I've been waiting for Jacob Geller to make a video about Signalis but Jeremy just went ahead and made it for him. Would love to see more video essays from y'all!
I'm too overwhelmed by all of these lovely comments to reply to all of them, but I just wanted to say thank you and that your comment cracked me up. I'd love to do more video essays in the future!
The Ariane being bullied and ostracized leading into her bioresanence awakening angle is one I’ve leaned so hard on ever since I finished the game and hearing it spoken into words from someone else is so elevating. Thank you for the great video
One little thing that I love is that there is an unopened note for Ariane that explicitly tells her not to befriend Elster because of how obsessive, possessive the base persona can become... Ariane never read that and immediately I understood why Elster, with a little boost from Ariane's Bio-resonance, could shatter reality over and over again. The people in the mine, if they ever truly existed, never stood a chance in the face of such love.
Elster’s obsession was so grand that her memories inside Falke all but destroyed Falke’s mind Ariane only placed the memories there by accident but Falke just couldn’t take it
The 1.2 update added a little note in Act 2 that reveals this to be not the case. It's a top secret doc that basically spells out that "Persona Degradation" means "Individuality", not that they're going crazy.
@@captainwolfbane3707 Floor B8 (during the segment where you get around the different floors with the dumbwaiter), in the STCR Dorm (lower right of the map), there is a hatch you can enter, which is a short hallway with an Ara unit hiding out, and the document is across from her.
Very nice analysis - Signalis is probably one of the only pieces of media I have experienced where I'm happier not knowing conclusively every facet of every detail, and instead savouring every emotion it instilled in me. Up there with Blade Runner (Original + 2049) and Evangelion, possibly surpassing both in this way. It's not a game I'll forget, not for a long, long time.
I had the same experience, right down to the other pieces of media that I'd favourably compare the game to. It's probably not a coincidence that the almost all the Replikas have bird nicknames - it strongly felt to me like a homage to the dove sequence in Bladerunner.
One of the most ominous lines from the original "The King in Yellow" story is this: "It's only a play." Of course, plays are stories, and stories carry one of the most dangerous weapons ever conceived. They carry Truth- not the kind that can be studied under a microscope or spied from afar by a telescope, but the kind of Truth that you feel in your heart. The kind that can burrow into your mind and force you to think things that can make the whole world fall apart. SIGNALIS, too, is a play. A play of people forced into roles they never asked for, repeating lines they never needed to rehearse, acting out scenes that may not even make sense to them, much less us. Both the characters and the audience seek answers, but the game is utterly stingy with facts that might make the whole thing make logical sense. That doesn't mean there isn't Truth there. But it's a Truth that we've always had all along, that we sometimes forget in our search for lore and secrets: that love is what unites us, ignorance is what destroys us, and just because we don't know everything doesn't mean we can't strive for something better, however fruitlessly. It's only a play. But ignore its Truth at your own peril.
The unfortunate truth is that complete understanding of what is going on lies in another dimension, imperceivable yet it leaves detectable traces of its existence. While we are assured that Truth exists, how can we possibly ever come to know of it perfectly, to sate our hungry minds, if no power greater than our own comes to our aid to do so? All religion is about receiving revelation about the true nature of existence and becoming aligned with it, because without God or Gods, mortal beings are nothing, and in ignorance of their true nature, these beings are left with only the assumption of decay and oblivion.
I love how Signalis means different things to different people. When I met Adler, my first thought was Nathan Adler, David Bowie character that exists in a story about a mystery without a answer, told out of order. I related that together and I love that
The emotional impact of Signalis is so strong. As much as I can appreciate all these threads to literature secondhand, simply piecing together Elster's past and her relationship both before and after the war makes the story hit so hard. It's a great work of art and makes perfect use of the medium and its genre to tell its tale. Watching the end of Isa's journey, seeing Alina's numerous corpses litter the beach, or dying at Arianne's bedside all feel burned into my memory of the game.
Until those memories pass like every other memory, of course. I remember promising myself I'd remember other stories from other games, too, but I don't remember what they were anymore. Life's a whole bunch of ice swans, huh?
@@Thelothuo That's the nice thing about games. That happens all the time, but the games don't go anywhere. I'll just pick it up again when i feel like it
After watching far too many videos on this game after finishing it, I think your video and Eurothug4000's video on Signalis are my favorites! You really cut to the core of it all without getting too lost in trying to explain the surface details of the game or the minute to minute gameplay. It really is a tragic love story and about you, the player, helping Elster keep her promise. I'll throw out there that this game fits really well into lesbian fiction more broadly - A Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Disobedience and especially Mulholland Drive also hit similar notes to this game. Also the fact that one of the puzzles involves tarot cards and how much the moon and stars factor into puzzles is some of the most lesbian shit to put in this game, it's great!!
Thank you so much! And Mulholland Drive is one of my favorite movies ever made. I wrote an absurdly long paper in film school dissecting it, and was having flashbacks to those days while working on this video. Portrait of a Lady on Fire has been on my list for a while- your comment has spurred me to finally watch it this weekend. Thanks for the thoughtful comment, I really appreciate it.
Absolutely superb video, Jeremy, not just for the incredible Signalis analysis, but the philosophical exploration of trying to recapture a moment, a memory. I've always wanted to travel all over the world, but I'm not able to due to health reasons, so video games mean a lot to me to scratch that itch: through them, I get to travel to so many places, meet new people, experience incredible things. In turn, the one thing I do collect is physical copies of games. I've always thought it was an equivalent of having holidays photos: proof that I experienced and achieved something. In this video, you beautifully verbalized the thought in-depth, and I realize I also collect them for the rush that comes when I look at them, where all those memories of playing the game coming back: the game itself, where I was, and the point in my life when I played it. Just for a moment, attempting to recapture that feeling again. I didn't intend to personally tangent in the comment section after watching the video, but I wasn't expecting a psychological breakthrough! (And yes, those FFVII figurines are indeed amazing.) Regarding Signalis itself, I loved your in-depth exploration into 'The King in Yellow'. I had no idea there was a play within the book itself, and the insight was fascinating. Your honesty regarding the essay's purpose in initially intending to try to crack Signalis' story code but ultimately still finding yourself back where you began was wonderful, too. Again, absolutely superb video, and I would love seeing similar video essays on the Noclip Crew channel in the future.
Thank you for the lovely, thoughtful reply! It means a lot to me that people are connecting with this video on a personal level. And I'd absolutely love to do more video essays in the future.
I didn't play the game. Even though the whole video was very interesting, the final bit about how our look for meaning (and other activities) is our attempt to keep connected and try to relive our experience a piece of art gave us was very beautiful. Thanks Jeremy, you have become a great writer.
I'd recommend giving this game a shot even if you watched this video. One of the things I don't see many places mention is how Signalis carries itself. In a sea of titles that want to ensure that you think and feel what they set out to do(read: loud and insecurely), Signalis is quiet and confident. It wants to do a thing, it will do this thing, and you are allowed to watch as it does this thing. It doesn't concern itself with how you feel at the end. It won't try to pursuade you one way or the other. Its a type and level of confidence that is very rare.
God what a banger of a vid, such a treat. This game has lived with me ever since I played it, and this video perfectly depicts why it endures. Disarming the cynical impulse, offering space for many interpretations to flourish (and rejecting the notion that there's one true conclusion to reach), centering what you felt as it happened over what you think happened...damn both this game and this vid are sick
As someone who just completed Signalis and came to UA-cam specifically for analysis, this video is exactly what I wanted. Your central thesis is so well argued, and it almost makes me feel silly for wanting that analysis in the first place! At the same time I can feel those threads pulling at me, the literal and textual connections that seem so solid and so sure that they have to lead somewhere, that answers are possible to decipher if we only look close enough for long enough… I guess it all comes down to whether or not you think that those things can exist beside the central emotional register of the story without undercutting the message of what really matters. I’m honestly not sure! But much like Signalis, this video gave me a lot to think about, and it’ll stick with me for a long time!
I like reading and listening to peoples theories of the lore of the game because each one brings with it a sometimes unique emotional interprotation of the story
Oh god I was like a quarter into this wondering how I missed so much of the story, then you mention the fake out ending and... yeah I fell for it completely. Let me know where I should turn in my gamer card. In all seriousness, this essay was wonderful and captures the emotional spirit of the game so well. While the conclusion after lore hunting may lead back to the start, I think there's a richness and depth that the metatextual side brings which makes Signalis feel complete and whole in the world (our world) the game exists in. That is to say: a hunt for meaning can be meaningful in of itself. This video is a wonderful way to share that sort of experience. Bravo - I'd love to see more of these on the channel.
Just wanted to say I really like Jeremy’s video style. Super introspective and thoughtful. Danny’s great, but these crew videos show a new side of the team unseen in the documentary videos!
