I'd summarize Inscryption as "It's a card game where the rules are constantly changing, drastically, based on the narrative, and you have to cheat to win."
I mean, that’s how I’d describe Pony Island (minus the card game part, of course) and to an extent even The Hex, but I don’t think you ever actually cheat in Inscryption at any point. The closest you come to cheating is taking a picture of Leshy, but even that’s technically happening outside of the card game you’re playing with him.
"you have to cheat to win" - I am guessing you are referring to Ouroboros? Never bothered with it in my first play through. You don't need it, game is actually really balanced. It boils down to a mix of your choices and unavoidable RNG.
fun fact: if "the file dear to you" dies during the archivist fight, it isn't actually deleted of course, that would make the game considered malware, BUT a text file will be downloaded containing a message from PO3 asking you to delete it yourself. And he comments on it in-game if you do!
I actually played a version on the ps5, and it was Luke's files on the line, not mine, so I picked one of his files, placed it down, then purposefully smashed it with a hammer!
Yeah, just outright saying "The gameplay completely changes!" really does ruin the surprise. That said, the marketing does need to somehow make it clear that this game isn't a fully-fledged roguelite deckbuilder, since many players bought it under that expectation, and were left disappointed a little too late after the two-hour Steam return window had expired.
Gotta agree here. I played this game entirely because of a recommendation from a friend (I had also played Pony Island but I didn't realize they were connected until after I started playing). The twist of the New Game button was so immense that even though I was familiar with Daniel Mullins, I was still blown away, and I'm entirely certain it loses that magic if you tell people the game changes drastically.
One of the things I love the most is that the brokenness isn't just from the game itself but it also comes from the scrybes personalities. Leshi's broke because he didn't care if it wasn't balanced, he just wanted to have fun playing with the player. He tells you not to poke around his cabin, sees you take his stuff and calls you out, but still let's you use it. When you lose an eye, he gives you another because it wouldn't be fun otherwise, even though it just makes the knife even better. He gives all his npcs not just boss fights or a card, but interactions throughout, like the prospectors mini game and the trader/trapper stores. Even when he mocks you, gets annoyed at you, or "kills" you, it's all just him playing the role of villain, literally acting. He knows you won't die for real, and the only times he gets upset for real is when you touch his camera, or try to skip a tutorial. For better or worse, if it keeps the game fun, he'll allow it. The robot is actually not bad at balance, it's alot harder to break, and most are on his terms so he can get to the ending. However, he doesn't care if you have fun, he barely has fun. He's bored and annoyed when you win, and when you lose he either mocks you, or gripes about the game dragging on. But if you win when he docent want you to, he gets passive aggressive. He's the definition of a "That Guy" DM. He refuses to let you interact with npcs more, railroads at HIS pace, takes advantage of you, uses self insert Gary stus, refuses to use flavor text, threatens the player for real(file deletion, leshi knew he wasn't doing any real damage) and forces his "correct" ending. He strips his mechanics down, to the point he says "it's an upgrade, just give me your cards and don't worry about it", rather than any mystery or personality like the campfires or altars. His section would be a fun game, if he wasn't in it. Grimora, like leshi, would have mood and personality to hook you, but with more lore, she'd probably give more quests directly(leshis were not part of "his" game itself), and have a fun interesting story. However, her obsession with death, the same source of her stories inspiration, is what ruins them. It makes them become predictable, they'll all have the twist of, they were dead all along, they die at the end, you die at the games end, your quest was meaningless, strongest death flags possible. In the game she misses her boss battle, because she wanted to delete herself, she literally self sabotages as a goal. Even if she got control normally, she'd likely delete herself midway anyway. Her quests and stories, while predictable, are interesting, though the same reason she comes up with them, is why we'd never see their endings. Shed also be missing the replayability the previous two had, in their loops, leshi gives you death cards, and changes progression run to run, the robot gives checkpoints at least and seeing him die makes it worth it, but she wouldn't alter the story for ease of starting again, she'd have you start over completly, she wouldn't give checkpoints, you'd die, at best you'd get dark souls bloodstains. Hers would be awesome, if we could finish it. Lastly, is the wizard. He's got artwork, interesting npcs, villainous presence, interesting mechanics on paper, ACTUAL ATTACK ANIMATIONS, and presentation. Shame half is thrown away, and the other half is held together with scotch tape. He experiments on his npcs and they actually suffer, and when he gets control, he discards them. He gives us motivation to fight him, by method of his students, but its not like leshis fake villianousness, the wizard is actually just a d***. The others care about their npcs and the player, except the robot, who is at least upfront in his manipulation, the wizards students actually trusted him, even liked him. He discards everything else, because he thinks he's the only one necessary. He wants to go out with a bang, and wants to be the last star to go out. His art is good, but that's all that's important to him, he'd never allow other mechanics in his version. As a result, we see just how terribly balanced him mechanic is, and not in a fun way like leshi. I like to play a game while watching someone else play that part, and when it got to his fight, I stomped through it, and the guy I watched, literally couldn't play a card, he drew only cards requiring 1 color mox, but he could only draw the other two most, so he couldn't do anything. His mechanic is symbolic of himself, he can't stand on his own the same way his cards need other card types. He thinks he's the only important part, and destroys the parts around him that build him up and make him functional, even depriving himself of a final handshake. His part would work, if he just let others join in.
I think Magnificus (The Wizard) didn’t use everything else because it was already deleted. I’d say his high standards are both a pro, and a con. Some people just can’t keep up.
It doesnt tell you about the later acts in any of the trailers intentionally to keep them as a twist so you don't know what to expect. If you see this, probably smack a spoiler warning somewhere. To clarify, somewhere Before talking about and showing footage from the second and third acts.
In my eyes, the whole "keep it spoiler-free" thing backfired for me. I was interested enough in the game to avoid spoilers, but not enough after learning that it has huge twists, as I also liked the card thing idea shown in the trailers and assumed the game would just ditch everything to become a platformer or a walking simulator or whatever, so it was good for me to know that the rest of the game doesn't (at least completely) ditch its initial mechanics. Though now I guess I won't be watching past the first 2 minutes of this video...
Yeah, sticking the spoiler warning *after* the spoilers was just... completely baffling. I do feel that the game's marketing needs to more strongly hint that "the game is going to significantly change". But this video is just saying "I loved the twist in The Sixth Sense that the main character is dead. Also: Spoiler warning!"
please add a spoiler warning on the video's title, it makes no sense to completely ruin the game's twists in the first minute of the video and give a spoiler warning after doing so. edit: well he did it, that's much better now
My main issue with the game was that the first arc, the fight with Leshy, was the most fun. I didn’t really enjoy the second two arcs and the finale to the story was disappointing. I also felt like the game was only half done once given the chance to fight the other scrybes, however briefly.
