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Roro posted:Just a heads up, Oxenfree has had 25% knocked off its sale price until 21st of March. A good time to pick it up if you have the money and want to get it before the next big sale! Newest thing: Bonus 2! Let's see how it all endssdne lla ti ees s'teL Hey everybody, I've got a great idea! Let's Play  CONTENT WARNING: (check if you're concerned)Video 3 depicts, graphically but not messily, suicide         Bacter, tell me steady, tell me true: what is Oxenfree?: Oxenfree is a WEIRD HORROR game by Night School Studios. It's very, very good! Says you. What do you mean by weird horror?: I mean it's menacing, eerie, creepy, certainly frightening, but there won't be (much) jump scares or gore. Psychological horror! My favorite kind. Thread voting? You KNOW it, son. The first video is more of an introductory "here is the cast and setting" one, but the end of the second video (and hopefully most videos after that) will end with a thread vote. Spoilers? Nope. Not in any sense, no way. No spoilers, not even tagged, please. Anything else? There is a lot of content in this game. A lot of hidden references and secret stuff. If you have a theory about something, or you notice something I missed, please feel free to point it out! And with no further ado, I hope you enjoy OXENFREE! Bacter fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Mar 20, 2016 |
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Feb 19, 2016 20:03
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 00:27 |
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CURRENT THREAD VOTE: Do we TRY TO SAVE CLARISSA or TAKE THE GHOSTS' OFFER AND ABANDON HER? THREAD TASKS Find stone piles Discuss references and theories    
Bacter fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Mar 20, 2016 |
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Feb 19, 2016 20:03
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Do you know if the morse code is full of spoilers, easter eggs, or just like, boring chatter?
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Feb 19, 2016 20:58
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Funny you should ask, FicusArt! Running the second morse code with some tweaked settings yields SAVECOLRECTTIP.BESUREYOUHAVE__RE_TDME__E_RE_OUHAVE_ORRECTDME.BESUREYYUHA__ I would also like to pose the following thread question: what the HECK does "Saw the man, not the dog" mean? Bacter fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Feb 19, 2016 |
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Feb 19, 2016 21:02
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FicusArt posted:Do you know if the morse code is full of spoilers, easter eggs, or just like, boring chatter? Not too spoil too much, but knowing morse code can be a pretty good help if you wanna find out a bit more about the game. And, even though Oxenfree might not be the best game to watch as an LP cause it really is something I think you should experience yourself, it's still awesome you're doing this! I'll definitely be following this!
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Feb 19, 2016 21:13
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You could cut the atmosphere with a knife so far Maybe go and find Clarissa? Seems like the better idea right now.
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Feb 19, 2016 22:32
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Look, what we really need now is explanations, and Clarissa seems like the right person to pick for that.
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Feb 20, 2016 01:36
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I'd say as well to go with option two because I get a feeling there people with that name usually know what's going on. Also this game was a super fun romp with lots of fun dialogue, and Bacter is a good choice to show it all in all it's twists and turns.
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Feb 20, 2016 06:00
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Niggurath posted:I'd say as well to go with option two because I get a feeling there people with that name usually know what's going on. I am seconding this. By the way, can you please turn the subtitles on? I could not make out a word of what the radio triangle was saying.
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Feb 20, 2016 06:30
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Sure, subtitles from here on out! For reference, the dialogue is: ???: Hello, dear. Tell everyone hello Alex: Hello? ???: Sleepy time gal. Everything fine. Hope things there same. Don't know if leave is possible. Jonas: This is... insane. Alex: Who are.... who.... are you? ???: Listen. Bob tail. Shave tail. Sleepy time gal. ???: Is. Leave. Possible. Alex: ...maybe? ???: Bob tail. Leave children. My mothers. Will see them soon. Jonas: Alex! Alex: Jonas! *Everything flips out* I'd welcome speculation on what the HECK any of that means.
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Feb 20, 2016 06:43
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Yeah, I got nothin'.
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Feb 20, 2016 07:25
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Hmm, well... I think Bob Tail is the voice's way of referring to Alex, in reference to her hairstyle maybe? It seems like it's using those three phrases (Bob Tail, Shave Tail, Sleepy Time Gal) to refer to people at least. Maybe it's asking the kids to leave the island? Buuut then there's the first part about everything being fine. Hard to say at this point.
GatewayOfLastResort fucked around with this message at 08:35 on Feb 20, 2016 |
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Feb 20, 2016 08:32
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This looks amazing. I love it. Definitely gonna follow this.
