This was very well done! But there's actually another ending too. If you take the Advanced Warp Core to the Stranger and then go to the Hidden Gorge fire with the artifact and die on the fire there, you'll get a different ending
What I love about this DLC is how the gameplay complements the lore. - In the base game, you learn about the Nomai, who were driven by curiosity. And so you're driven by curiosity as well. You want to uncover every hidden detail and message left behind in the Solar System. - In the DLC, you learn about the others (I call them the strangers), who were driven by fear. And so you are driven by fear as well. The dream world is terrifying to explore with danger everywhere, and you find yourself moving very slowly/carefully and shining your light as much as possible to see the path ahead. - As you learn the tragic history of the strangers and more about the dream world, you realize there is actually nothing to be afraid of. You realize the guardians are just wandering ghosts who can't actually hurt you, you learn how to break the simulation and bypass sections, and eventually your curiosity overcomes your fear. That's when you meet the Prisoner, whose tiny act of curiosity over fear led to the entire story of the game: the arrival of the Nomai, your time-looped exploration of the Solar System, and your eventual creation of a new universe. Not only does this Echoes of the Eye tell a beautiful and impactful story, but it lets you experience that story yourself through gameplay while you learn it through lore. It is a very worthy addition to one of my favorite games of all time.
I'v always said, apart from the quality of the lore and the world design itself, the way Outer Wilds merges gameplay, world design and lore/narrative into one entity is what makes it so unique and unforgetable.
Even how the strangers are terrifying, but as soon as you get caught and assume they’re about to eat your entire head, they instead blow out your lantern. They’re just being protective, they wish no harm whatsoever.
@@Evanz111 Exactly, you first see them as terrifying enemies, but then you realize they're just sad ghosts, trapped in their own dream world they created to hide from the dangers of the universe. By the end of the game, I pitied them.
@@Evanz111 I thought that too but it's not quite right, if you put your artefact down and wonder around in the dark, when you get caught, they break your spine :D see for yourself.
The only thing I hate about this game is that I’ll never get to play it for the first time again. What a phenomenal game over the last few years to play.
I also try to get people to play this, and they just won't. It isn't a game that you are told to play; it's a game that people must find and experience for themselves. The game itself is a game of exploring the depths of oneself to see how far you will go to achieve a new beginning. It isn't a game to be told to play; you must find it and choose to experience yourself. This is the conclusion that I've come to. Thank you for experiencing something that I cherish.
The other ending of the game, where you never meet Solanum but you do meet the Stranger, is also interesting and worth discussing. The glowing well in the left appears, but no life is visible. Presumably whatever species built the glowing well is in hiding, much like the Stranger itself.
In fact, my intepretation of the full ending is that not only sentient life flourished in the new universe (the original ending), but also that this life got to make contact with each other without fears. I noticed that the strangers had a dementially strong "dark forest theory" fear sense. We, allowing the prisoner's presence at the eye of the universe, changed that, and set up a brighter universe in that aspect. At least that's how i see it.
@@andreszyca1741 Super late to this but I also got huge "dark forest" vibes from the Interloper. A comet filled with highly lethal matter just seems like a great weapon to shoot over to a distant start system and wipe out any aliens living there
@@tednugent1100 it's never too late for Outer Wilds debate! :D Altough the game never hints anything like that and it's clear the interloper arrival was a sad coincidence, before getting to the conclusion i had the feeling i could discover that the interloper was a weapon of some sort by some Nomai enemies or just a hostile alien race that we would discover later. But was just in my mind overflowing with previous ci-fi stories, obviously :D I guess "coincidence", sad and happy alike, is one of the main engines that drive the plot.
I always interpreted as the screech as the Prisoner crying out in pain realizing that his whole species died off anyways, but your interpretation of it being a happy cry out is great too
Oh, that is dark! Btw, if you don't find uncover the main story before meeting the Prisoner, the slides won't show that the Nomai received the signal from the Eye... the Prisoner's screech afterwards is a lot deeper. It sounds rather sad.
Me too, that retelling of the history by the hatchling was so painfully bittersweet. I could also swear that some of the evidence in the ship suggested that the drive to escape the supernova was broken and everyone (including those in the hidden gorge) were always doomed to die. But if there's an alternate ending in which you do escape on the ship, I guess that's not the case.
@@dantmanandroid I think you’re half-right! The data logs show there was a breach on the ship’s.. wings? Rotors? But it doesn’t stop it from escaping the supernova, rather it just leaves an open point of entry to their research labs, something they tried to cover up.
Outer Wilds is the only game that has managed to give me a feeling of catharsis. There is so much cosmic tragedy in it. In the base game there is the Nomai, who despite their enthusiasm and wisdom could not achieve what they set out to do before being erased by an uncaring Interloper. More tragically there are the young Hearthians, born at the very end. Full of explorers spirit, eager to uncover the mysteries of the universe, only for time itself to run out on them. And with Echoes there is a new people to discover. They seemingly go by many names. The inhabitants, the strangers, the elk. They sacrificed everything to reach what they believe is something so important that the death of their homeworld is worth it. But once they reach it they do not like what they see. There was no grandiose revelation, no bestowal of power, no communication with a higher being. All they got was a vision of their end with only a hollow promise that life will continue after they're gone. Enraged at this betrayal by their goal, their god, they sealed the eye away and retreated into a fake reconstruction of the homeworld they lost, hoping to live forever as everything fades around them. Only one of them overcame the grief and spite that fueled their people and released the Eye from its prison. What did he get for it? An eternity alone, locked in a vault. But his sacrifice was not in vain as he set in motion all the events that would lead to the creation of a new universe. So yeah, you're an evil bastard if you don't let the prisoner play in your band >:( I guess Echoes is not what I was hoping for. I guess my preference would have been something that would have given us a reason to explore all the planets again. Maybe combined with a more challenging version of the ending sequence since I did always find it a little disappointing that in order to complete the game you only have to visit Ash Twin and Dark Bramble. I always thought it would have been cool if you needed to visit every astral body in a pretty tight timeframe in order to achieve some kind of super special ending. But the story of the inhabitants was honestly super amazing. And the feeling I get when I learned that I could just put down the bloody lantern in the simulation was on par with the feeling I got once I finally figured out how to land on the Quantum Moon. I loved your video BTW. Thanks for making it!
