[Careful, long and detailed explanation] I’ll explain the ending of the game for those who didn’t understand it. I feel like a lot of people in the comments think Lily is the protagonist, but that isn’t the case. You play this game as James inside his own mind, being the main protagonist of the “film” as Lily’s flame (her soul within him) and James’ flame (his own, the director) fight to see who gets to keep his body. What you go through is an artistic, fucked up and hard to understand interpretation of various memories of James’ life while in each act except the fifth, you get to make an important choice: You either kill off Lily and move on from James’ painful memories and guilt of the past, or fulfill the promise he made to lily, of getting her back so she can always be with him, forever. Without going into too much unnecessary detail: James’ mother died giving birth to him, while his father was an war veteran who lost an eye. Lily was James’ older sister and the two were very close. Their father was rather abusive, blaming James of his mother’s death due to being born and always saying he was worthless. Because of this, James developed a bit of an obsession with his sister, due to the fact he idolized her so very much. As their life went on, his father owned a movie theatre where he’d always show the same pirate movie, one that Lily enjoyed and began to role play with James. At a certain point, Lily falls from her bed and hits her head, passing out for a period of time in which James thinks she’s dead. However, she comes back and says the old lily is dead and now she’s the captain. Due to the theatre being in very shitty conditions, it burns down one night, resulting in the death of their father. It is not clear to me if Lily burns the place down or it burns by itself.. But part of me believes she burned it down. Taking James with her, she decides to fulfill the dream that they both had: Getting away from everything and going on a journey. This way, they sneak into a ship as stowaways and hide in both the machinery area and the place where the animals are kept. This brings an issue however: They are starving and they are being chased by the guards. At one point, Lily advices James to stay behind while she goes get food, leaving him behind because he’s messed up before and almost gets them caught. However, after she leaves, she doesn’t seem to come back for a long long time. In this time, James panics, until he remembers what Lily taught him: Whenever he feels alone and as if she isn’t around, he just has to listen to her voice inside of her. Furthermore, this is the first time when a voice inside of him speaks.. This voice, I believe, is actually Lily within him (only he doesn’t know it yet) She says that it’s his fault she went missing and that the only way to get her back is by making use and regaining her flame. However, Lily eventually does come back, but something happened. Based off of imagery and things lily says, I believe she was raped by a director who was in the same ship as them. As it turns out, there WAS a movie being filmed in that ship, with a very weird director who was in charge. There is a part in the game where a two shadows seem to be struggling until one of them overpowers the other and stabs them many times. Although I am not sure of this, I think that perhaps Lily actually killed the director after she was raped. Once she comes back she lashes out at James, blaming him for not being there, saying she hates him. And it is either this same night or soon after that a storm hits the ship. James and Lily try to escape but only James reaches the boat while Lily is left behind. Right before she dies, she tells him that she’ll always be there and will find him again. It is after this that James is left alone and one day, is found in a bench by a famous journalist or maybe a famous actor, one who speaks in the voice notes that you can find throughout the game and listen in the room. There, James says he doesn’t know where he belongs, but that his sister will be there with him forever. Although I don’t know what happens between this time.. If he’s taken in by the person interviewing him or what happens exactly, James loses his personality, fighting his guilt and hatred of himself (He hates James) by becoming an actor and not only playing the characters he does, but also living as them throughout the time. He BECOMES those characters, he takes their “flames” But there is one flame, Lily’s that he’s not able to fully take. Because in order to become lily and therefore bring her back, James has to die. At the same time, if James wants to move on from his past and the pain within it, he has to let the guilt go, and forget lily. “Let go off reason and follow instinct. One life outweighs the other.” Basically, if you follow reason and tap into your emotions throughout the game, Lily takes over because he can’t move on from the guilt he feels. If you can’t decide throughout the game, the monster that chases after you (which is a representation of James’ lack of personality) remains and you find yourself in front of the unfinished version of lily talking to you and saying you’ll come back once you get the flame. If you follow the director (who is tough and bold, but overall wants to help James because it’s his conscience ) he is able to move on and finally become himself, no longer doubting or wanting to change who he really is. Unlike Lily’s ending, he doesn’t kill his old self, his bad memories and pain. He moves past them and accepts them, letting them be a part of him as well. In the end, James’ ending IS the good ending. Even if both end with this shot of the box behind shaking. That box represents his fears, his past, his trauma. In both versions, they always stay there because they are a part of him. Only in Lily’s, it means the past will haunt him. But in James’ it means that it’s within him, but he is aware of it and accepts it. If you’ve read everything, then thank you! I hope this was able to make you understand the game as a whole. EDIT: Since people seem to be reading this such a long time after the post, I want to update it with an important piece of information that will deepen the story a bit more. I think a big aspect this game touches is Carl Jung's psychology study. There's a lot to go over.. But I want to point out the basics: -The shadow and the persona. The persona is a representation of our personalities and the masks we put on (the part of ourselves we want to show) which coincides with James' ability to BECOME the characters he portrays. The shadow is the part of us we don't want to accept (which can be represented as the director, his sub-conscious trying to talk to him and remind him who he truly is. Lastly, the Anima and the Animus. They represent our feminine and masculine sides/traits respectively. In order to achieve our true "persona" we must kill one or the other. This is pretty easily represented as James' struggle to accept his true self or succumb to his guilty and accept Lilly.
Oscar No problem! I’m surprised people have actually read it. Apologies for any punctuation errors or grammar mistakes.. I should re-read what I write before posting.
From what I understood (and read), this game is actually metaphorical, not literal. The protagonist is transgender and the whole thing is representative of the horrors they face at the hands of humanity while going through the change.
What's past is past, What's gone is gone. the door is shut, and the curtains drawn. The lands that are no longer there, the dreams we did not get to share. when all we love is stripped away, a boy must leave, a man must stay. And yet, there is still hope, you see, for you are still a part of me, although the boy has ceased to be, where there was 'I' , and there shall be 'we'. The holy Flame, it burns away, it shows us there's another way. let us be together, forever, and ever, and ever.
I know this is going to be buried, and there are a lot of interpretations of the game, but to summarize it in a nutshell, after lots of discussion over it: the things that are happening to the Actor are supernatural, and that's evident because of the mysterious items you can find over the course of the game (plus a paper describing them found in Act 2). The being that circles you in the Formless Ending is the Rat Queen, whose portrait is seen in the first game. That means she visited the Painter as well. No matter what ending you get, Lily died on the ship as a child. James was the survivor. He took her soul into himself, and this resulted in a messed up development as he grew up, resulting in the Formless Man. He created the Formless Man as a clay doll as a child - he eats it in his ending because he's finally ridding himself of the unsure aspects of his being. He is becoming fully whole. In the Lily ending, he shoots the doll, and recoils as if he injured himself. This proves that the Formless Man is indeed James. Her ending even confirms that Lily was the one who perished. "A sister's last breath. A life for a life. A death for a death." James has to choose whether or not he will be fully himself, and expel Lily's soul, or let her take over, meaning he has to die. There is a reason that in the two main endings, Lily and James share the same hair/eye color, and have a mole in the same exact place, despite the fact that they are not twins. They were two beings sharing one body, but in their respective endings, one soul has been pushed out.
So is there some connected universe where the Rat Queen is going around visiting people and putting them in loops to make them face their pasts? Or their regrets?
