SIGNALIS - The Greatest "Silent Hill" Game Since Silent Hill 3
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- The survival action of Resident Evil and the symbolic storytelling of Silent Hill... these were the elements Signalis combined to create a unique game that hasn’t been accomplished before.
This week I analyze this masterpiece of a game and go over how Signalis takes opposing elements and uses them to convey a once in a lifetime experience.
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Alina - Alina was a person that Ariane saw in a photo. She thought, that because she looked so much like Alina, that maybe she had a distant relative. She asked Iris about this, but she said she had no knowledge of who Alina was. This makes Alina, like the Lovecraftian element, largely irrelevant.
Falke - NOTE: The link that is below won't show up properly in the description box for some reason.
If you go to signalis.fando... and look up FKLR or Falke, you will find the theories regarding her that I wanted to cite.
signalis.fando...)
#residentevil #silenthill
I thoroughly enjoyed Signalis. It felt sooooo much like the old school Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, with a twist of Parasite Eve. I hope to see more from the developer... dood!
You've got to stop typing like that. 9 o's on the word "so" and spelling dude like someone from 2012 trying to be Family Guy random.
@@jarlwhiterun7478 it shouldn’t matter to u how someone types though lol
@jarlwhiterun STOP being gay. . . dood
Dood is actually a reference to Disgaea. The Prinnys say dood all the time.
@@jarlwhiterun7478 Stop being such a grammar nazi like someone from 2017 sounding like a Young Sheldon neurodivergent.
Best thing I love about Signalis' story is that nearly everything can be interpreted differently, like how the timeline of this video is one way to interpret it, and there are many others, each focusing on dif elements and details of what we find in game
I agree that this game was superbly crafted, so well written and emotionally heartfelt. Probably the best game I've played since NieR: Automata, especially in terms of story-themes exploring identity and futility, albeit in a much more nightmarish fashion. I'm glad this game is slowly getting the recognition it deserves. A modern horror classic.
I don't think nier was that profound. Am I missing something?
@johnrichardson373 yes, you are. Max has some videos talking about the philosophy behind Nier Automata.
@@QuantumTelephone bruh, give it another go, you need to beat it 3 times. Trust us
@QuantumTelephone
you mean beyond the basic premise that our character is a Android who is self aware and retains her memory when transferred to new bodies, and has the capacity for deep human emotions.
This is the same thing at the heart of Signalis and Soma.
Are you saying the idea of an AI that can experience pain and sadness and remember loss. Doesn't make you feel Empathy.
@@ShawnRaz87 No.
So happy that you decided to cover this. It was my favorite game of 2022, and you make some of the best game analyses on the internet.
I’m so so sad that I waited this long to play the game cause everything about it especially the music was amazing
It was my game of the year for sure in that time ⏲️ 😌
An instant cult classic. This one blew me away.
The references are so well thought of. and to think this was only made by 2 people.. Kudos to them !
As usual, your video is top tier content and analysis. Thank you, Max !
The Gestal for Elster died during the Empire's blockade of Vineta, probably starving as it's implied in the newspaper you find on Rotfront sector C. I believe she was in a relationship with Alina, and they both died surrounded by aweful pain. "Do not show photos to the replicant in order to avoid the emergence of Gestalt's memories, neither war imagery nor music". But that's exactly what Ariane does, in her diary she even wrote that Elster sounds just like Erika and her sister at times. Since Elster is having Gestalt's memories mixed with her own memories, she believes that Alina is the one she wants to rescue and/or fulfill her promise to. In the fake ending, there are a lot of Elster models bodies surrounding the Penrose's program ship.
I think that Alina's and Elster's ship crashed in a planet where a lovacraftian horror sleeps, discovered before maybe, and sealed away, as the warning "this is repulsive to us" is a reference to the real-life project of nuclear waste disposal in sealed facilities so that future human or sentient societies doesn't get contaminated once our languages and symbols lose meaning. It enhances Alina's Bioresonance abilities, and she is kept alive by a malfunction of the system or by that same being that enhances her abilities. In an effort to try to end her own suffering and using her knowledge of radio signalling, she begins to call for Elster (her Elster, Elster-512), but also calls for other Elster models unadvertedly, since all Elster's have the same memories of Alina Seo and her desire to save her. They eventually get to that planet and reapeatedly fail and die, each cycle Adler refers to may be Ariane's reconstruction in order to give her Elster another chance, everytime she remembers though, something changes and gets corrupted, just as in real life memories change everytime you remember them. Fortunately only her Elster-512, thanks to the real memories of Ariane, not just Alina, is the one who can get to her and actually fulfill her promise.
