There’s actually a reason the ship log stores information on multiple loops. Hal has dialogue on the first loop that explains that Hornfels made your computer out of a piece of your statue that Gabbro broke off.
Thanks for pointing this out, I missed that completely! I'm pleased to hear that the developers already thought of this and accounted for it. It just goes to show the detail and thought that went into making every part of the game consistent.
One strange emergent effect of the time loop was, despite knowing I'm under time pressure, I almost always felt like I had all the time in the universe. I had what we call "big Gabbro energy." This is one thing I think Outer Wilds does subtly better than Breath of the Wild. In BotW, you start off the game knowing for every second you spend taking pictures of foxes, Zelda is suffering. In Outer Wilds, you can beat the game in one loop or a million loops and the Eye will still be waiting patiently for you when you get there.
I agree completely, and I still think Outer Wilds might be the best example I've ever seen of an uninterrupted connection between the player and their character. It's going to be a long time before another experience as immersive as this one comes along.
I also find the loop keeps you from being listless and stale. You might spend hours lost in the mountains in botw wondering if you have seen enough and "Should i turn back now? Have i seen everything?" Whereas if you spend too much time on brittle hollow you get booted back to the campfire and you can decide whether you think it's worth to go back or if you feel like doing something else. It can be hard for me to decide whether to give up on a particular thing and making me step back and have that choice presented can be a welcome thing, especially when frustration sets in
In reflecting on this game and my recent approaches to life problems I think I've come to realize that this game helped me accept situations as they are a lot better. I mean if something is a certain way and there's nothing you can do about it there not really much point in complaining, albiet it in outerwilds that's more to an extreme extent i.e. being born into a dying universe but still.
Fun fact, the only "real loop" is the loop where you go to the eye (at least in the base game cause i havent completed the dlc yet) The other loop you play is just the memories of hatchlings of those time lines coming to the hatchling of the loop where he goes to the eye kinda scary if u think abt it
@@sleeper6548yeah exactly! especially if you jump in the black hole in the ATP, it kinda confirms that (aside from the last loop) we only see the memories. if you ever try to leave while the loop is active, your memories still get sucked back 22 minutes, but there’s a still version of the hatchling flying away from the supernova, wondering why the time loop didn’t happen this time!
@@Erumore As someone who played the game you can surely understand that it's a treat to have (pretty much any) content piece about it exist. As you don't get a second playthrough, stuff that's auxiliary to the game can still be really amazing.
I was at the edge of tears at the end of this game. The deep insight of how time is finite and precious hit me like a train. A beautiful piece of art. I appreciate the strong recommendation
Spoilers for the ending: Near the end of my play through, I made it to the center of ash twin. I had somewhat figured out what the warp core did, but I pulled it out without knowing the full ramifications of what I was doing, nor a clue what laid in the heart of dark bramble, nor the quantum moon. I pulled it out, and THAT music started playing, I realized if I continued with the core pulled out that would most likely be the end for me. In a moment of denial since I still had more to do, I shoved the core back in, and continued playing.
Yeah, that music kicking in when you pull it was terrifying for me, even though I knew what I was going to do with it. Was like, well, better not waste any time 😂
You're probably right that it's a good thing they didn't use the quantum puzzles, but I would love it if someone did create a game based on quantum logic. The quantum stuff was some of my favourite parts of the game and I would love to play around with it more.
The first time I made that jump in Giant's Deep it didn't occur to me to wait for a twister (or I was impatient 😂). I got back in my ship and went under the water and then tried to land on the far side. I can't remember if I got it to work, or if the island got hit by a storm while I was trying 😂.
One great thing about the fundamental design of the world, is that it's not only immersive, but the fact that the time loop limits each run to 22min, means that i can fully enjoy the game even if i only have time to play 30-40 min a day. Games like Subnautica or Breath of the wild need such a huge investment of time, it's almost impossible to get into.
As an almost graduated CS student, with a heavy gaming background during my upbringing, I think OW has inspired me in several levels. I've always looked up to wonder about our place in the universe, the how and what behind all of it. At first here on earth, later in life, out there in space. Only now that I'm older I realize how astronomically small our lives are. To occupy, what, a fraction of a century, a century at best? It's too small a window to really take in all the universe have to offer. Yet OW manages to bring all of this sense of grandeur and insignificance to a rationale, a middle ground, a way to come to terms with it. My two favorite phrases from this game sum this up pretty neatly, I think (from my two favorite characters): "The universe is, and we are", and that's all there is to it, and that's not bad or good or wrong or anything, it just is the way things are. Everything surrounding the human experience is inherently small, because those who experience it are indeed, small. But there's solace in that: the problems are even smaller, every hardship becomes a stub, a pebble, a dent. As for the wins? "The future is always built on the past, even if we don't get to see it". All the actions, experiences, accomplishments and achievements of someone, can only be experienced by that same person, through a very short and minuscule window of time. Experience, is usually the way we like to measure things (take a picture, or it didn't happen; you had to be there; you'll believe it once you see it). But that's only because we're naturally constrained to our minds and our bodies, and we'll go as far as they can go. My grandma won't get to see me graduate, marry, move out, get a car, get a family, get fame or die; but her influence is still here with me, even after she's gone, dictating part of or the full extent of every decision I make. The individual human experience is frail and short, but the complete human experience is collaborative, a torch of some sort, similar of that inadvertently passed on by the Nomai to the Hearthians. The insignificance of individuality to make our problems even smaller, the grandeur of being a collective that makes the few wins somehow bigger than the achiever. I truly want more games like this. I believe Outer Wilds is the inspiration I needed for a lot of things, making myself a game developer being among them. I'll try to remember to report back if I make significant progress, if the channel still exists by then, and if "then" ever comes. This video was beautifully written, and gave me the last bit of perspective I needed to reignite my motivation. Thank you for making it, and thank you for reading.
Thank you for this beautiful comment - I mean that sincerely. Outer Wilds can be a profoundly touching game and it means a lot to me that someone out there was moved or inspired by a video of my creation. I'd love to hear about the progress you make with development, and any game that's influenced by Outer Wilds is one I'd be happy to wishlist. Good luck on your journey.
"Everything that the player experiences is diegetic" is a fancy way of stating one of the main brilliant design aspects of Outer Wilds. It's what this essay calls immersion - the fact that everything that happens in game is also happening to the character. This is justified very well through the use of the time loop and further brilliantly expanded through ideas such as you having to break the loop and risk permanent death in order to finish the game. Because you identify so tightly with your character at this point, this decision becomes genuinely stressful to a degree that few other games manage to invoke.
And if you've ever actually died in the first part of the game (before ever talking to hornfels and seeing the nomai statue), you know that if you actually see the "YOU DIED" screen, you do not get to "resume expedition." You have to start a completely new game. When you take out the core of the Ash Twin Project, for a moment you might be afraid that the game might really reset back to the beginning if you fail. For a moment, you're just as scared as your character. (This isn't actually true, you get to load previous save, and I guess that kinda breaks immersion, but I think that's a necessary evil since it's a rare case where the immersion-breaking is worth it since the alternative would be very frustrating).
My favourite spot on description of this game is that it’s a “Metroidbrainia”. You unlock ways to do new things and access new areas, but all of those tools are simply knowledge of how to do it. It must have taken so much talent to design a system where that isn’t obtuse or unintuitive.
The thing that stands out to me about Outer Wilds' open world is that it's an example of a small infinity. There are infinite paths to take, and distances to travel but all the important stuff is densely packed. I think the space setting really helps with that because there's less need for filler. GTA needs miles and miles of boring city blocks, because that's what cities are. Skyrim needs miles of empty wilderness, because that's how the world works. Outer Wilds gets to keep so much of the "in-between" empty because space is empty, so you never feel like you're being tricked into believing there's more than there is. In reality, you're more likely to be surprised by how much there is on what originally looks like a barren planet.
I thought the Attlerock was the tutorial so I spent the whole game learning as I went. Also, Outer Wilds is the video game equivalent of losing your virginity or trying a drug for the first time. It will never be as good as the first time.
39:05 "ships log breaks immersion" it does not, lore explains that the ship's storage system actually uses a piece of one of the nomai head statues which explains why it retains information past the time loop as the information is actually sent back in time when the sun goes supernova
And it's hinted at visually, by having the same blue flashing lines of light (that you see when you die and loop back to the beginning) going up into the screen whenever you enter the ship
Came to the comments to say this. I think one of the NPCs on timber hearth mentions that a piece of a nomai statue chipped off when Gabbro brought it back from giant’s deep, and he stuck it to your ship. I forgot which hearthian mentions this though
It was refreshing to play this after the gargantuan disappointment that was TOTK. The only other games I would describe as knowledge-based metroidvanias are The Witness and Toki Tori 2.
Went into this video expecting stuff I've already heard from other RUclipsrs on the subject (this isn't a criticism I've just watched way too many Outer Wilds video essays)...but you did say alot of new stuff. You really went into detail about what other open worlds are doing wrong, and while I think your criticisms of other games are little extreme at times it definitely gets me thinking. I don't think a map is inherently bad for many games, it just depends on what type of game you are making...Maps don't always break my immersion and not all games put immersion first. But I do Ii agree with your main point. I especially agree with you on constant map markers and hand holding...its disgusting and un-artistic. Definitely think you deserve more views for all the work you put into this. I think alot of smaller RUclipsrs would agree...the RUclips algorithm is bizarre, it's not really about quality. RUclips really doesn't care about us. I'll share this on Twitter.
Thanks so much for the kind words, and I'm very grateful for the support! It's true that not every game is striving for immersion at the cost of everything else, but at the other end of the scale is something like Assassin's Creed, where the open world is nothing more than a content-delivery vehicle. I was fairly critical of Breath of the Wild's map even though I think it's probably one of the best open world games that's ever been made, but I suppose I wanted to point out the contrast between that and Outer Wilds, where you're always seeing things from your character's point of view (even when you die). I'm trying to focus on quality over quantity, and make the kind of videos that I would want to watch. I think the RUclips algorithm tends to reward and promote channels that have a rapid release schedule (which I don't). I guess I'm hoping that if I keep making quality videos then the right audience will find them eventually. That's kind of you to share this on Twitter, I appreciate it very much!