Thank you for making this! It's extremely cool to hear the whole story recapped in chronological order. I feel like it really helps deliver a better sense for how much time actually passed across the entirety of these events. One thing you may be charmed to hear, as I was: The developers did give the Prisoner a name, which is buried in the game code. Their name is: Kaepora!
I feel like packing some Mack's Earplugs would have been a more elegant solution to the bell problem than stepping in a fire and burning to death, but maybe that's just me
The funny thing is, in-universe the Hearthian technically could’ve just blown out everyone’s lamps before entering the simulation and it would’ve been so much easier. Just like how they could’ve just blinked to stop observing a quantum object.
I'm a Chinese gamer and I played Outer Wilds long before.Many people did lots of videos introducing the awesome game. When the DLC The Echo of Eyes came out, only a few game liver(Mr.Quin) played the game. So it's hard to find some help in Bilibili to get across the game DLC. However, your video helped me a lot ! Thank you~
spoilers . . . . somehow I hadn't even considered the possibility that the inhabitants created their dream world with the specific intention of achieving immortality there. my interpretation was that homesickness initially drove them to develop the technology, and the dream state was just supposed to be a way to cope with the loss of their home once they took on the mission of concealing the Eye... but eventually, they spent so much time dreaming of home that their vigilance over the Eye was just sort of forgotten as they all took the proverbial blue pill. but the way you lay it out here makes a ton of sense. studying the Eye & learning of its potential to wipe them out would certainly be a pressing reason to develop some way to preserve their consciousness. The Prisoner in the Ancient Glade saying "They did not want to see their story end" definitely tips it in that direction. great video. great game. ahh man.
One of the "bug reports" does show that dying in the real world is unexpected, though. imo the prisoner was talking about them sealing away the eye's signal, since they weren't ready to see what they thought was the end of their story.
Amazing video and explanation. The Traveler's Theme song is so special to me that I'm insisting it be played at my funeral. A reminder that my death will not be wasted, and my energy will continue in the universe, taking on new forms of life.
I love how in the very end, the designers added just a tiny dash of horror when you go into the Prisoner's grave. They maintained the spice of the whole DLC storyline, and then sweetened it with the Stranger's closure at the end. Beautiful
Great video! Over time I shifted from being scared of the inhabitants to feeling sadness and empathy for them. They were hurt people hurting other people.
Excellent recap to bring the whole stories together, the narration was great, both the speech and the video (nice bow to the Prisoner :)). It was such a pleasure to watch just after finishing the game, thanks for that.
Ahh, it’s finally here! I had finished my first play through of the base game right around the time your videos on it were released. I’ve watched each of them a handful of times due in part to how great I think they are. However, after finishing the DLC the day it released, I was endlessly anticipating your video/thoughts about it. I’m very pleased to say it was as perfect as the rest of them! Keep up the great work! I’ll never get over how amazing The Outer Wilds community is. :)
After finishing the DLC I have just been binging every video which covers it. ( The same as when I completeled the base game lol ) Thank you for making this. It's really well done !!
This is amazing, and I can’t wait to see the other videos of yours on this wonderful experience of a game. (And I love the slight smile we can hear sometimes in your voice)
Awesome video. There were definitely a few things that my brain missed even in my full-achievement run: The behaviour and general implied personality of the Strangers as wanting to hide away and were, technically speaking, still alive and thriving in their simulation, with most of the ship being unmanned and automated to skip away prior to a supernova, rinse and repeat. Thanks for helping me understand these!
There is also a different ending to the Prisoner's story. If you haven't done much exploration, then the story you share with the Prisoner is missing a lot of details about the Nomai. Without knowing anything about how or why the Nomai came to the solar system, you only share what you know which is that the Inhabitants' bodies withered away in their slumber and that you began your journey because of the Nomai ruins. The Prisoner lets out a screech, I can't recall if it's different from the normal one, but it sounded to me like a wail of despair
Yeah, I thought the missing story elements was a really neat detail! The screech definitely has a lower pitch if you haven't uncovered the full story. Still, my headcanon is that the Prisoner recognises that the Nomai worked it out, and that the Hatchling is gradually putting the final pieces together. My heart can't bear the thought of the Prisoner believing their efforts were wasted.
Just finished the game and stumbled across this video after wanting to know more about what I just played. Your narration accompanied by the helpful visuals and edits really gave me deeper insight into what the game portrays. Excellent video :)
What really got me w outer wilds was by just how much time it covers. Like you almost don’t think about it first time, but the nomai died thousands of ago, therefore the prisoner was locked in there so long, the nomai settled, went exinct, and a new species slowly evolved in timber hearth. Quite literally could’ve spent a millennia or more in that place damn least give the guy a radio
Thank you very much for this video! I have recently finished the DLC and this video helped me a lot to know if I understood the story that it is meant to be understood. You have a clear voice and your voice with the video mixed really well. Thank you very much for making this video!
So if there was a RUclips or I watch that played this game about a year ago and I spent the past two or three days watching the game play to get up-to-date. He started the new DLC here and instead of watching him replay the game I just wanted to look at what the DLC was all about and then move on. But honestly the game itself is so beautiful and fun and creative that after watching this video and hearing what he will see it have to go through an experience it kind of makes me want to go back and watch his DLC play through of the game. Which I will.
Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for making this and the other Outer Wilds videos. I tried to play them but I'm so awful at flying the ship that I would die about 1/3 times I tried to fly. That pretty much makes finishing the game impossible. So thank you for allowing me to understand the story and see what the game is about.
Wow, this was great. I didn't get around to playing the expansion yet, but this was an experience close to or better than playing it myself (since I miss stuff!). I also believe The Prisoner's final scream was one of agony and loss, rather than joy, of the end of the line, but one they were expecting and accepting of.
beautiful video, your voice is so soothing and easy to listen to that even knowing most of the story it brought back the thrill of my own discovery of it. I would like to you to continue this series for other video games, please
I noticed that both the Nomai and the "Inhabitants" both had the same symbol for the eye. This makes me think the eye's call, or ping, was repetitive and could have been extrapolated into visual form. Thank you for your coverage, analysis, and explanation of this game and its DLC. I just finished it for the second time, this time with the DLC, and I don't want my experience to finally be over again. I'm going to have to play it another time now.
You can find the original signal the Nomai recieved from the Eye on the Vessel and yes, it is visual and looks like the symbol. The Eye itaelf actually looks like that too if you check out the model
the story of the prisoner makes me sob like a baby. them going through such infinite suffering and going against their entire species to literally save the universe is the coolest shit in the world to me. obviously they arent as fleshed out as guts from berserk, but i genuinely get the same vibes from both of them and that is the most impressive thing imaginable.
Excellent video. What makes Outer Wilds so special is the complex lore and you explained it so eloquently. Great narration voice to go along with the visuals - earned a subscriber! Looking forward to future videos.
I completely missed the fact that the planets were so different when the Inhabitants came to "our" system. Now I really would love to see how Dark Bramble looked before it turned how it is.
fun fact, if you data mine the game you can actually find the combinations for all 3 locks, allowing yout open the vault without having to die. that in turn allows you to wake up and go into the Real version of the vault, where you will find the corpse of the prisoner (his artifact in the real world will be extinguished after he walked into the water as well) also you forgot one ending, where you remove the core from the ATP and go into the simulation, living among the others for the rest of eternity (which is a bit confusing as most of them die due to the dam anyways)
This video is so great!!! The narration was really good. This game looks amazing. Also don't think I didn't notice you dying to fall damage again at 5:50 :^)
Excellent video! Just one note, you list A) the censoring of history and B) the flame in the vault as happening BEFORE the prisoners defiance. I believe both those events happened after the prisoners defiance (specifically that the slide from the burning basement shows them going to burn the rest right after submerging the vault)
Yes, you are right! I lumped them in with the "steps they took to avoid discovery" and "access points to the simulation" sections, but it does throw the chronological order off a bit.
3:00 a couple fun facts about the solar system: there is a flowing river on ash twin and there is a naturally grassy area on the attlerock! also, bramble does have a sign of the vines, you can see them all over the surface just like on the quantum moon's "bramble" state. we can infer that the jellyfish are still living on proto-bramble as that is definitely where they originated and it hasn't yet been broken apart. if there was water on ember twin, which carved out its canyons and was home to anglerfish as well as an assortment of creatures that have since been fossilized, it would make sense that it would flow between the two with the sand. it doesn't make sense how it exists that close to the sun or how it doesnt all become mud but whatever. and maybe there was always a grassy area or forest on the attlerock, and esker just made use of it? if there was, it'd make no sense to live anywhere else on the moon so... maybe?
I just have to say it loud, I think the scale in the game world would be much bigger for The Stranger, but because it's a small game, they kept it small enough to house a few people instead of making a huge, empty space like some games do. SO while the game shows a couple houses and bodies, in actuality it would have been much larger.
Just finished this game and wanted to watch videos on other peoples take of it. This was well done. Also if I may say I love how you say the word “here”. It’s so lovely.
I completed the DLC last night and had played game back in 2019 so had lost a bit of story elements to connect the dots to the lore. After hearing it from you, it makes much more sense and DLC answers the biggest question posed by Nomai in the base game to which you never get an answer to. But the way DLC complements the base game and makes lore so much richer is absolutely ingenious. It was a long wait and it was well worth a wait. A phenomenal DLC to the one of the best games I have played in my life. The only criticism I would have is the fright system that was incorporated. There is already a clock looming around not only because of Sun's supernova but also dam breaking down, so getting caught in simulation and have to do it over got a bit annoying for me. Thanks for the excellent lore summary. I wish I could wipe the entire game from my memory and experience the whole game along with DLC again for the first time. PS(Edit): I would also like to point out, after meeting the prisoner and knowing their fate, I just despise "Inhabitant" as a species. They are a complete merciless hive minded assholes. They could have at the least given the chance to heed the prisoner or locked them away for a short period of time to see if they reformed or could have punished by giving a mortal punishment. But to lock away alone for the rest of their life? That just too cruel. Not only that, they also made sure that no one opens up the vault by hiding key combination in the simulation itself AS WELL AS, burning them altogether. That's just f'ed up, IMO.
I struggle with stealth sections, so the whole fright/stealth parts took me a long time to complete. It's also my only complaint about the DLC. And yeah, I can empathise with the Inhabitants a lot - wanting to protect their people at any cost. But what they did to the Inhabitant was unnecessarily cruel. Worse, it was done with intent. I can't forgive them for that.
I thought all the stars will eventually go supernova and the only way to rebirth life was by observing the eye so the universe will die if no one observed it, that’s why the eye was constantly calling for someone to observe it. It never occurred to me that by observing the eye you set the ending in motion?!
