My thanks to Thomas Hooper and Dylan Mah for pointing out I missed the dialogue variants for not carrying the knife for your first encounter with the princess with the cabin endings. I did get this variant for choosing to slay her with the Non-Stranger New Dawn But Everyone Hates You ending but missed this variant for the Reset/Leave endings. You can see these variants at ua-cam.com/video/iYH7mECO_p0/v-deo.html
The Stranger Leave ending has a particularly heartwarming note when you pause just before the frame where the Princess opens the door... And that is how the third head, the one who keeps sideeyeing you with a frown, now has a smile. ...The Princess is truly happy to hear you say that to her.
When people advertise their games with "your choices matter" they usually never matter until the final chapter. This game makes every single choice matter, everything yo do does matter... What a beautiful game.
Thats the tradeoff though, this game has no gameplay. Visual novels will always have more branching narratives because they don't need to code gameplay so they have more time and money to write the story.
@@tiqosc1809What they mean is games that have more going for them for gameplay than clicking dialogue options take a longer time to develop. When you don't have to do all that you can use that time to flesh out making the choices matter more in a meaningful way.
@@xeta2466 I'd argue that having more mechanical systems detract from a story's narrative and vice versa. Doom Eternal as an example is incredible in terms of gameplay mechanics and player interaction, but its story (while quite good) was never a point of interest for either its developers or its target base. By not focusing on story, Doom did what it did best. Slay the Princess similarly had very clear had set goals and went for those goals, however its direction was from the other side of the Narrative-Gameplay spectrum. edit: I just repeated what conusx4752 said, but in slightly more words.
@@ED11169 Ehhhh I wouldn't agree with that, I think provided infinite time one can absolutely produce a game where the gameplay and story enhance each other instead of detracting. Plenty of games use gameplay as storytelling devices used to make the player feel what the characters are going though. The main problem is that takes time, and time is money you have to play developers. So when you get a game like this where it forgos using the gameplay to help tell the story you have a lot more time to focus on things like branching choices which is something that is notoriously hard to do well and flesh out. One example I would say is the last of us. The shooting mechanics and ammo scarcity hammer down how hard it is to survive in that world and the foraging mechanics show how necessary it is to be resourceful to survive. There are some parts in the game that I would say are communicated better because of the gameplay elements present, when you compare it to the show where there is no gameplay because it's not a game.
The Princess is Change, Chaos, Entropy, Possibility. The Player Character is Permanence, Order. In the end you decide whether the next universe should be like this one, a finite universe with death and entropy, or a different kind of universe, one where nothing ever dies and it lasts forever. I like that the game doesn't really put a value judgement on that choice. The Princess doesn't think that that second kind of universe would be a good thing, but she's a wee bit biased on the subject, I would think. The ending where you choose a forever universe is just different. Better? Worse? Who knows.
I also think it's a bit freakin' cheeky of The Narrator to say "she'll end the world", when "the world" is this construct the person who made you both set up to create a scenario in which you can kill her. Technically true, but extremely misleading.
@@enemyv yet, it is also literally true... if we fail to slay Change, it will eventually bring about the end of the universe. It will take a long time, but yes... she IS destined to end existence.
I'd say the second ending is the better one since a universe without chaos or change is a universe where nothing changes at all, nothing grows old but nothing new is made, it might as well be a perfect empty void.
@studiouskid1528 I'm not sure. In the endings where the player does end up killing her, she doesn't seem to mind. Not hyped about it, sure. But she doesn't struggle, despite being very capable at it It's not very often when someone's last words to their killer is "I love you", you know
@@BrainflayerI don’t know if its that literally nothing ever changes as in time stands still or that things stay in a certain order and way. Because obviously if nothing ever changes to the most extreme extent than time just stands still. But I think this is like nothing huge ever changes. So I think a person can do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t fundamentally change history. Heres an example: Gta 6 could still come out but it would not make quantum computers.
The Stranger endings feel more Honnest to me. Normal princess is just the seed of herself, yet to grow, yet to become a more defined being, the "Hero and the Princess" princess could become the Thorn or the Fleshsculptor princess, but never both, witch cant become tower... But the Strange princess is the thorn, the ghost, the damsel, she isn't a being with no defintion she is everything she could be. I love my wife for not just who she is, and who she was but for the wonderful person she is becoming, and who she could be. When you tell the "hero and the Princess" princess, "I love you" it feels like I am saying it to the Idea of someone I knew in highschool but has a lot of growning to do. When I clicked "I love you" with the Strange princess at the end of my playthrough it felt like it was saying it to everything i had seen and everything I could see. That as she grew there was no extream that would fase me, I had seen it all before, and i love her anyway. Its the way i feel with my wife.
I love that they left the leave endings up to interpretation Ik it’s very possible she was just added to the mass but I’d like to think they broke both their chains and let out onto whatever is beyond the cabin
I think they made it. The shifting mound becomes whatever it is you believe her to be. I like to think that their belief that everything will be okay is enough. Remember: Despite all the horrors you see and disturbing imagery that comes your way, this is, in fact, a love story, through and through.
When you entered the cabin you could see the mass outside the window, but when you were about to leave the mass seemed to be gone. I tend to believe that the mass was no longer there.
stranger leave is my favorite I just like there is multiple of them. I was conflicted between New Dawn and Leave. Since in New Dawn you get to leave with the boys, but have to kill the princess, and in Leave you leave with the princess but have to leave the boys behind. But I feel Leave less sad because it seems like the voices know they have fulfilled their purpose, and imo they are just returning back to our heads deep inside.
Ok so my theory is that she is the goddess of change, she is called the shifting mound shifting means constant change, she says she's not death but she contains it in her multitudes, she constantly refers to the destruction of the world as change. Narrator constantly refers to eternal or forever after she is killed. I can't figure out who the long quiet though. She says thing like we are a reflection, conflict is in our nature implying that they do fight over stuff to a certain extent, yet she has affection for the long quiet so he has to be a god that contrasts with her a bit while still being two sides of the same coin as it were.
The player is the Long Quiet, which gets revealed either from speaking to the Narrator for the final time or simply smashing the mirror and it's also brought up when speaking to the Princess when she appears as the Shifting Mound.
I know they're the player character but what are they the god of? Reality, permanence? They were both made by the same creator too which makes it even more confusing. Articles list the shifting mound as a deity of death and destruction and reality without her is forged by the long quiet alone without any suffering. However, death and destruction are not the only causation for suffering so her in existence doesn't explain that.
Probably stasis or whatever her opposite is, especially considering the new dawn ending where you're the only one left does lead to a world without death.
During the conversation with the Narrator in the shattered mirror, he tells us that we are an artificial god that he created for the sole purpose of slaying the Princess/destroying the Shifting Mound. The Shifting Mound, with her many faces and arms, seems to be borrowing some ideas from Indian religion. There's also a many-faceted god there. Shiva the Destroyer destroys the world so that Shiva's other self, Vishnu, can recreate the world from the old one's ashes. Change isn't always bad or good. It simply is. It is the natural way of things. But the Narrator, a mortal who was living in the end of days in the old world, couldn't bear the entire of his world and everyone in it dying and being swept away. If the Long Quiet/the protagonist was created as her equal and opposite, then I'm guessing it is essentially the god of eternity, undying, never changing, never growing, etc. The Narrator never says that part exactly, but it's the opposite of death and change and the idea seems to be mirrored in the "Good" ending where our reward is being trapped in a never-ending state. It's a clever bit of storytelling that tips us off to what the world would probably be like without Death/the Princess. Maybe The Long Quiet is able to make something better if it does slay the Princess, but I generally think that either ascending to Godhood with her or walking out of the cabin with her are undoubtedly the two best endings in the game -- Godhood on a cosmic scale and Leave the cabin on a personal level.
