Ever since discovering no-clip glitches in games growing up, I've come to dearly appreciate games that offer the experience of breaking out, toying with their boundaries, and self-reference, whether born from conceit or happy accident. Finding out the world is so much bigger, and with perceptible imperfections in spite of the veneer of ideal controlled space provides a rich and formative experience. Inscryption was another one of those moments for me. I appreciate the language you used in this essay to draw out the concepts: Parallaxing depth. Diegetic conceit. Planes of immersion. Invoking symbolism not as substantive literary device, but to motivate investigation/instill wonder. Genre and subversion. Hopefully few people who've never played will watch this, but many who have will become a tactful evangelizer themselves. Thank you
A bit of context for the tarot stories: The Tower is a bit obtuse out of context, but the story it's referring to is mostly alluding to elements of lore from Daniel Mullins' previous game, The Hex. That game exists in the same universe and also features GameFuna, focusing on them much more by virtue of featuring multiple characters and multiple stories across multiple games they were involved with. The "triangle of isosceles proportions" is the Gameworks, a game development tool used by GameFuna devs to make their games, which seems to somehow be responsible for granting the NPCs sentience. The Empress's story also mentions it, and how Kaycee used it to work on Inscryption. The "blue man" is Irving, a recurring NPC antagonist who does GameFuna's dirty work in the digital world. Also, The Hex strongly implies that the CEO of GameFuna is literally Satan (his listed name is Lou Natas). Not sure how that ties into the reading of the card's meaning, but it seemed worth mentioning.
Good to have that side of it. I knew the games were more connected to the broader work body of Mullins' games, but I wanted to try and grasp what INSCRYPTION alone gives, so I didn't play Pony Island or The Hex "for" INSCRYPTION. That said, I'd say given what you've explained, the Tower still is more a vehicle for "deep lore" and tie-in than associated symbolism.
@@Rosencreutzzz Yeah, I'd say the most accurate description would be that The Tower is symbolically relevant for The Hex in a way that doesn't carry over as directly. Its meaning is a very good and concise summary of that game's arc, but appropriately for the topic of this video, I won't be spoiling why in any detail.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the channel Flawed Peacock has an incredible series of videos detailing the lore of the Mullins verse and the connections between the games. They really enhanced my appreciation of inscryption and the hex in particular, two games I already thought were deserving of the highest accolades for video game as art form.
@@Rosencreutzzz There is a strong thematic tie between The Tower and the Gameworks, though it is one that requires The Hex as context. Details below. In The Hex, the Gameworks is responsible for the construction of all of the sentient video games in the Mullinsverse. (People who only played Inscryption believe the OLD_DATA is responsible for this, but they are mistaken, as we know of at least six games with sentient characters that do not contain the WWII Infohazard.) However, this was not without cost. Similar to the Inscryption characters who lament their fates within a simulation, the characters from The Hex aren't exactly pleased with their existence, especially with the strict rules imposed upon them by Irving. A selection of them conspire to, and then succeed in, destroying the entirety of the Gameworks as part of a coordinated raid. This is the destruction of the Tower in a literal sense, but there's a bit more to it than that. The means of destruction is through freeing the captive Sado, a demonic chaos entity literally summoned from actual hell. At the end of The Hex, Sado escapes into the real world. The implications of this were mostly unclear until Inscryption, where the GameFuna employee who shoots Luke at the end has Sado's face for the few frames that it can be seen. The Tower is thus the source of Luke's own destruction.
This was very therepeutic having worked at escape rooms for a couple of years, watching people play games all day disenchants and i enjoyed the little bit of magic you put into the video.
I think there's an interesting difference between "story spoilers" and "mechanical spoilers" in games. By "mechanical spoilers" I mean information about how to play well, more so than information on new mechanics that occur later in a game. Though we often focus more on avoiding information about a game's story, in many cases being "spoiled" with gameplay advice can be much more damaging to the intended experience of a game. A lot of people have noted that being spoiled on the story of a game or other piece of media generally doesn't lessen the story, even if you miss the first-time experience of plot twists. If you go in knowing those things ahead of time, either due to spoilers or on a second time through, those twists can still be compelling as a sort of dramatic irony. However, in many games, you really do lose something significant if you go in already knowing how to play the game. In Inscryption, I think you could watch a dozen video essays on the story and themes of the game, know everything that was going to happen in the plot, and still have a great time playing through and experiencing the game for yourself. But what if you instead watched a bunch of strategy guides and went in knowing how all the mechanics worked, and what all the best builds were? The exploration phase of the game, where you're feeling your way through unfamiliar mechanics and developing skill, is genuinely lost. You effectively just skip the first several runs. And in a lot of games, this "exploration phase" is a sizeable chunk of the gameplay experience. I think this is true for a lot of different games across many different genres. Outer Wilds is famous for how protective its fans are of spoilers, but I think you could go in spoiled on 80% of the game ahead of time and still have an almost equally good experience, so long as you managed to miss the plot elements that double as puzzle solutions. But the moment you learn those puzzle solutions, it short-circuits your experience; people describe it as a game you can "only play once". I can't think of any books you can "only read once" or movies you can "only watch once". I think it's something unique to interactive media. If you watch someone else play the game later, it can be enjoyable again to see the story: it's like you've removed the interactivity and turned it into a movie, where the spoilers don't harm your enjoyment. I've even seen people seriously discuss spoilers for Factorio, which more or less lacks a story entirely. You spend so many hours in that game figuring out design principles and the best ways to build things, and for many people that's a huge part of the gameplay appeal. Enough that being "spoiled" on standard or optimal ways to build feels like they've had a big chunk of the experience stolen from them. It's definitely hard to ignore that information; it makes you feel like you're playing badly on purpose. Information is weird.
Oh yeah this makes a lot of sense. I was spoilered on the story of Inscryption by watching let’s plays of it, which convinced me to get the game to try out the game myself. I knew it wasn’t just the cabin with Leshy. I even read into some of the lore myself. But I tended to avoid mechanical spoilers, strategies and stuff. Getting to make my own decks and strategies, trying and failing and finally succeeding, it was a lot of fun, even though I had technically been spoilered.
This is absolutely a huge point. However, sometimes mechanical spoilers and help are what keep people able to play. Sometimes mechanics just don't sink in however long you bash your head at the wall. For roguelike styles of game like inscryption (act one and kaycees mod) especially, that learning curve can toe the line of frustration for a lot of people. I've helped people playing inscryption before and other games like It because they were going to drop it before the story, just because they'd spent hours trying and failing to learn the mechanics. I think going in blind is important, but sometimes mechanics are rough.
You got through the entire video without using the word 'ludonarrative' even once, despite dedicating a lion's share of the video to analysing Inscryption's weaving of narrative and gameplay and the complexities it necessarily burdens on to the audience. Nevermind, you started talking about english poetry and the difficulties of authorship, I can no longer take anything away from this video. Jokes aside, definitely worth the wait. Please keep doing these for forever, please.
@@shrekislove3997 Real line from the game; "Presidente, dont research that. Dont you know that if you do, you will then research Socialism. Which everyone knows is bad. We should stick to our current model of Capitalist Cronyism. I, my friends and all my relatives think its the best form for Government." What a genre the poli sim truly is FeelsStrongMan
@@aturchomicz821i love these games and grand strategy esp the civ series. just thinking abt the implications of the mechanics on an actual society will entertain you for almost as long as it takes to complete a game
in Russian version name "PO3" is read exactly the same as "Poz". I was very surprised when I realized (at the very end of the game) that there was a number in his name
1:02:00 I feel this now, as I’m going through an audiobook series for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, an aspect of “I’m recommending this to you for me through you, not for you.” Aspect of thought you mention, I can’t reread the Discworld without the same wonder, I can’t get to the humanist thesis statement in each of his books with the righteous anger he wrote them the same way the first time. It becomes a different book, much like how Inscryption becomes a different game. the “Inscryption is alive as long as its name is remembered” line you briefly mentioned is how I got to this connection by the way. He mentions in the book Going Postal about semaphore operators repeating the names of their dead colleagues in “the overhead” through the codes in order to keep them alive, as long as their name is repeated, they can’t be forgotten. Sorry for rambling
Isn't it great when a RUclipsr posts something new just as you're watching one of their older videos? I was just rewatching your John Glubb video, and now I have another hour of content to enjoy! Can't wait to dive in.
i wrote my dissertation on this game and i am in absolute awe over how effortlessly you make taking about this game seem. such a sick video, thank you very much :)
“…assuming that there was some way I could have communicated ‘correctly’, where the viewer would agree. Would understand me had I ordered my words ‘right’.” This is something that I struggle with constantly, and it is nice to hear someone else express the same desire. In my experience, perfectionism combined with a need to understood, or even combined with a fear of being misunderstood, is a potent recipe for paralysis and paranoia.
I liked that the video feels like a long string of thought, and exploration of your experience with a game, and of your experiences even more than it is about Inscription in a way. It did make me like the game more, I hated robotopia a little bit, and yeah it was intended, but also slow. Also is that Miles Edgeworth?
