Was looking if anyone else had made this connection. One of them in a quantum state of both life and death, the other trapped in death in a simulated world. Neither of them able to escape, and yet escape itself would mean death.
@@danielgwillim8220 One of my biggest (of very few) gripes with this game is that the player character does not have an instrument. I want to play along too! I think that if they were to add this, it would have to be another string track, or something that complements the existing tracks well enough to maybe be a lead instrument. But I think it would work perfectly; you could only play the instrument by holding a button without your signalscope out, so you could only play with one other traveler at a time. Except during the final scene.
@@Parker_Bedford I found two discussions on Reddit about what could the player instrument be, the answer that felt the most obvious to me was the kazoo but my personal answer would be an acoustic guitar as heard in Timber Hearth theme.
The prisoner’s music, to me, will always sound like it’s reaching out into the sheer darkness of space, hoping, begging, desperately reaching for someone, anyone, to hear it. Solanum’s song is it’s perfect partner, consoling, like she’s telling them, “We are here.”
it's very very hard to hear it, but it's the same song that plays in the fireplace rooms. I didn't realize this until replaying in VR recently and it knocked my socks off to realize that. it's fitting, the song of a person who was locked away in the dark by flame...
@@cyoung1404dude i was expecting elegy for the rings to play when prisoner joined in with the travelers and then this played and it knocked me on my ass, it sounds so unbelievably sad, andrew prahlow is so fucking genius for this soundtrack
@blonkonups Yeah, it's so much more sad than elegy for the rings which all the other Strangers play. It really fits. His song is so sad because he's been stuck in a prison for thousands of years. They did a fantastic job with this dlc
Y'all remember when Solanum said "I hope you won't mind, but I consider you as a friend"? To me that's exactly this that the Prisoner said to our character when they left us the vision of them and the Hearthian going on a trip on their homeworld's river.
Holy moly, does anyone else just start bawling when listening to this? Their stories are just so sad. “This song is new to me, but I am honored to be a part of it.” "I'm glad you remembered me."
I think there's sadness in all of the characters stories. copied from a comment on errant signal's video: in the sequence where you pick up each explorer's instrument, each sequence represents their attitude towards death. Riebeck hides away until his shelter crumbles, Chert observes death from a distance, Feldspar faces it head on (or alternatively tries to outrun it), Gabbro floats above it all, Esker watches over the changing of the ages in the form of the campfire, and Solanum (by extension the nomai) set out to reach the light at the end.
@@coenraed and i guess the prisoner just wants to die after all this time actually maybe he wants to be remembered too, both based on his quote but also the gravestone
“It’s tempting to linger in this moment, while every possibility still exists. But unless they are collapsed by an observer, they will never be more than possibilities.” - Solanum
On their own, the Prisoner's and Solanum's songs sound sad. But together they don't at all. It's like... Idk if this makes sense at all but like. The prisoner and solanum were both lost and alone and forgotten. So when they're alone, that's what their songs feel like. But when they're found and around that campfire and they both had their purpose fulfilled, they're not sad anymore
Going back and reading some of the dialogue from a young Solanum after having played through EotE is so fucking sad. She talks about how she too felt the Eye may have been malicious - that it lured them there out of malice, or stopped its signal because it no longer wanted to be found. Knowing that the signal her clan heard was the one the Prisoner released, only for mere moments, is so heartwrenching.
It also gets uncomfortably close to how the Strangers felt about the Eye. The Eye is so powerful, and the truth within it so significant, that when one gazes upon it it's hard to not react with destructive spite or reckless abandon. It's easy to forget that the decision Escall made, to not send a message before warping, was a horribly reckless one that could have cost the clan their lives. Even several generations later, this infatuation for the Eye led the Nomai to lose sight of what's important: continuing their tradition of exploration and joining back with the rest of the clans. Don't get me wrong, the Nomai accomplished great things due to their stubbornness and due to sheer coincidence the decision to warp immediately is probably what ended up saving the universe. Still though, it was reckless, and Nomai should know better than to do such a thing. What I'm getting at here, is that Solanum had a healthy relationship with the Eye. She knew it was simply another part of the universe. It was incredible to be sure, but it wasn't malicious and it didn't hold any great importance. It simply _was_. The Prisoner seems to understand this too, that the Eye isn't evil, and suppressing it might not be a good idea.
@@nevinmyers1245 I'll never get tired from going to these videos about Outer Wilds, especially the OST ones, cause its usually where I can find comments like yours, that present to me a new perspective on the beautiful and complex lore of this game that never even crossed my mind.
@@danielbueno8474 Hey, thanks! I sometimes worry that my perspectives on this game get a bit "fake deep" at times, so it feels great that people connect with them
its hard to say exactly how the strangers felt about the eye - obviously they knew it was important, so important they were willing to destroy their entire home planet to get closer to it, but i personally am stuck between two conclusions when it comes to whether or not they recognized what the vision they received actually meant. the vision they saw was of their home and the universe rotting away, but in that same vision there was grass growing over their bones - the circle of life, death and rebirth. what i've been wondering is whether they knew that it meant rebirth, and simply held themselves in such high esteem that they would wish to preserve themselves over allowing something new to prevail, or whether they didn't actually comprehend that part of the message, and thought that the Eye was simply a destroy-the-universe button
To me, this entire DLC represents a side of a coin that the base game didn't explore. The Hearthians represent endless curiosity, and courage - courage to face beasties with Feldspar, courage to face your fears with Riebeck, courage to face yourself with Esker, and courage to cross time and space with Gabbro and Chert (respectively). The Nomai represent science, logic, and progress - but also hope. Hope for discovery let them persevere a botched warp, crashed escape pods, quantum trials, impossible odds to find a planet that barely exists, supernova(e), and one of them even survived a radioactive extinction event, in a way. The base game is a beautiful story about hope and curiosity into accepting our deaths, and the fact that everything is temporary. Everything we do and hold dear will someday disappear, but also, it carries on in those who still live to saw it. We only exist to pass on the torch of the art and beauty we create. The Strangers represent how some don't like to see how their story ends. Hope and curiosity fall away into malice and secretiveness, homesickness and loneliness, and ignorance enough to almost doom the entire universe to die. But the deed of just one good person can change all of that badwill. Without even knowing, our prisoner passed that glowing green torch onto a species thousands of light years away, long after everything he knew had vanished. His people committed bad acts, silencing knowledge for all in the future - but even if the Eye is silenced, the universe will still end, and at the end of everything, I'll see you there, reader, and once everything is gone, maybe we'll play a song to pass this torch of art and beauty ... and of life, and sorrow, and homesickness, onto a universe with different rules, and maybe even mantis people. Struggle all you want in your real life to avoid the truth but someday we'll all be playing this song; But for now, here in 2021, it seems a Stranger is approaching our campfire; and I'll say he's as welcome here as anyone! Stay safe, my travelling friends. Tell me about your journey when we see each other again. :;)
Loved the theme of uncovering knowledge that has been INTENSIONALLY hidden away. Throughout the rest of the game there are plenty of secrets and unknowns, but the clues are all there, literal walls of Nomai text and the Hearthians to talk to, the game is eager to explain it's world to you. But here everything is obscured and hidden away. Just finding The Stranger was a total fluke, but even once inside this hidden world the secrets never stop getting deeper and deeper. The damaged slides were where I really started realizing "okay these guys were DESPERATE to keep something secret." It was very cool to begin to realize the motivations behind the Strangers actions, it wasn't out of spite but rather a crushing fear for their lives and the potential death of the whole universe which made them act. Learning what they did to their homeworld in order to reach The Eye completely shifted my view of them. They had put everything into tracking down The Eye, only for it to appear to them as some dangerous weapon to be contained and prevented from being activated at all costs. They felt betrayed and ashamed of how their plan had failed, all knowledge of it being buried or burned The main game is like a jigsaw puzzle with each piece hidden as a scavenger hunt, and on the back of each piece is a clue to find another. The dlc is like jigsaw box that arrived at your doorstep in an unmarked box one day, missing a dozen pieces and half of the pieces you do have are burnt beyond recognition.
You really put it beautifully, but if I can add just one thing: The Strangers embody the idea of that fear of losing yourself, and everything you are to the ravages of time, more than just locking away the Eye. They created an artificial world, a facsimile of their home, where even death couldn’t pull them from it.
For me the instruments represent their personality the heartians have more rimitive instruments in some way the solanum piano represents melancholy but also hope and the prisoner's instrument represents a disconsolate cry that seeks forgiveness. Prisoner's instrument is like that feeling when you know you screwed up
The only bad thing about this game is you can only experience it once. But still... they were worth it. And you can't deny, it's the best game you ever played
I don't think it's gonna be topped for a long, long time. There is not a single thing that bothers me about this game, and the music, story, and philosophy make for something truly life changing
@@thedoodoobrain8944 LIFE CHANGING is the expression here. I rarely take games as a life lesson but this one just made me look at myself and other people over a different perspective, and it feels so refreshing everytime when I remember about it and how beautiful the end of something can be
It's genius that the DLC was actually scary and lil bit horror. Cause it reflects the Strangers. They represent the other side of Outer Wilds, that space and the end of the universe is scary to some. And they'll respond with fear and want extinguish the thought of it.
