Signalis is Horrifying and Beautiful

by



Something twisted lies underneath the planet of an off-world mining base, and stranger secrets rest deeper still…

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— Credits song: a boy named fox | Grianstad https://aboynamedfox.bandcamp.com/track/grianstad#

Chapters:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:35 Layer 01 Opening
00:10:59 Layer 02 Surviving
00:20:41 Layer 03 Universe
00:30:30 Layer 04 Alina Seo
01:00:44 Layer 05 Ariane
01:29:56 Layer Sixnalis
01:55:32 Conclusion
01:59:17 Credits and Q/A
02:03:37 Secretalis

Attribution:

Nerf Darts – By joho345 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31414053

Sierpinski Triangle – By Beojan Stanislaus, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8862246

Kim Portraits – By Nicor – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21469706

Lilium candidum – By Zachi Evenor – Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zachievenor/9438824400/in/set-72157633416612860/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27565865

it only occurs to me whilst uploading that i am only mostly sure signalis is pronounced sig-nah-liss, but frankly sig-null-iss just sounds silly.

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25 thoughts on “Signalis is Horrifying and Beautiful”

  4. 1:26:40 I wouldn't classify this as a "Kill your gay lover" ending. Especially if you consider that poor Ariane is suffering from radiation sickness, something that's absolutely horrific and one of the most gruesome ways to slowly die, trapped in a capsule while your skin and flesh literally melt. Elster's promise is therefore a rather important pledge to spare your loved ones from one fuck up way to slowly die in absolute agony over weeks or months.

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  5. I actually really love the limited inventory as a relative newb to survival horror. It fits really really well thematically. And it's actually pretty easy to play around

    Edit: I mean how the Rule of Six is a direct arm of the revolution. The government is a pretty major player in the background and strongly colors the story. How it's affected Elster and Ariane. How it brought them together and in a way apart as well

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  10. I finished this game on a blind playthrough about 2 or 3 days ago, and I got the Promise ending, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. The story is so sad, so tragic and so beautiful that it really had me hooked. When I found out about the other endings and how to get them, I felt so glad to have gotten the one I did, it was so fitting. God, this game is amazing, it pains me that it left me with an overwhelming wish for more, yet I wouldn't want it any other way, its a self contained story that is perfect the way it is.

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  12. I think the Artifact ending's promise is a little different: the implicit promise between the developer – the storyteller – and the audience.

    That is to say, the promise of a resolution that leaves us satisfied.

    After all, my promise was to give these damn lesbians their happy ending. I broke the world to keep the gays unburied, and I won't hesitate to do it again.
    (I've done it before, after all; I picked the near-universally agreed bad ending in Life Is Strange for the same reasons.)

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  13. This game is such a breathtaking, memorable experience that has stuck with me for so long. It has changed a part of me fundamentally and how I perceive stories and reality and I think that's beautiful. And seeing so many others so deeply affected by this story of cycles and community and trauma and love and all its other themes is beautiful too. Signalis is truly a 11/10 game and this video perfectly encompasses how deep it is. Amazing work, thank you for making this and making me cry a couple times while watching it, lmao

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  14. That "VHS" you described earlier in the video isn't actually a VHS at all, it's based on the Phillips "VCR" format (which stood for video cassette recordING) from the early 1970s, but it might also be based on the grinding SVC, which may be more likely since this was by German developers

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  15. Fantastic video for a fantastic game. Just played this game on a whim towards the end of last year and it blew me away. So I'm real glad this video exists to deep dive into all the incredible depths that I couldn't see.

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  17. I just finished this game moments ago, there's no way this video JUST went up yesterday. That's synchronicity for you. I had no idea about the inventory updates and I wish dear that I had.

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  18. Fun fact: after the fake ending, if you try to exit from the main menu, the game will pick back up anyway. I quite appreciate that they didn't want players mistaking it for having ended so bleakly… well, not that kind of bleak anyway.

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  20. The artifact has 3 sets of 8.
    8 ridges on the inside edge linjng the hole, 8 lines/edges around the decal inside it, and 8 ridges on the outside. 8 x 3 is 24
    2 + 4 is 6.
    That number really is everywhere when you look for it.
    Just something that made me laugh

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  22. This game was really good up until the last area of the game were they remove your map and hide doors using the perspective of the game. That just felt like artificial difficulty, spend like a good hour or 2 just going over through the whole map spamming the interact button on every corner and wall. Other than that last part it was a great experience.

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  25. The real horror is not that, eventually, Elster does what she promised.
    but that other Elsters are doomed to go through the loop and see them… unable to fulfill their promises.

    cursed to roam the Red Desert aimlessly, just to die a meaningless death and litter the landscape with their bodies.

    Reply

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