[Kineli]

Иногда думаешь вечером пройти одну-две миссии Шепард и пойти спать.
А потом видишь пост о какой-то флеш игре и думаешь - а почему бы не попробовать потыкать кнопки минут пять?

Pause Ahead

Знаете, я когда-то прошла Nihilumbra на самом сложном Void-моде. И очень гордилась этим - потому что в интернете очень много восклицаний, да как же так, оно же непроходимо. На самом деле, вполне проходимо, но многие бросали - поэтому дойти такую вещь до конца всё же жутко приятно, пусть для этого и нужно 100500 попыток.

И вот теперь у меня есть ещё повод для гордости. В общем, открываю я эту игру.. и у меня есть такая проблема. Я не могу бросить игру, если ГГ в плохой ситуации. Я не могу закрыть вкладку и на этом закончить. Можно, конечно, посмотреть летс плей - но осадок остается.
Так и сидела я несколько часов. Игра заботливо посчитала за меня количество гейм оверов - 423. Потому что у меня плохая реакция. И с таймингом не очень. И когда надо собраться и четко что-то сделать, то начинаю кнопки путать. Но зато у меня достаточно упрямства, чтобы пройти без скилла, а чисто на упертости.

На самом деле, мне игры с таким сюжетом нравятся: которые раскрывают какую-то тайну шаг за шагом, оставляя какие-то таинственные послания и по мере продвижения раскрывается загадка всего сюжета, которая оказывается чем-то более сложным, чем казалось вначале. По атмосфере мне напомнило мою любимую крипи-стори - она была тоже про пиксельную игру и по жанру закончилась не самым радужным образом - хотя тут я ждала только хэппи энда. И поэтому я не понимаю - как эта игра не стала популярной? Почему в интернете нет фанарта и кучи обсуждений и теорий? Да, она короткая, но классная же.
На самом деле я прониклась ГГ. Проникнуться с пары строчек? Могу, умею, практикую. Но мне показалось значимым, как ГГ целеустремленен (My thoughts are not on how I arrived but how I escape) и его юмор даже в непростых ситуациях (All this commotion to bar my path. It's quite flattering, really).

Так что проверить свои навыки в платформерах можно тут , а можно сначала решить, а уверены ли вы, что хотите с этим связаться и прочитать подробнее про игру/посмотреть скрины здесь.

@темы: Арт, Отчёт о просмотренном/пройденном, Pause Ahead, Игры, Музыка

Comments

[Neve]

I AM HERE TO TELL YOU THAT I'M ON THE SEVENTEENTH LEVEL AND I OFFICIALLY HATE PLATFORMERS X_________X

[Kineli]

Neve, he-he, glad you liked it ^_^
So, have you beaten the game already?)

[Neve]

Kineli, I actually genuinely dislike the "platformer" part or, I guess, not as much that as the difficulty. it's got atmosphere, the design is cool and the soundtrack rocks, but the necessity to replay each level 100500 times kinda kills it all. imho.
and no, I'm on the boss fight and PASSIONATELY hate platformers

[Kineli]

Neve, well, I actually hate platformers too and avoid playing them)

and no, I'm on the boss fight and PASSIONATELY hate platformers

oh, good luck ^^ you'll need it ^^

[Neve]

прошла

янихренанепонял

Kineli,

well, I actually hate platformers too and avoid playing them)

I have one platformer that I adored as a child, and I'd like to replay it some day, but other than that... nah, not my genre. I guess, my closest experience with it that wasn't in childhood is DmC, which kinda loves its platformer elements, and I liked it, but that's it -- elements

oh, good luck ^^ you'll need it ^^

it took me so. much. time. to figure out that the third stage gets so much easier if you run through the whole screen from left to right and then pause from right to left. that way the shadow can't catch up with you.

[Kineli]

Neve,

янихренанепонял

можно посмотреть концовку секретного уровня. ну, чтобы ещё меньше понять.

I have one platformer that I adored as a child, and I'd like to replay it some day

which one is that?

run through the whole screen from left to right and then pause from right to left. that way the shadow can't catch up with you.

oh, I used that strategy too. my problem was that I was too impatient and didn't want to pause often. and got game overs because of that =_=.

btw, how many game overs in total did you have?

[Neve]

Kineli,

можно посмотреть концовку секретного уровня. ну, чтобы ещё меньше понять.

я прочитала про неё на tvtropes btw, how do you think, was the voice talking to the protagonist the Architect or someone else? and what did the number 00 on the protagonist's hand mean? and what the fuck was all that, actually

which one is that?

this one. it was SO DIFFICULT back then. I wonder what it'll feel like now.

btw, how many game overs in total did you have?

seven hundred and something I guess I'm awfully out of practice when it comes to reaction speed-based gameplay.