@@TINE-14-k4r Yes, most likely. It's explained in a document you find in a game that there are terrible, god-like beings that exist outside of reality. These beings often take an interest in particularly talented artists (painters, actors, musicians, whoever,) and will play with them. They make 'deals' with them that seem to promise a way to greatness or to achieve some goal of the artists's. According to the author of the document, these deals will never actually benefit the artist. In the painter's case, the deal seemed to have something to do with restoring his dead wife if he can paint the perfect portrait of her. Unfortunately, he's such a damaged, toxic person that he can never get her quite right - or, if he can, he can only realize that he was horrible to her, and does not deserve her back. Alternatively. he can paint a portrait of himself, stop obsessing over her, and fall into further narcissism instead. We see hints that the things he experienced in his delirious state to find inspiration for the painting were actually real when we return to the house in the DLC. If we go into the kitchen, we find that where there was once a painting of a bowl full of fresh fruit, there is what appears to be the same painting, but with only a few rotten fruits left in it. In the father's game, that painting rots before his eyes and starts throwing rotten fruit at him. It's possible that in his delirium, he painted rotten fruit and replaced the painting, but it seems unlikely. In this game, it seems that James has made a deal with the Rat Queen. If he can play her part perfectly - if he can build and manifest her character, and burn away all that was left of the old him, destroy it with her bright flame - he can bring her back by giving her his body, and the Rat Queen will make her live again. In the chapter we let the seven rats out of the cages, it's also implied that James thinks the Rat Queen lied to him, promising to bring Lily back in a way she couldn't after the Rat Queen also convinced James that it's because of him that Lily is dead. This is very much a game the Rat Queen is playing to see if James can perform the ritual necessary. She makes him do this over and over again until he gets it right. Why? Because that's interesting for her. It amuses her. Fears, regrets, sins - creatures like her love these things, and want to see them played out over and over again. So she sets up scenarios where she can watch them played out.
@@m.ryanprawiranegara2107 gua kesasar di video ingris saya orang kesasar dari indo abis nonton miwaug gua liat ending eh pas aku buka komentar malah kesasar
Spoilers: Actually, here's my explanation of the endin'. Read: I didn't understand everything since only genius people can do so. But as i get it, the true ending is Lily ending because our main character is Lily (update: it's not 100% like that. Another theory is that our main character is James but there are nuances). Lily theory: The director wanted us to change the character because we can easily believe everything is real and accept any role as real (that's why movie seemed scary to us, - our imagination is great). He wanted us to "wear another mask", so when we were obeying him we were destroyin' Lily (Lily's part) and taking role of James. Thus, we (our character) accepted the part of the boy and believed he's James. That's why in the final (while sitting/stayin' in front of table) main character said to James-boy "i'm your part" (or something like that, i don't remember exactly but i kept the sense). It's not really good ending because while looking through the mirror Lily (our character) sees a guy. It means unreality continues and we still didn't realise who we are. In Lily ending we see ourself as a true character and finally realise that we are Lily and James is a boy who plays another role (probably the real James died in real and the movie is based on our past, but the whole game tries to say that the dead one is Lily and James is survivor... to confuse reality and character). And third, weird ending means that we were put over the edge and became mad cos we couldn't realise who we are. We got in a "trap", - reality among "me" and "not me". P.S. you can read my big message in comments in which i explain why i think the main character is Lily. It's mostly theory, - the game keeps a lot of secrets. Anyway, i believe that main character is either James or Lily, but as we have split personality, we cannot accept the true role (there is detailed explanation in comments).
Saltar I dont get why you assume the canon is that we're playing as lily and james is the one that died. You literaly play as both depending on your choices you're revealed wich one you are (but since we can be both, is exactly why we dont know who we really are in the game). Also as James we get to see a sort of flashback of when Lily (supposedly) died when James was still little, and this was shown more like a memory than anything. While as Lily we get to see James kill himself but this is more like imagination than anything. Im curious why to you Lily is the one that survived.
My understanding of the endings in a TL;DR style: Flame: James accepted his past and let it mold him into who he is (symbolized by eating the clay doll. You are what you eat.) Forever: James could not accept his past and killed himself shortly after being rescued (symbolized by him repeatedly shooting the clay doll.). Formless: James could not fully accept his past and it caused him to be a miserable actor. (He couldn't find the fire, or the spark that would bring his character to life.). Random Theory: The Rat Queen created a formless (clay doll) to ensure the story of the shipwreck would be told. In this theory everyone died. While trying to capture the last flame of James, the Formless will either succeed, find Lily's through James or not be able to distinguish between the two. When the Formless fails, The Rat Queen sends it back to try again. (She could possibly create a new one.) What does the Rat Queen need the story to be told for? That is for us to wait and see. She does exist in both games after all (Layers of Fear 1 and 2.)
I have a theory this is a case of multiple personalities... James survived that night and grew up to be a great actor. However, that night continued to haunt him to the point of creating another personality, which is Lily. Hence why she seemed confused at her adult appearance in one of the endings and why it seemed something attacked her in the end. Whenever they switched places, the Lily persona wanted to remain in control, repeatedly forcing James in a 'cage' to relive his horrible experience as a way to keep him at bay. He eventually sets himself setting himself free and takes back his place, as represent Ed by Lily seemingly attacked by something that came out of the chest behind her. And based on what the creature said, the struggle for who should control the body has been a constant struggle, one always trapped in a 'prison of its own making'. The creature is a perfect representation of how James perceives himself. That's why it speaks with two distinct voices. That's how James sees himself, a monster with no true identity.
So wait-if you shot the girl,you would have killed Lilly and played as James the whole time (and got the James ending)? If so,wow-a minor choice,yet so game changing.
I think the director is James. The "tapes" we get is someone interviewing James and he's outside and free from their father. He was disfigured in the war and no one has seen his face since. He desperately wants our character to realize their true potential but I also think he wants her to realize who he is. Which is why during the acts there's lots of pirate parts, there's scenes around their home life and their room. No one else would know that stuff except for Lily and James. He wants her to be the greatest Actress and because of how she raised him, because lets be honest their father is useless and hates his son, he believes that method acting is the only way and that his sister is a better actress then she is. At first I thought we were the daughter of the artist in the first one because of how we react when we get to the room with the easel and the beer bottles but it makes more sense that we're Lily to me
Unfortunately, emboldened by the praise of their first game's artistic interpretation, the developers decided for their second game to make the game so ambiguously artistic in an attempt to mimic that same praise. Instead, they ruined their chance of telling a coherent story, and the resulting mess has come ashore as a shipwreck.
It's not so difficult to understand. It's just a theatric performance and the protagonist has an identity crisis. The James's ending proves that the story was all about James remembering his sad and traumatic past, never getting over it. The Lilly's shows us that she is being tormented by the tragic past of his younger brother and she felt the guilt of not protect and save him. The formless shows that the actor/actress doesn't know who he/she is, and he/she will be repeating the "play" until self-discovery. But no matter what, only one thing is truth: It's all just a play.
