This game is the epitome of the idea that it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. Because the destinations ALL suck. The journey sucks too. In fact, it all sucks. 11/10 GOTY
Out of all of them, the one who got the least amount of suffering in his ending was Ragnvaldr, ironically enough. He has one of the most miserable backstories but gets the least miserable ending, instead going off with his new wolf friend to go hunt monsters.
I disagree, HEAVILY. Every single canonical ending It's actually positive. Enki gets everything he ever wanted, no backlash, EVERYTHING HE WANTS Ragnavaldr frees the world from 99.9% monsters, and makes a friend D'arce ehh... She's fucking insane but technically She either does what She Always wanted as a good Lil sub or fucks a ghoul that Will help make Twitter Cahara creates the God of fear and Hunger a BENEVOLENT God that wants humanity to Better itself
@@fabioviti7384 There is nothing positive about Caharas. Maybe for the world but his fate is tragic. D'arce isn't really either, she is delusional and it literally that meme of being on fire and saying, this is fine. The other two are positive because the don't allow dungeon to control them and forge their own destiny.
The "cosmic indifference" is a concept that truly disturbs me. For example, there are people out there who enjoy killing insects, there are people out there who kill them on sight, there are people like me who kill pests and try to either leave alive some other less annoying insects or to capture them and free them outside of their homes (I do this with spiders), still, the fact that one never really thinks about how many insects the simple act of taking a walk through a field will kill and the fact that, even if we did think about that, if we need to go in the middle of that field, casualties among the billions of insects we see and can't see are inevitable. It's the idea that there may be something out there whose scale we can't even fathom and it doesn't necessarily want to do anything bad to us, it's just that among its simple act of living it might completely annihilate us and we will not even be a small stone by the side of the road in its memory...if it has any memory at all.
I am one of those who regards insects with a mixture of fascination and revulsion. I see and respect their purpose and life cycle as part of a larger ecology . But I would not tolerate their number should they invade my peace and territory and would dispatch of them without compunction and hesitation should they be unpleasant to the eye with their very presence. Nylarhothep is the child which captures us the tiny insects in a killing jar set them against each other in an alien environment just to see how they react. Occasionally picking off a leg here and there just to watch them toil and crawl spazmodically. Eventually growing bored before smashing the jar and gleefully stamp on them. Just to get a new jar and start again. Why ? Because he's bored and it alleviates his ennui.
I like how, despite its bleak nature, Funger is also over-the-top hilarious. I mean, LeGarde's entire plan is speedrunning apotheosis by going through all the trials faced by the new gods in quick succession. Ragnvaldr kills so many monsters that unspeakable horrors check under their beds for him every night. There's an off-hand mention that the Ottoman Empire is breeding samurai with janissaries to create samussaries (or janirai?). WHEELCHAIR GOD exists in the sequel and is the best thing ever.
Also in the sequel Nas'Hrar claims he created the entire asian continent/country (their world Japan I think?) as a "joke" and has a hysterical fit laughing that people think it's some mystical ancient civilization.
I ignored the trigger warnings at first but then I noticed the size of the censor bar on the guard and thought "You know what? I'll leave a comment for the algorithms sake and watch something else". 🤣
I feel like it's important to mention that lovecraft didnt just talk about things that could be scary but he also talked about and wrote about literal everyday things. Lovecraft was just extremely terrified of the world and every single thing in it which explains why his stories are terrifying - everything was scary to him
This is a very good point, a lot of Lovecraft's writings stem from his own anxiety, agoraphobia, xenophobia etc. and his awe at the ever burgeoning field of astronomy likely only heightened his feelings of fear. Thank you for sharing!
Howard literally wrote a whole story about a guy whose weird neighbor turns out to be an undead living corpse who can’t leave his apartment because his air conditioning system is what is keeping his corpse from decomposing. The unknown risks and horrors of this newly developed and distributed air conditioning technology were enough to drive him to a fit of creative writing.
Imagine if he had known that, several million years ago, a star may have gone supernova and released cosmic rays that are right now heading towards Earth and that when they get here, they will strip the atmosphere from the planet and immediately kill every living thing, and we have absolutely no way to detect it before it happens, let alone stop it. Compared to that Cthulu is just an overgrown octopus.
@snqoqo Absolutely untrue and unfounded. This is the kinda shit that people like to spread to act as if they are on the know when in reality it's all exaggerations and is either not present in the plethora of primary sources we have or straight up contradicted.
I don’t know why, but I revel in every discovery of a new Fear and Hunger video essay. I feel like I know everything there is to know about the game, but I also feel like I haven’t even begun to understand it. It masterfully tackles so many things, and it feels like a commentary on human nature the likes of which Freud would be envious of. I feel truly grateful to have stumbled upon this game because I genuinely believe it is a masterpiece. No other single piece of fiction has ever made me feel so curious to hear others insights and interpretations of it. Miro has created something truly special with this series. It’s a damn shame that so many will likely be turned off by the more grisly parts of the game, because they mean nothing to the bigger picture. Thank you for gifting the world with your creativity Miro. I hope you bless us with every bit of imagination you have to offer.
I have played it. But the brutality of the game itself is too much for me. I stick to video essays because the game fascinates me but playing it is a masochistic adventure I do not enjoy. Similar to how I watch let's plays of horror games because i get too immersed when I play and the horror of the games make me not want to play them but I really want to see the story. Edit: I haven't ever found more than the intro zone the dungeon and the flesh bubble library place. This is also my first video essay on this game and I'm commenting before watching lol
@@dyabo8826 I thought I was like this but I got into the game and finished all the endings. I probably will never play another minute of it but the story around the game is so amazing that it constantly keeps pulling me to binge videos like these.
