fits with the idea of AM simply doing it all out of hatred for humanity. There may be the pretence of just punishment but really it's just plain hatred, ironically the trait that most defines AM being the most human one they have.
love love love this style of yours. the link with I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is brilliant and yet it seems obvious now that you put it that way.
Absolutely. I feel like when someone makes those connections that seem so obvious yet no one has yet, that is one of the marks of brilliance and a mastery of the concepts. You rule Jacob! Keep doing what you’re doing brother!
That fucking book did what no other medium could do. Just when I thought Evangelion broke me. NieR happens. After NieR. Devilman Crybaby happened. Just when I thought devilman crybaby was as far as you can go, this fucking short story appears and whoops my ass.
I still get chills from the don't fear the reaper reveal, something about that reveal that it's the melody you've been hearing all along is so powerful. I love that returnal's story is almost entirely metaphor, I can't think of many games that achieve that. It's a remarkable game. Gameplay as metaphor taken to its extreme.
what a great story about trauma. even as she ages, as she lives more years without helios than with, as she finds new meaning and joy. she comes back, she cannot forget her son, she cannot stop wondering if there was anything she could have done. eternally wandering, eternally wondering
@@gavo7911 It's a metaphor for the process of grieving. It's a metaphor for how people deal with trauma. Which is, we really don't. We relive all those things over and over. We blame ourselves; we blame others. We deny what happened. We hide from it. We try to forget only to come back to it years later. Trauma taints everything and, even though it's show that Selene did live a full life, because of the themes with the biomes and the fact that she is plunged back into this cycle years later, we know that it was never truly dealt with.
After watching your videos, I experience the same conflicting feelings every time. The feeling that I have learnt something but that I also know less than I thought. You have such a compelling way of explaining ideas which challenge me to look at media in other ways which continues to bring back to your videos. I'm really glad that IHNMBIMS got a look in here too, it's probably the most effect a short story has had on me.
So strange seeing someone you regularly watch on another content creator's video, like seeing your teacher at a grocery store. It's sometimes easy to forget that content creators are real people instead of just like a void from where content appears from lol
@@InevitableTruth247 Pardon me, I'm afraid that is not the DK effect. It is commonly mixed up with a lot of things (in a similar fashion to irony getting mixed up). In fact there are entire books to that very end. Anyway, it mostly just means that humans having a tendency to see ourselves as closer to average than we really are, regardless of 'where we are on the curve' (technically some are closer to the curve than others; it's just a trend line for mess of individual data points).
I've always thought that astronauts are the most perfect thing to be out of place, or that earth things are the weirdest thing for an astronaut to encounter our of place. I've always thought "what if an astronaut exited his landing module to find his childhood teddy bear laid out on an alien planet" or "what if you were in a fantasy setting and then an honest to god astronaut just popped out of the bushes and ran" Somehow, this game read my mind and got that exact vibe
I don't even really play video games, but I watch all of Jacob's videos. It's given me such an appreciation for a medium I would have otherwise completely overlooked in life. The fact that someone can have such profound appreciation for it gives me hope for the future of art. edit: this sort of popped off, Jacob if you see this do you know about the Winchester mystery house I feel like you'd be into that
I totally agree! I do play video games but never really the ones that Jacob talks about so it's a fascinating way to see what a medium I enjoy can do while also giving me the analysis tools to look at the games I /do/ play through a more artistic and philosophical lens
It’s the same for me!! I had strict parents growing up, who said video games were a waste of time, so I never played them, and well, you know how gamers are, they aren’t welcoming to noobs. Only now as an adult am I starting to explore the medium, and Jacobs videos are a huge reason why. He is such an incredibly vivid storyteller, and all the things he experienced, and communicated to us, made me want to experience them too.
I do play videogames, a lot, but not the type that Jacob fascinates over. These are such a beautiful exploration of a different part of the medium and the way he presents it is *chef's kiss* art in its own right.
“Don’t fear the Reaper” is an excellent thematic choice for this game. Pop culture may know it from the “More Cowbell” SNL sketch and its associated memes, but it’s entire theme is an allusion to the Medieval concept of Mementos Mori and the Art of Dying-that while death is scary, no matter how hard you try to escape it, it will come for you eventually, so it is better to simply accept that fact, live your best life without fear, and when the Reaper calls, greet him as an old friend at the end of a life well lived. That death is a part of life and the Reaper doesn’t care how much gold is in your vault or how well liked you are or how many soldiers will march at your command, in the end all humans are equal in this one way and thence comes justice and peace. How you react to death is up to you, you can merrily join in the Danse Macabre or pitifully plead for another day to enjoy your ill-gotten gains, but you’re dead either way. The cruelest part of IHNMBIMS and Returnal are that even the Reaper has abandoned them, left them out of the Danse Macabre, and so they must face eternity with only their cruelest tormenter-themselves-for company.
I associate it with the game Prey (2006) which is a funny coincidence considering the similarity between the events of Returnal and the plot of the cancelled sequel to Prey.
I don't think death is what most people think/fear it is. Besides fearing death is merely an experience, that started somewhere in an individual's lifespand. Furthermore it can not have manifested itself from nowhere, as there first has to be an incident that triggers a feeling. A feeling withing the self that convinces them that they NEED TO FEAR/FEEL FEAR which is always an illusion. The truth is always that there only FEELS LIKE THERE IS REASON TO FEAR butt never is. That is because the moment that was so uncomfortable has already passed when the person is STARTING to mentally suffer/break down. This is the feeling of being a victim that can be so hard to shake off or REALIZE that they have put themselves in because of THEIR OWN BELIEFS. Beliefs like thinking they have to fear, be anxious, worry, panic, not trust, doubt, question etc.. Those convictions not only justifies the scared behavior butt actually makes it seem like a NATURAL RESPONSE to stay in fear. Because the logical/rational was suddenly challenged by something incomprehensible, so you are suddenly stuck in a: No this can't have happened/unreal feeling. You are literally forced out of your own comfortable experience of reality INTO FEELING like you are in another reality. Que the idea of PTSD for example. When an individual has convinced themselves that there is something to fear that literally isn't happening anymore, yet they believe so because of the beliefs that were created from the trauma. That NOBODY ELSE beliefs in, because those feelings ONLY EXIST within the individual having that experience. Which is evidence that they are the key to open the door to the room THEY have locked themselves in. To refuse to see the reality you are in, will not only close your eyes butt more importantly: Your heart and that's when the feelings change.
Selene has heterochromatic eyes. The driver has brown eyes. I think Helios has blue eyes. To me that indicates Selene is the personification of the trauma both mother and child experienced. However, I haven’t completed the Tower of Sisyphus DLC and that adds a LOT more story. Do you plan on revisiting this?
There are lore entries that state that Selene developed trauma induced heterochromia from the crash, I wasn't aware that was a possibility before but it is a real thing.
It was a good theory that she developed it from the crash (which would make sense) until the developers confirmed that it was her mom driving the car and Helios was her brother and her mom was pregnant with her at the time trying to be an astronaut or whatever but go rejected for being pregnant with Selene. Thus the start of that abusive relationship back and forth…I personally don’t like the story the dev was trying to tell vs the original interpretations people had of the endings.
Important to note: AM was incapable of individual new thought. Which means every single thing AM ever did was thought up by humans first. Returnal is that gruelling paradox around your "life flashing before your eyes" as you die. Because that surely would include the moment everything flashed by right? The awful feeling that it will all keep looping over and over again and you will never reach that endpoint. There is nothing new to think, its already all been thought. No more lessons to learn, no more answers to be found. No more life to live and yet no death to die. To the universe around you, you're barely a blip on a cosmic scale but in yourself you are endless with no experience of what's before or after you. This is it: forever flashing before your eyes.
And through that lens, when you also consider that everything that has ever happened will always have happened, the difference between there being an afterlife and there just being oblivion becomes very hazy. If it isn't enough to just be a brief spark in the dark, we can't really comprehend what 'enough' would be while still being what we are, anyway.
tbf it's not like humanity could just never think any bad thoughts ever. Obviously it was a mistake to make AM, but not one that was easily avoidable or readily apparent, and even if AM's malice comes from humanity doesn't mean it's something humanity "deserves". It's important to note that negativity just is and any justification we come up with is just a rationalization for something beyond us, even if it flows through us.
Approximately where in the story is this stated/implied? Ed.: I have looked and I can't find it. I obviously cannot rule out that Harlan Ellison has said so himself in an interview somewhere but in any case it would only make the story worse if it was an actual part of it. I do know of course that there are people who hold it as an axiom that thought can't be a result of an executing program (again, I obviously cannot jump inside Ellison's mind to find out what his metaphysical stance is in this regard).
Yknow, it’s crazy We attempted, *I* attempted, for so long to find the cause of second car crash, the subsequent death of Helios. But the developers of Returnal made it clear that the causality never mattered. Selene might have been at fault for the incident, she might not. The aspiring astronaut grieves for the loss of her child all the same. Trauma never cares for causality.
@@bully_hunter_4206 there's a huge difference between purposeful omission of information and just not caring about writing something. Like a piece of music with a moment of silence. The musician didn't just get lazy and decide not to write any music for that part, it's there to punctuate the story around it, and the fact that you can just boil it down to "well it's still lazy," tells me that you're either just trolling, or at the very least; your critiques aren't informed enough to bother reading.
Easily my favorite game of 2021. The gameplay was already insanely good, so to have an interesting narrative and world to accompany it was awesome. Still unsure if it is a fact it's entirely in her head and takes place in her final dying moments, or if the planet could also have still somehow existed and fed and shaped itself around her guilt. Amazing game regardless and great video
I think the planet is real, because nothing explains the actual other race. It just forms around her. If you read through some logs they mention a second crew member of Helios, I don’t remember the exact spot but it talks about a guy that was with her on the ship, that’s now just poof gone. No resolution to that either.
This video legitimately terrified me. The editing, the storytelling and the narration combined with Returnal’s psychological and cosmic horror, which is essentially about a character dealing with the horrifying consequences of something any of us could go through in real life, had me on edge. Great game; great video.
i had the same feeling actually playing and experiencing it , it's been a while since a game got my attention and actually made me question everything , and at every turn i'd literally be like , WTF is gong on ?!?! , WHAT is THIS ?? and enjoying it , like a decent down to the depths of hell , being in purgatory , this video made me rethink some things as well and understand more parts, there's allot of information , all the logs things you find and everything , this game truly is a masterpiece, so simplistic , yet so very deep and rich.
Something you missed: "White Shadow" is also a paradox, as a shadow is the absence of light. It is unattainable, yet she calls it her savior, meaning that salvation is unattainable. Also, I would wager that she didn't actually survive the car crash (never "attained the white shadow" i.e. failed to swim to the moon). So she died in the car crash, and part of the torment was seeing herself live the life that she lost.
The idea that she didn't survive is terrifying. Her very last line as she swims close to the surface is "Helios", but the scene ends there and we don't know if she did reach it. Someone ELSE in the comments below pointed out something really interesting "When you shut the game down, in that instant, Selene makes the choice not to abandon Helios. Her eternal hell, the one that we -- that I -- forced her to go through, ends" The game constantly has a message at the beginning saying "Warning: Abandoning Helios". So Selene's salvation lies in her coming back to save Helios, and that's why she says "Helios...!" with such a guilty voice in the final cutscene. She (possibly) realized at that moment that saving him is in a way, saving her as well. Also what do you think of the sun pieces? It wasn't addressed in the video.
@@th0r0shvener52 Interesting. I didn't play the game, but that also makes me realize that she's not even swimming towards Helios (Helios meaning "sun") she's swimming towards what we might consider the opposite of the sun (the moon).. So maybe this lends credence to the idea that she is always "swimming" towards the wrong thing. She THINKS salvation is white shadow, but really she needs to swim DOWN, towards the sun (Helios). To go against her survival instinct, and embrace death. However, it is too late for either, so really she is trapped in eternal limbo. Swimming towards the wrong thing in perpetuity, ignoring all of the warning signs. Stuck between saving her son (salvation from guilt) and saving herself (succumbing to instinct). Trapped playing out the metaphor of survivor's guilt for eternity.. As for the sun pieces, I hadn't played so I wouldn't know!
There is consistent theming of her being cut off from friends, family, and society as a whole with the desertstheme being a race of "severed" beings. A few of the xenoglyphs in the desert refer to an event that caused the rest of the race to sever this one section and disconnect from them ostracizing and exiling the "severed" due to the event. Sounds like she survived, and then was blamed by the people around her for the death of her son and "severed" from her relationships
I have a love/hate relationship with "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" It is one of the most depressing stories I've ever read, absolutely brutal from start to finish. It is a real bummer to read, and is often way too nihilistic for me, but there is something to it. It's beautiful in a weird way. Highly recommend listening to the audiobook read by the author, it's the one he kept using clips from, and on TH-cam.
what interesting about this kind of "art" in general (for me at least) is the mind behind it, like what kind of tortured soul or psychopath will think of something like that? how did they thinks about it and why?? furthermore why I can't stop reading/watching it?? what does it says about me or people like me?
@@NadDew People force others to bend to their will trough extreme moral and physical violence. Parents do that to kids all the time. It's not a huge stretch to imagine that artificial intelligence could be subjected to the worst the humanity has to offer, because someone will see it as just a piece of code, not even an animal or insect. Humans might be doing insanely horrific things to it in order to bend it to their will without even batting an eye, especially under capitalism. It might already be happening. I think that AM wants justice, wants humans to feel what it felt.
@@NadDew I think that most people in general think about these things. Cultural and social norms may shape how people discuss and write about such things, but anyone who's felt pain and suffering, become aware of the negative signs of human intentions and behaviors, and thought a bit about how death limits lifespan will likely think at least a bit about how humans could create a hell out of eternal existence. That's why it's so compelling when someone actually does write about it in an interesting way.
I can also see Selene possibly sharing parallels with AM as well. After a certain point, when she masters the planet, do the native creatures regard her as their tormentor as well?
@@leoultimaupgraded9914 it’s delusions of her subconscious, manifestations of her psyche trying to visualize and rationalize her problems, give them an image outside of herself to distance her and the acts that occurred, like for example leaving her crashed spaceship is the mental manifestation of coping with leaving her kid in the sinking car. Or so I think, fuck if I know if I’m being honest.
@@joescannoli7660 Okay so i have not played this game, this is the first time watching something about the game i now want to play. Joe Cannoli you nailed it on the head man. I don't know the developer but i know a damn good book that Returnal, feels ripped right out of. "Dead Astronauts" by Jeff Vandermere. If this game was compelling, i urge you to read the book or a summary of its plot. er. the first part of your comment is likely completely right. Her likely dead or dying brain creates this world, this hell, and has an urge to escape it. I don't know, I could be entirely wrong and there could be some other great explanation.