@@ninjakivi2 Oh fuck shit bramble, shit bramble is an awful place to be I wouldn't be surprised if it's the reason the universe is ending I hate shit bramble
i think they'd be good friends. solanum has felt the way the prisoner's people felt, and i think she'd sympathise a lot. the prisoner would admire solanum and the other nomai for their boundless curiousity. they'd get along quite well, i think
i'm imagining prisioner telling the story of how it got imprisioned to Solanum: "Our kind found a signal rather strange, it reached our planet for what we though was a happy discovery, but our leader researching it found that it would destroy us all and our leader, knowing that, decided to seal off the eye-" "Wait, so YOU'RE the ones who stopped the signal??? WHO DOOMED OUR SPECIES???" "Listen, i tried to-" (Solanum leaves in anger)
"How fascinating, I have yet to meet any species capable of proper sentience other than my own, it is an honor to speak with you! Your way of communicating through visual-stimuli is incredibly curious. How did you forge this technology, capable of working brain patterns into perfectly projectable images?" "Our technology rests within the soul of our ancestors, it is not something I ever got enlightened on. But if its of any interest, I believe our vision torches are lit by sending the essence of the communicated message, and this, in turn, is turned into the visions that are unveiled to our conscious." "This is absolutely extraordinary! Following your understanding, this provides a vast amount of unfathomably deep implications! Hypothesis: The vision that is produced can look different to everyone, but communicates the same essencial information."
It's so sad to me. Solanum's instrument sounds sad but prideful, which lines up with the nomai story. The prisoners instrument sounds sad and hopeless. Left behind for good, but glad to have some sort of comfort, which lines up with his story. He wasn't afraid of reality, and was abandoned because of it. So sad.
It's awesome that, alone the instrument feel that hopeless but while combinated... im feeling the hope of both solanum and the Prisonner of being in the next universe
The Prisoners song is one of such loss, it sounds like someone yearning for home. To have granted him a new one is quite the gift, and to offer his species redemption, and a place in the Eye is quite the feat.
They kinda sound like they're both apologizing to each other. Solanum is apologizing for seeing the Prisoner's sacrifice as evil and malicious (if that makes sense), and the Prisoner is apologizing for unleashing the Eye on her species and causing such pain and suffering. This also kinda sounds like these two people individually are meeting. They're joyful that their entire lives paid off, within each other and the hatchling. I probably sound like a lunatic. Sorry.
@@dazza2350 baby, I've been studying music for over a decade. Trust me, music is never "just music", especially in video games, movies, or other media like that. If you're gonna agree that I'm a lunatic, do so because of my analysis being odd or my English being goofy. Don't say two-dimensional things like that. (In all seriousness, I didn't take this personally, I'm just mostly shocked that some people think this way, even to this day haha)
@@AshAmery nah i love ur interpretation sm, its not what i felt going in but i love seeing everyone's different views and feelings, youre not a lunatic.
I wish there was a way to learn to use the real Solanum's writing staff and take it with us on the final loop, to let the last Nomai know what happened before the end.
I went ahead and finished the game five more times, just to hear Solanum and the Prisoner playing together again. Such a beautiful, gentle, yet tragic tune. Makes my eyes wet all over again.
Dude I have an unhealthy obsession with this game and it’s dlc, no matter how many times I beat it (and oh wow it’s a lot) I bawl like a baby. It’s just too beautiful
@@theshaqshack7973 same dude... I'm here in bed, it's 2 AM and i've been thinking about outer wilds for several hours. Watching others play it (sometimes for a second or third time of a particular playthrough, like Bricky's) just so i can keep holding onto this game. For a game that really pushes the ''letting go message'' I'm finding it really hard to do that. I just can't. It's part of my life and forever will be. And i can't live without it. It's one of my most cherished memories and i keep reliving it, either myself or through others. I need help
When you really think about it, the Prisoner is the entire reason you're all together. I feel like that is one of the reasons they lurk in the darkness before they join the song. They know that the destruction of the universe was ultimately their doing, but they learned, and they realized that maybe the end wouldn't be so bad. They knew that everything ends someday. The Prisoner was the cause of this amazing narrative. And Solanum was one who really pushed it forward. Man, this game was great.
@@andrix7777 yes, the universe was dying of old age. What the prisoner did was the complete opposite of destroying the universe: by releasing the eye, even if for just a short time, the nomai teleported to our solar system.. and you know what happened next. It's only thanks to their sacrifice that a new universe was created: if the Owls kept the eye a secret from everyone, no concious observer would have been at the eye to witness the creation of a new universe.
@@charlottesolstice yeah yeah, i realized that shortly after i posted the comment! this story truly is something special, so many different events interwoven so closely together yet spread across a huge time gap.
The fear held by the prisoner’s species led to the indirect screwing over of the Nomai. There’s a lot of baggage when you think about, and Hearing the Prisoner and Solanum, the respective lasts of their kinds come together and play in harmony to help create what comes next is just beautiful.
Literally just decided I wanted to hear them and only them play together, and like magic you just uploaded what I was looking for. Thank you for this ❤️
@@okankavas5700 I never used Spotify, but I have a couple of mates who know more and might be willing to help with that one. I will ask around if it's possible and see what I can do, but my best guess is that since Spotify charges money, and the sounds were technically stolen from a video game I doubt I will be allowed to upload it there.
“...how beautiful. It’s different then I’d envisioned. Whatever happens next, I do not think it is to be feared.”~The Prisoner “We do not have much connection you and I. Still, this encounter feels special. I hope you won’t mind if I think of you as a friend.”~Solanum
I was wondering "oh has the guy who posted the 10 minutes long version of solanum theme posted smt new?" and here I am listening to what I was most needing...
I posted all the other instruments 10 minute versions as well; I should have done it when the game came out really, seeing that banjo video has 139% watch time...
@@ninjakivi2 yeah I tought the same, I really appreciate your videos, it is a great work for the part of the community who just wants to chill while listening to the travelers playing their little instruments
I think it’s cool that the two alien species harmonize together really well and create what seems to be an entire different song when playing alone. When the hearthians play too, the prisoner and solanums song almost meld, uniting with the hearthians and their song to create something even better.
Remembering the Prisoner in the Quantum Glade is probably my favourite of all the memories, because while the others are puzzles related to your discoveries, to remember the Prisoner you have to blow out the candles on the Hearthians, the Nomai, the Strangers, and finally yourself. Everything has to end, and you have to be okay saying goodbye.
I wish we got to see them interact, like it would be so cool seeing the dialogue between the last remaining member of the species who spent their lives searching for answers of the universe and the last of the species who wanted to hide it all away
A song of hope and a song of loss, intertwined to comfort one another. This is what I see as the culmination of Outer Wilds. That at the end of everything, there is still love. There is still grief. There is everything you will ever know, and never know. And that at it's core, there is beauty. Beauty in light, and beauty in darkness. In finality there is courage, and there is fear. Neither of the universe. They are us, and only us
10 months after you also finished Outer Wilds + DLC and feel kinda the same as you. Guess all of us who shared this journey also shared this same feeling. A timeless campfire that welcomes all travelers.
Just like the overall melody feels incomplete without the Prisoner playing in the End of Universe orchestra, so Outer Wilds feels now incomplete without the DLC. This DLC was nothing short of a miracle, being so much different from the original material (very original and brave) and yet being able to fit ritht in that perfect base game l, have a meaning and make itself necessary to the eyes of those who played it, all of this while maintaining the same (if not superior) level of quality of the base game. Playing the DLC was like playing the base game once again for the first time (the surprises, discoveries, the WTH) but actually playing something different. Again, nothing short of a miracle. Amazing job
Nomais and Strangers are similar in a way that before everything with the eye they were explorers too, but the information of the destruction of all universe was too much handle... If the Nomais got the signal first and discover it's meaning, would they be afraid like Strangers did? I'm not really sure of my answer...
Maybe? I think one of the major reasons why the Owlelk became resentful of the Eye was that they imagined it as something miraculous and utopian : they destroyed their utopian moon to get to the Eye and were disappointed. The Nomia meanwhile chose to follow their eye, they already had a “Stranger” spaceship equivalent and made it for the sole purpose of exploring. They had no reason to become homesick, so they settled in the new Solar System and embraced knowledge everywhere they found it.
The Nomai are Nomadic, they essentially have nothing to lose but themselves (which they lost nearly half of their population when the Vessel was telefragged) I think if given the answer, they possibly would be upset and possibly lash out, but not to the degree the Strangers went
@@CreativeUsernameEh The reason they hated the eye was because they saw a vision that showed them that it would destroy the universe. They destroyed their moon to build the stranger to get to the eye and hide its signal so no one could discover it.