Yes, I feel this exact way! What I've learned about this game aesthetically, narratively, and thematically is 100% my jam. Unfortunately I just don't have the time, skill, or patience these days to actually play it. (I also feel this way about the fromsoft games) The more, as you say, "grisly" parts of the game is also a bit of a turn-off for me. I can stomach video game gore as much as the next guy, but did they have to make stuff like "the generic guard enemy has an absurdly large penis and you have a risk of being raped by it which will give you severe anal bleeding" a part of the game? This along with all the other phallic imagery and weirdly oversexual content, idk if they're all that necessary (Can you tell I'm not the biggest Freud fan?) I don't even consider myself particularly sensitive about this stuff, but I can't seem to find any reason for it to be included other than shock value and edgy "realism". I mean, isn't scrounging for survival and a chance of being brutally murdered around every corner enough to deliver the message? Idk like I said I haven't played the game so I may be missing something. Maybe someone who has actually experienced the game can enlighten me on this.
There's cosmic horror, unknowable and unthinkable by a sane mortal mind. And then there's 300+ hours playtime Enki leisurely jogging on his way to ending S for the third time.
He canonly wears thigh highs and house sands under those robes my guy just saw the dungeon horrors and people going mad/losing limbs at worst saw them as a slight annoying detour to his independent reading hour
What I also love about this game is that it mastefully weaponizes your curiosity against you. And the details in some of NPCs designs and your interactions with them gives you just enough idea about the horrors behind them. And imo thats what makes it even scarier, when your mind is forced to fill in the gaps instead of outright knowing/seeing what you should fear. And here I thought Bloodborne was hella bleak enough.
This works great as a companion to the Super Eyepatch Wolf video on Fear and Hunger. This is a great literary analysis, wheras I feel he focuses on the vibe of playing the game.
Agreed! Super Eyepatch Wolf’s, Worm Girl’s, and this video kinda feels like the Holy Trinity of Fear and Hunger Video essays. SEW’s for the getting the vibes of how GRUELING the game is to play, WG’s for getting the lore, and this one for getting the epic literary vibes!
POV: When russian youtuber did 4 hour video on first fear and hunger and 8 hour video on termina just showing playthrough with his thoughts over a year ago. (Look up PEKAR , there are some games like that, Demonophobia for example) Or Tedanor also russian guy that did something like Eyepatch Wolf over 2 years ago being one of first who popularised fear and hunger so it left underground Or Professor Zog that checks both fear and hunger on their mechanics to complete games without legs and hands, without random items, etc.
The reason why they don't have a bigger following is bc this is only video #3. Or at least that's all I see on the channel lol I look forward to more videos
The ever-present theme of there not being any light of hope in the overpowering darkness that is the dungeons. This game isn't all dark for the sake of being dark, there are very few moments of kindness in this game to keep the characters moving forward, if not for their initial motivations, and even if it's to lure them deeper in these dungeons. Just like the God of Fear and hunger herself says, there's beauty in this darkness, and it takes real emotions to bring something like this out that we as people aren't able and meant to understand in a game. Even if I keep consuming these F&H videos, there's always something new to take away from someone else's perspective. Amazing work on this.
But there is a light. Sure, pandora has unlocked her box, but hope exists nonetheless. You help birth the God of fear and hunger, and thus the cruel age. But that's not a bad thing, the cruel age made humanity need to progress, you see as much in the 2nd game.
the fact that you made this high a production video with only 60 subscribers speaks to your unbelievable dedication and I hope you blow up on here cause you deserve it
Finally, a NEW video essay on my lovely obsession! Would also love to see another one like this for its sequel, Termina. It is getting a new update soon so I would also like to see how the blind run post-update will be, since many videos and runs of it will be from returning players instead.
The creator of this game isn't a deviant. It's very clear that all of the gruesome themes such as SA and violence serve a distinct purpose to disturb the viewer in a way that fits the canon of the universe very pertinently
Also, Fear and Hunger was created as part of some sort of thesis that centered on how to make people uncomfortable. The game was literally made to be as uncomfortable as possible for purposes of academic research. It's hilarious.
you can also tell from the fact that he never shows anything happening to the girl outright, only ever implying it, and the fact that those terrible things that ARE portrayed outright happen to the characters regardless of gender, and pretty much exclusively when you fail at the game. I haven't read berserk, but from what I've seen, Casca gets the fridge treatment, so I'd say miro is way ahead of it in that department.
what i really like about this video is how you describe the narrative reason behind the story, of course they are many lore explanation ,discussion video and thread all over the internet. but sometime the context, theme, how and when they are represent in game just lost in those discussion, and it just suck for someone who havent play the game or dont understand the game narrative might miss some of the meaning and context that elevate the game story and make it more special. so yeah i like this video.
Fear and hunger has been an obsession of mine for over a year now and you really hit the nail on the head connecting all the allusive dots. (I’m also reading blood meridian rn so the ending hit hard)
As a fan and writer of cosmic horror, I really loved this video! Never played the game, but watched some videos on it, and this is probably the best, most concise summary of what it is. Great video, and honestly, you deserve more subs!
Finally the youtube algorithm has done it's job and gave me a great suggestion, never heard of Fear and Hunger before but now I want to try it out for myself
Oddly enough, this game and the youtuber coverage of it has been my comfort content of choice for the last little while. I'm slowly getting better with treatment, but the last year or so I've been dealing with crippling anxiety and panic attacks that have sent me to the hospital on more than one occasion. So this cosmic horror is a more a celestial comfort for me, ironically lol. Maybe somebody can relate? Also if you're out there somewhere, kind stranger who held my hand in the ER during my panic attack, you're the real MVP and I haven't forgotten you. Anyways great job covering this subject OP, I love to see it when my indie horror fave gets its flowers / due respects. 🌆
I can relate. I have PTSD, major depression, anxiety and a bunch of different things I don't feel like talking about. This is therapeutic for me. Lots of great horror is. I wish you well as you continue to recover. Sometimes things don't get better, but we get better at coping with them in healthy ways. We do the best with what we have. If I've got to go through it anyway might as well make the most of it. I hope you have a way to all that you need to continually bring out the best in your life.
Pretty good! I love the horror themes and Fear & Hunger has such a fascinating world. Always great to see someone's take on it and some of the meanings.
29:29 fun fact: Lovecraft wrote The Shadow Over Innsmouth directly after he found out he had Welsh blood. As a virulent racist and xenophobe, he Did Not Vibe with that revelation. So… the story is essentially a weird existential crisis about feeling betrayed by his own “species” for being secretly “half-fish”, if you catch my drift.