I'm not sure how to feel about the spoilers before the warning. On one hand, I almost understand why you would reveal the later acts - it shows there's more than just Leshys cabin; that you can expect something else and not be disappointed when it changes from that. On the other hand, a spoiler is still a spoiler dude. I really enjoyed the confusion I felt after beating Leshy, after leaving the game and being able to press new game. Telling people "yo, the game changes after a certain point" is... idk, a little crappy. It's not like it's been out for a decent amount of time either, it came out last year. You cant dictate what others view obviously, if they click and they havent played the game then that's on them, but there was definitely a better way to go about the changes in gameplay than just revealing the changes. Maybe stating it has diverse gameplay and what players can expect instead of outright saying it
Agree pretty strongly with this. I played Pony Island previously going into this game, so I had an idea that there would be some sort of gameplay-fuckery awaiting me. But even though that added anticipation for me, I didn't know exactly how that would play out/what it would look like. I definitely think showing actual footage of the... how to avoid spoiling... mid to late game stuff should be shown *after* the spoiler warning.
You realy should have warned about spoilers sooner this time, but is realy good to have you back. In fact scryption is a surpring game. The hex of the same creator is actualy a game with a surpring ending as well
So glad to see this video! I'm mediocre at roguelike deckbuilders and rarely like horror, so I probably wouldn't have tried the game on my own. but after 3 different sources listed it as their top game of 2021, I had to try it. It is now one of my absolute favorite games. The creator clearly had a story they wanted told, and the game play is designed around getting the player to see that story and have the intended experiencem regardless of their card skill level. Like Leshy himself, the intimidating aspects are a veneer, an aesthetic that looks punishing while really just trying to give you a rich and fun experience.
Giving a spoiler Warning after already spoiling is always nice. Would be more wage than saying exactly what the 3 Acts are, as it was my favorite Moment of the game when it basically changed it changed midway through
@@N8ertot It wasn't in the title of the video 2 days ago. Snoman made a pinned comment trying to justify that decision, but has since deleted it entirely because leaving evidence that you made a mistake is unprofessional or something.
nice spoiler warning after the spoiler lol dont get me wrong, the video is good but talking about the other acts before the spoiler warning just ruins the surprise
Very spoilerific review lol, ah well. Not every review need be so coy as to hide every little detail. Love the game, Act 1 is my favorite but the whole package is very very good.
I'm always wondering how these youtubers who review so many games in so short a time have the time to play all these games. So maybe the reason that they haven't mentioned the other parts of this game is because they didn't play far enough into it to know those parts exist. They buy this game, play it for five hours and go "this is a really cool game about playing cards in a cabin where you can rip out your eye to cheat" without realizing how much more there is to it than that already unique start.
Here’s the problem though. Even just mentioning that there are more than one chapters to the game is a massive spoiler. When I played this game. I went in with only the expectation of the cabin area, and what followed it absolutely blew me away. If someone had pitched me about the 3 chapters, it would’ve taken a lot away from my first experience. You really should have slapped a spoiler warning in the beginning
The marketing does need to somehow make it clear that this game isn't a fully-fledged roguelite deckbuilder, since many players bought it under that expectation, and were left disappointed a little too late after the two-hour Steam return window had expired. But just outright saying "The gameplay completely changes!" really does ruin the surprise.
This game was the first game since I was a kid to give me nightmares. On top of all you said it can’t be overstated how haunting this game is. The ending with all of the scribes was so cathartic after a whole game with them leaning over your shoulder
I'm glad that people are enjoying Inscription, but it's just not the kind of game that I like to play. It's kinda like FNAF in the sense that I'll watch videos on the lore and game design or what have you, but I'm not going to pick up the game or books any time soon. It also happens that Horror is a hard turn off for me. I can play games with minor horror elements but these sorts of games where it's part of the main structure of the game just aren't my thing.
Most of Inscryption's horror elements are in the begging. The rest are the things left to your imagination. I don't like horror either, but I can handle Inscryption just fine. There's no jump scares. It's purely psychological. There is blood, though. Nothing you can't look away from. Try watching a playthrough. That's what I did before I got the game.
I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of people telling me how I should "get good" but I had tried to give this game an honest shot, and mechanically I enjoyed what was on display, but dying and being sent back to the beginning in Act 1 to what honestly felt extremely cheap quite frankly killed my desire to go any further despite knowing that there was more open ahead. I've struggled through experiences I consider to be really rough, like the Fromsoft Dark Souls series. This one just wasn't for me, and I'm glad for anyone who was able to truly enjoy and experience the game to its fullest.
Am I happy to see this review? Yes. I am going to watch it? For sure. Am I fucking pissed because of how you handled spoilers for such a game? Also yes.
I like how oblivious you are to the fact you didn't hear about the later parts of the game because so many people hate the later parts, feel tricked because they only wanted more of the cabin.
Dude WHY would you spoil acts 2 and 3 before literally anything else in the video? Man I love your content but you are so much smarter than this and I expect better from you.
I'm not a massively frequent watcher of this channel, but seeing you on twitter several months ago talk about how it was starting to seem like the channel was dead made me sad, so I'm happy to see you're still here
Weirdly how I found out about Inscryption is that the building manager where Daniel Mullins' office is knocked on his door so my girlfriend and I could check out the floor plan for his unit when we were looking at office spaces for her to rent here in Vancouver. Didn't get a chance to talk to him but I would have loved to.
sorry to disapoint but the arkhiveist dosent realy delete the file insted a text file apears named the same as the file but with .txt at the end and says "i dont have the acess to delete the file but i expect you to folow the rules and delete it yourself" if you decide to delete it yourself archiveist says "huh didnt think youd realy do that" so basicly it was po3 messing with you the entire time
I watched this video when it came out, but never finished it because I didn't want to get spoiled. I finally played through all of inscryption and wow... what a ride! Great recommendation man.
I purposely avoided looking up walkthroughs and guides, so I didn't even know that's what the ringworm does. I barely even used the campfire, like at all! My main strategy was using squirrel totems to power up the most abundant and least costly card, and building OP cards from the rare cards of previous playthroughs (like a 7-attack card with only two blood cost!)