Bro, this is a brilliant video. When I'm rewatching this I'll try to share some thoughts... There are a lot. I appreciate this very much! One of my favourite games to play (in the first phase especially). I think I actually cried saying ******* to Leshy for the first time. Takes something special to move me as deeply as it did 😅
This is my interpretation that nobody asked for: Some of us desire an answer, regardless of the results. Thus we turn to the interface which limits possibilities while giving the illusion of totality. The provided answer is a vague reflection of personal externalities. There is an implicit contract between ourselves and the facilitator. We recognize their authority as representative of the absolute, although they really build up rather than down. Some are functionaries, while others find purpose in providing purpose. The interface is a ritual that lends meaning through symbolism given weight by age.
Semi-regular Rosencreutz watcher here; this topic is a treat for me. Inscryption is one of my favorite games of all time. I'm so glad I didn't spoil it for myself.
I enjoyed this video a lot. Inscryption is one of my favorite games in the past several years. Despite the diminishing returns that I concede come with replaying it, the sound, gameplay, theme, and visuals continue to fascinate me. I appreciate the incorporation of so many elements from the game, especially the music and glitchy/warped sound effects. I clicked the thumbnail because of my fondness for the game. The video lived up to my experience with the game and it gave me additional perspectives from which to consider Inscryption when I play it again. I sympathize a lot with one of the closing messages: an intense desire to be understood. Regardless of how distant my understanding is from the video’s intended message, the experience of watching it was a good one that comes at a helpful time for me.
I'd say, for this one, the inspirations most clearly calling out to me the whole time, the ones I couldn't shake, were (the semi-frequently referenced in my work) Campster/Errant Signal, and of all people, Dan Olson. Geller's work is interesting, but I don't think I watched much of it when I was forming an idea of what video essays are, so while I respect his work, and very much understand why it's so treasured, it isn't always "insta-watch" for me. Granted, sometimes that's because I find myself wanting to cover similar things, and I have a perennial fear of "accidental osmosis plagiarism" --of being unable to tell my own thoughts apart from those of an "influence" and thus tend to avoid works on topics I want to cover *until* I've gotten at least a full draft. It's a testament to his impact on the genre that as I'm writing this comment, his "Art for No One" video is looming in the "recommended" sidebar.
It ain't rocket science, completely neuters the exploration experience by turning every trip into a straight line and gluing the player's eyes (and mental map) to the top of the screen instead of the environment
Essentially what the other reply said: It's not deep enough to fully explore... I think. It boils down to three things: 1) you get hud brainpoison, and are constantly looking at the compass to tell you something is *nearby* which means you don't stumble upon things nearly as much in an actual surprise way. This is good for keeping the gameplay constantly "up" but it means you rarely round a corner to a surprise unless it's like a genuine spectacle of a site-- like some dwarven ruins being massive outside compared to others that are a small exterior. 2) this turns gameplay into aggressive location hopping and changes the relation you have to the world, rest, adventure, all of it. You're just going from cave to cave until you're overburdened, or at least are pulled to do that. 3)it means NPCs and quests literally never give actual instructions. They say "Go find Bingledur in Riften" and your compass knows his exact location at all times. That's the most anti-exploration element and I think ends up contributing the most to the reason people try and cut across the in-lore nation's highest mountain range by billy goating instead of... taking the actual roads. I guess this could be worked into the larger Elder Scrolls Worldbuilding video I have in mind, but it would also be a tangent there, lol.
@@Rosencreutzzz i really liked how AC Nexus did objective traveling. the game has minimal UI, and the only map in the game just makes you massive, allowing you to overlook the enviornment youre in, with the objective marker only appearing once you press a button, or you go into eagle mode, then you can make a route for yourself like i did, looking over everything with eagle vision, and plotting a route to get there, and it was so fun. the whole game is pretty fun to me (no im not a ubisoft dicksucker, i just want rayman back fully)
@@Rosencreutzzz Honestly I appreciated the compass, but for exactly the wrong reasons: the NPCs don't give you ANY FREAKING LANDMARKS TO WORK FROM. I played Skyrim on PS3 and then persisted to Dragonborn (the only area that wasn't hopelessly broken and jumpscaring me with bugged wolves thanks to Dawnguard doing SOMETHING to wolf howls). Dragonborn may not have struck me in the nostalgia but it hooked me in a way none of the main game did. NPCs gave directions, landmarks, and guided me on the quests. Solstheim pushed me toward Morrowind, and Morrowind showed me exactly what went wrong with Oblivion and Skyrim: They replaced in-world directions and creating distinct landmarks with a HUD waypoint, and the most frustrating thing is that Skyrim had a spell for an "I'm stuck, help!" with Clairvoyance. I've USED Clairvoyance before to track down where TF something was because it wasn't obvious where the objective had gone or where I was supposed to go to to access it. I NEVER had that issue in Morrowind, of not knowing where to go or where something was. Someone SOMEWHERE had the information I needed on where I should go (or who I should seen out), I just had to ask if they didn't volunteer directions immediately.
@@neoqwerty Yeahhhh. That's the thing, if you delete Skyrim's compass the game breaks, because there's no "infrastructure" of NPCs actually saying any single thing about where to collect an item or how. To be fair, radiant quests would be... well, they'd lose all the ease of function they have on the dev side if they then all required handwritten instructions to find the caves etc, BUT it's deranged to me that there are quests that are handwritten and say "Go see Flongar over in [entirely different city]" and that's your whole instruction, and then the quest log says "find Flongar"
2024 is a very interesting year to me. I'm jobless and clueless about the future, lonely, sick, and desperately looking for fulfilment. But so many people speaking my artistic language have been expressing similar interests, hopes, dreams, worries, that I've never felt this heard in my life, and this inspired to join the conversation. I doubt I can really express why this video speaks to me with words, so I'll keep working. Maybe some day, that idea of mine will be a game. Or an experience. Or art.
I'm one of those "weirdos" that like spoilers. I spoiled myself for inscription way back when the game came out, so yes, I watched this video just because I like your content. Your intro however inspired me to respond to it, even if it may not be completely relevant to the main argument or video. The reason why i like spoilers; If a story is well written, any scene that is meant to rely on impact will still be enjoyable, regardless of if that impact is missing. The point of it is the journey, not the destination. I enjoy well written stories, and I think that is true of most people. This ties into a common issue I see regarding media quality, and how to quantify it. If you cannot see the way two scenes or the connective tissue of the story making sense beyond the point of the point of impact or retroactively when analyzing it, it means the story is not good. Plain and simple, the whole entire thing of authors rewriting their stories to avoid fan speculation from hitting marks is a point in favor of this argument. A lot of people love impact, and love being taken in by the moment, but this ultimately makes them believe that because they *feel* a scene is good, it means it is, *objectively.* And these are not always true. Think of these examples. The series Demon slayer and JJK are beloved by many, but when you actually sit down to analyze their respective plots and characters, you will start seeing cracks. To avoid spoilers I wont go into specifics (but may do so in the comments if this gets any engagement), but I'm not surprised that well after the series has ended and seeing plenty of videos talking about how good demon slayer was, suddenly you get videos like "Demon Slayer is Extraordinarily Incompetent" by Captain Mack and other critiques about specific characters and how their roles in the plot either became completely irrelevant or didn't make sense to the story that the series was trying to tell. Demon slayer is a *bad* story. What's even more interesting is how people respond to said critiques; usually with defensiveness or derision. There is a similar situation happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, and the discourse surrounding it and the quality of its films, to name another example. I think this is why people normally hate spoilers---because then they have to experience the story without the impact that blinds them to the actual quality of the story that is being told. They don't get the free dopamine points that the "big twist" gives them, or that the solution they found for themselves gives them. Its purely a psychological reaction. The problem is the subjectivity of it all. If a bad media makes you feel complex or intense emotion, essentially doing what it aimed to do through its intended experience, and you enjoyed it; does that make it bad? It may be poorly written, its animation might suck, the gameplay might be boring, the game may be a buggy mess, what have you---If you still liked it, does that make it bad? Does getting spoiled on a media that requires those points of impact to *be* good make it bad? I think yes, *BUT* people are still allowed to to still enjoy bad media and not need to feel as if doing so makes their taste in media bad as a whole. I think the game Pathologic is a great, if not the best, example of this. I can play inscription, knowing what happens, and still have fun *playing* the game. anyways, I'm going to watch the rest of your video.
But isn't that what replays are for? You can play it as many times as you want knowing what will happen, but you can only ever have an experience where you don't know what will happen once. Why would you take that experience away from yourself?
@@Dendricklystable I have a family member that does the same. They prefer to be spoiled before watching and they still seem to enjoy the story regardless. So maybe they just enjoy story telling no matter if its the first time nor not.