I saw another commenter mention having another channel to watch when sleep evades them, and I have to say. That is unironically the highest praise. Insomnia is a bitch and sometimes the ADHD hits so hard you can't focus on even entertaining yourself. Channels like this are a blessing and you do it with skill. Good content A+ all that.
I’d really like to see a deep dive on F&H: Termina. Not enough people cover it compared to the first game, even though I think the second is better. That being said, this was a great watch and I’m super happy people are still finding the game.
Now...a battle royal where each player is a Cultist for a particular primordial God's set in an eerie 1920's back-water called Elder's Maw representing thier God and sacrifice. Call it Burnt Offerings.
Great video. I just learned about the Call of Cthulhu TTRG yesterday and was delighted to find your video this morning. Would love to see more from you in the future!
Funny thing is i was just reading The Scarlet Citadel in the Conan the barbarian series, and one of my first thoughts was "damn they threw conan into Funger!". I think this is relevant because the conan stories i think contributed a lot to cosmic horror ideas, especially considering RE howard and HP Lovecraft were penpals and their stories were displayed alongside each other in Weird Tales. I was kinda amazed when i actually saw the phrase "cosmic horror" in the conan story "The pheonix on the sword", could be wrong but to my knowledge that is probably one of the first actual uses of the phrase
It'd be interesting to see who coined the term, many of Lovecraft's early essays focus on 'cosmicism', 'gothic horror', and/or 'weird fiction', so maybe Robert E. Howard helped the term come to popularity. That'd be fascinating!
Having a video analysis on the second game would be a blessing, the way you explain things kept me locked in my screen for the entire hour, would love to see more Funger content from you!
Really loved the video, i hope you are planing on doing another for the sequel (my favorite of the two), your style of video would be perfect for explaining more about Termina, you got yourself a sub
First of all, I really enjoyed this video and am so glad it came up in my recommended. I've devoured all of the other more well known Funger channels content so it was a nice surprise to get a new channel to sub to! Anyway, since you are one of us masochism for enjoyment type gamers, have you played Pathologic 1 or 2? I personally have only played the second game (same goes for me with funger honestly; I'm not sure if I am made of tough enough stuff to go back to it or patho 1). Survival horror with dark themes of plague, colonialist subjugation of an indigenous peoples, and misery. It was my "comfort game" through the pandemic, lmao.
@@obsi8958 Germany. It isn't even banned here. It's due to some Change where they would need a specific Age Verification Technique which isn't implemented, which doesn't really make Sense because I still saw a few 18+ Games on Steam a While ago
Nah as soon as I heard this chanel has videos minimally tangential to D&D I knew I was gonna follow and binge-watch it. Hope this video blows up, you deserve it
Nice work with this video analysis. Excellent explanation and respect for giving your credit to Max Man, I feel like I’m definitely moon scorched at times but I feel like we all can so easily be trapped into the universe without the help ohelp
oh this was a joy to watch!! i love your sense of humor and how you balance it with more serious topics. keep it up, and i can’t wait to watch more of your work!!
Wow amazing video! I typed in "video game essay" and this is what looked interesting. I watched the full vid with much enjoyment. I love the part at the end where you display the video editor timer and it lines up with the youtube timer. Very clever!!
Awe you didn't talk about how awesome the ascension line is. "The god of fear and hunger recognize your struggles and suffering, and the weight of that recognition crushes you." What a line!
My only gripe with this vid is your conclusion at the end about Cosmicism. Because meaning and understanding both come with time. Can humanity as it is right now, understand the depths of the universe and the layers of reality? No, but it COULD learn. It just depends on whether or not they find the right teacher or way to learn the lesson. Yeah yeah, I know, an Optimism half full type of take. But still, that is the one thing that always gets to me about people when it comes to Cosmic Horror. That there is "no hope" for there to be any understanding. There is always hope, the question really is "How much time do we have?". Buuuut that's just a "me" thing when it comes to all of this.
You have to remember that cosmic horror is the horror of the Enlightenment, that the Earth is not the centre of creation and humans have no special place in the universe, and no matter what we do, one day the sun will explode. Lovecraft was basically a real-life version of the miserable strawman atheist fundamentalist Christians like to imagine. It's a type of horror that's very of its time: if you read _The Call of Cthulhu_ to a medieval peasant he'd probably laugh and tell you it's a fine tale but God would just kill the squid-dragon if it was that bad.
10/10 video analysis of one of my favorite games because of the very reasons you describe. A true soulsborne elden ring, berserk influenced piece of art.
Most of the actual content in the game is occult and survival horror, cosmic is secondary. I realise that might not be a big distinction for most, but it draws far more from Kabbalah, Crowleyan magick, alchemy and Neoplatonism than Lovecraft. There's undeniably some Lovecraft influence, but the central themes are mostly performing and self-inflicting suffering in the name of evil gods in exchange for just enough power to survive - what are you willing to do to continue living? This really wasn't Lovecraft's thing - his work is much more about the emotion of terror itself and the threat of madness from the unknowable
41:12 actually Sylvia’s cared a lot about human but was sad because she couldn’t be around them without them dying and she relised she wasn’t healthy for them so she left and gro-goroth followed her , I liken it to someone trying to take care of a wild animal or bug and then being sadden cause it died.
I have to say that this is the first Fear and Hunger Explained video that I actually watched all the way through. Congrats on being the only commentator interesting enough to keep my ADHD brain entertained and engaged.
When you asked how many small creatures we unknowingly or carelessly destroy on a daily basis because they are essentially beneath our concern… wow, that makes you think. Makes me more aware.
Really loved this video! Could we get another one on Fear and Hunger 2 Termina? Ive been dying for a good video essay on it but cant find any online. A gap in the market if you will.
I'd love to do one at some point! I'm a little cautious in posting a Let's Play or review, or some other video which may be seen as derivative of another Fungy creator's work, but there are some literary and philosophical themes I'd love to explore within Termina!