There is a beta side mode in progress called Kaycee's Mod that extends the card game part into a more difficult, more expanded version of the cabin. I think you can figure out how to access it from the store page.
I was kinda disappointed that the other scribes boards weren't fully playable but just a small tease... I enjoyed the normal playthrough and currently having a blast with Kaycee's mod, there's so much more it could add to the pure gameplay
I'm curious if there'll be another mod of sorts to expand those. Both the death and magic ones were pretty barebones but rather interesting, though I'm not sure how easily that could be turned into a full thing.
Ah, so you put "spoilers" in the title. Good move, I say. Yeah, if you're clicking on a review and/or analysis of a game, you likely want to have played it ahead of time if you don't want spoilers, but it still felt silly to reveal a bunch of spoilers and then go "oh, uh, spoilers btw".
This is the first I'm hearing about the uroborous card carrying over permenatrly. Wonder if it was added in the kaycees mod update. Originally you could only power it up for a given battle
while the game mechanics were fun, the story definitely takes a dive in quality after you beat act 1. Towards the end especially it just feels like a meta circlejerk, and it made me regret getting through act 1 on my thrid try
I think you probably should've started with that one-sentence pitch then put a spoiler warning after that tbh. That pitch alone would've been enough to get me interested.
The first part is onlynhsrd because 1) it doesn't teach you many symbols and 2) you're supposed to lose until ita done the tutorial. It's not random. Plus if you're familiar with the lore you realize it's actually leshy rying to keep you from breaking soft lock on the OLD_DATA. He even says something about it. While it IS possible to win before the tutorial is done, you need to replay a lot to be really good AND get good rng.
Inscryption is a cursed video game about a cursed video game. Once you play it with the intent to finish the game will try and convince you that it's something worth obsessing over by learning everything about it. Some take that as a challenge to break the mechanics over their knee, others think there's a meta fictional level of narrative that bears deciphering, and a few will think following real life coordinates into the middle of the woods will give their life some sort of esoteric meaning. My favorite part of the story is all about the 4 scribes and their views on game design. That's the part that will stick with me the most. I'm of the opinion that Daniel Mullins put together that ARG purely as a troll.
I enjoyed the gameplay, but the meta twists were just so damn gimmicky. I just wish it told a straight story, instead of relying on tacky meta subversions that have been being done since MGS in 1998. It's not clever or interesting anymore.
As delightful and subversive as the unexpected genre-shifting is, and as much as I desperately tried to love this game... The execution is just so, so obviously flawed. The balance of the acts is unplayably broken at times, swinging wildly from frustratingly hard to mind-numbingly easy. In particular, I couldn't enjoy any of the amazing new mechanics in act 3, because I was already steamrolling through everything effortlessly. And not being able to replay act 2 battles is just... an absolutely baffling design choice, that does nothing but make the early-game a slog that will taint people's experience of this new act. And the inadequate marketing just made that aspect worse for players that expected a fully-fledged deckbuilder roguelike. Daniel Mullins is great at creating these subversive experiences. But he clearly needs some assistance when crafting gameplay that needs to hold up as more than a gimmick.
My personal theory: Act 2 is the base game, a call back to Pokemon TCG for gameboy with some challenge but very accessible after getting a decent deck and maybe some extra bosses that are acting... off. Act 1 is Leshy's cabin alone, he's taken over everything and wants to torment the other characters or bring them to his side in thinking. It's the most stable. Act 3 is Po3 who is having fun with a challenging game but it's also very exploitable and gives you equal opportunities to succeed, and unlike Leshy you don't escape from secrets but playing the game as it's laid out (though his workshop is so poorly optimized for what he wants he ends up letting you wander anyway). I'd imagine all Scrybes have a difficult envisioning of what they want the game to be. Grimora loves killing though she may offer something each time, though any chance with power she'd probably decide to just crash the system. Magnificus wants to see improvement through harsh trials and if stuff weren't being deleted his boss fight might have been very epic, worst case I imagine he'd try to absorb people into his world. Just my thought on why the first game is so difficult while act 2+3 go from easy with minor oversights to progressively hard but also not perfectly balanced.
Oh yeah code snuck in that let you kill the campfire people, that let you cut up cards with an item that has a texture applied to it, gave you a card that the game tells you will get more powerful on sacrifice, gave you the ability to move a card duplicating sigil onto something that costs nothing so you have infinite of it, etc. Major oops there.
I came back 2 months after my last comment! I just got to try this amazing game. I can't thank you enough. this is the best game I played this year.. maybe even last year!
I personally hated everything that came after act 1. Yeah, it was well-made and clever and whatever and I hate, hate, HATE games that have a real-world meta narrative and wink to the players and go digging through the hard drive for files, and I hate characters being aware they're in a game, and OFF did it all already ten years ago and it did it better. And it's all the bigger sting because act 1 was so good, so compelling, so immersive. It's just a shame to sacrifice a great, immersive, satisfying experience for a mediocre 4th wall break.
Completely agreed. I also think the presentation really dips as well. The First Act's aesthetic really felt one of a kind, so it sucks they had to switch it to some bland RPG Maker World for the sake of a "Woooah, bet you didn't see that coming!"
@@Ryan-Petre 2nd act was a bland RPG Maker World for the sake of a switcheroo, act 3 was literally act 1, except worse. I'm so, so disappointed- I fell in love with Inscryption back when it was still a moody, 10 minutes long gamejam project called 'Sacrifices must be made'. To sacrifice (hehe) all that immersion and tension and a great villain/antagonist for the sake of 'Sike! the real villain is the real world US government all along!' just breaks my heart.
Heyo, i really dislike horror and specifically body horror but i love unique game design and deck builders, i really wanna play the game but should i? (Hard to find out without getting spoiled) Thx
Unfortunately, the part where you have to stab your own eye out is mandatory to continue the story. Although, if you wanted to avoid that imagery: Once you get the dagger, you could turn off your sound, click on the dagger, and then look away for ~8 seconds. Same thing for the pliers and the Mycologist.
@@dmarsub You know exactly when something bad's about to happen, because you have to choose to activate it by using the pliers or the special dagger. Also, the game's in first person, so you can't actually *see* the eye come out.
Soo i played the game and loved it so much, just closed my eyes and turned the sound down a few times lol. Awesome, now i can finally watch the video :D.