@@thomashooper2451in that same conversation with the narrator you can ask him what he used to create you and the princess and he says he did so by ripping the forces of life and death in two so the player character and the princess are two sides of the same coin
I got the non stranger reset ending but the princess there was soft spoken. We were talking about how everything will end and how we will forget each other again and do it all over again in a tear jerking way. I cried as I let her stab me and instictively I just clicked the "I love you" choice without even thinking about it. It was so sad.
For the non-stranger endings her dialogue is different based on whether you brought the blade when you first met her or not. The missed ending variants in the description have the no knife variants.
It's amazing how the main endings have two different versions and would still be very different for each player depending on what routes they took to get there
It make sense, they are 2 halves of one, she is changes, chaos while the hero is order and permanance. One cannot be whole without the other. With just chaos it's just a mess, while with just order it's a stagnant 'dead' space.
it's also crazy how different the dialogue or the way she speaks is depending on your choices, i saved her for my first "ending" so when I got down the basement at the end she never mentioned anything about "our first meeting" and was super soft spoken and had a much sweeter tone of voice than the ending you showed off. when i asked her how i felt she also said "i feel small" maybe a call back to when you said to the narrator you'd just view her as small and she'd be harmless
I got 3/12 endings and couldn't imagine there being so many in the first place. In those three was the Non-Stranger Leave Ending which was my favorite!
@@CrankyTemplar Yeah, there are three versions of the Slay the Princess, Reset, and Leave endings: The three-headed Stranger, the more cynical and wary non-Stranger (bring the knife into the basement on your first pass), and the friendlier and kinder non-Stranger (go into the basement without the knife on your first pass). Godhood, "Good" Ending, and the No Vessels endings don't seem to have any variations.
@dylanmah7791 @thomashooper2451 Okay, after replaying I see that the permutation with not bringing the knife for the first meeting is actually done for slaying her with the "everyone hates you" ending, but I missed it for the reset and leave endings. I'll upload those two variants shortly and update the description. Thank you both for pointing it out - I thought I had noticed different dialogue but didn't connect the dots for the other two endings.
Out of everyone they could have chosen for a special ending, why did they choose Stranger, I wonder? Out of everyvoice to give just a little bit more closure, they choose Contrarian. While I do appreciate it, I just wish all of the other voices got just that extra bit of closure too.
When you go to meet the post god princess its the same cabin as the first meet with the princess. Most cases you meet her with just Nar and Hero. But if the first meeting with the princess is after telling the narirator to get bent and letting the world burn... He is the only other voice to join the player and hero on a first meet.
Well, it’s because the ending is supposed to be like the first time you met The Princess, and in The Stranger route, she’s already changed by the time you meet her… And.. I think The Voice of The Contrarian kind of needed that. The ending just feels like it completes his character. But… I do agree I wish there was more with the other Voices.
I love the stranger ending where you escape so much. The only one that was allowed to describe _herself_ and yet she still truly loves you. That you refuse every machination, every call of greater beings and turn to see her, who loves you of her own choice. And you know that she had every other choice and still found you, the only one who had options and yet you complete eachother even still. I love this game
By far one of the most masterpieces of a game I ever lived to see this game deserves more recognition and attention and I love all the peaceful endings the makers put beautiful work into this 10/10 it would also be nice if they kissed in on ending
Y'all are sleeping on the Godhood ending. That's the first ending I picked when I played, and I don't regret it. I agree that the "Leave" ending(s) is probably the best/true one (picking a third option is always a great choice), but I really do love the Godhood ending. After everything that has happened, all this radiant goddess wants is to be free with YOU, to have YOU by her side through eternity. You were once two halves of the same whole, and you were always meant to be together, in one form or another. The moment you accept her, the only thing left is to accept yourself. As your godly powers sprout from your being, the walls of the prison crack and shudder, just barely able to contain you. And what breaks those walls? What is the final thing you need to escape this prison? "I love you" Love. Her inspiring words of love are the final key. No matter how things go or which ending you get, she will always love you. In the best endings, it's always the power of love that frees you. Once you take her hand, the prison shatters like glass. You did it, you finally did it. Together, you freed yourselves and each other from the constant cycle of suffering. Now, all that's left is eternity. Hand in hand, you and your love venture into the infinite cosmos, experiencing a thousand dawns and a thousand sunsets. Together, as you were always meant to be. In conclusion, I love the idea of a goddess loving you so deeply, so cosmicly, that even being torn apart cannot keep you apart. That you are destined to find your way back to her loving embrace. You can feel her love radiating from her every word, even when you actively disagree with her, all she wants is to be with you forever. There are few things more romantic than that. Also, unrelated note: I love how smol our hands are compared to hers. Even after becoming a god ourselves, and probably gaining a biblically accurate amount of giant wings, we are still her "Little Bird".
That's a matter of perspective, I got the godhood ending too, and i don't regret my choice, but you can see why people wouldn't want that Yes, she does love you, but you both live in constant conflict and resolution, there is no ending to this, and one might not want that, when you leave as a non-stranger, it's still about love but about giving up the conflict, about letting things cease to exist together, it's all a matter of choice That's my interpretation at least, as i said, I don't regret picking the godhood ending, having someone that loves you as much as you love them for eternity while also being in constant change with them... Sounds pretty nice imo
Fauna got two i dont know if you mean the first one. The ending ending is not different, both leave in godlike form, but when the vessels start talking it can be very different because it depends on your choices before. Basically, to trigger that ending as the description says you just need to have gather 5 vessels, but there are many of them probably like 10-15 variations. Their dialogue also changes based on what you did but it ends the same way
Man haven’t came across a really solid visual novel esc game since doki doki. Absolutely adored this game. Good balance of lovecraftian horror, comedy and love.
I was wondering what happened if you actually just went straight to smashing her, because in the endings where he talks before going through he just dies instead
I don’t think the princess is inherently evil or intentionally malicious but just being born to transform into anything anyone imagine it to be and even if it haven’t done anything bad yet something like the princess would be too risky and dangerous to be left alive even if it haven’t done anything bad yet.
She's just the concept of change itself. You're the concept of stasis. Like, actually on a cosmic scale, you're those things. That's part of what makes the game aggravating on an abstract level and part of why the SMT franchise games can be unfulfilling. As there are endings in those games that deals in sweeping abstract concepts like "harmony" or perfect universal "isolation." They're philosophical pieces that aren't meant to have right/wrong answers, but only interpretations. The problem with that is that there are no examples of what those universes look like, so your interpretations are often meaningless navel-gazing. You don't actually _know_ what a universe without change looks like. Putting aside that I think Platonic idealism is a complete load of bunk, that's not something the mind of a mortal can comprehend. Sure, she's death, but she's also growth. Is there any meaning in a life which doesn't change? What does a universe like that even look like? Are you even really a person, if you can't change, or are you just a robot or perhaps basically just another rock at that point? In point of fact, because you're basically the concept of stillness, are you also not the stillness of the grave that comes after death? It seems mightily naive to think that just destroying change itself as a concept would be smart, because the universe could just be an unvarying infinite black and it's also not changing. In a way, that's a sort of death, because it sure as hell isn't life. The game frames the two of you as a duality, which is why your character sees her as a lover or princess to be treasured. Because the ideal of stability or peace is meaningless without change to define it and vice versa. You've both been dancing around each other for a long time like this. And near as I can tell, a wizard, in their desperation sought to bind you two and rashly tried to coerce you into killing the other for a chance at eternal life. If he really wanted to end death, or at least buy time for his universe, it would've been wiser to petition you to create universes full of mercy, because as the concept of limits itself, you _could_ hypothetically limit the princess to universes that were only merciful, while still allowing for a variety of changes and transformations to be possible in them. You could, as the infinite stillness, demand only universes where eternal youth were possible. It is within your rights to set those limits as a god. She is the infinite potential for form, but your perception defines her form.