@DennisLjeti I was just going to comment about that, that it’s a pretty daring move to make a FaH 1 essay this ”late in the game”. Given the famous high tier content already out there, and most of the fans seeming to know the world inside and out, it would be hard to create something like this now that’s interesting enough without it being obviously derivative. And I think you pulled that off very well!
I'm not done watching yet but you've already done Lovecraft justice when discussing his writings. This bodes well for the rest of the video, hitting that sub button man, I'm interested in what you produce next.
Dennis: scared of alienating his small audience with his newest video Also Dennis: makes more than half a million views with his newest video And deservedly so!
And this is why I love the S-Endings. I never really *got* the appeal of Cosmic Horror or the horror itself. I prefer stories of people that in front of infinite troubles and horrors struggle to obtain what they desire. Ragnavaldr and Enki's endings in particular are my absolute favourites.
@@dyabo8826 It's, honestly, above Calgara S-Ending for me, but I felt like mentioning it would have weakened the point I was making it ahahahahahah I feel bad for her, especially due to the fact that in Hard Mode, the mode where our 4 humans somewhat break free from the grasp of Fate and the Labyrinth, and despite ignoring divinity obtain what they believe they desire, it's impossible to save her. Yet, while there are few comments that made me hate the game like it telling me she was panickedly asking for help at the beginning of her transformation, I like what the ending does for the world. Her role for humanity as a costant and desperate push for advancement and survival, to break free from our limits. I love it. I think. I don't know. I haven't yet had a chance to fully reflect on my feelings about it. I hope I did not cause confusion and managed to explain my point. It might be a bit hypocritical.
@@delmattia96 While the transformation may have frightened the girl, that doesn't mean the transformation was bad, from her perspective. Having never seen the sun, she might have been frightened by that, too. And it might be fun to be the God of Fear and Hunger. Which, admittedly, raises the question of whether the girl was merely a catalyst for the god's creation (which would definitely justify her fear) or she _is_ the god.
I’ve been playing the game with my dad and somehow we’re having a good time I mean the problem solving element is something my dad THRIVES in My dad has a pretty positive attitude towards the game He sees it as trial and error, everything we do will teach us some kind of lesson on how the game works. And he’s an engineer by profession so again, this sort of gameplay is in his element He picked Cahara and we plan to go for ending A It’s been a weirdly wholesome experience…
This game is the epitome of the idea that it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. Because the destinations ALL suck. The journey sucks too. In fact, it all sucks.
11/10 GOTY
Out of all of them, the one who got the least amount of suffering in his ending was Ragnvaldr, ironically enough. He has one of the most miserable backstories but gets the least miserable ending, instead going off with his new wolf friend to go hunt monsters.
Best description
I disagree, HEAVILY.
Every single canonical ending It's actually positive.
Enki gets everything he ever wanted, no backlash, EVERYTHING HE WANTS
Ragnavaldr frees the world from 99.9% monsters, and makes a friend
D'arce ehh... She's fucking insane but technically She either does what She Always wanted as a good Lil sub or fucks a ghoul that Will help make Twitter
Cahara creates the God of fear and Hunger a BENEVOLENT God that wants humanity to Better itself
@@fabioviti7384 There is nothing positive about Caharas. Maybe for the world but his fate is tragic. D'arce isn't really either, she is delusional and it literally that meme of being on fire and saying, this is fine. The other two are positive because the don't allow dungeon to control them and forge their own destiny.
My life irl
New “dude to watch talk about video games as I struggle against sleep every night “ just dropped! Damn!
Well who would of thunk I’m not the only one to discover this video while struggling to sleep.
I relate to this to an alarming degree
Real
We will closely monitor the progression of young Jacob Geller
Has to be one of my favorite genres
The "cosmic indifference" is a concept that truly disturbs me. For example, there are people out there who enjoy killing insects, there are people out there who kill them on sight, there are people like me who kill pests and try to either leave alive some other less annoying insects or to capture them and free them outside of their homes (I do this with spiders), still, the fact that one never really thinks about how many insects the simple act of taking a walk through a field will kill and the fact that, even if we did think about that, if we need to go in the middle of that field, casualties among the billions of insects we see and can't see are inevitable.
It's the idea that there may be something out there whose scale we can't even fathom and it doesn't necessarily want to do anything bad to us, it's just that among its simple act of living it might completely annihilate us and we will not even be a small stone by the side of the road in its memory...if it has any memory at all.
I am one of those who regards insects with a mixture of fascination and revulsion. I see and respect their purpose and life cycle as part of a larger ecology . But I would not tolerate their number should they invade my peace and territory and would dispatch of them without compunction and hesitation should they be unpleasant to the eye with their very presence. Nylarhothep is the child which captures us the tiny insects in a killing jar set them against each other in an alien environment just to see how they react. Occasionally picking off a leg here and there just to watch them toil and crawl spazmodically. Eventually growing bored before smashing the jar and gleefully stamp on them. Just to get a new jar and start again. Why ? Because he's bored and it alleviates his ennui.
I like how, despite its bleak nature, Funger is also over-the-top hilarious.
I mean, LeGarde's entire plan is speedrunning apotheosis by going through all the trials faced by the new gods in quick succession. Ragnvaldr kills so many monsters that unspeakable horrors check under their beds for him every night. There's an off-hand mention that the Ottoman Empire is breeding samurai with janissaries to create samussaries (or janirai?). WHEELCHAIR GOD exists in the sequel and is the best thing ever.
Also in the sequel Nas'Hrar claims he created the entire asian continent/country (their world Japan I think?) as a "joke" and has a hysterical fit laughing that people think it's some mystical ancient civilization.
Samussy
I had to use a wheelchair for 8 years and hated it profoundly
Sounds like more berserk inspiration.
@@josedorsaith5261 His name is Metroid.
I ignored the trigger warnings at first but then I noticed the size of the censor bar on the guard and thought "You know what? I'll leave a comment for the algorithms sake and watch something else". 🤣
Ah yes, the stinger
the Big stinger
Le stinge thinge
Is it *stinging* your self-esteem to realise the his is bigger than yours?