I defeat the last boss the moon by attacking with poison attack since poison is one hit kill and that is just coincidence that i have Poison card This game is amazing
I liked the part where you said people don't mention the other acts to avoid spoiling things for people. Right after you did that. So you clearly aren't oblivious to the fact that those are major spoilers, you just... didn't care? Could have said that the game may be more than it appears and to check it out if that seems intriguing since there are people who like games that have a twist but never even knew Inscryption was one, then anyone who keeps going after that to see the details have only themselves to blame. But hey at least you didn't spoil it in the thumbnail or title as some people like to do for various things, so points for that.
Good video but it would have been really nice if you didn't spoil so much without a warning... The whole point of the beginning is not knowing there's more acts so the surprise is ruined now.
FYI, you can go through the wall of bears, First time I saw them, I had some busted mantis god and went through them like butter. It's not an instant failure state.
It's weird. The ARG hidden in the game goes way too deep for what I was looking for, but the actual game playing with your expectations didn't go deep enough. When I saw the transition to the second major part, my mind was racing with possibilities of what might be coming next. "A linear story you can't do anything to influence" wasn't what I had in mind. It could be I'm a little spoiled by games with multiple endings, but I wanted to be able to discover a better conclusion.
The last two acts might have been less disappointing if I knew more in advance about the game structure. Act I was amazing, but acts 2 and 3 fell flat both in terms of atmosphere and gameplay. Act 2 was a pretty boring experience after picking the gem deck at the start. The starting deck is barely functional, and has very little synergy with the other three decks. Most of the cards you get in the beginning are for the other decks, so you're better off building any deck except the one you started with. The normal enemies are trivially easy, and only the bosses offer any interesting challenge. I never played the old Pokemon games, so the nostalgia factor was missing. Act 3 is just a grindfest with no real challenge after you beat the first boss. Since you keep your deck for the entire act, early good decisions snowball into playing through the entire act with an overpowered deck. I never came close to dying after getting my first Vessel upgrade. Act 1 can have similar balance issues (e.g. undying Squirrel totem), but the deck resetting for each run keeps things interesting, so you don't have time to get bored with a specific way of being overpowered.
0:31 If someone spoiled that for me I’d be pissed. Finding out that there are 2 other chapters is a surprise reward for making it that far. If you decided not to play the game because of a prejudice against card games then that reward isn’t for you. I personally like when games hide things until the right time. I miss when games like Smash Bros. has secret characters to unlock. Nowadays everything is announced ahead of time or is DLC. 1:15 “This is important information for someone who hasn’t played the game yet.” I cannot express in words how WRONG this is. That’s like showing someone the after credits teaser before the actual movie 🤦🏽♂️ Game companies literally avoid demos because it makes players less likely to buy it. Spoiling the entire game is not recommended. If you miss out because you didn’t wanna check the game out with its vagueness then oh well, sad day for you. You don’t need every single detail to sell you on something, especially something that uses mystery as a core part of the game.
interesting. i gave up after playing this game and hitting the bear wall. it just seemed too cheap and the gameplay seemed too random. like i didnt have much control. didn't even realize it had all these twists to it. i did notice the new game was disabled. i thought it was like that so that people like me who wanted to start over couldn't.
Few people saying about how its a bit of a spoiler seeing there are three distinct chapters, however, i don't think it is. There is a lot of people, some who maybe even bought the game already, who based off of what they know about the first chapter never went further who might revisit the game now they know there is more to it. This is a game design video, to tell people not to watch parts of it as it discusses mechanics would make the video kind of pointless as all that is left is someone saying 'go play this game because...'
Then issue the spoiler warning BEFORE the spoilers. This isn't hard to do, and even just saying a quick "If you clicked this video, and have had ANY interest in playing the game, please do so before watching, as I will be spoiling major twists throughout the course of the video!" would do the trick. A very large chunk of game design videos don't require such extensive spoilers, so it's unfair to assume every viewer would know how far he'd go, and without any warning.
I'd summarize Inscryption as "It's a card game where the rules are constantly changing, drastically, based on the narrative, and you have to cheat to win."
I mean, that’s how I’d describe Pony Island (minus the card game part, of course) and to an extent even The Hex, but I don’t think you ever actually cheat in Inscryption at any point. The closest you come to cheating is taking a picture of Leshy, but even that’s technically happening outside of the card game you’re playing with him.
*Ouroboros just exists menacingly in the corner*
"you have to cheat to win" - I am guessing you are referring to Ouroboros? Never bothered with it in my first play through. You don't need it, game is actually really balanced. It boils down to a mix of your choices and unavoidable RNG.
@@Archive385and how good you are at using the fair hand rule
@@Aaa-vp6ug I played this on release, little mechanics like that were unknown until much later down the line.
fun fact: if "the file dear to you" dies during the archivist fight, it isn't actually deleted of course, that would make the game considered malware, BUT a text file will be downloaded containing a message from PO3 asking you to delete it yourself. And he comments on it in-game if you do!
and an achievement is granted
I actually saved that message on my desktop since I thought it was funny.
Protip; Make a copy of a file or get use a file that's auto replaced if it's missing and delete it after to get the achievement
I actually played a version on the ps5, and it was Luke's files on the line, not mine, so I picked one of his files, placed it down, then purposefully smashed it with a hammer!
Damn, maybe I should play this 🤔
Hmmmmmm
Eh. It’s got some good impact moments but the gameplay itself can be pretty miserable sometimes. And then in the third act, that becomes all the time.
@@WhiteKnuckleRide512 it’s a joke, he published a video about this very game a few hours ago
@@larsnyman2455 I am a fool. Point still stands tho.
@@WhiteKnuckleRide512 I appreciated your input
Inscryption is probably one of my favorite games of 2021 so I'm really happy to see a video from you on it!
Same
The problem of telling people of the three other chapters is that it ruins the surprise.
Yeah, just outright saying "The gameplay completely changes!" really does ruin the surprise.
That said, the marketing does need to somehow make it clear that this game isn't a fully-fledged roguelite deckbuilder, since many players bought it under that expectation, and were left disappointed a little too late after the two-hour Steam return window had expired.
Gotta agree here. I played this game entirely because of a recommendation from a friend (I had also played Pony Island but I didn't realize they were connected until after I started playing). The twist of the New Game button was so immense that even though I was familiar with Daniel Mullins, I was still blown away, and I'm entirely certain it loses that magic if you tell people the game changes drastically.
i literally thought i finished the game after i beat the leshy and just pressed quit i am retarded apparently
I knew it had 3 chapters before playing and it was still great and magical. But not knowing that wouldve probably made it better.