I am convinced the choice is between keeping your mask on, your guilt, your shame and moving on nevertheless or instead giving up to the guilt and letting your sisters "persona" take over. Thats why in the first choice he sees himself, in the second - he sees his sister. Because in a way, he becomes his sister. Split personality pretty much due to all the trauma and guilt
Guys I think this female/male endings can be metaphors for self, actually the self, animus/anima from Jungian psychology. Let me explain in further detail. First ending, the male ending. We know we are an actor named James(a male), and we are passing through a self descovery and reconstruction after trauma. The ending when he is dineing with the boy symbolizes the finding of the INNER SELF. He has bounded with himself and came to accept himself thus becoming a whole. The female ending. We are an actor called James(a male). Anima is the female unconcious self within a male, she is shaped by the females figures around the male, and his interactions with them, and anima represents also the female traits opressed within a male, like: mysticism, empathy, spirituality, sensibility, creativity, artistic endeavour, etc. In a word, anima possesses the traits of the soul for a wider understanding. (While animus possesses the traits of the logic, example: analysis, logic, the ability to not take things at heart, determination, courage). Anima comes in 4 stages: Eve, Hellen, Mary, Sophia. And through the game when the director forces us to choose who are we gonna shot - the girl or the boy, it means who we are going to choose to follow the anima(the girl) or the self(the boy). The ending when the boy is shoting the rag doll symbolizez James who was always beating himself down and trying to kill who he was in order to bring his sister's soul back. I observerved that the "sister" is wise : "a mother long gone, a sister's last breath, a life for a life, a death for a death, lay your head down brother, go to sleep this vow is no longer yours to keep." Her verses can simbolize inner transformation when the anima - Sophia(in this case) is integrated within the concious mind and is used as a guidence.
Is that why the female ending feels more correct for me ? I think my anima isn't as repressed as other men's. I always wondered why I always felt more connected with women even though I knew I wasn't trans. I think you gave me the answer I sought for a time.
They said it's neutral ending because we're 'formless' in that ending. In the other endings. We're formed (man or woman). But in this ending we're neutral, formless. We can get this ending by mixing the choices (sometimes obey the director sayings and sometimes not)
I would say I prefer an ending, but, the sister one is-too sad for me The Bad ending is just starting over The brother ending-is also sad, but one I’m cool with somewhat
The story of "Layers of Fear" is a story of choice. To choose between your insanity/your world/your individuality/what will immortalise you and put you above the world that abused and corrupted you, at the cost of your body and soul, the very things the world wanted you to sell. Or your sanity/what the world wants you to be and that's going to make you just like everyone else, in a way proving that you were unable to handle the pressure of fame and would rather live among the mortals, even if you feel you won't have to prove anything anymore to neither others or yourself. In the first game, the artist and the daughter needed to choose between their love for the world or their insane talent. In this game (since I believe the director and the play are real but are distorded due to the protagonist's perception of reality), he needs to choose between allowing the director to turn his history into a spectacle for everyone to see and simply have his strings pulled in the name of the show, or be like his sister, and take control over this story, not allowing the director to show everyone who the protagonist really is, but rather who he wished he was (his sister), thus puting him above the other actors who simply take orders and are pulled by the plot, instead of taking control and move the plot themselves.
LAYERS OF FEAR GAMES ARE USUALLY INTO THE TOPICS OF "DEALING WITH THE PAST" I'M GUESSING, LILY AND JAMES ENDING ARE BOTH REAL BUT CANNOT EXIST AT THE SAME TIME OFC IT IS POSSIBLE THAT ONLY ONE SURVIVED THE ACCIDENT, BY PLAYING THE GAME, WE ARE MOLDING "WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THERE." IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE "NEUTRAL" ENDING IS ABOUT HOW THE REAL AUTHOR OF THE STORY (THE STORY OF LILY AND JAMES) GOT ANGERY OVER YOU NOT GIVING A PROPER ANSWER, "SHE" IS MAD BECAUSE YOU WASTED YOUR TIME BY MAKING A 50% OBEDIENCE, 50%DISOBEDIENCE RESULT, ITS LIKE A DEVELOPER TELLING YOU THAT... "YOU MISSED THE POINT OF THIS GAME GODDAMNITTTTTTTTT" you after getting that ending: *AW SHIZZ HERE WE GO AGAIN*.... *RESTARTS GAME AS YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO* ANYWAY... THEY JUST WANT YOU TO PLAY THE GAME, EITHER YOU GET LILY OR JAMES ENDING, YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF LOOKING FOR AN "ALTERNATE" ENDING. CHOOSING THE "GAME DEV GETTING MAD AT YOU" ENDING IS PRETTY MUCH NOT MEANT AS AN ENDING FOR YOU TO HAVE. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO "OBEY" OR NOT TO "OBEY" IN THE 2 CHOICES THAT THE GAME DEVS GAVE (WHO TO ERASE, WHO SHOULD SURVIVE THE INCIDENT) YOU. AGAIN DONT WASTE YOUR TIME BY BEING *I N C O N S I S T E N T* GODDAMNNIITTTTT
Good day everyone ! It's now the "Layers of Fear" remastered outside and also a story with about a director. I just don't know if it's really about the director in "Layers of Fear 2." But it might well be that the director in "Layers of Fear 2" doesn't have the theory like many. is not James's inner voice, but that the director himself is only a victim of the rat queen.
Massimiliano Mottola I think for Lily it means James, and for James it means Lily. The pirate hat and the chest is the past, which finally can be forgotten. But the boom in the end, when the chest opens a bit...I think it means that the other half (James or Lily) isn’t totally gone. But these are just my own thoughts :)
Its not the "secret ending". Its the "indecisive" action. Each Act of the game has a choice that the Director tries to get you to make. You can either Obey or Disobey the Director for these choices. If you Obey some, but Disobey others, you end up with the looped ending (just like Layers Of Fear 1), where you succomb to your madness and are sent back into it to revisit your choices. The 4 choices you make are: 1) Shoot the right or left mannequin (right one is Obey) 2) Take the item from the dog (Take is Obey, Give Up is Disobey) 3) Shoot Lilly on the Plank (shoot the puppets to Disobey) 4) Run into, or away from the fire in the flooded hallway (run against the flow of water to Disobey) Obey to get the James ending. Disobey to get the Lilly ending. Mix up your Obey and Disobey options to be sent back to try again.
@@priimovalentiino1640 its the easiest one to get, its if you didnt know wich choices lead to wich ending. Basically through the whole game you have 4 sections with choices: you either obey or disobey, if you obey all 4 you get the first ending (James), if you disobey all 4 you get the second ending (Lily) if you did a mix of obeying and disobeying you get the formless (aka "secret" but not really any secret) ending. Basically, almost everyone who didnt know this got the formless ending.
Compared to the first game, and based on the expectations it created for the sequel, this one was kind of a wash. This didn't really feel like a horror game, and discarded much of the atmosphere that made the first one so good.
there are three endings - 1) The "Flame" ending - This is where you see the main character "let go" of Lily and James eventually finds his individuality (hence by the scene of the younger James eating the figure) 2) The "Forever" ending - This is the "Lily" ending. This means that Lily has actually taken over James' body and that she's making him relive the movie over and over thanks to the Rat Queen (remember what lily says - "A life for a life", " A death for a death!"). This also shows that James killed himself after arriving in the United States and being adopted with the gun and that's when Lily takes over his body and changes it from a male to female body. 3) The "Formless" ending - this is where you encounter the Rat Queen, but you have to choose whether to shoot the male or female mannequin (from the beginning of the game). This is just basically IF you mix in an equal split of choices, then you will get this one. In canon terms, it's apparent that it's the "Flame" ending that is canon as Lily is the one who dies. Remember, she tells James to run and they'll be "together forever", and she dies in the ship fire. It also means that James has found his individuality. However; at the end of the two - Flame and Forever endings; there's a treasure chest and a pirates hat and something jumps out at them taking them back into the box. This could be explained that it's either Lily (IF you got the Flame ending) or James (IF you got the Forever ending)'s spirit/soul coming back to make you relive the same event over and over.