@@enricofermi3471 mine loops over my shoulder twice, not that impressive tbh
I feel like it's important to mention that lovecraft didnt just talk about things that could be scary but he also talked about and wrote about literal everyday things. Lovecraft was just extremely terrified of the world and every single thing in it which explains why his stories are terrifying - everything was scary to him
This is a very good point, a lot of Lovecraft's writings stem from his own anxiety, agoraphobia, xenophobia etc. and his awe at the ever burgeoning field of astronomy likely only heightened his feelings of fear.
Thank you for sharing!
Howard literally wrote a whole story about a guy whose weird neighbor turns out to be an undead living corpse who can’t leave his apartment because his air conditioning system is what is keeping his corpse from decomposing. The unknown risks and horrors of this newly developed and distributed air conditioning technology were enough to drive him to a fit of creative writing.
@@leitmotif7268lovecraft mustve had a neighbor that had a really loud ac
Imagine if he had known that, several million years ago, a star may have gone supernova and released cosmic rays that are right now heading towards Earth and that when they get here, they will strip the atmosphere from the planet and immediately kill every living thing, and we have absolutely no way to detect it before it happens, let alone stop it. Compared to that Cthulu is just an overgrown octopus.
@snqoqo Absolutely untrue and unfounded. This is the kinda shit that people like to spread to act as if they are on the know when in reality it's all exaggerations and is either not present in the plethora of primary sources we have or straight up contradicted.
I don’t know why, but I revel in every discovery of a new Fear and Hunger video essay. I feel like I know everything there is to know about the game, but I also feel like I haven’t even begun to understand it. It masterfully tackles so many things, and it feels like a commentary on human nature the likes of which Freud would be envious of. I feel truly grateful to have stumbled upon this game because I genuinely believe it is a masterpiece. No other single piece of fiction has ever made me feel so curious to hear others insights and interpretations of it. Miro has created something truly special with this series. It’s a damn shame that so many will likely be turned off by the more grisly parts of the game, because they mean nothing to the bigger picture. Thank you for gifting the world with your creativity Miro. I hope you bless us with every bit of imagination you have to offer.
I feel the same. Have you played it? I love learning about it but couldn't stomach the experience myself.
I have played it. But the brutality of the game itself is too much for me. I stick to video essays because the game fascinates me but playing it is a masochistic adventure I do not enjoy. Similar to how I watch let's plays of horror games because i get too immersed when I play and the horror of the games make me not want to play them but I really want to see the story.
Edit: I haven't ever found more than the intro zone the dungeon and the flesh bubble library place. This is also my first video essay on this game and I'm commenting before watching lol
Same. I love seeing new takes on the game. There’s so much to unpack in these games and I adore them. It’s horror done well.
@@dyabo8826 I thought I was like this but I got into the game and finished all the endings. I probably will never play another minute of it but the story around the game is so amazing that it constantly keeps pulling me to binge videos like these.
Yes, I feel this exact way! What I've learned about this game aesthetically, narratively, and thematically is 100% my jam. Unfortunately I just don't have the time, skill, or patience these days to actually play it. (I also feel this way about the fromsoft games)
The more, as you say, "grisly" parts of the game is also a bit of a turn-off for me. I can stomach video game gore as much as the next guy, but did they have to make stuff like "the generic guard enemy has an absurdly large penis and you have a risk of being raped by it which will give you severe anal bleeding" a part of the game? This along with all the other phallic imagery and weirdly oversexual content, idk if they're all that necessary (Can you tell I'm not the biggest Freud fan?) I don't even consider myself particularly sensitive about this stuff, but I can't seem to find any reason for it to be included other than shock value and edgy "realism". I mean, isn't scrounging for survival and a chance of being brutally murdered around every corner enough to deliver the message? Idk like I said I haven't played the game so I may be missing something. Maybe someone who has actually experienced the game can enlighten me on this.
There's cosmic horror, unknowable and unthinkable by a sane mortal mind.
And then there's 300+ hours playtime Enki leisurely jogging on his way to ending S for the third time.
"i am an eldritch diety" "you a bitch is what you is"
He canonly wears thigh highs and house sands under those robes my guy just saw the dungeon horrors and people going mad/losing limbs at worst saw them as a slight annoying detour to his independent reading hour
What I also love about this game is that it mastefully weaponizes your curiosity against you. And the details in some of NPCs designs and your interactions with them gives you just enough idea about the horrors behind them. And imo thats what makes it even scarier, when your mind is forced to fill in the gaps instead of outright knowing/seeing what you should fear. And here I thought Bloodborne was hella bleak enough.
This works great as a companion to the Super Eyepatch Wolf video on Fear and Hunger. This is a great literary analysis, wheras I feel he focuses on the vibe of playing the game.
Agreed! Super Eyepatch Wolf’s, Worm Girl’s, and this video kinda feels like the Holy Trinity of Fear and Hunger Video essays. SEW’s for the getting the vibes of how GRUELING the game is to play, WG’s for getting the lore, and this one for getting the epic literary vibes!
@@bakingkitty1034 "epic literary" is a bit of a hyperbole, its good but not that. Academic monotone would be closer to the style presented by the vid.
@@Zlyde007 Fair enough, I'm being dramatic for the fun of it XD
POV: When russian youtuber did 4 hour video on first fear and hunger and 8 hour video on termina just showing playthrough with his thoughts over a year ago. (Look up PEKAR , there are some games like that, Demonophobia for example)
Or Tedanor also russian guy that did something like Eyepatch Wolf over 2 years ago being one of first who popularised fear and hunger so it left underground
Or Professor Zog that checks both fear and hunger on their mechanics to complete games without legs and hands, without random items, etc.
I'm surprised you don't have a bigger following nor view count, the editing and way you explain things are pretty cool.
That's kind of you to say!
The reason why they don't have a bigger following is bc this is only video #3. Or at least that's all I see on the channel lol
I look forward to more videos
@@DennisLjeti Also, you put the sources of the clips, music and images you used at the end of the video. Most RUclips content creators don't do that!
Your work is so professional you need a larger following
I concur. Pretty good. Earned a subscrobble.