@@ErumoreKeep focusing on quality over quantity! Little Joel talked about this in a video recently, saying among other things that it leads to more sustainable success, and it gave me a lot of hope :)
A true masterpiece. The last time I was this impressed with game design was Thief 2 in 2000. I agree with your points on game design, HUD and map icons are the bain of modern game design. 'Less' is often 'more'. Regarding the ships log point you raised, it's percistance is explained within the game lore, the engineer used a shard of the Nomai statue in order to make the ships computer, one of the Hathians you can find explains this. The game has a reason for almost everything. Great video, thanks.
15:01 that nomai body was put there on purpose. It's underneath the bridge connecting the two warp towers, and is suppose to be a hint about how to get in the ATP ;)
My first loop I went to Attlerock. I was cautiously exploring the edge of the giant crater on the bottom when the sun went. Perspective made me think it was something on the moon itself that I'd accidentally activated and try to get away. It did not work 😂😂
i love traversal in outer wilds, one of my favorite challenges on the twins and on brittle hollow was to try to achieve a stable orbit extremely low. travel so fast that you are falling toward the planet just as fast as you are flying away from it
I'm halfway through the video, and I'm glad I chose to watch the rest of it before trying the game. I have some mental disabilities that often prevent me from picking up hints or subtle clues, or deducing how they all fit together, so the waypoints in open world games are a welcome thing for me, removing the stress and frustration of wandering around and missing everything, not for lack of searching for it or trying to piece it together, but an inability to do so, and hours of wasted time if not abandoning the game altogether. I do absolutely love Subnautica, but without a walkthrough, I would never have never been able to finish that game. It was only in the next run, after following a walkthrough and finishing the game once that I was able to piece together all the clues I found because then I know where they're all leading. Outer Wilds sounds like one of those games I'll need a walkthrough for. I know that ruins the experience of discovery, but "discovery" for me is just a stressful experience of losing the trail over and over and not knowing how to get back on track.
Thanks so much, I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment! You might be happy to hear that the Echoes of the Eye video is already out; you should be able to see it from my channel page.
@39:04 I am going to blow your mind. The computer retains the information you gather in previous loops because of the Nomai wiring and hard rive that glows on the computer. I forget what NPC or Data log mentions this but a Hearthian discovered the Nomai Drive and installed it in the spaceship. That's why it retains what you have done.
Great analysis! I also appreciated Outer Wild’s use of misdirection, where the incomplete set of clues leads to all sorts of wrong guesses about what the endgame will be. That journey really made the experience more personal and impactful.
Astonishing writting. I do not know if developers played Outer Wilds and take ideas for their games, but i would love more Outer Wilds like games. About your Myst comparision, problem with Myst is that every puzzle has a solution that only matters for a specific puzzle, artificial. The train puzzle solution are just directions, not methods to complete the puzzle. You do not learn, you obtain a code. Solutions are not numbers or directions, but general knowledge about the game, even if only used once. Tornados that rotate in the reverse direction feels like a "code" but it is not. It is a explanation on how things works.
You might say that Myst's solutions are like keys, while Outer Wilds' solutions are (often) more like picking the lock. One gives you the code, the other gives you the tools to make/break the code.
@@TlalocTemporal the main difference is how those puzzles are integrated in the game. OW is diegetic, strange word i know. When you find a pannel in Myst with buttons and rotating objects, you know that is a puzzle. However in OW you find a tornado and do not even know that is a puzzle. Or you want to explore a cave that is a labyrinth. Of course some can be artificial like ghost matter placement but even that has sense. The Witness do a strange but awesome idea. Those pannels are common in the islands, so much common that they are integrated
Holy crap, I love when I accidentally stumble on a hidden gem channel like this. You've put out amazing and consistent content so far, despite the very few views. This video was recommended by the algorithm, so I hope your channel will finally be picking up speed and get recommended to more people. Keep up your work, it will be properly appreciated soon enough!!
49:34 I like this idea, "Each key opens just one lock", but I think it's a little more complicated than that. edit: well this is what I get for writing a comment before finishing the video. You mentioned three of six things I mentioned here in your video, but I'll keep the comment up in its original form anyway. Most of the actual gameplay "keys" that the game tells you have just one lock, I agree. But some important insights that you make by yourself can have multiple applicable "locks". To get to the High Energy Lab, you need to pass a row of cactuses, and the only way to do so is to wait for the sand to fill up and cover the cactuses. This same trick is used to get to the sun station warp. To get to the top floors of the Tower of Quantum Knowledge, you need to wait until it goes into space and you have 0g to be able to traverse it. The same trick is used to get to the top section of the Giant's Deep Statue Island where Nomai debate the philosophy of sending a person back in time vs sending their memories back in time. To get to Feldspar's camp, you need to shoot a scout through a Dark Bramble seed and notice that it's in two places at once, and follow its marker when you get to Dark Bramble. Alternatively, you can just follow the signalscope to his harmonica. To get to the Nomai escape pod and Vessel, you need to use BOTH of these ideas; the signalscope to the escape pod, and the scout trick to the Vessel. I really like the way they used these double-keys, because they feel not only natural, but also used in slightly different ways. The sand cactus trick is used once while the sand is rising, and once while the sand is falling. The 0g trick is used once after a piece of the environment falls into 0g, and once after a piece of the environment gets flung upward into 0g. The early scout/signalscope tricks in Dark Bramble are used once interchangeably to find a Hearthian, and both are used to find the Nomai crashes.
I totally missed the shortcut at 30:08 while playing! Great video! I play video games since the 70s in arcades and the 80s in home consoles and computers, and having just finished OW and the DLC, I can say sincerely that good games like it that don't hold your hand are really rare nowadays. That was the one of the reasons I liked games like Dark Souls and its sequels (the other being how you discovered the lore, via text in items, the environment, etc.) In the really old games there was usually no hand holding (or even instructions, hah!), but also a lot were badly designed and only through (recent) videos I've seen their endings. And as you said at the end of the video, I really do wish for this kind of game to become a genre :)
Brilliant video mate! So well observed and balanced, and your passion for the game really shines through. Completely agree that Outer Wilds is something that most people, myself included, have been waiting to play for years. It also manages that rare feat that so few games manage to achieve nowadays, that of true innovation. It pretty much reinvents the wheel when it comes to player engagement and exploration, especially when compared to most modern, so-called ‘open world’ games. I really appreciated the use of The Witcher 3 as an example, as it is by no means a bad game (I put 175 hours into it, and probably will do again), but it is limited by this bizarre mould of ‘big map, fast travel, tick off activity and repeat’ that seems to be the only style of AAA game that studios make now. Let's hope its as you say, and that Outer Wilds will open the way for more games like it. Also I loved the JoJo reference when discussing Zelda’s inventory pause menu.
Personally I'd argue that the better comparison to Outer Wilds is not Myst but Riven. Myst tries to convey a world, but it feels more like a puzzlebox. In Riven, you have a whole world, there's social dynamics in the background, there's Ghen's experimenting with recreating the ability to write Ages, there's cultural icons and so on. (One major difference, though, and I'm told it's a very deliberate choice, is that Outer Wilds avoids having stuff that exists purely for lore reasons. There's a reason my Outer Wilds notebook is pretty focused on stuff that's relevant to the game's big mysteries, while my Riven notebook from way back has several pages that are just sketches and notes on the Rivenese people and their artwork that just...has no bearing on the actual game, and are just meant to make them feel real.)
Thank you. This is the video that I am most proud of on my channel, and Outer Wilds is a game that means a lot to me. It makes my day to hear that people think I did it justice.
Huh i had almost the same experience with the black hole in brittle hollow. I was at the parkour place leading to hnging city a i missed a jump and started falling down to the black hole, I remember thinking: I am so close to that place(hanging city) and i'll die and have to search for it again, thakfully i reacted fast enough to get to the beam and save myself, i became quite terrified of going to that parkou place. Eventually i fell off into the black hole( i think it was when i tried to brute force my way into the forge(i missed the place where the control panel was)) and by the time i realized that i would fall into it i gave up fighting and was waiting for the next loop, only to realize black holes werent deadly lol😂
I like how many people talk so much about this masterpiece, i even start to cry a little when i hear a main theme because its so deep (and meaning of main theme changes so much when you finally understand what stands behind the plot), and i see that we still have so many NOT braindead people
Another great knowledge-based progression game("metroidbrainia") is Tunic. "Breaking immersion" is a actually one of its main features, done amazingly.
Something interesting about puzzle design in outer wilds is that the text after a puzzle often explains what the puzzle required so a player who lucks into the solution walks away with the knowledge they needed in the first place.
I suffered anxiety throughout the entirety of this game. Every single planet gripped me with fear, but I forged ahead anyway. It hits so many of my buttons, and not in a good way. But the overwhelming sense of curiosity, exploration, and wonder helped me to overcome all that, which allowed me to experience something amazing. Currently playing the DLC, and it's just as wondrous and nerve-wracking. If you haven't played it yet, I 100% insist that you should, even if it's not your typical preferred game. Because it's *_anything_* but typical.
All these years later and i’m still learning new things about this game You just taught me that there’s actually 2 trails to the southern pole on Brittle Hollow, the other route has a cool puzzle where you need to get around some ghost matter by leaping off the wall and onto an upright platform then leap back onto the wall on the other side of the ghost matter That leap you showed isn’t on that path
Re: computer remembering your progress between loops as an example of breaking immersion, that actually also has an in-game explanation. You will notice that the little blue flashes that tell you there's new information look just like all the other cables connected to the ATP. The computer is connected to the server and the information is recorded and preserved. (How they built that computer without knowing what the ATP is is maybe a stretch)
The memory banks are made from a piece of the memory statue that Gabbro accidentally broke off, as ot was found to have very good information storage capacity. Since the memory statue can communicate wireless with the ATP and the paired observer, and it works with observers from entirely separate trees of life, I don't think it's a big stretch that it can communicate with distant parts of itself, or record arbitrary information.