Third ending means u mix obey and disobey... there no wrong endings in this story, the ending base what u choose to obey or disobey the director. And no happy ending in this story I think
So who you are is depentend on the choices you've made, right? The youtuber I've watched the gameplay from got the third ending, I didn't understand at first but he explained it and it really is a great story. So it appears the Lily has died on the ship. His theory is that we are Lily who's in some kind of porgatory. She must find out what happend and who she truly is and she has to accept herself. It's quite unfair tho. I mean she hasn't done anthing bad, has she?
The third ending is only IF you disobey or obey the director twice. If you obey and then disobey or the other way around, it will give you either the James ending or the Lily ending.
imagine playing this game while having an existential crisis; and reach the hidden (3rd) ending without knowing its not the actual ending.. then come watch this video and learn there is proper endings, grow your depression even more bcs you fell like you're actually indecisive and incomplete person, and have suicidal thoughts bcs of it.
Relieved to see this ,I mean I've been through some stuff and I know it's harder when you are alone ,in general it's better to have someone if only to just share things,anyhow I wish you the best, take care
So whait I got the secret ending on my first playthrough and didn't even know? What do you do to get the secret ending? It cant be that hard if I did it without knowing
Also Hey... what's with the lemons on the game? There are but a few ways you can get lemons throughout the whole level and it's drawing attention from me on some of the levels.
Hi @GamersPrey, I'm making a video for LOF2 detail explaining. But I lost the Forever ending after reinstalled window. May I borrow the Forever ending from your video ? That would be great. Many thanks!
What does the chest at the end with the brother or sister mean. Like they're facing their past and it scary like pops opening up with scary sounds cause their past like childhood was really bad and dark?
This plot and what happened and happening is so confusing. The 1st game while you don't know everything you find stuff like notes and as it goes on u find out more and actually get what happened by the end at least more then this one. Or maybe im just not smart enough to put the pieces together lol
spoilers, obviously: 2 kids, a boy and a girl, ran away from their abusive father. Their mother died in child birth for the little boy. They stowed away on a ship, the Titanic. well, only one of them survived, and became an actor. The entire game is a journey through the survivor's memories and feelings, along with a battle of identity. The choices you make determine the survivor, and thus the ending.
Tears the creature only appears in the secret ending. to get that ending, your choices have to be inconsistent. the creature is more like the actor's cognitive dissonance telling you to try again as a player, when you are ready for a real ending.
Xd Fear not guys whether it's first or second ! Your ending the the game are still irrelevant Whether u seek for the first or the third U will always get what u dont want !! This game is so surreal u can't decide But there is one thing tht u have to fight
The game is about the psychological struggles of a transgender person. The "director" is society. If you obey the director all the time, you are revealed to be James, caving to societies expectations you have suppressed your true self to be what society expects you to be. If you mix obeying and disobeying the director, you get the formless end - you are not sure what you are, you are formless, without conviction, the rat lady even says, "you don't even know what you are." If you disobey the director at every turn, you are revealed to be Lily, your true self, going against the mold of what society expects of you to embrace your true self.
Unfortunately, emboldened by the praise of their first game's artistic interpretation, the developers decided for their second game to make the game so ambiguously artistic in an attempt to mimic that same praise. Instead, they ruined their chance of telling a coherent story, and the resulting mess has come ashore as a shipwreck.
![THE TRUE STORY OF Layers of Fear 2 EXPLAINED | [Theory Part. 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ychLBQWY3nY/mqdefault.jpg)
![THE TRUE STORY OF Layers of Fear 2 EXPLAINED | [Theory Part. 1]](/img/tr.png)
[Careful, long and detailed explanation]
I’ll explain the ending of the game for those who didn’t understand it. I feel like a lot of people in the comments think Lily is the protagonist, but that isn’t the case.
You play this game as James inside his own mind, being the main protagonist of the “film” as Lily’s flame (her soul within him) and James’ flame (his own, the director) fight to see who gets to keep his body.
What you go through is an artistic, fucked up and hard to understand interpretation of various memories of James’ life while in each act except the fifth, you get to make an important choice: You either kill off Lily and move on from James’ painful memories and guilt of the past, or fulfill the promise he made to lily, of getting her back so she can always be with him, forever.
Without going into too much unnecessary detail: James’ mother died giving birth to him, while his father was an war veteran who lost an eye. Lily was James’ older sister and the two were very close. Their father was rather abusive, blaming James of his mother’s death due to being born and always saying he was worthless. Because of this, James developed a bit of an obsession with his sister, due to the fact he idolized her so very much. As their life went on, his father owned a movie theatre where he’d always show the same pirate movie, one that Lily enjoyed and began to role play with James.
At a certain point, Lily falls from her bed and hits her head, passing out for a period of time in which James thinks she’s dead. However, she comes back and says the old lily is dead and now she’s the captain.
Due to the theatre being in very shitty conditions, it burns down one night, resulting in the death of their father. It is not clear to me if Lily burns the place down or it burns by itself.. But part of me believes she burned it down.
Taking James with her, she decides to fulfill the dream that they both had: Getting away from everything and going on a journey. This way, they sneak into a ship as stowaways and hide in both the machinery area and the place where the animals are kept. This brings an issue however: They are starving and they are being chased by the guards. At one point, Lily advices James to stay behind while she goes get food, leaving him behind because he’s messed up before and almost gets them caught. However, after she leaves, she doesn’t seem to come back for a long long time. In this time, James panics, until he remembers what Lily taught him: Whenever he feels alone and as if she isn’t around, he just has to listen to her voice inside of her. Furthermore, this is the first time when a voice inside of him speaks.. This voice, I believe, is actually Lily within him (only he doesn’t know it yet)
She says that it’s his fault she went missing and that the only way to get her back is by making use and regaining her flame. However, Lily eventually does come back, but something happened. Based off of imagery and things lily says, I believe she was raped by a director who was in the same ship as them. As it turns out, there WAS a movie being filmed in that ship, with a very weird director who was in charge. There is a part in the game where a two shadows seem to be struggling until one of them overpowers the other and stabs them many times. Although I am not sure of this, I think that perhaps Lily actually killed the director after she was raped.
Once she comes back she lashes out at James, blaming him for not being there, saying she hates him. And it is either this same night or soon after that a storm hits the ship. James and Lily try to escape but only James reaches the boat while Lily is left behind. Right before she dies, she tells him that she’ll always be there and will find him again.
It is after this that James is left alone and one day, is found in a bench by a famous journalist or maybe a famous actor, one who speaks in the voice notes that you can find throughout the game and listen in the room. There, James says he doesn’t know where he belongs, but that his sister will be there with him forever.
Although I don’t know what happens between this time.. If he’s taken in by the person interviewing him or what happens exactly, James loses his personality, fighting his guilt and hatred of himself (He hates James) by becoming an actor and not only playing the characters he does, but also living as them throughout the time. He BECOMES those characters, he takes their “flames”
But there is one flame, Lily’s that he’s not able to fully take. Because in order to become lily and therefore bring her back, James has to die. At the same time, if James wants to move on from his past and the pain within it, he has to let the guilt go, and forget lily. “Let go off reason and follow instinct. One life outweighs the other.”
