It's particularly ironic, considering I spotted this when I was about to type a comment asking about his (admittedly brief and informal) explanation of the "oil rig" setting. His script suggests that these concepts (technology and almost suicidal corporate greed) are inextricably linked, but his actions in advertising Nord VPN (Or as I like to call them, "Nobody Online Really Demands VPNs") suggest that his personal politics are considerably more nuanced. I'm sure we'd all love to know, RagnarRox, in your own personal opinion, what is the absolute best thing conceivable that humanity could do with our technology, going forward, assuming we could somehow manage to stop doing the stupidest possible thing 100% of the time?
@@TheLlamaFarmer3 In his defense, though, can you think of literally any other way to fund video essays this "so good it's unmarketable?" He somehow made it to 300k subs doing this content in this style on this platform during this economy as a member of this species. The odds were stacked against him. Yet he didn't fizzle out in his first year. I don't question his actions, only his ideals.
Such a beautiful story about you and your friend. Thank you so much for sharing it. For that story I am subscribing. This was a great video by itself. Don’t get me wrong. But… so moved…
I think the best part of the game is that instead of the prompt saying "throw" it says "let go" when you burn up the place with the lighter. Truly feels both literal and poetic. Let go of your earthly form, let go of your connections to the people, let go of your past and let go of the lighter.
Let go of the life that was already lost since the beginning. It's amazing that they transformed this tragic scene into something brave and humane. They are hopeless at the whole event, but they are also victorious in fighting until the very last minute against something so vast and beyond their comprehension. It's very classic depiction of the spark of humanity. So rare to see in horror games these days.
I felt that caz started the game as a coward running away from his problems, only being forced to face them in the end, narratively speaking. As in there was no running away from the problem in front of him anymore
I think it's also JUST AS IMPORTANT to note that the input for that action, is the exact same input you've spent the entire game using to grip edges, to cling to life, your connections & your past.
100% agree. I get what they are sayin as an adult, but heavy Scottish accents were unintelligible to me as a kid. And I’m English. We’re on the same heckin island : )
honey wake up, Ragnar just released a lengthy video essay which he pretentiously over analyze a philosophical horror game that i'll never play for myself and i'm all here for the infodump
In all seriousness though, i love how you analyze art, but i play games to feel some sense of power and control. If i wanted to feel scared that at any moment i could be violated by an unfathomable horror that takes over my body and talks with my mouth while taking cues from my memories. Deal with an overbearing selfish boss and unsafe work environment, get no money and be left alone while everyone i know disappears or becomes possessed by this horror... i'd walk outside and deal with society.
I laughed way harder than I should have when I saw the sign that said 5 out of the 6 lifeboats were inoperable before anything kicked off and the several connecting passages/stairways filled with unsecured cargo right next to signs reminding you not to to exactly that. 🤣
@@Momo_Minomo No wonder why Trots was so vocal about unionisation as clearly if they did nothing something horrific was going to happen. Too bad it did & he didn't live long enough to say he told them so.
I love how this grim game about individual, personal and social responsibility also has trophies for dying in the stupidest and most gruesome ways that the player will almost certainly have to go out of their way to experience.
Really appreciate the read of this game as Cronenbergian. Lovecraft never had an eye for human behavior, while Cronenberg is all about the icky parts of human nature. David Cronenberg protagonists are often characterized as somehow "incomplete" or "inadequate" in some way, a deeply flawed and too-passive person. Caz is a great Cronenbergian main character, because despite trying to get everything right, you can just feel he's doomed.
Agreed. Lovecraft's works are always anti-human, a likely reflection of how poorly he understood others and also often actively refused doing so. His characters are always separate from the environments they're in, and they actively avoid being understandable by others. I also think that's why Bloodborne is such an amazing piece of Lovecraftian horror in essence, because everything in Bloodborne is ultimately about denying what makes humans human. In Bloodborne humans are not even comparable to beasts or vermin, as beasts or even vermin are still superior lifeforms to humans because they have *power* whereas humans do not. In Lovecraft's works, humans are always at the bottom of the food chain. Even being an animal is preferable because then one would at least not be subject to the awareness of one's own inferiority.
@@Kamishi845 Bloodborne mentioned lets go. But in all seriousness Bloodborne is, in my opinion, the best depiction of Lovecraftian horror in gaming. Humanity is utterly insignificant in the face of the Great Ones, and all of the diferent factions (Mensis, the Choir, the Healing Church) are trying to shed their humanity and ascend. Even the "best" ending for the Hunter is the one where they ascend to be and infant Great One.
Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos does have some aspects of human behavior, mainly with the dreamlands. Other than that Lovecraft's addition of any aspects of human nature/psychology were incredibly biased by his own experiences rather than any facsimile of psychological study of his day. His racism and xenophobia are apparent in his writing, especially with old ones like Shub Niggurath, being an outer being literally named "Mother of a thousand young" and those young being capable of consuming humanity.
I've never heard of this term before until now and it absolutely fits this. I love it. And I think I'm fascinated with characters that are equipped with that blight.
Being from Scotland, seeing items around the rig that depict where I live, actual Glasgow culture of the time and hearing recognisable street names and spots of the city, as well as having that real life connection of my dad and late granddad both having worked on the rigs, this game was an utter joy to play and experience! Despite the horror, it was honestly a wonderful homage to Scotland in the 70s and rigging culture which I grew up hearing stories about. So glad you got to experience this game as well and a snippit of our modern culture! Settling down now to watch this
have your dad play this or watch this video, I wonder if he'd give any neat insight on anything that maybe we missed as we're not ex-employees on a rig! if not at the very least he might find it interesting
@@reddie1705 He has actually! Funnily enough watching this reminded me that our protagonist Caz was an electrical engineer at the rig, which is what my dad did as well in his time off-shore. :D There were some things which weren't accurate such, as the rig that is in the game isn't actually an oil rig but is what is considered a production rig, however since the differences between the two aren't common knowledge it's likely they changed it for simplicity. Typically as well you wouldn't have many radios on board (like the random ones you find just sitting in the cabins or in the rec. areas), other little details and that added for flavour, layout of the rig being different as well but overall changed for gameplay purposes. There's other little fun details he pointed out as well, but this comment is long enough as is haha. Otherwise, it's pretty close to real life!
At the start of Dear Esther, you can jump in the water. If you dive, you will hear the heartbeat of a life support machine. The protag is in the hospital, and probably dying. The game is him working through his mental baggage, until at the end, he finally reaches his personal Damascus and... I don't know. I think he finally dies. Or maybe he wakes up from his coma. So, thematically, I had a very similar interpretation to this, I guess.
It's been a decade since the game came out, and I never knew that. ....Also aren't you playing as Esther herself? I dunno why, I just thought given the ending I always felt like I was her when I played it.
I’m in my 30s (rapidly approaching 40) and if you lined up every two-bit manager that I’ve worked under since I was a teenager…I know all of them would’ve commanded me to drill into an Eldritch horror if it made them an extra two pence of profit 😅
@@TheZackofSpadespeople worry about future dystopia as if the Anglo-Pacific-European technofacist petrodollar global empire (NATO) isn't already in charge. We're not too many steps away from a Supreme Executive.
It was nice of the developers to give players a good way to decide if they want translated subs or not by throwing possibly the single most Scottish two-minute-chat in the history of the English language at you right out the gate when you first run in to Finley.
I love how Caz is always running. His song he chose is Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. And at the end, when Finlay is saying this thing will spread to the mainland. Think of your children. In that moment? He decides to stop running and blow it all to shit, was my favourite scene.
I genuinely wonder if the devs were inspired by Battle Royale in that regard. In the novel Born to Run is central to Shuuya and the story and is a constant theme that represents so much more than just a desire to escape. It’s something you almost never see brought up because most people have never read the novel but a lot of game developers have mentioned being fans of the novel specifically. I love studios that allow the players to interpret the material however they choose and offer endings that resonate differently with different people, with no clear ‘canon’ outcome. My love of that definitely started with Silent Hill in the early 2000s.
I like the themes of accepting death, but i think there's also something to be said for how it was the efforts of the crew aren't futile. It's only because the rig stayed up this long that it could become their final weapon and ultimately save the mainland. The courage Caz needs to let go is first cultivated in his attempts to face the shape and keep the rig afloat - to hold on. The crew never had a chance and yet everything they did along the way mattered (I think Caz is clinging to similar thoughts when he cries out "I loved this big man!" into the void when he finds Roy). Caz lives for his family before he dies for them and the game celebrates both. Still wakes the deep, and still on we plow.
Its beautiful and wonderfully human in that way. Caz never 'gets used' to hearing his coworkers and friends die. Every corpse he stumbles across insights terror and sorrow in him. Its got to mean something- that courage you mentioned begins to break out of it's shell with every minor victory. Every chip in the wall, Every switch flipped, Ever step forward meant you (caz) had a 1% better chance. And what's even better is the only coward was Renick- who was ready to ditch 'his' oil rig and crew when the going got tough. Finely, Brodie, everyone else was ready to try and help. Most of all our Lad Caz who saw hell and STILL went back for Roy. Who gave Brodie a shoulder to hold as the waters took him. IMO caz shows us the grace in effort and these 'futile' actions. I was bothered by this video's lofty assertion that 'just letting go' in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds is 'correct'- exploring your options and indulging in that need to rebel if not for yourself but for others is one of the few great things about humanity's social instincts. wonderful comment, thanks for sharing.
Honestly, the voice acting in this game beats so many you'd find in Triple A games, including BG3. The slang and dialogue is so natural that it just flows.
I don't think it _beats_ BG3 in the VA department necessarily, since they're very different games, with very different themes and environments, which affect the way characters speak. The voice acting in Still Wakes the Deep is, without a doubt, phenomenal, but I don't feel like the comparison works that well.
@anaionescu8913 yeah there are different types of voice acting necessary for different kinds of games. Still wakes the deep is meant to immerse the player in natural conversation. Its supposed to sound like it's real. Something like baldurs gate 3 is meant to sound 'played up'. Its meant to feel like it's a performance. Its supposed to personify these eccentric characters in this crazy world of theirs. Then there's my personal favorite NieR:Automata, which uses voice acting to sell the player on the *absolutely immense* emotional trauma the game puts it's characters and the player through. It's theatrical in it's emphasis on emotional expression. Still wakes the deep has got amazing voice acting, but it can't be claimed as the best of all games.
ehh...i do somewhat dislike the whole dying dream / purgatory explanation. Not because it doesn't fit here, but because it ALWAYS fits. That's why it's such a tired trope, you can argue for any fictional story to be like that. Personally i prefer to take things at face value where there is no reason why i shouldn't. As for the escape routes all failing, i see that as the companies penny-pinching biting everyone in the ass, just to show that even against a supernatural horror it is ultimately because of humans that the worst things happen. The foreman's unwillingness to listen to his crew is what frees the monster in the first place, the company bigwigs not caring about their workers while there's a goldrush going on means no money spent on safety equipment. Of course, the monster itself is at its most dangerous when it's coming at us in the form of our former coworkers. It's only one possible interpretation, but i like it. The one thing i have to shoulder in on hard is a small point: You claim the monster has no malice in it's actions. But first, how the hell can you know that? if it really is some form of hivemind, it's smart enough for morals and should be judged accordingly. And secondly, why the hell would that matter? If an animal tries to eat you, it doesn't act out of malice either. That doesn't mean you let it, you either try to get away or punch it in the face.