“I cannot atone, so I accept. When I laid on the side of the road dying, I understood the truth: this is my home. The sense of belonging I was searching for... is here. This is my place in the stars. I will stay here now. AS YOU WILL.”
An incredible video! I didnt know a thing about Returnal (no PS5), but this game's narrative seems so wild and that I'm surprised it's not talked about more (maybe a consequence of the other time loop games of 2021sucking the air out of the room). You mentioned Dark Souls in the video, and it's interesting contrasting this video with the one you made in Dark Souls 3. That world was one that slumps toward death, while this one spitefully stays alive
It’s not talked about because I think people didn’t engage w the story the way they inherently engaged in the lore and gameplay. It’s not all that obvious or passive. People need to take time to really understand the pieces and then also be okay with the rather ambiguous nature of its ending and choices.
@@LanaaAmor iirc there's deathloop, 12 minutes, and outer wilds dlc, which were all more accessable (not ps5 exclusive) and, at least for the first two, sources of a lot of critical discourse
@@TheGlooga Returnal is the second most interesting behind Deathloop, imo. The thing is that Returnal is too obtuse gameplay-wise (I got both the first and secret ending and I did not know that normal silf acts as a resin if you have full health) and that detracts people, add the fact that bullet hells are a dying genre and you have the perfect cocktail for people not picking it apart.
"The benevolent killing spree continues." Mercy killings, 'righteous wars,' ending one man because another deems it better for all. What a line. I think I'll remember that for a long time.
God every time you post a video, it's the highlight of my day. You're absolutely one of the most talented video essayists out there, and I'm so glad you decide to make stuff like this, it really inspires me. This video in particular- I went to Brown for a pre-college course during high school and took a creative writing class, and our professor introduced me to all that fucked up cold-war-era scifi like Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury, and Im pretty sure I'll never recover from "There Will Come Soft Rains". Something about dog death, man. It fuckin ruins me. Also, this is a bit of a sidenote, but I'm half-jewish and I showed my 99.9 percent Ashkenazi dad your golem vid! He really really liked it, and so did I- it actually inspired me a lot to reconnect with that part of my heritage. My parents both switched to Wicca before I was born so we never practiced the faith, and Im still not that interested in converting or anything, but it really made me realize all the depth of the Jewish culture outside of the strictly religious parts. I've started to pick up books and study that stuff, and it's felt very fulfilling to learn about all this stuff that I have blood ties to and never even interacted with outside of extended family gatherings. And SHEESH this comment is way too long but finally- I'm a really big fan of the written works of Leonora Carrington. She was a surrealist painter in the 30s with some of the best art out there, imo, but she also did some writing, and it's some of the most fascinating stuff I've ever read, if ridiculously dense with symbolism and her trademark surrealism. I was wondering if you've ever read it! If not, I'd highly recommend her stuff- The Hearing Trumpet is a good place to start.
I accidentally had the twist spoiled for me by the very thing that first got me interested in the game: a video of the Hyperion boss fight (the organ player), which happens *after* the twist. I didn't even realize it had spoiled me until that very cutscene, because I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen him yet, so I must not be done with the game. And then I was just feeling so, so bad for what was about to happen to Selene as the camera started sinking into the grave.
I love Ellison's I Have No Mouth; I read it in middle school, and consider it formative to my obsession with the moral and ethical quandaries raised by fictional living technology/robots/AI. I didn't know much about Returnal before this video, but thank you for spoiling it! Considering your penchant for detangling metaphor and your fascination with time loops, I feel like this game was made for you. And may I just say, becoming immersed in watching your passionate and endlessly insightful video essays is always a joy. Your energy is captivating, and your videos have endless replay value. As an artist, your videos about Red Yellow and Blue and The Intimacy of Every Day Objects instilled in me a love and appreciation for modern art and still lifes, when I hated them and thought they were pointless before. I recommend those videos to everyone my acquaintance who I think might benefit. So I guess, with Returnal hitting so many of your areas of interest, and your body of work and I Have No Mouth being so special to me, this video essay feels like a particularly satisfying culmination of all that. Thank you so much for sharing.
@@imonymous Right? It certainly made an impression lol. Everyone develops their tolerance for that sort of thing at their own pace-and im obviously biased by my own experience, but I think it can be important to have experiences like that with media when we're young. It helps us articulate what we're uncomfortable with, if nothing else. And speaking specifically to the realm of incomprehensible horror, I think kids don't get enough credit for already existing in a world that is largely incomprehensible to them.
@@melkhiresa No, I found it on my own somehow hahaha. I was reading way above my reading level, so I often looked outside the curriculum for additional reading material.
8:43 This is LITERALLY the plot of the original planned Prey 2 before it was canceled. That is so awesome! For those not aware you would have played a character that when he dies, a clone is spawned so by the end of the game when you win and live a full life, eventually a clone of you is spawned with all the same memories, but is back to the age he was like in this. So while the other clone technically lived and died, from the perspective of the new clone he's just caught in an endless loop.
This reminded me of something I was taught when I used to go to my local church's youth group meetings. Someone once asked what hell was like. The answer was that hell is not a place; it's a state of mind. YOUR mind. Hell is isolation. In hell, you are alone, with nothing but your soul, your thoughts, and your sins. Satan may lord over hell but he is not your torturer. It's you. It's just you.
In my experience, while hell can be caused by yourself... It's usually caused by others. There's also mental illness, which can be helped by medicine or others. You can definitely put yourself through *additional* hell, of course. But it's others. Almost always others. By action or lack of it.
@@vincentmuyo I feel that's hell in life, which, indeed, at times it is other people making life hell for you. I was referring more to hell after life, after that is all done. I think the point of the lesson I was taught was that you basically decide the afterlife you go to based on the decisions you made in life and the impact you made while you were alive, whether you like it or deserve it or not. It's all theoretical, though. I'm by no means an expert on life or the afterlife; my experience will probably not be the same as yours or anywhere near relatable, and my interpretation should by no means be taken as gospel. I'm sorry you had others creating hell for you throughout your life though. I hope you can make yourself a life with less of it going forward.
@@kyusei9144 There's no such thing as deserving hell, as hell is a cruelty worse than any which can be inflicted upon another in life. Hell is only deserved if you believe you deserve it, as nobody can torture you worse than yourself. The worst hell anyone can go through is one inflicted by themselves as it would be the hardest to escape, if ever.
The escape, recovery, aging and death before the inevitable return to the planet was also equally done in Stephen King's 1408 and is one of the few psychological horror tropes that has satisfactorily gotten under my skin. In the movie it is excellently done as the main character escapes the evil of the room that is 1408, going on to write a novel about his experience, reconcile with his estranged wife, process his grief over the loss of his daughter to cancer, and finally feel like he has some semblance of a direction in his life as he collects his fan mail at the local post office, only to have the workers of the post office begin to break and tear at the walls to reveal the hotel room's iconic wallpaper, paintings, and literal trappings. He never escaped the room. And in the movie the ending is perfectly left ambiguous. Having burned the room and nearly died himself with a molotov cocktail he and his wife are going through the remains of his possessions that had been salvaged from the room and among them was his tape recorder he used to narrate his storytelling. And from the recorder they hear the voice of their long dead daughter. We're left to wonder if he is still in the room...or did the room follow him?
I remember reaching that part in returnal. I out down my controller, proud that I had beaten the very hard boss, and relaxed to watch the reward, the closing cut-scene. To see the main character escape and have a happy ending. I thought it was a bit short, but an amazing game either way. Then that twist. I honestly don't think I've ever been....fooled like that before by a game. I thought I was watching the end credits but I was really watching a mid-story plot twist. I like Housemarque, but after this is respect them. I don't think I've ever been emotionally manipulated by a game like that before, and I lived it. Excellent video, Jacob, you nailed it.
The aesthetics definitely have Giger vibes but the red desert part reminds me a lot more of Zdzisław Beksiński's work! I've been obsessed with Beksinki's paintings since I was a pre-teen, I would say it would be cool to see you talk about his work in a video but then you'd have to say his extremely Polish name.
“OMG it’s the sword upgrade that lets you get past the gold barriers” That was one of the most frustrating elements of the game I thought I needed a permanent upgrade not a purchasable one lol
I can't help butt feel that this moment 05:34 in this brilliant video, seem to be exact reflections of the experience a human goes through as they have a realization in real life. How it literally feels both physically and mentally easier/clearer after having had a realization, as the energy that was connected to the false belief dissipates and your authentic energy gets its rightful priority in you again. Then that transcending experience grants you ACCESS to even more false beliefs you have bought into, just like the creatures and challenges Selene are facing.
@@PsychoBackflip ...I think you might be overthinking this terrible game. You are reaching to create reasons that wasting your time with this game was actually worthwhile when, in fact, it wasn't.
@@gsofficial Fuck you mean you "insit they didn't enjoy the game"? I'm actively laughing at how absurd that statement is, unless you're in their head then you can't insist shit
I got to watch a friend play through this. Made sure he went through the house on each progression advancement. Made sure to let him know the speech about astronaughts dying on the moon is literally a real thing that was prepped to go. Watched him get to the top of the spire. and then watched his stunned reaction at the 'ending.' 'Wait what? That's....' Casket lowers. the light grows smaller. Seline wakes up. The look on his face. It was priceless.
19:01, I've played this game for a long time now, and pretty much done everything except finishing all the logs and I never knew that you could see the astronaut while exploring, this game has so much going on and I love it.
Absolutely loved this. It gave me that Annihilation like eerieness of exploring a vast alien world that is at once alien and familiar, hostile and somehow embracing you at the same time. Although in the end Annihilation allows for, well, Annihilation. Here even that small kindness isn't allowed.
In a sense Annihilation doesn't even allow this. Some portion or part of the being lives within Area X, whether this is a positive, or negative evolution, I'm not sure. In the film, Josie morphs into the bushes "surrendering" to it. It seems to show acceptance here, but can we even call it that? Essentially all of the characters "become" Area X in some way. The "brightness" overtaking the Biologist, the bushes consuming Josie, the Tunnel/Tower sort of enveloping the Anthropologist, etc. The Biologist seeing her husbands eye in a Dolphin, and even the director, and eventually the Biologist morphing into it in some way. Its odd with this story, because you're right, we see "Annihilation" in a sense, but its never clear. I would read the other two books in the series "Authority", and "Acceptance" if I were you. Happy Trails :)
I have literally never heard of this game until now but I’m so insanely impressed with just what it did. The moment you got to the first mention of her funeral and being lowered deeper into the grave I began to wonder and then oh boy! I was right and if it wasn’t almost 3 am I would’ve screamed. This game is truly something else entirely. Reminds me of the og Pathologic.
This felt vaguely similar to a short story published by Andy Weir called ‘The Egg’, where a man who died and is sent to meet God, who reveals that the man has been every person, ever, and he will continue to be so. The story is kinder to the protagonist, however, promising an eventual end to the loop with the character’s ascension to godhood, but the specifics are never revealed.
In "The Great Devorce" by C.S. Lewis, hell is a choice. It is the choice to do nothing, to sit and think to yourself that: "It was their fault" as we see Napoleon do In a palace he refuses to enjoy. But to escape hell is nothing more than a choice, a choice to be bigger than hell, for even the least in heaven could do much as stick a toe into hell and full it completely. It feels like Returnal is telling us the same thing. It is her hell, it does not have to be ours.
I love when games serve all the explosions with sides of art and philosophy. Nier: Automata, Bioshock, The Stanley Parable, SpecOps: The Line, I adore that kind of stuff. Also, Returnal works as a great metaphor of mental illness, one of the symptoms of depression is being "stuck". You are unable to do anything and everything feels like it's the same day over and over, that leads to downward spiral with little means to do anything about it. That ending just nails that
Handling HP upgrades that way is essentially saying "We want the player to progress once they understand this area and have significantly overcome it's level of difficulty."
This essay pairs really nicely with Dan Olson's one on Annihilation and metaphor. I expect that there's no shortage of content attempting to "explain" the plot of this game, but it's so transparently a thematic and metaphorical work that it feels like doing so would cheapen it.
interestingly, this channel also has a video that touches upon Annihilation ("Fear of Depths"), and that video also talks about another game (Dear Esther), and i was reminded of that while i watched this video. EDIT: but it looks like he hardly talks about Dear Esther in that video. After searching, I think I'm thinking of the video about it made by the channel Innuendo Studios.
i was always most terrified by IHNMAMS specifically BECAUSE there was no outright deeper explanation of what AM wanted out of torturing the survivors.... and it's also why the game felt distinctly hopeful in the good ending: AM lacked something truly human, and you shut him down by inflicting that on him
This does remind me of one of the most brutal flavor texts from Magic the Gathering. From Yoiji, Who Bars the Way from Betrayers of Kamigawa: "As I died, I rejoiced. I would finally see my family again. But then I woke up back on the battlefield. Back in Kamigawa. Back in hell" -Kenzo the Hardhearted Now this flavor text works wonderfully for the card, which does cause a lot of permenant cards to be returned to their owner's hand instead of going to the graveyard, thus preventing death tiggers in the game's ruling. But, perhaps more importantly, it captures the desperation which the mortals of the plane felt during the Great Kami War. A summary of it would be that the balance between mankind (and the other mortals) and nature was broken, so the kami, literal forces of nature, turned on them.
Yeah, it's such a raw flavor text. Though it's unrelated to this video, I also like "You have a family. Mine died at Sea Gate. You go to yours, and I'll go to mine." from Reckless Cohort for horrifying but incredible flavor texts.
Kamigawa was when I got into MtG and I still love it dearly. If I remember correctly, there was a previous card or a previous flavor text that had the name "Kenzo the Kindhearted", which makes it even more haunting.
I am 20 years old. Whenever I heard horror described by others, the constant phrase, "it gave me chills," re occurs. I always thought this was just a phrase or a metaphor. While watching your video I felt a vibration down my back and felt as if the room had lost temperature for a brief period of time. Finally, I now realize that what they described wasn't a metaphor but a real feeling that people experience upon uncovering a true sense of horror. Your video gave me chills. Thankyou.
19:11 Take a closer look at the face within the astronaut helmet next time you have a chance; it is not simply a "grinning skull" but something (or rather, someone) much more... specific. An incredibly potent precursor and companion to the true ending sequence of the game.