THIS IS SO GOOOD!!!! Please make more outer wilds content. I’d love to just have discussions about the stranger’s inhabitants and their home world and possible ideas for how their technology worked. I’m so intrigued by them and i’d live to hear you discuss them more even if it is all just speculation😆
Great overview. One nitpick though: if you recall the slide burning exposition reel, the burning and censoring of their history was done following - and therefore, likely in response to the Prisoner's rebellious actions. It is my thinking that before the Prisoner's actions, they were free to sleep and wake as they pleased, with the ease the Prisoner had. However, following their sudden rebellion and punishment, the other Strangers THEN mandated for all of them be bound within the simulation for eternity so none could fall out of line again - burning away control panels, information, entering the simulation with the goal of prolonging their lives indefinitely and arming the Stranger to automatically move away from the supernova. This would be most evident through the solid bars that strap the Strangers to their beds where there were once none. This steeps more into theory territory, but I'm also a believer of the idea of a secret society within the Strangers who sympathized with the Prisoner's beliefs or punishment, and compiled the clues from the Burned Reel Temple, with reels depicting those who had orchestrated their punishment and hidden the passwords at their most vile and terrible. However, their work may have been intercepted, or more likely - the whole thing may have been a ruse to draw out any potential sympathizers given the trapped rooms and lack of any other Strangers in the chambers
5:55 “if the bearer’s body had died in the real world, they would simply cease to exist in the simulation” this is patently untrue. You even just said earlier at 5:17 that dying with the flame connects you into the simulation. All the inhabitants on the Stranger are dead but remain active in the simulation until their flame goes out.
I started this dlc but got really stuck and felt too lazy to try and piece together the story. I didn’t even know a simulation was involved at all, but this explains a lot.
My theory is that The Prisoner released the Eye signal because he must have thought that if it is a reset system for the universe it is better that someone knows about it so the universe can be remade. Other than that- he might have been some remnant of the Old Way- the praising of the Eye
i think the saddest part is that "The Prisoner" is doomed to stay trapped in his vault until the end of time. Even if you free him, you have to still die to reset the loop, undoing the rescue. Although, as i type this i wonder why the Prisoner never just blew his own fire out 280,000 years ago.
Thank you for making this! I'd gotten about halfway through the dlc then decided to just watch a video on it. I was getting frustrated at failing then spending 10 minutes to get to the same place then dying again
A great video and beautifully narrated (lovely accent by the way)! Thank you. If by any chance you don't know it, I highly recommend the channel "The Lore Explorer". It goes deep into the lore of Outer Wilds and I discovered beautiful things on the game there. His next videos should focus on the DLC, so he will likely discuss some non trivial elements of it. :)
I may be dumb. But I’m confused as to how the hatchling goes back into the real world, after killing himself so that he could bypass the security. Am I missing something?
Beautiful video. Whenever I finish a game I always like to hear a recap of the story to remember the whole journey, in this one I also learned some small details that I missed about the DLC so thank you. (I also got a little emotional listening to their story with your soothing voice instead of silently experiencing it🤫🫶🏻)
I hope...in a future DLC, we'll get to experience life in the new universe, created 14.3 Billion years after our own. It would also be really interesting to learn about where the Nomai originally originated from and what their universe looked like before boarding the Vessel.
Sorry to burst the bubble, but unfortunately I believe this is the first and last DLC of Outer Wilds; Mobius decided to leave it here and pursue other projects
This was very well done! But there's actually another ending too. If you take the Advanced Warp Core to the Stranger and then go to the Hidden Gorge fire with the artifact and die on the fire there, you'll get a different ending
I had no idea! I just tried it... what a bleak ending. I've pinned your comment so anyone else who missed it can see for themselves. Thanks!
@@MissCherries Happy I could help!
Why does it need to be done at the hidden gorge specifically?
@@Asaiiku Probably because it is the only structure on The Stranger that doesn't get submerged.
@@Asaiiku You could also do it in the submerged ark or whatever it's called, but it's the same ending.
What I love about this DLC is how the gameplay complements the lore.
- In the base game, you learn about the Nomai, who were driven by curiosity. And so you're driven by curiosity as well. You want to uncover every hidden detail and message left behind in the Solar System.
- In the DLC, you learn about the others (I call them the strangers), who were driven by fear. And so you are driven by fear as well. The dream world is terrifying to explore with danger everywhere, and you find yourself moving very slowly/carefully and shining your light as much as possible to see the path ahead.
- As you learn the tragic history of the strangers and more about the dream world, you realize there is actually nothing to be afraid of. You realize the guardians are just wandering ghosts who can't actually hurt you, you learn how to break the simulation and bypass sections, and eventually your curiosity overcomes your fear. That's when you meet the Prisoner, whose tiny act of curiosity over fear led to the entire story of the game: the arrival of the Nomai, your time-looped exploration of the Solar System, and your eventual creation of a new universe.
Not only does this Echoes of the Eye tell a beautiful and impactful story, but it lets you experience that story yourself through gameplay while you learn it through lore. It is a very worthy addition to one of my favorite games of all time.
I learned curiosity from the Nomai,
and i used it as a weapon to explore the Stranger and discover the truth!
I'v always said, apart from the quality of the lore and the world design itself, the way Outer Wilds merges gameplay, world design and lore/narrative into one entity is what makes it so unique and unforgetable.
Even how the strangers are terrifying, but as soon as you get caught and assume they’re about to eat your entire head, they instead blow out your lantern. They’re just being protective, they wish no harm whatsoever.
@@Evanz111 Exactly, you first see them as terrifying enemies, but then you realize they're just sad ghosts, trapped in their own dream world they created to hide from the dangers of the universe. By the end of the game, I pitied them.
@@Evanz111 I thought that too but it's not quite right, if you put your artefact down and wonder around in the dark, when you get caught, they break your spine :D see for yourself.
The only thing I hate about this game is that I’ll never get to play it for the first time again. What a phenomenal game over the last few years to play.
I've recommended it to all of my friends and I can't get them to play it, it makes me sad
This comment hit me so hard cause it’s so true. That first play through was so magical.