The ever-present theme of there not being any light of hope in the overpowering darkness that is the dungeons. This game isn't all dark for the sake of being dark, there are very few moments of kindness in this game to keep the characters moving forward, if not for their initial motivations, and even if it's to lure them deeper in these dungeons.
Just like the God of Fear and hunger herself says, there's beauty in this darkness, and it takes real emotions to bring something like this out that we as people aren't able and meant to understand in a game.
Even if I keep consuming these F&H videos, there's always something new to take away from someone else's perspective. Amazing work on this.
But there is a light. Sure, pandora has unlocked her box, but hope exists nonetheless. You help birth the God of fear and hunger, and thus the cruel age. But that's not a bad thing, the cruel age made humanity need to progress, you see as much in the 2nd game.
the fact that you made this high a production video with only 60 subscribers speaks to your unbelievable dedication and I hope you blow up on here cause you deserve it
Finally, a NEW video essay on my lovely obsession!
Would also love to see another one like this for its sequel, Termina. It is getting a new update soon so I would also like to see how the blind run post-update will be, since many videos and runs of it will be from returning players instead.
Yk what the update is gonna be about?
When you used a Neal Breen clip as part of your sanity system explanation, I knew I was in love
Same, when I saw the Neal Breen clip I subbed immediately
Timestamp?
It was the Neil Breen clip, and then the shot from Surviving Edged Weapons. I knew I was in the right place.
Love these long form videos on cosmic horror, perfect for kicking back and relaxing!
Omg thank you! I feast on these long video essays about funger
Please do part 2 on termina
I’m gonna start calling it funger now, that’s great 😂
The creator of this game isn't a deviant. It's very clear that all of the gruesome themes such as SA and violence serve a distinct purpose to disturb the viewer in a way that fits the canon of the universe very pertinently
Also, Fear and Hunger was created as part of some sort of thesis that centered on how to make people uncomfortable. The game was literally made to be as uncomfortable as possible for purposes of academic research. It's hilarious.
It was a joke
Yeah he was clearly joking about the deviant thing, but those are also important points in understanding the game.
Yup, pretty similar to Berserk. Which Miro isn’t shy about referencing.
you can also tell from the fact that he never shows anything happening to the girl outright, only ever implying it, and the fact that those terrible things that ARE portrayed outright happen to the characters regardless of gender, and pretty much exclusively when you fail at the game.
I haven't read berserk, but from what I've seen, Casca gets the fridge treatment, so I'd say miro is way ahead of it in that department.
Love that you blurred the puzzle to not spoil any gameplay. Great video
what i really like about this video is how you describe the narrative reason behind the story, of course they are many lore explanation ,discussion video and thread all over the internet. but sometime the context, theme, how and when they are represent in game just lost in those discussion, and it just suck for someone who havent play the game or dont understand the game narrative might miss some of the meaning and context that elevate the game story and make it more special. so yeah i like this video.
Fear and hunger has been an obsession of mine for over a year now and you really hit the nail on the head connecting all the allusive dots. (I’m also reading blood meridian rn so the ending hit hard)
Blood meridian is so good, I need to reread that, thanks for reminding me!
As a fan and writer of cosmic horror, I really loved this video! Never played the game, but watched some videos on it, and this is probably the best, most concise summary of what it is. Great video, and honestly, you deserve more subs!
I'm so glad this showed up in my feed, great video man!
Holy shit, for your third video, this is awesome. One of the best videos about this game I have seen. Keep up the good work ❤
Finally the youtube algorithm has done it's job and gave me a great suggestion, never heard of Fear and Hunger before but now I want to try it out for myself
Yet another video describing the torment this game puts you through, I’m on the edge of my seat!!!
When I see a Neil Breen clip used, I know I'm in good company. Fascinating video, thank you!
I love the way you talk about this game in depth, hope to hear more in depth obsure horror game videos in the future like this!
Oddly enough, this game and the youtuber coverage of it has been my comfort content of choice for the last little while. I'm slowly getting better with treatment, but the last year or so I've been dealing with crippling anxiety and panic attacks that have sent me to the hospital on more than one occasion. So this cosmic horror is a more a celestial comfort for me, ironically lol. Maybe somebody can relate? Also if you're out there somewhere, kind stranger who held my hand in the ER during my panic attack, you're the real MVP and I haven't forgotten you. Anyways great job covering this subject OP, I love to see it when my indie horror fave gets its flowers / due respects. 🌆
Wishing you all the best in your recovery
Thanks so much man, I really appreciate it.
I can relate. I have PTSD, major depression, anxiety and a bunch of different things I don't feel like talking about. This is therapeutic for me. Lots of great horror is. I wish you well as you continue to recover. Sometimes things don't get better, but we get better at coping with them in healthy ways. We do the best with what we have. If I've got to go through it anyway might as well make the most of it. I hope you have a way to all that you need to continually bring out the best in your life.
Pretty good! I love the horror themes and Fear & Hunger has such a fascinating world. Always great to see someone's take on it and some of the meanings.
29:29 fun fact: Lovecraft wrote The Shadow Over Innsmouth directly after he found out he had Welsh blood. As a virulent racist and xenophobe, he Did Not Vibe with that revelation. So… the story is essentially a weird existential crisis about feeling betrayed by his own “species” for being secretly “half-fish”, if you catch my drift.
I saw another commenter mention having another channel to watch when sleep evades them, and I have to say. That is unironically the highest praise. Insomnia is a bitch and sometimes the ADHD hits so hard you can't focus on even entertaining yourself. Channels like this are a blessing and you do it with skill. Good content A+ all that.
Can I just say, I love your writing here. Not only is this a great analysis, but your writing is genuinely great to listen to.
holyy, talk about underrated! This landed in my recommended and I'm surprised to see it come from a relatively small account. This was so well done
I assumed this dude had at least 100k subs, the quality is insane. Keep it up!
I’d really like to see a deep dive on F&H: Termina. Not enough people cover it compared to the first game, even though I think the second is better. That being said, this was a great watch and I’m super happy people are still finding the game.