@@ved2360 I mean, you're literally the sole god of reality for the changeless universe. It'd simply be creating a clockwork universe where all change and entropy is accounted for, and there is no such thing as true entropy because you control it. Or any way you imagine the universe to be. The real question to me, I think, was always whether you wanted to be a god alone, or with another.
i think there is a moment like that in the wraith route where she possesses your body after you kill her and she just talks to all the voices and the narrator
Just bought the Pristine Cut that just released. Honestly I couldn’t stop myself going down a rabbit hole of watching every path so I might not even play the game, but it’s fairly cheap and I wanted to support it
tbh i feel like none of the endings are perfectly good endings or perfectly bad endings and i really like how it responds to the theme of the perspective. like in the godhood ending you get to be with her forever as gods but death and destruction still exists while in the leave ending although you get to leave with her you two are just like consciousness in the void. like you get to choose which ending is the "best ending" for you correct me if im wrong
I’ve been mesmerised by this game, been trying to put my thoughts on it all down into a comment but, fittingly, it’s difficult to sum it all up into one cohesive whole
A lot of people seem to believe that the princess is the embodiment of change, and the protagonist is the embodiment of persistence. I'd like to offer a new perspective. I think that the Shifting Mound is not change, but rather the personification of the totality of possibilities - the future. The Protagonist is the observer, literally the player, the one who experiences it all. The narrator is the player's fear of the possibilities in the future. The Good ending is the idea of choosing to not think about any of this. You succumb to the narrator, the fear of the possibilities. The game is literally mocking you as a child, calling out your immaturity for not taking the future seriously. The Oblivion ending is the idea of simply running away from the future. Trying to stay away from it. Ending it. It is the one true death in the story. Each of the mini-ending portray one of the stages of grief: denial, thinking the player was just curious and made a mistake; anger, hating the player for running away; bargaining, swearing that the future is worth experiencing; depression, feeling hollow as the player tries to leave; acceptance, finally enabling the player to end it all. With every timeline, you ultimately see the princess become something, and you bring that experience back to the Shifting Mound. You have observed the story through, and the possibilities converged onto one truth - a wave function collapse. Each timeline is a thought experiment, the player looking into a potential future. You take this perspective, the possibility you found, and you add that to the Shifting Mound, the endless list of possibilities that you have pondered upon. The princesses each represent a potential future. It starts off as an ideal future, an ideal princess. However, we can see the perspective sacrificing a bit of that perfection to achieve realism, as most of the time, the princess cuts her own arm to free herself. In most of these futures, the princess, directly or indirectly, kills you. You die in that future. Every time you loop into the next chapter, you have decided to ponder the same potential future again. How did it end up like that? The princess often becomes more terrifying - you are more scared of this future. Sometimes, the setting changes, too. You retroactively change what the past looks like to fit the future you saw. What did you miss? How does that change things for this potential future? As you continue to loop, fear of this future strays it further from the ideal future. The princess becomes more terrifying, and the setting shifts to match. Sometimes there is hope. This future hurt, but there is still a chance. Sometimes, you end the experiment as a lost cause. That future is too terrifying. The voices are images of the player's choices, personifications of what the player believes in those futures. Are you afraid? Are you hopeful? Do you feel cheated? Are you mad? Are you numb to it? In most cases, these voices are of negative emotion, a pessimistic thought about this future, which affects the way they turn out. A couple timelines stick out to me. In one of them, you ultimately save the princess and fall in love. Here, you have the Voice of the Smitten. You love this future. It actively fought for you, and readily accepts you. The princess, on the other hand, becomes increasingly bland, repeating the same dialogue like a low-effort NPC. The artstyle becomes more abstract, cartoony and unrealistic (by the game's standards). This future is too perfect, a cookie cutter "happily ever after". It is not realistic, and that's the terror of it. Another timeline is the Stranger timeline. Here, you choose to run away, like the Oblivion ending, but you do so before even thinking about the future, and you ultimately come back to the princess.. You take a step back before you look at the future. The Voice of the Contrarian is the voice that reminds you, "This is not real. It's a game. It's supposed to be fun.". The princess you meet here is an amalgamation of multiple other princesses, similar to the Shifting Mound, but lesser. She is not the totality of every possibility, but rather the fact that these multiple possibilities exist to begin with. The game ends after a certain amount of these experiences. You don't have to consider every future. You cast aside your fear of the possibilities, literally getting rid of the Narrator. It is time for you to decide how you will deal with these endless possibilities. The Godhood ending is the idea that you have come to take the multiple possibilities too seriously. It represents the almost nihilistic decision that you accept all of these as your future, choosing to arrogantly believe that you are somehow in every single one of them. It mocks the many worlds theory by presenting your lover, your future as a multiheaded, uncanny monster. However, it still accepts it as a valid answer, as the monster is still, in a way, lovely. The New Dawn ending is that you have decided to do away with these thought experiments. Ultimately, you've decided that it is pointless to mull over the future and instead, you walk forward without any particular possibility in mind. You slayed the princess. While similar to the Good Ending, you have still taken the time to consider the future. You aren't being childish, but you can't keep dancing around the real future, the next day, a new dawn. The Everyone Hates You variant is when you've also decided to arrogantly bury your feelings about these possibilities. These emotions, fears and desires, are not gone. They will bubble up again. The Reset ending is when you have decided that you have not pondered enough. You decide to continue sifting through these possibilities. You forget everything because the human mind can only remember so many thought experiments. Pondering the possibilities has faded your memory of pondering them. The princess kills the protagonist, the one who witnessed these possibilities. Eventually, you'll face the same potential decisions, but who knows how long you'll take, how many times you'll reset. The Leave ending is where you have decided to leave with a glimmer of hope for the ideal future, the original princess. You walk forward with this ideal princess in mind, your every action laced with love for that possibility. You aren't sure that the future will be that bright, but you try your hardest to make it happen. The Stranger variants to all of these involve not the original, ideal princess, but the Stranger timeline princess instead. You know that the future is not that certain, but you make your decision with full acceptance for it.
I feel like people misunderstand what happens in the New Dawn Ending. The world won't just be eternal life with no change at all - the Hero has a part of the Princess, as does the Princess have a part of the Hero. So the Hero can maintain change and prevent the world from becoming fully unchanging for eternity. But it would mean there would be a lot less change, nothing would be as extreme, there wouldn't be war and suffering and death. It would just be... peaceful. At least I think that's what the Narrator intended. But that also means it would be a lot more boring - no tragedy means no catharsis. I think the world would just turn into, like, an endless game of Animal Crossing of sorts.
Also people's minds will constantly wipe themselves forever, leaving them stuck in an eternal loop. And they'll age without dying too. It won't just be boring. It would be agonising, but we wouldn't know it.
at the end of this game when you have to choose her or the voices, reminds me of ib (2012 horror game) when you have to choose the girl or the guy to leave with you. it just leaves a real bitter taste in your mouth yk but overall 10/10 game wow
Every time you finish a route (except the first time) you know the voices accompanying you will disappear. If you say "this is the end for you but not for me" they won't particularly like that and the ending where you truly slay the princess and they return they'll be a bit pissed off.
Honestly there is not much about endings in this game, its more about intrinsic routes, like i had no idea witch splits into 2 chapters 3, how many more chapters 3 are hidden like this? Maybe want to make all routes video?
Main character: " I'm scared plus I never know what to do, I always lose to you lady or perish else where no matter what. I got a better idea, we build an empire right after destroying the world
That's the Apotheosis Route, which you get by going to the Tower Route, taking the knife, trying to resist, and then following her command to kill yourself.