Seriously, I try to get my friends hooked just so I can hear their interpretations for just a snippet of the experience.
I also try to get people to play this, and they just won't. It isn't a game that you are told to play; it's a game that people must find and experience for themselves. The game itself is a game of exploring the depths of oneself to see how far you will go to achieve a new beginning. It isn't a game to be told to play; you must find it and choose to experience yourself.
This is the conclusion that I've come to.
Thank you for experiencing something that I cherish.
This and other games like The Witness ;'(
The other ending of the game, where you never meet Solanum but you do meet the Stranger, is also interesting and worth discussing. The glowing well in the left appears, but no life is visible. Presumably whatever species built the glowing well is in hiding, much like the Stranger itself.
The ending with both indicates the two species working together :)
In fact, my intepretation of the full ending is that not only sentient life flourished in the new universe (the original ending), but also that this life got to make contact with each other without fears. I noticed that the strangers had a dementially strong "dark forest theory" fear sense. We, allowing the prisoner's presence at the eye of the universe, changed that, and set up a brighter universe in that aspect. At least that's how i see it.
@@andreszyca1741 Super late to this but I also got huge "dark forest" vibes from the Interloper. A comet filled with highly lethal matter just seems like a great weapon to shoot over to a distant start system and wipe out any aliens living there
@@tednugent1100 it's never too late for Outer Wilds debate! :D Altough the game never hints anything like that and it's clear the interloper arrival was a sad coincidence, before getting to the conclusion i had the feeling i could discover that the interloper was a weapon of some sort by some Nomai enemies or just a hostile alien race that we would discover later. But was just in my mind overflowing with previous ci-fi stories, obviously :D I guess "coincidence", sad and happy alike, is one of the main engines that drive the plot.
I always interpreted as the screech as the Prisoner crying out in pain realizing that his whole species died off anyways, but your interpretation of it being a happy cry out is great too
Oh, that is dark! Btw, if you don't find uncover the main story before meeting the Prisoner, the slides won't show that the Nomai received the signal from the Eye... the Prisoner's screech afterwards is a lot deeper. It sounds rather sad.
@@MissCherries gosh I love this game ;-;
Me too, that retelling of the history by the hatchling was so painfully bittersweet. I could also swear that some of the evidence in the ship suggested that the drive to escape the supernova was broken and everyone (including those in the hidden gorge) were always doomed to die. But if there's an alternate ending in which you do escape on the ship, I guess that's not the case.
@@dantmanandroid unfortunately it's implied that you starve, so yeeeaaaahh
@@dantmanandroid I think you’re half-right! The data logs show there was a breach on the ship’s.. wings? Rotors? But it doesn’t stop it from escaping the supernova, rather it just leaves an open point of entry to their research labs, something they tried to cover up.
While playing through the DLC the most memorable part for me was definitely sharing your journey with the Prisoner.
Outer Wilds is the only game that has managed to give me a feeling of catharsis. There is so much cosmic tragedy in it. In the base game there is the Nomai, who despite their enthusiasm and wisdom could not achieve what they set out to do before being erased by an uncaring Interloper. More tragically there are the young Hearthians, born at the very end. Full of explorers spirit, eager to uncover the mysteries of the universe, only for time itself to run out on them.
And with Echoes there is a new people to discover. They seemingly go by many names. The inhabitants, the strangers, the elk. They sacrificed everything to reach what they believe is something so important that the death of their homeworld is worth it. But once they reach it they do not like what they see. There was no grandiose revelation, no bestowal of power, no communication with a higher being. All they got was a vision of their end with only a hollow promise that life will continue after they're gone. Enraged at this betrayal by their goal, their god, they sealed the eye away and retreated into a fake reconstruction of the homeworld they lost, hoping to live forever as everything fades around them. Only one of them overcame the grief and spite that fueled their people and released the Eye from its prison. What did he get for it? An eternity alone, locked in a vault. But his sacrifice was not in vain as he set in motion all the events that would lead to the creation of a new universe.
So yeah, you're an evil bastard if you don't let the prisoner play in your band >:(
I guess Echoes is not what I was hoping for. I guess my preference would have been something that would have given us a reason to explore all the planets again. Maybe combined with a more challenging version of the ending sequence since I did always find it a little disappointing that in order to complete the game you only have to visit Ash Twin and Dark Bramble. I always thought it would have been cool if you needed to visit every astral body in a pretty tight timeframe in order to achieve some kind of super special ending. But the story of the inhabitants was honestly super amazing. And the feeling I get when I learned that I could just put down the bloody lantern in the simulation was on par with the feeling I got once I finally figured out how to land on the Quantum Moon.
I loved your video BTW. Thanks for making it!
the comparison between put down the artifact on the simulation and landing on the quantum moon was on point 👌
Well said! Outer Wilds is an absolute masterpiece!
Bruh I cant even do the two planets ending plsss😭😭😭
I can put down the Lamp!!!!????
Thank you for making this! It's extremely cool to hear the whole story recapped in chronological order. I feel like it really helps deliver a better sense for how much time actually passed across the entirety of these events.
One thing you may be charmed to hear, as I was: The developers did give the Prisoner a name, which is buried in the game code. Their name is:
Kaepora!
Every now and then i come across a game that is so beautiful that i feel almost empty and heavy inside when the game concludes. This is one of them.
I feel like packing some Mack's Earplugs would have been a more elegant solution to the bell problem than stepping in a fire and burning to death, but maybe that's just me
The funny thing is, in-universe the Hearthian technically could’ve just blown out everyone’s lamps before entering the simulation and it would’ve been so much easier. Just like how they could’ve just blinked to stop observing a quantum object.
@@BananaWasTaken😂😂 that's true, instead we had to let the dam do this for us
I'm a Chinese gamer and I played Outer Wilds long before.Many people did lots of videos introducing the awesome game.