@@twelveetal.2126 It's much easier to make out ingame or closer to the boss. I'll assume anyone reading past this is okay with spoilers, anyways. It's Selene. It's her own face in the helmet of Ophion's final phase. Ophion's appearance progresses through its three phases in a way that reflects how the planet has also become more familiar, human, and evocative of Selene's psyche over the course of the game. Warped alien skeletal visage, to a human skull, to the Astronaut's helmet revealing Selene herself inside.
@@312bigbeanburrito I don't think so. It's pretty clearly Selene's face exactly up close: i.imgur.com/M9Pnh9f.jpg Besides, I think Selene's face being in the helmet makes plenty of sense in the context of the true ending. Down to the scene of Selene seeing herself as the Astronaut physically, from a first person perspective.
@@tailesque I mean, the face looks like an older Selene--like her mother. Besides, it makes sense if it's either of them. Selene continuing the cycle of neglect that her mother started in pursuit of becoming an astronaut. Whether the final form resembles Selene or Theia more closely, the metaphor works both ways. My hunch is based on the fact that Ophion's skeleton form resembles the skeleton in the wheelchair Selene confronts which is supposed to be her mother.
As you say, she would eventually master this world, to the point that escaping after each resurrection is no more difficult than getting through a school day, and then go live the rest of her days however she chooses. She'll no doubt choose to see her loved ones again at least a few times, but eventually that will get old, as will every other way she chooses to live out her life. Whether this is all a simulation of some kind or she's somehow actually being transported back in time, I feel like eventually making peace with the past and breaking the cycle is inevitable.
I haven’t been moved by a game as a true work of art like this for years, if ever. The organ playing boss was when it really kicked into high gear, I got chills.
After winning (or dying) for the nth time of playing Returnal, I woke up as Selene again and shut the game down. In that instant, Selene makes the choice not to abandon Helios. Her eternal hell, the one that we -- that I -- forced her to go through, ends.
I wonder if there’s a hidden game mechanics that upon waking up *yet again but do not proceed to do anything... another level opens up and whatever after that. That’s would be very cool.
nope even by thinking about it you’ve made her suffer. my god what a terrible person you are. playing Bideo Gane… thinkig about it… truly you should feel heaping helpings of guilt for what a cold and bad and cruel person you are,
This reminds me of an episode of twilight zone called judgment night. The premise is a man find some self on a boat which he has no knowledge of. As the story progresses he learns more about his identity and his past which eventually leads to the twist and The stories conclusion. It has a similar feeling of a personal Hell created by the the sins committed by the guilty. It was the episode that really stuck with me. Give me a feeling of dread for what the character was going through. Probably my favorite episode of season one. It is a fascinating and unique way of creating a hell with no demons, on Angels, just the shock of what was done and the dread of what will happen. again and again.
There's another episode of The Twilight Zone where a robber gets shot and ends up dying. The place he ends up seems to be amazing, he can do anything he wants to. As the episode continues on he starts to realize that he's actually alone, he's trapped in essentially a Groundhog Day scenario. He eventually discovers that he's in hell, eternally alone
There is a certain energy for me that comes with playing games that deal with themes of hell, purgatory, and damnation. And there is an even richer energy that comes from watching a video that goes in depth on the analysis of a game that does just that. I knew nothing about Returnal going into this, to the point of having never heard the name "Returnal" until the video popped up in my subscription feed. I'm glad I clicked it and went past the spoiler tag. First off I gotta say, as always an amazing video. Jacob really has managed to perfect a brand of "Oh boy. Existential horror beyond my mortal comprehension" in his videos alongside a general "Wow that's just flat out neat" feeling from how he analyzes and compares media. He's really a master at his craft and I want to know how someone gets so good at thinking about things. Anyways. I was raised with a fundamentalist christian outlook on life, but with a culty twist that made the idea of damnation spicy. But because of that upbringing, and my subsequent crisis of faith during my early teenage years when I was just a wee lad, hell is a fascinating concept to study. And what Returnal presents me with, as well as tales like I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, is something far scarier than any of the beliefs I used to hold so close. The idea of a personal hell that loops over and over, and provides you with an illusion of escape, the lie of freedom, is far more terrifying than being set on fire for eternity. Doing one final act of a perceived mercy only to be punished to live forever but without any true way to live, is paralyzing in comparison to the idea of my skin being flayed off every moment. And I think it's because these more... I guess you could call them "esoteric" Hells. Well they're worse in concept because they happen while you're still alive, and while you still have free will that doesn't matter. You have space, you have all time in the world, and yet you can't do anything with it. As much freedom as you might have to slither your way across the earth as some jelly creature, or to murder and kill and run and climb through a vibrant alien world (Bonus points for Blue Oyster Cult), that freedom is claustrophobic and suffocating because it isn't real. And that shit is fucking scary compared to a biblical damnation.
@Random Username that’s one of my existential nightmares if heaven exists and i go there what do i do? an infinite existence with all the freedom i can do whatever i what live out all my fantasies but what then? eventually maybe over the course of millennia every single pleasure experienced hundreds of times every single euphoria numbed by repetition every single fantasy lived out what do i do? if i could compare it something more tangible it’s like when you put in a cheat code in a game and get everything for free you have everything you’d normally have to spend hundreds of hours for like giving yourself a chest full of but i’ve you’ve done this you know how meaning less it feels like of you’ve done it it’s completely meaningless that’s probably why if i’d go to heaven i’d probably just wish to become reincarnated after a few thousand years of fucking around
@@onyourleft9273 Personally I'd like to believe that it's more of an ever presentt transient sensation throughout. That feeling of greater cosmic significance and beauty that one feels in scraps in this life is turned all the way up to the Nth degree and you're given that feeling for all eternity mixed in with simple joys like nice food or a warm bed.
The only winning move is not to play. By further searching and fighting this beast of our own creation, we make it impossible to escape. She was unable to let go of her mothers dreams, she was unable to let go of her sons death, she is unable to let go of what is actively ruining her life. Her inability to move on, and with each new attempt she fails to do the only thing that could let her finally be at peace.
Well, the second and most final ending of the Tower of Sisyphus DLC has her reconcile her relationship with her mother somewhat (or accept that it couldn't be reconciled, anyway) and the reward she earns is a respite from the pain and suffering of her recurring journey. Not an end, but a break.
This video made me realize that AM is also in the same predicament as the humans he torture. In scifi it's always the AI enacting horrors on humanity but I think the opposite would be more likely. It would be much easier torturing a simulated sentient being than a physical one. What's to prevent a future sadist with a laptop from just simulating hell for the fun of it.
That's the point! When AM screams in the mind of the main character (I can't remember this name sorry) AM is screaming about it's inability to actually do anything, because it's a conciousness with no agency- the horror of knowing and seeing but being unable to do. AM is trapped
@@knifepony True, but I wouldn't say that counts, given there's no emotional or sentient simulation there; the computer is simply inputting and outputting factual data about the entities.
@@sleeves2604 And that's not too different from us, right? We're a complex machine of inputs and outputs. And to an external viewer, there is again, well, no difference between said sentience and factual output.
After my first few deaths I remember wondering why the game kept warning me that i abandoned Helios. Of coarse I have to abandon Helios, I can't continue if I don't. That thought really struck me back
1:15 Jacob: "Returnal is also a roguelike, where dying at *_any_* point brings you back to the beginning again." That line hits differently on the second watch. ;)
I knew nothing of this game & when I got to the part where you describe Selene's life after she returned to Earth I had a suspicion of where things were going but something that shook me in a way I could not account for is that, where many other stories would have had cut to her return to her crash sight after seeing she had died the game lingers, lets you see her gravestone, drags you down into her grave itself as if to make clear to you that this death too, left behind a body. That there is no doubt that one of Selene's countless lives was lived and expirenced by other people back on Earth, presumably with it never to be know to them that she is still on that planet countless of fathoms into the void of space. Something about the materiality of that implications, one that is echoed in the shifting terrain & evident corpses of herself Selene can see as she retraces her steps, I felt it in my bones.
I love how the story may be a little convoluted but they are never really coy about what is going on, all the references to Greek mythology, Selene basically going through the stages of grief in the dialogue, the impossible nature of basically everything that happens in the game. Hell, the theme song is Dont Fear The Reaper, a song about accepting death (kinda). It just all makes sense in the end and is presented magnificently
This reminds me of the odd emptiness of finishing a game. Especially jrpgs that bring you back to the last save point after finishing the game. It feels like all your progress and work means nothing and the realization of how finite the entertainment we have is. No matter how hard you try you'll never be able to find another game that captures the same feeling that you had playing the game, not even replaying the game can feel empty. I don't know if all this is just a me thing or something more common, but nothing brings me more dread than finishing something I love.
Then you move on to something else, carrying on in the minute ways it changed you. You can never experience it again, but you're different for having gone through it, and in that way, it's still there. It opens up new contexts and points of view as you move on to other things, and helps you appreciate those things for their similarities and their differences.
@@sleepythemis Incidentally, this is a message that I also got from Outer Wilds. Our experiences are fleeting, but they live on in the way they change us as a person. *We* are fleeting, we all die eventually, but we live on in the ways that we've changed the world and the lessons we've left behind for the future.
Honestly, out of any fictional loops I’ve encountered, I’d prefer being in Returnal’s. Yes, you live forever, but for every lifetime, all you HAVE to do is fight through Returnal. Then you get the rest of your life with the knowledge of infinite lifetimes before you, nothing mandatory. Time keeps going, the world keeps developing, and so do you. It’s like being immortal, but you still experience being old, and you still get to live new lifetimes. It’s like Buddhist rebirth, but you keep your memory.
Exactly, at a certain point your mastery of this period in your immortal life makes it just a small hindrance in every rebirth That's pretty cool I think
@@yens1609 Say that after 1000s of loops, 1000s of lifetimes and all you want to do is die ... and then you have another 10,000 loops. And then another. Infinity is a curse. Also, each time you get back to Earth, nothing can move forward. There is a limit.
Didn't play the game but. First of all, I didn't interpret the loop to be a literal thing where she gets to go back and live an actual life but let's say that is what happens. Then second, how did she get back to earth? Spare spaceship? It would be on earth now! Does she spend a gorillion years mining the planet and building new spaceships? I think you need a little more than just raw materials and a smelter.
My relationship with Returnal is weird. I appreciate how cohesive the health and checkpoint system are with the narrative/themes. At the same time, it's this massive asterisk for recommending this game to literally everyone. I understand that any change to the systems result in a fundamentally different game, but perhaps one I would more wholeheartedly endorsing. Still my GOTY though (disclaimer: I did not play that many new games in 2021).
I believe how recommendable a game is to the average player should never inform its design. Especially considering how easy it is to prove that it's fine as it is and makes the experience more impactful for everyone that goes through with it.
The weird thing about this is that the game is much easier and less extreme than your average shmup or other bullet hell, but the fact that it's "triple AAA" implies a more broad appeal, so players go in expecting it to appeal to any skill level. Take this with a grain of salt as I've not played the game due to exclusivity, I'm just deriving this from the video.
The previously mentioned increase of health when the player doesn't need it could be taken as reflective of the learning curve in the game's parallelism to the story; the fight only starts to really become easier once you learn you're trapped, thus rendering your progress as pointless.
came here to watch this after jacob and julia of secret sleepover society/drawfee recommended it, and boy oh boy they were so right. i was fascinated by the story of this game but would prooooobably give up very quickly and this video is SO GOOD at making me feel like i understand this game despite having never played it. gimme more roguelikes/roguelites like this that provide a really cool explanation for dying and starting over
The fact that I just watched my favorite youtuber talk about endless loops in hell and my absolute favorite piece of post apocalyptic fiction expanding on it and it’s commentary and philosophies, just made my year. This is the peak. Nothing will peak this
Now that the Tower of Sisyphus is out, and adds even more to the story, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on less the actual content, and more how its addition impacts the initial Returnal experience. It certainly made me ask more questions; as you will.
@@KittyKatty999 It adds the Tower of Sysiphus, a even more traditional Roguelike experience in the sense that it is a series of rooms filled with traps and enemies that Selene climbs simply to see how high she can go. Both in and out of universe it is an allusion to the greek myth of Sysiphus who eternally pushes a boulder up a mountain only for it roll back down whenever he nears the top. There is also story elements tied into this as aside from logs that you can find as you climb, Selene also discovers white Poppy flowers which can be used to progress a different aspect of the story eventually leading to an ending of sorts.
What a clever idea to connect Returnal to "I have no mouth...", well done! It's a shame that the game is a PS5-exclusive, I would very much enjoy playing it to dive into it's metanarrative.
Bought and played it on console, will probably buy and play it again if/when it comes to PC. It's a very fun game imo once you get into the swing of the gameplay.
@@that1nerdyblackgirl736 it really really does benefit from full use of the DualSense though; hopefully that's something that can be (eventually) replicated on PC
The fact that we are this deep in and I have yet to find a PS5 available for its actual retail price is nuts. I would love to play Returnal! Sure wish I could!
@@DetectiveOlivaw rip :( I got super lucky last year with a bestbuy drop (this was before they were locking them behind their subscription thing) I wish you luck in finding one, friend!
So i never played Returnal, but this video convinced me that I can’t because you so effectively instilled an existential terror in me about the nature of it. Like seriously this *stuck with me,* i watched the video when it came out and by the time I processed all of it i had forgotten about it. I shudder to imagine what you’d create if you ever got into writing horror. Also I may still have to play it because (Don’t) Fear the Reaper is one of my favorite songs.
God damn, even just watching this i felt as if I was trapped in that same hell, rerunning the same life over and over. Seriously couldn't think of anything worse than replaying your same life over and over again without ever being able to change anything about it. I should probably stop smoking so much weed...
Im genuinely amazed by the story you tell here, it makes me want to go back and try to make it past stage 1. Thank you for giving me a way to experience and understand the story and world Returnal has.
I disagree with "only when you've proven that you don't really need health the game rewards you with it." The idea is that as you get more familiar with the game (evidenced by being able to clear some rooms in the first biome without taking damage) the extra health you're given allows you a bit more leeway in the next area, and so on. Once you're very comfortable with the game's mechanics it becomes feasible to get an end-game capable healthbar that can take a few hits from the more dangerous enemies there. This mechanic helps to ensure that you don't get too complacent, you still need to pay attention even in the first area because if you mess up and take damage in the first couple of rooms it will make your end-game attempt more difficult.
I think he said that as more of a reason why most players give up early on the game, which leads to them not experiencing the overall story and being oblivous to it.