I have some questions that I haven’t yet wrapped my head around: - when you say stranger, what makes her a stranger? I saw in a comment that when you don’t pick up the knife on your very first encounter, she will always be soft spoken. Is it the same for vice versa? (U pick up knife she is more annoyed mood) - in terms of godhood and gods, can you in layman’s terms tell me which god is what? I imagine the narrator the “villain” bc in my head the villain wanting everyone to live forever in forever stability experiencing only happiness and life sounds nothing like living and i want to live. The princess is existing and life with suffering joy and anger, so she’s the opposite. What does that make us? Is my interpretation leaving out details or incorrect of the narrator and princess? - are the voices the only voices? Do they only exist bc of the only set realities in the game? Or can the voices create more voices once in godhood. - how come the voices like being gods for new dawn endings, but the voices think godhood is overrated in the leave or reset endings? How come the voices want to stay even tho godhood is overrated? Are the voices a perception of ours that their decisions are affected by our perception of them? - how did you specifically get the multiple head princess with the contrarian endings? If people can answer these questions, I would be more than happy to respond to them.
Razor/Stranger and so on are what the game calls the routes. The narrator is a mortal who wanted to stop death in his dying world and split you and the princess apart. He then commit suicide to be an echo to guide you into slaying the princess to create a world without death. The multiple headed princess in the ending is from having your first route be the Stranger.
nutshell, two god lovers trapped in some random cabin trying to continue their honeymoon to destruction of the universe but cockblocked by this crow echo dude
@@TheBroGamer14082 basically lol, but I think the leave ending in the cabin is basically abandoning their godhood together and live with the normal people beyond outside their construct
Nice! There's actually two versions of that ending (the missed endings video shows the other version) depending on whether you bring the knife to your first meeting with the princess or not.
@@CrankyTemplar I didn’t bring the knife our first meeting. When I said I was sorry for the pain I caused her, she said she should be the one apologizing cause she slit my throat first encounter 🤣
Technically you missed a few endings. The princess responds and talks differently based on your first encounter with her, whether you picked up the knife or didn't. At least that's my interpretation from the gameplay I've seen.
@@fooltheroyal8691 No worries, just pointing out that others made me aware when I uploaded this and I went back to upload them. Once the Pristine Cut releases I'll be sure to have everything in one video.
There are some routes that end with both of you dying, such as attacking the Witch or trying to run. Both Grey chapters pretty much end that way. But the routes themselves aren't an ending that brings you to the credits.
This game really makes you feel like your in it, the conversations you have with the hand-entity thing are so real. Makes it feel like it is actually happy to see you. When it returns you to the menu with "continue" like a billion times the "continue" button sends you right back to the hand-entity. It feels like checking on a friend.
The continue button is new because people kept clicking "new game" and starting from scratch without realising. Plus the multiple "continues" is console-exclusive. On PC it just closes the game completely and you immediately see the hands when you start it back up.
I think it would’ve been more fitting if all of the voices were there with you in the stranger version and stayed with you, so that it’s all of you and all of her. You are both everything that you have shaped each other into being, and love and accept each other because and in spite of all of that.
Not really. Contrarian is there because he was with you when you first met her. Plus the other voices are elsewhere and Hero and Contrarian said they'll leave to find them.
@@CrankyTemplar Sorry, I mean the part where the Player and Princess leave the world and step into the Infinite part. Cuz, I haven't found that in the game soundtrack.
can anyone assist with the oblivion ending? i want to get the achievement but i dont see any good guides on how to accomplish it. im on current patch, i turn around over and over until i enter chapter 2 with the stranger but i cant further deny the narrator. how do i get the shifting mound to appear? im doing it on a fresh save as i know i cant bring the shifting mound any perspectives in order to get this ending, so what am i doing wrong?
You need to go to the cabin in Chapter 1 and start any route. Then in Chapter 2 you need to refuse to go to the cabin. This ends that route and nothing is brought to the Shifting Mound. Do this six times and you'll get the Oblivion ending. Refusing to go in Chapter 1 puts you on the Stranger route.
My thanks to Thomas Hooper and Dylan Mah for pointing out I missed the dialogue variants for not carrying the knife for your first encounter with the princess with the cabin endings. I did get this variant for choosing to slay her with the Non-Stranger New Dawn But Everyone Hates You ending but missed this variant for the Reset/Leave endings. You can see these variants at ua-cam.com/video/iYH7mECO_p0/v-deo.html
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The Stranger Leave ending has a particularly heartwarming note when you pause just before the frame where the Princess opens the door... And that is how the third head, the one who keeps sideeyeing you with a frown, now has a smile.
...The Princess is truly happy to hear you say that to her.
When people advertise their games with "your choices matter" they usually never matter until the final chapter. This game makes every single choice matter, everything yo do does matter... What a beautiful game.
Thats the tradeoff though, this game has no gameplay. Visual novels will always have more branching narratives because they don't need to code gameplay so they have more time and money to write the story.
@@conusxisnt reading the story already the gameplay?
@@tiqosc1809What they mean is games that have more going for them for gameplay than clicking dialogue options take a longer time to develop. When you don't have to do all that you can use that time to flesh out making the choices matter more in a meaningful way.
@@xeta2466 I'd argue that having more mechanical systems detract from a story's narrative and vice versa. Doom Eternal as an example is incredible in terms of gameplay mechanics and player interaction, but its story (while quite good) was never a point of interest for either its developers or its target base. By not focusing on story, Doom did what it did best. Slay the Princess similarly had very clear had set goals and went for those goals, however its direction was from the other side of the Narrative-Gameplay spectrum.
edit: I just repeated what conusx4752 said, but in slightly more words.
@@ED11169 Ehhhh I wouldn't agree with that, I think provided infinite time one can absolutely produce a game where the gameplay and story enhance each other instead of detracting. Plenty of games use gameplay as storytelling devices used to make the player feel what the characters are going though.
The main problem is that takes time, and time is money you have to play developers. So when you get a game like this where it forgos using the gameplay to help tell the story you have a lot more time to focus on things like branching choices which is something that is notoriously hard to do well and flesh out.
One example I would say is the last of us. The shooting mechanics and ammo scarcity hammer down how hard it is to survive in that world and the foraging mechanics show how necessary it is to be resourceful to survive.
There are some parts in the game that I would say are communicated better because of the gameplay elements present, when you compare it to the show where there is no gameplay because it's not a game.
Honestly, the Hero and the Princess being two halves of one whole explains why it’s so easy to romance her-
Yeah especially “the look” she understands it, we understand it, but the narrator had was so confused
Even I know about “the look”
@@danielramage6232 Sigh I'm the only that doesn't undersand it
@@Yayaloy9 no only 😅
@@danielramage6232I thought everyone knew about " *the look* "
cannot even fathom what this games flow chart looks like
I've seen one. *It takes multiple slides.*
Somehow more mangled than Undertale xd
What's a flow chart?
@@lightningjadejavier A chart of all the possible scenes/dialogue options in the game put together in order from beginning to end
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TT
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The Princess is Change, Chaos, Entropy, Possibility. The Player Character is Permanence, Order. In the end you decide whether the next universe should be like this one, a finite universe with death and entropy, or a different kind of universe, one where nothing ever dies and it lasts forever. I like that the game doesn't really put a value judgement on that choice. The Princess doesn't think that that second kind of universe would be a good thing, but she's a wee bit biased on the subject, I would think. The ending where you choose a forever universe is just different. Better? Worse? Who knows.
I also think it's a bit freakin' cheeky of The Narrator to say "she'll end the world", when "the world" is this construct the person who made you both set up to create a scenario in which you can kill her. Technically true, but extremely misleading.
@@enemyv yet, it is also literally true... if we fail to slay Change, it will eventually bring about the end of the universe. It will take a long time, but yes... she IS destined to end existence.
I'd say the second ending is the better one since a universe without chaos or change is a universe where nothing changes at all, nothing grows old but nothing new is made, it might as well be a perfect empty void.
