Perhaps This Is Hell - Let's Play SIGNALIS Blind Part 9

[@sunkeyavad6528]

Isn't it nice to finally have some more nature (flesh, flies) in this cold, clinical, steel base? Everything is just so much more alive here now.

[@Westerschwelle]

Ahh the grotesque flesh mounds are coming back. Nature is healing.

[@nickchemistry1430]

Yes for 4:18 I'm a Chinese player and I asked my friend who knows Yi-King very well. She told me that from left to right is 巽 (xùn), 乾 (qián), 兌 (duì) And 巽 the first one has a meaning of two people commuincate with each other but eventually got lost contact later on. It also means young lady or Ariane in the game I suppose. 乾 is showing a masculine symbol, or a tough, robust, long-lasting and resilient character. Which in this case represents Elster's tenacity of will and determination to fulfill the promise. 兌 the last one has a meaning of hardship and suffering, like the two are in the doldrums as if they are struggling to cross the river. Hope this will help.

[@sardeska_]

6:45 Those are indeed different versions of the same painting, "The Isle of the Dead", all drawn by Arnold Böcklin. Just like the painting of the shore (The Shore of Oblivion, by Eugen Bracht), they share a common theme with the game's narrative. I'm SO happy you're interested enough to go back and check the Penrose room you missed and even pick apart the fake ending's frames. :)

[@Sumaleth]

This is actually a 3D game, btw. It's rendered in a way that makes it look like pixel art, and all the textures are very low resolution to give the impression of an early Playstation era game. It's lovely work.

[@Blind_Hawk]

IIRC Yuri wrote her bachelor's work on that graphic style. She was the one programming the game together with Barbara Wittmann.

[@sonofhades57]

That thumbnail jumpscared me when I refreshed my subscription feed.

[@Venture-Blue72]

Those permanent shadows remind me of the ones left behind after a nuclear blast.

[@rominovaa6592]

Gestalt memories surfacing in a replika is only a problem to the Eusan/Aeon command. It makes a replika less likely to act in a machine like way. As for how much is real and 'answers' about Ariane Yeong, well I think the creators wants each person to draw their own conclusions.

[@evilness3404]

This is not technically true, it also makes Elster units obsessive, for better or worse.

[@TheMovingEye]

Welonz, you have a much better eye for face recognition than me - but you totally missed the frikking moon being exploded on 09:36 XD

[@naoxmon]

Glad you went back for the missed room, and took some time to analyze the flashing images from the previous part cutscene, that was really good! Also really enjoying your commentary and thought process as you're progressing through the story :)

[@Azariah_art]

I love how thorough you are with games, the analysis segment is wonderful

[@-splithappens-]

17:38 - Du warst hier zuvor = You were here before 31:15 - Bücher (written as "Buecher" here) = books 34:41 - Drache = dragon 43:16 - Mondfest would translate to "moon fest", correct! [46:38 - why did I just yell "Aseton-chan!" in my head? Curse you, Ota] 48:03 - Antenne = antenna (I guess you already figured lol) 50:28 - The word seems to be cut off, it could be either "Ausrichtung" (alignment) or "ausrichten" (to align/angle/arrange), one of these two 53:27 - Zahn just means "tooth" as well 54:13 - Gaststätte "Zum Turm" = Tavern/Inn "The Tower"; and then something not entirely readable below that 57:33 - The voice on the radio repeats a sequence of numbers. However I wasn't quite able to understand it all enough to write down the whole sequence due to the other ingame sounds, sorry! :( Also the glitchy screens don't appear to have anything new going on, so at least that's out of the way now lol 1:09:54 - The container says "Undeveloped photograph inside!" 1:25:34 - "Klimaforming" would translate to "climate forming", so basically artificially changing the weather(?)

[@Sintarzus]

Dude, THANK YOU SO MUCH. Also, repeating numbers at 57:33 are the same as in the opening cinematic.