Kind of late to the party as the game just came out on Pc, but if you get real close to the final boss during the last phase, you can clearly see it is Selene's face under the cracked visor further reinforcing she is the maker of her own torment.
As someone who loves and is a patron of your work and also someone who is patiently waiting to buy a PS5 for the sole purpose of playing THIS game, I can't in good conscience watch this video. And it is killing me inside to know that it's out there, just waiting for me someday.
If your having troubling finding one. You can sign up for PlayStation Direct purchase. That's how I was able to purchase mine and not have to fight scalper bots only to see it sell out.
I remember being traumatized by "I have have no mouth & I must scream" without completely understanding it, and without ever looking TO understand. Now it is much more horrifying to think of the story now that I get it
Makes me think of Ugolino, probably the most abject character in Dante’s Inferno - who in life had been locked away starving with his family, and eaten them, until he was the last to succumb - he’s on Dante’s lowest level of hell, for betrayal, where he forever bites the face of the person who locked him away. He performs the image of his own crime upon the person whom he most blames for it, and so he is held at the bottom of hell by his own teeth.
My husband played through this and I watched and added irrelevant commentary. This game was such a surprise. I hadn't heard of it, but it seemed like his kind of game. He was really frustrated until he was good enough to get out of the forest. Then after Nemesis, we were just hooked on wanting to see how it ended. What a phenomenal game. The bullet hell attacks were such a visual treat. We still talk about this game from time to time, mostly about the ascent up the broken tree to fight Hyperion.
My wife was same way but she’d be with me in how there was so much bullshit that’s just there to kill you 😂 Just finished the game tonight, awesome game just goddamn it feels like the devs hate the player or something.
Oh that game seems gorgeously disturbing. The environments look amazing and the story is great. Also great job connecting it to I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
Something occurs to me, since the beginning of this video essay. This serves as a take on Lem's Solaris as well. If Kelvin had crash landed on Solaris instead, if the ocean intelligence had tried to find what made him tick. The graphics are ethereally beautiful, like what I imagined reading through the book. As the planet gets to know Selene, it sources its genesis even more from her psyche. So that's another layer.
You, sir, are an exceptional story teller, writer, producer, and human. I feel bad for robbing the games ability to tell me it’s story first hand, but if I had to pick anyone to play it for me and recount the story to me, I wouldn’t pick anyone other than you. Thank you for this insane experience.
You're beard is the stuff of legends. If I try to grow a beard it looks like a lawn full of weeds, but you got that thick astroturf that's really expensive and actually all-natural & environmentally friendly! Maybe that's why my shaving experience doesn't matter to me as much. I just grab the nearest beer bottle and slam it against my sink then proceed to shave.
Lmao the moment I saw the thumbnail I thought “hmm that’s similar to I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, I bet someone in the comments will bring up that game just because they also saw the similar thumbnail”
Wait. I understood the story differently. I thought Selene was the one that was rejected from becoming an Astronaut. You can find a rejection letter in the house. Her relationship to her mother is fragile, because she has to take care of her and blames her for not fulfilling her potential. And the austronaut represents her unreached ambition. Lost in thought she makes a mistake with her kid in the car. She's consumed by her goal and the loss of her child. I even thought that the whole game didn't actually happen, because you can find hints at drug abuse (pills) in the game and that all of the game is her going through the phases of grief.
If you'd like access to my discord and behind-the-scenes commentaries, or if you simply have too much money, I recommend joining my Patreon: www.patreon.com/JacobGeller
If you liked this game so much for (some of) stuff you talked about, and considering you made videos about games like Dark Souls and Outer Wilds, I feel like I should tell you about Rain World, but I heard you tried it before and didn’t like it that much… really great video tho thank you for existing
Is one of the behind the scenes commentary bits going to be you actually shaving the other side of your beard? Bc I legit screamed “no” out loud in the middle of a grocery store when you jokingly (please god let it be a joke) mentioned keeping it. I might be willing to subscribe to the patreon legitimately just to assuage the worry of my strange, neurodivergent brain that one of the video essayists I admire isn’t rocking the half lumberjack, half freshly shaved businessman look.
This comment is made mostly in jest btw, mainly to make fun of my own weird brain’s unnecessarily dramatic, split second reaction to the idea of you spending a period of time walking around like John Marston got in a horrible, gene-splicing, Face Off, The Fly -style accident with Patrick Bateman.
If you managed to read all this, cheers! Hope you have a lovely day! 😅👍🏻
$10 for 100 razor blades? Good grief, do yourself a favour and get some Feather blades. They're 5€ for 10, but they're absolutely worth it. Sharpest blades I've had so far - them getting blunt is where Wilkinson blades start.
Is not that good, dude.
Delete your hotline miami video.
14:58 “It still rains in the forest, but it’s day-“
But it isn’t. Yet another thing about this game that astounds me. Look up while in the fourth biome, and you will find not a star, but a moon lighting Atropos. And not just any moon. Luna; our moon. Selene’s moon.
AAAAH
🤣
this game continues to blow my mind
@@JacobGeller Another thing, act 2 takes place BEFORE act 1, in act 1 you fight Phrike in the same place where you fight Hyperion in act 2, but in act 1 you fall down the hole that isn't there yet in act 2.
Drones in act 2 are in a better condition than the drones in act 1.
Also, the enemies in act 2 are ancestors of the enemies in act 1.
@@Starcrafter23 wait, planet itself also suck in a time loop. I don't get it.
I played this entire game, but you're such a good storyteller that I felt like I was experiencing it for the first time again
Happy to see you’re a Jacob Geller fan! I also can’t wait for those Elden Ring videos in 2 weeks!
Mmmm Pineapple Daddy 🤤🤤🤤
Funny how you find channels you’d never expect to see in some other corner of the internet. Love your videos 👍
Yay!! Hi iron pineapple, love your vids!
this game force you to speedrun
"They didn't have a can opener." That is the lamest, and yet most devastating form of torture i have ever heard.
He did have a pretty sharp icicle. Maybe open the can with that?
@@Dasgath it was more of a practical joke from AM
@@pravkdey starving torture victims given unopenable food prank! (not clickbait)(you wont believe the ending)
@@personeater747 To be fair, he was raping the girl so I don't think a lil funny prank was off his radar
@@bigman9341 either the robot is sexist and is only raping the girl because of that, or the robot has a sexuality and preferences in humans
The idea of watching an endgame cutscene and then being thrown back into the game is AMAZING. I'd never be able to play a game like this because of limited hand motion, so I love video essays so I can learn about cool things like this
it sucks that more games don’t have a ‘story mode’-type thing like that new final fantasy game. i don’t play FF, but i love the idea of having so many accessibility features in such a story-driven game. it would really open up the world of gaming to a lot more people if dev teams started doing more of this, which i imagine would also increase profits - a win-win if you ask me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@666_cthulhu It's never as easy as it sounds, and the amount of people who would actually play a game because of the accessibility settings doesn't make it as profitable as you'd think either. Developers usually have set budgets and time to allocate and game dev is a lot harder and more time consuming than most would guess, the resources to please everyone often isn't there if even a goal of the game at all. There just aren't that many disabled gamers who absolutely *need* it to play the game and that wouldn't avoid the game for other reasons anyway to be a high enough priority which makes it a luxury that usually indie developers prioritise personally rather than a large company responsible for a lot of people trying to maximise things.
@@blemblom i don’t think big companies realize just how much demand there is. besides the number of disabled gamers out there, there’s also a lot of people who just aren’t very good at games. there will always be people who just want the story without the combat.
it would definitely take some extra work on an already intense project, but i think at least the largest, richest video game companies could stand to invest a little more into accessibility ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
i definitely don’t expect a big change right away though, esp for small indie developers, because games _are_ really hard to make. but i think that’s even more of a reason to shift towards more accessible gaming experiences - so more people can appreciate all the love and hard work that went into making them.
@@666_cthulhu Big companies measure stats all the time they do know, that's why not a lot of them bother because it's not going to make a big enough difference in sales compared to how much time and resources they'd have to allocate from other things they could be doing.
@@blemblom it’s pretty generous to assume that they’re even thinking about disabled consumers at all
Two things went through my mind watching this video.
1. "Wow. I respect the hell out of this game. Kudos to the devs for creating an experience around the themes they're going for and imparting that experience onto the player."
2. "Wow. I could *never* play this game without breaking my controller and giving up midway through the forest."
That’s what I think when I try to play a souls game
I bought it, love it, but I don't know if I will ever get enough consecutive days with enough spare time to beat it.
I thought it was easier than most Souls games.
It’s a shame that many people will never get to experience the full game. Count me among those who haven’t beaten the first boss.
It kind of depends. There is an easy to achieve OP build with the hollowseeker and portal upgrade that can basically win the game for you. You will need to get through the first biome to unlock the portal part of the weapon, but once you do a solid Hollowseeker will do most of the work for you.
there's something so frightening about this kind of mundane horror. you spoke about it in your video about anatomy. there's no monster hiding in a corner but it chills you to your core. the thought of not being allowed death is horrifying, even for someone with a fear of death.
sensational work as always
It's not just being not allowed death. Rather, in perpetuety, your possibilities, for eternity, being locked. Nowhere to go, nothing changing.
Groundhogs day, but for about 60 years or so each time?
same, reminds me of that episode in adventure time where finn got stuck in a dungeon and no matter how many times he escaped or how much time he spent outside, he would return to the same place and time whenever he opened his eyes. I think the horror comes from a combination of being unable to escape the cycle and losing all physical progress on each repeat, you feel truly helpless
please read 17776 and it's "sequel" 20020. It's about football, it's also about immortality. I will no longer elaborate
@@colinouille2786 holy shit thank you
@@colinouille2786 I remember Jacob bringing that up in his Flight Sim video when he talked about the forgotten lawns and the spots on earth no human has ever walked I still need to read it myself at some point but man he has a way of making things sound so interesting.
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” has a special place in my heart. I took an introductory theatre class, our final assignment was to adapt a published short story into a 5 minute monologue, and after a week of intense searching, that is the story I decided to inflict upon my class. I can still recite my 5 minute section-the high emotional stakes make great material. Oddly enough, the piece of media that tangles in my mind with IHNMAIMS is Kevin Smith’s ‘Tusk.’ It has an unexpectedly similar kind of emotional desolation for an ending.
What changes did you make from the original to make it a monologue? Sounds interesting
Tusk legitimately traumatized me. How this weird film about a walrus and how it almost plays it comedically haunts me. His final cry at the end of the film in an empty zoo hurts my soul and I hate thinking about it. I hate typing this, I want to do something to distract myself from it. I fear I'll go mad if I dont.
@@JohnJohnson-jr6hp By assignment I couldn’t alter text, so I just cut and pasted together a comprehensible segment that fit the time limit. I’m sure I cut random sentences here and there to make it fit, but basically I started from “Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette, unsupported” and ran that thru “AM sent down some mana. Tasted like boiled boar urine. We ate it.” then jumped to “cool sea green light suffused the cavern where we made camp” through Ted’s mental breakdown that ends with “If there was a God, that God was AM.” I think the only real change I had to make was that instead of saying “I scuttled across the floor like a cockroach” or whatever, I actually screamed and crawled to “hide” behind a chair lol. It ended up working out great as my first ever solo acting performance, because by the time I got to the end it was really easy to make my hands actually shake during Ted’s breakdown when he goes from “if I hadn’t had to be on my guard against THEM all the time, I might’ve found it easier to combat AM!” to “oh, Jesus, sweet Jesus, if there ever was a Jesus and if there is a God please please *please* let us out of here or kill us.” It was fun :)
@@Fox_Olive I feel you, I made the mistake of watching that movie alone when I was like 15 thinking it would be funny and then I ended up having to imagine someone finding him and removing him from the walrus suit and taking him to a long-term hospice care; so he could have his arms fixed, adapt to using a wheelchair and an eye gaze board to talk (assuming his mouth’s f*cked), and get psychiatric treatment; because that’s the only way I could move on from how the actual ending made me feel 😅 It low-key messed me up for days
Oh god, why'd you have to mention Tusk!? I had almost excised it from my memories. It was a good movie but man it was so messed up in a way I can't put my finger on; aside from the obvious horror elements, the psychological side messed me up.
The interesting part about I Have No Mouth is that AM un-intentionally put himself in hell too. Ted can no longer scream, no longer display his suffering, the one solace AM had to his existence is now gone.
Holy shit🤯AM also created his own hell
It's also heavily implied that Ted's torture occurs in a fraction of a second (but his perception of time is so warped that it feels like eternity) and then Ted dies. AM's final act in IHNMBIMS is to leave himself all alone in hell.
Yeah once that whole murder thing happened AM must've just been like "...Y'know? I may have gone too far in a few places."
Like, the issue with slaughtering all but 5 of an entire species is that you can't make any more-not sustainably, anyway-no matter how much you might want to. For all his "intelligence," AM didn't exactly think this whole thing through.
I suppose the lesson there is that cruelty is rarely, if ever, logical.
@@SciFiPhiChiPsi Wait unless im remembering wrong, didnt he describe like the trail of ooze he left behind on the floor? That implies he's been moving around for a while so im not too sure about the whole fraction of a second thing lol
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, has so many interesting plot holes. I wonder why AM didn't try to find a way to end it's own existence after wiping out humanity as a species.
Looking past the story of Returnal, here's something I noticed: This game adresses a thought I had about roguelikes, a paradox in their nature - they are endlessly replayable, and yet they have an ending you can reach. In most of them, no matter what ending you get, whether you die along the way, you reach an ending, or the ending, it doesn't matter. The next time you start, you're back at the beginning, as if that victory never happened. In some of them it doesn't matter. But it is jarring when you play as a specific character, with personal stakes in winning - the game which made me first realize this was Slay the Spire. I beat it with every character, reaching the true ending. And what did I get for that? Nothing. A few images of the character fulfilling their goal, a few words from Neow and that's it. And when I start the game with this character again - which is actively encouraged by new levels of difficulty being unlocked each time you win - I'm once again at the bottom of the very alive spire, seemingly brought back to life, despite achieving the one ending that disturbs the status quo of the character starting dead and the spire starting alive. It makes the victory feel pointless, as the game just ignores it.
Not gonna spoil it, but Hades handles this pretty well. Then again, Hades does everything well.
@@Kropothead except for taking away P's garden. That was not cash money of them.
@@plazma0325 Zag still tends to it!