@@blade8741 yes but as I've said. You can play/watch/read whatever already knowing what happens as many times as you want. But you only get one (maybe a couple if you wait a few years and forget everything) oppurtunity to experience the story when you don't know what will happen. Why on earth would you throw that away?
i actually completely agree with you. ive been annoyed with the obsession with avoid spoilers for years now; ive seen multiple people get mad at simply knowing a characters name as spoilers. its a completely asisine way to engage with art (if youre trying to actually do that, anyway). ive always felt that if something is well made, poignant and creative then the impact made on a viewer will be the same regardless of how much knowledge they have of it beforehand. in my experience, subsequent rewatches/replays have actually enhanced my understanding because i was able to look at the piece hollistically and consider the intents behind it with a critical eye as i experienced it. its similar for things which ive had "spoiled" and later see myself. though, speaking honestly, most of the things ive seen that people get mad at seeing spoilers about dont have much to offer other than the expectation subversion. the only thing ive intentionally avoided spoilers for is disco elyisum.
wow. just, wow! somehow, despite having some idea where you were going to go towards the end, which crystallised more and more over the course of the video, I was still taken aback by the ending. It would take a mighty bitter cynic to read it as fake-deep or manipulative. I can only hope you continue laying out your perspective on things in this clear and compelling a way in many future videos. While maybe not intended as an experience, it certainly is worth experiencing every second of it.
I think the issue with spoilers, is that it takes the idea of the context in which you view a work in, changing your experience with that work, and declaring that there is an objectively better context to view it in, that some people's experiences are of a greater value than others
I was taught that the Tower isn’t just destruction, it’s necessary destruction of rotten foundations, like, the end of something that cannot or should not continue, whether comfortable or not, so I’d read that as saying GameFuna is similarly bad? Not that that informs us on much more than we already know
I can see that as a read, but it still feels a bit disjointed, to me. Perhaps that's partly down to how the Tower in the in-game card is pristine and monolithic and...towering, as opposed to being struck down. The Tower tarot card always read to me as present-tense, in the sense that the destruction on the card *is* happening, that the moment of note is the fall, not the anticipation of it. On the other hand, Judgment is sort of a "cleansing fire" kind of destruction too, which fits your "rotten foundation" perspective. I can't shake how the card feels too literal in its application here.
@Rosencreutzzz Perhaps that is meant to read as unsettling. Where the other cards invoked do scan neatly and thematically to a counterpart in the game, The Tower remains inverted (thematically, that is). Four parallels out of five could either be a bit of last-minute sloppiness or a deliberate juxtaposition. Perhaps it is meant to draw attention to the fact that Gamefuna persists - The Tower, somehow, remains standing. We could be getting invited to ask "why?"
Personally my take on intended experiences is that they are the most human approach to making media and that having an objectively correct meaning and the inability to interpret does not disqualify something from being art. A thing is created with intent, an artist makes specific choices for a specific reason this means that when crafting a narrative the author chose specific elements instead of other elements and for one specific reason out of many potential reasons. A work having an objective intended meaning makes as much sense to me as my sentences being written with an objective intended meaning by me. Where this breaks down is when the vague nature of the medium of communication creates ambiguity that must be filled somehow and imo this happens through projection. The work you end up understanding is a combination of the intended elements you gathered and the bits of yourself you pushed into the gaps. This can ofcs be useful cause you can use this new chimera to understand the parts of yourself you infused in a different context but that does not mean it's not still a form of miscommunication. I would even go as far to say that intended ambiguity that we see through symbols is purposeful miscommunication the same way a riddle playing on words does. Another way is the socratic method where you pick an obtuse way of communication where you don't just say what you mean to say but instead create barriers being questions that are to be interpreted. You still intend to communicate "you are wrong" but you are doing so by forcing the other person to project themselves. You are forcing engagement and self movement on the part of the other person to engage in the process of changing their own mind rather than just commanding the wisdom down on them.
I love inscryption a lot and I don't think I would have loved it as much if I didn't go in completely blind. I still would have enjoyed it but I truly didn't anticipate any of the twists (not sure if that's the best term tbh) and the urge to find out what else this game had in store for me, and the satisfaction of finding new things, really enhanced the experience for me. I really think that this is one of those games where being spoiled takes away from the experience
I've been thinking about this vid a lot and while I think being spoiled can take away from the experience for some things, sometimes knowing what you're in for can give you a whole new experience. I'm rereading dracula now. Everyone knows dracula is a vampire, it's impossible to read the book in the way that was intended by the author. But with that knowledge the book becomes a different kind of horror, and it's still a good read that can make you think about horror books and their tropes, especially in a historical context. I wonder if something similar could ever happen to games like inscryption, and if looking back on this game from a long way in the future would change my perspective on how being spoiled influences the experience and what the twists tell us about the themes of art and authorship in current times
If you need to be unspoiled to appreciate fully a work, doesn't that means it's not that great outside of shock value? I'm being very harsh here. But it's a legitimate question to ask. You're asking a lot of trust from someone by telling them to go blind, after all. I was spoiled EEAAO before seeing it, and it still ended up one of my favorite. Patricia Taxxon's last video on "Bean and Nothingness" convinced me more with the spoilers parts than without them, too. At this point of my life, I think less and less of spoilers as an imperative for a "pure" experience. If I'm really interested in a game, I need to know about all the mechanics in detail. If I like a work, I'll send a lot of times thinking about the themes, the story, hoping to get more out of it. If there's a risk that a work becomes less interesting the more I look into it, what even is the point? What if it's only an empty shell?
@shytendeakatamanoir9740 You are equating 'spoilers change the experience' with 'relies on shock value'. I don't think those two are the same at all. For example a great detective story can only be experienced without knowing the true culprit once. After that it could still be a great work worth re-experiencing but you'll never get that first experience again. However if the killer turns out to be someone Totally Shocking but makes no sense in the story (what??? It was you evil twin who we have never mentioned before and are now introducing in the last chapter of the book??? That sucks!) that shock twist makes the story worse, and you'll probably feel cheated if you invested time into that piece of art. Also how much you value the mystery solving part of the work depends on your personal taste. I like being surprised by the art I experience, but that sometimes comes with disappointment. Sometimes something wasn't worth the effort I put into it to me. this doesn't mean its objectively bad, I didn't really enjoy the outer wilds but that game is super beloved by a lot of people, but if I'd known beforehand what it was all about I wouldn't have played it. But sometimes I get a wonderful surprise like playing inscryption that I still think about years later. I think the surprising parts of inscryption made an already fun game way more impactful, and I simply don't think it could have done what it did without hiding some of its aspects at the start. Personally I think inscryption has a lot to offer even if you know what's going to happen, but the surprise of the sudden completely change of style and gameplay definitely hits harder when you don't know its coming. And obviously, trying to piece together information to find out what's going on is only possible when you dont know what's going on. But besides that I like the gameplay, love the atmosphere, and I've played quite a bit of kaycees mod even though it holds no more surprises to me. But I also understand wanting to know what you're getting into. I'm and adult with a job and investing hours into something that might turn out not to be your thing is disappointing. Even if I'm promised a great ending I'm very unlikely to finish something I'm not enjoying in the first 10 minutes Sorry for the wall of text I have a lot of thoughts
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740What's the point of complaining that something is "just" shock value, though? There is merit in shock value. A good twist can elicit feelings and reactions from the audience that are hard to get otherwise. On the same vein, there is craft to shock value. A well executed twist can be mindblowing while a poorly made one will just wiggle limply in the general direction of eliciting a reaction. There is also merit in not needing shock value at all, which is something very few pieces of media actually achieve, but i dont think theres anything wrong with a work that knows most of the punch its packing is from shock value and is proficient at it
Never played this game. Never watched this game. Hell, I never even heard of this game. But of course I will watch this entire video with utmost curiosity and concentration!
Spoilers do not inherently ruin an experience, but parody can. I've seen so many parodies of movies like The Thing or the Godfather that I'm just not interested in seeing those movies. Watch Blazing Saddles, then try not to feel a little bit gross when you go and watch spaghetti westerns from the 50's and 60's, I can't do it. Not all parody kills the media it parodies, Futurama's first 5 seasons are basically nothing but Star Trek parodies, but unlike parodies of The Thing or the Godfather that you see in The Simpsons or Family Guy, they don't look straight in the camera and say "we're doing a movie/tv show this episode". I didn't even realize Futurama was largely a Star Trek parody until I actually watched Star Trek, but watching Star Trek opened up a new way of watching an old favorite for me. I would say even Outer Wilds isn't ruined by the vast majority of its story spoilers, but it could be ruined with puzzle solution spoilers. While part of the experience is piecing together all the clues to the mystery surrounding the game, most spoilers lack the context to function as more than an extra clue. Other games actually **rely** on players spoiling each other to solve its puzzles, such as Voices of the Void. VotV in particular has an easter egg that is so well hidden you will at some point, regardless of how far you can get in it on your own, need to go online, and ask someone else what to do. Personally? I was never going to play Inscryption because I got bored of deck builders at age 11 when I opened a disappointing Yu Gi Oh booster pack. There is nothing you could say about the game that could make me play it because I see a deck of cards and fall asleep. No layers of hidden depth or metatextual trickery will change the fact that it's a card game, and I'm completely unengaged by card games. Why am I here then? The same reason you include anecdotes about your time working in an escape room. This is more about the theory of game design, using Inscryption as a jumping off point and a guiding hand for the discussion.