@studiouskid1528 I'm not sure. In the endings where the player does end up killing her, she doesn't seem to mind. Not hyped about it, sure. But she doesn't struggle, despite being very capable at it
It's not very often when someone's last words to their killer is "I love you", you know
@@BrainflayerI don’t know if its that literally nothing ever changes as in time stands still or that things stay in a certain order and way. Because obviously if nothing ever changes to the most extreme extent than time just stands still. But I think this is like nothing huge ever changes. So I think a person can do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t fundamentally change history. Heres an example: Gta 6 could still come out but it would not make quantum computers.
The Stranger endings feel more Honnest to me. Normal princess is just the seed of herself, yet to grow, yet to become a more defined being, the "Hero and the Princess" princess could become the Thorn or the Fleshsculptor princess, but never both, witch cant become tower... But the Strange princess is the thorn, the ghost, the damsel, she isn't a being with no defintion she is everything she could be.
I love my wife for not just who she is, and who she was but for the wonderful person she is becoming, and who she could be. When you tell the "hero and the Princess" princess, "I love you" it feels like I am saying it to the Idea of someone I knew in highschool but has a lot of growning to do.
When I clicked "I love you" with the Strange princess at the end of my playthrough it felt like it was saying it to everything i had seen and everything I could see. That as she grew there was no extream that would fase me, I had seen it all before, and i love her anyway. Its the way i feel with my wife.
thats a beatiful way to explained it my guy, hats off to you ❤
That’s so sweet ❤
Going back to this video and saw this comment.
Thank you for putting your emotions into writing, kind stranger. It's simple, but beautiful and honest.
This is like if The Stanley Parable had a baby with a dating sim.
You have very strange ideas about what constitutes a date 😂
with a good dash of eldritch horror to the mix lol
@@lilium9361naturally
This is The Raphael Parable
So the Narrator and the Bucket have a son?
I love that they left the leave endings up to interpretation Ik it’s very possible she was just added to the mass but I’d like to think they broke both their chains and let out onto whatever is beyond the cabin
I think they made it. The shifting mound becomes whatever it is you believe her to be. I like to think that their belief that everything will be okay is enough.
Remember: Despite all the horrors you see and disturbing imagery that comes your way, this is, in fact, a love story, through and through.
@@DirewolfMementoYup!
God, y-all would eat a turd if you were told it was a cake...
When you entered the cabin you could see the mass outside the window, but when you were about to leave the mass seemed to be gone. I tend to believe that the mass was no longer there.
I never noticed that! Good catch!@@docznms5162
Got the non-stranger leave ending in the first try. Couldn't be more happier.
Great
stranger leave is my favorite I just like there is multiple of them.
I was conflicted between New Dawn and Leave. Since in New Dawn you get to leave with the boys, but have to kill the princess, and in Leave you leave with the princess but have to leave the boys behind. But I feel Leave less sad because it seems like the voices know they have fulfilled their purpose, and imo they are just returning back to our heads deep inside.
I think there will be day when we come back and tell to our boys story about world outside
If your char is like her, then certainly they arent just personalities but LIKE HER physically
Ok so my theory is that she is the goddess of change, she is called the shifting mound shifting means constant change, she says she's not death but she contains it in her multitudes, she constantly refers to the destruction of the world as change. Narrator constantly refers to eternal or forever after she is killed. I can't figure out who the long quiet though. She says thing like we are a reflection, conflict is in our nature implying that they do fight over stuff to a certain extent, yet she has affection for the long quiet so he has to be a god that contrasts with her a bit while still being two sides of the same coin as it were.
The player is the Long Quiet, which gets revealed either from speaking to the Narrator for the final time or simply smashing the mirror and it's also brought up when speaking to the Princess when she appears as the Shifting Mound.
I know they're the player character but what are they the god of? Reality, permanence? They were both made by the same creator too which makes it even more confusing. Articles list the shifting mound as a deity of death and destruction and reality without her is forged by the long quiet alone without any suffering. However, death and destruction are not the only causation for suffering so her in existence doesn't explain that.
Probably stasis or whatever her opposite is, especially considering the new dawn ending where you're the only one left does lead to a world without death.
During the conversation with the Narrator in the shattered mirror, he tells us that we are an artificial god that he created for the sole purpose of slaying the Princess/destroying the Shifting Mound. The Shifting Mound, with her many faces and arms, seems to be borrowing some ideas from Indian religion. There's also a many-faceted god there. Shiva the Destroyer destroys the world so that Shiva's other self, Vishnu, can recreate the world from the old one's ashes.
Change isn't always bad or good. It simply is. It is the natural way of things. But the Narrator, a mortal who was living in the end of days in the old world, couldn't bear the entire of his world and everyone in it dying and being swept away.
If the Long Quiet/the protagonist was created as her equal and opposite, then I'm guessing it is essentially the god of eternity, undying, never changing, never growing, etc. The Narrator never says that part exactly, but it's the opposite of death and change and the idea seems to be mirrored in the "Good" ending where our reward is being trapped in a never-ending state. It's a clever bit of storytelling that tips us off to what the world would probably be like without Death/the Princess.
Maybe The Long Quiet is able to make something better if it does slay the Princess, but I generally think that either ascending to Godhood with her or walking out of the cabin with her are undoubtedly the two best endings in the game -- Godhood on a cosmic scale and Leave the cabin on a personal level.
@@thomashooper2451in that same conversation with the narrator you can ask him what he used to create you and the princess and he says he did so by ripping the forces of life and death in two so the player character and the princess are two sides of the same coin
I got the non stranger reset ending but the princess there was soft spoken. We were talking about how everything will end and how we will forget each other again and do it all over again in a tear jerking way. I cried as I let her stab me and instictively I just clicked the "I love you" choice without even thinking about it. It was so sad.
For the non-stranger endings her dialogue is different based on whether you brought the blade when you first met her or not. The missed ending variants in the description have the no knife variants.
@@CrankyTemplar so you will get the soft spoken one on every ending when you didn't get the blade on the 1st time meeting her?
Yes.
@@nyiaru8948
Repeatedly avoid the cabin: Multiple Heads
Bring the blade: Harsh
Don’t bring the blade: Soft spoken
@@ReadilyAvailibleChomperthis game has so many codes endings i will never 100% it 😭🔥🔥🔥
It's amazing how the main endings have two different versions and would still be very different for each player depending on what routes they took to get there
They definatly upped the design in the final game - some of the Princess's forms are downright HAUNTING
the people who voice this and draw this did not sleep at all making this game
The stranger endings are so beautiful.
They are so beautiful even the contrarian cries in the stranger-reset
The Everyone Hates You ending makes me think that mc has a headache for all eternity now loll
I'm glad the Voice of the Contrarian is cool with things but I kind of was expecting him to suggest throwing me out the window.
@@CrankyTemplar bro is gonna throw you out the window along with the knives LOL
@@cdcopycat997 No wonder Contrarian is the best character 😂
It make sense, they are 2 halves of one, she is changes, chaos while the hero is order and permanance. One cannot be whole without the other. With just chaos it's just a mess, while with just order it's a stagnant 'dead' space.
it's also crazy how different the dialogue or the way she speaks is depending on your choices, i saved her for my first "ending" so when I got down the basement at the end she never mentioned anything about "our first meeting" and was super soft spoken and had a much sweeter tone of voice than the ending you showed off. when i asked her how i felt she also said "i feel small" maybe a call back to when you said to the narrator you'd just view her as small and she'd be harmless
This game is a genuine masterpiece.
I got 3/12 endings and couldn't imagine there being so many in the first place. In those three was the Non-Stranger Leave Ending which was my favorite!
You're missing the permutations of the ending where you didn't take the knife when first meeting the princess.
Thanks for letting me know! I can probably get that together soon-ish.