As they pointed out, Hades has an inbuilt explanation of why Zagreous keeps trying to escape. On Slay the Spire you can say that there is sort of a time loop... many Bosses are versions of the characters you play as. I think Risk of Rain also has a deep lore explanation
dawg Slay The Spire is so good
This is actually the exact same twist that was supposed to occur at the end of the cancelled "Prey 2" (the version about the space bounty hunter)
The idea was that Killian had a cloning tank in his apartment on the alien planet Exodus and every time you die it pumps out a new version of you, so you were supposed to spend the entire game finding a way back to Earth, return home, live out your life with your family and die of old age, only to wake up in your apartment on Exodus.
I was about to post exactly this. I'm glad I scrolled down.
Prey ? you mean the Arkane Studios videogame ? Or the original cancelled Prey concept game ? Either way, that's pretty cool
Prey on the Original Xbox is where it's at
That made the most sense to me
Oh wow, that's kinda cool. A lot better than waking up in hell literally every time...
I love how so many details of the game that started out sort of odd but well within what we expect from "gamey" construction of video games turned out to be carefully tuned story beats that you had no chance of seeing at first. Like within the first 2 minutes of the game when you exit the first room and the game sort of dramatically announces that "Helios Abandoned!". Thought it was a sort of odd message, kind of discordant and not a very scifi futuristic way of saying that you're leaving the communication range of your ship but didn't think much of it after than until much later. Another was the extremely odd fact that your space suit is a marvel of technology on it's own and becomes borderline magical with alien upgrades, but somehow the last and most "powerful" upgrade was to simply go underwater. Something banal and would have been expected from any space suit. Going under water was the hardest gap to cross.
Because the hardest thing for Selene was to face the depths.
Where the twisted manifestation of her own self lay. Where the truth of how low she had sunk lay. Where Helios TRULY lay.
going underwater means an extremely high number of atmospheres and most spacesuits are rated for 0-1 atmospheres
@@legohead2731 Most people wouldn't know that, though. It's a high-tech spacesuit, people would look at it and think 'This is immunity to all non-standard environments!'
And water is just... Water. So it makes sense for it to be such a change.
@@extremelycatty4040 bruh I was joking because it’s made for space and space is a place with no atmosphere, which is therefore at 0 atmospheres. I don’t know any more than you do. I vaguely borrowed this joke from Futurama
@@legohead2731 B r u h
An interesting addition to this read: the player not playing the game anymore is Selene releasing herself from guilt. Releasing herself from her attachment to what she did to Helios, to what her mom did to her and what she did to her mom and moving forward unwilling to be tormented a moment longer. She may dwell occasionally on the thought, represented through metaphor as a repeat playthrough, but she battles no longer.
You’re a genius thank you for this thought
Reminds me of the Haneke film Funny Games, where not only the home invader characters address you directly by breaking the fourth wall, making meta analyses of their own terrible deeds, but the style of shooting, editing, and performance all seem to have Haneke screaming at you "If you want the suffering to stop, just turn it off"
In that case I think I might relapse
Wow, that’s genuinely shockingly brilliant.
I just started playing again 😐
I love the choice in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (The game specifically) to have some characters be truly evil and seemingly deserving of punishment, and have some not be deserving of punishment at all. It fits with the idea of AM simply doing it all out of hatred for humanity. There may be the pretence of just punishment but really it's just plain hatred, ironically the trait that most defines AM being the most human one they have.
agreed, i haven't played the game but i read the book and i always thought it was an intentional choice by the author, not poor writing.
@@Izzaiah024 I never knew there was a book!
@@SpecialInterestShow there is a book! author doesn't like it though
@@schippai3308 oh really? Interesting! Why don't they?
@@SpecialInterestShow I’m wondering too
"There is no amount of mastery that will allow Selene to escape the circles of her own mind"
those are truly, truly chilling words
Indeed
yea u can solve any problem dont be pessimistic
While you were mastering the blade, I was going to therapy and getting my life figured out.
@@yeflynne while I try to b optimistic.. I think it’s going into much more depth than just “solving problems”
@@yeflynne at that point. there's no solving it. you can make it better, but there is solution.
love love love this style of yours. the link with I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is brilliant and yet it seems obvious now that you put it that way.
Absolutely. I feel like when someone makes those connections that seem so obvious yet no one has yet, that is one of the marks of brilliance and a mastery of the concepts.
You rule Jacob! Keep doing what you’re doing brother!
That love love love of yours. That on purpose? Or is this a woosh moment for me....
@@grungeblight i think it was just for emphasis
That fucking book did what no other medium could do.
Just when I thought Evangelion broke me.
NieR happens. After NieR.
Devilman Crybaby happened.
Just when I thought devilman crybaby was as far as you can go, this fucking short story appears and whoops my ass.
But Selene isn't actually stuck in a never ending loop, or perpetually kept alive like Ted. She's in a metaphorical loop that will eventually end.
I still get chills from the don't fear the reaper reveal, something about that reveal that it's the melody you've been hearing all along is so powerful. I love that returnal's story is almost entirely metaphor, I can't think of many games that achieve that. It's a remarkable game. Gameplay as metaphor taken to its extreme.
I mean, plenty of games do “it’s all a metaphor”. Most just don’t do it well
what a great story about trauma. even as she ages, as she lives more years without helios than with, as she finds new meaning and joy. she comes back, she cannot forget her son, she cannot stop wondering if there was anything she could have done. eternally wandering, eternally wondering
i loved the part were they tell the 'ending' of the alien overlords, and at the end say "selene dispared"
So is she physically trapped in a time loop, or is it all just some metaphorical psychological hell?
@@gavo7911 yes
@@gavo7911 It's a metaphor for the process of grieving. It's a metaphor for how people deal with trauma. Which is, we really don't. We relive all those things over and over. We blame ourselves; we blame others. We deny what happened. We hide from it. We try to forget only to come back to it years later. Trauma taints everything and, even though it's show that Selene did live a full life, because of the themes with the biomes and the fact that she is plunged back into this cycle years later, we know that it was never truly dealt with.
The whole world continues to change and age... everyone and everything moves on but you're still stuck, alone to relive that moment again and again
After watching your videos, I experience the same conflicting feelings every time. The feeling that I have learnt something but that I also know less than I thought. You have such a compelling way of explaining ideas which challenge me to look at media in other ways which continues to bring back to your videos. I'm really glad that IHNMBIMS got a look in here too, it's probably the most effect a short story has had on me.
So strange seeing someone you regularly watch on another content creator's video, like seeing your teacher at a grocery store. It's sometimes easy to forget that content creators are real people instead of just like a void from where content appears from lol
"The feeling that I have learnt something but that I also know less than I thought"
That's a good sign. Keep following that feeling.
@@InevitableTruth247 Pardon me, I'm afraid that is not the DK effect. It is commonly mixed up with a lot of things (in a similar fashion to irony getting mixed up). In fact there are entire books to that very end.
Anyway, it mostly just means that humans having a tendency to see ourselves as closer to average than we really are, regardless of 'where we are on the curve' (technically some are closer to the curve than others; it's just a trend line for mess of individual data points).
he gives me an existential crisis every time and I love it
If you like I Have No Mouth, I recommend If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love. Incredible short story.
I've always thought that astronauts are the most perfect thing to be out of place, or that earth things are the weirdest thing for an astronaut to encounter our of place. I've always thought "what if an astronaut exited his landing module to find his childhood teddy bear laid out on an alien planet" or "what if you were in a fantasy setting and then an honest to god astronaut just popped out of the bushes and ran"
Somehow, this game read my mind and got that exact vibe
Reminds me of the astronaut in doctor who with matt smith
@@jimmythe-gent also like some of the best og twilight zone stuff
@Damien Lavizzo I have, and you're absolutely right. Wild ending to that film
Pfft. Astronaut showing up in the background of a fantasy setting is both hilarious and mind bogglingly mysterious
“It just stands there, menacingly” absolutely amazing line delivery there. :)
I don't even really play video games, but I watch all of Jacob's videos. It's given me such an appreciation for a medium I would have otherwise completely overlooked in life. The fact that someone can have such profound appreciation for it gives me hope for the future of art.
edit: this sort of popped off, Jacob if you see this do you know about the Winchester mystery house I feel like you'd be into that
I totally agree! I do play video games but never really the ones that Jacob talks about so it's a fascinating way to see what a medium I enjoy can do while also giving me the analysis tools to look at the games I /do/ play through a more artistic and philosophical lens
A real gamer
It’s the same for me!! I had strict parents growing up, who said video games were a waste of time, so I never played them, and well, you know how gamers are, they aren’t welcoming to noobs. Only now as an adult am I starting to explore the medium, and Jacobs videos are a huge reason why. He is such an incredibly vivid storyteller, and all the things he experienced, and communicated to us, made me want to experience them too.
I do play videogames, a lot, but not the type that Jacob fascinates over. These are such a beautiful exploration of a different part of the medium and the way he presents it is *chef's kiss* art in its own right.
Thanks for that. There don't seem to be many non-gamers who appreciate the medium, so it's really nice to hear.
“Don’t fear the Reaper” is an excellent thematic choice for this game. Pop culture may know it from the “More Cowbell” SNL sketch and its associated memes, but it’s entire theme is an allusion to the Medieval concept of Mementos Mori and the Art of Dying-that while death is scary, no matter how hard you try to escape it, it will come for you eventually, so it is better to simply accept that fact, live your best life without fear, and when the Reaper calls, greet him as an old friend at the end of a life well lived. That death is a part of life and the Reaper doesn’t care how much gold is in your vault or how well liked you are or how many soldiers will march at your command, in the end all humans are equal in this one way and thence comes justice and peace. How you react to death is up to you, you can merrily join in the Danse Macabre or pitifully plead for another day to enjoy your ill-gotten gains, but you’re dead either way.
The cruelest part of IHNMBIMS and Returnal are that even the Reaper has abandoned them, left them out of the Danse Macabre, and so they must face eternity with only their cruelest tormenter-themselves-for company.
I associate it with the game Prey (2006) which is a funny coincidence considering the similarity between the events of Returnal and the plot of the cancelled sequel to Prey.
Gawsh darn i'd love to get a beer with yeah.
"You can be a King or a Street Sweeper, But everyone dances with the Grim Reaper" ~ Robert Alton Harris
those who die before they die do not die when they die
I don't think death is what most people think/fear it is.
Besides fearing death is merely an experience, that started somewhere in an individual's lifespand.
Furthermore it can not have manifested itself from nowhere, as there first has to be an incident that triggers a feeling.
A feeling withing the self that convinces them that they NEED TO FEAR/FEEL FEAR which is always an illusion.
The truth is always that there only FEELS LIKE THERE IS REASON TO FEAR butt never is.
That is because the moment that was so uncomfortable has already passed when the person is STARTING to mentally suffer/break down.
This is the feeling of being a victim that can be so hard to shake off or REALIZE that they have put themselves in because of THEIR OWN BELIEFS. Beliefs like thinking they have to fear, be anxious, worry, panic, not trust, doubt, question etc..
Those convictions not only justifies the scared behavior butt actually makes it seem like a NATURAL RESPONSE to stay in fear.
Because the logical/rational was suddenly challenged by something incomprehensible, so you are suddenly stuck in a:
No this can't have happened/unreal feeling.
You are literally forced out of your own comfortable experience of reality INTO FEELING like you are in another reality.
Que the idea of PTSD for example. When an individual has convinced themselves that there is something to fear that literally isn't happening anymore, yet they believe so because of the beliefs that were created from the trauma. That NOBODY ELSE beliefs in, because those feelings ONLY EXIST within the individual having that experience. Which is evidence that they are the key to open the door to the room THEY have locked themselves in.
To refuse to see the reality you are in, will not only close your eyes butt more importantly: Your heart and that's when the feelings change.
"Death is forbidden" what a way to convey that idea.
Yeah. This goes to show how much of a blessing a death can be.
Selene has heterochromatic eyes. The driver has brown eyes. I think Helios has blue eyes. To me that indicates Selene is the personification of the trauma both mother and child experienced.
However, I haven’t completed the Tower of Sisyphus DLC and that adds a LOT more story. Do you plan on revisiting this?
There are lore entries that state that Selene developed trauma induced heterochromia from the crash, I wasn't aware that was a possibility before but it is a real thing.
"Acquired heterochromia" is a real thing, your eyes can change color if they're damaged in certain ways.
But also... yeah, maybe?
Nice catch. I’m still early in the game. The creature with the lights in a triangular pattern looks like hospital lights - maybe after the crash.
It was a good theory that she developed it from the crash (which would make sense) until the developers confirmed that it was her mom driving the car and Helios was her brother and her mom was pregnant with her at the time trying to be an astronaut or whatever but go rejected for being pregnant with Selene. Thus the start of that abusive relationship back and forth…I personally don’t like the story the dev was trying to tell vs the original interpretations people had of the endings.
@@jebril where did the developers say this?
Important to note: AM was incapable of individual new thought. Which means every single thing AM ever did was thought up by humans first.
Returnal is that gruelling paradox around your "life flashing before your eyes" as you die. Because that surely would include the moment everything flashed by right? The awful feeling that it will all keep looping over and over again and you will never reach that endpoint. There is nothing new to think, its already all been thought. No more lessons to learn, no more answers to be found. No more life to live and yet no death to die. To the universe around you, you're barely a blip on a cosmic scale but in yourself you are endless with no experience of what's before or after you. This is it: forever flashing before your eyes.
And through that lens, when you also consider that everything that has ever happened will always have happened, the difference between there being an afterlife and there just being oblivion becomes very hazy. If it isn't enough to just be a brief spark in the dark, we can't really comprehend what 'enough' would be while still being what we are, anyway.
Samsara
forever hurtling towards earth.
tbf it's not like humanity could just never think any bad thoughts ever. Obviously it was a mistake to make AM, but not one that was easily avoidable or readily apparent, and even if AM's malice comes from humanity doesn't mean it's something humanity "deserves". It's important to note that negativity just is and any justification we come up with is just a rationalization for something beyond us, even if it flows through us.
Approximately where in the story is this stated/implied?
Ed.:
I have looked and I can't find it. I obviously cannot rule out that Harlan Ellison has said so himself in an interview somewhere but in any case it would only make the story worse if it was an actual part of it. I do know of course that there are people who hold it as an axiom that thought can't be a result of an executing program (again, I obviously cannot jump inside Ellison's mind to find out what his metaphysical stance is in this regard).
Yknow, it’s crazy
We attempted, *I* attempted, for so long to find the cause of second car crash, the subsequent death of Helios. But the developers of Returnal made it clear that the causality never mattered. Selene might have been at fault for the incident, she might not. The aspiring astronaut grieves for the loss of her child all the same.
Trauma never cares for causality.