I didn't really understand why you had to lose first to be able to finish the first chapter. But this first chapter was the best, luckily there is Kaycee's mod.
Very interesting and insightful video on an absolute masterpiece of a video game! Also, very happy to finally hear someone call the guy "Poe" and not "P O Three" :)
Funny, this is the first video of yours I've watched, but it was exactly my kind of thing. Given your intro, I'm wondering if your other will be very different lmao
You keep trying to convince me to finish up my backlog, because i do really want to see your vids but there are a few games that I want to go in completely blind like inscryption
i haven't bought a new game in about two years, my backlog still has 635 games left, but i have gone thru about 150 already and it has been so fun and satisfying. mindlessly buying games you will never play actually slowly makes you depressed. Dont keep making yourself a unclimbable mountain, make it a little hill that is fun to walk over
Your speaking style is very reminiscent of The Magnus Archives. Or SCP readings, buh far more the former and to compare you to SCP seems disingenious. The audio is also really well done in pausing, lagging, and changing to impact what you wanna say. I was quite surprised to be hooked right after the intro, prolly around the first bus roll. Intertwining stories is always super fun. I also love the attempts at structure, to set yourself rules to talk about topics and then intentionally or unintentionally turning into a scripted rant. - Sacrifice, Cyclicality, Authorship & Intent are laid out as the next topics. They're all talked about but loosely, blended together as you mix other stories into it. - You start with the loading from the first save, and skip the 3 saves in the middle. Only to choose the last one at the end. - The layers of the game were described again and again, reminding the viewer and describing it in a different way. Each comparison leading into a different story, asking the viewer to look at the layers of the video.
54:10 I feel this is where your experience may strongly vary. Me and the friends I takked with greatly enjoyed Botopia and found making cards in Poe's game very fun.
On the Tarot note: you should play The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood. I know you'll probably not see this since you're a RUclipsr, but that game's interpretation of Tarot is very interesting
How to write a good video essay: Summarize the media you're discussing before delving into any opinions or theories. Define core concepts your essay will be exploring. Dedicate each chapter to explaining what the piece is trying to say about these themes. Call back to moments from the artwork which bolster your argument. Reference/draw parallels to other works or anecdotes, but take care not to go off on tangents. Be personable but if you don't have faith in a joke, cut it. When writing your conclusion, go down a checklist of what points you have proven. If I was you're teacher, I'd give this an A, but it kind of fell apart near the end.
Out of curiosity are you (or perhaps were you) a practicing R.C or was it just.a neat name you chose? Awesome video btw! Oh and no I am not “A∴A∴“ in the traditional sense anyway.... I just do my own thing but pull from OGRC, SRIA, GD and many others.. including Eris and Bob :) - FNORD Edit: alright after the tarot section I have my answer XD carry on! Great Work btw :D
It might be silly but I can’t get over how fun it was to hear P03’s name pronounced how I read it when everyone else seems to read it like a serial number
Hmm. I played inscryption only after watching a youtube series by youtuber "Aliensrock" which fully spoiled acts 1 and 2, and my favorite segment was definitely the last one. I thought it was the most mechanically interesting part of the game, and I thought PO3 was kinda cute! Like, he hates you so much, he calls you an idiot gamer, I love him :3. I very strongly believe he was robbed of a proper final boss. Also, I thought the idea was that what PO3 uploaded is the game you're playing? And you, in the lore, are not the guy in the cabin or the lucky carder, but yourself at your desk, playing the mangled version he uploaded. Maybe I just wasn't paying too much attention, and all this was a while ago. That thing you mentioned about people assuming more complexity reminded me of something. I played this game "Buckshot Roulette" which seems very inspired by Inscryption. You play against the dealer and try to shoot the dealer before they shoot you, by choosing to either fire towards your own self or the dealer, and the dealer has the same choice. I thought there would be some complex system there, and I was wondering about it. Therefore, I asked him! And he told me it was just a coinflip until he reached the last shell! X3 I think he's added a smarter AI by this point, but it's a good example of speculating more detail than there really was I think.
In the end, Luke deletes the game so it doesn't get out. That's when you play all the borked versions and refuse to shake the tree guy's hand cause his game sucked so much
@@lomiificationthe holo Pelts say that inscryption cant be deleted though, so it was always my opinion that PO3 still uploaded it to steam despite being killed
@@spongytrout7462 No yeah you're absolutely right, plus if you do follow the ARG you literally get the confirmation that P03 did upload the game on Steam lol
29:32 "She wanted the magic" is a very conveniently self-serving and presumptuous explanation for her interest waning. One less so is that you've dodged the actual question about your personality and reasoning by shielding yourself with mechanical explanations, in doing so stemmed the flow of conversation she had hoped for.
The conclusion had me thinking; is the point of being understood in an essay to be agreed with? Because it instantly reminded me of the many philosophy papers and books I've read in university - even if I don't agree with their conclusions, a well written argument that is understood can add to the plurality of perspectives that inform my thinking; add to the nuance of thought and to see the challenges that my own world view might pose. I don't necessarily look to video essays to agree, but rather to hear and understand. That doesn't mean I actively seek out opinions I know I'll disagree with, but if I do end up disagreeing with the content I watch, I hope to at least gain more understanding of how subjects can be viewed from it. And in that regard you have thus far delivered.
small note, but you bring up how breaking a lock in an escape room doesn't have an equivalent in inscryption but i would argue there is. there's several puzzles in the game i accidentally solved very easily by trial and error (for instance you can guess at the last digit of most passwords by just flipping through the options if you have the others already) and there came a point in the game where i found myself being very careful not to do that, because i knew it wasn't the "intended experience"
“(…) the expectation is that you don’t care and you’re just here for me, which is admittedly very kind and kinda odd (…)” You sell yourself too short, I’ve watch videos on games I never would’ve considered touching and most I still haven’t touched simply because you were the author. That said, I’ve grown to not care much about spoilers anymore, holding the mindset that if the story isn’t worthwhile to play without being spoiled and is so detrimentally affected by my knowledge of the story going in that I’m not sure I care to bother with it at all. I’ve rarely found stories which I truly would not want to see if I already knew it’s “spoilers”, and the few stories I don’t wish to retread are more so because they themselves lack enough merit to be experienced again. Not knowing the ending or plot beats certainly can enhance your experience, but a good story is compelling regardless of whether or not you know who lives or dies by the end. Hell, some stories are all the more powerful precisely because you know the plot and it recontextualizes everything. I know I’ve rewatched your videos a few times because I didn’t quite “get it” the first time, and with some I’m still not convinced I “get it” as intended, but that enhanced the experience rather than detracted from it.
I think he forgot that death is literally canonically the creator of the old data, while his reading does add to the game. This game takes place in the same world as pony island.
I don't care when this gets read, i just want to tell you - you really have a gift for this medium. Thank you for sharing your work with us.
Ever since discovering no-clip glitches in games growing up, I've come to dearly appreciate games that offer the experience of breaking out, toying with their boundaries, and self-reference, whether born from conceit or happy accident. Finding out the world is so much bigger, and with perceptible imperfections in spite of the veneer of ideal controlled space provides a rich and formative experience.
Inscryption was another one of those moments for me. I appreciate the language you used in this essay to draw out the concepts: Parallaxing depth. Diegetic conceit. Planes of immersion. Invoking symbolism not as substantive literary device, but to motivate investigation/instill wonder. Genre and subversion.
Hopefully few people who've never played will watch this, but many who have will become a tactful evangelizer themselves. Thank you
A bit of context for the tarot stories: The Tower is a bit obtuse out of context, but the story it's referring to is mostly alluding to elements of lore from Daniel Mullins' previous game, The Hex. That game exists in the same universe and also features GameFuna, focusing on them much more by virtue of featuring multiple characters and multiple stories across multiple games they were involved with. The "triangle of isosceles proportions" is the Gameworks, a game development tool used by GameFuna devs to make their games, which seems to somehow be responsible for granting the NPCs sentience. The Empress's story also mentions it, and how Kaycee used it to work on Inscryption. The "blue man" is Irving, a recurring NPC antagonist who does GameFuna's dirty work in the digital world. Also, The Hex strongly implies that the CEO of GameFuna is literally Satan (his listed name is Lou Natas). Not sure how that ties into the reading of the card's meaning, but it seemed worth mentioning.
Good to have that side of it. I knew the games were more connected to the broader work body of Mullins' games, but I wanted to try and grasp what INSCRYPTION alone gives, so I didn't play Pony Island or The Hex "for" INSCRYPTION.
That said, I'd say given what you've explained, the Tower still is more a vehicle for "deep lore" and tie-in than associated symbolism.
@@Rosencreutzzz Yeah, I'd say the most accurate description would be that The Tower is symbolically relevant for The Hex in a way that doesn't carry over as directly. Its meaning is a very good and concise summary of that game's arc, but appropriately for the topic of this video, I won't be spoiling why in any detail.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the channel Flawed Peacock has an incredible series of videos detailing the lore of the Mullins verse and the connections between the games. They really enhanced my appreciation of inscryption and the hex in particular, two games I already thought were deserving of the highest accolades for video game as art form.