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Feb 20, 2016 08:55
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So outside of the strange message that comes forth, what about the shape itself: https://a.pomf.cat/ymzxgk.webm Why a triangle? I suppose it's one of the more basic geometric shapes and the basis for a lot of classical mathematical study, but what's the significance here? Maybe it's due to use triangulating a signal with our radio or maybe it's saying that sometimes triangles lead to mysterious happenstances (i.e. the Bermuda Triangle). If anything, it's a curious choice and one I think we'll be seeing more of.
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Feb 20, 2016 09:01
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Bacter posted:I'd welcome speculation on what the HECK any of that means. here's how I read it: ???: Hello, dear. Tell everyone hello ( hi guys ) Alex: Hello? ???: Sleepy time gal. Everything fine. Hope things there same. Don't know if leave is possible. ( how you doing? we are doing fine, by the way can we cross over to your dimension? ) Jonas: This is... insane. Alex: Who are.... who.... are you? ???: Listen. Bob tail. Shave tail. Sleepy time gal. ( pay attention guys ) ???: Is. Leave. Possible. ( can we come to your dimension? ) Alex: ...maybe? ???: Bob tail. Leave children. My mothers. Will see them soon. ( we'll take that as yes, the small lovecraftian horrors are on your way, the big ones will come soon ) Jonas: Alex! Alex: Jonas! *Everything flips out* basically it want's to leave wherever it is and come over to the real world and it needs you to approve, it also explains why the game doesn't give you an option to say a straight no.
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Feb 20, 2016 20:12
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What is this, something hindus put on their QC stickers? Jokes aside this is looking great, and I appreciate Bacter's choice of not showing off everything. This feels like something that'll go over a whole lot better if it still has some mystery to it. I feel we should go after Clarissa, for several reasons. The practical one is that she has a radio that she doesn't know how to work, and if we add some eyes and hands to that we may get off the island faster. Plus she seems level headed and if we can just give her a nudge she'll get rolling under her own power and start pulling weight. Ren on the other hand feels like baggage at this point. Sure, we'll pick him up. Maybe we can dump Jonas at Clarissa's and then get him or something. A few more minutes on his lonesome to get a grip will probably do him good. The rear end in a top hat/metagaming one is that if we help Clarissa out maybe she'll see us as something other than "the little sis" and open up a bit, while on the other hand if we go after Ren at this point she'll probably still prance around being a haughty bitch and that'll be no fun. The man/dog thing; wasn't that some old joke? Like you met man bleeding from his arse, and why is that? Well you see he was going to see a man about his (belligerent?) dog. He did see the man but he never saw the dog (coming, before it bit his buttocks off). That'd be foreboding. Also, didn't people use to say they'd go see a man about a dog, to excuse themselves going to the shitter, or other errand they'd rather not specify? (Maybe that's the origin of the joke, come to think of it). So either they knew they'd meet someone (in the cave?) or they were up to something they'd rather not disclose, and got bit on the arse by unforeseen tombuggerence. Either way it's an oddball thing to go scribbling in blood on a cave wall. I'd opt for I DIDDLED poo poo & DIED CALL PRIEST/AIRSTRIKE, given the same column space. It's oddly phrased as an instruction though, like "see a man", and not "saw a man". So it really is a dumbass invitation to go diddle with a real trollface caveat bolted on at the end, like some chucklefuck is standing in that armoire this very minute just jumping in his pants to hop out and go but I waaaaarneed youuuuuu nar ne nar nar once we've managed to cajole the Kerberos of Hell to bolt out and get busy biting buttock. The soundscape in the glitch section sound submariney to me. e: Or does Oxenfree mean * Ox[yg]enfree? Like a sunken submarine? This game seems to like to drop key syllables out of communications. * Xenofree? Is let aliens out possible? * We finally ejected all the taurine fuckers right offa these here cliffs. e2: I'm getting a Swords & Sworcery vibe off of this game. e3: "Bob tail"? "Shave tail"? Is that thing making crass commentary on Jonas' endowments? It's not "Bow tail", as would be applicable to our potential bow and actual ponytail. Sleepy time gal could be Ren, if they're being crass about people's pronouns as well, or pr0nz, as we call them. I'm stumped. I'll show myself out. e4: About the morse code if we allow for a few errors it seems to say BESUREYOUHAVECORRECTDME over and over. Bacter's translation "SAVECOLRECTTIP.BESUREYOUHAVE__RE_TDME__E_RE_OUHAVE_ORRECTDME.BESUREYYUHA__" starts with SAVE, but that's likely just because the start of the signal is not captured, and the translation starts just past the first . in H, and then you get ... for S rather than .... for H. Same for COL in the same first repetition, just one . off from COR in "CORRECT", like this has .-.. for L while .-. is R. Then we have first a goonbait making sure we have correct "TIP", and the all the rest of them want to make real dang sure we have correct "DME", whatever that is. This might be deliberate, or a translation artefact from lossy/time slipping input, as TIP is "- .. .--." and DME is "-.. -- .", which differs by just one . and a few pieces of misplaced empty airspace. DME could refer to dimethyl ether; a fuel, or distance measuring equipment; which is important in navigation and aviation, or Disney's Magical Express; which is popular for travel in disneylands, so under these circumstances I guess you should make very certain not to pick the wrong one for your needs SO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CORRECT DME PEOPLE!!!!! Karate Bastard fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Feb 21, 2016 |
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Feb 21, 2016 00:17
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Karate Bastard posted:e: Or does Oxenfree mean Oxenfree likely refers to the ohrase "olly olly oxenfree". The phrase means that it is safe for people to come out of hiding in a game of hide and seek.