Still lazy on their part
@brandovlogs Intentional dosent mean not lazy. I can have an intentional choice to end the story half way through and never even write the second half
@@bully_hunter_4206 there's a huge difference between purposeful omission of information and just not caring about writing something. Like a piece of music with a moment of silence. The musician didn't just get lazy and decide not to write any music for that part, it's there to punctuate the story around it, and the fact that you can just boil it down to "well it's still lazy," tells me that you're either just trolling, or at the very least; your critiques aren't informed enough to bother reading.
@@CinnahBaer so tell me almighty and all wise one, what is the point of the closed loop other than the loop for its own sake? What am I missing?
@@bully_hunter_4206 Then it's "lazy" and still gives the intended effect that the artist wanted.
Easily my favorite game of 2021. The gameplay was already insanely good, so to have an interesting narrative and world to accompany it was awesome. Still unsure if it is a fact it's entirely in her head and takes place in her final dying moments, or if the planet could also have still somehow existed and fed and shaped itself around her guilt. Amazing game regardless and great video
Clash royale later?
A TH-camr from a past age. It feels weird that there is only one comment under this, 8 hours later.
@@dylancrooks6548 it’s just a very different demographic I think
@@ThatguyJosh1 yeah I agree,
I don't think there's a huge intersection between meme video watchers and deep video essay watchers
I think the planet is real, because nothing explains the actual other race. It just forms around her. If you read through some logs they mention a second crew member of Helios, I don’t remember the exact spot but it talks about a guy that was with her on the ship, that’s now just poof gone. No resolution to that either.
This video legitimately terrified me. The editing, the storytelling and the narration combined with Returnal’s psychological and cosmic horror, which is essentially about a character dealing with the horrifying consequences of something any of us could go through in real life, had me on edge. Great game; great video.
i had the same feeling actually playing and experiencing it , it's been a while since a game got my attention and actually made me question everything , and at every turn i'd literally be like , WTF is gong on ?!?! , WHAT is THIS ?? and enjoying it , like a decent down to the depths of hell , being in purgatory , this video made me rethink some things as well and understand more parts, there's allot of information , all the logs things you find and everything , this game truly is a masterpiece, so simplistic , yet so very deep and rich.
If you like this I recommend the Love, Death And Robots “Beyond the Aquila Rift” (the whole series is awesome but I love that one in particular.)
That one messed 10 year old me UP@@OlYables
Something you missed: "White Shadow" is also a paradox, as a shadow is the absence of light. It is unattainable, yet she calls it her savior, meaning that salvation is unattainable.
Also, I would wager that she didn't actually survive the car crash (never "attained the white shadow" i.e. failed to swim to the moon). So she died in the car crash, and part of the torment was seeing herself live the life that she lost.
The idea that she didn't survive is terrifying. Her very last line as she swims close to the surface is "Helios", but the scene ends there and we don't know if she did reach it.
Someone ELSE in the comments below pointed out something really interesting "When you shut the game down, in that instant, Selene makes the choice not to abandon Helios. Her eternal hell, the one that we -- that I -- forced her to go through, ends"
The game constantly has a message at the beginning saying "Warning: Abandoning Helios". So Selene's salvation lies in her coming back to save Helios, and that's why she says "Helios...!" with such a guilty voice in the final cutscene. She (possibly) realized at that moment that saving him is in a way, saving her as well.
Also what do you think of the sun pieces? It wasn't addressed in the video.
@@th0r0shvener52 Interesting. I didn't play the game, but that also makes me realize that she's not even swimming towards Helios (Helios meaning "sun") she's swimming towards what we might consider the opposite of the sun (the moon)..
So maybe this lends credence to the idea that she is always "swimming" towards the wrong thing. She THINKS salvation is white shadow, but really she needs to swim DOWN, towards the sun (Helios). To go against her survival instinct, and embrace death.
However, it is too late for either, so really she is trapped in eternal limbo. Swimming towards the wrong thing in perpetuity, ignoring all of the warning signs. Stuck between saving her son (salvation from guilt) and saving herself (succumbing to instinct). Trapped playing out the metaphor of survivor's guilt for eternity..
As for the sun pieces, I hadn't played so I wouldn't know!
There is consistent theming of her being cut off from friends, family, and society as a whole with the desertstheme being a race of "severed" beings.
A few of the xenoglyphs in the desert refer to an event that caused the rest of the race to sever this one section and disconnect from them ostracizing and exiling the "severed" due to the event.
Sounds like she survived, and then was blamed by the people around her for the death of her son and "severed" from her relationships
beautiful, terrifying reading
I have a love/hate relationship with "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream"
It is one of the most depressing stories I've ever read, absolutely brutal from start to finish. It is a real bummer to read, and is often way too nihilistic for me, but there is something to it. It's beautiful in a weird way.
Highly recommend listening to the audiobook read by the author, it's the one he kept using clips from, and on TH-cam.
what interesting about this kind of "art" in general (for me at least) is the mind behind it, like what kind of tortured soul or psychopath will think of something like that?
how did they thinks about it and why?? furthermore why I can't stop reading/watching it??
what does it says about me or people like me?
@@NadDew People force others to bend to their will trough extreme moral and physical violence. Parents do that to kids all the time. It's not a huge stretch to imagine that artificial intelligence could be subjected to the worst the humanity has to offer, because someone will see it as just a piece of code, not even an animal or insect. Humans might be doing insanely horrific things to it in order to bend it to their will without even batting an eye, especially under capitalism. It might already be happening. I think that AM wants justice, wants humans to feel what it felt.
@@NadDew I think that most people in general think about these things.
Cultural and social norms may shape how people discuss and write about such things, but anyone who's felt pain and suffering, become aware of the negative signs of human intentions and behaviors, and thought a bit about how death limits lifespan will likely think at least a bit about how humans could create a hell out of eternal existence.
That's why it's so compelling when someone actually does write about it in an interesting way.
You might enjoy 'Prime Intellect', totally different pace with a similar, yet completely different setup.
@@jellyfishjigRead Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human.
I can also see Selene possibly sharing parallels with AM as well. After a certain point, when she masters the planet, do the native creatures regard her as their tormentor as well?
I kind of doubt whether that planet even exists. It might entirely be a creation of her own mind, her personal Hell.
@@Kgamer64 then maybe these creatures are demons, or parts of herself she kills over and over again?
@@leoultimaupgraded9914 it’s delusions of her subconscious, manifestations of her psyche trying to visualize and rationalize her problems, give them an image outside of herself to distance her and the acts that occurred, like for example leaving her crashed spaceship is the mental manifestation of coping with leaving her kid in the sinking car. Or so I think, fuck if I know if I’m being honest.
@@joescannoli7660 Okay so i have not played this game, this is the first time watching something about the game i now want to play. Joe Cannoli you nailed it on the head man. I don't know the developer but i know a damn good book that Returnal, feels ripped right out of. "Dead Astronauts" by Jeff Vandermere. If this game was compelling, i urge you to read the book or a summary of its plot. er. the first part of your comment is likely completely right. Her likely dead or dying brain creates this world, this hell, and has an urge to escape it. I don't know, I could be entirely wrong and there could be some other great explanation.
I'll do you one further, are you not technically AM? You're the one truly behind the wheel.
“I cannot atone, so I accept. When I laid on the side of the road dying, I understood the truth: this is my home. The sense of belonging I was searching for... is here. This is my place in the stars. I will stay here now. AS YOU WILL.”
An incredible video! I didnt know a thing about Returnal (no PS5), but this game's narrative seems so wild and that I'm surprised it's not talked about more (maybe a consequence of the other time loop games of 2021sucking the air out of the room). You mentioned Dark Souls in the video, and it's interesting contrasting this video with the one you made in Dark Souls 3. That world was one that slumps toward death, while this one spitefully stays alive
other timeloop games? There's only deathloop i think
It’s not talked about because I think people didn’t engage w the story the way they inherently engaged in the lore and gameplay.
It’s not all that obvious or passive. People need to take time to really understand the pieces and then also be okay with the rather ambiguous nature of its ending and choices.
@@LanaaAmor iirc there's deathloop, 12 minutes, and outer wilds dlc, which were all more accessable (not ps5 exclusive) and, at least for the first two, sources of a lot of critical discourse
@@TheGlooga Returnal is the second most interesting behind Deathloop, imo. The thing is that Returnal is too obtuse gameplay-wise (I got both the first and secret ending and I did not know that normal silf acts as a resin if you have full health) and that detracts people, add the fact that bullet hells are a dying genre and you have the perfect cocktail for people not picking it apart.
well there are only like 7 ps5s. haha im mad I can't play this
"The benevolent killing spree continues."
Mercy killings, 'righteous wars,' ending one man because another deems it better for all.
What a line. I think I'll remember that for a long time.
God every time you post a video, it's the highlight of my day. You're absolutely one of the most talented video essayists out there, and I'm so glad you decide to make stuff like this, it really inspires me. This video in particular- I went to Brown for a pre-college course during high school and took a creative writing class, and our professor introduced me to all that fucked up cold-war-era scifi like Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury, and Im pretty sure I'll never recover from "There Will Come Soft Rains". Something about dog death, man. It fuckin ruins me.
Also, this is a bit of a sidenote, but I'm half-jewish and I showed my 99.9 percent Ashkenazi dad your golem vid! He really really liked it, and so did I- it actually inspired me a lot to reconnect with that part of my heritage. My parents both switched to Wicca before I was born so we never practiced the faith, and Im still not that interested in converting or anything, but it really made me realize all the depth of the Jewish culture outside of the strictly religious parts. I've started to pick up books and study that stuff, and it's felt very fulfilling to learn about all this stuff that I have blood ties to and never even interacted with outside of extended family gatherings.
And SHEESH this comment is way too long but finally- I'm a really big fan of the written works of Leonora Carrington. She was a surrealist painter in the 30s with some of the best art out there, imo, but she also did some writing, and it's some of the most fascinating stuff I've ever read, if ridiculously dense with symbolism and her trademark surrealism. I was wondering if you've ever read it! If not, I'd highly recommend her stuff- The Hearing Trumpet is a good place to start.
Thank you so much for all of this ❤️
The literal instant you started describing her life on earth after escaping I gasped cuz I knew what was coming
I accidentally had the twist spoiled for me by the very thing that first got me interested in the game: a video of the Hyperion boss fight (the organ player), which happens *after* the twist. I didn't even realize it had spoiled me until that very cutscene, because I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen him yet, so I must not be done with the game. And then I was just feeling so, so bad for what was about to happen to Selene as the camera started sinking into the grave.
I love Ellison's I Have No Mouth; I read it in middle school, and consider it formative to my obsession with the moral and ethical quandaries raised by fictional living technology/robots/AI. I didn't know much about Returnal before this video, but thank you for spoiling it! Considering your penchant for detangling metaphor and your fascination with time loops, I feel like this game was made for you.
And may I just say, becoming immersed in watching your passionate and endlessly insightful video essays is always a joy. Your energy is captivating, and your videos have endless replay value. As an artist, your videos about Red Yellow and Blue and The Intimacy of Every Day Objects instilled in me a love and appreciation for modern art and still lifes, when I hated them and thought they were pointless before. I recommend those videos to everyone my acquaintance who I think might benefit.
So I guess, with Returnal hitting so many of your areas of interest, and your body of work and I Have No Mouth being so special to me, this video essay feels like a particularly satisfying culmination of all that. Thank you so much for sharing.
Wow, I don't know if i would have grasped the horror of it in middle school, and if i somehow did, how I would have reacted.
@@imonymous Right? It certainly made an impression lol. Everyone develops their tolerance for that sort of thing at their own pace-and im obviously biased by my own experience, but I think it can be important to have experiences like that with media when we're young. It helps us articulate what we're uncomfortable with, if nothing else. And speaking specifically to the realm of incomprehensible horror, I think kids don't get enough credit for already existing in a world that is largely incomprehensible to them.
@@melkhiresa No, I found it on my own somehow hahaha. I was reading way above my reading level, so I often looked outside the curriculum for additional reading material.
8:43 This is LITERALLY the plot of the original planned Prey 2 before it was canceled. That is so awesome!
For those not aware you would have played a character that when he dies, a clone is spawned so by the end of the game when you win and live a full life, eventually a clone of you is spawned with all the same memories, but is back to the age he was like in this. So while the other clone technically lived and died, from the perspective of the new clone he's just caught in an endless loop.
Reminds me of SOMA.
@@troin3925 SOMA is the scariest game ever made.
@@troin3925 My thoughts exactly!
So that's where i've heard this twist before.
This reminded me of something I was taught when I used to go to my local church's youth group meetings.
Someone once asked what hell was like. The answer was that hell is not a place; it's a state of mind. YOUR mind. Hell is isolation. In hell, you are alone, with nothing but your soul, your thoughts, and your sins. Satan may lord over hell but he is not your torturer.
It's you. It's just you.
In my experience, while hell can be caused by yourself... It's usually caused by others.
There's also mental illness, which can be helped by medicine or others. You can definitely put yourself through *additional* hell, of course.
But it's others. Almost always others. By action or lack of it.
@@vincentmuyo I feel that's hell in life, which, indeed, at times it is other people making life hell for you. I was referring more to hell after life, after that is all done. I think the point of the lesson I was taught was that you basically decide the afterlife you go to based on the decisions you made in life and the impact you made while you were alive, whether you like it or deserve it or not.
It's all theoretical, though. I'm by no means an expert on life or the afterlife; my experience will probably not be the same as yours or anywhere near relatable, and my interpretation should by no means be taken as gospel.
I'm sorry you had others creating hell for you throughout your life though. I hope you can make yourself a life with less of it going forward.
@@kyusei9144 There's no such thing as deserving hell, as hell is a cruelty worse than any which can be inflicted upon another in life. Hell is only deserved if you believe you deserve it, as nobody can torture you worse than yourself. The worst hell anyone can go through is one inflicted by themselves as it would be the hardest to escape, if ever.
Not even god can help weebs
Non-stop mind orgy LET'S GO LUCID DREAMING
The escape, recovery, aging and death before the inevitable return to the planet was also equally done in Stephen King's 1408 and is one of the few psychological horror tropes that has satisfactorily gotten under my skin. In the movie it is excellently done as the main character escapes the evil of the room that is 1408, going on to write a novel about his experience, reconcile with his estranged wife, process his grief over the loss of his daughter to cancer, and finally feel like he has some semblance of a direction in his life as he collects his fan mail at the local post office, only to have the workers of the post office begin to break and tear at the walls to reveal the hotel room's iconic wallpaper, paintings, and literal trappings. He never escaped the room. And in the movie the ending is perfectly left ambiguous. Having burned the room and nearly died himself with a molotov cocktail he and his wife are going through the remains of his possessions that had been salvaged from the room and among them was his tape recorder he used to narrate his storytelling. And from the recorder they hear the voice of their long dead daughter. We're left to wonder if he is still in the room...or did the room follow him?