This is really good, glad it was in my recommended! Looking forward to checking out your EotE commentary after this, curious to hear your thoughts. Subscribed!
almost everything in this game has an explanation, you either have to remember it from one of the dialogs or connected something together with the clues you are given its amazing
Well said my friend. Outer Wilds sits in a place in my mind that only a few other games do: games of a specific genre that can never be beaten so I've given up looking for an alternative to scratch that itch. This sits amongst Hollow Knight (the best Metroidvania) and Stardew Valley (the best Farming Game) as being the best of its class (space sim/exploration). No surprise all three of these are indie/non-AAA titles and I own on all three on multiple consoles/devices. The only other games that sit in that place for me are so wonderfully tinted by nostalgia (e.g. A Link to the Past) yet all of these came out long past my formative years (im now almost 40).
7:35 Or maybe you don't even make it off the planet because your ship was destroyed by the orbital probe being shot straight into it. Yes, that can happen.
Part of the reason I love Morrowind so much is bc Bethesda hadn’t adopted that hand holdy map marker bullshit yet. Just like the scrawlings on the cave walls beneath the crust of the Ember Twin, people give you directions to important locations. They’ll tell you about a landmark, and to turn left at it, etc., and I’ve always adored that
Immersion in video essay broken. Video says you need to understand how Ash Twin Teleporters work to access the black hole forge. I just saw that the "room" was upside down and landed my ship on the ceiling. It wasn't until I was on my last handful of loops that I found the teleporter to the BHF and smacked my forehead, then decided I was still right because getting the forge into position, then flying to AT to TP back was silly. (Have some engagement for an old video from a new OW player :)
That's how I got there! I didn't even find out you could warp there until I had already finished the game. I assumed you would just warp to the same platform the white hole station warped you
Even better about that canonising death point is that Hearthian culture is just going out and doing things, consequences be damned, they talk about destructive events like it’s just another tuesday and seem to care more about cutting down some random tree that’s in the way a little compared to the possibility of your ship burning down the launch pad, so OF COURSE the player character, the hatchling, would just go out and do crazy stuff if they were in a time loop, that’s what Hearthians do! That’s why Feldspar is so legendary for his daringness, that’s why your ship is shoddily made out of wood parts duct taped together until it decides to work Really, the one thing that would be out of character in Outer Wilds would be playing it safe, trying to not die
whaaaat no way actual mistake in video about super confusing space game? xD 12:02 the ash twin project wasn't meant to send the conceusnesses of the scientists back unless either the mission succeeded or there was some critical problem so that they could shut it off, in your case you're being sent back because the mission succeeded (the first loop is the one directly after the one that captured the eye, that's why the statue activates.) edit: since you mentioned it near the end there is 1 game that has an experience that is at least somewhat similiar, tunic. it has traditional metroidvania elements as well but especially in the endgame it's a lot about knowledge, and it feels special for exactly that reason.
Played this sometime in 2021-2022. "Maybe you'll visit Giant's Deep itself, then get scared and fly away again." I was flung off the comet and was hurtling towards the White Hole Station. Ultimately ran out of air, but thought it was exciting. Spent more than a few seconds underwater on Giant's Deep, and was all "get me out" lol
actually there other quantum puzzles in the game than the moon. other than the tower itself there are 2 cave system puzzle on ember twin using the quantum rules, but it's true that only the moon uses all 3 (because of the third rule).
I played this game without ever knowing what it really was beyond the screenshots in the store. I really thought it was a aimless sandbox to fool around in and jumped in for a quick good time. The more I played, the more I realized that I was lied to in a genius way. There was so much more that the game was, it was living a hidden double life. By the end of the game, as I told myself I would do as much as humanly possible before reaching the end, I had experienced almost every single human emotion in the spectrum I think a person can feel in there life. The wonder, discover and story that unfolds to you is nothing short of a pinnacle of game design and storytelling. I believe that Outer Wilds is a testament of what gaming can be, and what the majority of the gaming industry isn't. It is a dire wake up call, but with a solution. It chants doom and gloom in a way, but not leaving you high and dry without an answer to the doom. It may just be one of the most important video games to every happen in the history of video games, right along with Legend of Zelda, Super Mario 64, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII. This is not by any stretch a flamboyant hyperbole. Once you play Outer Wilds, your perception of what is reality, what is truth, what is meaning is subject to change, and your ability to play other games that are much more safe and 'inside the box' is altered. It is the reason I think Starfield did not deliver for me, and that I think so many AAA games are falling short. The little indie game that could absolutely deconstructed and reestablished the very personal mantra that is responsible for why I enjoy video games and creative media and storytelling. You authentically feel like the author of your own tale, your own experiences, and your own discovery. There isn't a narrator, there isn't a tutorial, there isn't an expositional dump that characters conveniently provide to you to make sure you aren't lost. The game has no problem leaving you lost, because it always provides a way for you to be found. I am torn because I believe without a doubt this game is in my Top 10 favorite games of all time, I feel that it deserves to be in my Top 5. I think that other games have legacies, nostalgia and a plethora of entries in there series that maintain their high personal appraisal in my list. On paper, everything I have to say about the game (including things I didn't mention in this message) absolutely outclass most of my Top 10, and some things... would outclass all of them. What i suspect is that overtime, I think the game will grow more and more. Perhaps if one day I look at the stars on a tall mountain and feel closer to the cosmic heavens... I will remember Outer Wilds. Maybe when I encounter a moment in my life that is dangerous and leaves me feeling vulnerable... I will remember Outer Wilds. I may find myself one day being a father, looking upon my child as the most valuable entity in my life that I want to have prepared for the world as much as I can, worrying each and every day what may happen as they pursue the unknown uncertain adventure of life... I might... just maybe... think about Outer Wilds even then. It is just a video game, of course it is. It isnt what Outer Wilds is materialistically, it is what Outer Wilds is philosophically and what metaphysical lessons and growth can occur when you experience the games portrayal of what life is like. I think that is the most valuable thing you can ever have, is the experience fear, triumphing courage, curisosity, connecting the dots, pain, sadness, confusion, excitement, wonder and love. Outer Wilds, Mobius Digital, Annapurna Interactive... thank you from the bottom of my heart for one of the most important discoveries and experiences of my life. I shall make music, think of storytelling and maybe game ideas with the perspective of the world and life that Outer Wilds helped me see clearly and vividly. - A fellow explorer of the outer wilds.
You don't actually need the exact timing for the one at 51:47, on my first playthrough before watching stuff on yt, I actually managed to fly through the cactus room on my second or third attempt
A lot of why Outer Wilds is such magic is how almost everything is diagetic. Everything that matters happens in the game world, not in menus or synthetic UI elements. As you note, your character is experiencing the time loop same as you are, so seemingly bizarre choices like throwing yourself into the sun when you're ready to skip to the next loop fits into the game's world. The only gameplay exception I can think of is "meditate until next loop" being accessed via a menu. Yet it still has an in-universe justification, being a technique taught to you by the only other being who is aware of the time loop, Gabbro. One possible way to seemlessly bring it into the game itself might be having a button to close your eyes. Once you have the second conversation with Gabbro about the time loop where he reveals you the secret of meditation, maybe holding your eyes closed for some period of time would trigger the meditation effect instead. Being able to close your eyes would probably have some potential knock-on effects with how quantum teleportation works, but I don't see (ha!) it being an insurmountable challenge. I mean, in the base game, if the Quantum Moon is orbiting Giants Deep when you start a given loop, it'll already blink away in as you blink yourself awake.
I agree completely that the diegetic nature of Outer Wilds is what makes it so special, and I'm hoping it's something other developers will take notice of. The exception to this is the 'meditate' option, which I also mentioned in the video as un unfortunate odd-one-out. My idea was a button to remove your helmet in space, but I think yours is better - a button to close your eyes makes a lot of intuitive sense and would fit in quite nicely to the quantum puzzles. Now that you mention it, I'm quite surprised the devs didn't come up with that themselves - perhaps they tried it and there was some reason it wasn't working. Anyway, thanks for the comment and I hope you enjoyed the video.
46:35 oh you think you can only access the black hole forge via teleport? This is actually one thing I brute forced long before figuring out how the towers worked. I got frustrated and after some messing around I managed to land upside down on the gravity flooring, it's actually not difficult to do 😅
I'd actually argue, that the repetition of already played content, always brought me to some urgency in me maneuvering, since I didn't want to go all the way again.. it's kind of the feeling back in the old days when there was no quick save option, but only fixed save points and you would encounter a particularly difficult and/or long sequence you just couldn't manage for several times, but at the same time creeping towards managing it eventually
Waiting for air to run out in space - its easy to boost to some random body and crashdie, alternatively, when the booster runs out, oxygen will be used.
I disagree that Outer Wilds has no replayability. Its replay value is practically unlimited because watching other people blindly play it and watching videos like this is so much fun. Not as fun as playing the game but close enough :D And I agree about creating a new genre. I've been saying that myself. There should be a new genre, maybe called Wilds-like? XD Great video! More video about Outer Wilds means more spoilers but also more chances that more people will play it :)
Well said! Watching other people play Outer Wilds for the first time is the closest you can get to experiencing it again for yourself, and I've enjoyed watching a couple of playthroughs myself. I've heard the new Wilds-like genre being called 'Metroid-brainia' due to the progression that takes place in your head, but I can't really see that catching on (because it's terrible). Thanks so much for the comment and the kind words!
@@ErumoreI kinda dig the term "Metroidbrainia." If you know what a Metroidvania is, and I tell you the elevator pitch of Outer Wilds being a "Metroidvania but all of the upgrades you unlock are pure knowledge," Metroidbrainia just clicks.
34:58 I sympathize with the desire for a "remove helmet" option, I thought about that the whole time I played. However, I would much rather go through a menu to do so, rather than accidentally pressing the kill button. Although it's not an instant death (you can re-enter your ship from anywhere w/o a suit if you're quick enough) the consequences and effort necessary to make this action do not balance out to a single button imo.
55:50 If you are looking for an experience similar to Outer Wilds id recommend The Forgotten City. Its significantly more dialogue heavy but the core concept is the same. You are trapped in a loop and you need to find out why and how, and just like Outer Wilds I cant really say anything else about it without spoiling it.
I know this is a year ago and nobody cares but it's Timber Hearth pronounced Harth. Like the hearth of a home or Fireplace. Hence it being the name of your Home planet and also the location of the fire you start at.