Now...a battle royal where each player is a Cultist for a particular primordial God's set in an eerie 1920's back-water called Elder's Maw representing thier God and sacrifice. Call it Burnt Offerings.
Or you can call it... The Aristocrats!
Well, Hunt:Showdown is halfway there.
I mean, that's basically the sequel Fear and Hunger Termina :V
@@Kaylakaze😂😅 Ta dah !
Great videos! Some of the stuff you talk about the story never came to my mind and never heard it anywhere else. Keep up the good work!
"Spoopy and hungy.." I'm a simple dude. That got me. Subscribed
Great video. I just learned about the Call of Cthulhu TTRG yesterday and was delighted to find your video this morning. Would love to see more from you in the future!
Funny thing is i was just reading The Scarlet Citadel in the Conan the barbarian series, and one of my first thoughts was "damn they threw conan into Funger!". I think this is relevant because the conan stories i think contributed a lot to cosmic horror ideas, especially considering RE howard and HP Lovecraft were penpals and their stories were displayed alongside each other in Weird Tales. I was kinda amazed when i actually saw the phrase "cosmic horror" in the conan story "The pheonix on the sword", could be wrong but to my knowledge that is probably one of the first actual uses of the phrase
It'd be interesting to see who coined the term, many of Lovecraft's early essays focus on 'cosmicism', 'gothic horror', and/or 'weird fiction', so maybe Robert E. Howard helped the term come to popularity. That'd be fascinating!
Having a video analysis on the second game would be a blessing, the way you explain things kept me locked in my screen for the entire hour, would love to see more Funger content from you!
Loved every second of it.
I really dig your style or narration and enjoyed the Audio during my work commotion.
Now the same for Part two pls 😂😂
Really loved the video, i hope you are planing on doing another for the sequel (my favorite of the two), your style of video would be perfect for explaining more about Termina, you got yourself a sub
First of all, I really enjoyed this video and am so glad it came up in my recommended. I've devoured all of the other more well known Funger channels content so it was a nice surprise to get a new channel to sub to!
Anyway, since you are one of us masochism for enjoyment type gamers, have you played Pathologic 1 or 2? I personally have only played the second game (same goes for me with funger honestly; I'm not sure if I am made of tough enough stuff to go back to it or patho 1). Survival horror with dark themes of plague, colonialist subjugation of an indigenous peoples, and misery. It was my "comfort game" through the pandemic, lmao.
I absolutely adore Pathologic!
I'm so glad this video popped up in my recommendations! Amazing job.
Finally some good fuckin food. I feel like I’ve been looking for an interesting video of solid length for like an hour
Picked this game up thanks to you. First room gave me more anxiety than majority of my 20+ years of gaming. Gonna be a wild ride.
We shall watch your career with great interest
Came across this video as recommended. Great research, analysis and overall fantastic video. Keep it up mate.
The scariest Part is that you literally need to get it gifted by someone from another Country to be able to play it where I live😑
oh where do you live?
@@obsi8958 Germany. It isn't even banned here. It's due to some Change where they would need a specific Age Verification Technique which isn't implemented, which doesn't really make Sense because I still saw a few 18+ Games on Steam a While ago
*cries in russian*
@@fey_wolf6309 i could buy it for you. if you still have the same problem^^
but you'd have to gift me something of equal value back
Seriously RUclips? Now you're also deleting my Comments just because I write which Country I'm from?
Do I need to stupidly censor that too now?
🇩🇪
Nah as soon as I heard this chanel has videos minimally tangential to D&D I knew I was gonna follow and binge-watch it. Hope this video blows up, you deserve it
this is a really great video essay
What a really well put together video. Keep up the great work!
You are brilliant btw definitely subbing and looking forward to more analyses!
Absolute banger. Very well paced and was engaged the whole time. looking to more videos like it
Thank the RUclips algorithm for this recommendation! Great video, you earned a new sub!
Nice work with this video analysis.
Excellent explanation and respect for giving your credit to Max
Man, I feel like I’m definitely moon scorched at times but I feel like we all can so easily be trapped into the universe without the help ohelp
great video analysis, from the way you explained things and editing style. keep up the good work!:)
oh this was a joy to watch!! i love your sense of humor and how you balance it with more serious topics. keep it up, and i can’t wait to watch more of your work!!
I enjoyed this vid, well done.
Glad you enjoyed it! Loved your video on Rudimer!
Wow amazing video! I typed in "video game essay" and this is what looked interesting. I watched the full vid with much enjoyment. I love the part at the end where you display the video editor timer and it lines up with the youtube timer. Very clever!!
This is genuinely billion-subscriber level video quality. Please, keep up the amazing work :)
Never played the game but been enjoying the different videos that seem to find unique moments to elaborate on.
Awe you didn't talk about how awesome the ascension line is.
"The god of fear and hunger recognize your struggles and suffering, and the weight of that recognition crushes you."
What a line!
This is one of my favourite fear and hunger videos! ❤
I must have the endless soul the way I’m constantly seeking out new Funger video essays
Great work!! Looking forward to the experiments! Keep up the good work!
My only gripe with this vid is your conclusion at the end about Cosmicism. Because meaning and understanding both come with time. Can humanity as it is right now, understand the depths of the universe and the layers of reality? No, but it COULD learn. It just depends on whether or not they find the right teacher or way to learn the lesson. Yeah yeah, I know, an Optimism half full type of take. But still, that is the one thing that always gets to me about people when it comes to Cosmic Horror. That there is "no hope" for there to be any understanding. There is always hope, the question really is "How much time do we have?".
Buuuut that's just a "me" thing when it comes to all of this.
You have to remember that cosmic horror is the horror of the Enlightenment, that the Earth is not the centre of creation and humans have no special place in the universe, and no matter what we do, one day the sun will explode. Lovecraft was basically a real-life version of the miserable strawman atheist fundamentalist Christians like to imagine.
It's a type of horror that's very of its time: if you read _The Call of Cthulhu_ to a medieval peasant he'd probably laugh and tell you it's a fine tale but God would just kill the squid-dragon if it was that bad.