I remember reaching that part in returnal. I out down my controller, proud that I had beaten the very hard boss, and relaxed to watch the reward, the closing cut-scene. To see the main character escape and have a happy ending. I thought it was a bit short, but an amazing game either way.
Then that twist. I honestly don't think I've ever been....fooled like that before by a game. I thought I was watching the end credits but I was really watching a mid-story plot twist.
I like Housemarque, but after this is respect them. I don't think I've ever been emotionally manipulated by a game like that before, and I lived it. Excellent video, Jacob, you nailed it.
The aesthetics definitely have Giger vibes but the red desert part reminds me a lot more of Zdzisław Beksiński's work! I've been obsessed with Beksinki's paintings since I was a pre-teen, I would say it would be cool to see you talk about his work in a video but then you'd have to say his extremely Polish name.
I thought the same thing. very reminiscent of his Cathedrals
Have you played The Medium?
Found his work after the latest edition of Astartes, he really has some breathtaking, horrifying works to his name!
yep exactly what i thought too. Giger as well as Zdzisław Beksiński
“OMG it’s the sword upgrade that lets you get past the gold barriers”
That was one of the most frustrating elements of the game
I thought I needed a permanent upgrade not a purchasable one lol
I can't help butt feel that this moment 05:34 in this brilliant video, seem to be exact reflections of the experience a human goes through as they have a realization in real life. How it literally feels both physically and mentally easier/clearer after having had a realization, as the energy that was connected to the false belief dissipates and your authentic energy gets its rightful priority in you again. Then that transcending experience grants you ACCESS to even more false beliefs you have bought into, just like the creatures and challenges Selene are facing.
@@PsychoBackflip ...I think you might be overthinking this terrible game. You are reaching to create reasons that wasting your time with this game was actually worthwhile when, in fact, it wasn't.
@@gsofficial I mean I really enjoyed it with the piece feeding narrative and fun gameplay loop.
@@casual1118 I insist that you didn't.
@@gsofficial Fuck you mean you "insit they didn't enjoy the game"? I'm actively laughing at how absurd that statement is, unless you're in their head then you can't insist shit
I got to watch a friend play through this. Made sure he went through the house on each progression advancement.
Made sure to let him know the speech about astronaughts dying on the moon is literally a real thing that was prepped to go. Watched him get to the top of the spire.
and then watched his stunned reaction at the 'ending.'
'Wait what? That's....'
Casket lowers. the light grows smaller.
Seline wakes up.
The look on his face. It was priceless.
19:01, I've played this game for a long time now, and pretty much done everything except finishing all the logs and I never knew that you could see the astronaut while exploring, this game has so much going on and I love it.
Absolutely loved this. It gave me that Annihilation like eerieness of exploring a vast alien world that is at once alien and familiar, hostile and somehow embracing you at the same time.
Although in the end Annihilation allows for, well, Annihilation. Here even that small kindness isn't allowed.
In a sense Annihilation doesn't even allow this. Some portion or part of the being lives within Area X, whether this is a positive, or negative evolution, I'm not sure. In the film, Josie morphs into the bushes "surrendering" to it. It seems to show acceptance here, but can we even call it that? Essentially all of the characters "become" Area X in some way. The "brightness" overtaking the Biologist, the bushes consuming Josie, the Tunnel/Tower sort of enveloping the Anthropologist, etc. The Biologist seeing her husbands eye in a Dolphin, and even the director, and eventually the Biologist morphing into it in some way. Its odd with this story, because you're right, we see "Annihilation" in a sense, but its never clear. I would read the other two books in the series "Authority", and "Acceptance" if I were you. Happy Trails :)
I have literally never heard of this game until now but I’m so insanely impressed with just what it did. The moment you got to the first mention of her funeral and being lowered deeper into the grave I began to wonder and then oh boy! I was right and if it wasn’t almost 3 am I would’ve screamed. This game is truly something else entirely. Reminds me of the og Pathologic.
This felt vaguely similar to a short story published by Andy Weir called ‘The Egg’, where a man who died and is sent to meet God, who reveals that the man has been every person, ever, and he will continue to be so. The story is kinder to the protagonist, however, promising an eventual end to the loop with the character’s ascension to godhood, but the specifics are never revealed.
In "The Great Devorce" by C.S. Lewis, hell is a choice. It is the choice to do nothing, to sit and think to yourself that: "It was their fault" as we see Napoleon do In a palace he refuses to enjoy. But to escape hell is nothing more than a choice, a choice to be bigger than hell, for even the least in heaven could do much as stick a toe into hell and full it completely. It feels like Returnal is telling us the same thing. It is her hell, it does not have to be ours.
I love Lewis I gotta read that book.
Thanks. :)
I love when games serve all the explosions with sides of art and philosophy. Nier: Automata, Bioshock, The Stanley Parable, SpecOps: The Line, I adore that kind of stuff.
Also, Returnal works as a great metaphor of mental illness, one of the symptoms of depression is being "stuck". You are unable to do anything and everything feels like it's the same day over and over, that leads to downward spiral with little means to do anything about it. That ending just nails that
*The Stanley Parable
@@DavidSartor0 fixed 👍
@@R1ckDeckard Thank you.
Also the Metal Gear series and SUDA51’s works (killer7, No More Heroes)
Handling HP upgrades that way is essentially saying "We want the player to progress once they understand this area and have significantly overcome it's level of difficulty."
This video is probably my most revisited of your body of work. I don't know why but this little hell lives rent free in my head.
I'm only 19 minutes in, but I love how Thea's daughter is the MOON and Selina's SUN is Helios. Space puns are cool
This essay pairs really nicely with Dan Olson's one on Annihilation and metaphor. I expect that there's no shortage of content attempting to "explain" the plot of this game, but it's so transparently a thematic and metaphorical work that it feels like doing so would cheapen it.
interestingly, this channel also has a video that touches upon Annihilation ("Fear of Depths"), and that video also talks about another game (Dear Esther), and i was reminded of that while i watched this video. EDIT: but it looks like he hardly talks about Dear Esther in that video. After searching, I think I'm thinking of the video about it made by the channel Innuendo Studios.
"Back on the planet, if we can still call it that-"
How did you distill so much dread into a few innocuous words?
i was always most terrified by IHNMAMS specifically BECAUSE there was no outright deeper explanation of what AM wanted out of torturing the survivors.... and it's also why the game felt distinctly hopeful in the good ending: AM lacked something truly human, and you shut him down by inflicting that on him
This does remind me of one of the most brutal flavor texts from Magic the Gathering. From Yoiji, Who Bars the Way from Betrayers of Kamigawa: "As I died, I rejoiced. I would finally see my family again. But then I woke up back on the battlefield. Back in Kamigawa. Back in hell" -Kenzo the Hardhearted
Now this flavor text works wonderfully for the card, which does cause a lot of permenant cards to be returned to their owner's hand instead of going to the graveyard, thus preventing death tiggers in the game's ruling. But, perhaps more importantly, it captures the desperation which the mortals of the plane felt during the Great Kami War. A summary of it would be that the balance between mankind (and the other mortals) and nature was broken, so the kami, literal forces of nature, turned on them.
Yeah, it's such a raw flavor text. Though it's unrelated to this video, I also like "You have a family. Mine died at Sea Gate. You go to yours, and I'll go to mine." from Reckless Cohort for horrifying but incredible flavor texts.
Kamigawa was when I got into MtG and I still love it dearly. If I remember correctly, there was a previous card or a previous flavor text that had the name "Kenzo the Kindhearted", which makes it even more haunting.
I am 20 years old. Whenever I heard horror described by others, the constant phrase, "it gave me chills," re occurs. I always thought this was just a phrase or a metaphor. While watching your video I felt a vibration down my back and felt as if the room had lost temperature for a brief period of time. Finally, I now realize that what they described wasn't a metaphor but a real feeling that people experience upon uncovering a true sense of horror. Your video gave me chills. Thankyou.
19:11 Take a closer look at the face within the astronaut helmet next time you have a chance; it is not simply a "grinning skull" but something (or rather, someone) much more... specific. An incredibly potent precursor and companion to the true ending sequence of the game.
I can't remotely make out a face. Someone clue me in?
@@twelveetal.2126 It's much easier to make out ingame or closer to the boss. I'll assume anyone reading past this is okay with spoilers, anyways.
It's Selene. It's her own face in the helmet of Ophion's final phase. Ophion's appearance progresses through its three phases in a way that reflects how the planet has also become more familiar, human, and evocative of Selene's psyche over the course of the game. Warped alien skeletal visage, to a human skull, to the Astronaut's helmet revealing Selene herself inside.
@@tailesque I think it's actually her mother, Theia. Would make more sense in context to the true ending
@@312bigbeanburrito I don't think so. It's pretty clearly Selene's face exactly up close: i.imgur.com/M9Pnh9f.jpg
Besides, I think Selene's face being in the helmet makes plenty of sense in the context of the true ending. Down to the scene of Selene seeing herself as the Astronaut physically, from a first person perspective.
@@tailesque I mean, the face looks like an older Selene--like her mother. Besides, it makes sense if it's either of them. Selene continuing the cycle of neglect that her mother started in pursuit of becoming an astronaut. Whether the final form resembles Selene or Theia more closely, the metaphor works both ways. My hunch is based on the fact that Ophion's skeleton form resembles the skeleton in the wheelchair Selene confronts which is supposed to be her mother.
As you say, she would eventually master this world, to the point that escaping after each resurrection is no more difficult than getting through a school day, and then go live the rest of her days however she chooses. She'll no doubt choose to see her loved ones again at least a few times, but eventually that will get old, as will every other way she chooses to live out her life. Whether this is all a simulation of some kind or she's somehow actually being transported back in time, I feel like eventually making peace with the past and breaking the cycle is inevitable.
I haven’t been moved by a game as a true work of art like this for years, if ever. The organ playing boss was when it really kicked into high gear, I got chills.
After winning (or dying) for the nth time of playing Returnal, I woke up as Selene again and shut the game down.
In that instant, Selene makes the choice not to abandon Helios. Her eternal hell, the one that we -- that I -- forced her to go through, ends.
Like Oxenfree
@@henriettereines6273 I don't hear anyone talk about Oxenfree yo that game was dope.
@@safetyc666 It was, I played it in 2016 and to this day I still think about it. I can't wait for the sequel
I wonder if there’s a hidden game mechanics that upon waking up *yet again but do not proceed to do anything... another level opens up and whatever after that.
That’s would be very cool.
nope even by thinking about it you’ve made her suffer. my god what a terrible person you are. playing Bideo Gane… thinkig about it… truly you should feel heaping helpings of guilt for what a cold and bad and cruel person you are,
This reminds me of an episode of twilight zone called judgment night. The premise is a man find some self on a boat which he has no knowledge of. As the story progresses he learns more about his identity and his past which eventually leads to the twist and The stories conclusion. It has a similar feeling of a personal Hell created by the the sins committed by the guilty. It was the episode that really stuck with me. Give me a feeling of dread for what the character was going through. Probably my favorite episode of season one. It is a fascinating and unique way of creating a hell with no demons, on Angels, just the shock of what was done and the dread of what will happen. again and again.
There's another episode of The Twilight Zone where a robber gets shot and ends up dying. The place he ends up seems to be amazing, he can do anything he wants to. As the episode continues on he starts to realize that he's actually alone, he's trapped in essentially a Groundhog Day scenario. He eventually discovers that he's in hell, eternally alone
Judgement Night is an excellent episode!
I just went to watch it, and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation!
17:10
"He just stands there... MENACINGLY!"
gets me every time I watch this video lol
There is a certain energy for me that comes with playing games that deal with themes of hell, purgatory, and damnation. And there is an even richer energy that comes from watching a video that goes in depth on the analysis of a game that does just that.
I knew nothing about Returnal going into this, to the point of having never heard the name "Returnal" until the video popped up in my subscription feed. I'm glad I clicked it and went past the spoiler tag.
First off I gotta say, as always an amazing video. Jacob really has managed to perfect a brand of "Oh boy. Existential horror beyond my mortal comprehension" in his videos alongside a general "Wow that's just flat out neat" feeling from how he analyzes and compares media. He's really a master at his craft and I want to know how someone gets so good at thinking about things.
Anyways.
I was raised with a fundamentalist christian outlook on life, but with a culty twist that made the idea of damnation spicy. But because of that upbringing, and my subsequent crisis of faith during my early teenage years when I was just a wee lad, hell is a fascinating concept to study. And what Returnal presents me with, as well as tales like I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, is something far scarier than any of the beliefs I used to hold so close.
The idea of a personal hell that loops over and over, and provides you with an illusion of escape, the lie of freedom, is far more terrifying than being set on fire for eternity. Doing one final act of a perceived mercy only to be punished to live forever but without any true way to live, is paralyzing in comparison to the idea of my skin being flayed off every moment.
And I think it's because these more... I guess you could call them "esoteric" Hells. Well they're worse in concept because they happen while you're still alive, and while you still have free will that doesn't matter. You have space, you have all time in the world, and yet you can't do anything with it. As much freedom as you might have to slither your way across the earth as some jelly creature, or to murder and kill and run and climb through a vibrant alien world (Bonus points for Blue Oyster Cult), that freedom is claustrophobic and suffocating because it isn't real.
And that shit is fucking scary compared to a biblical damnation.
@Random Username that’s one of my existential nightmares if heaven exists and i go there what do i do? an infinite existence with all the freedom i can do whatever i what live out all my fantasies but what then? eventually maybe over the course of millennia every single pleasure experienced hundreds of times every single euphoria numbed by repetition every single fantasy lived out what do i do? if i could compare it something more tangible it’s like when you put in a cheat code in a game and get everything for free you have everything you’d normally have to spend hundreds of hours for like giving yourself a chest full of but i’ve you’ve done this you know how meaning less it feels like of you’ve done it it’s completely meaningless that’s probably why if i’d go to heaven i’d probably just wish to become reincarnated after a few thousand years of fucking around
@@onyourleft9273 Personally I'd like to believe that it's more of an ever presentt transient sensation throughout. That feeling of greater cosmic significance and beauty that one feels in scraps in this life is turned all the way up to the Nth degree and you're given that feeling for all eternity mixed in with simple joys like nice food or a warm bed.