Adler isn't saying that Elster-512 is the one who keeps failing to fulfill the promise, but maybe other Elster models that arent Ariane's Elster. Falke's Gestalt I believe, is another Itou sister, maybe Erika. That's why she says "she doesn't want us, even though she's calling to us". Of course, Ariane isn't calling to any Elster model, she's calling her Elster, the only Elster that lived with her, the Elster that made the promise.
Beautiful, brilliant game, well researched.
Not at all convinced in the exact facts, but I enjoyed the interpretation.
@@AbsoluteHuman can't really get mad at you, I don't remember writing any of this, I struggle to even identify most of the names. Guess it's time for a replay, huh?
Ariane Yeong is the Lovecraftian horror, she's "Bio resonant" a dangerous and extremely rare psychic feature, that's the same ability that led the Empire into planetary conquest as the empress was bio resonant... this bio resonance is a weird ability with vague rules as described by the in game researcher, it can make telepathy possible or even control machines with the mind, materials gain properties and so on... Ariane was discovered to be bio resonant by a spy working as a doctor, he made the tarot cards test to Ariane and found her powers, he and his partner tried to escape but were captured cause Ariane was already in the aim. Ariane was offered the Penrose program alternative but not sure why, the reason is she was targeted to be a model for another Replika, a document states that no one knows what happens to the Gestalt (the original person), well everything points to these Gestalts being scanned and then disposed of, in Ariane's case she was send to the Penrose suicide mission. During the mission Ariane realized the mission was always a suicide mission, she was happy with Elster but that didn't matter, the on board nuclear reactor was failing and started leaking radiation, Ariane had severe symptoms of starvation and radioactive poisoning. Elster tried to keep her alive by cryogenic sleep intervals, but these went for too long, they made the promise "when the time comes you will kill me", Elster was supposed to kill Ariane to end her suffering but before this could happen Elster succumbed to the radiation and stopped functioning while Ariane was still in the cryogenic sleep, Ariane kept dreaming and her bio resonance started to distort space and time (weird $h!t happens) then the nightmare beggins. The world we see in the game isn't exactly "real", it's Ariane's nightmare but with currently existing people in it called from the connection between Ariane and Falke... We don't know exactly when Ariane contacted Falke or why, but Falke is the strongest bio resonant unit so it's like a giant antenna so it picked up Ariane's signal, this caused Falke to fall asleep and start her own dream in resonance with Ariane's creating a distorted version of her station in Serpinsky, Ariane's nightmare was the Rotfront part, the place called "Nowhere" may be the superposition of Falke's and Ariane's nightmares.
Several documents refer to the "dreamer" and the "god", my best guess is that the Dreamer is Falke and the God is Ariane. Ariane became a cosmic horror entity as she agonized in pain, fear and loneliness inside her nightmare on the cryogenic pod, unconsciously she started to transmit her signal through her bio resonant ability, these signal takes the form of the magpie signal we hear at the game's title screen, this is a memory from her childhood in the isolated communications station where her mom worked and she was probably a spy for the revolution too, coding and decoding messages using the king in yellow as key. The game's scenarios have characters trapped in a time loop the pshyches of all the Replikas and workers are here, that time loop ends when Elster reaches the red door and fails to meet "God" just like Falke failed to meet "God", then the Rotfront nightmare plays and the "Dreamer" is confronted, Elster also fails to face the "Dreamer" and the cycle starts again. Adler is the only one that is aware of the loop... Ariane as the God is watching everything as in a monitor, that's why all the game is displayed as if watching through what seems to be an eye lid vignette, we have the God's point of view watching and calling Elster to keep her promise but that Elster doesn't exist anymore so other Elster units respond to the calling but some info is not clear to them, that's why the Elster 512 confuses Ariane Yeong with her former partner Alina Seo, even Ariane has a role to play in the nightmare, she stays superpossed to Alina Seo who has no place in this Serpinsky station even she realises that, on her letter she states that she has no idea of how she got there or why she's there and she feels like she is becoming another person (Ariane) also the other self insert of Ariane is the survivor girl, Isolde Itou, she seems to be looking for her sister but she cannot find her failing again and again, what she really is looking for is her friends, in Rotfront we get the final clue to her identity as in the room we meet her last time we find a tooth, the radiation poisoning caused Ariane to lose her teeth one after another, that's the reason for the pulsation flesh theme everywhere, these are cancerous tumors growing everywhere, that's what Ariane was experiencing so she proyected this horror into the nightmare and the nightmare was dreamed by Falke transmitted to everyone else.