@@Rosencreutzzz There is a strong thematic tie between The Tower and the Gameworks, though it is one that requires The Hex as context. Details below.
In The Hex, the Gameworks is responsible for the construction of all of the sentient video games in the Mullinsverse. (People who only played Inscryption believe the OLD_DATA is responsible for this, but they are mistaken, as we know of at least six games with sentient characters that do not contain the WWII Infohazard.) However, this was not without cost. Similar to the Inscryption characters who lament their fates within a simulation, the characters from The Hex aren't exactly pleased with their existence, especially with the strict rules imposed upon them by Irving. A selection of them conspire to, and then succeed in, destroying the entirety of the Gameworks as part of a coordinated raid. This is the destruction of the Tower in a literal sense, but there's a bit more to it than that. The means of destruction is through freeing the captive Sado, a demonic chaos entity literally summoned from actual hell. At the end of The Hex, Sado escapes into the real world. The implications of this were mostly unclear until Inscryption, where the GameFuna employee who shoots Luke at the end has Sado's face for the few frames that it can be seen. The Tower is thus the source of Luke's own destruction.
This was very therepeutic having worked at escape rooms for a couple of years, watching people play games all day disenchants and i enjoyed the little bit of magic you put into the video.
I think there's an interesting difference between "story spoilers" and "mechanical spoilers" in games. By "mechanical spoilers" I mean information about how to play well, more so than information on new mechanics that occur later in a game. Though we often focus more on avoiding information about a game's story, in many cases being "spoiled" with gameplay advice can be much more damaging to the intended experience of a game. A lot of people have noted that being spoiled on the story of a game or other piece of media generally doesn't lessen the story, even if you miss the first-time experience of plot twists. If you go in knowing those things ahead of time, either due to spoilers or on a second time through, those twists can still be compelling as a sort of dramatic irony.
However, in many games, you really do lose something significant if you go in already knowing how to play the game. In Inscryption, I think you could watch a dozen video essays on the story and themes of the game, know everything that was going to happen in the plot, and still have a great time playing through and experiencing the game for yourself. But what if you instead watched a bunch of strategy guides and went in knowing how all the mechanics worked, and what all the best builds were? The exploration phase of the game, where you're feeling your way through unfamiliar mechanics and developing skill, is genuinely lost. You effectively just skip the first several runs. And in a lot of games, this "exploration phase" is a sizeable chunk of the gameplay experience.
I think this is true for a lot of different games across many different genres. Outer Wilds is famous for how protective its fans are of spoilers, but I think you could go in spoiled on 80% of the game ahead of time and still have an almost equally good experience, so long as you managed to miss the plot elements that double as puzzle solutions. But the moment you learn those puzzle solutions, it short-circuits your experience; people describe it as a game you can "only play once". I can't think of any books you can "only read once" or movies you can "only watch once". I think it's something unique to interactive media. If you watch someone else play the game later, it can be enjoyable again to see the story: it's like you've removed the interactivity and turned it into a movie, where the spoilers don't harm your enjoyment.
I've even seen people seriously discuss spoilers for Factorio, which more or less lacks a story entirely. You spend so many hours in that game figuring out design principles and the best ways to build things, and for many people that's a huge part of the gameplay appeal. Enough that being "spoiled" on standard or optimal ways to build feels like they've had a big chunk of the experience stolen from them. It's definitely hard to ignore that information; it makes you feel like you're playing badly on purpose. Information is weird.
Oh yeah this makes a lot of sense. I was spoilered on the story of Inscryption by watching let’s plays of it, which convinced me to get the game to try out the game myself. I knew it wasn’t just the cabin with Leshy. I even read into some of the lore myself. But I tended to avoid mechanical spoilers, strategies and stuff. Getting to make my own decks and strategies, trying and failing and finally succeeding, it was a lot of fun, even though I had technically been spoilered.
This is absolutely a huge point. However, sometimes mechanical spoilers and help are what keep people able to play. Sometimes mechanics just don't sink in however long you bash your head at the wall. For roguelike styles of game like inscryption (act one and kaycees mod) especially, that learning curve can toe the line of frustration for a lot of people. I've helped people playing inscryption before and other games like It because they were going to drop it before the story, just because they'd spent hours trying and failing to learn the mechanics. I think going in blind is important, but sometimes mechanics are rough.
You are so damn good at this
58:10 interesting!! You might enjoy looking into pragmatist aesthetics, if you haven’t
You got through the entire video without using the word 'ludonarrative' even once, despite dedicating a lion's share of the video to analysing Inscryption's weaving of narrative and gameplay and the complexities it necessarily burdens on to the audience.
Nevermind, you started talking about english poetry and the difficulties of authorship, I can no longer take anything away from this video.
Jokes aside, definitely worth the wait. Please keep doing these for forever, please.
Commenting bc this content is amazing it it deserves to get seen by more, Love this exploration, thank you for creating it!
And thats why I almost exclusively played builders and Simulation games as a child- You cant spoil the experience of early game Tropico 5 alright!🤧🤧
you gotta reach the next era >:P
@@shrekislove3997 Real line from the game; "Presidente, dont research that. Dont you know that if you do, you will then research Socialism. Which everyone knows is bad. We should stick to our current model of Capitalist Cronyism. I, my friends and all my relatives think its the best form for Government." What a genre the poli sim truly is FeelsStrongMan
@@aturchomicz821i love these games and grand strategy esp the civ series. just thinking abt the implications of the mechanics on an actual society will entertain you for almost as long as it takes to complete a game
Pronouncing P03 as Poe sounds so weird to me
in Russian version name "PO3" is read exactly the same as "Poz". I was very surprised when I realized (at the very end of the game) that there was a number in his name
I guess mentally I read it the same way as one would read C3PO, not picking up on the L33T speak
It's spelt PO-3 so very weird when poe
This is a really fucking good video. Everything I've seen of yours has been pure gold. Please keep it up
For the record I have neither played the game nor seen your previous videos, yet this one made me subscribe.
1:02:00
I feel this now, as I’m going through an audiobook series for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, an aspect of “I’m recommending this to you for me through you, not for you.” Aspect of thought you mention, I can’t reread the Discworld without the same wonder, I can’t get to the humanist thesis statement in each of his books with the righteous anger he wrote them the same way the first time. It becomes a different book, much like how Inscryption becomes a different game.
the “Inscryption is alive as long as its name is remembered” line you briefly mentioned is how I got to this connection by the way. He mentions in the book Going Postal about semaphore operators repeating the names of their dead colleagues in “the overhead” through the codes in order to keep them alive, as long as their name is repeated, they can’t be forgotten.
Sorry for rambling
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett
Runescape video essay when? I see those files
I really enjoyed that (both the video, and the game I got after your April Fool's video). The mix of formats (of the video) is really cool.
If you're reading this and haven't played the game you should its really good
OVER AN HOUR??? i just sat down to eat, your timing couldn't be better 😌
Isn't it great when a RUclipsr posts something new just as you're watching one of their older videos? I was just rewatching your John Glubb video, and now I have another hour of content to enjoy! Can't wait to dive in.
Holy shit! I was wondering if this was ever going to come out. Super excited for this. Thanks for the videos, I love your work.
Just finished playing Inscryption today, and pleased as punch to find this beautifully made video on it. Good stuff.
i wrote my dissertation on this game and i am in absolute awe over how effortlessly you make taking about this game seem. such a sick video, thank you very much :)
Awh yeah new rosencreutz video
“…assuming that there was some way I could have communicated ‘correctly’, where the viewer would agree. Would understand me had I ordered my words ‘right’.”
This is something that I struggle with constantly, and it is nice to hear someone else express the same desire. In my experience, perfectionism combined with a need to understood, or even combined with a fear of being misunderstood, is a potent recipe for paralysis and paranoia.
The squirrels & use of tarot suggests to me the immanentizing joke of the Happy Squirrel
It feels apt
*sighs* Fine. I'll come back after I finish Inscryption
I liked that the video feels like a long string of thought, and exploration of your experience with a game, and of your experiences even more than it is about Inscription in a way. It did make me like the game more, I hated robotopia a little bit, and yeah it was intended, but also slow. Also is that Miles Edgeworth?
Yeah I think so
Bro, this is a brilliant video. When I'm rewatching this I'll try to share some thoughts... There are a lot.
I appreciate this very much! One of my favourite games to play (in the first phase especially). I think I actually cried saying ******* to Leshy for the first time. Takes something special to move me as deeply as it did 😅
This is my interpretation that nobody asked for:
Some of us desire an answer, regardless of the results. Thus we turn to the interface which limits possibilities while giving the illusion of totality. The provided answer is a vague reflection of personal externalities.
There is an implicit contract between ourselves and the facilitator. We recognize their authority as representative of the absolute, although they really build up rather than down. Some are functionaries, while others find purpose in providing purpose.
The interface is a ritual that lends meaning through symbolism given weight by age.
Semi-regular Rosencreutz watcher here; this topic is a treat for me. Inscryption is one of my favorite games of all time. I'm so glad I didn't spoil it for myself.
I enjoyed this video a lot.