I would have appreciated someone telling me that the first chapter was the best 😅
One of the things I love the most is that the brokenness isn't just from the game itself but it also comes from the scrybes personalities.
Leshi's broke because he didn't care if it wasn't balanced, he just wanted to have fun playing with the player. He tells you not to poke around his cabin, sees you take his stuff and calls you out, but still let's you use it. When you lose an eye, he gives you another because it wouldn't be fun otherwise, even though it just makes the knife even better. He gives all his npcs not just boss fights or a card, but interactions throughout, like the prospectors mini game and the trader/trapper stores. Even when he mocks you, gets annoyed at you, or "kills" you, it's all just him playing the role of villain, literally acting. He knows you won't die for real, and the only times he gets upset for real is when you touch his camera, or try to skip a tutorial. For better or worse, if it keeps the game fun, he'll allow it.
The robot is actually not bad at balance, it's alot harder to break, and most are on his terms so he can get to the ending. However, he doesn't care if you have fun, he barely has fun. He's bored and annoyed when you win, and when you lose he either mocks you, or gripes about the game dragging on. But if you win when he docent want you to, he gets passive aggressive. He's the definition of a "That Guy" DM. He refuses to let you interact with npcs more, railroads at HIS pace, takes advantage of you, uses self insert Gary stus, refuses to use flavor text, threatens the player for real(file deletion, leshi knew he wasn't doing any real damage) and forces his "correct" ending. He strips his mechanics down, to the point he says "it's an upgrade, just give me your cards and don't worry about it", rather than any mystery or personality like the campfires or altars. His section would be a fun game, if he wasn't in it.
Grimora, like leshi, would have mood and personality to hook you, but with more lore, she'd probably give more quests directly(leshis were not part of "his" game itself), and have a fun interesting story. However, her obsession with death, the same source of her stories inspiration, is what ruins them. It makes them become predictable, they'll all have the twist of, they were dead all along, they die at the end, you die at the games end, your quest was meaningless, strongest death flags possible. In the game she misses her boss battle, because she wanted to delete herself, she literally self sabotages as a goal. Even if she got control normally, she'd likely delete herself midway anyway. Her quests and stories, while predictable, are interesting, though the same reason she comes up with them, is why we'd never see their endings. Shed also be missing the replayability the previous two had, in their loops, leshi gives you death cards, and changes progression run to run, the robot gives checkpoints at least and seeing him die makes it worth it, but she wouldn't alter the story for ease of starting again, she'd have you start over completly, she wouldn't give checkpoints, you'd die, at best you'd get dark souls bloodstains. Hers would be awesome, if we could finish it.
Lastly, is the wizard. He's got artwork, interesting npcs, villainous presence, interesting mechanics on paper, ACTUAL ATTACK ANIMATIONS, and presentation. Shame half is thrown away, and the other half is held together with scotch tape. He experiments on his npcs and they actually suffer, and when he gets control, he discards them. He gives us motivation to fight him, by method of his students, but its not like leshis fake villianousness, the wizard is actually just a d***. The others care about their npcs and the player, except the robot, who is at least upfront in his manipulation, the wizards students actually trusted him, even liked him. He discards everything else, because he thinks he's the only one necessary. He wants to go out with a bang, and wants to be the last star to go out. His art is good, but that's all that's important to him, he'd never allow other mechanics in his version. As a result, we see just how terribly balanced him mechanic is, and not in a fun way like leshi. I like to play a game while watching someone else play that part, and when it got to his fight, I stomped through it, and the guy I watched, literally couldn't play a card, he drew only cards requiring 1 color mox, but he could only draw the other two most, so he couldn't do anything. His mechanic is symbolic of himself, he can't stand on his own the same way his cards need other card types. He thinks he's the only important part, and destroys the parts around him that build him up and make him functional, even depriving himself of a final handshake. His part would work, if he just let others join in.
I think Magnificus (The Wizard) didn’t use everything else because it was already deleted. I’d say his high standards are both a pro, and a con. Some people just can’t keep up.
Not to mention his lonely wizard literally renounced magnificus' ways when he was freed in act 3.
This was a good read for a TH-cam comment!!
It doesnt tell you about the later acts in any of the trailers intentionally to keep them as a twist so you don't know what to expect. If you see this, probably smack a spoiler warning somewhere. To clarify, somewhere Before talking about and showing footage from the second and third acts.
In my eyes, the whole "keep it spoiler-free" thing backfired for me. I was interested enough in the game to avoid spoilers, but not enough after learning that it has huge twists, as I also liked the card thing idea shown in the trailers and assumed the game would just ditch everything to become a platformer or a walking simulator or whatever, so it was good for me to know that the rest of the game doesn't (at least completely) ditch its initial mechanics.
Though now I guess I won't be watching past the first 2 minutes of this video...
yeah, as he was talking about the later chapters i was just screaming at the screen like "BRO WHERE'S THE SPOILER WARNING???"
@@Exarian Agreed
Yeah, sticking the spoiler warning *after* the spoilers was just... completely baffling.
I do feel that the game's marketing needs to more strongly hint that "the game is going to significantly change". But this video is just saying "I loved the twist in The Sixth Sense that the main character is dead. Also: Spoiler warning!"
please add a spoiler warning on the video's title, it makes no sense to completely ruin the game's twists in the first minute of the video and give a spoiler warning after doing so.
edit: well he did it, that's much better now
My main issue with the game was that the first arc, the fight with Leshy, was the most fun. I didn’t really enjoy the second two arcs and the finale to the story was disappointing. I also felt like the game was only half done once given the chance to fight the other scrybes, however briefly.
I'm not sure how to feel about the spoilers before the warning. On one hand, I almost understand why you would reveal the later acts - it shows there's more than just Leshys cabin; that you can expect something else and not be disappointed when it changes from that. On the other hand, a spoiler is still a spoiler dude. I really enjoyed the confusion I felt after beating Leshy, after leaving the game and being able to press new game. Telling people "yo, the game changes after a certain point" is... idk, a little crappy. It's not like it's been out for a decent amount of time either, it came out last year. You cant dictate what others view obviously, if they click and they havent played the game then that's on them, but there was definitely a better way to go about the changes in gameplay than just revealing the changes. Maybe stating it has diverse gameplay and what players can expect instead of outright saying it
Agree pretty strongly with this. I played Pony Island previously going into this game, so I had an idea that there would be some sort of gameplay-fuckery awaiting me. But even though that added anticipation for me, I didn't know exactly how that would play out/what it would look like. I definitely think showing actual footage of the... how to avoid spoiling... mid to late game stuff should be shown *after* the spoiler warning.