I'm not sure the Nomai would discover the same as the nomai. The Strangers used their scanner stick thing to reveal the information about the eye, but maybe the nomai would have too with their staff. I think that finding the intentions of the eye would have lead them to want to learn more, not only 'The eye wants to destroy the universe', more like 'Why does it want to destroy the universe?', 'When will this happen?', 'How is it older than the universe?', or 'What would happen if a conscious observer were to enter the eye?'
i made this combination when i was at the eye and hits me in a different way. I cried so hard, you couldn’t imagine.. So i decide to look if someones out there made this combination too.. So, im here. W all the water in my body on the floor :) Ive played this game so MANY FUCKIN TIMES, and i couldnt stop fall in tears every time i hear the soundtrack of this game. Man, i fuckin love this game Idk, i coudnt stop thinking about all the things that nomais and strangers have been through, thats y i always cries a lot
All the way through Echoes, I pitied the owlks more than feared them. The reels made it clear that their story was a sad one and when I thought I'd finish the game after, I was so excited when I could hear the prisoner's music in the distance. That and how you meet the prisoner just confirmed my view that they were a beautiful culture that lost its way and met a tragic end.
I just beat the DLC and obviously I went to the Prisoner first. Soon as I listened to him for about a minute I knew ol' Solanum had to be number two. I made the right choice.
Both songs give me a similar feeling that matches the theme of the entire game: "We've come a long way and now we're meeting our end". But the very motives of Solanum's and Prisoner's songs feel opposite. Express of Solanum's piano describes the story of her people, it's rather happy and it feels like *"The end of everything is coming, but it doesn't matter, as we've had such an amazing journey"* While express of Prisoner's theremin describes the story of their people, it's tragic and feels like *"We're had such a terrible journey, but it doesn't matter, as the end of everything is coming"*
This makes you how much destruction the search for the eye has caused. A search over 3 species with one destroying their whole planet to find it and another building a time loop and attempting to blow up the sun to find it. Just for the owls to imprison someone for the rest of time for trying to let the thing they spent so long looking for out of the cage they had it trapped in. Its crazy how much longing for something and anything you can hear in the prisoner during this song. Amazing game.
here i am, a feel years later then the rest of the comments and i can’t explain how much this game changed me as person, echoes of the eye trully scared me, and i had to find a way out of that, and when i understood everything, the fear was gone, but instead of the hatred that the owlks found, i found the beauty this game hides in every single corner, in every single discover, the way how the protagonist helps the prisoner to surpass this fear of the unknown trully touched me, i mean, this may sound confusing, but this game made me really emotional and i cant put into words all of my feelings, thank you soo much for posting this piece of art
I have made an observation. (Not including the bug people at the end credits or the anglerfish) it seems that every race in our solar system gets one more eye. The strangers have two eyes, the nomai have three, and the hearthians have four. Weird huh
Thank you for the Upload. I always let them both play the Song for the first few Minutes. I still can´t believe how beautiful this Experience and the Music is.
Solanums instrument sounds as if it continuously considers and wonders, and keeps moving forward The Prisoners is a bit confusing because i don't know if its sound is a cry of despair or rejoicing that it got to tell someone their tale
I was just talking about this yesterday! And I tried so hard to find it somewhere and couldn't find it anywhere .. and now magically you have it here for me the next day. You're the best!
I just noticed that both instruments are playing basically the same melofy but in different points, its a call and response, the Prisoner calling cus theyre sad and alone while Solanum is answering with a soft cheery "Yes! We are here, we hear you!" And if it wasnt for both of them and their peoples we wouldnt be where we are today, they really help complete the Travelers song so bad
This song always made me sad but just the addition of the prisoner and their connection to it all puts it over the edge and makes me cry every time. I envy anyone who has yet to play this game. I wish I could see it all again for the first time but sadly I can’t. I must bare this to the end of my time
They compliment each other so well it drives me to tears, although neither of those feats are a stranger to this game. What a universal sound track! Ba dum tss
I didn't know the prisoner joins at the end, his theme is so full of melancholy, homesickness, sadness for what has been, but it's kind of sweet, like he's forgiven his people, there's no such anger as you can hear in whole the dlc music. OW really express itself more with music than with any other medium, I ran through the DLC scared and angry about my fear, didn't care too much for the prisoner, and wasn't unhappy with the content honestly, too difficult to understand, too scary. Now I'm reaplaying and giving another chance to the DLC, and it's so deep, and sad, a truly masterpiece inside a masterpiece, And this theme proves it all. I love Outer Wilds, it changed my perception on music and games more than any other title
these two themes together are the best in the game, not only are they the only two non-hearthians, but they work really well with one another, the hopeful tone of solanums piano contrasts perfectly with how harrowing and sad the prisoners theme is
I will never experience something like that ever again...and maybe it's exactly what's supposed to happen. Past is the past, we cannot make it the present, but we can bring back with us some pieces, which we call memories.
I did this at the end of my playthrough of Echoes; I let the two of them play alone for a while. They have such a special connection. The Prisoner only released the Eye's signal for a short time before it was silenced again, but it was long enough for others to be drawn to its call. Solanum herself had her own struggles with her faith in the Eye, just as the Strangers did. She doubted its purpose and even began to think it might be malevolent as a child, but eventually came to terms with it, just like the Prisoner. The Prisoner gave the Nomai purpose. And while neither species had a happy ending, we were able to carry their legacy into the new beginning as a direct result of their actions. Whether Solanum and the Prisoner are really there at the Eye in the end is debatable, but they still deserved to share the duet alone with each other one last time, the Prisoner grateful to Solanum for showing his actions made a difference, and Solanum grateful to the Prisoner for the ability to rest in the Eye's reflection.
Ma' elien friends chilling with new for them melody. Familier yet not at the same. More active Solanum performing most of the theme, while more used to isolatieon Prisoner just give so needed feeling of mistery to the music. I don't know if this is useful or not, but I just like to give vivid descriptions of my emotions.
Dang, this slaps..... but i feel like it should have at least one hearthian instrument.... maybe Gabbro's Oboe, that shouldn't fight for dominance like a banjo or whistling would.
I have another version of this uploaded called "no lead instruments", which has all instruments but banjo and whistling, with some volume adjustments as well so they don't fight for dominance just as you said
From how I see it, outer wilds is about the understanding that, ultimately, the universe is an endlessly large place we will never be able to touch fully before it disappears, just like how every loop you never have enough time to learn everything. But despite that, the beauty of life is the experience of learning and living through what you can with what you have left, and learing to accept you will never know everything. The story of the nomai, a species wiped out by circumstance while they were so close to what they were looking for, while managing to pass on the torch to the next species who were still crawling out of the water when they were around so that someone would still find the eye. The story of the strangers, a species who tore down their perfect home and hid in what memories and remnants of it, who found redemption in the only one of them willing to turn off the light, and hope they did the right thing And the story of the hearthians, a people better at building spaceships than houses because of what they saw from the ground, worlds of possibility passing overhead, and an endless drive to sprint into the dark head on to find whatever lies inside And, while the whole travelers melody reprisents the gift of consiousness and curiosity we all have and how it connects us, just this piece of it however does a perfect job at showing you how connected we all truly are, with the players more alone in the universe than anyone, with nobody who can speak their language and both of them in some ways dead themselves, and yet they play the song just like everyone else. Because nobody is ever truly alone, and in the end, everything is going to be ok.
This game is beautiful. I haven't quite finished the DLC yet, but as soon as I discovered what the instrument added sounds like, it makes me want to cry. These songs are both beautiful yet depressing. I wish I could replay this game over and over, feeling the same feelings as I did before, but I can't. It's the nature of this game. You play it once, and you remember it forever. Solanum's piano reflects the Nomai's demise, yet somehow it still sounds somewhat hopeful. The Prisoner meanwhile, his song is depressing. And the two together just are beautiful. If you haven't played this game yet, please do. P.S. It's crazy how music can affect games. Without this music, Outer Wilds wouldn't be the same. Another example? How about Before Your Eyes? The music is beautiful, yet the game is literally the saddest thing I've ever watched. And the music? It makes it beautiful, despite being sad.
this song has a melancolic and happy felling to it, the prisoner and solanum are two sides of the same coin, Solanum came from a race of curiosity and science, they devoted their intire lifes to enter a false moon, create super novas and save people for death with the memories of them. while the prisoner has fear of the unknown, curiosity is something he never experienced since curiosity could kill them all, at the end, all the prisoner want is to not die, he dont care about descovering the universe and it history, all he want´s is live, live a peaceful life without him dying at the end of his tale. Both of them connected in this song creates a song that feels like that duality, prisoner plays a more sad part of the song, showing how at the end, he is still frightened, while Solanum also creates a more melancolic felling but still with some hope that everything will be ok and that curiosity isnt that bad at the end. I love this game and if i could forget everything about it i would, just so then i could replay it again. (some people can say that some things are wrong, if you notice anything i wrote wrong just comment about it, i will try to correct everything.)