Pyst was definitely not the first parody video game. The 1986 text adventure The Boggit: Bored Too was a parody of the 1982 text adventure The Hobbit and was released over a decade before 1997 Pyst. There were several others too.
Yeah, this game is fucking awesome. Unfortunately, I watched someone else play it blind, rather than doing so myself. It’s literally one of my greatest regrets in life, to this point. Which I guess says things about my life, as well as this game.
I want to preface by saying I absolutely enjoyed your video, you did a great job in making it! However it seems you have a slight misunderstanding of how/why the timeloop started. In the video, you talk about how the sun going supernova kickstarted the timeloop, and that the Nomai intended to send the involved Nomai into the timeloop as well, once the Orbital Probe Cannon started firing. This isn't quite right however; the Nomai actually didn't intend for any of them to be apart of the timeloop, their initial plan was to solely let the Ash Twin Project be in a timeloop, so that they could keep searching for the Eye of the Universe without having to be aware of the many many years they would need to search for. The statues which was intended to drag the Nomai, and subsequently dragged the player into the timeloop, only active AFTER the Eye of the Universe has been found. So the idea was that they could cause the sun to go supernova repeatedly until the eye of the universe was found, after which the statues would inform the Nomai that it has been found, and they would then cancel the sunstation's firing, so from their perspective, they never actually make the sun go supernova, but are about to, and then stop last moment.
That point on immersion - I run into so many story-based (i.e. walking simulator games) that try to spice themselves up with other types of gameplay, and every single time, it's an annoying fight minigame, a distracting mini-puzzle that belongs in a mobile game, or bargain basement guitar hero. If you want your walking sim to have more involving gameplay, MAKE IT AN ADVENTURE GAME
I love how you *don't* need to know about the cyclones on Giant's Deep. They're totally optional. You can instead just go full-throttle out of the system for 6-7 minutes, then turn around and burn directly towards Giant's Deep. Don't stop. Don't slow down. Plow your ship directly into the unseen ball of evil and break though the current by sheer force. It's not how I did it, because I'm a coward and I would prefer chilling outside the Sun Station over touching Giant's Deep, but it's *a* way of getting into Giant's Deep.
Minor clarification to something you either said mistakenly or implied accidentally in your wording: The sun exploding is not the thing that causes the player to bond with the statue, its the success of the Ash Twin Project. This is shown in game because of the 9 million probes sent out before the player ever experiences the loop occurring. They didn't plan to send the Nomai back in time with the probe data every time. They planned for the Nomai to be brought into the loop when the project either succeeded or failed. The player and Gabbro are brought into the loop because the Ash Twin project succeeded. It did succeed, it found the Eye after approx 9 million probes had been sent and then activated the other Nomai statues to bring the (originally planned) Nomai in to shut off the project.... If the project succeeded or failed. Though both the success and failure scenarios would have resulted in the same twisted fate had they not brought someone in to stop the project. The game never clearly defines what the failure state of the project is though, it can't be the sun exploding because that was the plan for the Sun Station before it was proven to not work - maybe they had a counter limiting the number of probes sent out. e.g. maybe they declared 10 million probes was enough to stop. Also specifically its approx 280 thousand years since the Noami were wiped out by the interloper..
Was a Myst player...wandered away from videogames for decades. I came back to video games because of tales of SubNautica and Outerwilds. I hope hope its a genre...but as I found both to be creative products with amazing lighthand at purposeful creative writing that added emotion and clues, explorations of landscapes and artefacts, knowledge gathering and investment, I worry that subsequent games in the "genre" will copy features, lose or misuse essential components. I can hope that some will be artworks...but fear a generation of pale copies and misses and false promise. Appreciate your analyses! Helps me see more features that captured me....but makes me worry more that there are not multiple ways to produce such satisfaction. Among other things. Are such moments of creation, when from years of work across so many people at a developing company, more serendipity than plan? B
I watched this video yesterday but needed to come back because I just watched one that was in extremely bad faith and missed so many elements of the themes and in-universe explanations that I needed a pallet cleanser from someone who gets it.
I might say that riven is a closer spiritual predecessor than myst. same general idea but I think the discovery and mechanics are more refined. they really figured out what they were doing
although, I recently replayed myst in VR and I was surprised at how well suited it was. I think it adds some of that three dimensionality you mentioned. it helps place you within the world (literally as well, I guess)
Your intro is amazing and (other than the first few seconds of showing the universe), not spoilery, but still persuasive. Is it possible for you to create a new video of *just* the first 4minutes 22seconds of this video so we can pass it to others to get them to play the game without inviting the possibility of them to continue watching and spoiling it for themselves?
Thanks for the comment; this is the video I'm most proud of on my channel and it means a lot when somebody considers it worthy of their attention. I've just uploaded this video's intro to my second channel (Erumoremore), which you should be able to get to from my main channel page. I hope I'm not too late for this to be useful to you.
Breath of the Wild doens't negate any need to familiarise yourself with the game world. Game game is full of your interacting with the world and exploring it. Quests that require you to speak to NPCs and find specific landmarks that the game doens't mark for you. Memories to collect that you can only obtain by understanding key landmarks and surroundings. Items and enemies you have to spot and find first to take pictures of. The stables you dont see on the map until you find them. The game was deeemd revolutionary because it does the things you claim it doesn't (though not alwaysI. Like in the real world, we use maps to find locations we are unfamiliar with or we follow roads. Zelda lets you do either, but even then you have to be very aware of the world around you. The map in Breath of the Wild is no different to us using ones to drive around our respective countries. Maps have existed for centuries, so I find it hard to feel like this is as immersion breaking as you claim - though I agree the inventory screens do do this.. The strength of an open world game isn't whether it has a map or not, its whether that map gets used less over time in relation to your familiarity of spaces in that world growing over time. I never used the map to find Kakariko as most of the early hours of that game were you exploring it on foot, seeing all the things you could find. The map only becomes useful as a tool for fast travelling later and for seeing where you've been, which is really a resolution for scale. They could have dialled back this scale but its never going to be at the minute level of Outer Wilds because there themes and systems are fundamentally different. This scale is also indicative of the artistics themes that Nintendo were going for with this game, whether you love it or hate it. On a related note, a lot of people do not have the spacial awareness to navigate a world off memory. Even Outer Wilds has a marker system in it for this very reason which is really no different than Zelda's approach, albeit with the log instead of map. I can recall physical spaces (or digital spaces in this case) like the back of my hand, but my brother who loves games, as well as my wife, suffer from getting lost way too easily. Making your game accessible for these people isn't a bad thing or inherently not trusting of players, but I also don't think a game has to accommodate all people either (though obviously accessibility is a big thing to keep in mind). Maybe I rambled based ona. small comment you made, but I found it a little odd when BotW's map goes hand in hand with the discovery of its world space (despite the fact I don't think that game is perfect by any means).
I'm curious as to why your genre-timeline starts with Myst and leads to Outer Wilds, but doesn't include any of the Myst-likes in subsequent years: not only the direct sequels, but spiritual successors like Obduction and the very new Firmament also developed by Cyan. Outer Wilds beats them hands-down (still need to play Firmament,) for reasons including "you can't fly a spaceship and no the selenitic age entrance doesn't count," but they all share that fundamental Myst DNA imo.
I haven't played any of the sequels to Myst so I can't speak about them individually, but they can be implicitly added to that chart. In any case, Myst is the original and the one that caused the biggest cultural splash and so it makes for the best comparison to Outer Wilds for my purposes in this video. My understanding of the sequels is that they offer more of the same (which is not a bad thing), whereas Outer Wilds feels like something incredibly new and exciting, even if it does borrow some ideas from older classics. I wasn't trying to create an exhaustive list of games in this genre by any means (although I still maintain that the full list would be a very short one).
Witcher 3 is quite egregious with its reliance on markers and big spaces for the sake of it, but in spite of that at least its narrative, side quests and characters are extremely strong, still the best in the industry. But I wholeheartedly agree, I want more open worlds that are mysteries to explore like Outer Wilds.
i would recommend Return of the Obra Dinn as another observational and environmental knowledge gathering game. extremely good deduction and reasoning game
41:40 this whole concept about how a first play through is going to be the best and most emotional is also true of nearly any survival horror title. They lose their scare factor once you play through and know what's coming 🙄
There’s actually a reason the ship log stores information on multiple loops. Hal has dialogue on the first loop that explains that Hornfels made your computer out of a piece of your statue that Gabbro broke off.
Thanks for pointing this out, I missed that completely! I'm pleased to hear that the developers already thought of this and accounted for it. It just goes to show the detail and thought that went into making every part of the game consistent.
Thanks for explaining
Woah this makes no sense but there's actually an explanation! How did I miss that?
@@plum8503 to clarify: the ship log is made out of the computer *inside* the statue which is responsible for sending info from the statue to the ATP
Blew my mind when I first learned this ! Props to the devs !!
One strange emergent effect of the time loop was, despite knowing I'm under time pressure, I almost always felt like I had all the time in the universe. I had what we call "big Gabbro energy."
This is one thing I think Outer Wilds does subtly better than Breath of the Wild. In BotW, you start off the game knowing for every second you spend taking pictures of foxes, Zelda is suffering. In Outer Wilds, you can beat the game in one loop or a million loops and the Eye will still be waiting patiently for you when you get there.
I agree completely, and I still think Outer Wilds might be the best example I've ever seen of an uninterrupted connection between the player and their character. It's going to be a long time before another experience as immersive as this one comes along.
I also find the loop keeps you from being listless and stale. You might spend hours lost in the mountains in botw wondering if you have seen enough and "Should i turn back now? Have i seen everything?" Whereas if you spend too much time on brittle hollow you get booted back to the campfire and you can decide whether you think it's worth to go back or if you feel like doing something else. It can be hard for me to decide whether to give up on a particular thing and making me step back and have that choice presented can be a welcome thing, especially when frustration sets in
In reflecting on this game and my recent approaches to life problems I think I've come to realize that this game helped me accept situations as they are a lot better. I mean if something is a certain way and there's nothing you can do about it there not really much point in complaining, albiet it in outerwilds that's more to an extreme extent i.e. being born into a dying universe but still.