Dude, you forgot a spoiler warning.
Equally, clicking a design video for a game you haven’t finished is just asking to be spoiled…
"Eight impenetrable bears" Snoman says, having 5 power on the board and two sets of scissors.
Oh thank god you acknowledged that eventually. I was gonna be mad 😅
@@VampPhoenix99 Easily upset then?
You realy should have warned about spoilers sooner this time, but is realy good to have you back. In fact scryption is a surpring game. The hex of the same creator is actualy a game with a surpring ending as well
So glad to see this video! I'm mediocre at roguelike deckbuilders and rarely like horror, so I probably wouldn't have tried the game on my own. but after 3 different sources listed it as their top game of 2021, I had to try it. It is now one of my absolute favorite games. The creator clearly had a story they wanted told, and the game play is designed around getting the player to see that story and have the intended experiencem regardless of their card skill level. Like Leshy himself, the intimidating aspects are a veneer, an aesthetic that looks punishing while really just trying to give you a rich and fun experience.
Giving a spoiler Warning after already spoiling is always nice. Would be more wage than saying exactly what the 3 Acts are, as it was my favorite Moment of the game when it basically changed it changed midway through
Cry a river you baby
Also Kaycee’s mod gives it a whole new level of replayability, and some decent balance too. I hope they do that for other acts as well.
I really think you should add a spoiler warning before revealing the other acts of the game
Yeah..... Completely blindsided.
it's in the title of the video, so you can safely assume the risk of spoilers just by clicking on it.
@@N8ertot It wasn't in the title of the video 2 days ago. Snoman made a pinned comment trying to justify that decision, but has since deleted it entirely because leaving evidence that you made a mistake is unprofessional or something.
nice spoiler warning after the spoiler lol
dont get me wrong, the video is good but talking about the other acts before the spoiler warning just ruins the surprise
Very spoilerific review lol, ah well. Not every review need be so coy as to hide every little detail. Love the game, Act 1 is my favorite but the whole package is very very good.
This is the first game I got to experience completely spoiler free and I’m so glad I did I’ll forever remember the experience.
I'm always wondering how these youtubers who review so many games in so short a time have the time to play all these games. So maybe the reason that they haven't mentioned the other parts of this game is because they didn't play far enough into it to know those parts exist. They buy this game, play it for five hours and go "this is a really cool game about playing cards in a cabin where you can rip out your eye to cheat" without realizing how much more there is to it than that already unique start.
If I had a nickel for every Inscryption video in my subscribed feed in the past hour, I’d have 2 nickels
What's the other one?
@@diribigal Daryl Talks Games: th-cam.com/video/fOcjDxW1g4k/w-d-xo.html
Which is not a lot , but weird it happened twice.
Here’s the problem though. Even just mentioning that there are more than one chapters to the game is a massive spoiler.
When I played this game. I went in with only the expectation of the cabin area, and what followed it absolutely blew me away. If someone had pitched me about the 3 chapters, it would’ve taken a lot away from my first experience. You really should have slapped a spoiler warning in the beginning
The marketing does need to somehow make it clear that this game isn't a fully-fledged roguelite deckbuilder, since many players bought it under that expectation, and were left disappointed a little too late after the two-hour Steam return window had expired.
But just outright saying "The gameplay completely changes!" really does ruin the surprise.
Please…just a few more rounds…
Kaycee’s mod: *I GOTCHU HOMIE*
This game was the first game since I was a kid to give me nightmares. On top of all you said it can’t be overstated how haunting this game is. The ending with all of the scribes was so cathartic after a whole game with them leaning over your shoulder
I am glad you are back at making videos!
I really enjoyed this video. I'd only heard about this game in passing, so I had no real clue how interesting it really was. Thanks for making this!
I'm glad that people are enjoying Inscription, but it's just not the kind of game that I like to play. It's kinda like FNAF in the sense that I'll watch videos on the lore and game design or what have you, but I'm not going to pick up the game or books any time soon.
It also happens that Horror is a hard turn off for me. I can play games with minor horror elements but these sorts of games where it's part of the main structure of the game just aren't my thing.
Most of Inscryption's horror elements are in the begging. The rest are the things left to your imagination. I don't like horror either, but I can handle Inscryption just fine. There's no jump scares. It's purely psychological. There is blood, though. Nothing you can't look away from. Try watching a playthrough. That's what I did before I got the game.
I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of people telling me how I should "get good" but I had tried to give this game an honest shot, and mechanically I enjoyed what was on display, but dying and being sent back to the beginning in Act 1 to what honestly felt extremely cheap quite frankly killed my desire to go any further despite knowing that there was more open ahead. I've struggled through experiences I consider to be really rough, like the Fromsoft Dark Souls series. This one just wasn't for me, and I'm glad for anyone who was able to truly enjoy and experience the game to its fullest.
Am I happy to see this review? Yes. I am going to watch it? For sure. Am I fucking pissed because of how you handled spoilers for such a game? Also yes.
After just twenty minutes I couldn't get this game out of my head, and still won't forget for a long time
I like how oblivious you are to the fact you didn't hear about the later parts of the game because so many people hate the later parts, feel tricked because they only wanted more of the cabin.
They were fine
Welcome Back Snowman Gaming. Great job on the video and loving this new format. :)
Dude WHY would you spoil acts 2 and 3 before literally anything else in the video? Man I love your content but you are so much smarter than this and I expect better from you.
I had no clue about the ring worm trick! Or the Ouroboros, for that matter.
I wonder if they realize a ringworm is fungus, not a worm.
I'm not a massively frequent watcher of this channel, but seeing you on twitter several months ago talk about how it was starting to seem like the channel was dead made me sad, so I'm happy to see you're still here
Weirdly how I found out about Inscryption is that the building manager where Daniel Mullins' office is knocked on his door so my girlfriend and I could check out the floor plan for his unit when we were looking at office spaces for her to rent here in Vancouver. Didn't get a chance to talk to him but I would have loved to.
What timing! Half an hour ago, video on Inscryption by a similar YTber came out
Which one?
sorry to disapoint but the arkhiveist dosent realy delete the file insted a text file apears named the same as the file but with .txt at the end and says "i dont have the acess to delete the file but i expect you to folow the rules and delete it yourself" if you decide to delete it yourself archiveist says "huh didnt think youd realy do that" so basicly it was po3 messing with you the entire time
Good timing on the video, just finished the game so it's very convenient
I watched this video when it came out, but never finished it because I didn't want to get spoiled.