Basically, if you follow reason and tap into your emotions throughout the game, Lily takes over because he can’t move on from the guilt he feels.
If you can’t decide throughout the game, the monster that chases after you (which is a representation of James’ lack of personality) remains and you find yourself in front of the unfinished version of lily talking to you and saying you’ll come back once you get the flame.
If you follow the director (who is tough and bold, but overall wants to help James because it’s his conscience ) he is able to move on and finally become himself, no longer doubting or wanting to change who he really is.
Unlike Lily’s ending, he doesn’t kill his old self, his bad memories and pain. He moves past them and accepts them, letting them be a part of him as well.
In the end, James’ ending IS the good ending. Even if both end with this shot of the box behind shaking. That box represents his fears, his past, his trauma. In both versions, they always stay there because they are a part of him. Only in Lily’s, it means the past will haunt him. But in James’ it means that it’s within him, but he is aware of it and accepts it.
If you’ve read everything, then thank you! I hope this was able to make you understand the game as a whole.
EDIT: Since people seem to be reading this such a long time after the post, I want to update it with an important piece of information that will deepen the story a bit more.
I think a big aspect this game touches is Carl Jung's psychology study. There's a lot to go over.. But I want to point out the basics:
-The shadow and the persona. The persona is a representation of our personalities and the masks we put on (the part of ourselves we want to show) which coincides with James' ability to BECOME the characters he portrays.
The shadow is the part of us we don't want to accept (which can be represented as the director, his sub-conscious trying to talk to him and remind him who he truly is.
Lastly, the Anima and the Animus. They represent our feminine and masculine sides/traits respectively. In order to achieve our true "persona" we must kill one or the other. This is pretty easily represented as James' struggle to accept his true self or succumb to his guilty and accept Lilly.
Thank you for an excellent explanation!
Oscar No problem! I’m surprised people have actually read it. Apologies for any punctuation errors or grammar mistakes.. I should re-read what I write before posting.
Read the whole thing, thanks for the great explanation was really helpful 😃
Thank you😘
From what I understood (and read), this game is actually metaphorical, not literal. The protagonist is transgender and the whole thing is representative of the horrors they face at the hands of humanity while going through the change.
What's past is past,
What's gone is gone.
the door is shut, and the curtains drawn.
The lands that are no longer there,
the dreams we did not get to share.
when all we love is stripped away,
a boy must leave, a man must stay.
And yet, there is still hope, you see,
for you are still a part of me,
although the boy has ceased to be,
where there was 'I' , and there shall be 'we'.
The holy Flame, it burns away,
it shows us there's another way.
let us be together,
forever, and ever, and ever.
I know this is going to be buried, and there are a lot of interpretations of the game, but to summarize it in a nutshell, after lots of discussion over it: the things that are happening to the Actor are supernatural, and that's evident because of the mysterious items you can find over the course of the game (plus a paper describing them found in Act 2). The being that circles you in the Formless Ending is the Rat Queen, whose portrait is seen in the first game. That means she visited the Painter as well.
No matter what ending you get, Lily died on the ship as a child. James was the survivor. He took her soul into himself, and this resulted in a messed up development as he grew up, resulting in the Formless Man. He created the Formless Man as a clay doll as a child - he eats it in his ending because he's finally ridding himself of the unsure aspects of his being. He is becoming fully whole. In the Lily ending, he shoots the doll, and recoils as if he injured himself. This proves that the Formless Man is indeed James.
Her ending even confirms that Lily was the one who perished. "A sister's last breath. A life for a life. A death for a death." James has to choose whether or not he will be fully himself, and expel Lily's soul, or let her take over, meaning he has to die.
There is a reason that in the two main endings, Lily and James share the same hair/eye color, and have a mole in the same exact place, despite the fact that they are not twins. They were two beings sharing one body, but in their respective endings, one soul has been pushed out.
So is there some connected universe where the Rat Queen is going around visiting people and putting them in loops to make them face their pasts? Or their regrets?
@@TINE-14-k4r Yes, most likely. It's explained in a document you find in a game that there are terrible, god-like beings that exist outside of reality. These beings often take an interest in particularly talented artists (painters, actors, musicians, whoever,) and will play with them. They make 'deals' with them that seem to promise a way to greatness or to achieve some goal of the artists's. According to the author of the document, these deals will never actually benefit the artist.
In the painter's case, the deal seemed to have something to do with restoring his dead wife if he can paint the perfect portrait of her. Unfortunately, he's such a damaged, toxic person that he can never get her quite right - or, if he can, he can only realize that he was horrible to her, and does not deserve her back. Alternatively. he can paint a portrait of himself, stop obsessing over her, and fall into further narcissism instead.
We see hints that the things he experienced in his delirious state to find inspiration for the painting were actually real when we return to the house in the DLC. If we go into the kitchen, we find that where there was once a painting of a bowl full of fresh fruit, there is what appears to be the same painting, but with only a few rotten fruits left in it. In the father's game, that painting rots before his eyes and starts throwing rotten fruit at him. It's possible that in his delirium, he painted rotten fruit and replaced the painting, but it seems unlikely.
In this game, it seems that James has made a deal with the Rat Queen. If he can play her part perfectly - if he can build and manifest her character, and burn away all that was left of the old him, destroy it with her bright flame - he can bring her back by giving her his body, and the Rat Queen will make her live again. In the chapter we let the seven rats out of the cages, it's also implied that James thinks the Rat Queen lied to him, promising to bring Lily back in a way she couldn't after the Rat Queen also convinced James that it's because of him that Lily is dead. This is very much a game the Rat Queen is playing to see if James can perform the ritual necessary. She makes him do this over and over again until he gets it right. Why? Because that's interesting for her. It amuses her. Fears, regrets, sins - creatures like her love these things, and want to see them played out over and over again. So she sets up scenarios where she can watch them played out.
@@Seleteles I'm really excited to see a larger universe centered around her.
This is probably the most confusing game ive ever played. But then again the level design was absolutely top class!
So "Obey" ending is the James' ending and "Disobey" ending is Lilly's ending.
the third is mixed up
@@virgianas157 it's formless
Bla bla bla kampret orng kesasar gua mah
Gacha Gamers kok bisa
@@m.ryanprawiranegara2107 gua kesasar di video ingris saya orang kesasar dari indo abis nonton miwaug gua liat ending eh pas aku buka komentar malah kesasar
Why James lowkey sounds like Hugo from plague tale innocence
Kembali lagi dgn si Miaw Aug
Hahahaha
@@bassabssie karna bang regi bilang jga 😂
Iya ialah 😂
O dunno maybe voice actor James same with hugo
Lets we call this ending to James, Lily, and Formless ending
Spoilers:
Actually, here's my explanation of the endin'.
Read:
I didn't understand everything since only genius people can do so. But as i get it, the true ending is Lily ending because our main character is Lily (update: it's not 100% like that. Another theory is that our main character is James but there are nuances).
Lily theory: The director wanted us to change the character because we can easily believe everything is real and accept any role as real (that's why movie seemed scary to us, - our imagination is great). He wanted us to "wear another mask", so when we were obeying him we were destroyin' Lily (Lily's part) and taking role of James. Thus, we (our character) accepted the part of the boy and believed he's James. That's why in the final (while sitting/stayin' in front of table) main character said to James-boy "i'm your part" (or something like that, i don't remember exactly but i kept the sense). It's not really good ending because while looking through the mirror Lily (our character) sees a guy. It means unreality continues and we still didn't realise who we are.