Inscryption is one of my favorite games in the past several years. Despite the diminishing returns that I concede come with replaying it, the sound, gameplay, theme, and visuals continue to fascinate me. I appreciate the incorporation of so many elements from the game, especially the music and glitchy/warped sound effects.
I clicked the thumbnail because of my fondness for the game. The video lived up to my experience with the game and it gave me additional perspectives from which to consider Inscryption when I play it again.
I sympathize a lot with one of the closing messages: an intense desire to be understood. Regardless of how distant my understanding is from the video’s intended message, the experience of watching it was a good one that comes at a helpful time for me.
1:43 Or a secret third thing (the video essayist wears their Jacob Geller inspiration on their sleeve
I'd say, for this one, the inspirations most clearly calling out to me the whole time, the ones I couldn't shake, were (the semi-frequently referenced in my work) Campster/Errant Signal, and of all people, Dan Olson. Geller's work is interesting, but I don't think I watched much of it when I was forming an idea of what video essays are, so while I respect his work, and very much understand why it's so treasured, it isn't always "insta-watch" for me. Granted, sometimes that's because I find myself wanting to cover similar things, and I have a perennial fear of "accidental osmosis plagiarism" --of being unable to tell my own thoughts apart from those of an "influence" and thus tend to avoid works on topics I want to cover *until* I've gotten at least a full draft.
It's a testament to his impact on the genre that as I'm writing this comment, his "Art for No One" video is looming in the "recommended" sidebar.
@Rosencreutzzz thank you for the recommendations. Love the artists that inspire artists
@@RosencreutzzzDefinitely see the Dan Olson influence in the escape room portions
12:55 lmao the fredda blackmail
Now I want a short video about the Skyrim Compass and how you think it's bad 😅
It ain't rocket science, completely neuters the exploration experience by turning every trip into a straight line and gluing the player's eyes (and mental map) to the top of the screen instead of the environment
Essentially what the other reply said: It's not deep enough to fully explore... I think. It boils down to three things: 1) you get hud brainpoison, and are constantly looking at the compass to tell you something is *nearby* which means you don't stumble upon things nearly as much in an actual surprise way. This is good for keeping the gameplay constantly "up" but it means you rarely round a corner to a surprise unless it's like a genuine spectacle of a site-- like some dwarven ruins being massive outside compared to others that are a small exterior.
2) this turns gameplay into aggressive location hopping and changes the relation you have to the world, rest, adventure, all of it. You're just going from cave to cave until you're overburdened, or at least are pulled to do that.
3)it means NPCs and quests literally never give actual instructions. They say "Go find Bingledur in Riften" and your compass knows his exact location at all times. That's the most anti-exploration element and I think ends up contributing the most to the reason people try and cut across the in-lore nation's highest mountain range by billy goating instead of... taking the actual roads.
I guess this could be worked into the larger Elder Scrolls Worldbuilding video I have in mind, but it would also be a tangent there, lol.
@@Rosencreutzzz i really liked how AC Nexus did objective traveling. the game has minimal UI, and the only map in the game just makes you massive, allowing you to overlook the enviornment youre in, with the objective marker only appearing once you press a button, or you go into eagle mode, then you can make a route for yourself like i did, looking over everything with eagle vision, and plotting a route to get there, and it was so fun. the whole game is pretty fun to me (no im not a ubisoft dicksucker, i just want rayman back fully)
@@Rosencreutzzz Honestly I appreciated the compass, but for exactly the wrong reasons: the NPCs don't give you ANY FREAKING LANDMARKS TO WORK FROM.
I played Skyrim on PS3 and then persisted to Dragonborn (the only area that wasn't hopelessly broken and jumpscaring me with bugged wolves thanks to Dawnguard doing SOMETHING to wolf howls). Dragonborn may not have struck me in the nostalgia but it hooked me in a way none of the main game did. NPCs gave directions, landmarks, and guided me on the quests. Solstheim pushed me toward Morrowind, and Morrowind showed me exactly what went wrong with Oblivion and Skyrim:
They replaced in-world directions and creating distinct landmarks with a HUD waypoint, and the most frustrating thing is that Skyrim had a spell for an "I'm stuck, help!" with Clairvoyance. I've USED Clairvoyance before to track down where TF something was because it wasn't obvious where the objective had gone or where I was supposed to go to to access it.
I NEVER had that issue in Morrowind, of not knowing where to go or where something was. Someone SOMEWHERE had the information I needed on where I should go (or who I should seen out), I just had to ask if they didn't volunteer directions immediately.
@@neoqwerty Yeahhhh. That's the thing, if you delete Skyrim's compass the game breaks, because there's no "infrastructure" of NPCs actually saying any single thing about where to collect an item or how. To be fair, radiant quests would be... well, they'd lose all the ease of function they have on the dev side if they then all required handwritten instructions to find the caves etc, BUT it's deranged to me that there are quests that are handwritten and say "Go see Flongar over in [entirely different city]" and that's your whole instruction, and then the quest log says "find Flongar"
Watching this late because I only started playing Inscryption after this was posted. It was a lovely experience, and I'm looking forward to the video.
2024 is a very interesting year to me. I'm jobless and clueless about the future, lonely, sick, and desperately looking for fulfilment. But so many people speaking my artistic language have been expressing similar interests, hopes, dreams, worries, that I've never felt this heard in my life, and this inspired to join the conversation.
I doubt I can really express why this video speaks to me with words, so I'll keep working. Maybe some day, that idea of mine will be a game. Or an experience. Or art.
I am that weird person who is here because you posted a video, not because I care about Inscryption.
That said, greatly enjoyed the philosophy of this
I'm one of those "weirdos" that like spoilers. I spoiled myself for inscription way back when the game came out, so yes, I watched this video just because I like your content. Your intro however inspired me to respond to it, even if it may not be completely relevant to the main argument or video.
The reason why i like spoilers; If a story is well written, any scene that is meant to rely on impact will still be enjoyable, regardless of if that impact is missing. The point of it is the journey, not the destination. I enjoy well written stories, and I think that is true of most people. This ties into a common issue I see regarding media quality, and how to quantify it.
If you cannot see the way two scenes or the connective tissue of the story making sense beyond the point of the point of impact or retroactively when analyzing it, it means the story is not good. Plain and simple, the whole entire thing of authors rewriting their stories to avoid fan speculation from hitting marks is a point in favor of this argument. A lot of people love impact, and love being taken in by the moment, but this ultimately makes them believe that because they *feel* a scene is good, it means it is, *objectively.* And these are not always true.
Think of these examples. The series Demon slayer and JJK are beloved by many, but when you actually sit down to analyze their respective plots and characters, you will start seeing cracks. To avoid spoilers I wont go into specifics (but may do so in the comments if this gets any engagement), but I'm not surprised that well after the series has ended and seeing plenty of videos talking about how good demon slayer was, suddenly you get videos like "Demon Slayer is Extraordinarily Incompetent" by Captain Mack and other critiques about specific characters and how their roles in the plot either became completely irrelevant or didn't make sense to the story that the series was trying to tell. Demon slayer is a *bad* story. What's even more interesting is how people respond to said critiques; usually with defensiveness or derision. There is a similar situation happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, and the discourse surrounding it and the quality of its films, to name another example. I think this is why people normally hate spoilers---because then they have to experience the story without the impact that blinds them to the actual quality of the story that is being told. They don't get the free dopamine points that the "big twist" gives them, or that the solution they found for themselves gives them. Its purely a psychological reaction.
The problem is the subjectivity of it all. If a bad media makes you feel complex or intense emotion, essentially doing what it aimed to do through its intended experience, and you enjoyed it; does that make it bad? It may be poorly written, its animation might suck, the gameplay might be boring, the game may be a buggy mess, what have you---If you still liked it, does that make it bad? Does getting spoiled on a media that requires those points of impact to *be* good make it bad? I think yes, *BUT* people are still allowed to to still enjoy bad media and not need to feel as if doing so makes their taste in media bad as a whole. I think the game Pathologic is a great, if not the best, example of this.
I can play inscription, knowing what happens, and still have fun *playing* the game.
anyways, I'm going to watch the rest of your video.
But isn't that what replays are for? You can play it as many times as you want knowing what will happen, but you can only ever have an experience where you don't know what will happen once. Why would you take that experience away from yourself?
@@Dendricklystable I have a family member that does the same. They prefer to be spoiled before watching and they still seem to enjoy the story regardless.
So maybe they just enjoy story telling no matter if its the first time nor not.
@@blade8741 yes but as I've said. You can play/watch/read whatever already knowing what happens as many times as you want. But you only get one (maybe a couple if you wait a few years and forget everything) oppurtunity to experience the story when you don't know what will happen. Why on earth would you throw that away?
i actually completely agree with you. ive been annoyed with the obsession with avoid spoilers for years now; ive seen multiple people get mad at simply knowing a characters name as spoilers. its a completely asisine way to engage with art (if youre trying to actually do that, anyway). ive always felt that if something is well made, poignant and creative then the impact made on a viewer will be the same regardless of how much knowledge they have of it beforehand. in my experience, subsequent rewatches/replays have actually enhanced my understanding because i was able to look at the piece hollistically and consider the intents behind it with a critical eye as i experienced it. its similar for things which ive had "spoiled" and later see myself. though, speaking honestly, most of the things ive seen that people get mad at seeing spoilers about dont have much to offer other than the expectation subversion. the only thing ive intentionally avoided spoilers for is disco elyisum.