I think that the prisoner story is not like that,the owls didnt want to know what the eye was because knowing it would kill them,so they protected the coordinates of the eye. The prisoner let the echoes of the eye free so someone could go there and create another universe,thats why they made him a jail
The Owlks and the Nomai are two beings that went opposite ways at the critical junction that is the Eye. The Owlks, the first discoverers of the Eye, and undoubtedly have a deeper understanding of it, went with the interpretation that the Eye is evil because it plans to dissolve anything and everything all around them. They never fully accepted the inevitability of the end of the universe. Thus, they were never able to look beyond and what lies next. They shackled themselves to the past so that they may never encounter the future and the uncertainty it brings; not much freer than the Prisoner whose bravery and curiosity gave the universe a chance to start anew. The Nomai, on the other hand, turned hard right when the Eye "seemingly" led them astray into a life full of tragedy and misery. They could have led a sheltered life in relative comfort and safety, similar to the ones that came before, away from the dangers that the solar system can throw at them. They could have wallowed at their misfortune, blamed the Eye for being a devilish entity, but they didn't. Instead of despair, it symbolized their hope, their endless curiosity of what comes next. And with this, they prospered. Solanum once teetered at the edge of hatred towards the Eye and blamed it for everything that happened. But as she grew older, matured and learned more, she accepted it for what it is. It neither cared nor hated anything, really. It isn't malevolent or benevolent; it is what it is. That's why I feel that the Prisoner's music sounds like a cry. Like a sorrowful wail while looking thru a photo album of beautiful memories. The Nomai's song treads a bit of the same waters. A little sad, but with a hopeful tone that for me, feels like moving to a new home or school.
I heard this noise before I experienced the dlc due to RUclips ost funkiness. I heard this little flute tone in the very back and I obsessed over it's solitude and bittersweetness for a while until I learned where it came from. This track doesn't ever feel complete without the prisoner. it won't be, ever again
I see a lot of comments talking about Solanum and the Prisoners themes being inherently sad and melancholic by themselves. But honestly the feeling I get from both is a song of hope. The prisoner is alone for 200,000 years, not knowing what had happened to the universe or if what he had done made an impact to the way the universe continued. After meeting you I feel his view of everything changed. The shriek he gives after you show him your memories is that of happiness. The high notes in his riff dictate a feeling of hope and relief. Relief that finally, he knew that his crime had continued the natural course the universe had set out, and hope that the crime his species committed had hopefully been revoked, by the information being discovered by the nomai and the steps the hearthians had gone to to discover this, he hopes his actions were enough to rebuke what his species had done
Outer wilds is truly a game like no other. it’s not only a once in a lifetime experience but also the most meaningful game to me since the last of us first came out. The music compliments and helps tell the story perfectly. Timber hearth portrays that the hearthians are curious and strive to explore. The electronic motifs in the nomai’s songs gives that technologically advanced feel (in contrast to the hearthians simple folk feel) and has a spooky air of mystery. I think the song that best portrays the elk people is elegy for the rings. It’s haunting and melancholy and clearly a mourning song for what they have lost. They are sad and fearful of the end that they tried their very best to prevent. Every song fits the narrative so incredibly well, and is my all time favorite video game soundtrack.
I was hoping for this *exact version of this song* and I am so glad that you covered exactly what I was looking for. The Prisoner and Solanum offer what is known as a “counter-melody” in music to the main Travelers theme, which is an incredible achievement on Andrew Prahlow’s part. I find myself often whistling counter-melodies to any song, any time any where. It’s a melody that accompanies the main melody but also goes off in its own direction, sounding almost entirely separate but irrevocably intertwined with the main melody of the song. These melodies could make their own song, their own beat, but they find themselves tied in with the main theme of the song they are based from. Did the Nomai and the Owlks set the score for the Hearthians to follow? Or did a Hearthian set their own path that previous folk had just happened to share? Were these melodies always supposed to fit together, or did they just happen to brush against each other in the dark of space? We may not know for sure…(jk, Andrew knocked it out of the park with this stuff) but we know that no matter when or where we make our journey, we will eventually meet those who we followed before us and share our stories in full with one another…and support each other to the end of the stars.
We don’t have much connection you and I. Still, this encounter feels special. I hope you won’t mind if I think of you as a friend :) I wish I could have said that to the prisoner
My only complaint with the DLC is that there is no way to permanently free the prisoner. Unless you brute force the combination locks, you can’t free them then go to the eye. Their awareness of how their rebellious deed saved the galaxy only exists in the loop you get into their tomb. Otherwise, Their imprisonment continues until the power in the Stranger dies, which could still be a long time assuming the last thing to shut off is the flame - even with the universe dying.
Yeah that's the main reason I don't really feel content with the ending to the DLC. I was happy to meet the prisoner and see the final vision with him, but it never felt like the end. I knew that he would immediately forget me and would be trapped in there for the rest of time. I know that that is sort of what happens with the other travelers but they are free to do whatever they want, they aren't trapped like he is. I was just left wondering if that was the actual end or if there was something else I could do...
@@intra93 yeah I did but it didn't feel like it finished his story since the eye feels like a conclusion to the main story not the stranger's story even though I know it is
The destruction triggered by the eye of the universe would presumably wipe out the stranger as well. And your memories of him being shown everything is what you carry with you into the eye, and is arguably the version of the prisoner you speak too. The one who understood everything. Still tragic in a way, But his journey came to an end also.
Everyone: Greeting each other at the final campfire. Outer wilds venture: *All surprised at meeting a living Nomai.* Solanum: *Happy to see those who followed in her kind's foot steps making it to the eye.* Prisoner: *Walks out from the shadows catching everyone by surprise.* Solanum: Hello there, who are... *She is hugged by the Prisoner.* Prisoner: You listened to my call. *Weeping softly, remembering what his kind did.* Solanum: *Hugging the prisoner back.* And you reached out to us.
![Outer Wilds OST - Travelers [2021] (All Instruments Join)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9sZq71GFjaE/mqdefault.jpg)
![Outer Wilds OST - Travelers [2021] (All Instruments Join)](/img/tr.png)
Two of the last of their species in a constant state of perpetually being both dead and alive… fascinating.
Was looking if anyone else had made this connection.
One of them in a quantum state of both life and death, the other trapped in death in a simulated world. Neither of them able to escape, and yet escape itself would mean death.
The Hearthian, too, exists outside of death. They're all so well matched.
@@danielgwillim8220 One of my biggest (of very few) gripes with this game is that the player character does not have an instrument. I want to play along too!
I think that if they were to add this, it would have to be another string track, or something that complements the existing tracks well enough to maybe be a lead instrument. But I think it would work perfectly; you could only play the instrument by holding a button without your signalscope out, so you could only play with one other traveler at a time. Except during the final scene.
@@Parker_Bedford I found two discussions on Reddit about what could the player instrument be, the answer that felt the most obvious to me was the kazoo but my personal answer would be an acoustic guitar as heard in Timber Hearth theme.
Fascinating indeed I don't know how I missed on that
The prisoner’s music, to me, will always sound like it’s reaching out into the sheer darkness of space, hoping, begging, desperately reaching for someone, anyone, to hear it.
Solanum’s song is it’s perfect partner, consoling, like she’s telling them, “We are here.”
"It is time then! To send our spark out into the darkness."
When you think maybe the Outer Wilds is done making you cry, you read a comment like this. 😭❤🩹
@@Ahrpigi fr ;-;
the prisoner called out and the nomai answered
@@Ahnock that's why I love mods
The prisoner's melody just breaks my heart
We may not have been able to save him physically. But we can remember him and carry his legacy into a new era
it's very very hard to hear it, but it's the same song that plays in the fireplace rooms. I didn't realize this until replaying in VR recently and it knocked my socks off to realize that. it's fitting, the song of a person who was locked away in the dark by flame...
@@Luc_ienn They play a different melody in the fireplace building. It's called Elegy for the Rings
@@cyoung1404dude i was expecting elegy for the rings to play when prisoner joined in with the travelers and then this played and it knocked me on my ass, it sounds so unbelievably sad, andrew prahlow is so fucking genius for this soundtrack
@blonkonups Yeah, it's so much more sad than elegy for the rings which all the other Strangers play. It really fits. His song is so sad because he's been stuck in a prison for thousands of years. They did a fantastic job with this dlc
Y'all remember when Solanum said "I hope you won't mind, but I consider you as a friend"?
To me that's exactly this that the Prisoner said to our character when they left us the vision of them and the Hearthian going on a trip on their homeworld's river.
Holy moly, does anyone else just start bawling when listening to this? Their stories are just so sad.
“This song is new to me, but I am honored to be a part of it.”
"I'm glad you remembered me."
😁😭
I think there's sadness in all of the characters stories. copied from a comment on errant signal's video: in the sequence where you pick up each explorer's instrument, each sequence represents their attitude towards death. Riebeck hides away until his shelter crumbles, Chert observes death from a distance, Feldspar faces it head on (or alternatively tries to outrun it), Gabbro floats above it all, Esker watches over the changing of the ages in the form of the campfire, and Solanum (by extension the nomai) set out to reach the light at the end.
@@coenraed and i guess the prisoner just wants to die after all this time
actually maybe he wants to be remembered too, both based on his quote but also the gravestone
“It’s tempting to linger in this moment, while every possibility still exists. But unless they are collapsed by an observer, they will never be more than possibilities.” - Solanum
Havent played the game yet but this made me tear up in the car, good thing my friends didnt see it haha
Solanum's theme, a song for the end of everything. The Prisoner's theme, a song for remembering it all.