Fun fact, the only "real loop" is the loop where you go to the eye (at least in the base game cause i havent completed the dlc yet)
The other loop you play is just the memories of hatchlings of those time lines coming to the hatchling of the loop where he goes to the eye
kinda scary if u think abt it
@@sleeper6548yeah exactly! especially if you jump in the black hole in the ATP, it kinda confirms that (aside from the last loop) we only see the memories. if you ever try to leave while the loop is active, your memories still get sucked back 22 minutes, but there’s a still version of the hatchling flying away from the supernova, wondering why the time loop didn’t happen this time!
thanks for giving me yet another outer wilds essay to listen to on a regular basis
Thanks for this comment, I'm truly flattered that somebody considers one of my videos worthy of multiple views!
@@Erumore As someone who played the game you can surely understand that it's a treat to have (pretty much any) content piece about it exist. As you don't get a second playthrough, stuff that's auxiliary to the game can still be really amazing.
I was at the edge of tears at the end of this game. The deep insight of how time is finite and precious hit me like a train. A beautiful piece of art. I appreciate the strong recommendation
Time is an illusion. Now is eternal.
Spoilers for the ending:
Near the end of my play through, I made it to the center of ash twin. I had somewhat figured out what the warp core did, but I pulled it out without knowing the full ramifications of what I was doing, nor a clue what laid in the heart of dark bramble, nor the quantum moon. I pulled it out, and THAT music started playing, I realized if I continued with the core pulled out that would most likely be the end for me. In a moment of denial since I still had more to do, I shoved the core back in, and continued playing.
thats awesome! i didnt know you could do that. I thouhgt at this moment, well its now or never. But i can totally see your reaction.
I did exactly the same thing
Yeah, that music kicking in when you pull it was terrifying for me, even though I knew what I was going to do with it. Was like, well, better not waste any time 😂
You're probably right that it's a good thing they didn't use the quantum puzzles, but I would love it if someone did create a game based on quantum logic. The quantum stuff was some of my favourite parts of the game and I would love to play around with it more.
The first time I made that jump in Giant's Deep it didn't occur to me to wait for a twister (or I was impatient 😂). I got back in my ship and went under the water and then tried to land on the far side. I can't remember if I got it to work, or if the island got hit by a storm while I was trying 😂.
One great thing about the fundamental design of the world, is that it's not only immersive, but the fact that the time loop limits each run to 22min, means that i can fully enjoy the game even if i only have time to play 30-40 min a day. Games like Subnautica or Breath of the wild need such a huge investment of time, it's almost impossible to get into.
As an almost graduated CS student, with a heavy gaming background during my upbringing, I think OW has inspired me in several levels. I've always looked up to wonder about our place in the universe, the how and what behind all of it. At first here on earth, later in life, out there in space. Only now that I'm older I realize how astronomically small our lives are. To occupy, what, a fraction of a century, a century at best? It's too small a window to really take in all the universe have to offer. Yet OW manages to bring all of this sense of grandeur and insignificance to a rationale, a middle ground, a way to come to terms with it. My two favorite phrases from this game sum this up pretty neatly, I think (from my two favorite characters): "The universe is, and we are", and that's all there is to it, and that's not bad or good or wrong or anything, it just is the way things are. Everything surrounding the human experience is inherently small, because those who experience it are indeed, small. But there's solace in that: the problems are even smaller, every hardship becomes a stub, a pebble, a dent. As for the wins? "The future is always built on the past, even if we don't get to see it". All the actions, experiences, accomplishments and achievements of someone, can only be experienced by that same person, through a very short and minuscule window of time. Experience, is usually the way we like to measure things (take a picture, or it didn't happen; you had to be there; you'll believe it once you see it). But that's only because we're naturally constrained to our minds and our bodies, and we'll go as far as they can go. My grandma won't get to see me graduate, marry, move out, get a car, get a family, get fame or die; but her influence is still here with me, even after she's gone, dictating part of or the full extent of every decision I make. The individual human experience is frail and short, but the complete human experience is collaborative, a torch of some sort, similar of that inadvertently passed on by the Nomai to the Hearthians. The insignificance of individuality to make our problems even smaller, the grandeur of being a collective that makes the few wins somehow bigger than the achiever.
I truly want more games like this. I believe Outer Wilds is the inspiration I needed for a lot of things, making myself a game developer being among them. I'll try to remember to report back if I make significant progress, if the channel still exists by then, and if "then" ever comes. This video was beautifully written, and gave me the last bit of perspective I needed to reignite my motivation. Thank you for making it, and thank you for reading.
Thank you for this beautiful comment - I mean that sincerely. Outer Wilds can be a profoundly touching game and it means a lot to me that someone out there was moved or inspired by a video of my creation. I'd love to hear about the progress you make with development, and any game that's influenced by Outer Wilds is one I'd be happy to wishlist. Good luck on your journey.
"Everything that the player experiences is diegetic" is a fancy way of stating one of the main brilliant design aspects of Outer Wilds. It's what this essay calls immersion - the fact that everything that happens in game is also happening to the character. This is justified very well through the use of the time loop and further brilliantly expanded through ideas such as you having to break the loop and risk permanent death in order to finish the game. Because you identify so tightly with your character at this point, this decision becomes genuinely stressful to a degree that few other games manage to invoke.
And if you've ever actually died in the first part of the game (before ever talking to hornfels and seeing the nomai statue), you know that if you actually see the "YOU DIED" screen, you do not get to "resume expedition." You have to start a completely new game.
When you take out the core of the Ash Twin Project, for a moment you might be afraid that the game might really reset back to the beginning if you fail. For a moment, you're just as scared as your character.
(This isn't actually true, you get to load previous save, and I guess that kinda breaks immersion, but I think that's a necessary evil since it's a rare case where the immersion-breaking is worth it since the alternative would be very frustrating).
My favourite spot on description of this game is that it’s a “Metroidbrainia”. You unlock ways to do new things and access new areas, but all of those tools are simply knowledge of how to do it.
It must have taken so much talent to design a system where that isn’t obtuse or unintuitive.
Just heard this term recently for the first time. I love it!
The thing that stands out to me about Outer Wilds' open world is that it's an example of a small infinity. There are infinite paths to take, and distances to travel but all the important stuff is densely packed. I think the space setting really helps with that because there's less need for filler. GTA needs miles and miles of boring city blocks, because that's what cities are. Skyrim needs miles of empty wilderness, because that's how the world works. Outer Wilds gets to keep so much of the "in-between" empty because space is empty, so you never feel like you're being tricked into believing there's more than there is. In reality, you're more likely to be surprised by how much there is on what originally looks like a barren planet.
the exact same "black hole moment" happened to me as well, and it turned into a game i invented called "black hole jumping" as a pastime
I thought the Attlerock was the tutorial so I spent the whole game learning as I went. Also, Outer Wilds is the video game equivalent of losing your virginity or trying a drug for the first time. It will never be as good as the first time.
39:05 "ships log breaks immersion" it does not, lore explains that the ship's storage system actually uses a piece of one of the nomai head statues which explains why it retains information past the time loop as the information is actually sent back in time when the sun goes supernova
And it's hinted at visually, by having the same blue flashing lines of light (that you see when you die and loop back to the beginning) going up into the screen whenever you enter the ship
Came to the comments to say this. I think one of the NPCs on timber hearth mentions that a piece of a nomai statue chipped off when Gabbro brought it back from giant’s deep, and he stuck it to your ship. I forgot which hearthian mentions this though
It's less immersive, and not full 3d, but I think Tunic is a good example of a game that came after outer wilds that uses knowledge gating well.
Bro this deserves so many more views, i was very surprised to see it had around 700 views when i assumed it have atleast 10k, great video, i subbed
This is the video I'm most proud of on my channel, so it means a lot to get a comment like this. Glad you enjoyed and stay tuned for more!
It was refreshing to play this after the gargantuan disappointment that was TOTK.
The only other games I would describe as knowledge-based metroidvanias are The Witness and Toki Tori 2.
Went into this video expecting stuff I've already heard from other RUclipsrs on the subject (this isn't a criticism I've just watched way too many Outer Wilds video essays)...but you did say alot of new stuff. You really went into detail about what other open worlds are doing wrong, and while I think your criticisms of other games are little extreme at times it definitely gets me thinking. I don't think a map is inherently bad for many games, it just depends on what type of game you are making...Maps don't always break my immersion and not all games put immersion first. But I do Ii agree with your main point. I especially agree with you on constant map markers and hand holding...its disgusting and un-artistic. Definitely think you deserve more views for all the work you put into this. I think alot of smaller RUclipsrs would agree...the RUclips algorithm is bizarre, it's not really about quality. RUclips really doesn't care about us. I'll share this on Twitter.
Thanks so much for the kind words, and I'm very grateful for the support! It's true that not every game is striving for immersion at the cost of everything else, but at the other end of the scale is something like Assassin's Creed, where the open world is nothing more than a content-delivery vehicle. I was fairly critical of Breath of the Wild's map even though I think it's probably one of the best open world games that's ever been made, but I suppose I wanted to point out the contrast between that and Outer Wilds, where you're always seeing things from your character's point of view (even when you die).
I'm trying to focus on quality over quantity, and make the kind of videos that I would want to watch. I think the RUclips algorithm tends to reward and promote channels that have a rapid release schedule (which I don't). I guess I'm hoping that if I keep making quality videos then the right audience will find them eventually. That's kind of you to share this on Twitter, I appreciate it very much!
@@Erumore I am in the same boat.
@@Erumorea good map would be Metro exodus's, in world, minimal details
@@ErumoreKeep focusing on quality over quantity! Little Joel talked about this in a video recently, saying among other things that it leads to more sustainable success, and it gave me a lot of hope :)
A true masterpiece. The last time I was this impressed with game design was Thief 2 in 2000.
I agree with your points on game design, HUD and map icons are the bain of modern game design.
'Less' is often 'more'.
Regarding the ships log point you raised, it's percistance is explained within the game lore, the engineer used a shard of the Nomai statue in order to make the ships computer, one of the Hathians you can find explains this. The game has a reason for almost everything.
Great video, thanks.