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Feb 21, 2016 00:38
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"See a man about a dog" or "see a man about a horse" is a bizarre phrase, I THINK American only? Maybe British as well, but it's a polite "excuse me" to go do something impolite. Back when it was considered boorish to say "I've got to go use the bathroom", for instance. In fact, I'd always heard it used to mean somebody has to go use the bathroom (standing up, you'd say "excuse me, I've gotta go see a man about a dog"). A deconstruction of that is a joke in this Achewood strip. It apparently got its start meaning "go order an alcoholic drink", especially during prohibition. Edit: Incidentally, unless Ren REALLY STARTS PUTTING IN THE VOTES in the next hour or so, looks like we're going Clarissa! It's a fine move: by the standards of Horror Movies, the kid who wanted to split up and do pot brownies is PROBABLY already dead. (not that this game is a traditional horror thing. I'm not implying that!) Bacter fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Feb 21, 2016 |
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Feb 21, 2016 01:50
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Bacter posted:It apparently got its start meaning "go order an alcoholic drink", especially during prohibition. I assume that bit is due to the whole "hair of the dog that bit you" thing.
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Feb 21, 2016 02:14
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Weirdly, it seems like it first came from a play. Somebody was being called out about a big awkward social situation, and he was kind of sauntering by, and said "sorry, can't stop to talk! Got to see a man about a dog!" so he didn't have to stop and face the music.
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Feb 21, 2016 02:27
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This is one nice looking (and sounding!) game, dang. Also likable teenager characters that speak like humans? What sort of mystic voodoo is this, Bacter?
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Feb 21, 2016 02:45
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Look for Nona
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Feb 21, 2016 03:05
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The bit of world building about the submarine and some of those noises we heard make me think that something is using the submarine's radio equipment to try to communicate. And while Clarissa is being obnoxious, I feel I can understand why already: Since she was dating Alex's brother, Jonas isn't just suddenly standing in those shoes for Alex, he's doing so for Clarissa too. I didn't catch what Alex's brother's name was, but losing him broke up her parents and may have hosed up Clarissa just as bad, given how sensitive teenagers can be. So seeing Alex is hard enough because it reminds her of her dead boyfriend, but now there's a new (step)brother to remind her all the more that the boy she'd been dating is dead. Also, didn't Nona say that one of the girls who didn't come didn't because she was going to see her boyfriend Richard--excuse me--"Dick?" And then we find out the longest serving radio operator that the island was named the same? Sure, Richard is a common name, but when stories get weird like this, I don't put much stock in coincidences. It makes me think either those characters are going to show up later, and Richard is going to be, like, the descendant of the man the tower was named after, or he is the operator and weirdness happened to him during his tenure on the island. marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Feb 21, 2016 |
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Feb 21, 2016 05:47
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I vote we go get Ren. Cause Clarissa has a much clearer head on her shoulder, and Ren will likely need our help more.