When the DLC The Echo of Eyes came out, only a few game liver(Mr.Quin) played the game. So it's hard to find some help in Bilibili to get across the game DLC.
However, your video helped me a lot !
Thank you~
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somehow I hadn't even considered the possibility that the inhabitants created their dream world with the specific intention of achieving immortality there. my interpretation was that homesickness initially drove them to develop the technology, and the dream state was just supposed to be a way to cope with the loss of their home once they took on the mission of concealing the Eye... but eventually, they spent so much time dreaming of home that their vigilance over the Eye was just sort of forgotten as they all took the proverbial blue pill.
but the way you lay it out here makes a ton of sense. studying the Eye & learning of its potential to wipe them out would certainly be a pressing reason to develop some way to preserve their consciousness. The Prisoner in the Ancient Glade saying "They did not want to see their story end" definitely tips it in that direction.
great video. great game. ahh man.
One of the "bug reports" does show that dying in the real world is unexpected, though. imo the prisoner was talking about them sealing away the eye's signal, since they weren't ready to see what they thought was the end of their story.
i think you're right in the first instance. they found out they'd created immortality on accident
L
Amazing video and explanation. The Traveler's Theme song is so special to me that I'm insisting it be played at my funeral. A reminder that my death will not be wasted, and my energy will continue in the universe, taking on new forms of life.
I love how in the very end, the designers added just a tiny dash of horror when you go into the Prisoner's grave. They maintained the spice of the whole DLC storyline, and then sweetened it with the Stranger's closure at the end. Beautiful
This is superbly done, thank you!
Thank you, perfectly recaps the whole thing which is exactly what most people will want after finishing the DLC. Great video.
Great video! Over time I shifted from being scared of the inhabitants to feeling sadness and empathy for them. They were hurt people hurting other people.
Excellent recap to bring the whole stories together, the narration was great, both the speech and the video (nice bow to the Prisoner :)). It was such a pleasure to watch just after finishing the game, thanks for that.
Ahh, it’s finally here! I had finished my first play through of the base game right around the time your videos on it were released. I’ve watched each of them a handful of times due in part to how great I think they are. However, after finishing the DLC the day it released, I was endlessly anticipating your video/thoughts about it. I’m very pleased to say it was as perfect as the rest of them! Keep up the great work! I’ll never get over how amazing The Outer Wilds community is. :)
This video is excellent! After beating the DLC, I have been starved of more content surrounding the game. Thank you for making this!
After finishing the DLC I have just been binging every video which covers it. ( The same as when I completeled the base game lol )
Thank you for making this. It's really well done !!
This is amazing, and I can’t wait to see the other videos of yours on this wonderful experience of a game.
(And I love the slight smile we can hear sometimes in your voice)
Thank you so much! I was still a bit confused about their people's story, this helped a lot. Such a beautiful game.
This is outstanding storytelling Miss Cherries. You definitely have mastered the skill, keep them coming! :)
Even more so than at the end of the core game, I was bawling. Such a beautiful game, and the ending was both sad and really hopeful. 😭 😊
Awesome video. There were definitely a few things that my brain missed even in my full-achievement run: The behaviour and general implied personality of the Strangers as wanting to hide away and were, technically speaking, still alive and thriving in their simulation, with most of the ship being unmanned and automated to skip away prior to a supernova, rinse and repeat. Thanks for helping me understand these!
There is also a different ending to the Prisoner's story. If you haven't done much exploration, then the story you share with the Prisoner is missing a lot of details about the Nomai. Without knowing anything about how or why the Nomai came to the solar system, you only share what you know which is that the Inhabitants' bodies withered away in their slumber and that you began your journey because of the Nomai ruins. The Prisoner lets out a screech, I can't recall if it's different from the normal one, but it sounded to me like a wail of despair
Yeah, I thought the missing story elements was a really neat detail! The screech definitely has a lower pitch if you haven't uncovered the full story. Still, my headcanon is that the Prisoner recognises that the Nomai worked it out, and that the Hatchling is gradually putting the final pieces together. My heart can't bear the thought of the Prisoner believing their efforts were wasted.
Just finished the game and stumbled across this video after wanting to know more about what I just played. Your narration accompanied by the helpful visuals and edits really gave me deeper insight into what the game portrays. Excellent video :)
I was somewhat disappointed with the ending of the DLC after finishing it, but this video made me appreciate it a lot more. Thank you for making it!
Best audiobook narration of the game, ever!
What really got me w outer wilds was by just how much time it covers. Like you almost don’t think about it first time, but the nomai died thousands of ago, therefore the prisoner was locked in there so long, the nomai settled, went exinct, and a new species slowly evolved in timber hearth. Quite literally could’ve spent a millennia or more in that place damn least give the guy a radio
Thank you very much for this video! I have recently finished the DLC and this video helped me a lot to know if I understood the story that it is meant to be understood.
You have a clear voice and your voice with the video mixed really well. Thank you very much for making this video!
So if there was a RUclips or I watch that played this game about a year ago and I spent the past two or three days watching the game play to get up-to-date. He started the new DLC here and instead of watching him replay the game I just wanted to look at what the DLC was all about and then move on. But honestly the game itself is so beautiful and fun and creative that after watching this video and hearing what he will see it have to go through an experience it kind of makes me want to go back and watch his DLC play through of the game. Which I will.
Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for making this and the other Outer Wilds videos. I tried to play them but I'm so awful at flying the ship that I would die about 1/3 times I tried to fly. That pretty much makes finishing the game impossible.
So thank you for allowing me to understand the story and see what the game is about.
Great video, made me cry a little bit. Thank you so much for making this
Wow, this was great. I didn't get around to playing the expansion yet, but this was an experience close to or better than playing it myself (since I miss stuff!).