Exactly! The "it was all just a dream" theory is widely mocked for a reason. And you're right about the animals comparison, except it can go even further. Whether or not the thing trying to kill you is irrelevant to how you feel about it. An earthquake doesn't even have a reason to kill you, a tiger wants to eat you, and a human might have a reason to kill you. An eldritch entity could fit into any of these categories, but it doesn't matter.
Thing is, it wasn’t a dream, at the end it was simply showing how caz had got on to the rig in the first place and suze sending one of her letters to him probably after he blew up the rig.
Another Scottish resident here, the game is beautifully realised and feels so bleakly authentic to my own family’s odd idiosyncrasies from the North Sea rigs, bravo for covering this one ❤
It really was mindblowing to play as someone who's entire existence has been in Glasgow. Extra cool to see that one of the achievements required me to play the entire game in Scots Gaelich
Yea I feel the same as a Northern Irish man I love hearing my wee accent in the video games. To bad I've only heard it twice & one of those examples was because of Liam Neeson as yer da in Fallout 3 so it doesnae count & the other was O'Connor in this wee game. We need more games with authentic British & Irish accents as its really boring hearing the same American & Southern English accents in everything. Too few games have Scottish, Welsh, Irish & Northern Irish accents. But then again not many games place themselves in these wee places.
Always struggled with fear of death, my own mortality and that of those I love, especially after my mother passed away unexpectedly when I was 16. I don’t think I’m ready yet to let go of the uncomfortable and terrifying parts of the uncomfortable and terrifying truth of death. But this video definitely helped me to find a little more acceptance of it, despite how much I cried while watching it. I may have never played this game, but your video has impacted me all the same. Thank you for the analysis and the lovely writing, and for the story of your friend.
I'm certain someone has always had this realization, but from the moment you started talking about "the taboo" - the dichotomy of actively, willfully holding on and struggling versus the bliss and beauty of accepting Entropy's inevitability... my head just immediately flashed to that iconic scene in Jacob's Ladder. "If you're frightened of dying and you're holding on, these are devils tearing your life away... But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from earth..." Anyway, thank you for this video, and for correctly pointing out not only how Cronenbergian SWTD is, but how thematically so much of Cronenberg's filmography is about that struggle with the self, the surroundings, and where identity falls inextricably between them.
When I hear the term "Lovecraftian" there are two extremely different things it can mean. The first is that it uses components and iconography from Lovecraft's universe. Cthulu Saves Santa is Lovecraftian in that way. The second is that it embodies the cosmic nihilism and fear of both the unknown and of finding out cosmic truths so huge and incomprehensible that it breaks people's minds. Some fiction does both, but describing a piece of media which does the second without the first can still be called Lovecraftian.
It is amusing to imagine a boardroom of C level execs of this company a couple of years later, discussing the “Lovecraftian Horrors/Eldrich Beasts” bullet point on a slide titled “Risk Assessment”
hearing my own accent featured in a game and it's not treated as a joke fills me with so much joy and never realised until after that the VA for Caz is the same VA for Adam Smasher in Cyberpunk blew my mind learning that
I hear the name Adam Smasher and my brain immediately goes to the quote he chooses to greet Evelyn with in the BD recording, I've played that moment way too many times lol.
Still Wakes the Deep is a rare case where I prefer to discard the more cerebral interpretations and go with the literal, and there's a specific reason for that. I feel like 'working class horror' is somewhat under-explored, not sure how to explain it, but something about the narrative of 'greedy corporation cut corners and bootlicker supervisor drilled in unsafe places, and now we woke something we shouldn't have, and the bosses are first to try and jump ship' just hits right for me. It feels tactile, with Caz jerry-rigging fuses, struggling with rusted safety pins, breaking shitty padlocks with a screwdriver, and kicking the 'safety' door to open it, and it feels relevant to the struggle workers in unsafe conditions like oil rigs or coal mines go through even without eldritch monsters present. Purgatory, dreams, etc., less so. *More importantly though*, I am extremely incredibly intensely excited about the potential Amnesia retrospective! I adore Amnesia, even the much-maligned Machine for Pigs.
The original alien had a lot of this going on to, grant it the Nostromo wasn't a rust bucket but they were running a skeleton crew and the Wayland knew that parasites were on bored. Its not reinforced enough, that the big uncaring corporate structure views the worker as an acceptable loss even though we (the audience) see them as highly capable and unique individuals. Its especially lovely with engineers like Ripley or 'Leccy repairmen like Caz- we see real physical evidence of their profession, know they can walk the walk- but the man up stairs? Couldnt care less. The newest alien kinda dips into that legacy again but i really hope more horror or sci-fi delves further into this because some real life horror stories that could rival anything analog horror puts out rests on the shoulders of CEOs and middle managers.
When people say that something is Lovecraftian, it's not just because of the whole 'elder gods and tentacles, all hope is lost' they're talking about. They're also referring to the fear of the unknown horror element. Not knowing what the feature creature is, its motive, and where it's from, creates that horror tension than knowing everything about it. The first Alien movie as an example of this kind of horror because even though we know the xenomorph is an alien (and let's not forget the space jockey too), we have no idea what exactly it is or where it's from.
Also the element of fighting an indescribable force, where humans do everything they can but they are doomed to fail either way and die horribly or even if they save someone, they pay a price of madness is Lovecraftian in my opinion!
It’s very ironic that he makes such a shallow sweeping statement about Lovecraftian horror and then praises the game’s narrative which is a great textbook example of cosmic horror.
The way at 101:20 your voice caught on the word "heart". . . When my mother passed away in 2015, I had a hand on her chest. I felt the last beat she gave this world. I still have trouble just saying the word "heart." I feel you, Ragnar.
After A machine for pigs i gotta say they nailed their style. This is the best kind of walking simulator where the enviroment and the people drives you forward and wanting more!
For some reason, spoilers don't affect me when it comes to games. I went in to one game knowing about a simple phrase that at the end takes on enormous importance. The first time I heard it, I nearly freaked out: What? THIS soon? Changed my mind completely. Now I really want all of the Chinese Room games, they all sound like my kind of entertainment (if that is the right word for gaming).
Somehow managed to go through that game for the first time two years ago without having been spoiled; fucking blew my mind. Amazing game! Need to replay it sometime
That really depends on the game. Most story games still don't even have that good of stories, as they have to make trade offs for gameplay and other factors. So spoilers almost don't matter because the story almost doesn't matter either. However some games take story to another level and genuinely exist for the sake of the story. NieR:Automata, NieR replicant, drakengard 1 and 3 all come to mind, and are all made by the same man, yoko taro. In these games, especially the NieR games, the story if of extreme importance. Yoko taros said that he's trying to tell a story, the gameplay and everything else is secondary. That really shows in most of his work since most of his games gameplay usually aren't that good. At least until NieR:Automata came out and had it's combat done by platinum games. These are stories that I'd pray to the gods I don't believe in for the hope that the player hasn't been spoiled on anything for the story. The stories of these games are built on the foundation of the player and the characters knowing nothing, or only having 1 side of the story at first.
Is that specifically said? I always thought it was meant to be ambiguous, kind of a body horror where you don't know if it's really the person being controlled with your mind trapped inside, or just the Thing duplicating your form.
It çonsumes and absorbs then and uses the DNA and hacks behavioural recordings retained on those cells and uses them as facsimilies to spread it's influence. This only works of course until they split into self-contained entities who are concerned with their sole survival mirroring of course humanity it's self. The Thing is the Primordial manifestation of humanity. Reacting and responding on raw chaotic instinct. It may even be our creator and destroyer.
In a way, yes, it does possess people. If one drop of it ends up inside you, it starts to spread while resembling your own cells. Eventually, more and more of your body starts be ”the thing”, which could be seen as possessing or eating you from the inside.
"If you're frightened of dying, and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. If you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, and they're freeing you from the Earth. It's just a matter of how you look at it, that's all. So don't worry, okay?" - Jacob's Ladder... calling back to one of your earlier videos that first introduced me to your channel.
None of us came INTO this world, but we are instead OF this world is the deepest idea to come from a video game video I've heard in forever. I had to stop what I was doing and think on it. Great stuff.
A lot of criticism for modern day media is due to lack of media literacy. People aren't taught how to explore and deconstruct themes anymore. Whether it be in video games, TV show,s movies, heck even booktok (book tiktok) is filled with people labeling books as unreadable because they don't understand how to look for the authors intentions or make connections. But I also think that's why deep dive videos like this and many others are becoming popular on video sharing platforms People want to learn which I'm glad to see, just not enough lol
I like to think that the words the taken co-workers repeat were their last thoughts before the incident. Cas knows this, because he knows them. They were like a family, all of them. Cas' last thoughts once the rig explodes were probably about his family, how he left them to run away to the same rig where he would die. That's what i think the epilogue was, his last thoughts before he couldn't think anymore. I enjoyed this retrospective, a wonderful essay about this terrifyingly amazing game. My favorite types of media have to be ones that let you find the pieces of what you believe it to be, and it means something different for everyone.
I had NO idea where this essay was going to go. Lately, I've been struggling with just the overall idea of human consciousness and why it matters. Being afraid that in the end nothing was ever special or important; really, scared of what the "end" really is. Your analysis really opened the whole thing up. The anecdote of your friend touched my heart and honestly everything feels okay now. "We never stood a chance" is only a metaphor for the instinctual painful struggle against the inevitable, I understand that now. Thank you so soo sososo much.