The nightmare is a concept heavily related to Silent Hill, the reality being altered by a dreamer
Good take, although I don't think we ever play as Elster-512, except in the flashbacks. Instead, like all the Elsters before us, we were called to remember 512's promise. Ariane's bioresonance creates a dream in the reality of Sierpinski to allow Elster to slowly recover her memory. Unfortunately, all other Elsters failed in this and never became the Elster Ariane was looking for. Or, as seen in the Memory ending, Ariane also wasn't fully actualized either. Both Elster and Ariane are incomplete. Ariane creates a fake Alina to roleplay as in her dream-like version of Sierpinski but even that version reverts to Ariane. We see Alina document the slow process of turning into Ariane again, as if she is remembering who she really is. We see a similar process occur with Falke and this allows Falke to restore the memories of 512 into the player character version of Elster. In Memory, we see Elster mention (in German) that she is whole but Ariane isn't. Thus that version of Elster dies beside the cryopod and becomes the basis for the last Elster to steal her armor and continue the story towards the Promise ending (if we assume the endings have some chronology to them). By which point, both the player irl and PC Elster spend more time, allowing Ariane to recover her memories and sense of self enough for the promise to remembered by both - allowing Elster to actually fulfill the promise she failed to keep up in her original body and time. The only puzzle for me is if Lilith is "reincarnated" through Elster or if that is just a reason for why Elster falls in love with Ariane, due to her resemblance to her Gestalt's lover (assuming they were lovers): the original Alina.
@ yeah, the thing with the many Elsters is that we don't know how real they are, how much can Ariane distort reality. Maybe all is reality distorted and we see countless Elster models or a dream reality in which Elster goes on a loop and there's only one Elster. The romance between Ariane and Elster on board of the Penrose ship is a natural thing, I don't think memories of the Gestalt version have much to do with it, but the Gestalt memory and picture influenced Ariane a lot, she couldn't know that the girl in the pic was Elster's Gestalt
It’s rare that perfection exists, but Signalis and a Max Derrat is double perfection
And peperonni pizza
@@modergav No, that's Cheeseburger Pizza
Signalis is a game that actively made me think when I played it. Some of the puzzles I didn't *quite* have all the pieces for I fiddled with and eventually figured out rather than saying "This is dumb I'm looking it up. (That astroglobe one took the longest with the planets) It drove me crazy sometimes... but in a good way. I could feel it. Between the isolation and monsters the walls between the sane world and that unplumbed dimension of delirium became tenuously thin. This only increased as my inventory filled with so many puzzle objects and not enough ammo. (My only gripe really with all the back tracking.)
Also I thought the Replikas were cute and each one had a manual you could read and piece together how this community would function. Their relationships and duties with their different places on a hierarchy and the personalized notes like the vent repair, the music box, etc.
Thanks for covering this Max. Also you still sound coherent and clear despite having the funny coughing thing.
I just beat the game last night, and now Max uploads this. thank you so much for making my Thursday night Max, please keep up these videos I will never get sick of them.
I will produce them as long as people watch them.
@@maxderrat you're analytical and artistic commentary is amazing
im sorry but nothing beats scp ontainment breach easily most original best horror rite now
I think the fact that you brought up how SIGNALIS is a "perfect union" hits even harder in a meta way. The nature of the Replika units in the lore being the union of a pre-existing human's mind with a synthetic body ties in very well with how the game itself is a union of two major horror inspirations. Not to mention just how that makes plot so fascinating and mind-bending on its own (I've still never played a Silent Hill or Resident Evil fan, but greatly appreciate their influences)
Lol one of the only games that emphasizes that communism sucks
I would say the greatest one since SH4. Folks don’t give that one the credit it deserves.