I always thought that in the end, when the dreams become reality (As is the case of Signalis) getting caught in the details of of the story and the physics of the world matter less than the emotional impact they're trying to provide. Nietzsche (who not so coincidentally was also obsessed with cycles) spoke of true understanding as being inherently intuitive and experienced. He admired the Greeks and their tragedies for conveying their ideas through an abstracted emotional appeal to the chaos of nature, bolstered through a rational facade of story telling that took hold of the inquisitive impulse of the mind, resulting in that all important feeling of release at conclusion. In my sense this is what makes Signalis a true tragedy as well, it's a process of suffering, where one comes to understand intuitively the unfairness in the life and love of their main characters and reconcile it through an interactive experience of sight and sound. In this way I think a lot of people "correctly" interpreted the Artifact ending as the "best," (most fulfilling) as not only does reaching it require a delving into some pretty esoteric lore and engaging with the game to its limits, it also fully reconciles the story. Each ending makes you feel a little unfulfilled, like there's more, but it's only with the artifact ending do you feel a bit of emotional closure and that important release. The story is finished, whether what is happening is real or if the cycle continues no longer matters, for the sake of the audience (the watchful eye) and the characters their closure has been achieved, and they are allowed to affirm their love and die when your playtime ends and you turn off the game once and for all.
SIDENOTE: I use truths to describe the unchanging facts and inescapable fate of all people and things in the universe- suffering/death and that we are not sure of anything(mostly just meaning there could just be a lack of meaning in everything we do). Sorry for commenting back so late AND JESUS SORRY FOR MY WHOLE SYNOPSIS BUT I STARTED TYPING AND COULDNT STOP but I Just finished the game recently and god damn. The sheer feeling this game gives me IMO is from how you can apply it to the IRL human experience. I feel like unfathomable sadness felt in this story is just a universal truth in and of itself- we are conscious beings looking for direction in a place that offers nothing so kind- and we have no choice in the matter either. Existentialism if you will. The human mind is not supposed to exist in a world that lets people relive moments endlessly. We can try and make meaning for things but what will they matter if everything is going to loop again according to the rules in Signalis' world? I think its an interesting question to ask really because how are we supposed to know? I believe the endings give us the possible answers to these questions from the truths of the cruel, cruel universe. In the leave ending you can't fulfill your promise and give up on your purpose hoping to change something. In another you die next to your lover after she forgets who you are. In one, you completely give up, in another, you keep pushing no matter the hardships however, you still fail at your goal. In the "best ending" it shows the two of you, (Ariane and LSTR) dying together again, not failing in your goal, but tragic nonetheless. No matter what ending you get there is no stopping the sad fate that LSTR or Ariane are in for and I think that is Signalis' impactful yet seemingly unstoppable message. No matter what, the search for meaning in an indefinite universe is a futile one and unfathomable sadness is what waits at the end of every story. An incredibly somber and upsetting (not in an ugh this shit sucks but like ow that hurt my feelings kind of way) story, yet I feel no-one can truly deny the truth which makes it all the more personal. A story about the unchanging cruelty behind truths that we find around us- yet pushing on through nonetheless even if suffering is inevitable because as conscious organisms, meaning is engraved into what we are. Its better to suffer with a purpose than without, wouldn't you say? I feel as though the message behind the message this game tries to convey is one of how your own reality and your own thoughts shape your personal "meaning" and that this "meaning" is the very thing that can destroy you as a person. This game ending is an option with only two outcomes, suffer while reaching your meaning, or suffer and never truly feel as you completed everything you needed to do. An interesting juxtaposition, the meaning which keeps you going being the very thing that destroys you and everything you love and therefore ending the cycle. I think that this is how the story conveys such a familiar yet sinister and evil feeling throughout it. You don't need to understand everything that happens in the story to come to this because the conclusion of the story is what you make of it. This is how Signalis portrays the feelings that it does into the player. As far as I'm concerned, your own unique conclusions are what this game wanted to tease out in the first place. Getting to see how the story resonated with other people and what they got out of it in the comments of videos such as this one really motivated me to find something of my own within this game. This is how Signalis really shows just how it can affect the player and how much the differences in the player can effect it and the messages that are conveyed through it. I know this is only my take and there are so many out there with their own interpretations of what the story could mean but I feel confident in putting mine out there and others should too! It would be sick hearing people's interpretations now that there is so much information about the story and other opinions in forms of videos like these. Keep pushing to find meaning in a place that might only hold suffering for us either way, we can do all we can to keep trying even if everything is against us!
People have brought up H.P Lovecraft, Evangelion, Silent Hill 2, and Resident Evil, but never have i seen anyone make the Jungian connection. There are several symbols associated with Ariane, not just the lily. There is also the butterfly. The box you has to open leading to the radio station features a butterfly and later there are four butterflies spelling out the word "Aeon." The final puzzle of the game is revealed by collecting six tarot cards. Let's do this one step at a time. The formal word for butterfly in Greek is psyche. I don't know the etymological reason for this, but in the myth of how the titan Prometheus created man, in place of the claws and teeth and the natures given by his brother Epimethus to other animals, Prometheus place a butterfly inside man, symbolizing his capacity for self transformation. The specific connotation of the myth is that Prometheus gave man a soul. Aeon is a notable example of Jung's later works on the phenomenology of the Self. To explain what the Self is I'd have to go into all kinds of Jungian terms that are apt to be misunderstood if I don't explain them so I'll just say that the Self is what Signalis could be said to depict. Everything about the game that makes it feel insoluble; the way it unites opposites; the way sense blurs with nonsense, insides with outsides, time and space, real and unreal, the singular with the universal -- that is all like the Self. The Self is where man's psychology merges with the ontology of the universe. It explains, at least thematically, how all this surreal dreamlike stuff can happen; how unit 512 can hop all over the solar system and beyond seemingly at random. The book itself goes into a lot of astrology and offers an explanation for why people have looked to the stars and expected a sign. The Self is initially encountered as a personification, the gradually broadens to encompass all opposites and the divine. The inclusion of this word and butterflies at the same time, as well as being in a set of four, is more of a smoking gun than anything of the game having a Jungian influence. The tarot is something Jung explored as well as an expression of unconscious archetypes. They are a set of symbols telling the story of the fool on his journey to acquire the world and reach fulfillment. It is the story of the individuation process, also a key Jungian concept.
Games like Pathologic give you Legos and you can build different things with them. The Void gives you Legos and you can build abstract sculptures with them. Signalis gives you Legos and no matter what you build with them, there will always be half of the Legos unusued, waiting for you to step on them.
I played this game several times through, got all the endings, spoke to every NPC to get all the dialogue and read every file…but I keep replaying this game and I’m not tired of it at all. I love living in this game and I love how purposefully obscure but meaningful all the little details are. Great video. I’m gonna keep playing the game for the dozenth time now.
Thank you so much for this video. I'm writing an art analysis on Signalis for my high school class (specifially Bioresonance and the themse of loss), and so many creators like yourself have been a big help. I'm really proud of how fast and passionate the Signalis community grew, and people like you keep bringing me back to the game day after day.
I leaned back in my chair after finishing this video and actually said, out loud, to nobody in particular: "What a fantastic fucking essay." What a fantastic fucking essay! I'm spiraling down the post-traumatic video essay funnel, having finished my playthrough of SIGNALIS only two days ago, so I'll admit I was primed to love this video. But still... this was a really wonderful analysis, and I especially appreciate your point that our little human connections, our moments of love and joy, are kind of... cavities in the interstellar sea, little pockets of human meaning and beauty that will die, that are doomed, and that are therefore beautiful and meaningful. Thanks for making this. You caught a new fan.
*Loved* this video. The passage in the Searching and Meaning chapter was exquisite. Our obsession with lore and how it drives us into a frenzy to the point where the thing we're obsessing over almost becomes a parody of itself is what I feel Lynch was pointing to with Twin Peaks. Everyone is so dominated by achieving a definitive conclusion that they lose sight of the notion that the mystery itself should be the most important piece of the puzzle; not the answer to said mystery. Bravo, this was an incredible watch.
^^^^^^ Says the guy who is currently wearing a Silent Hill shirt, thereby attempting to immortalise a vibe that only seems to grow the more we become removed from it. Ignore me. I'll be over here, staring at a wall while drinking my coffee.
To paraphrase Ursula K. Le Guin, on the purpose of fiction: It is the role of the artist to communicate what cannot be said in words. It is the role of the novelist to do this, in words. To paraphrase Zdzisław Beksiński, on leaving his works unnamed: If I had something to *say*, I would have written it down, and would not have needed so much paint.
to be honest. i do think there is a pin point to it all. but everyone is just so stretched out and have their own interpretations and little tad bits of info, thats its basically caused an info overload. It would take a wile to pull everything out and around to place infront in basic words of what is going on. every clue, synonym between english and german, reference, play on words, and the ONE thing iv yet anyone to really bring up... that as part of the game, youre watching everything on a monitor.
Thank you for this video, I couldn't agree more. After being blown away by Signalis, I felt I owed it to myself to try to untangle the plot threads and come up with some kind of definitive explanation. After 2 weeks of repeat playthroughs and lore video binges, I admit defeat. The plot of Signalis is a Penrose triangle, an image with the appearance of solid, sturdy 3D object, but one that on closer examination cannot exist in Euclidian space. After watching your video, I feel that I can finally relax and just appreciate the amazing gift that Rose-Engine gave us.