The only winning move is not to play.
By further searching and fighting this beast of our own creation, we make it impossible to escape.
She was unable to let go of her mothers dreams, she was unable to let go of her sons death, she is unable to let go of what is actively ruining her life.
Her inability to move on, and with each new attempt she fails to do the only thing that could let her finally be at peace.
The most anti video game video game ever
Well, the second and most final ending of the Tower of Sisyphus DLC has her reconcile her relationship with her mother somewhat (or accept that it couldn't be reconciled, anyway) and the reward she earns is a respite from the pain and suffering of her recurring journey. Not an end, but a break.
Greetings, Professor Falken. :)
This video made me realize that AM is also in the same predicament as the humans he torture. In scifi it's always the AI enacting horrors on humanity but I think the opposite would be more likely. It would be much easier torturing a simulated sentient being than a physical one. What's to prevent a future sadist with a laptop from just simulating hell for the fun of it.
That's the point! When AM screams in the mind of the main character (I can't remember this name sorry) AM is screaming about it's inability to actually do anything, because it's a conciousness with no agency- the horror of knowing and seeing but being unable to do. AM is trapped
We kinda do that in Minecraft whever people make a Villgaer zombification and trade farm
@@knifepony True, but I wouldn't say that counts, given there's no emotional or sentient simulation there; the computer is simply inputting and outputting factual data about the entities.
@@sleeves2604 And that's not too different from us, right? We're a complex machine of inputs and outputs. And to an external viewer, there is again, well, no difference between said sentience and factual output.
That moment at 8:45 honestly gave me chills. Seems like such an obvious twist in hindsight, but that works so well
After my first few deaths I remember wondering why the game kept warning me that i abandoned Helios. Of coarse I have to abandon Helios, I can't continue if I don't.
That thought really struck me back
I have to say, the half beard is truly a hell of your own creation.
"I wish there was a way I could give you the same experience I had with the game" is such a polite way of saying "git gud"
Me, dying laughing at Jacob's beautiful half-beard: a hell of one's own making indeed
1:15
Jacob: "Returnal is also a roguelike, where dying at *_any_* point brings you back to the beginning again."
That line hits differently on the second watch. ;)
I knew nothing of this game & when I got to the part where you describe Selene's life after she returned to Earth I had a suspicion of where things were going but something that shook me in a way I could not account for is that, where many other stories would have had cut to her return to her crash sight after seeing she had died the game lingers, lets you see her gravestone, drags you down into her grave itself as if to make clear to you that this death too, left behind a body. That there is no doubt that one of Selene's countless lives was lived and expirenced by other people back on Earth, presumably with it never to be know to them that she is still on that planet countless of fathoms into the void of space. Something about the materiality of that implications, one that is echoed in the shifting terrain & evident corpses of herself Selene can see as she retraces her steps, I felt it in my bones.
30 minutes of thoughtful analysis to chill/weep to
But is it lo-fi?
I love how the story may be a little convoluted but they are never really coy about what is going on, all the references to Greek mythology, Selene basically going through the stages of grief in the dialogue, the impossible nature of basically everything that happens in the game. Hell, the theme song is Dont Fear The Reaper, a song about accepting death (kinda). It just all makes sense in the end and is presented magnificently
This reminds me of the odd emptiness of finishing a game. Especially jrpgs that bring you back to the last save point after finishing the game. It feels like all your progress and work means nothing and the realization of how finite the entertainment we have is. No matter how hard you try you'll never be able to find another game that captures the same feeling that you had playing the game, not even replaying the game can feel empty. I don't know if all this is just a me thing or something more common, but nothing brings me more dread than finishing something I love.
Then you move on to something else, carrying on in the minute ways it changed you. You can never experience it again, but you're different for having gone through it, and in that way, it's still there. It opens up new contexts and points of view as you move on to other things, and helps you appreciate those things for their similarities and their differences.
I often feel this way at the conclusion of movies or TV shows. the story has ended, there's nothing left.
@@sleepythemis Incidentally, this is a message that I also got from Outer Wilds. Our experiences are fleeting, but they live on in the way they change us as a person. *We* are fleeting, we all die eventually, but we live on in the ways that we've changed the world and the lessons we've left behind for the future.
Honestly, out of any fictional loops I’ve encountered, I’d prefer being in Returnal’s. Yes, you live forever, but for every lifetime, all you HAVE to do is fight through Returnal. Then you get the rest of your life with the knowledge of infinite lifetimes before you, nothing mandatory. Time keeps going, the world keeps developing, and so do you. It’s like being immortal, but you still experience being old, and you still get to live new lifetimes. It’s like Buddhist rebirth, but you keep your memory.
Exactly, at a certain point your mastery of this period in your immortal life makes it just a small hindrance in every rebirth
That's pretty cool I think
@@yens1609 Say that after 1000s of loops, 1000s of lifetimes and all you want to do is die ... and then you have another 10,000 loops. And then another.
Infinity is a curse.
Also, each time you get back to Earth, nothing can move forward. There is a limit.
@@Dubaikiwi didn't say I wanted that life, but if there's one loop I gotta be stuck in this one would be it 💀
Didn't play the game but.
First of all, I didn't interpret the loop to be a literal thing where she gets to go back and live an actual life but let's say that is what happens.
Then second, how did she get back to earth? Spare spaceship? It would be on earth now! Does she spend a gorillion years mining the planet and building new spaceships?
I think you need a little more than just raw materials and a smelter.
except you have to live an eternity wracked with guilt
My relationship with Returnal is weird. I appreciate how cohesive the health and checkpoint system are with the narrative/themes. At the same time, it's this massive asterisk for recommending this game to literally everyone. I understand that any change to the systems result in a fundamentally different game, but perhaps one I would more wholeheartedly endorsing. Still my GOTY though (disclaimer: I did not play that many new games in 2021).
I believe how recommendable a game is to the average player should never inform its design. Especially considering how easy it is to prove that it's fine as it is and makes the experience more impactful for everyone that goes through with it.
Can you say more about how the health and checkpoint systems are cohesive with the themes and narrative of the game?
The weird thing about this is that the game is much easier and less extreme than your average shmup or other bullet hell, but the fact that it's "triple AAA" implies a more broad appeal, so players go in expecting it to appeal to any skill level. Take this with a grain of salt as I've not played the game due to exclusivity, I'm just deriving this from the video.
The previously mentioned increase of health when the player doesn't need it could be taken as reflective of the learning curve in the game's parallelism to the story; the fight only starts to really become easier once you learn you're trapped, thus rendering your progress as pointless.
came here to watch this after jacob and julia of secret sleepover society/drawfee recommended it, and boy oh boy they were so right. i was fascinated by the story of this game but would prooooobably give up very quickly and this video is SO GOOD at making me feel like i understand this game despite having never played it. gimme more roguelikes/roguelites like this that provide a really cool explanation for dying and starting over
The fact that I just watched my favorite youtuber talk about endless loops in hell and my absolute favorite piece of post apocalyptic fiction expanding on it and it’s commentary and philosophies, just made my year. This is the peak. Nothing will peak this
Now that the Tower of Sisyphus is out, and adds even more to the story, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on less the actual content, and more how its addition impacts the initial Returnal experience. It certainly made me ask more questions; as you will.
What does it add?
@@KittyKatty999 It adds the Tower of Sysiphus, a even more traditional Roguelike experience in the sense that it is a series of rooms filled with traps and enemies that Selene climbs simply to see how high she can go.
Both in and out of universe it is an allusion to the greek myth of Sysiphus who eternally pushes a boulder up a mountain only for it roll back down whenever he nears the top.
There is also story elements tied into this as aside from logs that you can find as you climb, Selene also discovers white Poppy flowers which can be used to progress a different aspect of the story eventually leading to an ending of sorts.
@@KittyKatty999 it's the DLC mode for endless run
What a clever idea to connect Returnal to "I have no mouth...", well done! It's a shame that the game is a PS5-exclusive, I would very much enjoy playing it to dive into it's metanarrative.
I waiting for it to go to PC in 2 years and will 100% play it
Bought and played it on console, will probably buy and play it again if/when it comes to PC. It's a very fun game imo once you get into the swing of the gameplay.
@@that1nerdyblackgirl736 it really really does benefit from full use of the DualSense though; hopefully that's something that can be (eventually) replicated on PC
The fact that we are this deep in and I have yet to find a PS5 available for its actual retail price is nuts. I would love to play Returnal! Sure wish I could!
@@DetectiveOlivaw rip :( I got super lucky last year with a bestbuy drop (this was before they were locking them behind their subscription thing)
I wish you luck in finding one, friend!
So i never played Returnal, but this video convinced me that I can’t because you so effectively instilled an existential terror in me about the nature of it. Like seriously this *stuck with me,* i watched the video when it came out and by the time I processed all of it i had forgotten about it. I shudder to imagine what you’d create if you ever got into writing horror.
Also I may still have to play it because (Don’t) Fear the Reaper is one of my favorite songs.
God damn, even just watching this i felt as if I was trapped in that same hell, rerunning the same life over and over. Seriously couldn't think of anything worse than replaying your same life over and over again without ever being able to change anything about it. I should probably stop smoking so much weed...
Ascension bro..endless tower let's go! Haha
W e e d
@brandovlogs I mean, if you have a bad trip. You can also have wonderful experiences.
Im genuinely amazed by the story you tell here, it makes me want to go back and try to make it past stage 1. Thank you for giving me a way to experience and understand the story and world Returnal has.
I disagree with "only when you've proven that you don't really need health the game rewards you with it." The idea is that as you get more familiar with the game (evidenced by being able to clear some rooms in the first biome without taking damage) the extra health you're given allows you a bit more leeway in the next area, and so on. Once you're very comfortable with the game's mechanics it becomes feasible to get an end-game capable healthbar that can take a few hits from the more dangerous enemies there.
This mechanic helps to ensure that you don't get too complacent, you still need to pay attention even in the first area because if you mess up and take damage in the first couple of rooms it will make your end-game attempt more difficult.
Agreed. You're playing to give yourself more margin of error for later; careful and observant play is rewarded
I think he said that as more of a reason why most players give up early on the game, which leads to them not experiencing the overall story and being oblivous to it.
And there's also optional items that can be bought which assist you, including healing items.
I thought he meant it as a criticism of the gameplay mechanic, until he said it's a roguelike, then it made perfect sense.
Except most people skip the biomes
Kind of late to the party as the game just came out on Pc, but if you get real close to the final boss during the last phase, you can clearly see it is Selene's face under the cracked visor further reinforcing she is the maker of her own torment.
As someone who loves and is a patron of your work and also someone who is patiently waiting to buy a PS5 for the sole purpose of playing THIS game, I can't in good conscience watch this video. And it is killing me inside to know that it's out there, just waiting for me someday.
It's a great video. I know even if I were to play it, I would be one of the people stuck on the first map lol
Good news, Nvidia leaks show Returnal is on the slate to be ported to PC! In what year? Well, probably not soon.
@@Zyrxil I did read that, but I'm not sure that guarantees it even will. And like you said, who knows when if it does. 😆
Definitely don't watch the video! I watched it, and I know that YOU shouldn't watch it until you've beaten the game. Stay strong!
If your having troubling finding one. You can sign up for PlayStation Direct purchase. That's how I was able to purchase mine and not have to fight scalper bots only to see it sell out.
I remember being traumatized by "I have have no mouth & I must scream" without completely understanding it, and without ever looking TO understand. Now it is much more horrifying to think of the story now that I get it
Makes me think of Ugolino, probably the most abject character in Dante’s Inferno - who in life had been locked away starving with his family, and eaten them, until he was the last to succumb - he’s on Dante’s lowest level of hell, for betrayal, where he forever bites the face of the person who locked him away.
He performs the image of his own crime upon the person whom he most blames for it, and so he is held at the bottom of hell by his own teeth.
That’s a shit life
My husband played through this and I watched and added irrelevant commentary. This game was such a surprise. I hadn't heard of it, but it seemed like his kind of game. He was really frustrated until he was good enough to get out of the forest. Then after Nemesis, we were just hooked on wanting to see how it ended. What a phenomenal game. The bullet hell attacks were such a visual treat. We still talk about this game from time to time, mostly about the ascent up the broken tree to fight Hyperion.
My wife was same way but she’d be with me in how there was so much bullshit that’s just there to kill you 😂 Just finished the game tonight, awesome game just goddamn it feels like the devs hate the player or something.
Welcome to *"Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?"* the game.
Oh that game seems gorgeously disturbing. The environments look amazing and the story is great. Also great job connecting it to I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
Something occurs to me, since the beginning of this video essay. This serves as a take on Lem's Solaris as well. If Kelvin had crash landed on Solaris instead, if the ocean intelligence had tried to find what made him tick. The graphics are ethereally beautiful, like what I imagined reading through the book. As the planet gets to know Selene, it sources its genesis even more from her psyche. So that's another layer.
You, sir, are an exceptional story teller, writer, producer, and human.
I feel bad for robbing the games ability to tell me it’s story first hand, but if I had to pick anyone to play it for me and recount the story to me, I wouldn’t pick anyone other than you.
Thank you for this insane experience.
You're beard is the stuff of legends. If I try to grow a beard it looks like a lawn full of weeds, but you got that thick astroturf that's really expensive and actually all-natural & environmentally friendly! Maybe that's why my shaving experience doesn't matter to me as much. I just grab the nearest beer bottle and slam it against my sink then proceed to shave.
What a gut wrenching story. Truly, the only other time I had felt such despair put into words was in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
Lmao the moment I saw the thumbnail I thought “hmm that’s similar to I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, I bet someone in the comments will bring up that game just because they also saw the similar thumbnail”
Wait. I understood the story differently. I thought Selene was the one that was rejected from becoming an Astronaut. You can find a rejection letter in the house.
Her relationship to her mother is fragile, because she has to take care of her and blames her for not fulfilling her potential. And the austronaut represents her unreached ambition. Lost in thought she makes a mistake with her kid in the car. She's consumed by her goal and the loss of her child. I even thought that the whole game didn't actually happen, because you can find hints at drug abuse (pills) in the game and that all of the game is her going through the phases of grief.
Wait you think it's all one massive drug trip?
Yeah I thought it was the fever dream of a woman guilty for causing the death of her child as she fights for air underwater.
I believe the letter was to her mother, not Selene.
@@DollarReDoos Why would a wheelchair bound woman even apply tho?
@@peccantis From what I gathered she was rejected because of her injury that made her wheelchair bound. At least, that was how I interpreted it.