Incredible reading of the game I hadn’t considered. Truly touching argument about how important personal analysis is when it comes to art. As a Scottish person, I give you a 6 out 10 on the accent replication. Better than most. More importantly: as a Scot, the game jumps out to me as a continuous meta narrative of the “Scottish story”. Not the beginning but definitely one of the most honest moments of our time in media was Trainspotting where our POV character and protagonist waxes about how imbecilic Scottish pride is. Because we’re all losers. We lost to the English and had our identity and gods stripped from us. SWtD has several political moments talking about how upper powers, sometimes the English, are going to keep taking from us. Such as the oil we find. Something that did actually happen after the attempted Scottish referendum which the English Gov. and Media worked very hard to dissuade from happening. The moment it failed, the English Gov. claimed a lot of oil that Scotland had found and has proceeded to make further attempts at a referendum actively harder to pursue because of a worsening climate that could have been offset by that oil. I find it almost inconceivable that a game could mention the possibility of this happening when, to a Scot, it is well within the current cultural zeitgeist. I have to believe they knew what they were doing. As a culture we strive to remain who we are despite knowing we answer to a government that views us as inferior. Absolutely zero hatred here to English people btw, it’s only the people in power that continue to be an issue. Just like in SWtD, our best friend is English, the boss is Scottish and it is through wanting to appease “the man” that penny pinching has been employed. Penny pinching is also an incredible pervasive stereotype about Scottish people, especially back in the 70s. What also strikes me as personally hurtful, the writing during the scenes with your best friend: that forced trying to keep everything light and jovial while talking about something serious? That is a very prominent and often criticized way for, particularly, Scottish males to talk to each other. Candid we are but genuine we struggle with. The nervous laughter, the jokes, only opening up once he’s dead…I’m not saying these aren’t universal, they exist in all cultures, but it captures the Scottish experience from that perspective incredibly accurately. The swearing in particular is uncannily life like and does what no other media has before it, it makes me homesick. What I would give to share a drink with you pal. I could teach you some Scottish words and phrases. Help you on that accent. We could easily get that up to a 7/10.
Thank you for writing this. A touching,at times heartbreaking and informative comment that taught me so much and left me with a smile. I hope that things improve for Scotland and the Scottish, and all the best for you, stranger.
The letter from Suze at the beginning compared to the letter at the end is actually driving me crazy. The developers have made a beautiful, gut wrenching, masterpiece of a game. Bravo to the developers, voice actors, and everyone else who helped.
Shit RagnarRox, that Dear-Esther anecdote hit a note with me. I loved Still Wakes the Deep, but I love Dear Esther too, and had a very similar association with that final sequence that your friend Hartmut described. I had advanced cancer as a kid. Really beat the odds by surviving, but had a few close calls. The memories from that time are mostly distorted and frightening, but I remember this strange lucid reoccuring dream where I'm falling, but in slow-motion and in reverse. I float up and away, and know deep-down in that strange "dream-logic" that if I let myself float up, it means accepting that I won't ever return to that life I'm leaving behind. But I can't stop the floating, until I wake up in a cold sweat. That stupid Dear Ester sequence put me in tears for reliving that, but in reverse. I love that Hartmut described it as peaceful. To me, that dream was peaceful too, but I wasn't ready to go as a kid. In the end, I hope we all find peace with whatever comes; be it falling, floating or flying. May it be peaceful and RIP to your friend.
When going up the stairs to the roof (where Roy is), I noticed that if you look out the window you can see an infinite reflection of the same window stretching out forever. Like two mirrors reflecting off each other. That was when I started suspecting Caz's experiences aren't real
That last player prompt we get could've easily been called something else. "Release", "Drop", or even not given a name at all, because the player knows there's only one thing to do in that situation, lit lighter held so loosely in Caz's hand after "We never had a chance". But The Chinese Room decided to give that prompt a name, and called it "Let Go". Not like a command or a simple action, but a call to action. You are prompted to Let Go. I still think about that detail a lot.
I always assumed the helicopter pilot was fighting with the Mr.petty-boss-man over the controls of the helicopter and that’s why it crashed. Great video as always RagnarRox! I really appreciate your insights
Gods above Ragnar! Your story of your friend moved this silly old fool to tears, I've smoked all my adult life (and quite a bit of my teenage years too) and have had to accept I'll be gone sooner rather than later, strangely I'm not that bothered about it. I haven't lived a great life, haven't influenced the world, but I've always been around for friends and loved ones. I love this world and all the beauty of it and I find it reassuring to believe that when I die I will be part of the world still, maybe only as fertiliser for a tree but..... Anyway, thank you again for this video.
I LOVE the horror genre. Unfortunately, I also have awful anxiety and I find playing horror games impossible. With that in mind, I'd like to thank you for your work. Your channel's one of my favourites because of the depth and level of commentary, and because I get to enjoy all of these fabulous works in a way that doesn't leave me feeling wretched and traumatised.
Oh, *same.* There is a very limited sliver of horror content I can actually consume. In spite of that (or perhaps because of it), I find the genre absolutely fascinating. Hearing or reading other people’s analysis is often the only way I’m going to get to experience the stories & themes. Plus, as a writer myself, I really *really* want to study the techniques that go into well made horror, because horror’s ability to toy with the audience’s emotions is arguably even more important than almost any other genre (especially when you take into account the meta-level, where the audience is constantly adapting to the new tropes, tools, & works, forcing the artists to be constantly moving the goalposts & upping their game.) Studying horror is one of the best learning tools as a creative, but as a person I can’t do it firsthand; those techniques are just too effective on me! No, I can’t play these games. No, I can’t watch these movies. No, I can’t finish these books, or comics, or shows. Yes, *please* tell me more!
i loved finding this. a creator i havent seen yet making a pretentious philosophical video essay thats over an hour long about a video game ive never heard of. not even 10 minutes in and i know im about to binge your channel though. these videos are the ones that stay in my brain the longest
video essay that makes me cry at my day job doing food prep because the discussion of entropy and the inevitability of death is forcing me to, however temporarily, confront my own mortality. i'm prone to crying anyway, it's one of my Sick Epic Gamer Skillz, and i'm used to just... carrying on through it, but this time i had to step away and take a few moments to chill out. my coworker was like, "uh... you good?" (which is funny because i've instructed all of them to ignore that i'm crying, due to my aformentioned propensity for it). "yeah," i said, tearful and also absolutely laughing at myself, "video essay about a cool game is ruining my life." anyway, your editing and skillful approach to hitting emotional beats, as well as your willingness to be vulnerable, really uplift your work. this is a really, really good video, and one that i'll come back to again. thank you!!! :] i really enjoyed it!
I hadn't heard about the Chinese Room until they were tapped to make Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2. What they have shown us so far made me hesitant. Until I saw this and their announcement that they would be taking a bit more time to work on it. They clearly know how to make a haunting narrative with great atmosphere and characters and that is what is most important.
I like TCR's games, but I'm still hesitant about their V:tM-B2. Yes, they're great at narrative, but Bloodlines is an RPG with roots in the tabletop, and an immersive sim. Very different beast. If they were making just a standalone V:tM game, I'd be incredibly excited. But a sequel to Bloodlines? I don't know about that.
@@rateater1857 In general I think that any game bearing that name is doomed given the legacy that Bloodlines has. Making a sequel was always going to set an insane standard to meet. I do think that calling it Bloodlines 2 is a mistake, but I will be approaching it as a VtM game, like Swansong, not as Bloodlines 2, especially since it has no tie ins to the original.
I don't know if you noticed this at the end of the game. When Caz is in the bedroom about to leave, there are two pictures against the wall. One of them looks like that ending spiral where Caz is swimming towards the light, and a second one depicts an angel with ribbon-like clothes, that someone could say are similar to the ribbons of The Shape.
43:00 I love this stuff too, and I feel angry at a piece of art when they try to hold your hand and tell you everything you're supposed to feel like you're a child. BUT, holy SHIT it feels like so many movies, stories, etc realized that they could use this so they didn't have to tell a story at all lol🙃 it's just as frustrating when you're TRYING to engage with something then realize "nah, this is just bad and I'm doing all the work" 🤣 This game is badass, I'm not talking about the Chinese Room. "You just don't get it" can just mean that there was nothing there to get
Amnesia: AMFP definitely needs more analysis of it. Not only to help solidify it as a worthy entry in the Amnesia series but also as its own standalone horror title. If you ever do a vid on it you can definitely count on me watching it.
if you read the terminal at the start of the game it explains what happens after cas falls into the water. in exchange for protecting him and preserving his life, his guardian force has to consume his long term memories which is why everyone around him starts changing to reflect the specific tropes and characteristics he's mentally assigned them
Thank you for this video. Through telling the story of your dear friend, you've dispersed little fragments of who he was and whatthe two of you experienced to all of us viewers. Just as this game became a unique experience unto you, the story you've shared will take unique form within the rest of us in myriad and unfathomable ways -- just as the people and objects took on new life in "the shape." And also thank you so much for sharing your model of existence and life. I'm sure you must have hesitated before decided going that deep, but I've been a viewer for years now and it brings me great satisfaction to know that a creator that I respect carries a near-identical interpretation of the beautiful entropic dance we find ourselves in. Will be joining your Patreon!
you mentioned it briefly, but in support of the "you were always dead" theory, that dropping the lighter into the Shape is prompted as "let go". not drop the lighter or anything else, but let go - something that is common to hear in the case of people passing on. i played this game and initially took it at face value but seeing that "let go" prompt in this video in the context you put it on changed the whole experience for me post-experience. rest easy to your friend, if this is the kind of thing that you can put together as one person i cant imagine the kind of world-changing conversations you two would have. :)
53:16 Gonna have to point out that Caz doesn't just get the Shape's weird screen effect stuff solely _after_ he falls into the sea - you can see it on the screen at 52:52, just as the drill supposedly hits the Shape, but just _before_ he falls into the sea.
There's a cool systemic horror reading one could make out of a game where the main character, attempting to escape one aspect of the capitalist system, finds himself isolated in another. Where trying to make a home amid an engine of profit falls apart as infinitely larger forces seek to crowd out the human in favor of their own, incompatible designs, not because of malice, but simply disinterest. Caz spends the entire game fleeing from things that, at best, do not care if he lives, but will steamroll him for their own benefit in an instant, only to find at the end that true escape was always impossible, that the things he cares about have either already been subsumed by these systemic forces or are waiting victims for it back home, and chooses to literally burn out the remainder of his life to protect the latter as best he can. And even then he'll never know if it was enough. It probably won't be: they never had a chance. Anyway, loved watching your reading of things, super cool to see another perspective from someone willing to engage with the thematic layers of this stuff.
i always loved the menacing industrial coziness and marooned claustrophobic confinement of the oil rig location. there was this miniseries not long ago that ticked a lot of the same boxes this game seems to cover as well.
I like your interpretation. Though I felt the game was blatantly trying to tell me it was about workplace accidents. I thought of this when I saw there was detailed safety instructions around most of the machines you interact with. This explained the whole game for me: The "monster" the rig hits is just the "accident" spreading out and horribly killing random people. The cries of the main characters mutated friends, to me, was akin to a coworker who was a victim to a horrible accident and now he has to ignore them and get to safety for himself. My ending interpretation is that the "burning" of the "monster" was supposed to be the mc taking industrial action as mentioned by the union guys at the beginning (or in a note?). I think its saying the only way to stop this is for unions to rise up and take extreme actions even if that means "burning it all down". Idk everything really makes sense and fits together when i think of it that way. (I also have strong thoughts about the mc ditching his friend like he ditched his family.)