Signalis is a ring. I'll be satisfied when I learn what opened that loop and enfolded subject and object, atom and world, into a singularity. You can see Signalis and an externalization of the mind, like Silent Hill 2, but it could just as well serve as an internalization of the external world. The term _seele_ is thrown about Jungian psychology and psychoanalysis in general, but you only get an ideal of the totality of what it really means when you consider the juxtaposition of materialism and idealism. Materialism is the philosophical stance that the world is made of matter, and yet we only ever encounter this substance as a shadow; a representation as in Schopenhauer's _World as Will and Representation.- So the world could be an ideal and we would be too close to it, to much involved and a part of the stream of event, to ever know. So the _seele_ (German pronounces it the way we would say zay-le similar to how v is pronounced as f) which Jung used to mean psyche, is as much the stuff of the world as the mind. Spirit and matter are one. This is how these events across vast gulfs of space can seem so person, so synchronous, with who unit-512 is. This enfolding loop seems to be the gate that Falke gazed into; a calamity of bio-resonance brought about by the sixth and final generation of replikas. What is not clear is how she and unit 512 became one, what the gate is, whether or not it was really found under Sirpenski, etc.
"it doesn't matter" is a phrase that's significance transcends Signalis and is ultimately my answer to the question of what is happening, to attempt to draw understanding from Signalis is akin to drawing blood from a stone. The explanation is that a stone does not bleed and Signalis is a tragic love story, nothing else matters.
Beautiful video, thank you for covering Signalis. I'd love to read/watch/listen to your thoughts on SOMA if you're wanting to continue along this theme of existential dread.
There’s yours answer. How did she get well enough to dance? The artifact. She’s manipulating her own body with her new more powerful psychic abilities. She’s controlling herself like a puppet now. Hell the body might even have died by now, and the psychic being is now outside the body and using the body as a medium almost like possession to stay with Elster.
This was an absolutely beautiful video exploring and absolutely beautiful game. You know, I do think that a part of the point of Signalis is that there IS no clear answer, but you're also right in that part of the joy of it is in uncovering its mysteries, too. In a world that's harsh and uncaring, a lot of people are finding each other and connecting over this genuine piece of art, this expression of emotion, and bringing to the table what they think and feel about it, the references that they got from it--regardless of the original intent. Like Elster says, it doesn't matter. But it's an amazing experience I'm sure not quite ready to leave behind yet, and you brought up some wonderful new thoughts for me to add to my magpie collection of shiny theories about this game. Thank you so, so much for this!
ever since I heard this game from a reviewer (i think it was shillup) it's been on my short list. looks awesome and seems awesome. I'll try to move it up the list and not let it fall on the pile of shame
the game combines existential horror, oppression of regime dread, cosmic horror, consciousness simulation horror, isolation and hopelessness into a love story. k.....
Oh man, knowing tiniest bit about German history and art makes this hit so much harder. Not that it needed to. What a game. RE: Red eye - literally the color of Ariane's eyes. No real need to invent a demon god to explain it, just her presence in her own dream...
Because Signalis has so, so many meanings, unique to each player, I find what I got from the story to be pretty much close to my life experience and worldview, and the one thing that stuck to me most was less the love between Ariane and LSTR-512, but just sheer disgust and hatred for the nation of AEON and its authoritarian bullshit in the name of "revolution" and fake "freedom". After all, it's a society that caused at least 511 more of these callous sacrifices prior, with no end in sight.
In terms of comprehending the abstract, the value isn't in being able sift through it and find an objectively "correct" interpretation no one can deny -- it's in the interpretation itself. Absorbing a creative work multiple times, exploring the secondary and tertiary references within it, and sharing theories and questions with others who were affected by it is the proof of the work's richness and its value. Multiple interpretations and highly individualized views of its meaning is a marker of a work's artistic depth, not a sign of its absence.
I didn't expect such an incredible, poignant video essay on signalis from Noclip Crew! Fantastic work. This and Eurothug's videos are aboslutely incredible and have really helped me arrange my own thoughts on this awesome awesome game.
Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I tried to find a way to justify an explanation, stitch it together from the clues, but you've managed to finally give me and probably many the confirmation of the, well, "true" ending, that we tried to push away with every step and with every theory we conjured up. It's all a play. It's a painting. It does not have to make absolute sense, it never tried to and it never will, because like in every art piece, it's never real in that it perfectly reflects the picture of reality, but it is real in that it shows the beholder a core aspect of reality. Here being one one hand the story directly of two people, cast out by society and their government for just not fitting the tight groups that were set, beautifully illustrated by the replika models, all with their set purpose and set amount and kind of amenities and recreation to be a working object, a cog in the machine, cast out into the uncaring void of space on a journey destined to end in tragedy, all for a power demonstration for a society and government that sees them for nothing more than numbers. And yet they manage to have an end where both are happy by, and god I hate myself for saying this but in this context it fits, the power of love. By truly becoming one. And then the core, more subtle message, that in a world where nothing seems to make sense, the truth always being just out of reach, there are three things, three truths, three keys like those leading to the secret ending representing the restless and pointless search players like me had for a happy ending: Eternity, Love, and Sacrifice. Again, thank you. I do not know how much longer I would've stayed restless, trying to find that happy and true ending before accepting what was right infront of us the entire time. Also "is our universe a roguelike?" got me, as well as the "going into a restaurant and eating the menu", the part at 22:00, all absolutely amazing analysis and I'm looking forward to more of your content! :]
Signalis definitely made me feel when I played it in november last year. Your video helped me to sort those feelings, especially how you phrased things while offering possible explanations of what is (or is not) happening in Signalis. And also let me relive those feelings while watching. Thanks Jeremy!
6:48 The level of detail int he game is insane: at about the timestamp given above, the kanji compound 秘密 broadly meaning "secret" is show about the words, "something was unearthed," but part of the 秘 kanji is highlighted in red. This part happens to be a kanji in it's own right: 必, meaning "invariable" which we can take to mean "inevitable" (which would be 必然 in Japanese.) This subtle detail lends finality to the revelation of the gate; a seemingly lien artifact that caused Falke to go berserk, or otherwise exists in this dreamworld.
the game's emotional transmission vibe strongly reminds me of some Skinny Puppy songs with their stream of consciousness type of lyrics which seem unrelated but translate a strong emotion or concept like the cruelty of society and deterioration of nature because of industry,
Great video! I also scoured the internet looking for answers for this game. I eventually gave up after hearing one of the developers talk about the "true ending". I don't have the exact quote, it was from a tweet at some point, but they said something like "There isn't really a true answer to Signalis, the story is deliberately open-ended so fans can come to their own conclusions". I usually see this as a storytelling cop-out to avoid finishing a script, but Signalis pulls it off very well since it's entire theme and message revolves around that philosophy. Amazing game.
Loved the thought-provoking last portion of your video. As Wordsworth once said, we murder to dissect, and I think it's pretty fitting that a horror game should remind us of that. Like the Replikas populating its narrative, Signalis steadfastly refuses a thorough dissection; no matter how much we turn over things and prod through its remains, the story retains a spirit that lives beyond its component parts. One discovery can quickly lend itself to multiple different interpretations (be it psychological, emotional, ethical or political), and just as we think we've solved the puzzle that is the game, its pareidolic nature bleeds into yet another narrative we can spin around it, and away we go again. rose-engine have created something deeply beautiful with this game and I'm really grateful to have experienced it. A true reminder of why we love stories and how important they are to us as people.
"Great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice[,] And things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl." - Lovecraft’s The Festival (short story; w. 1923 p. 1925 [Weird Tales, January 1925]). That is tale about worms that eat witches corpses and started to animate those corpses and relive lives and rituals of those witches. Take that as you will.
I truly have never played a game that has stuck with me this hard before. I played the game extensively last year during a very hard and transitory time in my life, but the game at its core, all based around connection, struck a cord very deep for me, and I will always be thankful for it. Wonderful analysis and video
Awesome video ! Jeremy's passion during GOTY got me to play through the game. I got a bit frustrated with the puzzles and ended up consulting a guide, but I deeply enjoyed being confused by the game's narrative. I waited to watch the video, in order to finish the game first and I don't regret it. I just love any piece of art that accepts the fact that the strongest thing you'll get out of it is your own interpretation. It must take a lot of maturity to create such a piece, when you spend so much time creating a piece, it must be hard to let go of the fact that the creator can let people make what they make of it. This channel and this crew is awesome, from the dumb to the deep, you have it all
More of Jeremy!!! Unfortunatelly Danny recently got lazy, and became more mainstream and putting less and less attention to his work (speaking here as fan of Noclip since the beginning) - Tl;DR - he doesn't care as much as he did on inception of the channel. Jeremy's reviews contratry - are true work of art, he has that delicate soul which can resonate with game developers' minds and go deeply into game design process (comparable to Mark's GMT channel). As I said - please, put more of Jeremy's!