Agree
Absolutely agree
I would say it's better that all of them tbh
While 4 is good and deserves more credit, signalis is better than it
I love the story of 4, but it is presented in such an odd way that it goes unappreciated.
I'm so happy this game gets a recognition it deserves.
Thank you for reviewing this masterpiece.
It baffled me as an artist that a game can have so many references and inspirations but still be a solid separate creative product
The fact alone that a video explaining signali's story for the unitiated AND the people who finished this game alike IN 18 MINUTES is truly a work of genius. All other videos spend so many hours trying to make sense of it to the point of just creating more confusion. Super well explained, love this take.
There's so much symbolism, so much more to say, after watching two 2h videos on this game this felt very lacking, and I know you can absolutely go deeper into the analysis. Your video is very good, I just want so much more 😅
Thanks for shouting out the game, I'd love if you did a deeper dive on one of its aspects, like the heavy repetition driving symbols into your subconscious. An extra in the descriptio box is not enoouuuggghhh 😭
For example Isa as a character has so much depth if you view it through the lenses of Ariane trying to save herself, or guiding Elster. An apparition. She's always just ahead most of the game.
Thank you, Max. Thank you SO MUCH for analysing this one, I really wanted to hear your take on it, let's go! Hope you're feeling better and healthier! Best wishes for you and your family!
I'm still going through my first playthrough of Signalis and it has thrown me for a loop. By far one of THE best psychological horror games in a very long time. It will and has left a profound impression on me.
Same effect on me as well I loved this game
Signalis is a survival horror masterpiece imo. It was like playing a fever dream. I always felt on the backpedal & uneasy but at the same time so curious where the story was taking me. Safe to say I wasn't disappointed. Also I love Evil Within too 👍
What really kept me on edge was the warning sounds that played on different radio frequencies
Signalis was my introduction to SH. Downloaded it from game pass and was blown away. Watched some vids about it that brought up it's similarities to SH. After that bought the hd collection. A trio of experiences I will never forget
Signalis truly is a modern classic in every sense of the word. I believe I’ll finish it this evening.
17:12 hey, thats an evagelion refference I can tell the devs are cultured as well.
Great video.
Finished the game today and indeed was the best survival horror game that i played in a very long time.The references to other SH games and other media along with the story are awesome.
Now i understand why this game took 8 years to be finished.
Glad to see you cover Signalis. I've rarely enjoyed playing a game and unravelling its mysteries as much as I did with Signalis. Even during my 3rd playthrough I'd still find something new I missed or see a connection I didn't make before. It speaks for itself how much effort the devs put into this and is genuinely one of the few games I can safely consider a masterpiece of recent years.
As a horror fan straight from the get go I noticed so many references to different SH games in Signalis. That game was a treat to play.
Okay, Max... You convinced me to buy and play Signalis! Awesome game, it seems, specially to a fan of BOTH Silent Hill and Resident Evil that has been dreaming with that crossover for quite a while! Thanks for the video, and I hope you get well real soon, mate!
Thank you for your video. I too found incredible beauty in Signalis. And since SH3 was also my favourite Silent Hill game, I can absolutely agree with your title. It perfectly combines what was learned in RE and SH into something that has a lot of the sensibilities and empathies of Silent Hill. Toteninsel is definitely my new Promise (even if that's technically from SH2).
It takes a special game to not just make me cry at the end, but to make me step away from it and feel it's ripples through several weeks. Weeks where I was not kept awake by Horror or brutal imagery, but by the empathy I felt for Ariane. Like the empathy I felt for Alessa and by extension, Heather.
And itself adds so much symbolism to radioactive sites and buried pain, that I wonder if in the future we will find references to the area of the Red Gate in other games.
Finally! I've been waiting for you to cover this masterpiece of a game.