[@Diplomat128]

6:40 "The Isle of the Dead" and "The Shore of Oblivion" are mostly known today for the number of versions of the same pictures drawn repeatedly again and again with slight variations. What I believe wasn't mentioned by other commenters, is that these are not the only pictures shown in this sequence. For a few short moments "The Island of Life" appears. Composition-wise it is basically identical to "The Isle of the Dead" but looks more cheerfull and depicts lovers hugging each other in the foreground. It blinks out of existence pretty fast, and then we're back the death and oblivion. Oh, but whatever could it mean? It is almost as if game developers are trying to tell us something with those images! :)

[@finnpossibly]

Hi welonz! 38:15 Just FYI the text on the box of Shotgun Ammo says 后羿 (Hòu Yì). In a Chinese lore, there apparently used to be 10 suns. One day, all 10 suns showed up together, and the world was burning. This Hou Yi guy practically shot down 9 of them with a bow, so the world was left with just one. Tbh I don't think most instances of the decorative Chinese texts in the game made a whole lot of sense though.

[@hexalby]

For 5:52 I think the "Ariane" row shows Ariane in different times. The second person in the row is Ariane fresh out of military service and entering the Penrose program, and the Arianes afterwards are her at various points during their 8+ year long voyage, I think that explains hair getting longer. As for how Elina fits in all of this, it is still a mystery. You will get more details later in some more notes though.

[@BlackholeYT11]

Loved the little analysis section at the start, Welonz. I appreciate that sort of thing when you notice details in editing, it's good to be kept up to date with your thinking! ^_^

[@blake7802]

I also liked how you talked about your own theories and interpretations in the beginning. It’s nice to see what others think of what’s going on. We also finally get to see Chadler!

[@ГуглГовно-м7н]

I think S-23 is real. Both its older iteration and this one, the one filled with flesh and decay. But it could be that we went to playing as a different Elster when "new game" started. Maybe the previous Elster has truly died beyond the gate - but LSTRs have never stopped coming to Sierpinski. And now, years have passed - and yet another Elster made it into decaying S-23. And she went to the mirror room, like the one before her, and so many before still.

[@sunkeyavad6528]

2:45 *Alternative interpretation:* He also one of the people getting Elster memories. He might be talking elster memories of all the Elsters that came down here to just die. Those came here many times and never returned. 8:15-8:50 I think these are all the exact same location on Vineta. Just gradually more and more destroyed. In the first one the skyscrapers are still looking intact. In the second one they're destroyed but still standing, 3rd one you can only see some of the remaining foundations.

[@aReT4RTedduck]

You can kill the kolibris by just changing the radio frequencies to whatever frequency they give you. You have to tune it correctly like 3-4 times to kill them. You don't have to waste a single bullet or weapon on them

[@Jean-LucPicard85]

In case you haven't finished the game already when you reach the very end try to remember to look for interesting objects that can be interacted with but aren't highlighted or marked in any way. There's an above average concentration of 'em at the end and, while not super important, they provide a no small amount of insight into what the situation on the ship was like at the tail end of its journey.

[@RothSchatten]

07:32 There was a similar image of a flooded rail station in one of Studio Ghibli animations… I think it was Spirited Away 11:12 Could be a reference to first Ghost in the Shell movie, where Makoto wastes a cyber-body by trying to pull open some tank's hatch, but loses both arms 43:10 Newspaper's name is "The Guardian" 01:26:32 More like "changed Replika's mind"

[@craftworded]

10:06 Is probably a war picture of when The Nation took Vineta from the Empire,likely the end of the battle

[@ComfyCherry]

35:00 an SMG is a handgun/low caliber automatic carbine, the "sub" in "sub machine gun" is referring to the ammo being below machine gun caliber

[@yiqing743]

Hold on, the notes Welonz found at the end talking about pre-existing patterns in the receiving brain, as well as the Replikas not being made of only microprocessors and software... doesn't that strongly suggest that each Replika used to be a distinct human being? I was imagining that Replikas were pure robots, but I guess this makes them cyborgs. Possibly just a brain (or a partial body) grafted onto a robotic chassis? Because we know for sure that Replika bodies are artificial (their blood is oxidant, etc.), but I guess the original human's consciousness gets overwritten by the neural imprint to render them easier to control (and more efficient at their specific task)? (As always, loving the attention to the story details! My mind is blown :o Some things are making more thematic sense now as well, especially the lineup of Arianes and Elsters at the start of the video...)