I finally played through all of inscryption and wow... what a ride! Great recommendation man.
great video, as always 💛
Love your dedication Snoman, always a great video!
I purposely avoided looking up walkthroughs and guides, so I didn't even know that's what the ringworm does. I barely even used the campfire, like at all! My main strategy was using squirrel totems to power up the most abundant and least costly card, and building OP cards from the rare cards of previous playthroughs (like a 7-attack card with only two blood cost!)
I thought the Ringworm was just a replacement ring if you were bad at puzzles before finally being let into the final boss zone.
Damn it, this is still in my backlog.
Im i the only one that loved the card game and got bored w the meta part?
There is a beta side mode in progress called Kaycee's Mod that extends the card game part into a more difficult, more expanded version of the cabin. I think you can figure out how to access it from the store page.
@@misirtere9836 There's also a fanmade mod that changes Kaycee's Mod to Act 3 if you want that
Welcome back!
I was kinda disappointed that the other scribes boards weren't fully playable but just a small tease... I enjoyed the normal playthrough and currently having a blast with Kaycee's mod, there's so much more it could add to the pure gameplay
I'm curious if there'll be another mod of sorts to expand those. Both the death and magic ones were pretty barebones but rather interesting, though I'm not sure how easily that could be turned into a full thing.
this isn't zelda 2.
BRO glad to see you back
He returns! What joyous days!
Homies LOVE comparisons to Pokemon TCG on Game boy!
Ah, so you put "spoilers" in the title. Good move, I say. Yeah, if you're clicking on a review and/or analysis of a game, you likely want to have played it ahead of time if you don't want spoilers, but it still felt silly to reveal a bunch of spoilers and then go "oh, uh, spoilers btw".
Man this game had such an atmosphere, best atmosphere since bioshock, darkwood and return of the obra dinn
This is the first I'm hearing about the uroborous card carrying over permenatrly. Wonder if it was added in the kaycees mod update. Originally you could only power it up for a given battle
while the game mechanics were fun, the story definitely takes a dive in quality after you beat act 1. Towards the end especially it just feels like a meta circlejerk, and it made me regret getting through act 1 on my thrid try
YOURE ALIVE
I think you probably should've started with that one-sentence pitch then put a spoiler warning after that tbh. That pitch alone would've been enough to get me interested.
I had no idea the game continued once you find the disk lol.
The first part is onlynhsrd because 1) it doesn't teach you many symbols and 2) you're supposed to lose until ita done the tutorial. It's not random. Plus if you're familiar with the lore you realize it's actually leshy rying to keep you from breaking soft lock on the OLD_DATA. He even says something about it. While it IS possible to win before the tutorial is done, you need to replay a lot to be really good AND get good rng.
Inscryption is a cursed video game about a cursed video game. Once you play it with the intent to finish the game will try and convince you that it's something worth obsessing over by learning everything about it. Some take that as a challenge to break the mechanics over their knee, others think there's a meta fictional level of narrative that bears deciphering, and a few will think following real life coordinates into the middle of the woods will give their life some sort of esoteric meaning. My favorite part of the story is all about the 4 scribes and their views on game design. That's the part that will stick with me the most. I'm of the opinion that Daniel Mullins put together that ARG purely as a troll.
Thoighta on Kayvee mod steam beta coming to base game?
Absolutly fascinating
whoa.. why didn't I hear about this game before! this looks awesome. thanks boss!
I enjoyed the gameplay, but the meta twists were just so damn gimmicky. I just wish it told a straight story, instead of relying on tacky meta subversions that have been being done since MGS in 1998. It's not clever or interesting anymore.
As delightful and subversive as the unexpected genre-shifting is, and as much as I desperately tried to love this game... The execution is just so, so obviously flawed.
The balance of the acts is unplayably broken at times, swinging wildly from frustratingly hard to mind-numbingly easy. In particular, I couldn't enjoy any of the amazing new mechanics in act 3, because I was already steamrolling through everything effortlessly. And not being able to replay act 2 battles is just... an absolutely baffling design choice, that does nothing but make the early-game a slog that will taint people's experience of this new act. And the inadequate marketing just made that aspect worse for players that expected a fully-fledged deckbuilder roguelike.
Daniel Mullins is great at creating these subversive experiences. But he clearly needs some assistance when crafting gameplay that needs to hold up as more than a gimmick.
My personal theory: Act 2 is the base game, a call back to Pokemon TCG for gameboy with some challenge but very accessible after getting a decent deck and maybe some extra bosses that are acting... off.
Act 1 is Leshy's cabin alone, he's taken over everything and wants to torment the other characters or bring them to his side in thinking. It's the most stable.
Act 3 is Po3 who is having fun with a challenging game but it's also very exploitable and gives you equal opportunities to succeed, and unlike Leshy you don't escape from secrets but playing the game as it's laid out (though his workshop is so poorly optimized for what he wants he ends up letting you wander anyway). I'd imagine all Scrybes have a difficult envisioning of what they want the game to be. Grimora loves killing though she may offer something each time, though any chance with power she'd probably decide to just crash the system. Magnificus wants to see improvement through harsh trials and if stuff weren't being deleted his boss fight might have been very epic, worst case I imagine he'd try to absorb people into his world.
Just my thought on why the first game is so difficult while act 2+3 go from easy with minor oversights to progressively hard but also not perfectly balanced.
YES I WANTED TO SEE YOUR OPINION ON THIS GAME!
Snoman: "Look at the genius of these intentional "broken mechanics"
Developer: "Um...oh..why yes..I...uh... did those on purpose...Yesiree!"
Oh yeah code snuck in that let you kill the campfire people, that let you cut up cards with an item that has a texture applied to it, gave you a card that the game tells you will get more powerful on sacrifice, gave you the ability to move a card duplicating sigil onto something that costs nothing so you have infinite of it, etc. Major oops there.
I came back 2 months after my last comment! I just got to try this amazing game. I can't thank you enough. this is the best game I played this year.. maybe even last year!
If you like the card game, you can get the expansion for free. It's essentially a roguelike expanded version of act 1
I have, OUROBOROS!!!
jesus christ i have just discovered i missed half the game after defeating the leshy
I beat the first boss without the campers exploit. The first part of the game was my favorite actually.