WOW ok
Beautifully said
On their own, the Prisoner's and Solanum's songs sound sad. But together they don't at all. It's like... Idk if this makes sense at all but like. The prisoner and solanum were both lost and alone and forgotten. So when they're alone, that's what their songs feel like. But when they're found and around that campfire and they both had their purpose fulfilled, they're not sad anymore
I’m seriously crying right now. So beautiful
Joy found in Harmony. Why is this game so damn beautiful!?
When I first read this, I strongly disagreed, but then I listened for a minute. I couldn’t agree more
They're singing the blues together, finding a friend in their mutual reminiscing over what once was. "Thanks for being my friend."
Very well put. It is still very wistful, put together. But it is no longer a lament for what is gone, but a nostalgic tribute.
Going back and reading some of the dialogue from a young Solanum after having played through EotE is so fucking sad. She talks about how she too felt the Eye may have been malicious - that it lured them there out of malice, or stopped its signal because it no longer wanted to be found. Knowing that the signal her clan heard was the one the Prisoner released, only for mere moments, is so heartwrenching.
It also gets uncomfortably close to how the Strangers felt about the Eye.
The Eye is so powerful, and the truth within it so significant, that when one gazes upon it it's hard to not react with destructive spite or reckless abandon. It's easy to forget that the decision Escall made, to not send a message before warping, was a horribly reckless one that could have cost the clan their lives. Even several generations later, this infatuation for the Eye led the Nomai to lose sight of what's important: continuing their tradition of exploration and joining back with the rest of the clans. Don't get me wrong, the Nomai accomplished great things due to their stubbornness and due to sheer coincidence the decision to warp immediately is probably what ended up saving the universe. Still though, it was reckless, and Nomai should know better than to do such a thing.
What I'm getting at here, is that Solanum had a healthy relationship with the Eye. She knew it was simply another part of the universe. It was incredible to be sure, but it wasn't malicious and it didn't hold any great importance. It simply _was_. The Prisoner seems to understand this too, that the Eye isn't evil, and suppressing it might not be a good idea.
@@nevinmyers1245 I'll never get tired from going to these videos about Outer Wilds, especially the OST ones, cause its usually where I can find comments like yours, that present to me a new perspective on the beautiful and complex lore of this game that never even crossed my mind.
@@danielbueno8474 Hey, thanks! I sometimes worry that my perspectives on this game get a bit "fake deep" at times, so it feels great that people connect with them
its hard to say exactly how the strangers felt about the eye - obviously they knew it was important, so important they were willing to destroy their entire home planet to get closer to it, but i personally am stuck between two conclusions when it comes to whether or not they recognized what the vision they received actually meant.
the vision they saw was of their home and the universe rotting away, but in that same vision there was grass growing over their bones - the circle of life, death and rebirth. what i've been wondering is whether they knew that it meant rebirth, and simply held themselves in such high esteem that they would wish to preserve themselves over allowing something new to prevail, or whether they didn't actually comprehend that part of the message, and thought that the Eye was simply a destroy-the-universe button
@@littlesnowflakepunk855 I don't think it matters too much. The inhabitants simply couldn't accept their own fate.
Andrew Prahlow is just too damn good at this stuff, man.
In my opinion Andrew Prahlow and C418 are musical geniuses
@@RustyTheFoxxo What about Christopher Larkin and Lena Raine?
@@iwillsomedayplayskyrim4969 hollow knight and celeste’s osts were stunning. even still, outer wilds and minecraft’s tracks were simply unbelievable.
@@jimmybean420 Isn't it amazing that they exist regardless, leaving diamonds in the crust for future geologists to find?
@@MagnaKay It's just like the game!
To me, this entire DLC represents a side of a coin that the base game didn't explore. The Hearthians represent endless curiosity, and courage - courage to face beasties with Feldspar, courage to face your fears with Riebeck, courage to face yourself with Esker, and courage to cross time and space with Gabbro and Chert (respectively). The Nomai represent science, logic, and progress - but also hope. Hope for discovery let them persevere a botched warp, crashed escape pods, quantum trials, impossible odds to find a planet that barely exists, supernova(e), and one of them even survived a radioactive extinction event, in a way. The base game is a beautiful story about hope and curiosity into accepting our deaths, and the fact that everything is temporary. Everything we do and hold dear will someday disappear, but also, it carries on in those who still live to saw it. We only exist to pass on the torch of the art and beauty we create.
The Strangers represent how some don't like to see how their story ends. Hope and curiosity fall away into malice and secretiveness, homesickness and loneliness, and ignorance enough to almost doom the entire universe to die. But the deed of just one good person can change all of that badwill. Without even knowing, our prisoner passed that glowing green torch onto a species thousands of light years away, long after everything he knew had vanished. His people committed bad acts, silencing knowledge for all in the future - but even if the Eye is silenced, the universe will still end, and at the end of everything, I'll see you there, reader, and once everything is gone, maybe we'll play a song to pass this torch of art and beauty ... and of life, and sorrow, and homesickness, onto a universe with different rules, and maybe even mantis people. Struggle all you want in your real life to avoid the truth but someday we'll all be playing this song;
But for now, here in 2021, it seems a Stranger is approaching our campfire; and I'll say he's as welcome here as anyone!
Stay safe, my travelling friends. Tell me about your journey when we see each other again. :;)
I found my way into this story, and we crossed paths here, I think we are going to the same place : )
Loved the theme of uncovering knowledge that has been INTENSIONALLY hidden away. Throughout the rest of the game there are plenty of secrets and unknowns, but the clues are all there, literal walls of Nomai text and the Hearthians to talk to, the game is eager to explain it's world to you.
But here everything is obscured and hidden away. Just finding The Stranger was a total fluke, but even once inside this hidden world the secrets never stop getting deeper and deeper. The damaged slides were where I really started realizing "okay these guys were DESPERATE to keep something secret." It was very cool to begin to realize the motivations behind the Strangers actions, it wasn't out of spite but rather a crushing fear for their lives and the potential death of the whole universe which made them act. Learning what they did to their homeworld in order to reach The Eye completely shifted my view of them. They had put everything into tracking down The Eye, only for it to appear to them as some dangerous weapon to be contained and prevented from being activated at all costs. They felt betrayed and ashamed of how their plan had failed, all knowledge of it being buried or burned
The main game is like a jigsaw puzzle with each piece hidden as a scavenger hunt, and on the back of each piece is a clue to find another. The dlc is like jigsaw box that arrived at your doorstep in an unmarked box one day, missing a dozen pieces and half of the pieces you do have are burnt beyond recognition.
You really put it beautifully, but if I can add just one thing: The Strangers embody the idea of that fear of losing yourself, and everything you are to the ravages of time, more than just locking away the Eye. They created an artificial world, a facsimile of their home, where even death couldn’t pull them from it.
For me the instruments represent their personality the heartians have more rimitive instruments in some way the solanum piano represents melancholy but also hope and the prisoner's instrument represents a disconsolate cry that seeks forgiveness. Prisoner's instrument is like that feeling when you know you screwed up
@@dogge3065 oh for sure! i agree 100%
The only bad thing about this game is you can only experience it once. But still... they were worth it.
And you can't deny, it's the best game you ever played
top 5 games of all time. will take a titan of a gaming experience to top it.
I don't think it's gonna be topped for a long, long time. There is not a single thing that bothers me about this game, and the music, story, and philosophy make for something truly life changing
@@thedoodoobrain8944 LIFE CHANGING is the expression here. I rarely take games as a life lesson but this one just made me look at myself and other people over a different perspective, and it feels so refreshing everytime when I remember about it and how beautiful the end of something can be
Thankfully people record their playthroughs, watching them is a bit like playing for the first time again through someone else
When the time comes dementia will not be a curse but a blessing.
It's genius that the DLC was actually scary and lil bit horror. Cause it reflects the Strangers. They represent the other side of Outer Wilds, that space and the end of the universe is scary to some. And they'll respond with fear and want extinguish the thought of it.
It's not just the DLC, I would like to remind you of the angler fish nest.
@@ninjakivi2 Oh fuck shit bramble, shit bramble is an awful place to be
I wouldn't be surprised if it's the reason the universe is ending
I hate shit bramble
The curiosity of the Nomai and the fear of the Strangers. The two ways to interact with the Unknown.
Outer Wilds has so many cool planets. And Dark Bramble.
@@nicholasvandervelden450 Dark Bramble is less of a planet and more of a hellish space-warping aquarium-weed XD
_The predecessors are HARMONIZING_ ❤️❤️❤️
Yass slay ❤️
@@dazza2350 solanum slays
@@thecousinwithaforesaken prisoner too >:(
It’s amazing how having just Solanum and the Prisoner play is like a completely different song
i think they'd be good friends. solanum has felt the way the prisoner's people felt, and i think she'd sympathise a lot. the prisoner would admire solanum and the other nomai for their boundless curiousity. they'd get along quite well, i think
i'm imagining prisioner telling the story of how it got imprisioned to Solanum:
"Our kind found a signal rather strange, it reached our planet for what we though was a happy discovery, but our leader researching it found that it would destroy us all and our leader, knowing that, decided to seal off the eye-"
"Wait, so YOU'RE the ones who stopped the signal??? WHO DOOMED OUR SPECIES???"