I also believe The Prisoner's final scream was one of agony and loss, rather than joy, of the end of the line, but one they were expecting and accepting of.
This game is so good. I just found it and im mad i hadnt found it earlier. Incredible game.
beautiful video, your voice is so soothing and easy to listen to that even knowing most of the story it brought back the thrill of my own discovery of it. I would like to you to continue this series for other video games, please
I noticed that both the Nomai and the "Inhabitants" both had the same symbol for the eye. This makes me think the eye's call, or ping, was repetitive and could have been extrapolated into visual form.
Thank you for your coverage, analysis, and explanation of this game and its DLC. I just finished it for the second time, this time with the DLC, and I don't want my experience to finally be over again. I'm going to have to play it another time now.
You can find the original signal the Nomai recieved from the Eye on the Vessel and yes, it is visual and looks like the symbol.
The Eye itaelf actually looks like that too if you check out the model
What a fantastic and beautiful lore video, thank you so much for putting this together!
This was just fantastic. A great breakdown of a great game. It really made me remember why I fell in love with Outer Wilds.
Thank you.
This is such an insightful video, completely contrasting your playthrough where you tried to control the raft with your scout lmao.
What a great summary! Well done. I loved the story.
the story of the prisoner makes me sob like a baby. them going through such infinite suffering and going against their entire species to literally save the universe is the coolest shit in the world to me. obviously they arent as fleshed out as guts from berserk, but i genuinely get the same vibes from both of them and that is the most impressive thing imaginable.
Excellent video. What makes Outer Wilds so special is the complex lore and you explained it so eloquently. Great narration voice to go along with the visuals - earned a subscriber! Looking forward to future videos.
I've watched your other outer wilds videos. These are so wonderfully and thoughtfully captured. Thank you for making these.
This opened up my eyes to so many things I missed, amazing
I completely missed the fact that the planets were so different when the Inhabitants came to "our" system. Now I really would love to see how Dark Bramble looked before it turned how it is.
"The bright berry"
fun fact, if you data mine the game you can actually find the combinations for all 3 locks, allowing yout open the vault without having to die.
that in turn allows you to wake up and go into the Real version of the vault, where you will find the corpse of the prisoner (his artifact in the real world will be extinguished after he walked into the water as well)
also you forgot one ending, where you remove the core from the ATP and go into the simulation, living among the others for the rest of eternity (which is a bit confusing as most of them die due to the dam anyways)
Great overview, and what a beautiful addition to the game EotE was. Thank you for making this!
This video is so great!!! The narration was really good. This game looks amazing. Also don't think I didn't notice you dying to fall damage again at 5:50 :^)
I feel like I shoulda waited to play a few months for RUclips to catch up to the DLC, but you're one of the 1st to make a documentary on it!
What a lovely video! The way you told the story through all the tapes was so well done.
Excellent video! Just one note, you list A) the censoring of history and B) the flame in the vault as happening BEFORE the prisoners defiance. I believe both those events happened after the prisoners defiance (specifically that the slide from the burning basement shows them going to burn the rest right after submerging the vault)
Yes, you are right! I lumped them in with the "steps they took to avoid discovery" and "access points to the simulation" sections, but it does throw the chronological order off a bit.
3:00 a couple fun facts about the solar system:
there is a flowing river on ash twin and there is a naturally grassy area on the attlerock! also, bramble does have a sign of the vines, you can see them all over the surface just like on the quantum moon's "bramble" state.
we can infer that the jellyfish are still living on proto-bramble as that is definitely where they originated and it hasn't yet been broken apart.
if there was water on ember twin, which carved out its canyons and was home to anglerfish as well as an assortment of creatures that have since been fossilized, it would make sense that it would flow between the two with the sand. it doesn't make sense how it exists that close to the sun or how it doesnt all become mud but whatever.
and maybe there was always a grassy area or forest on the attlerock, and esker just made use of it? if there was, it'd make no sense to live anywhere else on the moon so... maybe?
I just have to say it loud, I think the scale in the game world would be much bigger for The Stranger, but because it's a small game, they kept it small enough to house a few people instead of making a huge, empty space like some games do. SO while the game shows a couple houses and bodies, in actuality it would have been much larger.
This is pretty well structured and the comments on the video gave me more ends to try
Just finished this game and wanted to watch videos on other peoples take of it.
This was well done.
Also if I may say I love how you say the word “here”. It’s so lovely.
Incredible in depth explanation of the DLC!
I love the "I'm gonna quantum" face of glee that the slide-aliens make at times
I completed the DLC last night and had played game back in 2019 so had lost a bit of story elements to connect the dots to the lore. After hearing it from you, it makes much more sense and DLC answers the biggest question posed by Nomai in the base game to which you never get an answer to. But the way DLC complements the base game and makes lore so much richer is absolutely ingenious. It was a long wait and it was well worth a wait. A phenomenal DLC to the one of the best games I have played in my life.
The only criticism I would have is the fright system that was incorporated. There is already a clock looming around not only because of Sun's supernova but also dam breaking down, so getting caught in simulation and have to do it over got a bit annoying for me.
Thanks for the excellent lore summary. I wish I could wipe the entire game from my memory and experience the whole game along with DLC again for the first time.
PS(Edit): I would also like to point out, after meeting the prisoner and knowing their fate, I just despise "Inhabitant" as a species. They are a complete merciless hive minded assholes. They could have at the least given the chance to heed the prisoner or locked them away for a short period of time to see if they reformed or could have punished by giving a mortal punishment. But to lock away alone for the rest of their life? That just too cruel. Not only that, they also made sure that no one opens up the vault by hiding key combination in the simulation itself AS WELL AS, burning them altogether. That's just f'ed up, IMO.
I struggle with stealth sections, so the whole fright/stealth parts took me a long time to complete. It's also my only complaint about the DLC.