In Lily ending we see ourself as a true character and finally realise that we are Lily and James is a boy who plays another role (probably the real James died in real and the movie is based on our past, but the whole game tries to say that the dead one is Lily and James is survivor... to confuse reality and character).
And third, weird ending means that we were put over the edge and became mad cos we couldn't realise who we are. We got in a "trap", - reality among "me" and "not me".
P.S. you can read my big message in comments in which i explain why i think the main character is Lily. It's mostly theory, - the game keeps a lot of secrets. Anyway, i believe that main character is either James or Lily, but as we have split personality, we cannot accept the true role (there is detailed explanation in comments).
Some of your comment go cut off just a fyi.
@@GamersPrey Np.
Im confused on the 2nd paragraph
Saltar I dont get why you assume the canon is that we're playing as lily and james is the one that died.
You literaly play as both depending on your choices you're revealed wich one you are (but since we can be both, is exactly why we dont know who we really are in the game).
Also as James we get to see a sort of flashback of when Lily (supposedly) died when James was still little, and this was shown more like a memory than anything. While as Lily we get to see James kill himself but this is more like imagination than anything.
Im curious why to you Lily is the one that survived.
Blue Wolf i'll answer tomorrow, it's late night here, so my words wouldn't be reasonable xd
"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."
My understanding of the endings in a TL;DR style:
Flame: James accepted his past and let it mold him into who he is (symbolized by eating the clay doll. You are what you eat.)
Forever: James could not accept his past and killed himself shortly after being rescued (symbolized by him repeatedly shooting the clay doll.).
Formless: James could not fully accept his past and it caused him to be a miserable actor. (He couldn't find the fire, or the spark that would bring his character to life.).
Random Theory: The Rat Queen created a formless (clay doll) to ensure the story of the shipwreck would be told. In this theory everyone died. While trying to capture the last flame of James, the Formless will either succeed, find Lily's through James or not be able to distinguish between the two. When the Formless fails, The Rat Queen sends it back to try again. (She could possibly create a new one.) What does the Rat Queen need the story to be told for? That is for us to wait and see. She does exist in both games after all (Layers of Fear 1 and 2.)
I have a theory this is a case of multiple personalities... James survived that night and grew up to be a great actor. However, that night continued to haunt him to the point of creating another personality, which is Lily. Hence why she seemed confused at her adult appearance in one of the endings and why it seemed something attacked her in the end. Whenever they switched places, the Lily persona wanted to remain in control, repeatedly forcing James in a 'cage' to relive his horrible experience as a way to keep him at bay. He eventually sets himself setting himself free and takes back his place, as represent Ed by Lily seemingly attacked by something that came out of the chest behind her. And based on what the creature said, the struggle for who should control the body has been a constant struggle, one always trapped in a 'prison of its own making'. The creature is a perfect representation of how James perceives himself. That's why it speaks with two distinct voices. That's how James sees himself, a monster with no true identity.
I love how the kids went from being british to being being American.
Probably because the kid is some one else and not actually James.
So wait-if you shot the girl,you would have killed Lilly and played as James the whole time (and got the James ending)?
If so,wow-a minor choice,yet so game changing.
the 3 endings are based on the choices, you can fully obey the director, fully disobey or mix of both. the flame, the forever and the formless
@@nagseo7836 Well,I already thought that was the case,but the shooting part always seemed really important to me.
@@alextomanov1842 I believe the first and second significant event are the most important in terms of one of the final endings
I would wanted to same the same thing but reversed. Interesting
I shot Lilly on Act 3 Bloody Roots and still got the Disobey/Lilly ending
...........Voldemort?
😂
ofc, Lili and James its Lili and James Potters.
Lol
Personally it reminded me of the artist's wife back in the first game, though perhaps transported through a different medium of art
LMAO I legit was like "oh okay Voldemort" after their first line
I think the director is James. The "tapes" we get is someone interviewing James and he's outside and free from their father. He was disfigured in the war and no one has seen his face since. He desperately wants our character to realize their true potential but I also think he wants her to realize who he is. Which is why during the acts there's lots of pirate parts, there's scenes around their home life and their room. No one else would know that stuff except for Lily and James. He wants her to be the greatest Actress and because of how she raised him, because lets be honest their father is useless and hates his son, he believes that method acting is the only way and that his sister is a better actress then she is. At first I thought we were the daughter of the artist in the first one because of how we react when we get to the room with the easel and the beer bottles but it makes more sense that we're Lily to me
So I still don't understand the ending of this game
yes this game is too confusing
Me too
Unfortunately, emboldened by the praise of their first game's artistic interpretation, the developers decided for their second game to make the game so ambiguously artistic in an attempt to mimic that same praise. Instead, they ruined their chance of telling a coherent story, and the resulting mess has come ashore as a shipwreck.
It's not so difficult to understand. It's just a theatric performance and the protagonist has an identity crisis.
The James's ending proves that the story was all about James remembering his sad and traumatic past, never getting over it.
The Lilly's shows us that she is being tormented by the tragic past of his younger brother and she felt the guilt of not protect and save him.
The formless shows that the actor/actress doesn't know who he/she is, and he/she will be repeating the "play" until self-discovery.
But no matter what, only one thing is truth: It's all just a play.
@@RogerioSanto1 layers of personality fears
Layers of fear, Home sweet home, Outlast are my favorite horror series.
I am convinced the choice is between keeping your mask on, your guilt, your shame and moving on nevertheless or instead giving up to the guilt and letting your sisters "persona" take over. Thats why in the first choice he sees himself, in the second - he sees his sister. Because in a way, he becomes his sister. Split personality pretty much due to all the trauma and guilt
always confuse me what is going to be in end
Am I the only the one confused by the similarities of the house in act 3 of LoF2 to the house in the first one?
That moment when you get the secret one first time playing :D
"You run, but do you know the way?"
Me: _"ᒪET ᗰE ᔕTOᑭ YOᑌ ᖇIGᕼT TᕼEᖇE."_
Guys I think this female/male endings can be metaphors for self, actually the self, animus/anima from Jungian psychology.
Let me explain in further detail.
First ending, the male ending.
We know we are an actor named James(a male), and we are passing through a self descovery and reconstruction after trauma.
The ending when he is dineing with the boy symbolizes the finding of the INNER SELF. He has bounded with himself and came to accept himself thus becoming a whole.
The female ending.
We are an actor called James(a male).
Anima is the female unconcious self within a male, she is shaped by the females figures around the male, and his interactions with them, and anima represents also the female traits opressed within a male, like: mysticism, empathy, spirituality, sensibility, creativity, artistic endeavour, etc. In a word, anima possesses the traits of the soul for a wider understanding.
(While animus possesses the traits of the logic, example: analysis, logic, the ability to not take things at heart, determination, courage).
Anima comes in 4 stages: Eve, Hellen, Mary, Sophia.
And through the game when the director forces us to choose who are we gonna shot - the girl or the boy, it means who we are going to choose to follow the anima(the girl) or the self(the boy).
The ending when the boy is shoting the rag doll symbolizez James who was always beating himself down and trying to kill who he was in order to bring his sister's soul back. I observerved that the "sister" is wise : "a mother long gone, a sister's last breath, a life for a life, a death for a death, lay your head down brother, go to sleep this vow is no longer yours to keep." Her verses can simbolize inner transformation when the anima - Sophia(in this case) is integrated within the concious mind and is used as a guidence.