My current interpretation is that the whole game takes place in Ariane's mind, but not exclusively her memories, her bioresonance allowed her to copy the memories of people she's been close to into her own mind and now all those memories and persona's are becoming totally jumbled and fused. The Elster we play is dead, we're playing a copy of her that exist in Ariane's mind, but also a copy of Lilith too since her memories existed in Elster. The S-23, Falke and Adler, Alina Seo, those are all Elsters memories since we know an Elster unit was secretly deployed under Adler's command right around the same time Falke got sick, Rotfront being Ariane's memories, Isa being such a significant character because she was both a friend of Ariane and the sister of Lilith. Effectively a version of them all live inside Ariane's mind because she could read and in a way absorb their minds thanks to her powers, and now slowly warping and twisting together until the lines between persona's become blurred. Elster is effectively just Ariane trying to use her powers to commit suicide.
this is something that i cant put into words, like this game is amazing and so is the analysis. It's something you cant understand but still try to look for answers. Its the only game where i didn't understand but was enthralled by the story. Absolutely a masterpeice of a game, thank you for putting time to post this video, and i really mean it.
Still--what a fantastic video you made for Signalus! ... Wow, this video made me go back and think upon the frustration and outright righteous indignation I so felt and exclaimed against the computer screen at the disaster that is me going into IXION expecting to play a suspenseful survival City Builder where I gotta make tough choices in order to pull everyone out of the potentially ongoing Humanitarian Disaster that is surviving on a Spaceship, only to be given the most frustrating experience I have ever gone through by a cryptic plot that severely restricts my choices to [How did this happen?!?!?!??!?!], [Are we not professionals!?!??!?!], [I feel like this should be an option for me!], [Is me asking for a second opinion not allowed?!??!?!], [Is--is there a spy?!??!], and so much more from the complete and udder nonsense that was transpiring in that game's supposedly super serious plot--so much so I felt the need to spend 18 hours going through the science tree and transcribing the lore bits into a easily readable and filterable computer document, just so I can join the conversation in Figuring out what shenanigary ended up suffering through. ...And after reflection, whether or not my emotions decay into indifference, may my indignation for how Ixion's story played out for me remain intense. "I did not, JUST, go through all that."
Wow dude you *Reaaaaaalllyyyy* connected deep with this story, I'm happy for you!! Literally just finished the game and I'm at a stage where I can't be bothered with ARG's anymore so I immediately went looking for an analysis and found this. Well I can't say I derived that message from the experience, or really any message. It didn't click with me, I was too focused on mintmaxxing and fine combing the map that a lot of the notes and cutscenes flew by me. It's as if I only got half the equation, the other half now being lost to time. I did get the impression the game was not letting It's secrets open, and that certainly looks to be the case. Commenting on your last section, I did have a game that clicked with me, left me exactly as you described but even further. I was left crippled after the experience, Literally questioning to myself "how could I have missed this through my entire life? How could I possibly go through life without this realization?" There was a lot of introspection and change that took hold after that experience, and in the end the moment has passed and life has moved on. However, I still keep a single memento from the experience, and arguably my favorite aspect of the game, the OST. Not only my favorite album of all time, but also my favorite song of all time as well! A real gem it is!! I'm happy Signalis was to you and many others what Disco Elysium was for me, you truly never live until finding that work of art that leaves you in grief....
"...In some sense, our obsession with lore and analysis is like going to the restaurant and eating the menu..." 19:32 I find this quote very interesting! Is it some commonplace expression in English?
Bioresonant beings can affect reality and the fabric of space itself, as shown with FLKR's fight. I believe, the game is Ariane sending out her grief by bioresonance, tearing apart the world around, as adler says "This world cant take much more". Elster may be aware of the loop, maybe not, but it doesnt matter because as is shown in the Artifact ending and throughout the game; We arent the same elster, the one who danced with Ariane is dead. But at the same time, Elster IS mass produced and her love and arianes love is all the same
Huh. So that's why Evangelion failed and made so many people into endless lore dumpster diggers. It should've been about lesbians. Seriously I love how Signalis throws lore to our hungry pattern-matching brain non-stop piece after piece. It doesn't even try to pretend they fit together (you get a key from a dream? why that's cool!). Let the pattern-matching thing choke, so you can be free for the only importnat thing in the universe: tender L love and their Promise.
I feel like the "most right" answer is that it's all true, rather than none of it. Ariane is a psychic strong enough to warp reality, therefore _everything_ could have happened and it could still be metaphorical... or Elster is going Rampant from the psychological trauma, and Ariane can't possibly have psychic powers because that would be pointless.
There's one thing I don't understand. The artifact ending requires 3 keys. Eternity, Love, and Sacrifice. But the symbols on these match those of the six plates, and also the six planets and moons inhabited in the solar system. So where are the other three keys? Are there keys of Knowledge, Balance, and Flesh? Are they absent simply to drive me mad looking for them? Or is there meaning in their absence as well?
Without getting into the actual book as apparently this video's about to... This book belonged to Ariana and may have come with her on the ship. However, it appears that Isolde (Isa) Itou uses the ritual to find her sister. Elster, a replika presumably and seemingly representing Lilith Itou who once fell in love with a woman named Alina Seo, is pulled in by some sort of means after Lilith's daughter Isolde used the ritual. --------- Beyond the events at S23 on the temperate mining planet Leng and the past in Rotfront, the moon around the fourth planet stuck in a permanent blizzard... what we do know is the ship is failing but still flying as radiation leaks from the reactor. Ariana Yeong is slowly dying of radiation poisoning and after 3000 cycles, edible supplies are soon to be depleted if they haven't already. If there was no usable planet found, there never will be, and the instructions are to die. If possible by the hands of the Replika for a quicker, merciful end. Meanwhile, a failing replika is trying to find some means of avoiding this fate, coming again and again to the same point, the same decision, as system after system -- both in the ship and itself -- fail. Can it hold true to the promise today? Or will it be another day of struggling to hold out for another cycle? ----------- That's where I'm at before the video. Now... lets see where we end up.
>beat the game twice >spend half a day actively trying to piece a coherent plotline >realise that there is none. Game is undecipherable by design and the only way to explain all of it is as a dying dream of Arianne and Elster >think it is too lame of an explanation and go to youtube >The video starts with "the only way to clear cut explain it is as a dying dream of Elster and Arianne" Well, at least I dont feel so dumb anymore. Great game btw, first time I cried over a piece of media in a long time
Why is Seo looking for Elister on Leng? We get hints that Elister was never there. But she appears in the memories of Seo and ADLR. The point if Seo existing in the game is lost to me.
While I was playing the game the past two days the feeling I got the most was that I didn't do enough drugs when I was young to even begin to understand what was happening.
I enjoy the interprotation of the red eye being analogous to the players, the act of playing the game over multiple playthroughs by mulitple people forcing all the characters to repeat the tragic cycle and endure more suffering.
I did not get this at all from my playthrough of signalis (I found it mostly tedious and difficult to understand), but I feel like you explained the game with such passion and enthusiasm that I almost "replayed" it vicariously through you. So thank you for letting us see this game through your eyes.
This short essay by Kiwic is very relevant especially if you feel you are sensitive to this kind of melancholic experience or feel like you have been trying to fill a mysterious void your entire life: ua-cam.com/video/LuAaueikcbs/v-deo.html
Thank you. You have done this the most succinctly but coherently on this website. Edit "obsession with lore is like going to a restaurant and eating the menu." Fucking perfect. I'm using that.
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I've been waiting for Jacob Geller to make a video about Signalis but Jeremy just went ahead and made it for him. Would love to see more video essays from y'all!
I'm too overwhelmed by all of these lovely comments to reply to all of them, but I just wanted to say thank you and that your comment cracked me up. I'd love to do more video essays in the future!
You stole the words from my head!!!! I have been waiting for Geller to make a video essay on Signalis. Might have to make one myself
What was that movie on screen at 12:50 during the talk of the marble liquid?
1959's House on Haunted Hill. It's free to watch on UA-cam if you're interested!
The Ariane being bullied and ostracized leading into her bioresanence awakening angle is one I’ve leaned so hard on ever since I finished the game and hearing it spoken into words from someone else is so elevating. Thank you for the great video
*Ariane
One little thing that I love is that there is an unopened note for Ariane that explicitly tells her not to befriend Elster because of how obsessive, possessive the base persona can become... Ariane never read that and immediately I understood why Elster, with a little boost from Ariane's Bio-resonance, could shatter reality over and over again. The people in the mine, if they ever truly existed, never stood a chance in the face of such love.
Really really really well observed sir !
Elster’s obsession was so grand that her memories inside Falke all but destroyed Falke’s mind
Ariane only placed the memories there by accident but Falke just couldn’t take it
The 1.2 update added a little note in Act 2 that reveals this to be not the case. It's a top secret doc that basically spells out that "Persona Degradation" means "Individuality", not that they're going crazy.
@@LIscariot Can I ask where this document shows up? I don't remember reading anything like that and im worried i missed important information.
@@captainwolfbane3707 Floor B8 (during the segment where you get around the different floors with the dumbwaiter), in the STCR Dorm (lower right of the map), there is a hatch you can enter, which is a short hallway with an Ara unit hiding out, and the document is across from her.
I was in tears when I read the 3000 cycle mission update... They were so happy, and celebrating, right before they received it...
Very nice analysis - Signalis is probably one of the only pieces of media I have experienced where I'm happier not knowing conclusively every facet of every detail, and instead savouring every emotion it instilled in me. Up there with Blade Runner (Original + 2049) and Evangelion, possibly surpassing both in this way. It's not a game I'll forget, not for a long, long time.
Definitely agree, this also matches with what could be argued as the artist's intent. Overanalysis almost does the game a disservice.