I'm fairly sure I did pick this up on your recommendation. I have been waiting for a great video like this on Inscription!
Dude I’d say this video did well. 12l views in a day at least in my small world is well. I hope it’s living up to your desire.
wow. just, wow! somehow, despite having some idea where you were going to go towards the end, which crystallised more and more over the course of the video, I was still taken aback by the ending. It would take a mighty bitter cynic to read it as fake-deep or manipulative. I can only hope you continue laying out your perspective on things in this clear and compelling a way in many future videos. While maybe not intended as an experience, it certainly is worth experiencing every second of it.
damm what a good vide-IS THAT MILES EDGEWORTH
what do you mean?
I liked this a lot! The tarot part was super interesting as well.
I think the issue with spoilers, is that it takes the idea of the context in which you view a work in, changing your experience with that work, and declaring that there is an objectively better context to view it in, that some people's experiences are of a greater value than others
All the audio recordings about his time in the escape room are giving me Magnus Archives vibes
I was taught that the Tower isn’t just destruction, it’s necessary destruction of rotten foundations, like, the end of something that cannot or should not continue, whether comfortable or not, so I’d read that as saying GameFuna is similarly bad? Not that that informs us on much more than we already know
I can see that as a read, but it still feels a bit disjointed, to me. Perhaps that's partly down to how the Tower in the in-game card is pristine and monolithic and...towering, as opposed to being struck down. The Tower tarot card always read to me as present-tense, in the sense that the destruction on the card *is* happening, that the moment of note is the fall, not the anticipation of it.
On the other hand, Judgment is sort of a "cleansing fire" kind of destruction too, which fits your "rotten foundation" perspective. I can't shake how the card feels too literal in its application here.
@Rosencreutzzz Perhaps that is meant to read as unsettling. Where the other cards invoked do scan neatly and thematically to a counterpart in the game, The Tower remains inverted (thematically, that is). Four parallels out of five could either be a bit of last-minute sloppiness or a deliberate juxtaposition. Perhaps it is meant to draw attention to the fact that Gamefuna persists - The Tower, somehow, remains standing. We could be getting invited to ask "why?"
Clicked for the game, stayed for the escape room behind the scenes experience
The "I dont know Luke Carder" part was great! I was thinking, why does this feel so similar to Dan's video and then I saw the file name.
Personally my take on intended experiences is that they are the most human approach to making media and that having an objectively correct meaning and the inability to interpret does not disqualify something from being art. A thing is created with intent, an artist makes specific choices for a specific reason this means that when crafting a narrative the author chose specific elements instead of other elements and for one specific reason out of many potential reasons. A work having an objective intended meaning makes as much sense to me as my sentences being written with an objective intended meaning by me. Where this breaks down is when the vague nature of the medium of communication creates ambiguity that must be filled somehow and imo this happens through projection. The work you end up understanding is a combination of the intended elements you gathered and the bits of yourself you pushed into the gaps. This can ofcs be useful cause you can use this new chimera to understand the parts of yourself you infused in a different context but that does not mean it's not still a form of miscommunication. I would even go as far to say that intended ambiguity that we see through symbols is purposeful miscommunication the same way a riddle playing on words does. Another way is the socratic method where you pick an obtuse way of communication where you don't just say what you mean to say but instead create barriers being questions that are to be interpreted. You still intend to communicate "you are wrong" but you are doing so by forcing the other person to project themselves. You are forcing engagement and self movement on the part of the other person to engage in the process of changing their own mind rather than just commanding the wisdom down on them.
This was great! I know you said that this was an atypical video but honestly I'd love more of this kind of thing
I love inscryption a lot and I don't think I would have loved it as much if I didn't go in completely blind. I still would have enjoyed it but I truly didn't anticipate any of the twists (not sure if that's the best term tbh) and the urge to find out what else this game had in store for me, and the satisfaction of finding new things, really enhanced the experience for me. I really think that this is one of those games where being spoiled takes away from the experience
I've been thinking about this vid a lot and while I think being spoiled can take away from the experience for some things, sometimes knowing what you're in for can give you a whole new experience. I'm rereading dracula now. Everyone knows dracula is a vampire, it's impossible to read the book in the way that was intended by the author. But with that knowledge the book becomes a different kind of horror, and it's still a good read that can make you think about horror books and their tropes, especially in a historical context. I wonder if something similar could ever happen to games like inscryption, and if looking back on this game from a long way in the future would change my perspective on how being spoiled influences the experience and what the twists tell us about the themes of art and authorship in current times
If you need to be unspoiled to appreciate fully a work, doesn't that means it's not that great outside of shock value?
I'm being very harsh here. But it's a legitimate question to ask. You're asking a lot of trust from someone by telling them to go blind, after all.
I was spoiled EEAAO before seeing it, and it still ended up one of my favorite.
Patricia Taxxon's last video on "Bean and Nothingness" convinced me more with the spoilers parts than without them, too.
At this point of my life, I think less and less of spoilers as an imperative for a "pure" experience. If I'm really interested in a game, I need to know about all the mechanics in detail. If I like a work, I'll send a lot of times thinking about the themes, the story, hoping to get more out of it.
If there's a risk that a work becomes less interesting the more I look into it, what even is the point? What if it's only an empty shell?
@shytendeakatamanoir9740
You are equating 'spoilers change the experience' with 'relies on shock value'. I don't think those two are the same at all. For example a great detective story can only be experienced without knowing the true culprit once. After that it could still be a great work worth re-experiencing but you'll never get that first experience again. However if the killer turns out to be someone Totally Shocking but makes no sense in the story (what??? It was you evil twin who we have never mentioned before and are now introducing in the last chapter of the book??? That sucks!) that shock twist makes the story worse, and you'll probably feel cheated if you invested time into that piece of art. Also how much you value the mystery solving part of the work depends on your personal taste. I like being surprised by the art I experience, but that sometimes comes with disappointment. Sometimes something wasn't worth the effort I put into it to me. this doesn't mean its objectively bad, I didn't really enjoy the outer wilds but that game is super beloved by a lot of people, but if I'd known beforehand what it was all about I wouldn't have played it. But sometimes I get a wonderful surprise like playing inscryption that I still think about years later. I think the surprising parts of inscryption made an already fun game way more impactful, and I simply don't think it could have done what it did without hiding some of its aspects at the start.
Personally I think inscryption has a lot to offer even if you know what's going to happen, but the surprise of the sudden completely change of style and gameplay definitely hits harder when you don't know its coming. And obviously, trying to piece together information to find out what's going on is only possible when you dont know what's going on. But besides that I like the gameplay, love the atmosphere, and I've played quite a bit of kaycees mod even though it holds no more surprises to me.
But I also understand wanting to know what you're getting into. I'm and adult with a job and investing hours into something that might turn out not to be your thing is disappointing. Even if I'm promised a great ending I'm very unlikely to finish something I'm not enjoying in the first 10 minutes
Sorry for the wall of text I have a lot of thoughts
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740What's the point of complaining that something is "just" shock value, though?
There is merit in shock value. A good twist can elicit feelings and reactions from the audience that are hard to get otherwise. On the same vein, there is craft to shock value. A well executed twist can be mindblowing while a poorly made one will just wiggle limply in the general direction of eliciting a reaction.
There is also merit in not needing shock value at all, which is something very few pieces of media actually achieve, but i dont think theres anything wrong with a work that knows most of the punch its packing is from shock value and is proficient at it
Never played this game. Never watched this game. Hell, I never even heard of this game. But of course I will watch this entire video with utmost curiosity and concentration!
Spoilers do not inherently ruin an experience, but parody can. I've seen so many parodies of movies like The Thing or the Godfather that I'm just not interested in seeing those movies. Watch Blazing Saddles, then try not to feel a little bit gross when you go and watch spaghetti westerns from the 50's and 60's, I can't do it. Not all parody kills the media it parodies, Futurama's first 5 seasons are basically nothing but Star Trek parodies, but unlike parodies of The Thing or the Godfather that you see in The Simpsons or Family Guy, they don't look straight in the camera and say "we're doing a movie/tv show this episode". I didn't even realize Futurama was largely a Star Trek parody until I actually watched Star Trek, but watching Star Trek opened up a new way of watching an old favorite for me.
I would say even Outer Wilds isn't ruined by the vast majority of its story spoilers, but it could be ruined with puzzle solution spoilers. While part of the experience is piecing together all the clues to the mystery surrounding the game, most spoilers lack the context to function as more than an extra clue. Other games actually **rely** on players spoiling each other to solve its puzzles, such as Voices of the Void. VotV in particular has an easter egg that is so well hidden you will at some point, regardless of how far you can get in it on your own, need to go online, and ask someone else what to do.