"Listen, i tried to-"
(Solanum leaves in anger)
Nah that probably wouldn’t happen
@@DeletedUser-tn5ky pft
"How fascinating, I have yet to meet any species capable of proper sentience other than my own, it is an honor to speak with you! Your way of communicating through visual-stimuli is incredibly curious. How did you forge this technology, capable of working brain patterns into perfectly projectable images?"
"Our technology rests within the soul of our ancestors, it is not something I ever got enlightened on. But if its of any interest, I believe our vision torches are lit by sending the essence of the communicated message, and this, in turn, is turned into the visions that are unveiled to our conscious."
"This is absolutely extraordinary! Following your understanding, this provides a vast amount of unfathomably deep implications!
Hypothesis: The vision that is produced can look different to everyone, but communicates the same essencial information."
It's so sad to me. Solanum's instrument sounds sad but prideful, which lines up with the nomai story. The prisoners instrument sounds sad and hopeless. Left behind for good, but glad to have some sort of comfort, which lines up with his story. He wasn't afraid of reality, and was abandoned because of it. So sad.
It's awesome that, alone the instrument feel that hopeless but while combinated... im feeling the hope of both solanum and the Prisonner of being in the next universe
The Prisoners song is one of such loss, it sounds like someone yearning for home. To have granted him a new one is quite the gift, and to offer his species redemption, and a place in the Eye is quite the feat.
They kinda sound like they're both apologizing to each other. Solanum is apologizing for seeing the Prisoner's sacrifice as evil and malicious (if that makes sense), and the Prisoner is apologizing for unleashing the Eye on her species and causing such pain and suffering.
This also kinda sounds like these two people individually are meeting. They're joyful that their entire lives paid off, within each other and the hatchling.
I probably sound like a lunatic. Sorry.
Yeah it's just music
@@dazza2350 baby, I've been studying music for over a decade. Trust me, music is never "just music", especially in video games, movies, or other media like that. If you're gonna agree that I'm a lunatic, do so because of my analysis being odd or my English being goofy. Don't say two-dimensional things like that.
(In all seriousness, I didn't take this personally, I'm just mostly shocked that some people think this way, even to this day haha)
@@AshAmery nah i love ur interpretation sm, its not what i felt going in but i love seeing everyone's different views and feelings, youre not a lunatic.
I wish there was a way to learn to use the real Solanum's writing staff and take it with us on the final loop, to let the last Nomai know what happened before the end.
@@dazza2350its never “just music” music is a window into the soul
I went ahead and finished the game five more times, just to hear Solanum and the Prisoner playing together again. Such a beautiful, gentle, yet tragic tune. Makes my eyes wet all over again.
5 more times?? wow dude legend
Dude I have an unhealthy obsession with this game and it’s dlc, no matter how many times I beat it (and oh wow it’s a lot) I bawl like a baby. It’s just too beautiful
@@theshaqshack7973 same dude... I'm here in bed, it's 2 AM and i've been thinking about outer wilds for several hours. Watching others play it (sometimes for a second or third time of a particular playthrough, like Bricky's) just so i can keep holding onto this game.
For a game that really pushes the ''letting go message'' I'm finding it really hard to do that. I just can't. It's part of my life and forever will be. And i can't live without it. It's one of my most cherished memories and i keep reliving it, either myself or through others.
I need help
"This song is new to me, but I am honored to be a part of it."
"This fire… what a warm and beautiful light it makes."
When you really think about it, the Prisoner is the entire reason you're all together.
I feel like that is one of the reasons they lurk in the darkness before they join the song. They know that the destruction of the universe was ultimately their doing, but they learned, and they realized that maybe the end wouldn't be so bad. They knew that everything ends someday.
The Prisoner was the cause of this amazing narrative.
And Solanum was one who really pushed it forward.
Man, this game was great.
The Prisoner hangs back because he knows his kin nearly doomed the universe, not because of the end of it.
@@xRazProductions i took at as him seeing how his kin failed, that they used to be better
how was the destruction of the universe their doing? wasn't the universe just fading out just like everything having an end or something?
@@andrix7777 yes, the universe was dying of old age.
What the prisoner did was the complete opposite of destroying the universe: by releasing the eye, even if for just a short time, the nomai teleported to our solar system.. and you know what happened next.
It's only thanks to their sacrifice that a new universe was created: if the Owls kept the eye a secret from everyone, no concious observer would have been at the eye to witness the creation of a new universe.
@@charlottesolstice yeah yeah, i realized that shortly after i posted the comment! this story truly is something special, so many different events interwoven so closely together yet spread across a huge time gap.
The fear held by the prisoner’s species led to the indirect screwing over of the Nomai. There’s a lot of baggage when you think about, and Hearing the Prisoner and Solanum, the respective lasts of their kinds come together and play in harmony to help create what comes next is just beautiful.
Literally just decided I wanted to hear them and only them play together, and like magic you just uploaded what I was looking for. Thank you for this ❤️
Yeah, I noticed a couple of comments requesting this, so, you're welcome :)
@@ninjakivi2 ty
@@ninjakivi2 anyway I can listen this on Spotify?
@@okankavas5700 I never used Spotify, but I have a couple of mates who know more and might be willing to help with that one. I will ask around if it's possible and see what I can do, but my best guess is that since Spotify charges money, and the sounds were technically stolen from a video game I doubt I will be allowed to upload it there.
This melody makes me feel as if I've forgotten something/someone important and no matter what I do I will never regain those memories.
“...how beautiful. It’s different then I’d envisioned. Whatever happens next, I do not think it is to be feared.”~The Prisoner
“We do not have much connection you and I. Still, this encounter feels special. I hope you won’t mind if I think of you as a friend.”~Solanum
I didn't expect the isolation of these two instruments to make me feel so sad, what an effective composition.
I was wondering "oh has the guy who posted the 10 minutes long version of solanum theme posted smt new?" and here I am listening to what I was most needing...
I posted all the other instruments 10 minute versions as well; I should have done it when the game came out really, seeing that banjo video has 139% watch time...
@@ninjakivi2 yeah I tought the same, I really appreciate your videos, it is a great work for the part of the community who just wants to chill while listening to the travelers playing their little instruments
@@ninjakivi2 What a dream would it be to have an app where I could just turn on and off any of the instruments at my will.
I think it’s cool that the two alien species harmonize together really well and create what seems to be an entire different song when playing alone. When the hearthians play too, the prisoner and solanums song almost meld, uniting with the hearthians and their song to create something even better.
Remembering the Prisoner in the Quantum Glade is probably my favourite of all the memories, because while the others are puzzles related to your discoveries, to remember the Prisoner you have to blow out the candles on the Hearthians, the Nomai, the Strangers, and finally yourself. Everything has to end, and you have to be okay saying goodbye.
i just wanna hug the big deer owl i think he needs it
I wanna hug the space goat too. And all the fish. And frankly, I feel like I wanna hug every single fan of this game. We *ALL* need it.
When I finished the game I put these too and Riebeck, it was all 3 species sharing a song, one of the most beautiful moments in my life probably.
I wish we got to see them interact, like it would be so cool seeing the dialogue between the last remaining member of the species who spent their lives searching for answers of the universe and the last of the species who wanted to hide it all away
A song of hope and a song of loss, intertwined to comfort one another. This is what I see as the culmination of Outer Wilds. That at the end of everything, there is still love. There is still grief. There is everything you will ever know, and never know. And that at it's core, there is beauty. Beauty in light, and beauty in darkness. In finality there is courage, and there is fear. Neither of the universe. They are us, and only us
Here i am 15 days after i finished Outer Wilds + DLC and still sad and depressed that its over...
Don't be depressed because it's over. Be happy because it happened ♥
You're gonna carry that weight.
@@skiruskronos2732 A privilege we can all share
10 months after you also finished Outer Wilds + DLC and feel kinda the same as you. Guess all of us who shared this journey also shared this same feeling. A timeless campfire that welcomes all travelers.
Just like the overall melody feels incomplete without the Prisoner playing in the End of Universe orchestra, so Outer Wilds feels now incomplete without the DLC. This DLC was nothing short of a miracle, being so much different from the original material (very original and brave) and yet being able to fit ritht in that perfect base game l, have a meaning and make itself necessary to the eyes of those who played it, all of this while maintaining the same (if not superior) level of quality of the base game. Playing the DLC was like playing the base game once again for the first time (the surprises, discoveries, the WTH) but actually playing something different. Again, nothing short of a miracle. Amazing job
Nomais and Strangers are similar in a way that before everything with the eye they were explorers too, but the information of the destruction of all universe was too much handle... If the Nomais got the signal first and discover it's meaning, would they be afraid like Strangers did? I'm not really sure of my answer...
Maybe? I think one of the major reasons why the Owlelk became resentful of the Eye was that they imagined it as something miraculous and utopian : they destroyed their utopian moon to get to the Eye and were disappointed. The Nomia meanwhile chose to follow their eye, they already had a “Stranger” spaceship equivalent and made it for the sole purpose of exploring. They had no reason to become homesick, so they settled in the new Solar System and embraced knowledge everywhere they found it.