I had the same experience, right down to the other pieces of media that I'd favourably compare the game to. It's probably not a coincidence that the almost all the Replikas have bird nicknames - it strongly felt to me like a homage to the dove sequence in Bladerunner.
One of the most ominous lines from the original "The King in Yellow" story is this: "It's only a play."
Of course, plays are stories, and stories carry one of the most dangerous weapons ever conceived. They carry Truth- not the kind that can be studied under a microscope or spied from afar by a telescope, but the kind of Truth that you feel in your heart. The kind that can burrow into your mind and force you to think things that can make the whole world fall apart.
SIGNALIS, too, is a play. A play of people forced into roles they never asked for, repeating lines they never needed to rehearse, acting out scenes that may not even make sense to them, much less us. Both the characters and the audience seek answers, but the game is utterly stingy with facts that might make the whole thing make logical sense.
That doesn't mean there isn't Truth there. But it's a Truth that we've always had all along, that we sometimes forget in our search for lore and secrets: that love is what unites us, ignorance is what destroys us, and just because we don't know everything doesn't mean we can't strive for something better, however fruitlessly.
It's only a play. But ignore its Truth at your own peril.
In short, the game narrative wasnt a search for truth, but a search for the emotional core beneath it all.
The real signalis was the friends we made along the way
@@samuel-rw3xt the real friends was the giant mass of flesh we met about 17 cycles ago
The unfortunate truth is that complete understanding of what is going on lies in another dimension, imperceivable yet it leaves detectable traces of its existence. While we are assured that Truth exists, how can we possibly ever come to know of it perfectly, to sate our hungry minds, if no power greater than our own comes to our aid to do so? All religion is about receiving revelation about the true nature of existence and becoming aligned with it, because without God or Gods, mortal beings are nothing, and in ignorance of their true nature, these beings are left with only the assumption of decay and oblivion.
Did you actually read the king in yellow?
I love how Signalis means different things to different people. When I met Adler, my first thought was Nathan Adler, David Bowie character that exists in a story about a mystery without a answer, told out of order. I related that together and I love that
Holy crap I never picked up on that
Pattern recognition go brrrrr
The emotional impact of Signalis is so strong. As much as I can appreciate all these threads to literature secondhand, simply piecing together Elster's past and her relationship both before and after the war makes the story hit so hard. It's a great work of art and makes perfect use of the medium and its genre to tell its tale. Watching the end of Isa's journey, seeing Alina's numerous corpses litter the beach, or dying at Arianne's bedside all feel burned into my memory of the game.
Until those memories pass like every other memory, of course. I remember promising myself I'd remember other stories from other games, too, but I don't remember what they were anymore.
Life's a whole bunch of ice swans, huh?
@@Thelothuo That's the nice thing about games. That happens all the time, but the games don't go anywhere. I'll just pick it up again when i feel like it
Curious, did you mean to say "Elster's numerous corpses..." and just mistype or do you hold the theory that Elster's Gestalt was Alina?
This video makes me feel as though I didn't play this game at all
I deleted it because I got bored after a couple of hours. I get scared easily and I love Silent Hill but it didn't click with me at all.
After watching far too many videos on this game after finishing it, I think your video and Eurothug4000's video on Signalis are my favorites! You really cut to the core of it all without getting too lost in trying to explain the surface details of the game or the minute to minute gameplay. It really is a tragic love story and about you, the player, helping Elster keep her promise.
I'll throw out there that this game fits really well into lesbian fiction more broadly - A Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Disobedience and especially Mulholland Drive also hit similar notes to this game. Also the fact that one of the puzzles involves tarot cards and how much the moon and stars factor into puzzles is some of the most lesbian shit to put in this game, it's great!!
Thank you so much! And Mulholland Drive is one of my favorite movies ever made. I wrote an absurdly long paper in film school dissecting it, and was having flashbacks to those days while working on this video. Portrait of a Lady on Fire has been on my list for a while- your comment has spurred me to finally watch it this weekend. Thanks for the thoughtful comment, I really appreciate it.
@@jeremybjayne Mulholland Drive is definitely deserving of a long essay lol - hope you enjoy Portrait of a Lady on Fire!!
Are tarot cards like a lesbian thing? I just genuinely don't know much about it
Eyyy glad to see I'm not the only one that made a Bly Manor connection!
Absolutely superb video, Jeremy, not just for the incredible Signalis analysis, but the philosophical exploration of trying to recapture a moment, a memory. I've always wanted to travel all over the world, but I'm not able to due to health reasons, so video games mean a lot to me to scratch that itch: through them, I get to travel to so many places, meet new people, experience incredible things. In turn, the one thing I do collect is physical copies of games. I've always thought it was an equivalent of having holidays photos: proof that I experienced and achieved something. In this video, you beautifully verbalized the thought in-depth, and I realize I also collect them for the rush that comes when I look at them, where all those memories of playing the game coming back: the game itself, where I was, and the point in my life when I played it. Just for a moment, attempting to recapture that feeling again. I didn't intend to personally tangent in the comment section after watching the video, but I wasn't expecting a psychological breakthrough! (And yes, those FFVII figurines are indeed amazing.)
Regarding Signalis itself, I loved your in-depth exploration into 'The King in Yellow'. I had no idea there was a play within the book itself, and the insight was fascinating. Your honesty regarding the essay's purpose in initially intending to try to crack Signalis' story code but ultimately still finding yourself back where you began was wonderful, too. Again, absolutely superb video, and I would love seeing similar video essays on the Noclip Crew channel in the future.
Thank you for the lovely, thoughtful reply! It means a lot to me that people are connecting with this video on a personal level. And I'd absolutely love to do more video essays in the future.
I didn't play the game. Even though the whole video was very interesting, the final bit about how our look for meaning (and other activities) is our attempt to keep connected and try to relive our experience a piece of art gave us was very beautiful.
Thanks Jeremy, you have become a great writer.
Thanks for the kind words and for watching!
I'd recommend giving this game a shot even if you watched this video. One of the things I don't see many places mention is how Signalis carries itself. In a sea of titles that want to ensure that you think and feel what they set out to do(read: loud and insecurely), Signalis is quiet and confident. It wants to do a thing, it will do this thing, and you are allowed to watch as it does this thing. It doesn't concern itself with how you feel at the end. It won't try to pursuade you one way or the other. Its a type and level of confidence that is very rare.
"Devastatingly beautiful" feels like the only appropriate way to describe this game.
God what a banger of a vid, such a treat. This game has lived with me ever since I played it, and this video perfectly depicts why it endures. Disarming the cynical impulse, offering space for many interpretations to flourish (and rejecting the notion that there's one true conclusion to reach), centering what you felt as it happened over what you think happened...damn both this game and this vid are sick
As someone who just completed Signalis and came to UA-cam specifically for analysis, this video is exactly what I wanted. Your central thesis is so well argued, and it almost makes me feel silly for wanting that analysis in the first place! At the same time I can feel those threads pulling at me, the literal and textual connections that seem so solid and so sure that they have to lead somewhere, that answers are possible to decipher if we only look close enough for long enough… I guess it all comes down to whether or not you think that those things can exist beside the central emotional register of the story without undercutting the message of what really matters.
I’m honestly not sure! But much like Signalis, this video gave me a lot to think about, and it’ll stick with me for a long time!
I like reading and listening to peoples theories of the lore of the game because each one brings with it a sometimes unique emotional interprotation of the story
Maybe the real Lovecraftian horrors are the friends we made along the way...
I started this video, but wasn't far in before I decided I need to play this game first. So I just picked up a copy and I'll be back to watch ASAP.
Oh god I was like a quarter into this wondering how I missed so much of the story, then you mention the fake out ending and... yeah I fell for it completely. Let me know where I should turn in my gamer card.
In all seriousness, this essay was wonderful and captures the emotional spirit of the game so well. While the conclusion after lore hunting may lead back to the start, I think there's a richness and depth that the metatextual side brings which makes Signalis feel complete and whole in the world (our world) the game exists in. That is to say: a hunt for meaning can be meaningful in of itself. This video is a wonderful way to share that sort of experience. Bravo - I'd love to see more of these on the channel.
Just wanted to say I really like Jeremy’s video style. Super introspective and thoughtful. Danny’s great, but these crew videos show a new side of the team unseen in the documentary videos!
I always thought that in the end, when the dreams become reality (As is the case of Signalis) getting caught in the details of of the story and the physics of the world matter less than the emotional impact they're trying to provide. Nietzsche (who not so coincidentally was also obsessed with cycles) spoke of true understanding as being inherently intuitive and experienced. He admired the Greeks and their tragedies for conveying their ideas through an abstracted emotional appeal to the chaos of nature, bolstered through a rational facade of story telling that took hold of the inquisitive impulse of the mind, resulting in that all important feeling of release at conclusion. In my sense this is what makes Signalis a true tragedy as well, it's a process of suffering, where one comes to understand intuitively the unfairness in the life and love of their main characters and reconcile it through an interactive experience of sight and sound. In this way I think a lot of people "correctly" interpreted the Artifact ending as the "best," (most fulfilling) as not only does reaching it require a delving into some pretty esoteric lore and engaging with the game to its limits, it also fully reconciles the story. Each ending makes you feel a little unfulfilled, like there's more, but it's only with the artifact ending do you feel a bit of emotional closure and that important release. The story is finished, whether what is happening is real or if the cycle continues no longer matters, for the sake of the audience (the watchful eye) and the characters their closure has been achieved, and they are allowed to affirm their love and die when your playtime ends and you turn off the game once and for all.