Gosh... I'm already a big fan of Still Wakes the Deep, but linking it to Absurdism? Fuuuuck man, now I can see the parallels it has with Albert Camus' works. Your point about the The Shape being Death and how it just *is* without any morals beyond the crew's need to survive it - and how Caz in tge end accepts that they never had a chance - remunds me so so much about The Stranger's final scene where the protagonist realizes "the gentle indifference of the universe" as he's about to be executed. But in terms of tone? About choosing to hold on regardless of the madness surrounding Caz? *That* was peak The Plague themes. When all hell breaks loose and nothing makes sense anymore, holding on to to what you believe when it really means nothing is worth it - even if it ends in heartbreak. Another peak essay, Ragnar. Thanks a lot for it 👋 EDIT: FUCK I wrote this before the goddamn Sisyphus mention I *knew* this vid has Camus' soul sewed into it lmao
I fall under category nr. 3. I usually never played the games you analyzed, but I love the depths and the spiritual levels your deep dives reach. These games also tick a box as a lover of weird fiction. Where stories often don't have no understandable ending. They get stuck in your mind trying to get so some conclusion but often you don't find one. I thrive on things like that. It what I loved about Dear Esther. With felt to me like reading a weird fiction story, mixed with strange poetry and lucid dreaming.
@RagnarRoxShow I do not normally comment at all on videos. I have worked on this game. I want to thank you for the exceptionally brilliant analysis you made.
Thank you SO much for your work on this game! I don't have any game consoles so I watch playthroughs with no commentary. This game was a PHENOMENAL experience even though I was not choosing the actions. I have been raving to everyone about it. Thank you Thank you thank you for your work ❤
What a beautiful analysis. The Dear Esther anecdote about your dear friend was incredibly touching. He sounds like an awesome fella. Thank you for sharing his memory with us.
I just spent the whole day at work thinking about this game after playing it last night and this is the first thing I see when getting home 10/10 perfect
Thank you for making me cry near the end, Ragnar. Not many things can, and I don’t think I do it enough. Your work is always beautiful and moving, and this video is certainly no exception. Bravo!
Oh, also. Since I posted this before reaching the end of the video. Please do a Machine for Pigs. It’s one of my favorite experiences I’ve ever had in a game, and, to put it shortly, my own family heavily inspired the conclusions I reached about the game; so I would love to hear your perspective on it! And again, fantastic work!!
I(American) lived near Glasgow for a few years in the 90s and it’s absolutely wild to hear how much Caz sounds like an old Scottish roommate of mine, Franny. They nailed it.
How dare you I didn’t click on this video just to be confronted head on with my existential dread thank you (Thank you, now I can start to try and ease it a little)
I would love a long form video on Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. Ever since Jacob Geller touched on it (and its sound design) in his Why Do Horror Games Sound So Beautiful? video, I've been wanting a nuanced exploration of the game (and how Incredibly Sad it is lol).
33:13 Thanks for making this point. We're starting to move past "Lovecraftian" and we're hearing more "cosmic horror" being used to describe themes like this. I'm not really a fan of Lovecraft but I absolutely LOVE cosmic horror. It's not about tentacles and monsters, it's about the world heading in an unstoppable direction and is mowing down humanity in the process. Cosmic horror doesn't care that people have lives, feelings, relationships, hopes, dreams etc. It's so much bigger than the human mind can comprehend, and that's what makes it terrifying and fascinating.
The ending makes me think of Indika's ending, where it initially feels disappointing but I immediately have a feeling of something profound being told to me that I need to meditate on.
The most frustrating thing about video essayists like the excellent Ragnar is: -I'm aware of a game's existence -I see Ragnar has a decently lengthed video just come out on the topic -I click on the video knowing full well I will have to make a choice -Ragnar starts and sells me on it almost immediately just through his excitement and intro -I'm torn between wanting to watch a master at work, breaking down his latest obsession, or go buy and play the game myself Grrr, how annoyingly brilliant you are Ragnar! I have fallen into your trap once more.
I can't even be mad at you for calling me out because I did see the thumbnail and think "Yo holy shit, Ragnar made a Still Wakes the Deep vid, let's fucking goooooooo" Defenless horror games spike my anxiety way too hard just launching them so I can never play them myself. It's why I played SOMA only when they patched in the non-agressive mod as a feature, and why I only play Resident Evil and Silent Hill 2 horror games wise. Well, plus the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Plasma Cutter only run I did of Dead Space 2. I need to be able to panic shoot the spooky thing to calm myself.
With that personal section about Ragnar's friend.... like... damn... I didn't know I was going to get Jacob Geller levels of emotions from a video game retrospective youtuber.
I had no idea that I was going to feel so emotional when I started this video. That Dear Esther Anecdote part was extremely moving. Thanks for sharing that with us.
Ragnar, I couldn't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this video. I'm so grateful to you for making it and I have to say your voice and your thoughts are comforting. I hope nothing but the best for you!
I have got to thank you for this video. It was extremely well done, and the parallels and connections drawn were deep and beautiful. I've watched multiple playthroughs of Still Wakes the Deep (as I am a coward when it comes to playing horror games) and I adore it. The story, the plot, the full circle moment, the character building, voice acting, game design. All immaculate in my opinion. Your commentary mirrors that perfectly. I also truly appreciated the personal connections you brought to the story writing by the devs. Gave me chills.
Thank you so much for all your work, but especially this video. This is one of your masterpieces to be sure. Your ability to succinctly combine analysis, discussion, and philosophy is truly amazing. But your personal touch on this project really made it something special. Thank you for creating and sharing this with the world.
I used to think that, despite being a HUGE horror wimp (especially regarding atmospheric and cosmic horror), that I was relatively okay regarding body horror. Then you showed Cronenberg movie clips and I had to realize I was actually NOT okay with body horror, and now I'm also gonna have nightmares. Thanks! I do really appreciate your analyses of these games though. Not just because video essays are one of the main ways I can consume media that otherwise is too uncomfortable for me, but because your takes make a lot of sense. I dunno how to phrase it well. I appreciate your work and I need to go hug my cat.
i can't wait to get stuck into this video everyone talks about the voice acting in this game and as another Scot, i genuinely think Still Wakes the Deep not only had some of the best Scottish voice acting, but some of the best voice acting i've heard in a video game full stop. Not only that but despite being offshore you truly FEEL the depth of culture that went into this game, all the way down to the flashback scenes being set in what looks like a detached Glasgow council house bedroom. An absolute masterpiece of immersion. i had to say all that BEFORE i got started on the video! can't wait to hear what RagnarRox has to say about it, he's one of my favourite game retrospective essayists
This video sort of reminded me of something I'd forgotten by getting caught up in the monotony and tedium of daily life, it's struggles, and all that comes with it. I had almost lost touch with the calm that comes with knowing that we're all a part of the same thing and we're all walking the same path. There's not really anything to worry about, just to enjoy this walk with my fellow humans on this rock hurtling through space. Thanks for the upload, man.
It's great finally seeing TCR get their flowers. I've loved most of their games even if they have mostly been walking sims. Their writing so often seems effortlessly profound (to me). Absolutely adore their Amnesia sequel, and EGTTR is one of my all time favorites. I also, can never mention them without bringing up Jessica Curry's amazing scores within their games.
I'm no analyst but one thing I managed to recognize and decided was worth sharing was Raffs, at first I thought "gee, why's this lad freaking out so bad" BUT I had a little revolation upon realizing that he was among the first to see exactly what they'd drilled into and therefore probably saw a lot more within that diving bell than we (or just meself) considered at first
"I don't get it" is a good start for criticism, It is a first step to criticize when a director's on a subject that is a bit too niche, or to define where the limit of accessibility stand with a geneal audience. It's not a bad thing, it's also not the best if you want to spread it far and wide. It's just an indicator to not be surprised about how much popularity your product will reach
I would love to see a deep dive on Amnesia especially with the machine for pigs! I've always just heard people saying how bad it was and I wondered if that was truly the case or if there were meanings just not grasped then since everyone was so high with the dark descent still. Also, I really love this game. Everyone is so written well and it's just gorgeous. That ending was always nice. It felt satisfying for some reason.
Get 4 months extra on a 2 year plan here: nordvpn.com/ragnar. It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!
I am begging you to properly research companies before endorsing them
One day you'll promote "bEtTeR hElP" and have absolutely no idea you're doing way more harm than good.
It's particularly ironic, considering I spotted this when I was about to type a comment asking about his (admittedly brief and informal) explanation of the "oil rig" setting. His script suggests that these concepts (technology and almost suicidal corporate greed) are inextricably linked, but his actions in advertising Nord VPN (Or as I like to call them, "Nobody Online Really Demands VPNs") suggest that his personal politics are considerably more nuanced.
I'm sure we'd all love to know, RagnarRox, in your own personal opinion, what is the absolute best thing conceivable that humanity could do with our technology, going forward, assuming we could somehow manage to stop doing the stupidest possible thing 100% of the time?
@@TheLlamaFarmer3 In his defense, though, can you think of literally any other way to fund video essays this "so good it's unmarketable?" He somehow made it to 300k subs doing this content in this style on this platform during this economy as a member of this species. The odds were stacked against him. Yet he didn't fizzle out in his first year. I don't question his actions, only his ideals.
Such a beautiful story about you and your friend. Thank you so much for sharing it. For that story I am subscribing. This was a great video by itself. Don’t get me wrong. But… so moved…
I think the best part of the game is that instead of the prompt saying "throw" it says "let go" when you burn up the place with the lighter. Truly feels both literal and poetic. Let go of your earthly form, let go of your connections to the people, let go of your past and let go of the lighter.
Let go of the life that was already lost since the beginning. It's amazing that they transformed this tragic scene into something brave and humane. They are hopeless at the whole event, but they are also victorious in fighting until the very last minute against something so vast and beyond their comprehension. It's very classic depiction of the spark of humanity. So rare to see in horror games these days.
Cheers, now I don't need to play the game.
I felt that caz started the game as a coward running away from his problems, only being forced to face them in the end, narratively speaking. As in there was no running away from the problem in front of him anymore
I think it's also JUST AS IMPORTANT to note that the input for that action, is the exact same input you've spent the entire game using to grip edges, to cling to life, your connections & your past.
Sorry Lad, the game was Rigged from the start.
hah!
Oil rigged from the start
Ban this guy
@@10THPROPHET Nah man, this warrants a promotion!
+ENRAGED
As a native of the UK, I can confidently say this is the most realistic Scottish dialogue I've ever heard in a video game.
I struggled to understand wtf anyone was saying through the whole game loll
100% agree. I get what they are sayin as an adult, but heavy Scottish accents were unintelligible to me as a kid. And I’m English. We’re on the same heckin island : )
It is great seeing this sentiment repeated as it does add a layer of authentic virtual tourism to the game since I have never been to the UK
I *loved* hearing the authentic accents, and Shaun Dooley’s voice acting too (I’m from Manchester, England)!
Needed a few more utterances of “cunt” tbh
honey wake up, Ragnar just released a lengthy video essay which he pretentiously over analyze a philosophical horror game that i'll never play for myself and i'm all here for the infodump
In all seriousness though, i love how you analyze art, but i play games to feel some sense of power and control. If i wanted to feel scared that at any moment i could be violated by an unfathomable horror that takes over my body and talks with my mouth while taking cues from my memories. Deal with an overbearing selfish boss and unsafe work environment, get no money and be left alone while everyone i know disappears or becomes possessed by this horror... i'd walk outside and deal with society.