I personally hated everything that came after act 1. Yeah, it was well-made and clever and whatever and I hate, hate, HATE games that have a real-world meta narrative and wink to the players and go digging through the hard drive for files, and I hate characters being aware they're in a game, and OFF did it all already ten years ago and it did it better. And it's all the bigger sting because act 1 was so good, so compelling, so immersive. It's just a shame to sacrifice a great, immersive, satisfying experience for a mediocre 4th wall break.
Completely agreed. I also think the presentation really dips as well. The First Act's aesthetic really felt one of a kind, so it sucks they had to switch it to some bland RPG Maker World for the sake of a "Woooah, bet you didn't see that coming!"
@@Ryan-Petre 2nd act was a bland RPG Maker World for the sake of a switcheroo, act 3 was literally act 1, except worse. I'm so, so disappointed- I fell in love with Inscryption back when it was still a moody, 10 minutes long gamejam project called 'Sacrifices must be made'. To sacrifice (hehe) all that immersion and tension and a great villain/antagonist for the sake of 'Sike! the real villain is the real world US government all along!' just breaks my heart.
Never knew that this game was THIS cool bro how have I not seen this gameplay bruh?😭
Heyo, i really dislike horror and specifically body horror but i love unique game design and deck builders, i really wanna play the game but should i? (Hard to find out without getting spoiled)
Thx
Unfortunately, the part where you have to stab your own eye out is mandatory to continue the story.
Although, if you wanted to avoid that imagery: Once you get the dagger, you could turn off your sound, click on the dagger, and then look away for ~8 seconds.
Same thing for the pliers and the Mycologist.
@@CheshireCad thanks! If it's only a handful of szenes like that, which i can avoid it could be actually fine. Thank you
@@dmarsub You know exactly when something bad's about to happen, because you have to choose to activate it by using the pliers or the special dagger. Also, the game's in first person, so you can't actually *see* the eye come out.
Soo i played the game and loved it so much, just closed my eyes and turned the sound down a few times lol.
Awesome, now i can finally watch the video :D.
@@misirtere9836 thank you :)
I defeat the last boss the moon by attacking with poison attack since poison is one hit kill and that is just coincidence that i have Poison card
This game is amazing
I liked the part where you said people don't mention the other acts to avoid spoiling things for people. Right after you did that. So you clearly aren't oblivious to the fact that those are major spoilers, you just... didn't care? Could have said that the game may be more than it appears and to check it out if that seems intriguing since there are people who like games that have a twist but never even knew Inscryption was one, then anyone who keeps going after that to see the details have only themselves to blame. But hey at least you didn't spoil it in the thumbnail or title as some people like to do for various things, so points for that.
I don't have this game, though I really want it, but this is still my favorite game of 2021 and 2022
Good video but it would have been really nice if you didn't spoil so much without a warning... The whole point of the beginning is not knowing there's more acts so the surprise is ruined now.
Sweet, more snowman
FYI, you can go through the wall of bears, First time I saw them, I had some busted mantis god and went through them like butter. It's not an instant failure state.
I say this later in the video
Not my goty (that would be Chicory or Omori) but one of the most interesting games of the 2021
Good video :)
The game is a cool concept but should be half the length (about 5 hours)
Very cool
This game needs a sequel soon bad...least we have the prototype
when the inscrypt is ion
It's weird. The ARG hidden in the game goes way too deep for what I was looking for, but the actual game playing with your expectations didn't go deep enough. When I saw the transition to the second major part, my mind was racing with possibilities of what might be coming next. "A linear story you can't do anything to influence" wasn't what I had in mind. It could be I'm a little spoiled by games with multiple endings, but I wanted to be able to discover a better conclusion.
8 fucking bears
The last two acts might have been less disappointing if I knew more in advance about the game structure. Act I was amazing, but acts 2 and 3 fell flat both in terms of atmosphere and gameplay.
Act 2 was a pretty boring experience after picking the gem deck at the start. The starting deck is barely functional, and has very little synergy with the other three decks. Most of the cards you get in the beginning are for the other decks, so you're better off building any deck except the one you started with. The normal enemies are trivially easy, and only the bosses offer any interesting challenge. I never played the old Pokemon games, so the nostalgia factor was missing.
Act 3 is just a grindfest with no real challenge after you beat the first boss. Since you keep your deck for the entire act, early good decisions snowball into playing through the entire act with an overpowered deck. I never came close to dying after getting my first Vessel upgrade. Act 1 can have similar balance issues (e.g. undying Squirrel totem), but the deck resetting for each run keeps things interesting, so you don't have time to get bored with a specific way of being overpowered.
fuck act 2 not even pinhead wants that kinda pain
The only thing that convinced me to play this game is saying that it is one of the best games of the year
Who is this for?
0:31 If someone spoiled that for me I’d be pissed. Finding out that there are 2 other chapters is a surprise reward for making it that far. If you decided not to play the game because of a prejudice against card games then that reward isn’t for you.
I personally like when games hide things until the right time. I miss when games like Smash Bros. has secret characters to unlock. Nowadays everything is announced ahead of time or is DLC.
1:15 “This is important information for someone who hasn’t played the game yet.”
I cannot express in words how WRONG this is. That’s like showing someone the after credits teaser before the actual movie 🤦🏽♂️
Game companies literally avoid demos because it makes players less likely to buy it. Spoiling the entire game is not recommended. If you miss out because you didn’t wanna check the game out with its vagueness then oh well, sad day for you. You don’t need every single detail to sell you on something, especially something that uses mystery as a core part of the game.
interesting. i gave up after playing this game and hitting the bear wall. it just seemed too cheap and the gameplay seemed too random. like i didnt have much control. didn't even realize it had all these twists to it. i did notice the new game was disabled. i thought it was like that so that people like me who wanted to start over couldn't.
Few people saying about how its a bit of a spoiler seeing there are three distinct chapters, however, i don't think it is. There is a lot of people, some who maybe even bought the game already, who based off of what they know about the first chapter never went further who might revisit the game now they know there is more to it. This is a game design video, to tell people not to watch parts of it as it discusses mechanics would make the video kind of pointless as all that is left is someone saying 'go play this game because...'
Then issue the spoiler warning BEFORE the spoilers. This isn't hard to do, and even just saying a quick "If you clicked this video, and have had ANY interest in playing the game, please do so before watching, as I will be spoiling major twists throughout the course of the video!" would do the trick. A very large chunk of game design videos don't require such extensive spoilers, so it's unfair to assume every viewer would know how far he'd go, and without any warning.
A min in and I'm ready to buy
good ARG design