SIDENOTE: I use truths to describe the unchanging facts and inescapable fate of all people and things in the universe- suffering/death and that we are not sure of anything(mostly just meaning there could just be a lack of meaning in everything we do).
Sorry for commenting back so late AND JESUS SORRY FOR MY WHOLE SYNOPSIS BUT I STARTED TYPING AND COULDNT STOP but I Just finished the game recently and god damn. The sheer feeling this game gives me IMO is from how you can apply it to the IRL human experience. I feel like unfathomable sadness felt in this story is just a universal truth in and of itself- we are conscious beings looking for direction in a place that offers nothing so kind- and we have no choice in the matter either. Existentialism if you will. The human mind is not supposed to exist in a world that lets people relive moments endlessly. We can try and make meaning for things but what will they matter if everything is going to loop again according to the rules in Signalis' world? I think its an interesting question to ask really because how are we supposed to know? I believe the endings give us the possible answers to these questions from the truths of the cruel, cruel universe. In the leave ending you can't fulfill your promise and give up on your purpose hoping to change something. In another you die next to your lover after she forgets who you are. In one, you completely give up, in another, you keep pushing no matter the hardships however, you still fail at your goal. In the "best ending" it shows the two of you, (Ariane and LSTR) dying together again, not failing in your goal, but tragic nonetheless. No matter what ending you get there is no stopping the sad fate that LSTR or Ariane are in for and I think that is Signalis' impactful yet seemingly unstoppable message. No matter what, the search for meaning in an indefinite universe is a futile one and unfathomable sadness is what waits at the end of every story. An incredibly somber and upsetting (not in an ugh this shit sucks but like ow that hurt my feelings kind of way) story, yet I feel no-one can truly deny the truth which makes it all the more personal. A story about the unchanging cruelty behind truths that we find around us- yet pushing on through nonetheless even if suffering is inevitable because as conscious organisms, meaning is engraved into what we are. Its better to suffer with a purpose than without, wouldn't you say?
I feel as though the message behind the message this game tries to convey is one of how your own reality and your own thoughts shape your personal "meaning" and that this "meaning" is the very thing that can destroy you as a person. This game ending is an option with only two outcomes, suffer while reaching your meaning, or suffer and never truly feel as you completed everything you needed to do. An interesting juxtaposition, the meaning which keeps you going being the very thing that destroys you and everything you love and therefore ending the cycle.
I think that this is how the story conveys such a familiar yet sinister and evil feeling throughout it. You don't need to understand everything that happens in the story to come to this because the conclusion of the story is what you make of it. This is how Signalis portrays the feelings that it does into the player. As far as I'm concerned, your own unique conclusions are what this game wanted to tease out in the first place. Getting to see how the story resonated with other people and what they got out of it in the comments of videos such as this one really motivated me to find something of my own within this game. This is how Signalis really shows just how it can affect the player and how much the differences in the player can effect it and the messages that are conveyed through it.
I know this is only my take and there are so many out there with their own interpretations of what the story could mean but I feel confident in putting mine out there and others should too! It would be sick hearing people's interpretations now that there is so much information about the story and other opinions in forms of videos like these. Keep pushing to find meaning in a place that might only hold suffering for us either way, we can do all we can to keep trying even if everything is against us!
People have brought up H.P Lovecraft, Evangelion, Silent Hill 2, and Resident Evil, but never have i seen anyone make the Jungian connection.
There are several symbols associated with Ariane, not just the lily. There is also the butterfly. The box you has to open leading to the radio station features a butterfly and later there are four butterflies spelling out the word "Aeon."
The final puzzle of the game is revealed by collecting six tarot cards.
Let's do this one step at a time. The formal word for butterfly in Greek is psyche. I don't know the etymological reason for this, but in the myth of how the titan Prometheus created man, in place of the claws and teeth and the natures given by his brother Epimethus to other animals, Prometheus place a butterfly inside man, symbolizing his capacity for self transformation. The specific connotation of the myth is that Prometheus gave man a soul.
Aeon is a notable example of Jung's later works on the phenomenology of the Self. To explain what the Self is I'd have to go into all kinds of Jungian terms that are apt to be misunderstood if I don't explain them so I'll just say that the Self is what Signalis could be said to depict. Everything about the game that makes it feel insoluble; the way it unites opposites; the way sense blurs with nonsense, insides with outsides, time and space, real and unreal, the singular with the universal -- that is all like the Self. The Self is where man's psychology merges with the ontology of the universe.
It explains, at least thematically, how all this surreal dreamlike stuff can happen; how unit 512 can hop all over the solar system and beyond seemingly at random.
The book itself goes into a lot of astrology and offers an explanation for why people have looked to the stars and expected a sign.
The Self is initially encountered as a personification, the gradually broadens to encompass all opposites and the divine.
The inclusion of this word and butterflies at the same time, as well as being in a set of four, is more of a smoking gun than anything of the game having a Jungian influence.
The tarot is something Jung explored as well as an expression of unconscious archetypes. They are a set of symbols telling the story of the fool on his journey to acquire the world and reach fulfillment. It is the story of the individuation process, also a key Jungian concept.
Games like Pathologic give you Legos and you can build different things with them. The Void gives you Legos and you can build abstract sculptures with them. Signalis gives you Legos and no matter what you build with them, there will always be half of the Legos unusued, waiting for you to step on them.
i'm not crying, it's raining legos
I played this game several times through, got all the endings, spoke to every NPC to get all the dialogue and read every file…but I keep replaying this game and I’m not tired of it at all. I love living in this game and I love how purposefully obscure but meaningful all the little details are. Great video. I’m gonna keep playing the game for the dozenth time now.
Thank you so much for this video. I'm writing an art analysis on Signalis for my high school class (specifially Bioresonance and the themse of loss), and so many creators like yourself have been a big help. I'm really proud of how fast and passionate the Signalis community grew, and people like you keep bringing me back to the game day after day.
I leaned back in my chair after finishing this video and actually said, out loud, to nobody in particular: "What a fantastic fucking essay."
What a fantastic fucking essay! I'm spiraling down the post-traumatic video essay funnel, having finished my playthrough of SIGNALIS only two days ago, so I'll admit I was primed to love this video. But still... this was a really wonderful analysis, and I especially appreciate your point that our little human connections, our moments of love and joy, are kind of... cavities in the interstellar sea, little pockets of human meaning and beauty that will die, that are doomed, and that are therefore beautiful and meaningful.
Thanks for making this. You caught a new fan.
*Loved* this video. The passage in the Searching and Meaning chapter was exquisite. Our obsession with lore and how it drives us into a frenzy to the point where the thing we're obsessing over almost becomes a parody of itself is what I feel Lynch was pointing to with Twin Peaks. Everyone is so dominated by achieving a definitive conclusion that they lose sight of the notion that the mystery itself should be the most important piece of the puzzle; not the answer to said mystery. Bravo, this was an incredible watch.
^^^^^^
Says the guy who is currently wearing a Silent Hill shirt, thereby attempting to immortalise a vibe that only seems to grow the more we become removed from it.
Ignore me. I'll be over here, staring at a wall while drinking my coffee.
Has anyone seen a step ladder? A STAR took our step ladder from the library and i can't reach the books on the top shelves.
A beautifully fitting tribute to one of the best games of the year. Shoutout to Rose-Engine for trusting their instincts against all reason.
To paraphrase Ursula K. Le Guin, on the purpose of fiction: It is the role of the artist to communicate what cannot be said in words. It is the role of the novelist to do this, in words.
To paraphrase Zdzisław Beksiński, on leaving his works unnamed: If I had something to *say*, I would have written it down, and would not have needed so much paint.
to be honest. i do think there is a pin point to it all. but everyone is just so stretched out and have their own interpretations and little tad bits of info, thats its basically caused an info overload.
It would take a wile to pull everything out and around to place infront in basic words of what is going on. every clue, synonym between english and german, reference, play on words, and the ONE thing iv yet anyone to really bring up... that as part of the game, youre watching everything on a monitor.
Thank you for this video, I couldn't agree more. After being blown away by Signalis, I felt I owed it to myself to try to untangle the plot threads and come up with some kind of definitive explanation. After 2 weeks of repeat playthroughs and lore video binges, I admit defeat. The plot of Signalis is a Penrose triangle, an image with the appearance of solid, sturdy 3D object, but one that on closer examination cannot exist in Euclidian space. After watching your video, I feel that I can finally relax and just appreciate the amazing gift that Rose-Engine gave us.
Signalis is a ring. I'll be satisfied when I learn what opened that loop and enfolded subject and object, atom and world, into a singularity.
You can see Signalis and an externalization of the mind, like Silent Hill 2, but it could just as well serve as an internalization of the external world.