The Nomai are Nomadic, they essentially have nothing to lose but themselves (which they lost nearly half of their population when the Vessel was telefragged)
I think if given the answer, they possibly would be upset and possibly lash out, but not to the degree the Strangers went
@@CreativeUsernameEh The reason they hated the eye was because they saw a vision that showed them that it would destroy the universe. They destroyed their moon to build the stranger to get to the eye and hide its signal so no one could discover it.
I kind of doubted that the Nomai would go down the same path as the Strangers did.
They seem to follow logic and scientific accuracies after all.
I'm not sure the Nomai would discover the same as the nomai. The Strangers used their scanner stick thing to reveal the information about the eye, but maybe the nomai would have too with their staff. I think that finding the intentions of the eye would have lead them to want to learn more, not only 'The eye wants to destroy the universe', more like 'Why does it want to destroy the universe?', 'When will this happen?', 'How is it older than the universe?', or 'What would happen if a conscious observer were to enter the eye?'
i made this combination when i was at the eye and hits me in a different way. I cried so hard, you couldn’t imagine..
So i decide to look if someones out there made this combination too.. So, im here. W all the water in my body on the floor :) Ive played this game so MANY FUCKIN TIMES, and i couldnt stop fall in tears every time i hear the soundtrack of this game. Man, i fuckin love this game
Idk, i coudnt stop thinking about all the things that nomais and strangers have been through, thats y i always cries a lot
All the way through Echoes, I pitied the owlks more than feared them. The reels made it clear that their story was a sad one and when I thought I'd finish the game after, I was so excited when I could hear the prisoner's music in the distance. That and how you meet the prisoner just confirmed my view that they were a beautiful culture that lost its way and met a tragic end.
Fr
I just beat the DLC and obviously I went to the Prisoner first. Soon as I listened to him for about a minute I knew ol' Solanum had to be number two. I made the right choice.
I feel like I could float alone in space forever listening to this.
Man even just listening to this makes my eyes blur with tears. Masterpiece of a game in every respect.
The second i heard this i got really powerfull chills across my body, beautiful
Both songs give me a similar feeling that matches the theme of the entire game: "We've come a long way and now we're meeting our end". But the very motives of Solanum's and Prisoner's songs feel opposite.
Express of Solanum's piano describes the story of her people, it's rather happy and it feels like *"The end of everything is coming, but it doesn't matter, as we've had such an amazing journey"*
While express of Prisoner's theremin describes the story of their people, it's tragic and feels like *"We're had such a terrible journey, but it doesn't matter, as the end of everything is coming"*
And there it goes, the BEST game I've ever played
This makes you how much destruction the search for the eye has caused. A search over 3 species with one destroying their whole planet to find it and another building a time loop and attempting to blow up the sun to find it. Just for the owls to imprison someone for the rest of time for trying to let the thing they spent so long looking for out of the cage they had it trapped in. Its crazy how much longing for something and anything you can hear in the prisoner during this song. Amazing game.
i mean technically the nomai would never blow up the sun. They would just get data from timelines where they blew up the sun
if this was on spotify it will be my most played this year
here i am, a feel years later then the rest of the comments and i can’t explain how much this game changed me as person, echoes of the eye trully scared me, and i had to find a way out of that, and when i understood everything, the fear was gone, but instead of the hatred that the owlks found, i found the beauty this game hides in every single corner, in every single discover, the way how the protagonist helps the prisoner to surpass this fear of the unknown trully touched me, i mean, this may sound confusing, but this game made me really emotional and i cant put into words all of my feelings, thank you soo much for posting this piece of art
bro i had my playlist on shuffle while working and damn, it hit right in the feels and instantly made me remember the entire story all over again
I have made an observation. (Not including the bug people at the end credits or the anglerfish) it seems that every race in our solar system gets one more eye. The strangers have two eyes, the nomai have three, and the hearthians have four. Weird huh
And the eye of the universe is only one :)
@@leedlelel2373 Yeah that too ::)
Maybe they're forgotten, and maybe they'd never know if anyone remembered them anyways, but their spirit lives on in everyone as curious as they were.
Thank you for the Upload. I always let them both play the Song for the first few Minutes. I still can´t believe how beautiful this Experience and the Music is.
You have an amazing thing for timing! Thank you.
well, It's almost a week late, but I took my time with the DLC :)
this is so beautiful... i love it
Such an eerily melancholy and beautiful sound.
You should make a reaction to an outer wilds play through!
Solanums instrument sounds as if it continuously considers and wonders, and keeps moving forward
The Prisoners is a bit confusing because i don't know if its sound is a cry of despair or rejoicing that it got to tell someone their tale
I was just talking about this yesterday! And I tried so hard to find it somewhere and couldn't find it anywhere .. and now magically you have it here for me the next day. You're the best!
I just noticed that both instruments are playing basically the same melofy but in different points, its a call and response, the Prisoner calling cus theyre sad and alone while Solanum is answering with a soft cheery "Yes! We are here, we hear you!"
And if it wasnt for both of them and their peoples we wouldnt be where we are today, they really help complete the Travelers song so bad
This song always made me sad but just the addition of the prisoner and their connection to it all puts it over the edge and makes me cry every time. I envy anyone who has yet to play this game. I wish I could see it all again for the first time but sadly I can’t. I must bare this to the end of my time
bless you for uploading this
They compliment each other so well it drives me to tears, although neither of those feats are a stranger to this game. What a universal sound track! Ba dum tss
A song from the lost but not forgotten
I didn't know the prisoner joins at the end, his theme is so full of melancholy, homesickness, sadness for what has been, but it's kind of sweet, like he's forgiven his people, there's no such anger as you can hear in whole the dlc music. OW really express itself more with music than with any other medium, I ran through the DLC scared and angry about my fear, didn't care too much for the prisoner, and wasn't unhappy with the content honestly, too difficult to understand, too scary. Now I'm reaplaying and giving another chance to the DLC, and it's so deep, and sad, a truly masterpiece inside a masterpiece, And this theme proves it all. I love Outer Wilds, it changed my perception on music and games more than any other title
Thanks for uploading this
Rest in peace, Catharsys. My sweet commonswift, purring and sleeping in my palm. I will never forget your love and sincerity.
Pure beauty, melancholy, and hope. Wow.
Imagine being stuck alone and only playing this by yourself. Incredibly powerful how humans can feel emotions and create meaning through sounds.
these two themes together are the best in the game, not only are they the only two non-hearthians, but they work really well with one another, the hopeful tone of solanums piano contrasts perfectly with how harrowing and sad the prisoners theme is
Forever grateful for Andrew prahlow and the mobius team for an absolutely perfect experience and then some with echoes of the eye
goddddd I can't even hear it out of context without immediately feeling tears well up.
We stand on the shoulders of giants in the same way the cute little Hearthian completed the destiny of the Nomai and redeemed the Owlks
I will never experience something like that ever again...and maybe it's exactly what's supposed to happen. Past is the past, we cannot make it the present, but we can bring back with us some pieces, which we call memories.
I have a theory that I may not be entirely alive.
Perhaps my journey has reached its end.
O jogo acabou de passar de 10/10 para 11/10.
Parabéns aos desenvolvedores, fizeram uma obra-prima e ainda expandiram em cima dela. 👏👏
I did this at the end of my playthrough of Echoes; I let the two of them play alone for a while. They have such a special connection. The Prisoner only released the Eye's signal for a short time before it was silenced again, but it was long enough for others to be drawn to its call. Solanum herself had her own struggles with her faith in the Eye, just as the Strangers did. She doubted its purpose and even began to think it might be malevolent as a child, but eventually came to terms with it, just like the Prisoner. The Prisoner gave the Nomai purpose. And while neither species had a happy ending, we were able to carry their legacy into the new beginning as a direct result of their actions. Whether Solanum and the Prisoner are really there at the Eye in the end is debatable, but they still deserved to share the duet alone with each other one last time, the Prisoner grateful to Solanum for showing his actions made a difference, and Solanum grateful to the Prisoner for the ability to rest in the Eye's reflection.
Ma' elien friends chilling with new for them melody. Familier yet not at the same. More active Solanum performing most of the theme, while more used to isolatieon Prisoner just give so needed feeling of mistery to the music. I don't know if this is useful or not, but I just like to give vivid descriptions of my emotions.
Now that I know how to play the banjo, I'm happy that I can play with these two
Dang, this slaps..... but i feel like it should have at least one hearthian instrument.... maybe Gabbro's Oboe, that shouldn't fight for dominance like a banjo or whistling would.
I have another version of this uploaded called "no lead instruments", which has all instruments but banjo and whistling, with some volume adjustments as well so they don't fight for dominance just as you said
I feel like Feldspar's harmonica would fit in well with these two.
as soon as i got to the solanum gather i had to line these two up. sat there for like 5 minutes it’s beautiful
From how I see it, outer wilds is about the understanding that, ultimately, the universe is an endlessly large place we will never be able to touch fully before it disappears, just like how every loop you never have enough time to learn everything. But despite that, the beauty of life is the experience of learning and living through what you can with what you have left, and learing to accept you will never know everything.