Let's Goooooo!
Honey, wake up, Ragnar is cooking
babe wake up smigleson made a very original joke
LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOO
yes I'm late to the party retail is draining
Ah yes Still Wakes The Deep. Or as i call it, Osha Violation Simulator.
I laughed way harder than I should have when I saw the sign that said 5 out of the 6 lifeboats were inoperable before anything kicked off and the several connecting passages/stairways filled with unsecured cargo right next to signs reminding you not to to exactly that. 🤣
@@Momo_Minomo "Please keep this doorway clear"
*[proceeds to be covered in videogame barrier garbage such as barrels and crates]*
@@Boomblox5896 Truly Rennick is a paragon protector of worker's rights and safety!🤣
@@Momo_Minomo No wonder why Trots was so vocal about unionisation as clearly if they did nothing something horrific was going to happen. Too bad it did & he didn't live long enough to say he told them so.
Honestly extra funny considering the game is set outside of America, therefore OSHA cannot be violated other than in spirit xD
I love how this grim game about individual, personal and social responsibility also has trophies for dying in the stupidest and most gruesome ways that the player will almost certainly have to go out of their way to experience.
"Not so good with the Leccy" got me cracked up but unfortunately I didn't go for it.
Really appreciate the read of this game as Cronenbergian.
Lovecraft never had an eye for human behavior, while Cronenberg is all about the icky parts of human nature.
David Cronenberg protagonists are often characterized as somehow "incomplete" or "inadequate" in some way, a deeply flawed and too-passive person.
Caz is a great Cronenbergian main character, because despite trying to get everything right, you can just feel he's doomed.
Agreed. Lovecraft's works are always anti-human, a likely reflection of how poorly he understood others and also often actively refused doing so. His characters are always separate from the environments they're in, and they actively avoid being understandable by others. I also think that's why Bloodborne is such an amazing piece of Lovecraftian horror in essence, because everything in Bloodborne is ultimately about denying what makes humans human. In Bloodborne humans are not even comparable to beasts or vermin, as beasts or even vermin are still superior lifeforms to humans because they have *power* whereas humans do not. In Lovecraft's works, humans are always at the bottom of the food chain. Even being an animal is preferable because then one would at least not be subject to the awareness of one's own inferiority.
@@Kamishi845 Bloodborne mentioned lets go. But in all seriousness Bloodborne is, in my opinion, the best depiction of Lovecraftian horror in gaming. Humanity is utterly insignificant in the face of the Great Ones, and all of the diferent factions (Mensis, the Choir, the Healing Church) are trying to shed their humanity and ascend. Even the "best" ending for the Hunter is the one where they ascend to be and infant Great One.
Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos does have some aspects of human behavior, mainly with the dreamlands. Other than that Lovecraft's addition of any aspects of human nature/psychology were incredibly biased by his own experiences rather than any facsimile of psychological study of his day. His racism and xenophobia are apparent in his writing, especially with old ones like Shub Niggurath, being an outer being literally named "Mother of a thousand young" and those young being capable of consuming humanity.
I've never heard of this term before until now and it absolutely fits this. I love it. And I think I'm fascinated with characters that are equipped with that blight.
He is one of my favorite directors ever.
Being from Scotland, seeing items around the rig that depict where I live, actual Glasgow culture of the time and hearing recognisable street names and spots of the city, as well as having that real life connection of my dad and late granddad both having worked on the rigs, this game was an utter joy to play and experience! Despite the horror, it was honestly a wonderful homage to Scotland in the 70s and rigging culture which I grew up hearing stories about. So glad you got to experience this game as well and a snippit of our modern culture! Settling down now to watch this
I love Glasgow. I miss the city dearly.
have your dad play this or watch this video, I wonder if he'd give any neat insight on anything that maybe we missed as we're not ex-employees on a rig! if not at the very least he might find it interesting
@@reddie1705 He has actually! Funnily enough watching this reminded me that our protagonist Caz was an electrical engineer at the rig, which is what my dad did as well in his time off-shore. :D
There were some things which weren't accurate such, as the rig that is in the game isn't actually an oil rig but is what is considered a production rig, however since the differences between the two aren't common knowledge it's likely they changed it for simplicity.
Typically as well you wouldn't have many radios on board (like the random ones you find just sitting in the cabins or in the rec. areas), other little details and that added for flavour, layout of the rig being different as well but overall changed for gameplay purposes. There's other little fun details he pointed out as well, but this comment is long enough as is haha.
Otherwise, it's pretty close to real life!
At the start of Dear Esther, you can jump in the water. If you dive, you will hear the heartbeat of a life support machine. The protag is in the hospital, and probably dying. The game is him working through his mental baggage, until at the end, he finally reaches his personal Damascus and... I don't know. I think he finally dies. Or maybe he wakes up from his coma. So, thematically, I had a very similar interpretation to this, I guess.
It's been a decade since the game came out, and I never knew that.
....Also aren't you playing as Esther herself? I dunno why, I just thought given the ending I always felt like I was her when I played it.
@@WobblesandBean "No conclusions or interpretations are offered, confirmed or denied on purpose. You're incentivized to find your own meaning"
They litteraly drilled into a great old one due to budget cuts and ignored regulations.
Its like they speed ran capatalism..
I’m in my 30s (rapidly approaching 40) and if you lined up every two-bit manager that I’ve worked under since I was a teenager…I know all of them would’ve commanded me to drill into an Eldritch horror if it made them an extra two pence of profit 😅
*Its like they speed ran communism..
@@TheZackofSpadespeople worry about future dystopia as if the Anglo-Pacific-European technofacist petrodollar global empire (NATO) isn't already in charge. We're not too many steps away from a Supreme Executive.
It was nice of the developers to give players a good way to decide if they want translated subs or not by throwing possibly the single most Scottish two-minute-chat in the history of the English language at you right out the gate when you first run in to Finley.
I can just imagine
"This is English I don't need subtitles!
........
This is English?! I need subtitles!"
It's an immediate "hey can you understand Scots well enough or do you need it translated into English?" And I adore it
I love how Caz is always running. His song he chose is Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. And at the end, when Finlay is saying this thing will spread to the mainland. Think of your children. In that moment? He decides to stop running and blow it all to shit, was my favourite scene.
I genuinely wonder if the devs were inspired by Battle Royale in that regard. In the novel Born to Run is central to Shuuya and the story and is a constant theme that represents so much more than just a desire to escape. It’s something you almost never see brought up because most people have never read the novel but a lot of game developers have mentioned being fans of the novel specifically.
I love studios that allow the players to interpret the material however they choose and offer endings that resonate differently with different people, with no clear ‘canon’ outcome. My love of that definitely started with Silent Hill in the early 2000s.
I like the themes of accepting death, but i think there's also something to be said for how it was the efforts of the crew aren't futile. It's only because the rig stayed up this long that it could become their final weapon and ultimately save the mainland. The courage Caz needs to let go is first cultivated in his attempts to face the shape and keep the rig afloat - to hold on. The crew never had a chance and yet everything they did along the way mattered (I think Caz is clinging to similar thoughts when he cries out "I loved this big man!" into the void when he finds Roy). Caz lives for his family before he dies for them and the game celebrates both. Still wakes the deep, and still on we plow.
Its beautiful and wonderfully human in that way. Caz never 'gets used' to hearing his coworkers and friends die. Every corpse he stumbles across insights terror and sorrow in him. Its got to mean something- that courage you mentioned begins to break out of it's shell with every minor victory. Every chip in the wall, Every switch flipped, Ever step forward meant you (caz) had a 1% better chance. And what's even better is the only coward was Renick- who was ready to ditch 'his' oil rig and crew when the going got tough. Finely, Brodie, everyone else was ready to try and help. Most of all our Lad Caz who saw hell and STILL went back for Roy. Who gave Brodie a shoulder to hold as the waters took him. IMO caz shows us the grace in effort and these 'futile' actions. I was bothered by this video's lofty assertion that 'just letting go' in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds is 'correct'- exploring your options and indulging in that need to rebel if not for yourself but for others is one of the few great things about humanity's social instincts. wonderful comment, thanks for sharing.
Honestly, the voice acting in this game beats so many you'd find in Triple A games, including BG3. The slang and dialogue is so natural that it just flows.
100%
Takes it to the next level and makes it truly believable.
The game showed me once again how bad 99% of the voice acting in games is.
I don't think it _beats_ BG3 in the VA department necessarily, since they're very different games, with very different themes and environments, which affect the way characters speak. The voice acting in Still Wakes the Deep is, without a doubt, phenomenal, but I don't feel like the comparison works that well.
@anaionescu8913 yeah there are different types of voice acting necessary for different kinds of games.
Still wakes the deep is meant to immerse the player in natural conversation. Its supposed to sound like it's real.
Something like baldurs gate 3 is meant to sound 'played up'. Its meant to feel like it's a performance. Its supposed to personify these eccentric characters in this crazy world of theirs.
Then there's my personal favorite NieR:Automata, which uses voice acting to sell the player on the *absolutely immense* emotional trauma the game puts it's characters and the player through.
It's theatrical in it's emphasis on emotional expression.
Still wakes the deep has got amazing voice acting, but it can't be claimed as the best of all games.
ehh...i do somewhat dislike the whole dying dream / purgatory explanation. Not because it doesn't fit here, but because it ALWAYS fits. That's why it's such a tired trope, you can argue for any fictional story to be like that. Personally i prefer to take things at face value where there is no reason why i shouldn't. As for the escape routes all failing, i see that as the companies penny-pinching biting everyone in the ass, just to show that even against a supernatural horror it is ultimately because of humans that the worst things happen. The foreman's unwillingness to listen to his crew is what frees the monster in the first place, the company bigwigs not caring about their workers while there's a goldrush going on means no money spent on safety equipment. Of course, the monster itself is at its most dangerous when it's coming at us in the form of our former coworkers. It's only one possible interpretation, but i like it.
The one thing i have to shoulder in on hard is a small point: You claim the monster has no malice in it's actions. But first, how the hell can you know that? if it really is some form of hivemind, it's smart enough for morals and should be judged accordingly. And secondly, why the hell would that matter? If an animal tries to eat you, it doesn't act out of malice either. That doesn't mean you let it, you either try to get away or punch it in the face.
agree! every walking horror game can be a dying dream if you look hard enough, but otherwise a really good essay
Big agree!
To that I say.. what says that your life isn't already a dying dream?
Exactly! The "it was all just a dream" theory is widely mocked for a reason.
And you're right about the animals comparison, except it can go even further. Whether or not the thing trying to kill you is irrelevant to how you feel about it. An earthquake doesn't even have a reason to kill you, a tiger wants to eat you, and a human might have a reason to kill you. An eldritch entity could fit into any of these categories, but it doesn't matter.