The term _seele_ is thrown about Jungian psychology and psychoanalysis in general, but you only get an ideal of the totality of what it really means when you consider the juxtaposition of materialism and idealism. Materialism is the philosophical stance that the world is made of matter, and yet we only ever encounter this substance as a shadow; a representation as in Schopenhauer's _World as Will and Representation.- So the world could be an ideal and we would be too close to it, to much involved and a part of the stream of event, to ever know.
So the _seele_ (German pronounces it the way we would say zay-le similar to how v is pronounced as f) which Jung used to mean psyche, is as much the stuff of the world as the mind. Spirit and matter are one. This is how these events across vast gulfs of space can seem so person, so synchronous, with who unit-512 is.
This enfolding loop seems to be the gate that Falke gazed into; a calamity of bio-resonance brought about by the sixth and final generation of replikas. What is not clear is how she and unit 512 became one, what the gate is, whether or not it was really found under Sirpenski, etc.
"it doesn't matter" is a phrase that's significance transcends Signalis and is ultimately my answer to the question of what is happening, to attempt to draw understanding from Signalis is akin to drawing blood from a stone.
The explanation is that a stone does not bleed and Signalis is a tragic love story, nothing else matters.
Beautiful video, thank you for covering Signalis. I'd love to read/watch/listen to your thoughts on SOMA if you're wanting to continue along this theme of existential dread.
There’s yours answer. How did she get well enough to dance? The artifact. She’s manipulating her own body with her new more powerful psychic abilities. She’s controlling herself like a puppet now. Hell the body might even have died by now, and the psychic being is now outside the body and using the body as a medium almost like possession to stay with Elster.
This was one of those games i played with a notebook. I loved trying to figure it out 😩
This was an absolutely beautiful video exploring and absolutely beautiful game. You know, I do think that a part of the point of Signalis is that there IS no clear answer, but you're also right in that part of the joy of it is in uncovering its mysteries, too. In a world that's harsh and uncaring, a lot of people are finding each other and connecting over this genuine piece of art, this expression of emotion, and bringing to the table what they think and feel about it, the references that they got from it--regardless of the original intent. Like Elster says, it doesn't matter. But it's an amazing experience I'm sure not quite ready to leave behind yet, and you brought up some wonderful new thoughts for me to add to my magpie collection of shiny theories about this game. Thank you so, so much for this!
ever since I heard this game from a reviewer (i think it was shillup) it's been on my short list. looks awesome and seems awesome. I'll try to move it up the list and not let it fall on the pile of shame
I finally understand what phrase “brain poison” truly means
I had no clue about what was giong on after I finished Signalis... I'm at ease, knowing this might be intended. 😁
the game combines existential horror, oppression of regime dread, cosmic horror, consciousness simulation horror, isolation and hopelessness into a love story. k.....
Thank you, Jeremy :)
17:46 me unironically saying "yas queen" throughout as I listened. This is what I truly believe.
Oh man, knowing tiniest bit about German history and art makes this hit so much harder. Not that it needed to. What a game.
RE: Red eye - literally the color of Ariane's eyes. No real need to invent a demon god to explain it, just her presence in her own dream...
Because Signalis has so, so many meanings, unique to each player, I find what I got from the story to be pretty much close to my life experience and worldview, and the one thing that stuck to me most was less the love between Ariane and LSTR-512, but just sheer disgust and hatred for the nation of AEON and its authoritarian bullshit in the name of "revolution" and fake "freedom".
After all, it's a society that caused at least 511 more of these callous sacrifices prior, with no end in sight.
In terms of comprehending the abstract, the value isn't in being able sift through it and find an objectively "correct" interpretation no one can deny -- it's in the interpretation itself. Absorbing a creative work multiple times, exploring the secondary and tertiary references within it, and sharing theories and questions with others who were affected by it is the proof of the work's richness and its value. Multiple interpretations and highly individualized views of its meaning is a marker of a work's artistic depth, not a sign of its absence.
I didn't expect such an incredible, poignant video essay on signalis from Noclip Crew! Fantastic work. This and Eurothug's videos are aboslutely incredible and have really helped me arrange my own thoughts on this awesome awesome game.
Oh hell yes, been waiting for this.
Same, but I was gonna say oh fuck yes
@@Horsethe666 in hindsight, yours is a more appropriate exclamation of my excitement
Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I tried to find a way to justify an explanation, stitch it together from the clues, but you've managed to finally give me and probably many the confirmation of the, well, "true" ending, that we tried to push away with every step and with every theory we conjured up. It's all a play. It's a painting. It does not have to make absolute sense, it never tried to and it never will, because like in every art piece, it's never real in that it perfectly reflects the picture of reality, but it is real in that it shows the beholder a core aspect of reality. Here being one one hand the story directly of two people, cast out by society and their government for just not fitting the tight groups that were set, beautifully illustrated by the replika models, all with their set purpose and set amount and kind of amenities and recreation to be a working object, a cog in the machine, cast out into the uncaring void of space on a journey destined to end in tragedy, all for a power demonstration for a society and government that sees them for nothing more than numbers. And yet they manage to have an end where both are happy by, and god I hate myself for saying this but in this context it fits, the power of love. By truly becoming one. And then the core, more subtle message, that in a world where nothing seems to make sense, the truth always being just out of reach, there are three things, three truths, three keys like those leading to the secret ending representing the restless and pointless search players like me had for a happy ending: Eternity, Love, and Sacrifice. Again, thank you. I do not know how much longer I would've stayed restless, trying to find that happy and true ending before accepting what was right infront of us the entire time.
Also "is our universe a roguelike?" got me, as well as the "going into a restaurant and eating the menu", the part at 22:00, all absolutely amazing analysis and I'm looking forward to more of your content! :]
another fantastic signalis video! I will consume it all you cant stop me!
13:07 imo that could also be a parallel to the Replika program, creating imitations once living humans and all
Was that... the song from the Believe ad for Halo 3? (I know it's a real classical song, sue me)
This games story is so ever-changing and open to interpretation, 2/3 through I was expecting it to suddenly turn into a different game
Signalis definitely made me feel when I played it in november last year. Your video helped me to sort those feelings, especially how you phrased things while offering possible explanations of what is (or is not) happening in Signalis. And also let me relive those feelings while watching. Thanks Jeremy!
6:48
The level of detail int he game is insane: at about the timestamp given above, the kanji compound 秘密 broadly meaning "secret" is show about the words, "something was unearthed," but part of the 秘 kanji is highlighted in red. This part happens to be a kanji in it's own right: 必, meaning "invariable" which we can take to mean "inevitable" (which would be 必然 in Japanese.)
This subtle detail lends finality to the revelation of the gate; a seemingly lien artifact that caused Falke to go berserk, or otherwise exists in this dreamworld.
Maybe Signalis was the real The King In Yellow play all along. It clearly did make an impact on your sanity.
the game's emotional transmission vibe strongly reminds me of some Skinny Puppy songs with their stream of consciousness type of lyrics which seem unrelated but translate a strong emotion or concept like the cruelty of society and deterioration of nature because of industry,
Playing this game felt like trying to find something that doesn't exist. ( in a good way )
Great video! I also scoured the internet looking for answers for this game. I eventually gave up after hearing one of the developers talk about the "true ending". I don't have the exact quote, it was from a tweet at some point, but they said something like "There isn't really a true answer to Signalis, the story is deliberately open-ended so fans can come to their own conclusions". I usually see this as a storytelling cop-out to avoid finishing a script, but Signalis pulls it off very well since it's entire theme and message revolves around that philosophy. Amazing game.
Loved the thought-provoking last portion of your video. As Wordsworth once said, we murder to dissect, and I think it's pretty fitting that a horror game should remind us of that. Like the Replikas populating its narrative, Signalis steadfastly refuses a thorough dissection; no matter how much we turn over things and prod through its remains, the story retains a spirit that lives beyond its component parts. One discovery can quickly lend itself to multiple different interpretations (be it psychological, emotional, ethical or political), and just as we think we've solved the puzzle that is the game, its pareidolic nature bleeds into yet another narrative we can spin around it, and away we go again.
rose-engine have created something deeply beautiful with this game and I'm really grateful to have experienced it. A true reminder of why we love stories and how important they are to us as people.
"Great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice[,]
And things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl." - Lovecraft’s The Festival (short story; w. 1923 p. 1925 [Weird Tales, January 1925]).
That is tale about worms that eat witches corpses and started to animate those corpses and relive lives and rituals of those witches.
Take that as you will.
I truly have never played a game that has stuck with me this hard before. I played the game extensively last year during a very hard and transitory time in my life, but the game at its core, all based around connection, struck a cord very deep for me, and I will always be thankful for it. Wonderful analysis and video
Let's gooooo
Awesome video ! Jeremy's passion during GOTY got me to play through the game. I got a bit frustrated with the puzzles and ended up consulting a guide, but I deeply enjoyed being confused by the game's narrative. I waited to watch the video, in order to finish the game first and I don't regret it. I just love any piece of art that accepts the fact that the strongest thing you'll get out of it is your own interpretation. It must take a lot of maturity to create such a piece, when you spend so much time creating a piece, it must be hard to let go of the fact that the creator can let people make what they make of it. This channel and this crew is awesome, from the dumb to the deep, you have it all
Yep, it kinda felt like that. And the bit about attempts to manifest our experiences into a physical object... So true
Sheesh this game was good. Such a steal at $20. I hope the devs go on to make even more masterpieces!