[@hexalby]

As far as I understand it, you are almost correct. Replika bodies are entirely artificial, they do not take human bodies and retrofit them with synthetic parts, but they simply grow the bodies in labs (or grow organs and then assemble them into a robotic frame. The pre-existing patterns the note mentions I think refers to the presence (or absence) of neural activity in the lab-grown brain, or wondering about what happens when a Replika is overwritten with another pattern. We know this can be done since for example the Myna chassis has both a "civilian" and a "military" personality (a note mentioned it). Replikas are heavily influenced by the replicants from Blade Runner (or better the book it is based on "Do androids dream of electric sheep"), so I believe the mechanics behind them are probably similar-ish. The biggest difference is that in the Signalis universe they did not simply learn how to map a brain and copy it into an artificial clone, but rather they discovered bioresonance and that some individuals can affect this strange field, and use it to copy minds (hence why the note mentions it is controlled by a few gifted individuals). I don't have hard evidence for the above so take it with a grain of salt though.

[@micketm3]

@@hexalby 😱😱😱 its CHAOS !!! The Warp... or similar to Xenosaga, U-Do (Higher upper domain)... I do belive that the replikas might form their own conscience... but they do the imprint... Bioresonance is rly interesting, and the signals :) that resonate :) ~ hmmm... the Planets resonate too... tarot cards... stone slabs of the planets... and their meaning... Such a cool game !!

[@kalorathekau]

44:55 Humans are afraid of the dark. And yet, we’re fascinated and bewitched by it. Maybe that’s why humans drink the darkness that is coffee.

[@ComfyCherry]

the ammo boxes having words not related to ammo is likely the branding since ammo is sold by brands and some have names given to them by brands to make them sound more interesting or cooler or smth, idk I'm not in a country where guns are much of a thing.

[@ГуглГовно-м7н]

I feel like Ariane not reading the letter was definitely a choice. She was a Gestalt Officer, and was supposed to be in charge of the mission - unlike in S-23, where Falke was in charge. That letter contained classified information a Gestalt Officer would need to manage a Replika - it would be one of the top priority documents, certainly. She knew about it, she had it on her table. And yet, she never as much as opened it. As for their relationship - I struggle to imagine a world where it was Elster and not Ariane who initiated it. I wonder how much of it was Ariane just making Elster do what she wanted her to, with Elster following the "directives" - especially early on.

[@josef-ralfdwerlkotte8333]

🥰 jup

[@ahcangela8549]

I don't think I ever killed more than one or two ARAs (secret tunnel zombies) in my playthrough because they scared me too much and I was worried they could spawn infinitely. I just ran through quickly before they had a chance to pop out lol. Anyway my belief is that there is a lot of overlap between things "really happening" and "happening in your head", but it's difficult to say for sure.

[@jeevesbond]

4:22 It does say 'Seo', yes. Nice pronunciation btw 👍 I'm assuming there's a similar sound and romanisation of 'eo' in Chinese? I found that romanisation to be weird at first, and pronounced it wrong. Also, thank you so much for going back over the cutscene and analysing it. Doing that really adds to the LP!

[@Welonz]

lol no, I just looked it up early on to stop looking like an idiot 😂

[@jeevesbond]

@@Welonz in that case: nice preparation and nice pronunciation!