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Feb 21, 2016 09:17
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Looks like FINDING CLARISSA won the day! So, let's progress to update 3, where nothing bad will happen. I told you the game ramps up quick. Edit edit: In case anybody's wondering - the actual game part of this doesn't give you hints, that's editing magic on my part. Bacter fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Feb 21, 2016 |
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Feb 21, 2016 11:03
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Morse: BE SURE YOU HAVE CORRECT DME is kinda weirdly put for something flying by Morse. The signal sounds like it's expertly sent even though the transmission/reception is bad. The pace is high and consistent, which suggests a skilled operator or a machine. The endless repetitions also suggest a machine, but machines tend to prefer other protocols than Morse today, and when Morse was popular there weren't many machines around which could eg translate text to Morse. So let's assume a skilled operator, but a skilled operator probably wouldn't waste clicks saying BE SURE YOU HAVE CORRECT instead of ENSURE CRRCT only to abbreviate the very key point of the message "DME" to ambiguity. So they could be dictating, or they could have taught themselves a good fist over the endless repetitions, which themselves are interesting, as they suggest this is either someone who has managed to hook up a tape recorder to a Morse machine (a none too shabby techie) or someone who has managed to hook up a tape recorder to a radio and doesn't use it to send voice (a dumb person; seems likely) or it's sent by hand by a crazy person, ghost or other being with too drat much time on their hands. e: whoops, an update! Let's see if bacter upturned my wall of text even before i pressed send 
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Feb 21, 2016 11:12
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Well, this LP turned me onto the game and I just slightly sat down and beat it all in one go. So yeah, thanks Bacter. No spoilers, all I'll say is... buckle up.
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Feb 21, 2016 13:37
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Okay, this has gotten seriously creepy. Was that a stone pile I saw in the outside screen of Fort Milner? Just beneath the lamp next to the firing range?
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Feb 21, 2016 16:26
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There's another stone plie inside the army rcs around 16:30 in the video. It is on the second floor. EDIT: there's also another at 23:45 on the ground between the two buildings. Obscil fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Feb 21, 2016 |
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Feb 21, 2016 17:43
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Good show on finding them so far! As a note, the one on second-floor rcs won't show up on the first bonus video, on account of we can't get to it yet. So I'd welcome speculation on what that whole "we are an island race" thing was about. If it wasn't for that, I'd say it was clearcut that we were dealing with the sunken officers of the Kanaloa, but that particular thing, spoken clearly for the first time through Jonas, makes it seem... different.
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Feb 21, 2016 18:25
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There's a bit of world building that seems to say that when the military came they killed lots and lots of natives. Perhaps some (all?) of those natives...weren't actually human in this case, and we're dealing with the ghosts of the "island race."
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Feb 22, 2016 00:16
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My first observation is that everything went to poo poo right after they drank all that shroom beer that Nona's "cousin" so graciously provided. Bacter: This game inspires me for some reason If you tire of my spoiler walls just tell me and I'll cut back on them. Great going, I love it!Jonas could be right that this is related to radio research. The Harden tower seems like a pretty capable and powerful installation that could be used (by game designers as a Chekhov's gun) for psychological manipulation, like TMS or the God helmet. Like, crank the Teslas to the Herzes and people start tripping balls. Then, if this thing communicates Predator style, playing back clips that it doesn't really understand at people, then the Morse from before could be just nonsense. Throw some EM waves at the monkeys and see what sticks. Maybe the Morse code was sent by one of those bulletin boards? Someone slapped that clip on one of them, and now it's being replayed forever. The FM bulletin boards are a neat trick. It's a goofy but appropriate gimmick for a military radio research museum, and if opened for the public it'd guarantee a throng of people bringing a throng of radio receivers with them, capable of interfacing directly with the thing's favorite frequency range. Maybe someone wised up on that and pulled the plug half way through? Also maybe the thing now has an obsession with morbidity because the dumbass military museum guys kept feeding it death and war through the bulletin boards? I can't make my mind up about this mechanism where you tune your pocket radio receiver in to a "red" frequency to make something happen in the world, that is not converting whatever FM stuff was going on at that frequency to sound. It's ludicrous, and not. In a quantum sense, you are now "observing" the transmitter, and every act of observation is changing the object under observation. In an EM sense, you are converting some of the EM energy in the signal to voltage in the receiving antenna. If someone had a gosh dang sophisticated piece of transmitter equipment, might they be able to pick this up as a difference in resistance on their end? These mirages and paranormal things seem tryhardish, but do not seem that unreasonable as bad trips, as in cosy up with your head against the red lit transmitter in the tower, tune in to the ignition frequency, and brace the gently caress out of yourself because here comes the Tesla truck! Another way of seeing the loop, is if that thing communicates with clips, does it only use EM clips? We've seen Morse and audio over EM (plus maybe possession + voice, if you want to credit that). Can it replay experience? As in clips of streams of consciousness? Of fantasies? Of projections? Fears? Does it still throw poo poo on the wall to see