[Kineli]

Neve, yay, theories time~ ^^ I mean, I wanted to discuss it too). So.

note that I was writing it half-asleep, so it may be not quite logical

was the voice talking to the protagonist the Architect or someone else?

I accidentally wrote a small wall of text

I think, it was that shadow in the boss fight. 'cause it'd be strange for the Architect to referred to himself in the third person.

I believe that the voice is so bitter and sarcastic about escaping 'cause he went though it all. And failed. And got trapped in the Nihil level. So this persistence and hope of MC irritates him: he remembers like he was the same and knows how it ended for him.

"I hope you're not fooling yourself. Everything proceeds exactly as it should. You are merely a rat in maze. "
"You must expect a reward at the end of this journey... You're sorely mistaken"

During pauses there are different phrases, one of them says "the madness", others are varying from "save me", help me", "I'm sorry", "pain" but at the same time the Voice remains sadistic: if you complete Nihil level, it reveals why he asks not to go though the last door:

"Hey, stop
Don't go through that door.
Please
Please stop
Please
Don't...
Because I'd WAAAYYY rather watch you fail at the extra stage a million more times. "

So I think as the voice was trapped, he went if not insane, then kind of unstable: he wants to be saved and he wants others to feel his pain at the same time.
During pauses in the early levels you also have "feels warm", then "cold", then "colder" which could also symbolize how the voice at first felt warm as he hoped to escape, then cold - when he failed and colder as he got chained in this world.

And after Nihil level:
"So here we are, face to face at last. You have done exactly what you were told strung along by a leash, following pipe dreams and promises..." it could mean that the voice was behind the Nihil level's door and that it actually was expected that MC would go there.

"I am chained to this existence, to this role. I have fulfilled my function. And so I no longer have a place in this world. I hope that before it's too late you will break free from your chains. " - so, the voice is chained, it was possible to break this imprisonment but it became too late for the voice.

and then that's written:
"— SUBJECT 00
Status-terminated"

Maybe that means that MC will have to replace the one who was chained before him. MC has no other purpose now, so experimenting on him is finished.
Or the MC got killed there. And the voice was killed the same way even before and now is a ghost trapped in the labyrinth. One of the pause phrases says "ghosts" after all.

and what did the number 00 on the protagonist's hand mean?

and again

maybe, he's the original and the others are clones? or he was a "prototype" or somewhat. There are lots of similar beings trapped in that place (One gets away, a thousand stay trapped within)
Each of them is able to revive?
"I feel a rush of deja vu. Not of memories, but of past lives."
"You die upon spikes. You die when time runs dry. You return to life, time and time again. "

And this must be the one big experiment because of this numbers and "subjects".In the and of the Nihil level it's also written "connection lost", so the setting might be quite modern.

The purpose of the whole experiment might be studying the ability of pausing or immortality. Or both.
So the scientists make the conditions where the victim has to go through a lot of deaths ans use their abilities. So they make it as if the victims can escape and this acts as the motivation for the victims to follow this suicidal path. again. this quote: "You have done exactly what you were told strung along by a leash, following pipe dreams and promises."

It is expected that they go to the Nihil level and go though the guilliotines and split their souls, so they can be killed forever.

As one of the guilliotines says:

"It's appetite is all-consuming.
Your splintered soul will be it's repast. "

The victims of the experiments may be fed off to something. Maybe, it can eat only the most strong and persistent souls and the experiment is actually feeding this thing.

And those who don't go to the Nihil level are not appropriate for feeding, that's why the boss deals with them. The fact that MC could defeat it and escape was unexpected.

and what the fuck was all that, actually

I'll try to sum it up, as I wasn't very consistent expressing my theories. I'll try to keep it short >_>.

I most of all believe in the ghost theory. The werewolves are being studied and fed off to something in the end, the only way they can die.
And the voice is one of the ghosts, who knows what will happen to the MC (or what is expected to happen). So he says a lot about disappearing and nothingness (= Nihil):

"Once you leave this cave you will cease to exist."
"Your time is drawing near. The end of existence. Nothingness. I do hope it was worth it? To willingly be a rat in a maze. For a reward you desperately hope exists. "
"Soon there will be nothing but you. ..And it."

If you go to the Nihil level - you actually do what was planned and get killed. Bad end. If you go to the door - you manage to free yourself. Good end.
But there are still many other victims to be experimented on.

I personally headcanon that MC learns the truths, gets stronger, returns and beats the hell out of the scientists and frees other victims. Happy end for everyone.

this one. it was SO DIFFICULT back then. I wonder what it'll feel like now.

oh, I haven't heard of it before. Hope, you'll have fun replaying it)

seven hundred and something

wow, that's really cool how you didn't give up.