Is that why the female ending feels more correct for me ? I think my anima isn't as repressed as other men's.
I always wondered why I always felt more connected with women even though I knew I wasn't trans. I think you gave me the answer I sought for a time.
8:36 This is actually the Secret Ending ?I thought it was the normal ending WTF. I did not understand the game
I don't understand it either. I thought I was missing something...but nope.
They said it's neutral ending because we're 'formless' in that ending. In the other endings. We're formed (man or woman). But in this ending we're neutral, formless. We can get this ending by mixing the choices (sometimes obey the director sayings and sometimes not)
Lol definitely not a secret ending
if I would have gotten that ending i would have been pissed
same
apa cuma aing disini orang nyasar:(
Aing juga
sama wkwkwk
Aku juga kamu ga sendiri :'))
Abis nntn Miawaug main dapat true ending :v
Abis nonton kak regi liat ending nya deh
I would say I prefer an ending, but, the sister one is-too sad for me
The Bad ending is just starting over
The brother ending-is also sad, but one I’m cool with somewhat
The story of "Layers of Fear" is a story of choice. To choose between your insanity/your world/your individuality/what will immortalise you and put you above the world that abused and corrupted you, at the cost of your body and soul, the very things the world wanted you to sell. Or your sanity/what the world wants you to be and that's going to make you just like everyone else, in a way proving that you were unable to handle the pressure of fame and would rather live among the mortals, even if you feel you won't have to prove anything anymore to neither others or yourself. In the first game, the artist and the daughter needed to choose between their love for the world or their insane talent. In this game (since I believe the director and the play are real but are distorded due to the protagonist's perception of reality), he needs to choose between allowing the director to turn his history into a spectacle for everyone to see and simply have his strings pulled in the name of the show, or be like his sister, and take control over this story, not allowing the director to show everyone who the protagonist really is, but rather who he wished he was (his sister), thus puting him above the other actors who simply take orders and are pulled by the plot, instead of taking control and move the plot themselves.
God damnit, i got that Voldemort ending! Most time i wasn't even knowing what im doing! 🤣
same xD
LAYERS OF FEAR GAMES ARE USUALLY INTO THE TOPICS OF "DEALING WITH THE PAST"
I'M GUESSING, LILY AND JAMES ENDING ARE BOTH REAL BUT CANNOT EXIST AT THE SAME TIME OFC
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT ONLY ONE SURVIVED THE ACCIDENT, BY PLAYING THE GAME, WE ARE MOLDING "WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THERE."
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE "NEUTRAL" ENDING IS ABOUT HOW THE REAL AUTHOR OF THE STORY (THE STORY OF LILY AND JAMES) GOT ANGERY OVER YOU NOT GIVING A PROPER ANSWER, "SHE" IS MAD BECAUSE YOU WASTED YOUR TIME BY MAKING A 50% OBEDIENCE, 50%DISOBEDIENCE RESULT, ITS LIKE A DEVELOPER TELLING YOU THAT...
"YOU MISSED THE POINT OF THIS GAME GODDAMNITTTTTTTTT"
you after getting that ending: *AW SHIZZ HERE WE GO AGAIN*.... *RESTARTS GAME AS YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO*
ANYWAY... THEY JUST WANT YOU TO PLAY THE GAME, EITHER YOU GET LILY OR JAMES ENDING, YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF LOOKING FOR AN "ALTERNATE" ENDING.
CHOOSING THE "GAME DEV GETTING MAD AT YOU" ENDING IS PRETTY MUCH NOT MEANT AS AN ENDING FOR YOU TO HAVE.
YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO "OBEY" OR NOT TO "OBEY" IN THE 2 CHOICES THAT THE GAME DEVS GAVE (WHO TO ERASE, WHO SHOULD SURVIVE THE INCIDENT) YOU.
AGAIN DONT WASTE YOUR TIME BY BEING
*I N C O N S I S T E N T*
GODDAMNNIITTTTT
Good day everyone ! It's now the "Layers of Fear" remastered outside and also a story with about a director. I just don't know if it's really about the director in "Layers of Fear 2." But it might well be that the director in "Layers of Fear 2" doesn't have the theory like many. is not James's inner voice, but that the director himself is only a victim of the rat queen.
Vim por causa da live do alan e porque fiquei confuso sobre a história do game. Mas a atmosfera e a dublagem do jogo é perfeita, que obra prima.
Uma pena ele não ter pego o primeiro final; o James lembra ele um pouco.
What does the blast (BOOM) of chest mean? (at the end of james or lily endings)
Massimiliano Mottola I think for Lily it means James, and for James it means Lily. The pirate hat and the chest is the past, which finally can be forgotten. But the boom in the end, when the chest opens a bit...I think it means that the other half (James or Lily) isn’t totally gone.
But these are just my own thoughts :)
Damn! I got the 3rd ending, which I assume is the bad ending?
Secret ending.. That's thw hardest one to get.. Nice work
@@priimovalentiino1640 I got that ending too, and I have no idea what events led to this happening, the story is just mind blowing.
Its not the "secret ending". Its the "indecisive" action.
Each Act of the game has a choice that the Director tries to get you to make. You can either Obey or Disobey the Director for these choices. If you Obey some, but Disobey others, you end up with the looped ending (just like Layers Of Fear 1), where you succomb to your madness and are sent back into it to revisit your choices.
The 4 choices you make are:
1) Shoot the right or left mannequin (right one is Obey)
2) Take the item from the dog (Take is Obey, Give Up is Disobey)
3) Shoot Lilly on the Plank (shoot the puppets to Disobey)
4) Run into, or away from the fire in the flooded hallway (run against the flow of water to Disobey)
Obey to get the James ending. Disobey to get the Lilly ending. Mix up your Obey and Disobey options to be sent back to try again.
@@priimovalentiino1640 lol got the third one i think it is the easiest one tbh
@@priimovalentiino1640 its the easiest one to get, its if you didnt know wich choices lead to wich ending.
Basically through the whole game you have 4 sections with choices: you either obey or disobey, if you obey all 4 you get the first ending (James), if you disobey all 4 you get the second ending (Lily) if you did a mix of obeying and disobeying you get the formless (aka "secret" but not really any secret) ending.
Basically, almost everyone who didnt know this got the formless ending.
Where can i get the game soundtrack? its so good
You can find OST album on Spotify. :)
cringe
You can buy the game soundtrack on steam too
Compared to the first game, and based on the expectations it created for the sequel, this one was kind of a wash. This didn't really feel like a horror game, and discarded much of the atmosphere that made the first one so good.
Accidentally got the secret ending at first xd idk how
So, what you're telling me is Voldemort killed James and Lilly.
Checks out.
so i played for the first time and i unlocked secret ending without even knowing it?
Apa cuman gua yg nyasar karna miawaug?😂
sama bang wkwkwkw
So..Which one is the good ending?
There is no good ending, or should I say - There is no true good ending. There is only less cruel ending, none of this is happy...
there are three endings -
1) The "Flame" ending - This is where you see the main character "let go" of Lily and James eventually finds his individuality (hence by the scene of the younger James eating the figure)
2) The "Forever" ending - This is the "Lily" ending. This means that Lily has actually taken over James' body and that she's making him relive the movie over and over thanks to the Rat Queen (remember what lily says - "A life for a life", " A death for a death!"). This also shows that James killed himself after arriving in the United States and being adopted with the gun and that's when Lily takes over his body and changes it from a male to female body.