Signalis was such a good game. I would probably put it in my top 10. The themes and story felt so cerebral and actually deep. So many other games try to be "deep" and end up feeling pretentious. The whole game I was feeling the same confusion that I imagine Elster feels. The OST is magical and only adds to the impact. I would reccomend Signalis to any fan of survival horror.
Keep up the fantastic work Max
Hearing Max say based was a very surreal experience
Since Silent Hill 4 IMO. Underrated game, few crappy aspects but doesn't deserve to be forgotten.
This game is absolutely phenomenal. I can't sing it's praises enough. Brilliant game.
Good timing.
Just beat Signalis and the only way it is ever going to leave my headspace is by consuming more discourse and content to help me parse. Just a lovely, well crafted game that I adore to bits already.
I know this is late, but a thoroughly enjoyed what SIGNALIS had to offer. Thank you for making this analysis and review of the game! It is so nice to so positive reception of this game. :)
I saw Signalis and I clicked right away. Can’t wait for your analysis of this gem.
i loved signalis. it's one of the few i immediately replayed after finishing. i'm so happy to have this game. keep up the good work and have a nice day
oh man I've been interested in this game for a couple weeks now and seeing you make a video about it really sells the game. Gotta download it now
Just finished this game and had to come back and give this video a proper watch. Thanks Max for shining a light on it because it just might be my game of the year. Love this game.
You mention melding realities and pain that is unable to be put into words and understanding the real from the unreal and perception. This game feels like it’s ultimately about pain. I remember reading somewhere:
“Pain, like any other state of consciousness, has no reference point, it is not for or of anything.
It is intense pain that destroys a person’s self and world, It is a destruction experienced as either the contraction of the universe down to the body, or as the body swelling to fill the entire universe. It is this pain that has no voice but at last, when it finds its voice, it begins to tell a story.”
This is big time paraphrasing as I have no idea where I read that.
The beginning of this video inspired me to purchase and play Signalis before continuing. I'm so glad I did. Thank you for pointing out this masterpiece.
Great video, I thought this game was phenomenal front-to-back, and I also think that its use of references from the games that inspired it are (in a way) a manifestation of bio-resonance also affecting our actual world
Truly a masterclass on the poetry of videogames as a medium, their capabilities, and the way they can say so much through interaction
I'm glad your covering Signalis, after beating it for the first time it instantly became one of my favorite survival horrors games of all time. I look forward to future video's on you covering this masterpiece of a game.
signalis is one of the best horror games ever, and one of the best narrative games too. Just a phenomenally crafted and absolutely haunting piece of art that never leaves the back of my mind
“Great holes secretly are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl.”
“Perhaps this is hell?”
Another banger of a video, Max! I always feel more wholesome after watching your videos. Especially you older things like your full analysis of Carl Jung's book. Keep up the work!
@@maxderrat With your academia research style, I could binge your content all day. Which I have! Your videos feel like a proper class, and I believe it is a class I would have very appreciated in my youth. I might have been a different person today, had I watched your content then. ... And as always, Stay Yellow!
I was just describing this game to a friend with the Ratatouille meme of the guy eating the dish and being reminded of his childhood and mom making the dish. I legitimately had almost the exact form of terror and fascination of the world and characters and meanings as I did when I was a teen/young adult going through Silent Hill 2 and 3.
I hadn’t even heard of Signalis when it first launched. When I did hear about it, I was so intrigued that I went ahead and bought it at full price, something I almost never do. As I was playing it, I went from ranking it as one of the best survival horror games of the last five to ten years, then to ranking as one of the best survival horror games ever, and now its one of my personal favorite games, regardless of genre, that I’ve ever played. The mechanics, the story, the presentation, the atmosphere, are all so incredibly well-executed.
Man, I really like the way you treat these more introspective themes of games and other forms of media, and I would like to see your analysis on Zero Escape games in the future if possible, more specifically, on the first game (999: Nine Hours , Nine Persons, Nine Doors) and the second (Virtue's Last Reward), I think you'll really like the themes that are treated in the games, the way "time travel" is demonstrated and applicable in the gameplay and even some pseudosciences like morphogenetic field theory of Rupert Sheldrake (by the way, that's pretty much the main theme in these games). Greetings from Brazil my man, keep up your excellent work :D
Holy shit, a friend recommended the series to me and I had to play all three games in a row. Especially the 2nd one BLEW me away. What a great concept.