@@CrankyTemplar Yeah, there are three versions of the Slay the Princess, Reset, and Leave endings: The three-headed Stranger, the more cynical and wary non-Stranger (bring the knife into the basement on your first pass), and the friendlier and kinder non-Stranger (go into the basement without the knife on your first pass).
Godhood, "Good" Ending, and the No Vessels endings don't seem to have any variations.
Much appreciated! There's a good number of variants for this so not too surprised I missed something.
@dylanmah7791 @thomashooper2451 Okay, after replaying I see that the permutation with not bringing the knife for the first meeting is actually done for slaying her with the "everyone hates you" ending, but I missed it for the reset and leave endings. I'll upload those two variants shortly and update the description. Thank you both for pointing it out - I thought I had noticed different dialogue but didn't connect the dots for the other two endings.
Out of everyone they could have chosen for a special ending, why did they choose Stranger, I wonder? Out of everyvoice to give just a little bit more closure, they choose Contrarian.
While I do appreciate it, I just wish all of the other voices got just that extra bit of closure too.
It's the princess you met first, and it's possible to meet the Stranger first because then you never meet her in chapter 1
Partly because it’s not a variant you managed to interact with much, and partly because it’s arguably the closest to what the Mound is perhaps?
When you go to meet the post god princess its the same cabin as the first meet with the princess. Most cases you meet her with just Nar and Hero. But if the first meeting with the princess is after telling the narirator to get bent and letting the world burn... He is the only other voice to join the player and hero on a first meet.
Well, it’s because the ending is supposed to be like the first time you met The Princess, and in The Stranger route, she’s already changed by the time you meet her…
And.. I think The Voice of The Contrarian kind of needed that. The ending just feels like it completes his character. But… I do agree I wish there was more with the other Voices.
57:12 this is the best ending so far
Feels more human to me I guess
I love the stranger ending where you escape so much. The only one that was allowed to describe _herself_ and yet she still truly loves you. That you refuse every machination, every call of greater beings and turn to see her, who loves you of her own choice. And you know that she had every other choice and still found you, the only one who had options and yet you complete eachother even still.
I love this game
By far one of the most masterpieces of a game I ever lived to see this game deserves more recognition and attention and I love all the peaceful endings the makers put beautiful work into this 10/10 it would also be nice if they kissed in on ending
@@poleve5409 oh yeah I just found out about it thanks 👍
Y'all are sleeping on the Godhood ending. That's the first ending I picked when I played, and I don't regret it. I agree that the "Leave" ending(s) is probably the best/true one (picking a third option is always a great choice), but I really do love the Godhood ending.
After everything that has happened, all this radiant goddess wants is to be free with YOU, to have YOU by her side through eternity. You were once two halves of the same whole, and you were always meant to be together, in one form or another. The moment you accept her, the only thing left is to accept yourself. As your godly powers sprout from your being, the walls of the prison crack and shudder, just barely able to contain you. And what breaks those walls? What is the final thing you need to escape this prison?
"I love you"
Love. Her inspiring words of love are the final key. No matter how things go or which ending you get, she will always love you. In the best endings, it's always the power of love that frees you. Once you take her hand, the prison shatters like glass. You did it, you finally did it. Together, you freed yourselves and each other from the constant cycle of suffering. Now, all that's left is eternity. Hand in hand, you and your love venture into the infinite cosmos, experiencing a thousand dawns and a thousand sunsets. Together, as you were always meant to be.
In conclusion, I love the idea of a goddess loving you so deeply, so cosmicly, that even being torn apart cannot keep you apart. That you are destined to find your way back to her loving embrace. You can feel her love radiating from her every word, even when you actively disagree with her, all she wants is to be with you forever. There are few things more romantic than that.
Also, unrelated note: I love how smol our hands are compared to hers. Even after becoming a god ourselves, and probably gaining a biblically accurate amount of giant wings, we are still her "Little Bird".
Facts
I think it is the best ending.
That's a matter of perspective, I got the godhood ending too, and i don't regret my choice, but you can see why people wouldn't want that
Yes, she does love you, but you both live in constant conflict and resolution, there is no ending to this, and one might not want that, when you leave as a non-stranger, it's still about love but about giving up the conflict, about letting things cease to exist together, it's all a matter of choice
That's my interpretation at least, as i said, I don't regret picking the godhood ending, having someone that loves you as much as you love them for eternity while also being in constant change with them... Sounds pretty nice imo
I like the cool theatrics of it all but I'm not a fan of just ending the universe for the sake of my happy ending is all
Ayo thanks for this I've been waiting forever for someone to do this.
That being said, the ending fauna got, godlike but monster like, feels different
Fauna got two i dont know if you mean the first one. The ending ending is not different, both leave in godlike form, but when the vessels start talking it can be very different because it depends on your choices before.
Basically, to trigger that ending as the description says you just need to have gather 5 vessels, but there are many of them probably like 10-15 variations. Their dialogue also changes based on what you did but it ends the same way
Got the Godhood as first ending. Yeah, I was really happy. I was seeking for a romance, and got it.
Me🤝The Smitten
The smitten is the Goat, best voice too
@@trankien7477Funny way to say Contrarian don't you think?
19:25 Good old fashion 90s anime babbling
I love how in NS new dawn all the voices are just being bros to the smitten XD
Yeah it's so wholesome
Man haven’t came across a really solid visual novel esc game since doki doki. Absolutely adored this game. Good balance of lovecraftian horror, comedy and love.
I was wondering what happened if you actually just went straight to smashing her, because in the endings where he talks before going through he just dies instead
I think the leave endings are the best in my opinion.
I don’t think the princess is inherently evil or intentionally malicious but just being born to transform into anything anyone imagine it to be and even if it haven’t done anything bad yet something like the princess would be too risky and dangerous to be left alive even if it haven’t done anything bad yet.
She's just the concept of change itself. You're the concept of stasis. Like, actually on a cosmic scale, you're those things.
That's part of what makes the game aggravating on an abstract level and part of why the SMT franchise games can be unfulfilling. As there are endings in those games that deals in sweeping abstract concepts like "harmony" or perfect universal "isolation." They're philosophical pieces that aren't meant to have right/wrong answers, but only interpretations. The problem with that is that there are no examples of what those universes look like, so your interpretations are often meaningless navel-gazing.
You don't actually _know_ what a universe without change looks like. Putting aside that I think Platonic idealism is a complete load of bunk, that's not something the mind of a mortal can comprehend. Sure, she's death, but she's also growth. Is there any meaning in a life which doesn't change? What does a universe like that even look like? Are you even really a person, if you can't change, or are you just a robot or perhaps basically just another rock at that point?
In point of fact, because you're basically the concept of stillness, are you also not the stillness of the grave that comes after death? It seems mightily naive to think that just destroying change itself as a concept would be smart, because the universe could just be an unvarying infinite black and it's also not changing. In a way, that's a sort of death, because it sure as hell isn't life.
The game frames the two of you as a duality, which is why your character sees her as a lover or princess to be treasured. Because the ideal of stability or peace is meaningless without change to define it and vice versa. You've both been dancing around each other for a long time like this. And near as I can tell, a wizard, in their desperation sought to bind you two and rashly tried to coerce you into killing the other for a chance at eternal life.
If he really wanted to end death, or at least buy time for his universe, it would've been wiser to petition you to create universes full of mercy, because as the concept of limits itself, you _could_ hypothetically limit the princess to universes that were only merciful, while still allowing for a variety of changes and transformations to be possible in them. You could, as the infinite stillness, demand only universes where eternal youth were possible. It is within your rights to set those limits as a god. She is the infinite potential for form, but your perception defines her form.
@@ved2360please write my college essays for me😂
@@ved2360
I mean, you're literally the sole god of reality for the changeless universe.