And yeah, I can empathise with the Inhabitants a lot - wanting to protect their people at any cost. But what they did to the Inhabitant was unnecessarily cruel. Worse, it was done with intent. I can't forgive them for that.
Awesome, definitely the best game I've ever played, thank you so much.
Such a good video. What a succinct and respectful summary of the story. Thank you.
Thanks for the video, I never understood why the owlks never went to their homeworld. Makes much more sense now!
I thought all the stars will eventually go supernova and the only way to rebirth life was by observing the eye so the universe will die if no one observed it, that’s why the eye was constantly calling for someone to observe it. It never occurred to me that by observing the eye you set the ending in motion?!
The second best thing about the DLC is your breakdown video
You deserve so many more views and likes. Fantastic work. Would love a similar video for the base game!
THIS IS SO GOOOD!!!! Please make more outer wilds content. I’d love to just have discussions about the stranger’s inhabitants and their home world and possible ideas for how their technology worked. I’m so intrigued by them and i’d live to hear you discuss them more even if it is all just speculation😆
Great overview. One nitpick though: if you recall the slide burning exposition reel, the burning and censoring of their history was done following - and therefore, likely in response to the Prisoner's rebellious actions.
It is my thinking that before the Prisoner's actions, they were free to sleep and wake as they pleased, with the ease the Prisoner had. However, following their sudden rebellion and punishment, the other Strangers THEN mandated for all of them be bound within the simulation for eternity so none could fall out of line again - burning away control panels, information, entering the simulation with the goal of prolonging their lives indefinitely and arming the Stranger to automatically move away from the supernova.
This would be most evident through the solid bars that strap the Strangers to their beds where there were once none.
This steeps more into theory territory, but I'm also a believer of the idea of a secret society within the Strangers who sympathized with the Prisoner's beliefs or punishment, and compiled the clues from the Burned Reel Temple, with reels depicting those who had orchestrated their punishment and hidden the passwords at their most vile and terrible.
However, their work may have been intercepted, or more likely - the whole thing may have been a ruse to draw out any potential sympathizers given the trapped rooms and lack of any other Strangers in the chambers
Masterpiece of a Lore Video. Thank you
5:55 “if the bearer’s body had died in the real world, they would simply cease to exist in the simulation” this is patently untrue. You even just said earlier at 5:17 that dying with the flame connects you into the simulation. All the inhabitants on the Stranger are dead but remain active in the simulation until their flame goes out.
Im not watching any of this or reading any of the comments but HELL YEAH.
I’m gonna finish the DLC and come back hehe >:)
u finished
@@aryan7767 I did!!!!
And it was so good and this video is so good and i love it!!
Very well narrated! Filled in many gaps! Thank you!
4:17 yo that's the prisoner
Beautiful retelling. Thank you!
This is a great video. Thank you for your obvious hard work in putting this together.
I started this dlc but got really stuck and felt too lazy to try and piece together the story. I didn’t even know a simulation was involved at all, but this explains a lot.
This is the VaatiVidya of Outer Wilds lore, great stuff!
This was so clarifying, thank u so much for this video!
My theory is that The Prisoner released the Eye signal because he must have thought that if it is a reset system for the universe it is better that someone knows about it so the universe can be remade.
Other than that- he might have been some remnant of the Old Way- the praising of the Eye
8:20 then the attlerock grows a face and starts heading towards the stranger
i think the saddest part is that "The Prisoner" is doomed to stay trapped in his vault until the end of time. Even if you free him, you have to still die to reset the loop, undoing the rescue. Although, as i type this i wonder why the Prisoner never just blew his own fire out 280,000 years ago.
Thank you for making this! I'd gotten about halfway through the dlc then decided to just watch a video on it. I was getting frustrated at failing then spending 10 minutes to get to the same place then dying again
I chose to remember the prisoner but in the after credit scene I didn’t have a new speciesor campfire. Only that cave on the left came up.
Thank you for making this video!
Where has this channel been since I played outer wilds? RUclips please do your job and show me this kind of videos ;W;
A great video and beautifully narrated (lovely accent by the way)! Thank you.
If by any chance you don't know it, I highly recommend the channel "The Lore Explorer". It goes deep into the lore of Outer Wilds and I discovered beautiful things on the game there. His next videos should focus on the DLC, so he will likely discuss some non trivial elements of it. :)
They would have gotten away too if it wasn't for that damn damned dam.
I may be dumb. But I’m confused as to how the hatchling goes back into the real world, after killing himself so that he could bypass the security. Am I missing something?
When you die in front of the green fire, you are still taken to the simulation world. If you die again in the simulation the loop starts over
Beautiful video.
Whenever I finish a game I always like to hear a recap of the story to remember the whole journey, in this one I also learned some small details that I missed about the DLC so thank you.
(I also got a little emotional listening to their story with your soothing voice instead of silently experiencing it🤫🫶🏻)
I was seeking a video to "finish" the DLC. I really don't have the guts to do it myself
Really concise and detailed explanation, thanks!
I love how when the prisoner bowed, you bowed back.
I hope...in a future DLC, we'll get to experience life in the new universe, created 14.3 Billion years after our own.
It would also be really interesting to learn about where the Nomai originally originated from and what their universe looked like before boarding the Vessel.
Sorry to burst the bubble, but unfortunately I believe this is the first and last DLC of Outer Wilds; Mobius decided to leave it here and pursue other projects
An excellent explanation and summary. Thank you for this video!
i think you overstated things a bit. i dont think the owlks wanted to outlive the universe. I think they just wanted to be left in peace.
Been waiting for something like this! Great job
Really enjoyed listening to this! Gonna go watch you're other outer wilds videos!
Wonderful and insightful video. Thank you for your efforts!
at the End, the Main Char is the mist evil thing in all of history, wiping out a Universe at Billions of Souls