Watching this as someone who has played Signalis but have yet to play Silent Hill games (and plans to) feels like reverse day in terms of spoilers.
As long as you don't play the terrible remasters you should be fine. Such great games.
@@TheOneGreat I will, though it's an interesting dilemma with games that have remasters/remakes that are considered as good as the OG. Resident Evil 4 for example, and maybe Silent Hill 2 if the remake is regarded as well as the og version.
Since the game came out, you immediately popped into my mind and I wondered if you would talk about it at some point. And there we have it. I don't comment on videos very often but I've been following you for quite some time now, and it goes without saying how much I admire and love your work, kid. Thanks for talking about a game that instantly became one of the best games I've EVER played. Greetings from Mexico!
Gonna be honest, I clicked on the video, and was hooked the moment I heard the System Shock 2 OST and the nostalgia kicked in.
I like your video formats! You got a sub 👍
Yet another banger video Max. Loved your take on the lore. Signalis is an ode to survival horror and masterpiece that can stand on its own.
Ended up trying the game out because of this video. Absolutely incredible game so thanks for leading towards it.
Dear Max, reviewing your channel I have realized that apparently you have not played any game from the series of "The Cat Lady" by Remigiusz Michalski, it is a game very similar to this beloved theme of Silent Hill, I hope you can play it and enjoy it and tell us your opinions. Many greetings.
At this point I am convinced the whole “Silent Hill after 3 bad” crowd are just memeing.
There are absolutely Silent Hill games that came after 3 that are good. I just happen to be one of those people who think that none of them reach the level of greatness of the original trinity.
@@maxderrat Love you, man. Highly respect you, you are very clever, but after all these years seeing your vids I find that hard to believe.
Nice video Max and legend for continuing to make these vids whilst sick with covid. Remember to take breaks to not overwork yourself take care man.
I thank you. I had been binge watching your videos and came to this one in particular. Normally I don't go out of my way to go buy a game a reviewer tells me to do to avoid spoilers. But I value your opinions about the games you reviewed. So I bought the game and played it and had so much fun with it and finished then came back and watched your review. You did not disappoint!
Indie games are the only hope for the future of video games
I just discovered this game due to Max's post about his next video. Signalis is already on my priority list, this game sounds awesome. I'm gonna watch this video after beating it.
I think that Alina Seo was someone that Elster's original gestalt knew, and perhaps even loved romantically. Her existence is further indicative of the clashing consciousnesses here. Not only are we seeing elements of Ariane's mind, and Elster's, perhaps Falke's, but we are also seeing fragments of something long gone. Perhaps it's Ariane's thoughts and projection of herself towards Alina, combined with Elster's hazy recollection of her, that we are chasing at the beginning.
Apparently it took them many years to make this game. Yet they consciously decided "yeah these hitboxes are our intended vision. Ship it."
Silent Hill 4 is better than Silent Hill 1 and 3 imo. The concept of Silent Hill spreading farther away is super creepy and the villain was amazing
Hey man, I celebrate your love of Silent Hill 4! I just don't think - and I don't the majority thinks - that 4 is better than 3.
I think your future you,the one who is buried and doesnt talk is better than the you who wrote this stupid comment.
@@maxderrat just casually scrolling i found a great deal of people disgruntled by you pretending the first 3 are the only good ones, not to mention the only ones better than this derivative title. I think you only compared to silent hill 3 because its more popular and therefore more controversial.
Yeah Max I gotta disagree here. Thing is, the way the title was phrased was as an exclusion of 4. It might not read that way to you but it is the one that is left out as a result. Had you said 4, that would have included the prior 3 games. Because you drew the line at 3 however it just begs the question and a question a title probably shouldn't be begging due to how subjective and distracting it is, "Which Silent Hill games are your favorite?".
This makes for a good passing statement in a video, but in a video title it leads to a lot of unnecessary discourse about where you stand on the matter and opens the floor up to disagree. There are a LOT of people who consider 4 their favorite entry (at no discredit to the prior titles, though 3 is ironically my least favorite of the original 4 games).