Thing is, it wasn’t a dream, at the end it was simply showing how caz had got on to the rig in the first place and suze sending one of her letters to him probably after he blew up the rig.
Another Scottish resident here, the game is beautifully realised and feels so bleakly authentic to my own family’s odd idiosyncrasies from the North Sea rigs, bravo for covering this one ❤
This video almost instantly reminded me of your Pathologic videos. Time to go watch 'em again! :)
It really was mindblowing to play as someone who's entire existence has been in Glasgow. Extra cool to see that one of the achievements required me to play the entire game in Scots Gaelich
I miss Glasgow. I'm jealous you get to live there.
@WobblesandBean haste ye back! There's a lot of pessimism around this city but I'm in love with the whole place. Always finds new ways to surprise me.
@@dannybuchanan3661that’s capital cities for ya, always a love-hate relationship.
Yea I feel the same as a Northern Irish man I love hearing my wee accent in the video games. To bad I've only heard it twice & one of those examples was because of Liam Neeson as yer da in Fallout 3 so it doesnae count & the other was O'Connor in this wee game. We need more games with authentic British & Irish accents as its really boring hearing the same American & Southern English accents in everything. Too few games have Scottish, Welsh, Irish & Northern Irish accents. But then again not many games place themselves in these wee places.
Always struggled with fear of death, my own mortality and that of those I love, especially after my mother passed away unexpectedly when I was 16. I don’t think I’m ready yet to let go of the uncomfortable and terrifying parts of the uncomfortable and terrifying truth of death. But this video definitely helped me to find a little more acceptance of it, despite how much I cried while watching it. I may have never played this game, but your video has impacted me all the same. Thank you for the analysis and the lovely writing, and for the story of your friend.
Thank you for sharing this, wish you all the best on your path. It takes time.
I'm certain someone has always had this realization, but from the moment you started talking about "the taboo" - the dichotomy of actively, willfully holding on and struggling versus the bliss and beauty of accepting Entropy's inevitability... my head just immediately flashed to that iconic scene in Jacob's Ladder.
"If you're frightened of dying and you're holding on, these are devils tearing your life away... But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from earth..."
Anyway, thank you for this video, and for correctly pointing out not only how Cronenbergian SWTD is, but how thematically so much of Cronenberg's filmography is about that struggle with the self, the surroundings, and where identity falls inextricably between them.
When I hear the term "Lovecraftian" there are two extremely different things it can mean. The first is that it uses components and iconography from Lovecraft's universe. Cthulu Saves Santa is Lovecraftian in that way. The second is that it embodies the cosmic nihilism and fear of both the unknown and of finding out cosmic truths so huge and incomprehensible that it breaks people's minds. Some fiction does both, but describing a piece of media which does the second without the first can still be called Lovecraftian.
True, this floor is made of floor
What did he name his cat?
@@loganslimcrocks7622 named him after you 🤣
@@loganslimcrocks7622 He was openly racist, just like everybody in the 1920s and a good majority of people today. What's your point?
last sentence makes no sense
It is amusing to imagine a boardroom of C level execs of this company a couple of years later, discussing the “Lovecraftian Horrors/Eldrich Beasts” bullet point on a slide titled “Risk Assessment”
I did not expect to get this emotional when I clicked this video. RIP to your friend. 😢
hearing my own accent featured in a game and it's not treated as a joke fills me with so much joy and never realised until after that the VA for Caz is the same VA for Adam Smasher in Cyberpunk blew my mind learning that
I hear the name Adam Smasher and my brain immediately goes to the quote he chooses to greet Evelyn with in the BD recording, I've played that moment way too many times lol.
@@novared7 Same here 😂 few games match the utter infamous ickyness that is *_Fuckable Meat_* 😅
Still Wakes the Deep is a rare case where I prefer to discard the more cerebral interpretations and go with the literal, and there's a specific reason for that. I feel like 'working class horror' is somewhat under-explored, not sure how to explain it, but something about the narrative of 'greedy corporation cut corners and bootlicker supervisor drilled in unsafe places, and now we woke something we shouldn't have, and the bosses are first to try and jump ship' just hits right for me.
It feels tactile, with Caz jerry-rigging fuses, struggling with rusted safety pins, breaking shitty padlocks with a screwdriver, and kicking the 'safety' door to open it, and it feels relevant to the struggle workers in unsafe conditions like oil rigs or coal mines go through even without eldritch monsters present. Purgatory, dreams, etc., less so.
*More importantly though*, I am extremely incredibly intensely excited about the potential Amnesia retrospective! I adore Amnesia, even the much-maligned Machine for Pigs.
The original alien had a lot of this going on to, grant it the Nostromo wasn't a rust bucket but they were running a skeleton crew and the Wayland knew that parasites were on bored. Its not reinforced enough, that the big uncaring corporate structure views the worker as an acceptable loss even though we (the audience) see them as highly capable and unique individuals. Its especially lovely with engineers like Ripley or 'Leccy repairmen like Caz- we see real physical evidence of their profession, know they can walk the walk- but the man up stairs? Couldnt care less. The newest alien kinda dips into that legacy again but i really hope more horror or sci-fi delves further into this because some real life horror stories that could rival anything analog horror puts out rests on the shoulders of CEOs and middle managers.
When people say that something is Lovecraftian, it's not just because of the whole 'elder gods and tentacles, all hope is lost' they're talking about. They're also referring to the fear of the unknown horror element. Not knowing what the feature creature is, its motive, and where it's from, creates that horror tension than knowing everything about it. The first Alien movie as an example of this kind of horror because even though we know the xenomorph is an alien (and let's not forget the space jockey too), we have no idea what exactly it is or where it's from.
Also the element of fighting an indescribable force, where humans do everything they can but they are doomed to fail either way and die horribly or even if they save someone, they pay a price of madness is Lovecraftian in my opinion!
Some games and movies use it carelessly, I’ve heard lovecraftian so often it really has lost its meaning
It’s very ironic that he makes such a shallow sweeping statement about Lovecraftian horror and then praises the game’s narrative which is a great textbook example of cosmic horror.
The way at 101:20 your voice caught on the word "heart". . .
When my mother passed away in 2015, I had a hand on her chest. I felt the last beat she gave this world. I still have trouble just saying the word "heart." I feel you, Ragnar.
After A machine for pigs i gotta say they nailed their style. This is the best kind of walking simulator where the enviroment and the people drives you forward and wanting more!
Like, if a game has to be a walking simulator, it should be like this.
For some reason, spoilers don't affect me when it comes to games. I went in to one game knowing about a simple phrase that at the end takes on enormous importance. The first time I heard it, I nearly freaked out: What? THIS soon? Changed my mind completely. Now I really want all of the Chinese Room games, they all sound like my kind of entertainment (if that is the right word for gaming).
BioShock?
Would you kindly elaborate? 😊
@@DarkDragon1889 Correct.
Somehow managed to go through that game for the first time two years ago without having been spoiled; fucking blew my mind. Amazing game! Need to replay it sometime
That really depends on the game.
Most story games still don't even have that good of stories, as they have to make trade offs for gameplay and other factors.
So spoilers almost don't matter because the story almost doesn't matter either.
However some games take story to another level and genuinely exist for the sake of the story.
NieR:Automata, NieR replicant, drakengard 1 and 3 all come to mind, and are all made by the same man, yoko taro.
In these games, especially the NieR games, the story if of extreme importance.
Yoko taros said that he's trying to tell a story, the gameplay and everything else is secondary. That really shows in most of his work since most of his games gameplay usually aren't that good. At least until NieR:Automata came out and had it's combat done by platinum games.
These are stories that I'd pray to the gods I don't believe in for the hope that the player hasn't been spoiled on anything for the story.
The stories of these games are built on the foundation of the player and the characters knowing nothing, or only having 1 side of the story at first.
It's a detail, but the alien creature in The Thing doesn't possess people, it kill them and then make copies of them.
Is that specifically said? I always thought it was meant to be ambiguous, kind of a body horror where you don't know if it's really the person being controlled with your mind trapped inside, or just the Thing duplicating your form.
@@Here_is_Waldo I don’t know man most of the people who get copied in the thing look pretty dead to me…
It çonsumes and absorbs then and uses the DNA and hacks behavioural recordings retained on those cells and uses them as facsimilies to spread it's influence. This only works of course until they split into self-contained entities who are concerned with their sole survival mirroring of course humanity it's self. The Thing is the Primordial manifestation of humanity. Reacting and responding on raw chaotic instinct. It may even be our creator and destroyer.
In a way, yes, it does possess people. If one drop of it ends up inside you, it starts to spread while resembling your own cells. Eventually, more and more of your body starts be ”the thing”, which could be seen as possessing or eating you from the inside.
It perfectly replicates them, the human dies and is replaced. It's an imitation or changeling in that respect. Just a perfect one.
"If you're frightened of dying, and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. If you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, and they're freeing you from the Earth. It's just a matter of how you look at it, that's all. So don't worry, okay?" - Jacob's Ladder... calling back to one of your earlier videos that first introduced me to your channel.
None of us came INTO this world, but we are instead OF this world is the deepest idea to come from a video game video I've heard in forever. I had to stop what I was doing and think on it. Great stuff.
Dang Ragna...thanks for taking the time to make this. And thanks for sharing part of your friends life with us
A lot of criticism for modern day media is due to lack of media literacy. People aren't taught how to explore and deconstruct themes anymore. Whether it be in video games, TV show,s movies, heck even booktok (book tiktok) is filled with people labeling books as unreadable because they don't understand how to look for the authors intentions or make connections. But I also think that's why deep dive videos like this and many others are becoming popular on video sharing platforms People want to learn which I'm glad to see, just not enough lol
I like to think that the words the taken co-workers repeat were their last thoughts before the incident. Cas knows this, because he knows them. They were like a family, all of them. Cas' last thoughts once the rig explodes were probably about his family, how he left them to run away to the same rig where he would die. That's what i think the epilogue was, his last thoughts before he couldn't think anymore.
I enjoyed this retrospective, a wonderful essay about this terrifyingly amazing game. My favorite types of media have to be ones that let you find the pieces of what you believe it to be, and it means something different for everyone.
i love how they keep sending caz to do these daunting tasks because they recognize he has the `sauce` (sufficient skills and luck of the devil)
I had NO idea where this essay was going to go. Lately, I've been struggling with just the overall idea of human consciousness and why it matters. Being afraid that in the end nothing was ever special or important; really, scared of what the "end" really is. Your analysis really opened the whole thing up. The anecdote of your friend touched my heart and honestly everything feels okay now. "We never stood a chance" is only a metaphor for the instinctual painful struggle against the inevitable, I understand that now. Thank you so soo sososo much.
Incredible reading of the game I hadn’t considered. Truly touching argument about how important personal analysis is when it comes to art.
As a Scottish person, I give you a 6 out 10 on the accent replication. Better than most.
