The COSMIC HORROR of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

[@Aere395]

I always figured that Kate's feeling that the light had a sense of loneliness was her projecting her own feelings of being an outsider with no real friends in the village onto the entity,she was so desperate to connect with something, anything, that she dooms the world

[@WhitneyDahlin]

My dream in life is to find a tape recorder and instead of pulling a 13 Reasons Why I will record progressively ominous statements about seeing my childhood best friend who's been dead for years following me. I will make sure to label the tapes in numerical order and conspicuously place a tape player with Xtra batteries near the first tape. then I will go on a month long vacation without telling anyone about it and watch the chaos unfold

[@SemicolonExpected]

an arg for your friends and family :P

[@CeeGeeFursuits]

I recently found a functional tape recorder in my grandma's basement. I'll record my ominous thoughts just for you

[@AceTaxiaGaming]

I had full body goosebumps upon hearing "the planet turned and looked back"... Fuck that's terrifying

[@divineeye147]

This reminds me of Trevor Henderson’s creatures that eat people but they’re so big that people think they’re being pulled up into the heavens when they’re actually being pulled up to be eaten Also just love the concepts this game brings up

[@divineeye147]

Also Hellstar Remina is probably where Dark Matter and Zero Two from Kirby got their inspirations from at least in design anyway

[@Alex_Barbosa]

Are those creatures invisible or something?

[@trutwhut6550]

@@Alex_Barbosa no just big enough it looks like the dark empty sky instead of a maw

[@TheHaseowerewolf]

@@divineeye147 Didn't hellstar remina come out five years after kirby 64?

[@luisalfonsocecilio7374]

@@divineeye147 Hellstar Remina came out almost 5 years after Kirby N64, what are you talking about???

[@meleerobot7227]

Y'know the entire story, while yes the light does seem predatory. I think the thing with the fox is a bit more telling. I think the light is a highly intelligent creature, perhaps beyond most human comprehension. Fully wandering through the universe and when it sees us and becomes curious, it prods and pokes, finding a person who it thinks is interesting and following her around. Then it gets trapped, it's watched and read by the various towers, a being of pure information being transported through formats. It would almost be like dropping it into a cage where a part of it's very entity is being held. So it becomes destructive and eats it's way through, overloading everything it comes into contact with with piles upon piles of information and energy. Perhaps Kate was accidently causing this creature to panic herself. Maybe the creature is actually no more intelligent than us, just taking on a different form. Even the human body and mind, on a computer scale, would take years and years of computer processing to filter through and function. It's arrival only becoming deadly when we trapped it inside an information cage and Kate, becoming infatuated didn't see the harm she was causing to it and ignored it lashing out and destroying in fear of it's own life. Maybe that's why the motes of light remain for the games run time, as it's still trapped there, still trying to feel it's way out, trying to reason through the last motives of the people who trapped it. Maybe even you are the entity yourself, trudging through the world, hard to reason the footsteps with that though. Perhaps the lights destruction is even a virus, something it had no control over but that spread quickly in a population that wasn't inoculated to it. Or in a different but similar sense it's a being of great intelligence that took an interest, but much like us humans meeting a creature we have no prior experience with it handles us clumsily. Like taking a blobfish and pulling it out of water causing decompression, it takes us and brings us to a realm of higher information. Our brains and bodies, unfit for such conditions at such quick rate of gain begin to break down and erupt. Overloaded with information we turn to dust. It may also explain why we see loved ones in that place. The human brain is fond of filling in gaps where it cannot reason or gain information. So when we come into this entity of great intelligence and far reaching power our minds reckon it to be loved ones and memories of the past. Filling in those gaps where there's nothing we can truly comprehend there. Maybe also it reaches into the last remaining bits of nervous system and brain function of the dead people too, filling their bodies with information trying to learn more about them. But ultimately burning us out. Kate said she ran through several computers trying to figure this thing out. Perhaps our brains, for all intents and purposes being living computers, burned out while trying to reason it ourselves, and the dead who were there were like damaged ones, still being used to filter through information. But even more fragile than the living counterparts. Either way I think it may be similar to what you said earlier about hellstar ramina. Where you prescribed maliciousness where the entity had none. Because when you're destructive it's easy to assume you're malicious. But in a way this entity wasn't malicious, it was curious about what and who we are. But like a clumsy scientist finding a new species, it caused our extinction by a factor it didn't think about or perhaps just was in it's own way idiotic and didn't consider. Idk your theories are super fun though. I love this ol' cosmic horror stuff there's so many ways to try think on the motives of creatures who's motives seem so incredibly alien to us. definitely would be interesting if it was just a predatory being eating away at new entities it found.