It'd simply be creating a clockwork universe where all change and entropy is accounted for, and there is no such thing as true entropy because you control it.
Or any way you imagine the universe to be. The real question to me, I think, was always whether you wanted to be a god alone, or with another.
I wish there was a moment of all the voices coming together, and the princess being like "wtf who are all of they...you?"
i think there is a moment like that in the wraith route where she possesses your body after you kill her and she just talks to all the voices and the narrator
"Despite everything, is just you..." Now where have I seen this type of story before?
sans
Just bought the Pristine Cut that just released.
Honestly I couldn’t stop myself going down a rabbit hole of watching every path so I might not even play the game, but it’s fairly cheap and I wanted to support it
Cranky....ur a mad lad for this 👏 👌
And now I can watch manly slowly make his way thorough these endings
tbh i feel like none of the endings are perfectly good endings or perfectly bad endings and i really like how it responds to the theme of the perspective. like in the godhood ending you get to be with her forever as gods but death and destruction still exists while in the leave ending although you get to leave with her you two are just like consciousness in the void. like you get to choose which ending is the "best ending" for you
correct me if im wrong
Game:Slay the princess
The princess:Slayyyy💅🏻
I've been waiting so long for this video since the beginning
Just finished the game earlier tonight. Got the Stranger Reset ending, and it was, oddly beautiful.
is there a separate ending if you slay the princess at the finale instead of choosing godhood? 20:08
I probably should have made a note about it but slaying the princess before going to the cabin the final time won't work.
Anyone know how to get achievement "I tried so hard and go so far but in the end it doesnt even matter?"
It should be illegal making a story game this beautiful
I’ve been mesmerised by this game, been trying to put my thoughts on it all down into a comment but, fittingly, it’s difficult to sum it all up into one cohesive whole
Slay the Princess gets a big update today if you didn't already know. Besides a new ending I'm curious if they tweak the existing endings any.
that voice is taking me back to the magnus archives.
I thought this is like a playthrough because there is now way all endings took 1 hour to show and ill be damned
A lot of people seem to believe that the princess is the embodiment of change, and the protagonist is the embodiment of persistence.
I'd like to offer a new perspective. I think that the Shifting Mound is not change, but rather the personification of the totality of possibilities - the future. The Protagonist is the observer, literally the player, the one who experiences it all. The narrator is the player's fear of the possibilities in the future.
The Good ending is the idea of choosing to not think about any of this. You succumb to the narrator, the fear of the possibilities. The game is literally mocking you as a child, calling out your immaturity for not taking the future seriously.
The Oblivion ending is the idea of simply running away from the future. Trying to stay away from it. Ending it. It is the one true death in the story. Each of the mini-ending portray one of the stages of grief: denial, thinking the player was just curious and made a mistake; anger, hating the player for running away; bargaining, swearing that the future is worth experiencing; depression, feeling hollow as the player tries to leave; acceptance, finally enabling the player to end it all.
With every timeline, you ultimately see the princess become something, and you bring that experience back to the Shifting Mound. You have observed the story through, and the possibilities converged onto one truth - a wave function collapse. Each timeline is a thought experiment, the player looking into a potential future. You take this perspective, the possibility you found, and you add that to the Shifting Mound, the endless list of possibilities that you have pondered upon.
The princesses each represent a potential future. It starts off as an ideal future, an ideal princess. However, we can see the perspective sacrificing a bit of that perfection to achieve realism, as most of the time, the princess cuts her own arm to free herself. In most of these futures, the princess, directly or indirectly, kills you. You die in that future.
Every time you loop into the next chapter, you have decided to ponder the same potential future again. How did it end up like that? The princess often becomes more terrifying - you are more scared of this future. Sometimes, the setting changes, too. You retroactively change what the past looks like to fit the future you saw. What did you miss? How does that change things for this potential future? As you continue to loop, fear of this future strays it further from the ideal future. The princess becomes more terrifying, and the setting shifts to match. Sometimes there is hope. This future hurt, but there is still a chance. Sometimes, you end the experiment as a lost cause. That future is too terrifying.
The voices are images of the player's choices, personifications of what the player believes in those futures. Are you afraid? Are you hopeful? Do you feel cheated? Are you mad? Are you numb to it? In most cases, these voices are of negative emotion, a pessimistic thought about this future, which affects the way they turn out.
A couple timelines stick out to me. In one of them, you ultimately save the princess and fall in love. Here, you have the Voice of the Smitten. You love this future. It actively fought for you, and readily accepts you. The princess, on the other hand, becomes increasingly bland, repeating the same dialogue like a low-effort NPC. The artstyle becomes more abstract, cartoony and unrealistic (by the game's standards). This future is too perfect, a cookie cutter "happily ever after". It is not realistic, and that's the terror of it.
Another timeline is the Stranger timeline. Here, you choose to run away, like the Oblivion ending, but you do so before even thinking about the future, and you ultimately come back to the princess.. You take a step back before you look at the future. The Voice of the Contrarian is the voice that reminds you, "This is not real. It's a game. It's supposed to be fun.". The princess you meet here is an amalgamation of multiple other princesses, similar to the Shifting Mound, but lesser. She is not the totality of every possibility, but rather the fact that these multiple possibilities exist to begin with.
The game ends after a certain amount of these experiences. You don't have to consider every future. You cast aside your fear of the possibilities, literally getting rid of the Narrator. It is time for you to decide how you will deal with these endless possibilities.
The Godhood ending is the idea that you have come to take the multiple possibilities too seriously. It represents the almost nihilistic decision that you accept all of these as your future, choosing to arrogantly believe that you are somehow in every single one of them. It mocks the many worlds theory by presenting your lover, your future as a multiheaded, uncanny monster. However, it still accepts it as a valid answer, as the monster is still, in a way, lovely.
The New Dawn ending is that you have decided to do away with these thought experiments. Ultimately, you've decided that it is pointless to mull over the future and instead, you walk forward without any particular possibility in mind. You slayed the princess. While similar to the Good Ending, you have still taken the time to consider the future. You aren't being childish, but you can't keep dancing around the real future, the next day, a new dawn.
The Everyone Hates You variant is when you've also decided to arrogantly bury your feelings about these possibilities. These emotions, fears and desires, are not gone. They will bubble up again.
The Reset ending is when you have decided that you have not pondered enough. You decide to continue sifting through these possibilities. You forget everything because the human mind can only remember so many thought experiments. Pondering the possibilities has faded your memory of pondering them. The princess kills the protagonist, the one who witnessed these possibilities. Eventually, you'll face the same potential decisions, but who knows how long you'll take, how many times you'll reset.
The Leave ending is where you have decided to leave with a glimmer of hope for the ideal future, the original princess. You walk forward with this ideal princess in mind, your every action laced with love for that possibility. You aren't sure that the future will be that bright, but you try your hardest to make it happen.
The Stranger variants to all of these involve not the original, ideal princess, but the Stranger timeline princess instead. You know that the future is not that certain, but you make your decision with full acceptance for it.
I feel like people misunderstand what happens in the New Dawn Ending. The world won't just be eternal life with no change at all - the Hero has a part of the Princess, as does the Princess have a part of the Hero. So the Hero can maintain change and prevent the world from becoming fully unchanging for eternity. But it would mean there would be a lot less change, nothing would be as extreme, there wouldn't be war and suffering and death. It would just be... peaceful. At least I think that's what the Narrator intended. But that also means it would be a lot more boring - no tragedy means no catharsis. I think the world would just turn into, like, an endless game of Animal Crossing of sorts.
Also people's minds will constantly wipe themselves forever, leaving them stuck in an eternal loop. And they'll age without dying too. It won't just be boring. It would be agonising, but we wouldn't know it.