More of Jeremy!!!
Unfortunatelly Danny recently got lazy, and became more mainstream and putting less and less attention to his work (speaking here as fan of Noclip since the beginning) - Tl;DR - he doesn't care as much as he did on inception of the channel.
Jeremy's reviews contratry - are true work of art, he has that delicate soul which can resonate with game developers' minds and go deeply into game design process (comparable to Mark's GMT channel).
As I said - please, put more of Jeremy's!
My current interpretation is that the whole game takes place in Ariane's mind, but not exclusively her memories, her bioresonance allowed her to copy the memories of people she's been close to into her own mind and now all those memories and persona's are becoming totally jumbled and fused. The Elster we play is dead, we're playing a copy of her that exist in Ariane's mind, but also a copy of Lilith too since her memories existed in Elster.
The S-23, Falke and Adler, Alina Seo, those are all Elsters memories since we know an Elster unit was secretly deployed under Adler's command right around the same time Falke got sick, Rotfront being Ariane's memories, Isa being such a significant character because she was both a friend of Ariane and the sister of Lilith. Effectively a version of them all live inside Ariane's mind because she could read and in a way absorb their minds thanks to her powers, and now slowly warping and twisting together until the lines between persona's become blurred.
Elster is effectively just Ariane trying to use her powers to commit suicide.
this is something that i cant put into words, like this game is amazing and so is the analysis. It's something you cant understand but still try to look for answers. Its the only game where i didn't understand but was enthralled by the story. Absolutely a masterpeice of a game, thank you for putting time to post this video, and i really mean it.
Still--what a fantastic video you made for Signalus!
...
Wow,
this video made me go back and think upon the frustration and outright righteous indignation I so felt and exclaimed against the computer screen at the disaster that is me going into IXION expecting to play a suspenseful survival City Builder where I gotta make tough choices in order to pull everyone out of the potentially ongoing Humanitarian Disaster that is surviving on a Spaceship, only to be given the most frustrating experience I have ever gone through by a cryptic plot that severely restricts my choices to [How did this happen?!?!?!??!?!], [Are we not professionals!?!??!?!], [I feel like this should be an option for me!], [Is me asking for a second opinion not allowed?!??!?!], [Is--is there a spy?!??!], and so much more from the complete and udder nonsense that was transpiring in that game's supposedly super serious plot--so much so I felt the need to spend 18 hours going through the science tree and transcribing the lore bits into a easily readable and filterable computer document, just so I can join the conversation in Figuring out what shenanigary ended up suffering through.
...And after reflection, whether or not my emotions decay into indifference, may my indignation for how Ixion's story played out for me remain intense. "I did not, JUST, go through all that."
Thanks for the deep dive Jeremy.
I have a feeling you'd like Returnal as well.
If nothing else, your description of games, gaming, memorabilia and the meaning they provide us all was one of the best i've ever heard.
Wow dude you *Reaaaaaalllyyyy* connected deep with this story, I'm happy for you!! Literally just finished the game and I'm at a stage where I can't be bothered with ARG's anymore so I immediately went looking for an analysis and found this. Well I can't say I derived that message from the experience, or really any message. It didn't click with me, I was too focused on mintmaxxing and fine combing the map that a lot of the notes and cutscenes flew by me. It's as if I only got half the equation, the other half now being lost to time. I did get the impression the game was not letting It's secrets open, and that certainly looks to be the case.
Commenting on your last section, I did have a game that clicked with me, left me exactly as you described but even further. I was left crippled after the experience, Literally questioning to myself "how could I have missed this through my entire life? How could I possibly go through life without this realization?" There was a lot of introspection and change that took hold after that experience, and in the end the moment has passed and life has moved on. However, I still keep a single memento from the experience, and arguably my favorite aspect of the game, the OST. Not only my favorite album of all time, but also my favorite song of all time as well! A real gem it is!! I'm happy Signalis was to you and many others what Disco Elysium was for me, you truly never live until finding that work of art that leaves you in grief....
"...In some sense, our obsession with lore and analysis is like going to the restaurant and eating the menu..." 19:32
I find this quote very interesting! Is it some commonplace expression in English?
Damn... That was an incredible video.
Bioresonant beings can affect reality and the fabric of space itself, as shown with FLKR's fight.
I believe, the game is Ariane sending out her grief by bioresonance, tearing apart the world around, as adler says "This world cant take much more".
Elster may be aware of the loop, maybe not, but it doesnt matter because as is shown in the Artifact ending and throughout the game; We arent the same elster, the one who danced with Ariane is dead. But at the same time, Elster IS mass produced and her love and arianes love is all the same
Huh. So that's why Evangelion failed and made so many people into endless lore dumpster diggers. It should've been about lesbians.
Seriously I love how Signalis throws lore to our hungry pattern-matching brain non-stop piece after piece. It doesn't even try to pretend they fit together (you get a key from a dream? why that's cool!). Let the pattern-matching thing choke, so you can be free for the only importnat thing in the universe: tender L love and their Promise.
I feel like the "most right" answer is that it's all true, rather than none of it. Ariane is a psychic strong enough to warp reality, therefore _everything_ could have happened and it could still be metaphorical... or Elster is going Rampant from the psychological trauma, and Ariane can't possibly have psychic powers because that would be pointless.
Nice point of view and cool video, inspiring. But please look up the pronounciation of Achtung
There's one thing I don't understand. The artifact ending requires 3 keys. Eternity, Love, and Sacrifice. But the symbols on these match those of the six plates, and also the six planets and moons inhabited in the solar system. So where are the other three keys? Are there keys of Knowledge, Balance, and Flesh? Are they absent simply to drive me mad looking for them? Or is there meaning in their absence as well?
I love a good meticulous dissection of a game I'll never play 👌
"Life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to be experienced"
That's why I don't want to watch any of the analysis videos on this game, including this one. I don't want to understand, I want to feel.
Without getting into the actual book as apparently this video's about to... This book belonged to Ariana and may have come with her on the ship. However, it appears that Isolde (Isa) Itou uses the ritual to find her sister. Elster, a replika presumably and seemingly representing Lilith Itou who once fell in love with a woman named Alina Seo, is pulled in by some sort of means after Lilith's daughter Isolde used the ritual.
---------
Beyond the events at S23 on the temperate mining planet Leng and the past in Rotfront, the moon around the fourth planet stuck in a permanent blizzard... what we do know is the ship is failing but still flying as radiation leaks from the reactor. Ariana Yeong is slowly dying of radiation poisoning and after 3000 cycles, edible supplies are soon to be depleted if they haven't already. If there was no usable planet found, there never will be, and the instructions are to die. If possible by the hands of the Replika for a quicker, merciful end. Meanwhile, a failing replika is trying to find some means of avoiding this fate, coming again and again to the same point, the same decision, as system after system -- both in the ship and itself -- fail. Can it hold true to the promise today? Or will it be another day of struggling to hold out for another cycle?
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That's where I'm at before the video. Now... lets see where we end up.
I'm surprised you didn't notice The Shining's floor carpet pattern in (almost) every save room.
When you nomlonger can tell reality from the dream you have reached madness or enlightenment or both.
>beat the game twice
>spend half a day actively trying to piece a coherent plotline
>realise that there is none. Game is undecipherable by design and the only way to explain all of it is as a dying dream of Arianne and Elster
>think it is too lame of an explanation and go to youtube
>The video starts with "the only way to clear cut explain it is as a dying dream of Elster and Arianne"
Well, at least I dont feel so dumb anymore.
Great game btw, first time I cried over a piece of media in a long time
Ohhh this looks like just the type of video I was looking for, and from those who work at the mighty no clip. Well... It would be rude not to watch!
Why is Seo looking for Elister on Leng? We get hints that Elister was never there. But she appears in the memories of Seo and ADLR. The point if Seo existing in the game is lost to me.
While I was playing the game the past two days the feeling I got the most was that I didn't do enough drugs when I was young to even begin to understand what was happening.
the Japanese word for "lily" is sometimes used as slang for "lesbian". just another layer to the connection and why it was locked away in the safe
I enjoy the interprotation of the red eye being analogous to the players, the act of playing the game over multiple playthroughs by mulitple people forcing all the characters to repeat the tragic cycle and endure more suffering.
Thanks for bringing this to my wishlist’s attention
What are all the music users in this video?
I did not get this at all from my playthrough of signalis (I found it mostly tedious and difficult to understand), but I feel like you explained the game with such passion and enthusiasm that I almost "replayed" it vicariously through you. So thank you for letting us see this game through your eyes.
Yo, around the 20:00, what's that version of Nocturne? Could you send it my way?
This short essay by Kiwic is very relevant especially if you feel you
are sensitive to this kind of melancholic experience
or feel like you have been trying to fill a mysterious void your entire life:
ua-cam.com/video/LuAaueikcbs/v-deo.html
Thank you. You have done this the most succinctly but coherently on this website.
Edit "obsession with lore is like going to a restaurant and eating the menu." Fucking perfect. I'm using that.
Just finished this game yesterday and have been so hungry for more lore and analysis, this has been one of the best by far! Great stuff man!