[@anonymouswind1]

I'd definitely consider this a horror, just one of the few that is mostly played in a brightly light area. It doesn't have to rely on jumpscares but the mystery and slow, creeping terror of what happened to the people in this town. I didn't catch when I played it that people died by nerve gas, I assumed that the light took them before the gas dropped. I think my only gripe is that, yeah, the slow walking was a pain in the ass but I guess that also makes you take your time to appreciate the beautiful scenery and wrap your head around just what the hell is going on.

[@MertKayKay]

I didn't mind the slow walking at all on my first playthrough but I was jumping in my seat on the second playthrough - but I guess it's natural to want to get to the "best bits" 🤣 I'm glad you saw it as a horror too! What did you think the light was when you first played?

[@masterzoroark6664]

I think it's the same kind of Horror as in Roadside Picknick book, even if Roadside Picknick has some visceral descriptions of death by anomaly, but most frightening parts aren't visceral at all (at least in blood sense)- Death of Red's friend, Brabridge's children, deterioration of Red's family and his daughter, the ambiguity of the GOLDEN SPHERE and the terror of the fact noone can leave the town, because if they do disasters struck wherever they go. And the whole mistery of "What or who the aliens were and what exactly did they leave behind?"

[@ECSizemore]

Midsommar is well lit.

[@godricktheminecrafted3113]

The best horror games are the ones that can make you piss yourself in broad daylight

[@thatlycantomboy]

less than five minutes in, and “Why is Cthulhu on Earth? Because he is, fuck off” literally made me choke on my water, idk why I found this so funny

[@gabrielx4639]

actually he went to earth because he had to escape from some great enemy of his only to find that earth is already taken by the Elder things

[@michaelroberts4435]

He gets his taxes done on Earth.

[@SendBootyPics]

bc you're a child

[@crowdemon_archives]

It do be like that sometimes.

[@ShidoMedia]

"We're teetering on the edge of chaos here, Barb, let's settle down." Is such a damn brilliant statement.

[@ryanmaclean1720]

I’m pretty sure what you call chads are actually Kilroy. Kilroy was here was actually the first meme and it’s all there because of that drawing and a ship inspector named Kilroy. Kilroy was an incredibly fast and accurate ship instructor and because of that few believed he actually did his job, so to prove he did so he would write Kilroy was here in every room. This lead to tons of American soldiers joking about this supposed Kilroy and would start using the phrase and the picture to mark spy routes and safe passages. It was so pervasive that the Nazis even made an investigation to this spy who was always one step ahead named Kilroy

[@MertKayKay]

That's extremely cool Ryan, thank you for telling me! 😁

[@ryanmaclean1720]

@@MertKayKay not a problem, keep on manking amazing content

[@gorangluscic4419]

It's also of note that even though the origin of Kilroy/Chad is ambiguous, visually it kinda does resemble a capital Omega' which could be inline with the theme of the game being about literal 'end'. It is also theorized that original design was made by an electrician because it could resemble both a sine wave and a RLC circuit - both of which are also aligned with aspects of the game. Whatever's the case - Chad's inclusion is definitely thought out.

[@MertKayKay]

@@gorangluscic4419 Wow I love these levels of detail. Like when there's a symbol like this in games it can honestly just be the designer like "i thought it was cool", or there could be a thousand reasons. One of the reasons I really like this game :D Thanks for the explanation there too

[@WobblesandBean]

Ever since the awful Styx album, I'll never see Kilroy the same way again.

[@canary0981]

The other comments covered most of what I was thinking of, but I will say this: The description of "collecting butterflies" is a little more horrible than Kate realizes, I think. Butterfly collections tend to be the animals dead and pinned inside glass. It's like a serial killer keeping trophies of their victims, but the trophies are memories.

[@Mario_Angel_Medina]

Butterflies close their wing permanently when they die, so the only way to "presserve the beauty" of a butterfly is for the collector to kill it in very methodic and specific way. So, yeah, at a cosmic scale, even the idea that "someone up there likes us" can be terrifying.

[@aliceiscalling]

@@Mario_Angel_Medina That's weird. Every time I've found a dead butterfly outside, its wings are spread.

[@Mario_Angel_Medina]

@@aliceiscalling maybe is more complicated than that, I just remember the sparce details of a brief explanation a teacher give us during a museum tour more than a decade ago.

[@Dubmentia]

​@@Mario_Angel_Medina My wife actually pins bugs. Every bug she pinned was just found dead in the yard or woods. You don't exactly have to kill them with the pins. But you have to find them pretty freshly dead, and then pin their bodies in a particular way to let them dry. If they dry before being pinned, they then cannot be pinned as they are too fragile to work with and pose.