15:01 that nomai body was put there on purpose. It's underneath the bridge connecting the two warp towers, and is suppose to be a hint about how to get in the ATP ;)
17:14 this final loop music has been my alarm clock ever since I finished the game, like 2 or 3 years ago.
Why would you want to wake up to such stressful memories? I'd rather wake up to Timber Hearth's banjo.
My first loop I went to Attlerock. I was cautiously exploring the edge of the giant crater on the bottom when the sun went. Perspective made me think it was something on the moon itself that I'd accidentally activated and try to get away. It did not work 😂😂
i love traversal in outer wilds, one of my favorite challenges on the twins and on brittle hollow was to try to achieve a stable orbit extremely low. travel so fast that you are falling toward the planet just as fast as you are flying away from it
I'm halfway through the video, and I'm glad I chose to watch the rest of it before trying the game. I have some mental disabilities that often prevent me from picking up hints or subtle clues, or deducing how they all fit together, so the waypoints in open world games are a welcome thing for me, removing the stress and frustration of wandering around and missing everything, not for lack of searching for it or trying to piece it together, but an inability to do so, and hours of wasted time if not abandoning the game altogether. I do absolutely love Subnautica, but without a walkthrough, I would never have never been able to finish that game. It was only in the next run, after following a walkthrough and finishing the game once that I was able to piece together all the clues I found because then I know where they're all leading. Outer Wilds sounds like one of those games I'll need a walkthrough for. I know that ruins the experience of discovery, but "discovery" for me is just a stressful experience of losing the trail over and over and not knowing how to get back on track.
This was a great video. Looking forward to the Echoes of the Eye vid!
Thanks so much, I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment! You might be happy to hear that the Echoes of the Eye video is already out; you should be able to see it from my channel page.
@@Erumore ahhhhh. I'll go check it out. This vid also reminded me I need to play Myst and Riven again lol.
@39:04 I am going to blow your mind. The computer retains the information you gather in previous loops because of the Nomai wiring and hard rive that glows on the computer. I forget what NPC or Data log mentions this but a Hearthian discovered the Nomai Drive and installed it in the spaceship. That's why it retains what you have done.
'not every experience is meant to go on forever' could be an integral part to the lore. good choice of words.
These are the video essays that outer wilds truly deserves. Fantastic video! ::)
hearing the end loop music at the start of part 6 put me in fight or flight mode and i havent even fucking played the game in a few years now
Great analysis! I also appreciated Outer Wild’s use of misdirection, where the incomplete set of clues leads to all sorts of wrong guesses about what the endgame will be. That journey really made the experience more personal and impactful.
Astonishing writting. I do not know if developers played Outer Wilds and take ideas for their games, but i would love more Outer Wilds like games.
About your Myst comparision, problem with Myst is that every puzzle has a solution that only matters for a specific puzzle, artificial. The train puzzle solution are just directions, not methods to complete the puzzle. You do not learn, you obtain a code. Solutions are not numbers or directions, but general knowledge about the game, even if only used once. Tornados that rotate in the reverse direction feels like a "code" but it is not. It is a explanation on how things works.
You might say that Myst's solutions are like keys, while Outer Wilds' solutions are (often) more like picking the lock. One gives you the code, the other gives you the tools to make/break the code.
@@TlalocTemporal the main difference is how those puzzles are integrated in the game. OW is diegetic, strange word i know. When you find a pannel in Myst with buttons and rotating objects, you know that is a puzzle. However in OW you find a tornado and do not even know that is a puzzle. Or you want to explore a cave that is a labyrinth. Of course some can be artificial like ghost matter placement but even that has sense.
The Witness do a strange but awesome idea. Those pannels are common in the islands, so much common that they are integrated
Holy crap, I love when I accidentally stumble on a hidden gem channel like this. You've put out amazing and consistent content so far, despite the very few views. This video was recommended by the algorithm, so I hope your channel will finally be picking up speed and get recommended to more people. Keep up your work, it will be properly appreciated soon enough!!
49:34 I like this idea, "Each key opens just one lock", but I think it's a little more complicated than that.
edit: well this is what I get for writing a comment before finishing the video. You mentioned three of six things I mentioned here in your video, but I'll keep the comment up in its original form anyway.
Most of the actual gameplay "keys" that the game tells you have just one lock, I agree. But some important insights that you make by yourself can have multiple applicable "locks".
To get to the High Energy Lab, you need to pass a row of cactuses, and the only way to do so is to wait for the sand to fill up and cover the cactuses. This same trick is used to get to the sun station warp.
To get to the top floors of the Tower of Quantum Knowledge, you need to wait until it goes into space and you have 0g to be able to traverse it. The same trick is used to get to the top section of the Giant's Deep Statue Island where Nomai debate the philosophy of sending a person back in time vs sending their memories back in time.
To get to Feldspar's camp, you need to shoot a scout through a Dark Bramble seed and notice that it's in two places at once, and follow its marker when you get to Dark Bramble. Alternatively, you can just follow the signalscope to his harmonica. To get to the Nomai escape pod and Vessel, you need to use BOTH of these ideas; the signalscope to the escape pod, and the scout trick to the Vessel.
I really like the way they used these double-keys, because they feel not only natural, but also used in slightly different ways. The sand cactus trick is used once while the sand is rising, and once while the sand is falling. The 0g trick is used once after a piece of the environment falls into 0g, and once after a piece of the environment gets flung upward into 0g. The early scout/signalscope tricks in Dark Bramble are used once interchangeably to find a Hearthian, and both are used to find the Nomai crashes.
I totally missed the shortcut at 30:08 while playing!
Great video! I play video games since the 70s in arcades and the 80s in home consoles and computers, and having just finished OW and the DLC, I can say sincerely that good games like it that don't hold your hand are really rare nowadays. That was the one of the reasons I liked games like Dark Souls and its sequels (the other being how you discovered the lore, via text in items, the environment, etc.)
In the really old games there was usually no hand holding (or even instructions, hah!), but also a lot were badly designed and only through (recent) videos I've seen their endings.
And as you said at the end of the video, I really do wish for this kind of game to become a genre :)
Brilliant video mate! So well observed and balanced, and your passion for the game really shines through. Completely agree that Outer Wilds is something that most people, myself included, have been waiting to play for years. It also manages that rare feat that so few games manage to achieve nowadays, that of true innovation. It pretty much reinvents the wheel when it comes to player engagement and exploration, especially when compared to most modern, so-called ‘open world’ games. I really appreciated the use of The Witcher 3 as an example, as it is by no means a bad game (I put 175 hours into it, and probably will do again), but it is limited by this bizarre mould of ‘big map, fast travel, tick off activity and repeat’ that seems to be the only style of AAA game that studios make now. Let's hope its as you say, and that Outer Wilds will open the way for more games like it. Also I loved the JoJo reference when discussing Zelda’s inventory pause menu.
I love how discovery at your own pace works so well in Outer Wilds
Personally I'd argue that the better comparison to Outer Wilds is not Myst but Riven. Myst tries to convey a world, but it feels more like a puzzlebox. In Riven, you have a whole world, there's social dynamics in the background, there's Ghen's experimenting with recreating the ability to write Ages, there's cultural icons and so on. (One major difference, though, and I'm told it's a very deliberate choice, is that Outer Wilds avoids having stuff that exists purely for lore reasons. There's a reason my Outer Wilds notebook is pretty focused on stuff that's relevant to the game's big mysteries, while my Riven notebook from way back has several pages that are just sketches and notes on the Rivenese people and their artwork that just...has no bearing on the actual game, and are just meant to make them feel real.)
Beautifully written. Thank you for this.
Thank you. This is the video that I am most proud of on my channel, and Outer Wilds is a game that means a lot to me. It makes my day to hear that people think I did it justice.
4:24 I set my alarm clock to timber hearth like 6 months ago, and this genuinely made me jump
Huh i had almost the same experience with the black hole in brittle hollow. I was at the parkour place leading to hnging city a i missed a jump and started falling down to the black hole, I remember thinking: I am so close to that place(hanging city) and i'll die and have to search for it again, thakfully i reacted fast enough to get to the beam and save myself, i became quite terrified of going to that parkou place. Eventually i fell off into the black hole( i think it was when i tried to brute force my way into the forge(i missed the place where the control panel was)) and by the time i realized that i would fall into it i gave up fighting and was waiting for the next loop, only to realize black holes werent deadly lol😂
I like how many people talk so much about this masterpiece, i even start to cry a little when i hear a main theme because its so deep (and meaning of main theme changes so much when you finally understand what stands behind the plot), and i see that we still have so many NOT braindead people
Another great knowledge-based progression game("metroidbrainia") is Tunic.
"Breaking immersion" is a actually one of its main features, done amazingly.
Something interesting about puzzle design in outer wilds is that the text after a puzzle often explains what the puzzle required so a player who lucks into the solution walks away with the knowledge they needed in the first place.
I suffered anxiety throughout the entirety of this game. Every single planet gripped me with fear, but I forged ahead anyway. It hits so many of my buttons, and not in a good way.
But the overwhelming sense of curiosity, exploration, and wonder helped me to overcome all that, which allowed me to experience something amazing.
Currently playing the DLC, and it's just as wondrous and nerve-wracking.
If you haven't played it yet, I 100% insist that you should, even if it's not your typical preferred game. Because it's *_anything_* but typical.
All these years later and i’m still learning new things about this game
You just taught me that there’s actually 2 trails to the southern pole on Brittle Hollow, the other route has a cool puzzle where you need to get around some ghost matter by leaping off the wall and onto an upright platform then leap back onto the wall on the other side of the ghost matter
That leap you showed isn’t on that path
Re: computer remembering your progress between loops as an example of breaking immersion, that actually also has an in-game explanation. You will notice that the little blue flashes that tell you there's new information look just like all the other cables connected to the ATP. The computer is connected to the server and the information is recorded and preserved. (How they built that computer without knowing what the ATP is is maybe a stretch)
The memory banks are made from a piece of the memory statue that Gabbro accidentally broke off, as ot was found to have very good information storage capacity. Since the memory statue can communicate wireless with the ATP and the paired observer, and it works with observers from entirely separate trees of life, I don't think it's a big stretch that it can communicate with distant parts of itself, or record arbitrary information.