I've recently just watched the breakdown of how Drakenguard and NeiR are in the same universe and the name they give the souls in NeiR is also Gestalt.
I just Love how many references there are in this game. Even if it's story crushes me.
Great stuff. I love all the crossovers and references in the game and the way it explores what feels like reality that's happening almost tomorrow. Thanks for covering this game with all explanations.
I can only plead for you to stay mentally stable and safe, since all the happenings in your life and playing these types of games doesn't mix very well in people.
I was eagerly awaiting this video since finishing the game! :> I think it's been mentioned before, but the use of Chambers and Lovecraft was quite brilliantly fitting with the themes of borrowing and building upon ideas established by others.
This video was in my to watch for a long time. Finally got around to playing and completing Signalis and damn. What a great experience.
Ah, yes! I was waiting for you to make a video on this. It's my favorite game of 2022.
Gotta say, I couldn't finish the video, because I WILL play this game, but love what you do Max, and can't wait for the next one!
i did not knew about this game but b4 getting to the spoilers you convinced me to try it
thx
Will come back to the video once i finish it
I've heard of Signalis but I didn't realise it was so similar to older SH games. Buying it right now
Signalis is definitely one of the most overlooked games to have come out recently. Its rare to see video essays let alone general discussions about it anywhere, or maybe I'm not looking hard enough.
Nevertheless, good video. More people ought to give the game a spin.
I think there is a deeper meaning to Alina character. Of course this is all through the lenses of dream logic which the game seems to operate in. I think Alina in Signalis is a bit like Maria in SH2 - a manifestation, born from Ariane's dying brain's desperate wish to reconstruct some sort of semblance of her own self with broken parts of different memories, feelings, impressions, wishes, fears. But only unlike SH2, even this manifestation is already lost, long gone or never happened, you can't even meet her, there are only traces of her you can find, like some notes about things that never happened or a photo. It's like Ariane's tries to find herself, her own ego or at least to construct some sort of structured personality she can assign herself to. Tries but ultimately fails. I'm not sure if I'm right about any of this, of course, it's hard to be sure about anything in a story like this, but this are my thoughts on the matter.
There is also a recognizable pattern throughout the game of characters losing understanding of who they are and trying to assign some other persona to themselves. Falke is the main example of this. Perhaps Falke and Alina are different parts of Ariane's fragmented personality or parts of a continuous cycle of such assigned personalities, one is failed or abandoned (Alina), the other is just extremely corrupted by basically the whole circumstances of dying and resonance dreaming. Idk, intuitively I feel both characters are important, I just can't grasp it with my weak intellectual abilities. lol
What a brilliant game. Caught me by surprise going in blind.
Signalis seems to have mastered its use of Metatextuality.
I'm glad you've noticed all the alchemy / Jung tones. That's why you're my fav youtuber.
Somebody else also shares a similar opinion to yours in another Signalis analysis video:
"There are several symbols associated with Ariane, not just the lily. There is also the butterfly. The box you has to open leading to the radio station features a butterfly and later there are four butterflies spelling out the word "Aeon."
The final puzzle of the game is revealed by collecting six tarot cards.
Let's do this one step at a time. The formal word for butterfly in Greek is psyche. I don't know the etymological reason for this, but in the myth of how the titan Prometheus created man, in place of the claws and teeth and the natures given by his brother Epimethus to other animals, Prometheus place a butterfly inside man, symbolizing his capacity for self transformation. The specific connotation of the myth is that Prometheus gave man a soul.
Aeon is a notable example of Jung's later works on the phenomenology of the Self. To explain what the Self is I'd have to go into all kinds of Jungian terms that are apt to be misunderstood if I don't explain them so I'll just say that the Self is what Signalis could be said to depict. Everything about the game that makes it feel insoluble; the way it unites opposites; the way sense blurs with nonsense, insides with outsides, time and space, real and unreal, the singular with the universal -- that is all like the Self. The Self is where man's psychology merges with the ontology of the universe.
It explains, at least thematically, how all this surreal dreamlike stuff can happen; how unit 512 can hop all over the solar system and beyond seemingly at random.
The book itself goes into a lot of astrology and offers an explanation for why people have looked to the stars and expected a sign.