3) The "Formless" ending - this is where you encounter the Rat Queen, but you have to choose whether to shoot the male or female mannequin (from the beginning of the game). This is just basically IF you mix in an equal split of choices, then you will get this one.
In canon terms, it's apparent that it's the "Flame" ending that is canon as Lily is the one who dies. Remember, she tells James to run and they'll be "together forever", and she dies in the ship fire. It also means that James has found his individuality. However; at the end of the two - Flame and Forever endings; there's a treasure chest and a pirates hat and something jumps out at them taking them back into the box. This could be explained that it's either Lily (IF you got the Flame ending) or James (IF you got the Forever ending)'s spirit/soul coming back to make you relive the same event over and over.
@@GenGamesUniverse Finally! Thank you xD
i got the third ending does that mean i got the shitty one?
yup
Third ending means u mix obey and disobey... there no wrong endings in this story, the ending base what u choose to obey or disobey the director. And no happy ending in this story I think
@@angellie8897 the third one was the true ending
You are Telling me i got the "secret ending" on the first run by Luck?
I got the secret ending on the first try. Don't know how but I did.
So who you are is depentend on the choices you've made, right? The youtuber I've watched the gameplay from got the third ending, I didn't understand at first but he explained it and it really is a great story. So it appears the Lily has died on the ship. His theory is that we are Lily who's in some kind of porgatory. She must find out what happend and who she truly is and she has to accept herself. It's quite unfair tho. I mean she hasn't done anthing bad, has she?
The third ending is only IF you disobey or obey the director twice. If you obey and then disobey or the other way around, it will give you either the James ending or the Lily ending.
oooh, i see just 3 ending in this game, thankss
imagine playing this game while having an existential crisis; and reach the hidden (3rd) ending without knowing its not the actual ending.. then come watch this video and learn there is proper endings, grow your depression even more bcs you fell like you're actually indecisive and incomplete person, and have suicidal thoughts bcs of it.
Shit man, i can kinda feel you, you okay?
@@andreasplevrakis7263 im alright bro thanks for ur concern 😅
Relieved to see this ,I mean I've been through some stuff and I know it's harder when you are alone ,in general it's better to have someone if only to just share things,anyhow I wish you the best, take care
Until then.... ACTION
Holy shit you start over
I know it shouldn't, but the female ending feels more correct to me.
So whait I got the secret ending on my first playthrough and didn't even know? What do you do to get the secret ending? It cant be that hard if I did it without knowing
2020 anyone?
the video is mistitled. there's the standard three endings, but where's the secret one?
Layer Of fear 2 (Based On The True Story) By Titanic Jack And Rose
Also Hey... what's with the lemons on the game? There are but a few ways you can get lemons throughout the whole level and it's drawing attention from me on some of the levels.
Hi @GamersPrey,
I'm making a video for LOF2 detail explaining. But I lost the Forever ending after reinstalled window.
May I borrow the Forever ending from your video ? That would be great.
Many thanks!
James and lily is potter
i thought the same thing while i was playing :P
That was really fast!
What/ Who is inside the box at the end?
Little Accel james
@@Parisxrs or lily james ending
The other personality.
I thought it was the dad she killed
how is it in both games i got the secret ending first try
without trying to get them, just by playing how i wanted to
Berarti endingnya tergantung dari poster poster yang di temukan kahh? Jika posternya kurang maka endingnya akan secret
Lebih ke pas milih keputusan di tiap act nya
Kayak pas disuruh nembah pas act 1, ngikuti jalan ke arah api atau berbalik di act 4 dsb
What does the chest at the end with the brother or sister mean. Like they're facing their past and it scary like pops opening up with scary sounds cause their past like childhood was really bad and dark?
Layers of fear 1 is my favorite horror game of all time but part 2 was a let down.
The basic, ordinary ending is so disappointing, but the cheesy nursery rhymes for playing it the "right" way aren't much better.
This plot and what happened and happening is so confusing. The 1st game while you don't know everything you find stuff like notes and as it goes on u find out more and actually get what happened by the end at least more then this one. Or maybe im just not smart enough to put the pieces together lol
I somehow got the secret ending on my first run lol
Wait so is the last ending the secret ending if it is I got that ending first it creeped me out XD
I don't get the story? Can someone explain?
Your god
spoilers, obviously:
2 kids, a boy and a girl, ran away from their abusive father. Their mother died in child birth for the little boy. They stowed away on a ship, the Titanic. well, only one of them survived, and became an actor. The entire game is a journey through the survivor's memories and feelings, along with a battle of identity. The choices you make determine the survivor, and thus the ending.
Space bear what about the monster? What does it mean to the two siblings or the actor? Is it their guilt turned into that kind of creature?
Tears the creature only appears in the secret ending. to get that ending, your choices have to be inconsistent. the creature is more like the actor's cognitive dissonance telling you to try again as a player, when you are ready for a real ending.
@@spacebear4742 you sure it is the titanic, cause this ship does not really look familiar like the titanic
How to end the game on the brother
I don't understand a single a fucking thing that happened in this story.
Check out my play through of the first game if you’re interested!
Its a tragedy
I got the secret ending without even trying lol weird game....
I got the secret ending
Wait isnt this old? Or am i missing something?
This video was released when the game came out.
Xd
Fear not guys whether it's first or second !
Your ending the the game are still irrelevant
Whether u seek for the first or the third
U will always get what u dont want !!
This game is so surreal u can't decide
But there is one thing tht u have to fight
so sad :"(
i got the last ending (rat woman)
same
Lol i got the secret ending
it dragged on a bit too much for my liking near the end. by that point i just wanted it to be over
Do you know da wae
I know da wae
@@GamersPrey 😂😅
This Third ending is rubbish as at some point you would expect her to say you have earned it but you never do lol.
Whose poen is this? I mean the first one
I still don't know who shot JR.
good game
Miawaug?
Jimmy siapa
can anyone tell me the name of these beautiful soundtrack? 04:07
The song is called "Light is Calling" by Arkadiusz Reikowski
Merle Kühl thank you 🙏
Take a ban.gai to fight 😆
for me, layers of fear 1 is better.
😮😅😅😅😅😅Silent Silent
HALO REK
Lapo Cak
The game is about the psychological struggles of a transgender person. The "director" is society. If you obey the director all the time, you are revealed to be James, caving to societies expectations you have suppressed your true self to be what society expects you to be. If you mix obeying and disobeying the director, you get the formless end - you are not sure what you are, you are formless, without conviction, the rat lady even says, "you don't even know what you are." If you disobey the director at every turn, you are revealed to be Lily, your true self, going against the mold of what society expects of you to embrace your true self.
no
Typical self entitlement of lgbt. It has nothing to do with being trans
@@DudeWivAutism I'm not LGBT actually.
Unfortunately, emboldened by the praise of their first game's artistic interpretation, the developers decided for their second game to make the game so ambiguously artistic in an attempt to mimic that same praise. Instead, they ruined their chance of telling a coherent story, and the resulting mess has come ashore as a shipwreck.
right
What? This has ten times more story and depth than the first.
Drama
Bad game
Tttuuuu sssiiipp :)
Opo seh iki
game gjls ini bang... cuma orang jenius yg ngerti.
Ita
Akte KK KIA asli Dan fotocopy
This game was a waste of my time.
Akte KK KIA asli Dan fotocopy