This is really good, glad it was in my recommended! Looking forward to checking out your EotE commentary after this, curious to hear your thoughts. Subscribed!
almost everything in this game has an explanation, you either have to remember it from one of the dialogs or connected something together with the clues you are given
its amazing
Well said my friend. Outer Wilds sits in a place in my mind that only a few other games do: games of a specific genre that can never be beaten so I've given up looking for an alternative to scratch that itch. This sits amongst Hollow Knight (the best Metroidvania) and Stardew Valley (the best Farming Game) as being the best of its class (space sim/exploration). No surprise all three of these are indie/non-AAA titles and I own on all three on multiple consoles/devices. The only other games that sit in that place for me are so wonderfully tinted by nostalgia (e.g. A Link to the Past) yet all of these came out long past my formative years (im now almost 40).
7:35 Or maybe you don't even make it off the planet because your ship was destroyed by the orbital probe being shot straight into it.
Yes, that can happen.
Part of the reason I love Morrowind so much is bc Bethesda hadn’t adopted that hand holdy map marker bullshit yet. Just like the scrawlings on the cave walls beneath the crust of the Ember Twin, people give you directions to important locations. They’ll tell you about a landmark, and to turn left at it, etc., and I’ve always adored that
Both waiting for the tower of quantum knowledge and the giants deep statue cave, happened completely by accident for me
Immersion in video essay broken. Video says you need to understand how Ash Twin Teleporters work to access the black hole forge. I just saw that the "room" was upside down and landed my ship on the ceiling. It wasn't until I was on my last handful of loops that I found the teleporter to the BHF and smacked my forehead, then decided I was still right because getting the forge into position, then flying to AT to TP back was silly.
(Have some engagement for an old video from a new OW player :)
Who here tried flying their ship upside down to the top floor of the hanging city?
That's how I got there! I didn't even find out you could warp there until I had already finished the game. I assumed you would just warp to the same platform the white hole station warped you
Even better about that canonising death point is that Hearthian culture is just going out and doing things, consequences be damned, they talk about destructive events like it’s just another tuesday and seem to care more about cutting down some random tree that’s in the way a little compared to the possibility of your ship burning down the launch pad, so OF COURSE the player character, the hatchling, would just go out and do crazy stuff if they were in a time loop, that’s what Hearthians do! That’s why Feldspar is so legendary for his daringness, that’s why your ship is shoddily made out of wood parts duct taped together until it decides to work
Really, the one thing that would be out of character in Outer Wilds would be playing it safe, trying to not die
whaaaat no way actual mistake in video about super confusing space game? xD
12:02 the ash twin project wasn't meant to send the conceusnesses of the scientists back unless either the mission succeeded or there was some critical problem so that they could shut it off, in your case you're being sent back because the mission succeeded (the first loop is the one directly after the one that captured the eye, that's why the statue activates.)
edit: since you mentioned it near the end there is 1 game that has an experience that is at least somewhat similiar, tunic. it has traditional metroidvania elements as well but especially in the endgame it's a lot about knowledge, and it feels special for exactly that reason.
Played this sometime in 2021-2022.
"Maybe you'll visit Giant's Deep itself, then get scared and fly away again."
I was flung off the comet and was hurtling towards the White Hole Station. Ultimately ran out of air, but thought it was exciting.
Spent more than a few seconds underwater on Giant's Deep, and was all "get me out" lol
actually there other quantum puzzles in the game than the moon.
other than the tower itself there are 2 cave system puzzle on ember twin using the quantum rules, but it's true that only the moon uses all 3 (because of the third rule).
I played this game without ever knowing what it really was beyond the screenshots in the store. I really thought it was a aimless sandbox to fool around in and jumped in for a quick good time. The more I played, the more I realized that I was lied to in a genius way. There was so much more that the game was, it was living a hidden double life. By the end of the game, as I told myself I would do as much as humanly possible before reaching the end, I had experienced almost every single human emotion in the spectrum I think a person can feel in there life. The wonder, discover and story that unfolds to you is nothing short of a pinnacle of game design and storytelling. I believe that Outer Wilds is a testament of what gaming can be, and what the majority of the gaming industry isn't. It is a dire wake up call, but with a solution. It chants doom and gloom in a way, but not leaving you high and dry without an answer to the doom. It may just be one of the most important video games to every happen in the history of video games, right along with Legend of Zelda, Super Mario 64, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII.
This is not by any stretch a flamboyant hyperbole. Once you play Outer Wilds, your perception of what is reality, what is truth, what is meaning is subject to change, and your ability to play other games that are much more safe and 'inside the box' is altered. It is the reason I think Starfield did not deliver for me, and that I think so many AAA games are falling short. The little indie game that could absolutely deconstructed and reestablished the very personal mantra that is responsible for why I enjoy video games and creative media and storytelling. You authentically feel like the author of your own tale, your own experiences, and your own discovery. There isn't a narrator, there isn't a tutorial, there isn't an expositional dump that characters conveniently provide to you to make sure you aren't lost. The game has no problem leaving you lost, because it always provides a way for you to be found.
I am torn because I believe without a doubt this game is in my Top 10 favorite games of all time, I feel that it deserves to be in my Top 5. I think that other games have legacies, nostalgia and a plethora of entries in there series that maintain their high personal appraisal in my list. On paper, everything I have to say about the game (including things I didn't mention in this message) absolutely outclass most of my Top 10, and some things... would outclass all of them. What i suspect is that overtime, I think the game will grow more and more. Perhaps if one day I look at the stars on a tall mountain and feel closer to the cosmic heavens... I will remember Outer Wilds. Maybe when I encounter a moment in my life that is dangerous and leaves me feeling vulnerable... I will remember Outer Wilds. I may find myself one day being a father, looking upon my child as the most valuable entity in my life that I want to have prepared for the world as much as I can, worrying each and every day what may happen as they pursue the unknown uncertain adventure of life... I might... just maybe... think about Outer Wilds even then.
It is just a video game, of course it is. It isnt what Outer Wilds is materialistically, it is what Outer Wilds is philosophically and what metaphysical lessons and growth can occur when you experience the games portrayal of what life is like. I think that is the most valuable thing you can ever have, is the experience fear, triumphing courage, curisosity, connecting the dots, pain, sadness, confusion, excitement, wonder and love.
Outer Wilds, Mobius Digital, Annapurna Interactive... thank you from the bottom of my heart for one of the most important discoveries and experiences of my life. I shall make music, think of storytelling and maybe game ideas with the perspective of the world and life that Outer Wilds helped me see clearly and vividly.
- A fellow explorer of the outer wilds.
You don't actually need the exact timing for the one at 51:47, on my first playthrough before watching stuff on yt, I actually managed to fly through the cactus room on my second or third attempt
I felt the exact same that this game is the spiritual successor to myst.
this is an incredible video ! good job :)
I watched this video... then I noticed your sub count. 700? New underrated channel located. Subbed
A lot of why Outer Wilds is such magic is how almost everything is diagetic. Everything that matters happens in the game world, not in menus or synthetic UI elements.
As you note, your character is experiencing the time loop same as you are, so seemingly bizarre choices like throwing yourself into the sun when you're ready to skip to the next loop fits into the game's world.
The only gameplay exception I can think of is "meditate until next loop" being accessed via a menu. Yet it still has an in-universe justification, being a technique taught to you by the only other being who is aware of the time loop, Gabbro.
One possible way to seemlessly bring it into the game itself might be having a button to close your eyes. Once you have the second conversation with Gabbro about the time loop where he reveals you the secret of meditation, maybe holding your eyes closed for some period of time would trigger the meditation effect instead.
Being able to close your eyes would probably have some potential knock-on effects with how quantum teleportation works, but I don't see (ha!) it being an insurmountable challenge.
I mean, in the base game, if the Quantum Moon is orbiting Giants Deep when you start a given loop, it'll already blink away in as you blink yourself awake.
I agree completely that the diegetic nature of Outer Wilds is what makes it so special, and I'm hoping it's something other developers will take notice of. The exception to this is the 'meditate' option, which I also mentioned in the video as un unfortunate odd-one-out. My idea was a button to remove your helmet in space, but I think yours is better - a button to close your eyes makes a lot of intuitive sense and would fit in quite nicely to the quantum puzzles. Now that you mention it, I'm quite surprised the devs didn't come up with that themselves - perhaps they tried it and there was some reason it wasn't working. Anyway, thanks for the comment and I hope you enjoyed the video.
46:35 oh you think you can only access the black hole forge via teleport? This is actually one thing I brute forced long before figuring out how the towers worked. I got frustrated and after some messing around I managed to land upside down on the gravity flooring, it's actually not difficult to do 😅
"the Statue does.... SOMETHING!"
*goes on to spoil every last little thing that happens afterward 😅
I'd actually argue, that the repetition of already played content, always brought me to some urgency in me maneuvering, since I didn't want to go all the way again.. it's kind of the feeling back in the old days when there was no quick save option, but only fixed save points and you would encounter a particularly difficult and/or long sequence you just couldn't manage for several times, but at the same time creeping towards managing it eventually
Waiting for air to run out in space - its easy to boost to some random body and crashdie, alternatively, when the booster runs out, oxygen will be used.
I disagree that Outer Wilds has no replayability.
Its replay value is practically unlimited because watching other people blindly play it and watching videos like this is so much fun. Not as fun as playing the game but close enough :D
And I agree about creating a new genre. I've been saying that myself. There should be a new genre, maybe called Wilds-like? XD
Great video!
More video about Outer Wilds means more spoilers but also more chances that more people will play it :)
Well said! Watching other people play Outer Wilds for the first time is the closest you can get to experiencing it again for yourself, and I've enjoyed watching a couple of playthroughs myself. I've heard the new Wilds-like genre being called 'Metroid-brainia' due to the progression that takes place in your head, but I can't really see that catching on (because it's terrible).
Thanks so much for the comment and the kind words!