The Self is initially encountered as a personification, the gradually broadens to encompass all opposites and the divine.
The inclusion of this word and butterflies at the same time, as well as being in a set of four, is more of a smoking gun than anything of the game having a Jungian influence.
The tarot is something Jung explored as well as an expression of unconscious archetypes. They are a set of symbols telling the story of the fool on his journey to acquire the world and reach fulfillment. It is the story of the individuation process, also a key Jungian concept."
Thus all the circular shapes scattered around in the game, probable references to the mandala, which signifies man's willingness to reunite with the divine. Whoever made this game is probably a big fan of Jung, indeed.
Just finished it. This gave me HEAVY Silent Hill vibes especially SH3. Loved it so much.
This game went completely under my radar! Another fantastic video
I am not a so much a survival Horror fan, but tried it on Gamepass. Played about 2 hour and laid it aside. But I told my Brother about it (huge Oldschool horror fan) he loved it and thanked me for the tipp a day later. Wasn't my cup of beer but still gave this game 5/5 stars bc for what it wants to be it is a masterpiece and I respect that
I love opinions like this. Tho you personally didn’t enjoy it, you acknowledged that you understood the intention and the target audience.
Don’t diss silent hill 4 max !!
Right!
4 is wonderful it’s just the most blatantly flawed team Silent game so people are hard on it
Saying three is better than four does not necessarily equate to a "diss". Metal Gear Solid 3 is better overall than Metal Gear Solid 4, but I still love them both.
@@maxderrat it's k just think the 4th part is so underrated heh
It is in some respects. I agree. :)
Hell yeah, I've been waiting for this.
Excellent dive into this
Never knew about this game, thanks for broadening my horizons
I like to listen to your video essays at work so I was anticipating the text on screen to take a while but 5:25 may me actually laugh out loud hahaha.
I just finished the game and all I can say is that it’s amazing, from gameplay to story to characters to atmosphere to especially the music
And before watching the video my own personal theory is that the gameplay of the game where the ruin happens inside a purgatory like world inside Elster’s mind as she’s trying to remember the promise she made to Ariane and due to the Bio resonance connection between Ariane and Elster and Elster remembering her Gestalt memories everything gets tangled up together where she doesn’t even know what’s really her own memories and what is Ariane’s memories thus forgetting the promise she made to Ariane, a promise she couldn’t keep since she died before her so through out the game Elster faces the guilt she has and her gestalt memories in from of a Falke unit, that’s why during the promise ending boss fight with Falke she talks about becoming one with Elster
At 5:50 Max mentions that Gestalts might be a Nier reference, but it's actually a reference to a branch of psychology called, well, Gestalt Psychology, which is where Nier got the reference from.
The school goes by the adage "the whole is more than the sum of its parts." When attempting to understand psychology.
That thumbnail art is great.
Like Hellraiser meets Samurai Jack.
When Max says "didn't address for the sake of time" a panda dies!
After watching you discuss Pathologic, I was hoping you'd cover this.
Disagree because Silent Hill 4 is good and underrated and I even like it more than 3 in several aspects.
it's way better tbh
Great and awesome job! I'd LOVE to hear a video where you explain and analyze "the king in yellow" and what it is and what its effects were on literature!!
Your narration is some of the if not the best i have ever known😇❤️
There is an interesting memo about LSTR unit: the original template was lost and all current models are based on unit that was found in crashed Penrose ship.
And there is theory by Codex Entry that Ariane we meet is actually Alina Seo, who was transformed into the Ariane.
These two might explain why LSTRs flock to Leng.
Ooooookaaaay, NOW you have my attention. Looking this game up
Hey you inspired me to play the game sunk a days worth of time into it got the promise ending it was sooo worth it
Ohhh I was always curious about your take on Signalis. Would absolutely love to see you do a letsplay
I’ve been waiting for this vid 😌
BLAME! could be made into an incredible horror game like SIGNALIS as well, why no one is making one???!
Love the video I love you’re channel
love your videos, man. greetings from south america. 👍💪
Great now I need to buy this physical copy on switch
Just heard about Signalis not that long ago now my favorite game deep diver is on it! Every video is a banger here.