The story of the nomai, a species wiped out by circumstance while they were so close to what they were looking for, while managing to pass on the torch to the next species who were still crawling out of the water when they were around so that someone would still find the eye.
The story of the strangers, a species who tore down their perfect home and hid in what memories and remnants of it, who found redemption in the only one of them willing to turn off the light, and hope they did the right thing
And the story of the hearthians, a people better at building spaceships than houses because of what they saw from the ground, worlds of possibility passing overhead, and an endless drive to sprint into the dark head on to find whatever lies inside
And, while the whole travelers melody reprisents the gift of consiousness and curiosity we all have and how it connects us, just this piece of it however does a perfect job at showing you how connected we all truly are, with the players more alone in the universe than anyone, with nobody who can speak their language and both of them in some ways dead themselves, and yet they play the song just like everyone else.
Because nobody is ever truly alone, and in the end, everything is going to be ok.
I finally understand the meme of, “tries not to cry; cries a lot”
I’m blubbering like a baby over here 😭
This game is beautiful. I haven't quite finished the DLC yet, but as soon as I discovered what the instrument added sounds like, it makes me want to cry. These songs are both beautiful yet depressing. I wish I could replay this game over and over, feeling the same feelings as I did before, but I can't. It's the nature of this game. You play it once, and you remember it forever. Solanum's piano reflects the Nomai's demise, yet somehow it still sounds somewhat hopeful. The Prisoner meanwhile, his song is depressing. And the two together just are beautiful. If you haven't played this game yet, please do.
P.S. It's crazy how music can affect games. Without this music, Outer Wilds wouldn't be the same. Another example? How about Before Your Eyes? The music is beautiful, yet the game is literally the saddest thing I've ever watched. And the music? It makes it beautiful, despite being sad.
Days gone, new places to see. Are you still looking?
this song has a melancolic and happy felling to it, the prisoner and solanum are two sides of the same coin, Solanum came from a race of curiosity and science, they devoted their intire lifes to enter a false moon, create super novas and save people for death with the memories of them.
while the prisoner has fear of the unknown, curiosity is something he never experienced since curiosity could kill them all, at the end, all the prisoner want is to not die, he dont care about descovering the universe and it history, all he want´s is live, live a peaceful life without him dying at the end of his tale.
Both of them connected in this song creates a song that feels like that duality, prisoner plays a more sad part of the song, showing how at the end, he is still frightened, while Solanum also creates a more melancolic felling but still with some hope that everything will be ok and that curiosity isnt that bad at the end.
I love this game and if i could forget everything about it i would, just so then i could replay it again.
(some people can say that some things are wrong, if you notice anything i wrote wrong just comment about it, i will try to correct everything.)
I think that the prisoner story is not like that,the owls didnt want to know what the eye was because knowing it would kill them,so they protected the coordinates of the eye. The prisoner let the echoes of the eye free so someone could go there and create another universe,thats why they made him a jail
The Owlks and the Nomai are two beings that went opposite ways at the critical junction that is the Eye.
The Owlks, the first discoverers of the Eye, and undoubtedly have a deeper understanding of it, went with the interpretation that the Eye is evil because it plans to dissolve anything and everything all around them. They never fully accepted the inevitability of the end of the universe. Thus, they were never able to look beyond and what lies next. They shackled themselves to the past so that they may never encounter the future and the uncertainty it brings; not much freer than the Prisoner whose bravery and curiosity gave the universe a chance to start anew.
The Nomai, on the other hand, turned hard right when the Eye "seemingly" led them astray into a life full of tragedy and misery. They could have led a sheltered life in relative comfort and safety, similar to the ones that came before, away from the dangers that the solar system can throw at them. They could have wallowed at their misfortune, blamed the Eye for being a devilish entity, but they didn't. Instead of despair, it symbolized their hope, their endless curiosity of what comes next. And with this, they prospered. Solanum once teetered at the edge of hatred towards the Eye and blamed it for everything that happened. But as she grew older, matured and learned more, she accepted it for what it is. It neither cared nor hated anything, really. It isn't malevolent or benevolent; it is what it is.
That's why I feel that the Prisoner's music sounds like a cry. Like a sorrowful wail while looking thru a photo album of beautiful memories. The Nomai's song treads a bit of the same waters. A little sad, but with a hopeful tone that for me, feels like moving to a new home or school.
I heard this noise before I experienced the dlc due to RUclips ost funkiness. I heard this little flute tone in the very back and I obsessed over it's solitude and bittersweetness for a while until I learned where it came from. This track doesn't ever feel complete without the prisoner. it won't be, ever again
I see a lot of comments talking about Solanum and the Prisoners themes being inherently sad and melancholic by themselves. But honestly the feeling I get from both is a song of hope. The prisoner is alone for 200,000 years, not knowing what had happened to the universe or if what he had done made an impact to the way the universe continued. After meeting you I feel his view of everything changed. The shriek he gives after you show him your memories is that of happiness. The high notes in his riff dictate a feeling of hope and relief. Relief that finally, he knew that his crime had continued the natural course the universe had set out, and hope that the crime his species committed had hopefully been revoked, by the information being discovered by the nomai and the steps the hearthians had gone to to discover this, he hopes his actions were enough to rebuke what his species had done
Outer wilds is truly a game like no other. it’s not only a once in a lifetime experience but also the most meaningful game to me since the last of us first came out.
The music compliments and helps tell the story perfectly. Timber hearth portrays that the hearthians are curious and strive to explore. The electronic motifs in the nomai’s songs gives that technologically advanced feel (in contrast to the hearthians simple folk feel) and has a spooky air of mystery. I think the song that best portrays the elk people is elegy for the rings. It’s haunting and melancholy and clearly a mourning song for what they have lost. They are sad and fearful of the end that they tried their very best to prevent. Every song fits the narrative so incredibly well, and is my all time favorite video game soundtrack.
at the end, peace is the only answer to all of your questions. everyone just harmonizing in death.
I need this version on spotify, damn
i could listen to this forever
This is the best combination, maybe also with the flute.
I was hoping for this *exact version of this song* and I am so glad that you covered exactly what I was looking for.
The Prisoner and Solanum offer what is known as a “counter-melody” in music to the main Travelers theme, which is an incredible achievement on Andrew Prahlow’s part. I find myself often whistling counter-melodies to any song, any time any where. It’s a melody that accompanies the main melody but also goes off in its own direction, sounding almost entirely separate but irrevocably intertwined with the main melody of the song. These melodies could make their own song, their own beat, but they find themselves tied in with the main theme of the song they are based from.
Did the Nomai and the Owlks set the score for the Hearthians to follow? Or did a Hearthian set their own path that previous folk had just happened to share? Were these melodies always supposed to fit together, or did they just happen to brush against each other in the dark of space? We may not know for sure…(jk, Andrew knocked it out of the park with this stuff) but we know that no matter when or where we make our journey, we will eventually meet those who we followed before us and share our stories in full with one another…and support each other to the end of the stars.
This is beautiful.
This makes me tear up. Sounds like the prisoner is singing all alone in their cell wondering if they did the right thing.
😭
We don’t have much connection you and I. Still, this encounter feels special.
I hope you won’t mind if I think of you as a friend :)
I wish I could have said that to the prisoner
Me before:I won't cry I won't cry
Me after: *just bawling*
My only complaint with the DLC is that there is no way to permanently free the prisoner.
Unless you brute force the combination locks, you can’t free them then go to the eye. Their awareness of how their rebellious deed saved the galaxy only exists in the loop you get into their tomb. Otherwise, Their imprisonment continues until the power in the Stranger dies, which could still be a long time assuming the last thing to shut off is the flame - even with the universe dying.
Yeah that's the main reason I don't really feel content with the ending to the DLC. I was happy to meet the prisoner and see the final vision with him, but it never felt like the end. I knew that he would immediately forget me and would be trapped in there for the rest of time. I know that that is sort of what happens with the other travelers but they are free to do whatever they want, they aren't trapped like he is. I was just left wondering if that was the actual end or if there was something else I could do...
@@actionstormfn3414 did you went to the eye after freeing him?
@@intra93 yeah I did but it didn't feel like it finished his story since the eye feels like a conclusion to the main story not the stranger's story even though I know it is
The destruction triggered by the eye of the universe would presumably wipe out the stranger as well. And your memories of him being shown everything is what you carry with you into the eye, and is arguably the version of the prisoner you speak too. The one who understood everything.
Still tragic in a way, But his journey came to an end also.
There's a way, actually, someone datamined the locks a while ago
time to CRY for ten minutes
I haven't played echoes of the eye yet but I had to listen
Everyone: Greeting each other at the final campfire.
Outer wilds venture: *All surprised at meeting a living Nomai.*
Solanum: *Happy to see those who followed in her kind's foot steps making it to the eye.*
Prisoner: *Walks out from the shadows catching everyone by surprise.*
Solanum: Hello there, who are... *She is hugged by the Prisoner.*
Prisoner: You listened to my call. *Weeping softly, remembering what his kind did.*
Solanum: *Hugging the prisoner back.* And you reached out to us.
I just zoned out and 10 minutes already passed wtf