@@ErumoreI kinda dig the term "Metroidbrainia." If you know what a Metroidvania is, and I tell you the elevator pitch of Outer Wilds being a "Metroidvania but all of the upgrades you unlock are pure knowledge," Metroidbrainia just clicks.
everything author said in intro is true. Outer Wilds is a masterpiece
solid solid solid chanel! just went through your elden ring video, now going through all the content
outer wilds is a metroidbrainia, where you could always do everything from the start, but just didnt know how to yet
Hey man great video, and great points made.
34:58 I sympathize with the desire for a "remove helmet" option, I thought about that the whole time I played. However, I would much rather go through a menu to do so, rather than accidentally pressing the kill button. Although it's not an instant death (you can re-enter your ship from anywhere w/o a suit if you're quick enough) the consequences and effort necessary to make this action do not balance out to a single button imo.
55:50
If you are looking for an experience similar to Outer Wilds id recommend The Forgotten City. Its significantly more dialogue heavy but the core concept is the same. You are trapped in a loop and you need to find out why and how, and just like Outer Wilds I cant really say anything else about it without spoiling it.
I know this is a year ago and nobody cares but it's Timber Hearth pronounced Harth. Like the hearth of a home or Fireplace. Hence it being the name of your Home planet and also the location of the fire you start at.
Pyst was definitely not the first parody video game. The 1986 text adventure The Boggit: Bored Too was a parody of the 1982 text adventure The Hobbit and was released over a decade before 1997 Pyst. There were several others too.
I would say there is one other game that is quite similar, The Forgotten City. And no I don't just mean the time loop
What an excellent video. Thank you for doing it.
Absolutely amazing video, I loved it!
Yeah, this game is fucking awesome.
Unfortunately, I watched someone else play it blind, rather than doing so myself. It’s literally one of my greatest regrets in life, to this point. Which I guess says things about my life, as well as this game.
players (including me) wishing to erase their memory? seems like something a time loop can fix. just don't create any statues, masks or supernova.
I want to preface by saying I absolutely enjoyed your video, you did a great job in making it! However it seems you have a slight misunderstanding of how/why the timeloop started. In the video, you talk about how the sun going supernova kickstarted the timeloop, and that the Nomai intended to send the involved Nomai into the timeloop as well, once the Orbital Probe Cannon started firing. This isn't quite right however; the Nomai actually didn't intend for any of them to be apart of the timeloop, their initial plan was to solely let the Ash Twin Project be in a timeloop, so that they could keep searching for the Eye of the Universe without having to be aware of the many many years they would need to search for. The statues which was intended to drag the Nomai, and subsequently dragged the player into the timeloop, only active AFTER the Eye of the Universe has been found. So the idea was that they could cause the sun to go supernova repeatedly until the eye of the universe was found, after which the statues would inform the Nomai that it has been found, and they would then cancel the sunstation's firing, so from their perspective, they never actually make the sun go supernova, but are about to, and then stop last moment.
That point on immersion - I run into so many story-based (i.e. walking simulator games) that try to spice themselves up with other types of gameplay, and every single time, it's an annoying fight minigame, a distracting mini-puzzle that belongs in a mobile game, or bargain basement guitar hero. If you want your walking sim to have more involving gameplay, MAKE IT AN ADVENTURE GAME
I love how you *don't* need to know about the cyclones on Giant's Deep. They're totally optional.
You can instead just go full-throttle out of the system for 6-7 minutes, then turn around and burn directly towards Giant's Deep. Don't stop. Don't slow down. Plow your ship directly into the unseen ball of evil and break though the current by sheer force.
It's not how I did it, because I'm a coward and I would prefer chilling outside the Sun Station over touching Giant's Deep, but it's *a* way of getting into Giant's Deep.
Minor clarification to something you either said mistakenly or implied accidentally in your wording:
The sun exploding is not the thing that causes the player to bond with the statue, its the success of the Ash Twin Project. This is shown in game because of the 9 million probes sent out before the player ever experiences the loop occurring.
They didn't plan to send the Nomai back in time with the probe data every time. They planned for the Nomai to be brought into the loop when the project either succeeded or failed. The player and Gabbro are brought into the loop because the Ash Twin project succeeded. It did succeed, it found the Eye after approx 9 million probes had been sent and then activated the other Nomai statues to bring the (originally planned) Nomai in to shut off the project.... If the project succeeded or failed. Though both the success and failure scenarios would have resulted in the same twisted fate had they not brought someone in to stop the project.
The game never clearly defines what the failure state of the project is though, it can't be the sun exploding because that was the plan for the Sun Station before it was proven to not work - maybe they had a counter limiting the number of probes sent out. e.g. maybe they declared 10 million probes was enough to stop.
Also specifically its approx 280 thousand years since the Noami were wiped out by the interloper..
Was a Myst player...wandered away from videogames for decades. I came back to video games because of tales of SubNautica and Outerwilds. I hope hope its a genre...but as I found both to be creative products with amazing lighthand at purposeful creative writing that added emotion and clues,
explorations of landscapes and artefacts, knowledge gathering and investment, I worry that subsequent games in the "genre" will copy features, lose or misuse essential components. I can hope that some will be artworks...but fear a generation of pale copies and misses and false promise. Appreciate your analyses! Helps me see more features that captured me....but makes me worry more that there are not multiple ways to produce such satisfaction. Among other things. Are such moments of creation, when from years of work across so many people at a developing company, more serendipity than plan? B
Welp another OW doc I'll watch because I love this game.
Loved this and the Subnautica Below Zero video. Subscribed!
Thank you! It makes my day to get a comment like this.
Learning about the meditate funciona from this vid
Thank you! Great review!
I watched this video yesterday but needed to come back because I just watched one that was in extremely bad faith and missed so many elements of the themes and in-universe explanations that I needed a pallet cleanser from someone who gets it.
I might say that riven is a closer spiritual predecessor than myst. same general idea but I think the discovery and mechanics are more refined. they really figured out what they were doing
although, I recently replayed myst in VR and I was surprised at how well suited it was. I think it adds some of that three dimensionality you mentioned. it helps place you within the world (literally as well, I guess)
Your intro is amazing and (other than the first few seconds of showing the universe), not spoilery, but still persuasive. Is it possible for you to create a new video of *just* the first 4minutes 22seconds of this video so we can pass it to others to get them to play the game without inviting the possibility of them to continue watching and spoiling it for themselves?
Thanks for the comment; this is the video I'm most proud of on my channel and it means a lot when somebody considers it worthy of their attention. I've just uploaded this video's intro to my second channel (Erumoremore), which you should be able to get to from my main channel page. I hope I'm not too late for this to be useful to you.
Here's their uploaded spoiler-free cropped video! ruclips.net/video/rvyf2KURP9s/видео.htmlsi=cuYc3ppeey6hDJSu
Breath of the Wild doens't negate any need to familiarise yourself with the game world. Game game is full of your interacting with the world and exploring it. Quests that require you to speak to NPCs and find specific landmarks that the game doens't mark for you. Memories to collect that you can only obtain by understanding key landmarks and surroundings. Items and enemies you have to spot and find first to take pictures of. The stables you dont see on the map until you find them. The game was deeemd revolutionary because it does the things you claim it doesn't (though not alwaysI.
Like in the real world, we use maps to find locations we are unfamiliar with or we follow roads. Zelda lets you do either, but even then you have to be very aware of the world around you. The map in Breath of the Wild is no different to us using ones to drive around our respective countries. Maps have existed for centuries, so I find it hard to feel like this is as immersion breaking as you claim - though I agree the inventory screens do do this..
The strength of an open world game isn't whether it has a map or not, its whether that map gets used less over time in relation to your familiarity of spaces in that world growing over time.
I never used the map to find Kakariko as most of the early hours of that game were you exploring it on foot, seeing all the things you could find. The map only becomes useful as a tool for fast travelling later and for seeing where you've been, which is really a resolution for scale. They could have dialled back this scale but its never going to be at the minute level of Outer Wilds because there themes and systems are fundamentally different. This scale is also indicative of the artistics themes that Nintendo were going for with this game, whether you love it or hate it.
On a related note, a lot of people do not have the spacial awareness to navigate a world off memory. Even Outer Wilds has a marker system in it for this very reason which is really no different than Zelda's approach, albeit with the log instead of map. I can recall physical spaces (or digital spaces in this case) like the back of my hand, but my brother who loves games, as well as my wife, suffer from getting lost way too easily. Making your game accessible for these people isn't a bad thing or inherently not trusting of players, but I also don't think a game has to accommodate all people either (though obviously accessibility is a big thing to keep in mind).
Maybe I rambled based ona. small comment you made, but I found it a little odd when BotW's map goes hand in hand with the discovery of its world space (despite the fact I don't think that game is perfect by any means).
I'm curious as to why your genre-timeline starts with Myst and leads to Outer Wilds, but doesn't include any of the Myst-likes in subsequent years: not only the direct sequels, but spiritual successors like Obduction and the very new Firmament also developed by Cyan. Outer Wilds beats them hands-down (still need to play Firmament,) for reasons including "you can't fly a spaceship and no the selenitic age entrance doesn't count," but they all share that fundamental Myst DNA imo.
I haven't played any of the sequels to Myst so I can't speak about them individually, but they can be implicitly added to that chart. In any case, Myst is the original and the one that caused the biggest cultural splash and so it makes for the best comparison to Outer Wilds for my purposes in this video. My understanding of the sequels is that they offer more of the same (which is not a bad thing), whereas Outer Wilds feels like something incredibly new and exciting, even if it does borrow some ideas from older classics. I wasn't trying to create an exhaustive list of games in this genre by any means (although I still maintain that the full list would be a very short one).
@@Erumore totally fair. the sequels, as well as Obduction, very much felt like iterations and revisions rather than innovations.
Witcher 3 is quite egregious with its reliance on markers and big spaces for the sake of it, but in spite of that at least its narrative, side quests and characters are extremely strong, still the best in the industry. But I wholeheartedly agree, I want more open worlds that are mysteries to explore like Outer Wilds.
Environmental station alpha footage! Fantastic game as well!
i would recommend Return of the Obra Dinn as another observational and environmental knowledge gathering game. extremely good deduction and reasoning game
41:40 this whole concept about how a first play through is going to be the best and most emotional is also true of nearly any survival horror title. They lose their scare factor once you play through and know what's coming 🙄
Really good video. I'm glad RUclips recommended your channel to me.