More importantly: as a Scot, the game jumps out to me as a continuous meta narrative of the “Scottish story”. Not the beginning but definitely one of the most honest moments of our time in media was Trainspotting where our POV character and protagonist waxes about how imbecilic Scottish pride is. Because we’re all losers. We lost to the English and had our identity and gods stripped from us. SWtD has several political moments talking about how upper powers, sometimes the English, are going to keep taking from us. Such as the oil we find. Something that did actually happen after the attempted Scottish referendum which the English Gov. and Media worked very hard to dissuade from happening. The moment it failed, the English Gov. claimed a lot of oil that Scotland had found and has proceeded to make further attempts at a referendum actively harder to pursue because of a worsening climate that could have been offset by that oil. I find it almost inconceivable that a game could mention the possibility of this happening when, to a Scot, it is well within the current cultural zeitgeist. I have to believe they knew what they were doing.
As a culture we strive to remain who we are despite knowing we answer to a government that views us as inferior. Absolutely zero hatred here to English people btw, it’s only the people in power that continue to be an issue. Just like in SWtD, our best friend is English, the boss is Scottish and it is through wanting to appease “the man” that penny pinching has been employed.
Penny pinching is also an incredible pervasive stereotype about Scottish people, especially back in the 70s.
What also strikes me as personally hurtful, the writing during the scenes with your best friend: that forced trying to keep everything light and jovial while talking about something serious? That is a very prominent and often criticized way for, particularly, Scottish males to talk to each other. Candid we are but genuine we struggle with. The nervous laughter, the jokes, only opening up once he’s dead…I’m not saying these aren’t universal, they exist in all cultures, but it captures the Scottish experience from that perspective incredibly accurately. The swearing in particular is uncannily life like and does what no other media has before it, it makes me homesick.
What I would give to share a drink with you pal. I could teach you some Scottish words and phrases. Help you on that accent. We could easily get that up to a 7/10.
Thank you for writing this. A touching,at times heartbreaking and informative comment that taught me so much and left me with a smile. I hope that things improve for Scotland and the Scottish, and all the best for you, stranger.
Happy for you or I'm sorry
Not reading that novel 🍻
@@AC-hj9tv Thank you for either sentiment!
This is such a great take as well!!!
The letter from Suze at the beginning compared to the letter at the end is actually driving me crazy.
The developers have made a beautiful, gut wrenching, masterpiece of a game. Bravo to the developers, voice actors, and everyone else who helped.
Your writing always blows me away. Your tangent starting with your lost friend RIP, until you came back to your outro was incredibly moving
Shit RagnarRox, that Dear-Esther anecdote hit a note with me. I loved Still Wakes the Deep, but I love Dear Esther too, and had a very similar association with that final sequence that your friend Hartmut described. I had advanced cancer as a kid. Really beat the odds by surviving, but had a few close calls. The memories from that time are mostly distorted and frightening, but I remember this strange lucid reoccuring dream where I'm falling, but in slow-motion and in reverse. I float up and away, and know deep-down in that strange "dream-logic" that if I let myself float up, it means accepting that I won't ever return to that life I'm leaving behind. But I can't stop the floating, until I wake up in a cold sweat. That stupid Dear Ester sequence put me in tears for reliving that, but in reverse.
I love that Hartmut described it as peaceful. To me, that dream was peaceful too, but I wasn't ready to go as a kid. In the end, I hope we all find peace with whatever comes; be it falling, floating or flying. May it be peaceful and RIP to your friend.
When going up the stairs to the roof (where Roy is), I noticed that if you look out the window you can see an infinite reflection of the same window stretching out forever. Like two mirrors reflecting off each other. That was when I started suspecting Caz's experiences aren't real
That last player prompt we get could've easily been called something else. "Release", "Drop", or even not given a name at all, because the player knows there's only one thing to do in that situation, lit lighter held so loosely in Caz's hand after "We never had a chance".
But The Chinese Room decided to give that prompt a name, and called it "Let Go". Not like a command or a simple action, but a call to action. You are prompted to Let Go. I still think about that detail a lot.
first time seeing a vid like this and going "ya know what chief, I'll be back after I play it"
Solid 7 minute sales pitch for the game
I always assumed the helicopter pilot was fighting with the Mr.petty-boss-man over the controls of the helicopter and that’s why it crashed.
Great video as always RagnarRox! I really appreciate your insights
Gods above Ragnar! Your story of your friend moved this silly old fool to tears, I've smoked all my adult life (and quite a bit of my teenage years too) and have had to accept I'll be gone sooner rather than later, strangely I'm not that bothered about it. I haven't lived a great life, haven't influenced the world, but I've always been around for friends and loved ones. I love this world and all the beauty of it and I find it reassuring to believe that when I die I will be part of the world still, maybe only as fertiliser for a tree but.....
Anyway, thank you again for this video.
A standalone on Machine for Pigs would be good.
I’d definitely like to see this too!
Seconded.
I LOVE the horror genre. Unfortunately, I also have awful anxiety and I find playing horror games impossible. With that in mind, I'd like to thank you for your work. Your channel's one of my favourites because of the depth and level of commentary, and because I get to enjoy all of these fabulous works in a way that doesn't leave me feeling wretched and traumatised.
Oh, *same.* There is a very limited sliver of horror content I can actually consume. In spite of that (or perhaps because of it), I find the genre absolutely fascinating. Hearing or reading other people’s analysis is often the only way I’m going to get to experience the stories & themes. Plus, as a writer myself, I really *really* want to study the techniques that go into well made horror, because horror’s ability to toy with the audience’s emotions is arguably even more important than almost any other genre (especially when you take into account the meta-level, where the audience is constantly adapting to the new tropes, tools, & works, forcing the artists to be constantly moving the goalposts & upping their game.) Studying horror is one of the best learning tools as a creative, but as a person I can’t do it firsthand; those techniques are just too effective on me!
No, I can’t play these games. No, I can’t watch these movies. No, I can’t finish these books, or comics, or shows.
Yes, *please* tell me more!
Dammit Ragnar, posting one of your longest videos minutes before I head to bed! I guess I be staying up late tonight!
Wish you a good night in roughly 1.5 hours!
i loved finding this. a creator i havent seen yet making a pretentious philosophical video essay thats over an hour long about a video game ive never heard of. not even 10 minutes in and i know im about to binge your channel though. these videos are the ones that stay in my brain the longest
this video made me cry
That anecdote of yours regarding Dear Esther really got to me. I'm so glad you didn't give up on that essay !
video essay that makes me cry at my day job doing food prep because the discussion of entropy and the inevitability of death is forcing me to, however temporarily, confront my own mortality. i'm prone to crying anyway, it's one of my Sick Epic Gamer Skillz, and i'm used to just... carrying on through it, but this time i had to step away and take a few moments to chill out. my coworker was like, "uh... you good?" (which is funny because i've instructed all of them to ignore that i'm crying, due to my aformentioned propensity for it). "yeah," i said, tearful and also absolutely laughing at myself, "video essay about a cool game is ruining my life."
anyway, your editing and skillful approach to hitting emotional beats, as well as your willingness to be vulnerable, really uplift your work. this is a really, really good video, and one that i'll come back to again. thank you!!! :] i really enjoyed it!
I hadn't heard about the Chinese Room until they were tapped to make Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2. What they have shown us so far made me hesitant. Until I saw this and their announcement that they would be taking a bit more time to work on it. They clearly know how to make a haunting narrative with great atmosphere and characters and that is what is most important.
I like TCR's games, but I'm still hesitant about their V:tM-B2. Yes, they're great at narrative, but Bloodlines is an RPG with roots in the tabletop, and an immersive sim. Very different beast. If they were making just a standalone V:tM game, I'd be incredibly excited. But a sequel to Bloodlines? I don't know about that.
@@rateater1857 In general I think that any game bearing that name is doomed given the legacy that Bloodlines has. Making a sequel was always going to set an insane standard to meet. I do think that calling it Bloodlines 2 is a mistake, but I will be approaching it as a VtM game, like Swansong, not as Bloodlines 2, especially since it has no tie ins to the original.
I don't know if you noticed this at the end of the game. When Caz is in the bedroom about to leave, there are two pictures against the wall. One of them looks like that ending spiral where Caz is swimming towards the light, and a second one depicts an angel with ribbon-like clothes, that someone could say are similar to the ribbons of The Shape.
43:00 I love this stuff too, and I feel angry at a piece of art when they try to hold your hand and tell you everything you're supposed to feel like you're a child. BUT, holy SHIT it feels like so many movies, stories, etc realized that they could use this so they didn't have to tell a story at all lol🙃 it's just as frustrating when you're TRYING to engage with something then realize "nah, this is just bad and I'm doing all the work" 🤣
This game is badass, I'm not talking about the Chinese Room. "You just don't get it" can just mean that there was nothing there to get
Honestly the scariest thing in SOMA was the concept of being all alone, at the bottom of the ocean, maybe forever trapped in a metal body.
Amnesia: AMFP definitely needs more analysis of it. Not only to help solidify it as a worthy entry in the Amnesia series but also as its own standalone horror title. If you ever do a vid on it you can definitely count on me watching it.
if you read the terminal at the start of the game it explains what happens after cas falls into the water. in exchange for protecting him and preserving his life, his guardian force has to consume his long term memories which is why everyone around him starts changing to reflect the specific tropes and characteristics he's mentally assigned them
this would have been an 11/10 read if the oil platform had suddenly started moving at some point lol
Gardens & Gunblades
Terminal? Where's that at?
Thank you for this video. Through telling the story of your dear friend, you've dispersed little fragments of who he was and whatthe two of you experienced to all of us viewers. Just as this game became a unique experience unto you, the story you've shared will take unique form within the rest of us in myriad and unfathomable ways -- just as the people and objects took on new life in "the shape."
And also thank you so much for sharing your model of existence and life. I'm sure you must have hesitated before decided going that deep, but I've been a viewer for years now and it brings me great satisfaction to know that a creator that I respect carries a near-identical interpretation of the beautiful entropic dance we find ourselves in. Will be joining your Patreon!
you mentioned it briefly, but in support of the "you were always dead" theory, that dropping the lighter into the Shape is prompted as "let go". not drop the lighter or anything else, but let go - something that is common to hear in the case of people passing on. i played this game and initially took it at face value but seeing that "let go" prompt in this video in the context you put it on changed the whole experience for me post-experience.
rest easy to your friend, if this is the kind of thing that you can put together as one person i cant imagine the kind of world-changing conversations you two would have. :)
53:16
Gonna have to point out that Caz doesn't just get the Shape's weird screen effect stuff solely _after_ he falls into the sea - you can see it on the screen at 52:52, just as the drill supposedly hits the Shape, but just _before_ he falls into the sea.
My wife is making me buy and play the game before I'm allowed to watch this so I'll be back in time to download plus time to play to finish watching.