Personally? I was never going to play Inscryption because I got bored of deck builders at age 11 when I opened a disappointing Yu Gi Oh booster pack. There is nothing you could say about the game that could make me play it because I see a deck of cards and fall asleep. No layers of hidden depth or metatextual trickery will change the fact that it's a card game, and I'm completely unengaged by card games. Why am I here then? The same reason you include anecdotes about your time working in an escape room. This is more about the theory of game design, using Inscryption as a jumping off point and a guiding hand for the discussion.
Yes! I was thinking about this video literally yesterday and wondering when it was coming.
I didn't really understand why you had to lose first to be able to finish the first chapter. But this first chapter was the best, luckily there is Kaycee's mod.
One of the best inscryption videos ever
HOLY SHIT ITS REAL NOT JUST AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE
Yeah c:
Love to see more
Comment for the machine gods of the algorithm
Very interesting and insightful video on an absolute masterpiece of a video game!
Also, very happy to finally hear someone call the guy "Poe" and not "P O Three" :)
Didn’t realize you were a Magic fan. Very cool, just got into it myself not that long ago.
I don't care, and am in fact just here for you. Like your other stuff enough for the sound and thought provoking tendencies
Funny, this is the first video of yours I've watched, but it was exactly my kind of thing. Given your intro, I'm wondering if your other will be very different lmao
You keep trying to convince me to finish up my backlog, because i do really want to see your vids but there are a few games that I want to go in completely blind like inscryption
i haven't bought a new game in about two years, my backlog still has 635 games left, but i have gone thru about 150 already and it has been so fun and satisfying. mindlessly buying games you will never play actually slowly makes you depressed. Dont keep making yourself a unclimbable mountain, make it a little hill that is fun to walk over
Excellent work 💙
Your speaking style is very reminiscent of The Magnus Archives. Or SCP readings, buh far more the former and to compare you to SCP seems disingenious.
The audio is also really well done in pausing, lagging, and changing to impact what you wanna say.
I was quite surprised to be hooked right after the intro, prolly around the first bus roll. Intertwining stories is always super fun.
I also love the attempts at structure, to set yourself rules to talk about topics and then intentionally or unintentionally turning into a scripted rant.
- Sacrifice, Cyclicality, Authorship & Intent are laid out as the next topics. They're all talked about but loosely, blended together as you mix other stories into it.
- You start with the loading from the first save, and skip the 3 saves in the middle. Only to choose the last one at the end.
- The layers of the game were described again and again, reminding the viewer and describing it in a different way. Each comparison leading into a different story, asking the viewer to look at the layers of the video.
54:10 I feel this is where your experience may strongly vary. Me and the friends I takked with greatly enjoyed Botopia and found making cards in Poe's game very fun.
1:01:17 “perfection isn’t when there’s nothing left to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away”
-Idfk
Never got into ARG aspects of Inscryption, but I really do like all three parts.
On the Tarot note: you should play The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood. I know you'll probably not see this since you're a RUclipsr, but that game's interpretation of Tarot is very interesting
yes I've only watched 3 seconds of the video, yes I feel the need to make it known that I love inscryption
Thank you for the experience
How to write a good video essay:
Summarize the media you're discussing before delving into any opinions or theories.
Define core concepts your essay will be exploring.
Dedicate each chapter to explaining what the piece is trying to say about these themes.
Call back to moments from the artwork which bolster your argument.
Reference/draw parallels to other works or anecdotes, but take care not to go off on tangents.
Be personable but if you don't have faith in a joke, cut it.
When writing your conclusion, go down a checklist of what points you have proven.
If I was you're teacher, I'd give this an A, but it kind of fell apart near the end.
"I don't know what that says about me" you're cool. Tarot is cool.
Out of curiosity are you (or perhaps were you) a practicing R.C or was it just.a neat name you chose? Awesome video btw! Oh and no I am not “A∴A∴“ in the traditional sense anyway.... I just do my own thing but pull from OGRC, SRIA, GD and many others.. including Eris and Bob :)
- FNORD
Edit: alright after the tarot section I have my answer XD carry on! Great Work btw :D
aw sick i love this guy (you)
I am very jealous of that sick Boros deck.
A lifetime of accumulating stupid paper rectangles c:
It might be silly but I can’t get over how fun it was to hear P03’s name pronounced how I read it when everyone else seems to read it like a serial number
It's 1) a lot more work in the brain to say p oh three, and 2) just kinda less... of a name? I like Poe for how to say it.
@@Rosencreutzzz I also like to call them that because I think they’d hate it
@@holisticVigilantedont bully my poe >:[
:( but its like C3PO
I don't know why but i got a lot of "magnus archives" vibes from the video scenes
I played the game so that i could watch your video on it.
48:38 I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment.
I don't know if I actually want to watch this one, considering the 'intended experience' last time.
Thumbs up for all your content
Hmm. I played inscryption only after watching a youtube series by youtuber "Aliensrock" which fully spoiled acts 1 and 2, and my favorite segment was definitely the last one. I thought it was the most mechanically interesting part of the game, and I thought PO3 was kinda cute! Like, he hates you so much, he calls you an idiot gamer, I love him :3. I very strongly believe he was robbed of a proper final boss.
Also, I thought the idea was that what PO3 uploaded is the game you're playing? And you, in the lore, are not the guy in the cabin or the lucky carder, but yourself at your desk, playing the mangled version he uploaded. Maybe I just wasn't paying too much attention, and all this was a while ago.
That thing you mentioned about people assuming more complexity reminded me of something. I played this game "Buckshot Roulette" which seems very inspired by Inscryption. You play against the dealer and try to shoot the dealer before they shoot you, by choosing to either fire towards your own self or the dealer, and the dealer has the same choice. I thought there would be some complex system there, and I was wondering about it. Therefore, I asked him! And he told me it was just a coinflip until he reached the last shell! X3
I think he's added a smarter AI by this point, but it's a good example of speculating more detail than there really was I think.
In the end, Luke deletes the game so it doesn't get out. That's when you play all the borked versions and refuse to shake the tree guy's hand cause his game sucked so much
@@lomiificationthe holo Pelts say that inscryption cant be deleted though, so it was always my opinion that PO3 still uploaded it to steam despite being killed
@@spongytrout7462
No yeah you're absolutely right, plus if you do follow the ARG you literally get the confirmation that P03 did upload the game on Steam lol
This was so good
29:32
"She wanted the magic" is a very conveniently self-serving and presumptuous explanation for her interest waning.
One less so is that you've dodged the actual question about your personality and reasoning by shielding yourself with mechanical explanations, in doing so stemmed the flow of conversation she had hoped for.
The conclusion had me thinking; is the point of being understood in an essay to be agreed with? Because it instantly reminded me of the many philosophy papers and books I've read in university - even if I don't agree with their conclusions, a well written argument that is understood can add to the plurality of perspectives that inform my thinking; add to the nuance of thought and to see the challenges that my own world view might pose.
I don't necessarily look to video essays to agree, but rather to hear and understand. That doesn't mean I actively seek out opinions I know I'll disagree with, but if I do end up disagreeing with the content I watch, I hope to at least gain more understanding of how subjects can be viewed from it. And in that regard you have thus far delivered.
25:33 I can hear Roger Ebert grunting a little in his coffin
funni brain man strikes again
IMSCARED mention!!! fuck yeah!
Something about how you read makes me think of Knifepoint Horror.
Well I needed a reprieve today that’s for fuckin sure
Thank you
small note, but you bring up how breaking a lock in an escape room doesn't have an equivalent in inscryption but i would argue there is. there's several puzzles in the game i accidentally solved very easily by trial and error (for instance you can guess at the last digit of most passwords by just flipping through the options if you have the others already) and there came a point in the game where i found myself being very careful not to do that, because i knew it wasn't the "intended experience"
Love your videos
also yippie Edgeworth
“(…) the expectation is that you don’t care and you’re just here for me, which is admittedly very kind and kinda odd (…)” You sell yourself too short, I’ve watch videos on games I never would’ve considered touching and most I still haven’t touched simply because you were the author. That said, I’ve grown to not care much about spoilers anymore, holding the mindset that if the story isn’t worthwhile to play without being spoiled and is so detrimentally affected by my knowledge of the story going in that I’m not sure I care to bother with it at all. I’ve rarely found stories which I truly would not want to see if I already knew it’s “spoilers”, and the few stories I don’t wish to retread are more so because they themselves lack enough merit to be experienced again. Not knowing the ending or plot beats certainly can enhance your experience, but a good story is compelling regardless of whether or not you know who lives or dies by the end. Hell, some stories are all the more powerful precisely because you know the plot and it recontextualizes everything. I know I’ve rewatched your videos a few times because I didn’t quite “get it” the first time, and with some I’m still not convinced I “get it” as intended, but that enhanced the experience rather than detracted from it.
I think he forgot that death is literally canonically the creator of the old data, while his reading does add to the game. This game takes place in the same world as pony island.
I really enjoyed this! Wasn't a fan of the glitchy audio transitions but otherwise top notch!
Omg Inscryption content!!!
I am here for you :D
Yum yum video essay.