[@teymourelattar3402]

4:17 This seems to be akin to the Yi-King (The Book of Transformation). One of the oldest chinese manuscripts and a method of philosophical divination. I might be wrong as I haven't learned how to read it yet and the symbols seem to need to be paired, and four for the divination to occur, which would make an odd number (three) unworkable. Just as one trigram they should represent an element which in order would be : 巽 (xùn), 乾 (qián), 兌 (duì) ; lake/pond, sky, wind ; south-east, south, south-west ; the three of them are the higher trigrams which might indicate a divine/perfect being/situation oscillating between modes of action. In any case, they can be read individually. The bottom line is the determining impulsion, the middle one is the right-now-state (not totally sure on that one), and the top one is the future transformation or what you will be after the mutation. For example, the middle trigram here, sky, is at the same time creation, power, and rule, not because it is a god per say but because it is its own impulsion to change, the state of things, and what is to become ; sky is the supreme nature of all and all end up participating and manifesting in sky. (Sky is powerful also because of the full bars which represent Yang). Hope this was a bit clear 😅 (Don't hesitate to correct me.)

[@nickchemistry1430]

I'm a Chinese player and I asked my friend who knows Yi-King very well. She told me that from left to right is 巽 (xùn), 乾 (qián), 兌 (duì) as you said. And 巽 the first one has a meaning of two people commuincate with each other but eventually got lost contact later on. It also means young lady or Ariane in the game I suppose. 乾 is showing a masculine symbol, or a tough, robust, long-lasting and resilient character. Which in this case represents Elster's tenacity of will and determination to fulfill the promise. 兌 the last one has a meaning of hardship and suffering, like the two are in the doldrums as if they are struggling to cross the river. Hope this will help.

[@DMurphysLore]

Yeah, it has to be our own Solar System, because they mentioned the Oort Cloud. That's an actual (theoretical) thing in (or just outside of) our system.

[@revolverocelot6334]

Well, our Oort cloud is not thought to be unique and I think I have seen this name used for clouds around other stars. I am generally waiting with placing assumptions as to whether it's our system or not, right now I'd bet on it being sort off "alternative" Solar System, with similarities but also very different from ours

[@coolsenjoyer]

@@revolverocelot6334 Oort cloud refers specically to the thing around our solar system and is named after the Dutch astronomer who originally theorized it so its most likely just our solar system with names changed and maps only showing inhabited bodies

[@NotMetaNew]

​​@@revolverocelot6334I assumed it was another solar system, however seeing Vineta being a water planet with submerged streets... hmm...

[@raitenoh]

adler went through the opposite of a glowup

[@sunkeyavad6528]

46:35 A-set, you bet! 1:15:30 It's the new Storch Funyarinpa model. Isn't its design majestic? 1:07:15 Tarotfront. 1:25:55 Essentially full technoloigcal stagnation seems pretty likely if even that fast changing type of technology does nothing in 100 years. Kind of like the irl dark ages when there was basically no progress whatsoever for many hundreds of years, except at a higher level of development. Some form of cultural failure basically.

[@sunkeyavad6528]

3:40 If you go inside Ariane's painting, like with that poem coast, this could also be one of her paintings. 5:55 *Speculation:* There seems to be some memory transfers going on (your Elster, Alder, Falke). Maybe all Replikas get Elster memories and all Gestalts get Ariane memories? And that's why on Alina only 1 turns, but on Ariane all turn? Is the one in front of Alina Isa? Clothing seems similar.

[@dgmt1]

this might have been before your time but the computer shown at @48:00 is aa very obvious homage to the original Apple Macintosh, especially with its very 80s era mac OS gui. It seems like the signalis developers put in a lot of references to technology and media they grew up with. For example Elster ripping her arm off trying to open the hatch was very much straight from the Ghost in the Shell movie, as the replika situation seems heavily inspired by bladerunner. I don't know the age of the developers but I would guess they grew up in the 80s and 90s based on these influences. And yes Macintoshes were just as slow and irritating to use back in the day. Of course I'm biased due to growing up in tht era DOS and commodore computers so macs were always annoying for me to use.

[@o-mangaming5042]

Does anybody else think of the Selene Delgado mystery when they hear those alert beeps?

[@naoxmon]

Maybe not needed or you're past it already, but next time you're in 1st person remember you can look around and click on stuff before moving forward :)

[@knowledgeacquirer2931]

Wait wtf, Alina was bioresonant? Did I forget writing about that?