There's a cool systemic horror reading one could make out of a game where the main character, attempting to escape one aspect of the capitalist system, finds himself isolated in another. Where trying to make a home amid an engine of profit falls apart as infinitely larger forces seek to crowd out the human in favor of their own, incompatible designs, not because of malice, but simply disinterest. Caz spends the entire game fleeing from things that, at best, do not care if he lives, but will steamroll him for their own benefit in an instant, only to find at the end that true escape was always impossible, that the things he cares about have either already been subsumed by these systemic forces or are waiting victims for it back home, and chooses to literally burn out the remainder of his life to protect the latter as best he can. And even then he'll never know if it was enough. It probably won't be: they never had a chance.
Anyway, loved watching your reading of things, super cool to see another perspective from someone willing to engage with the thematic layers of this stuff.
i always loved the menacing industrial coziness and marooned claustrophobic confinement of the oil rig location. there was this miniseries not long ago that ticked a lot of the same boxes this game seems to cover as well.
As a Scot, I have to do my obligatory.... Ahem.
SCOTLAND FOREVER!
I like your interpretation. Though I felt the game was blatantly trying to tell me it was about workplace accidents. I thought of this when I saw there was detailed safety instructions around most of the machines you interact with.
This explained the whole game for me:
The "monster" the rig hits is just the "accident" spreading out and horribly killing random people.
The cries of the main characters mutated friends, to me, was akin to a coworker who was a victim to a horrible accident and now he has to ignore them and get to safety for himself.
My ending interpretation is that the "burning" of the "monster" was supposed to be the mc taking industrial action as mentioned by the union guys at the beginning (or in a note?). I think its saying the only way to stop this is for unions to rise up and take extreme actions even if that means "burning it all down". Idk everything really makes sense and fits together when i think of it that way.
(I also have strong thoughts about the mc ditching his friend like he ditched his family.)
Gosh... I'm already a big fan of Still Wakes the Deep, but linking it to Absurdism? Fuuuuck man, now I can see the parallels it has with Albert Camus' works.
Your point about the The Shape being Death and how it just *is* without any morals beyond the crew's need to survive it - and how Caz in tge end accepts that they never had a chance - remunds me so so much about The Stranger's final scene where the protagonist realizes "the gentle indifference of the universe" as he's about to be executed.
But in terms of tone? About choosing to hold on regardless of the madness surrounding Caz? *That* was peak The Plague themes. When all hell breaks loose and nothing makes sense anymore, holding on to to what you believe when it really means nothing is worth it - even if it ends in heartbreak.
Another peak essay, Ragnar. Thanks a lot for it 👋
EDIT: FUCK I wrote this before the goddamn Sisyphus mention I *knew* this vid has Camus' soul sewed into it lmao
I fall under category nr. 3. I usually never played the games you analyzed, but I love the depths and the spiritual levels your deep dives reach.
These games also tick a box as a lover of weird fiction. Where stories often don't have no understandable ending. They get stuck in your mind trying to get so some conclusion but often you don't find one. I thrive on things like that.
It what I loved about Dear Esther. With felt to me like reading a weird fiction story, mixed with strange poetry and lucid dreaming.
@RagnarRoxShow I do not normally comment at all on videos. I have worked on this game.
I want to thank you for the exceptionally brilliant analysis you made.
Hey thank you, I appreciate the comment! And thanks for your hard work!
Thank you SO much for your work on this game! I don't have any game consoles so I watch playthroughs with no commentary. This game was a PHENOMENAL experience even though I was not choosing the actions. I have been raving to everyone about it. Thank you Thank you thank you for your work ❤
What a beautiful analysis. The Dear Esther anecdote about your dear friend was incredibly touching. He sounds like an awesome fella. Thank you for sharing his memory with us.
I just spent the whole day at work thinking about this game after playing it last night and this is the first thing I see when getting home 10/10 perfect
Thank you for making me cry near the end, Ragnar. Not many things can, and I don’t think I do it enough. Your work is always beautiful and moving, and this video is certainly no exception. Bravo!
Oh, also. Since I posted this before reaching the end of the video. Please do a Machine for Pigs. It’s one of my favorite experiences I’ve ever had in a game, and, to put it shortly, my own family heavily inspired the conclusions I reached about the game; so I would love to hear your perspective on it! And again, fantastic work!!
I(American) lived near Glasgow for a few years in the 90s and it’s absolutely wild to hear how much Caz sounds like an old Scottish roommate of mine, Franny. They nailed it.
How dare you
I didn’t click on this video just to be confronted head on with my existential dread thank you
(Thank you, now I can start to try and ease it a little)
I would love a long form video on Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. Ever since Jacob Geller touched on it (and its sound design) in his Why Do Horror Games Sound So Beautiful? video, I've been wanting a nuanced exploration of the game (and how Incredibly Sad it is lol).
I was literally thinking yesterday I haven't seen a video from Ragnarox in a while and then this came into my feed
Ragna went on some hyper-deep JRPG final battle motivational speech in the last 20+ minutes of the review/essay.
33:13 Thanks for making this point. We're starting to move past "Lovecraftian" and we're hearing more "cosmic horror" being used to describe themes like this. I'm not really a fan of Lovecraft but I absolutely LOVE cosmic horror. It's not about tentacles and monsters, it's about the world heading in an unstoppable direction and is mowing down humanity in the process. Cosmic horror doesn't care that people have lives, feelings, relationships, hopes, dreams etc. It's so much bigger than the human mind can comprehend, and that's what makes it terrifying and fascinating.
If eldritch or cosmic horror are descriptors, its Lovecraftian. Lovecraft INSPIRED far more then he ever wrote, he created the Cosmic horror genre.
08:39 oh we're all here for the infodump
The ending makes me think of Indika's ending, where it initially feels disappointing but I immediately have a feeling of something profound being told to me that I need to meditate on.
The most frustrating thing about video essayists like the excellent Ragnar is:
-I'm aware of a game's existence
-I see Ragnar has a decently lengthed video just come out on the topic
-I click on the video knowing full well I will have to make a choice
-Ragnar starts and sells me on it almost immediately just through his excitement and intro
-I'm torn between wanting to watch a master at work, breaking down his latest obsession, or go buy and play the game myself
Grrr, how annoyingly brilliant you are Ragnar! I have fallen into your trap once more.
8:26 I feel attacked, honored, hugged, and fully seen at the same time.
I can't even be mad at you for calling me out because I did see the thumbnail and think "Yo holy shit, Ragnar made a Still Wakes the Deep vid, let's fucking goooooooo"
Defenless horror games spike my anxiety way too hard just launching them so I can never play them myself. It's why I played SOMA only when they patched in the non-agressive mod as a feature, and why I only play Resident Evil and Silent Hill 2 horror games wise. Well, plus the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Plasma Cutter only run I did of Dead Space 2. I need to be able to panic shoot the spooky thing to calm myself.
With that personal section about Ragnar's friend.... like... damn... I didn't know I was going to get Jacob Geller levels of emotions from a video game retrospective youtuber.
I had no idea that I was going to feel so emotional when I started this video.
That Dear Esther Anecdote part was extremely moving. Thanks for sharing that with us.
Ragnar, I couldn't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this video. I'm so grateful to you for making it and I have to say your voice and your thoughts are comforting. I hope nothing but the best for you!
I have got to thank you for this video. It was extremely well done, and the parallels and connections drawn were deep and beautiful. I've watched multiple playthroughs of Still Wakes the Deep
(as I am a coward when it comes to playing horror games) and I adore it. The story, the plot, the full circle moment, the character building, voice acting, game design. All immaculate in my opinion. Your commentary mirrors that perfectly. I also truly appreciated the personal connections you brought to the story writing by the devs. Gave me chills.
Thank you so much for all your work, but especially this video. This is one of your masterpieces to be sure. Your ability to succinctly combine analysis, discussion, and philosophy is truly amazing. But your personal touch on this project really made it something special. Thank you for creating and sharing this with the world.
I'm in the "Let's Goooooooo!" Club
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Gosh that anecdote was moving, this whole interospective was just beautiful.
This popped up literally right after I finished watching someone's playthrough. Such a bittersweet game but it's genuinely beautiful and haunting.
Imagine if when you reached the end. The shape asks Caz. "If you had the chance, would you change your fate?"
This was amazing!!! I'm sorry about your pal >.< Your effort is incredibly appreciated!
I used to think that, despite being a HUGE horror wimp (especially regarding atmospheric and cosmic horror), that I was relatively okay regarding body horror. Then you showed Cronenberg movie clips and I had to realize I was actually NOT okay with body horror, and now I'm also gonna have nightmares. Thanks!
I do really appreciate your analyses of these games though. Not just because video essays are one of the main ways I can consume media that otherwise is too uncomfortable for me, but because your takes make a lot of sense. I dunno how to phrase it well. I appreciate your work and I need to go hug my cat.
i can't wait to get stuck into this video
everyone talks about the voice acting in this game and as another Scot, i genuinely think Still Wakes the Deep not only had some of the best Scottish voice acting, but some of the best voice acting i've heard in a video game full stop. Not only that but despite being offshore you truly FEEL the depth of culture that went into this game, all the way down to the flashback scenes being set in what looks like a detached Glasgow council house bedroom. An absolute masterpiece of immersion.
i had to say all that BEFORE i got started on the video! can't wait to hear what RagnarRox has to say about it, he's one of my favourite game retrospective essayists
This video sort of reminded me of something I'd forgotten by getting caught up in the monotony and tedium of daily life, it's struggles, and all that comes with it. I had almost lost touch with the calm that comes with knowing that we're all a part of the same thing and we're all walking the same path. There's not really anything to worry about, just to enjoy this walk with my fellow humans on this rock hurtling through space.
Thanks for the upload, man.
It's great finally seeing TCR get their flowers. I've loved most of their games even if they have mostly been walking sims. Their writing so often seems effortlessly profound (to me). Absolutely adore their Amnesia sequel, and EGTTR is one of my all time favorites. I also, can never mention them without bringing up Jessica Curry's amazing scores within their games.
I'm no analyst but one thing I managed to recognize and decided was worth sharing was Raffs, at first I thought "gee, why's this lad freaking out so bad" BUT I had a little revolation upon realizing that he was among the first to see exactly what they'd drilled into and therefore probably saw a lot more within that diving bell than we (or just meself) considered at first
"I don't get it" is a good start for criticism, It is a first step to criticize when a director's on a subject that is a bit too niche, or to define where the limit of accessibility stand with a geneal audience.
It's not a bad thing, it's also not the best if you want to spread it far and wide. It's just an indicator to not be surprised about how much popularity your product will reach
Such an interesting game. I remember people discussing how authethnically Scottish it is.
I would love to see a deep dive on Amnesia especially with the machine for pigs! I've always just heard people saying how bad it was and I wondered if that was truly the case or if there were meanings just not grasped then since everyone was so high with the dark descent still.
Also, I really love this game. Everyone is so written well and it's just gorgeous. That ending was always nice. It felt satisfying for some reason.