The last ending was the best one for me tbh
at the end of this game when you have to choose her or the voices, reminds me of ib (2012 horror game) when you have to choose the girl or the guy to leave with you. it just leaves a real bitter taste in your mouth yk but overall 10/10 game wow
They kindly respect every choices you did. It is like its has a meaning behind it so lesson is don’t regret anything, instead Learn From It.
Actually the real lesson is you can't learn from anything if you don't regret it.
Also: embrace godhood but embrace mortality too.
And: Change is good
Did anyone else notice the small detail at 5:23? It’s so cool!
40:13 can someone explain why they think you tried to damn them or something?
Every time you finish a route (except the first time) you know the voices accompanying you will disappear. If you say "this is the end for you but not for me" they won't particularly like that and the ending where you truly slay the princess and they return they'll be a bit pissed off.
I WANTED THIS KIND OF RELATIONSHIP 😭😭😭
Even though there is no canon ending i feel like if there was one it would be the godhood one
Damn they are true lovers in the end trapped in loop
Honestly there is not much about endings in this game, its more about intrinsic routes, like i had no idea witch splits into 2 chapters 3, how many more chapters 3 are hidden like this?
Maybe want to make all routes video?
Possibly, although I may not have time.
a strange yet beautiful game what a masterpiece
Oh so this is the origin of the Void Spawn in Stellaris.
22:05 best ending in my opinion
Main character: " I'm scared plus I never know what to do, I always lose to you lady or perish else where no matter what. I got a better idea, we build an empire right after destroying the world
This game is so many layers of amazeballs.
Godhood ending is satisfying to me
stranger leave > all and there is a large gap.
49:20 i change my mind this, this is true
Ayo cranky what was that version of tower on the thumbnail looked cool
That's the Apotheosis Route, which you get by going to the Tower Route, taking the knife, trying to resist, and then following her command to kill yourself.
NEW DAWN ENDING IS PEAK
Could'nt agree less
I have some questions that I haven’t yet wrapped my head around:
- when you say stranger, what makes her a stranger? I saw in a comment that when you don’t pick up the knife on your very first encounter, she will always be soft spoken. Is it the same for vice versa? (U pick up knife she is more annoyed mood)
- in terms of godhood and gods, can you in layman’s terms tell me which god is what? I imagine the narrator the “villain” bc in my head the villain wanting everyone to live forever in forever stability experiencing only happiness and life sounds nothing like living and i want to live. The princess is existing and life with suffering joy and anger, so she’s the opposite. What does that make us? Is my interpretation leaving out details or incorrect of the narrator and princess?
- are the voices the only voices? Do they only exist bc of the only set realities in the game? Or can the voices create more voices once in godhood.
- how come the voices like being gods for new dawn endings, but the voices think godhood is overrated in the leave or reset endings? How come the voices want to stay even tho godhood is overrated? Are the voices a perception of ours that their decisions are affected by our perception of them?
- how did you specifically get the multiple head princess with the contrarian endings?
If people can answer these questions, I would be more than happy to respond to them.
Oh also wdym by razor routes?
Razor/Stranger and so on are what the game calls the routes.
The narrator is a mortal who wanted to stop death in his dying world and split you and the princess apart. He then commit suicide to be an echo to guide you into slaying the princess to create a world without death.
The multiple headed princess in the ending is from having your first route be the Stranger.
The Thorn>>>>>Stanger leave ending>>>>good ending
That my headcannon
It so beautiful...
so wait. do you still end up together even in the godhood ending?
Pretty much.
@@CrankyTemplar cool beans
nutshell, two god lovers trapped in some random cabin trying to continue their honeymoon to destruction of the universe but cockblocked by this crow echo dude
@@LazyKaz ahh okay. so godhood is their true forms. wait the destruction of the universe is their honeymoon? That's wild lol.
@@TheBroGamer14082 basically lol, but I think the leave ending in the cabin is basically abandoning their godhood together and live with the normal people beyond outside their construct
The godhood ending is the best one in my opinion.
HEART LUNGS LIVER NERVES!
This shi gon make me cry dawg😭😭
I' m n o t c r y i n g,
y o u' r e c r y i n g,
s h u t u p !
my favorite was the non stranger leave ending
Nice! There's actually two versions of that ending (the missed endings video shows the other version) depending on whether you bring the knife to your first meeting with the princess or not.
@@CrankyTemplar I didn’t bring the knife our first meeting. When I said I was sorry for the pain I caused her, she said she should be the one apologizing cause she slit my throat first encounter 🤣
Is that Jonny Sims narrating???
i wonder how it was able to reset everything. as the echo shattering and the shifting mound being itself again seems like a point of no return
I know the Leave ending is probably the true ending but me and the boys will be in the New Dawn ending thank you very much.
Technically you missed a few endings. The princess responds and talks differently based on your first encounter with her, whether you picked up the knife or didn't. At least that's my interpretation from the gameplay I've seen.
Good sir, both the description and the pinned comment mention this and link to a video with the missed variants.
@@CrankyTemplar Apologies for missing that ~v~
@@fooltheroyal8691 No worries, just pointing out that others made me aware when I uploaded this and I went back to upload them. Once the Pristine Cut releases I'll be sure to have everything in one video.
Any possible route that they can die together?
There are some routes that end with both of you dying, such as attacking the Witch or trying to run. Both Grey chapters pretty much end that way. But the routes themselves aren't an ending that brings you to the credits.
57:11 WHY DID IT GET SO MUCH BETTER
This game really makes you feel like your in it, the conversations you have with the hand-entity thing are so real. Makes it feel like it is actually happy to see you. When it returns you to the menu with "continue" like a billion times the "continue" button sends you right back to the hand-entity. It feels like checking on a friend.
The continue button is new because people kept clicking "new game" and starting from scratch without realising.
Plus the multiple "continues" is console-exclusive. On PC it just closes the game completely and you immediately see the hands when you start it back up.
my fav ending is the "Non-stranger leave ending" it looks like "everything is normal, everything is going to be alright"
eyo im just getting into this game, and i was curious, what's generally considered to be the "best" ending?
Non-stranger leave ending
Non-Stranger New Dawn Ending. You just rid the world of death.
its the stranger leave ending the best ending? somehow i got that one first
Heart,lungs,liver,nerves
So I'm guessing the final / godhood ending is the Canon ending?🤔
The developers explicitly said there is no cannon ending in the game
WAYYYYYYY better love story than Twilight lol
Wow this meme still exist
The non stranger reset ending made me cry
The Non-Stranger Leave ending made me cry😭
I think it would’ve been more fitting if all of the voices were there with you in the stranger version and stayed with you, so that it’s all of you and all of her. You are both everything that you have shaped each other into being, and love and accept each other because and in spite of all of that.
Not really. Contrarian is there because he was with you when you first met her. Plus the other voices are elsewhere and Hero and Contrarian said they'll leave to find them.
for all of you I got the godhood ending is it rare
There a name of the song used for the Godhood ending?
I believe it's titled Transformation in the soundtrack.
@@CrankyTemplar Sorry, I mean the part where the Player and Princess leave the world and step into the Infinite part. Cuz, I haven't found that in the game soundtrack.
@@The_Unknown_Writer--5799I think it's reusing The Apotheosis but I'm not sure
@@kassiaactuallydraws9361 It is the Apotheosis
can anyone assist with the oblivion ending? i want to get the achievement but i dont see any good guides on how to accomplish it. im on current patch, i turn around over and over until i enter chapter 2 with the stranger but i cant further deny the narrator. how do i get the shifting mound to appear? im doing it on a fresh save as i know i cant bring the shifting mound any perspectives in order to get this ending, so what am i doing wrong?
You need to go to the cabin in Chapter 1 and start any route. Then in Chapter 2 you need to refuse to go to the cabin. This ends that route and nothing is brought to the Shifting Mound. Do this six times and you'll get the Oblivion ending.
Refusing to go in Chapter 1 puts you on the Stranger route.