RUclips REALLY wants me to watch this video by recommending it for several days straight. Fine. I'll watch it.
Great video ! Love your tone and flow, really cool to listen to ;)
3 videos and almost 10.000 subscribers - well earned. High quality content.
You just don't come to my recommendation feed and got my attention in the first minutes and not get a subscription from me
10/10 video analysis of one of my favorite games because of the very reasons you describe. A true soulsborne elden ring, berserk influenced piece of art.
Most of the actual content in the game is occult and survival horror, cosmic is secondary. I realise that might not be a big distinction for most, but it draws far more from Kabbalah, Crowleyan magick, alchemy and Neoplatonism than Lovecraft. There's undeniably some Lovecraft influence, but the central themes are mostly performing and self-inflicting suffering in the name of evil gods in exchange for just enough power to survive - what are you willing to do to continue living? This really wasn't Lovecraft's thing - his work is much more about the emotion of terror itself and the threat of madness from the unknowable
@@ДьулусСтручков-крутой LMAO you can disagree with me, that's fine, but what am I lying about?
@@ДьулусСтручков-крутой "that lovecraft" what do you mean?
@@ДьулусСтручков-крутой bro you are speaking in riddles 💀
@@ILoveEvadingTax you must answer their riddles three, then they'll tell you what the fuck their talking about
I love your narration style. Great work. Easy subscription from me!
41:12 actually Sylvia’s cared a lot about human but was sad because she couldn’t be around them without them dying and she relised she wasn’t healthy for them so she left and gro-goroth followed her ,
I liken it to someone trying to take care of a wild animal or bug and then being sadden cause it died.
Dam that primer on the cthulhu mythos was so good I momentarily forgot I was watching a video on fear and hunger
The end of existence will come when Azathoth wakes up and realizes he's out of milk and has to go to the grocery.
I have to say that this is the first Fear and Hunger Explained video that I actually watched all the way through. Congrats on being the only commentator interesting enough to keep my ADHD brain entertained and engaged.
This deserves more attention
When you asked how many small creatures we unknowingly or carelessly destroy on a daily basis because they are essentially beneath our concern… wow, that makes you think. Makes me more aware.
Really loved this video! Could we get another one on Fear and Hunger 2 Termina? Ive been dying for a good video essay on it but cant find any online. A gap in the market if you will.
I'd love to do one at some point! I'm a little cautious in posting a Let's Play or review, or some other video which may be seen as derivative of another Fungy creator's work, but there are some literary and philosophical themes I'd love to explore within Termina!
@DennisLjeti I was just going to comment about that, that it’s a pretty daring move to make a FaH 1 essay this ”late in the game”. Given the famous high tier content already out there, and most of the fans seeming to know the world inside and out, it would be hard to create something like this now that’s interesting enough without it being obviously derivative.
And I think you pulled that off very well!
cool video, also really classy of you to put sources of images/music you have used in the video at the end!
Dungeon nights is the best mode
I'm not done watching yet but you've already done Lovecraft justice when discussing his writings. This bodes well for the rest of the video, hitting that sub button man, I'm interested in what you produce next.
I can comprehend these unknowable horrors just fine
Dunning-Kruger
@@PCGameplayism I'm just built different
Dennis: scared of alienating his small audience with his newest video
Also Dennis: makes more than half a million views with his newest video
And deservedly so!
Whhat is the name of the game at 0:07?
Pathalogic 1
Wow congrats on this video!!! 3rd video out is crazy
And this is why I love the S-Endings.
I never really *got* the appeal of Cosmic Horror or the horror itself.
I prefer stories of people that in front of infinite troubles and horrors struggle to obtain what they desire.
Ragnavaldr and Enki's endings in particular are my absolute favourites.
What do you make of the girl, considering her becoming the Finger god is canon? She suffered and suffered and got an end she never invited.
@@dyabo8826 It's, honestly, above Calgara S-Ending for me, but I felt like mentioning it would have weakened the point I was making it ahahahahahah
I feel bad for her, especially due to the fact that in Hard Mode, the mode where our 4 humans somewhat break free from the grasp of Fate and the Labyrinth, and despite ignoring divinity obtain what they believe they desire, it's impossible to save her.
Yet, while there are few comments that made me hate the game like it telling me she was panickedly asking for help at the beginning of her transformation, I like what the ending does for the world.
Her role for humanity as a costant and desperate push for advancement and survival, to break free from our limits.
I love it.
I think.
I don't know.
I haven't yet had a chance to fully reflect on my feelings about it.
I hope I did not cause confusion and managed to explain my point.
It might be a bit hypocritical.
@@delmattia96 While the transformation may have frightened the girl, that doesn't mean the transformation was bad, from her perspective. Having never seen the sun, she might have been frightened by that, too.
And it might be fun to be the God of Fear and Hunger. Which, admittedly, raises the question of whether the girl was merely a catalyst for the god's creation (which would definitely justify her fear) or she _is_ the god.
I’ve been playing the game with my dad and somehow we’re having a good time
I mean the problem solving element is something my dad THRIVES in
My dad has a pretty positive attitude towards the game
He sees it as trial and error, everything we do will teach us some kind of lesson on how the game works.
And he’s an engineer by profession so again, this sort of gameplay is in his element
He picked Cahara and we plan to go for ending A
It’s been a weirdly wholesome experience…
Isn't Fear & Hunger just an RPG? JRPG is specifically Japanese RPG.
🤓
@@Tk.Bogarts Bro anyone playing Fear & Hunger is a nerd, idk what you’re trying to prove here.
@@ariyuril🤓
Think by jrpg they mean turn based. It's interchangeable now days.
@@shaunmil Not really. Lots of JRPGs aren’t turn based. FromSoft games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne are JRPGs.
i hope you know how talented you are for being this in depth. looking forward for more content. 👏
I’ve watched a lot of videos on this game and this is the best one by far. Good job
Glad I'm hopping on this channel pretty early.
I love the tone of this video and I'd love to see more of this is you have other games you pick up and have thoughts about.
Super interisting video! You did great!
The little text gags are on point omg.
Look forwards to seeing this channel blow up. Will check back in a year