what sticks? That should be pretty bizarre to be on the receiving end of. It would also explain why some communications seems so benign while others are foreboding, and some (like the one cairn that bacter showed off just now) just seem like the pastiche modern horror staple trick 101 just like you'd expect one of these things should do. Maybe the tape recorder in the loop is a nod from the thing that well if you want to talk about something else then just say so daaaaang gurl! of all the topics of conversation you could have chosen you choose to talk about your friend stepping out the window like a weirdo well fine have it your way you stone cold gurl I can't believe you people. Maybe we're being fed experiences in a simulation that the thing clamped down on us with in the cave? Otherwise we could be dealing with multiple oddities at once. One dimensional horror let loose by the military radioing too hard at it and which is actually kind of a nice horror that just wants to know if we're fine and if it's safe to come out for a polite chat. Second is a bunch of sunken revenants in a can which they sunk in an abyss because they wouldn't stop radioing too hard into the abyss after the abyss radioed back into them. Third is a tribe of HAM freak indians that were massacred by the Portuguese on their arrival for their gross, continual and unapologetic violations of international radio etiquette on long wave (jesus Alex you moron, low frequency is long wave, goes around the globe, not just "to the base", you dumb poo poo just mindsharted all over the hemisphere, you dolt ugh). So maybe that's why the FM's all disconcerted at this spot in the geography. Also it's pretty clear there's some radio jamming going on on the island. Radio waves travel really well and far over water. If you can see houses you'll very likely have a bunch of bars on your cell, especially if you climb up a bit TO THAT TOWER MAYBE? "We are an island race and through all our times, the sea has ruled our breaks." "For there will be other ships, and other souls to sail them" "Above all victories, beyond all loss, despite changing values in a changing world." This seems Indian to me. Maybe realities now are their islands? The last line seems to say they will outlast whatever reality throws at them, even the Portuguese. Maybe they peaced out of this reality when the massacring started, looking to peek out again when the massacring was done, about now? Could be they're now riding people as ships? Maybe Clarissa sucks so hard at shipping they'd rather pass this one up? Karate Bastard fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Feb 22, 2016 |
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Feb 22, 2016 00:57
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I finished this game a few hours ago. Glad someone is LPing it, I'm going to follow closely. Game's really good! Like, really REALLY good. It's one of the few games that features dialogues that actually sound like things people would say, which is some kind of miracle nowadays in games writing. Anyway, yeah. Looking forward to being able to talk about it without spoiling people.
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Feb 22, 2016 02:45
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Incidentally, for those of you who have finished the game (and those of you who haven't): what do you think the deal is with Jonas' little speech right before the third question?
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Feb 22, 2016 03:15
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I'm betting that "The Sunken" refers to a race of undersea creatures. Something definitely lovecraftian, like the Deep Ones. My guess is that they tried to rise up and conquer the land some 70 years ago, when they were stopped by the USS Krakatoa. Instead of being sunk by a Japanese sub, it was sunk in a fight with them, which caused them to retreat and wait until it was clear. Radio signals are definitely involved, and I think it's important to recognize the symbolism of the watchman as well. The old woman was probably the watchman, monitoring radio signals to ensure the Deep Ones did not return. Now that she's dead, they reached out to contact someone and determine if the coast is clear. Alex inadvertently gave them that signal. That's why during that rock pile you showed us, they said that she would be a part of the new conquest. Also, for whatever reason, time travel plays some weird-rear end part in it? I'm guessing that, just like Alex speaks with herself in the mirror, someone else is contacting us through the past. That's the person that quizzed us, and is testing us to make sure that we're ready to save the world. I'm betting that person will either be the woman who lived in the house, or her husband/father/boyfriend/whatever, and after talking Alex through saving the world from the past, she/he ensures someone will remain on the island and hold a vigil. I'm guessing the game ends with Alex moving to the island to take up her place as the watchmen for the next 60-70 years.
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Feb 22, 2016 03:30
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Wow! This game is truly mesmerizing. Top notch story telling here.
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Feb 22, 2016 19:11
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Well, this update just convinced me to stop reading the thread/watching the videos and just buy the game for myself. It's more intense than I would have expected, the scares/effects remind me of some of the events from Eternal Darkness.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:13
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I much prefer this to, say, Resident Evil, which is ostensibly a horror series about zombies but is in fact a slapstick comedy about an inept pharmaceutical company.
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Feb 22, 2016 20:23
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Restraint in storytelling really, really goes a long way. In any resident evil game past 1 we'd have massacred a subdivision of people who were turned into awful zombies by a virus, and yet this game is much scarier
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Feb 22, 2016 21:09
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 This game's grabbed me by the balls like very few horror narratives have lately. I will be watching with intense interest - and might just get the game myself.
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Feb 22, 2016 21:54
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