[@mookinbabysealfurmittens]

Traditionally they catch live specimens and put them in a jar with chloroform. Then the deceased insects are taken from the jar and carefully positioned on the padding and secured with a pin stuck through. It's very methodical but idk, I really don't like it. It seems... Mean, gross, and needless? Yes, some have amazing scales in their wings that are just amazing & even photographs can't capture it like seeing them in person. (Like the Blue Morpho, which only looks blue cos the surface of the wings has an effect like opal, evenly stacked bits that reflect light... Thought Emporium made opals in a video, or see the short about "blue isopods/roly-poly bugs".) Oh, and I've seen a lot of various different biologists just spray a whole huge area of the tree canopy with [idr which agents], like 5-10m³, and pick through whatever falls to the [usually white, hi-vis] netting laid below & around. Very Jacques Cousteau. ↼‸↼ But yeah, so I'm glad there are collectors who "scavenge" ones that have already passed. (Nothing wrong with that.) Call me a bleeding heart, but I've always been. When I was a little kid, I accidentally injured a butterfly whilst out playing [LONG, BORING STORY INCOMING] The hoop part of my butterfly net hit it right against a fencepost! Normally I'd gently catch them, have a little look at them, no touching, & let them go. Wracked with guilt but also just a kid, I tried to save it despite having no idea how, keeping it in a little box with a pillow and twigs. It lived for almost 3 days, but never flew post-injury. I had no idea about their already very short lifespan, and it couldn't have survived. Older me would have left it for the lizards to find (it could still wiggle, & they love that) or humanely euthanised it.

[@CarlolucaS]

Don't you know that taking off your clothing and wrestling on the bed with your best friend of the other opposite sex is a completely normal thing?

[@MertKayKay]

What a silly billy I am :D

[@Pihsrosnec]

How do you know it was the opposite sex?

[@CarlolucaS]

@@Pihsrosnec Same sex, opposite sex. Whatever rocks your boat ma dude.

[@manliovalenza7955]

Nah bro, you're reading too much into this.

[@MagnumInnominandum]

The other opposite sex, I am intrigued

[@TheGrinningViking]

Yes! Finally someone gets how creepy this story is The alien intelligence reminded me of my little brother, catching fireflies, crying when I Iet them go at the end of the night so they wouldn't die. There's no big brother there to explain that you must be kind to little things as well, that their light would go out forever if they were trapped in his airtight jar. A mindless dumb god king, sticking humans in his jar forever and not even noticing as their lights go out. Shudder.

[@alexandragabitto2573]

I love how you’ve managed to capture why both Ito’s and Lovecraft’s works are so revered for their horror - i.e. the most horrific thing in the world is to experience human trauma so vile it defies literal understanding, no two people are effected in the same way, and it leaves an actual physical manifestation of itself upon yourself/your world, NOT giant tentacles and eyeballs - without actually spelling out the symbolism of each subject letter by letter.

[@MertKayKay]

Yes! Like something so horrible and irreparable and hopeless that it could be considered worse than death. So many times reading Ito's works I was like "I feel like the characters are soldiering on longer than I would"

[@alexandragabitto2573]

@@MertKayKay Lol same. I played this game and suddenly I started thinking about electrical outlets for some reason and was immediately like “oh no.” Also Kate is all alone and thinks the aliens are the lonely onessssaaaaahhhhh

[@optimisticguru]

We

[@antiichristie]

Your little fourth wall flourishes - “What are you doing, my cat looks up, it’s a game,” are very delightful!

[@MertKayKay]

Haha your username is beautifully relevant 😍

[@Gilberto90]

I've given me a realisation about the story with your analogy of a zoo, but I think it's a bit more like a natural history museum - the light is basically a psychic taxidermist. The allusions to butterflys in the story are numerous but I thought about how dead butterflys are displayed in museums and the specific term we use for them in this state: specimens. It is also appropriate to bring up how butterflys are preserved as specimens without damage to their delicate bodies - they are gassed in a device called a 'kill jar'. To the light individual psyches are as individual species of butterflys are to a lepidopterist: specimens to be preserved (even if the method of preservation destroys a fundamental part of their beauty which is life). However, there is also an irony in that we can still experience some of the beauty of extinct species of butterflys due to this preservation. I also considered the light to be a kind of self replicating algorthm that has to keep propagating in order to sustain itself - this is why it makes the paint patterns and why the car badges have changed to an infinity symbol that resembles a butterfly. In order to propagate the light has to 'overwrite' existing information or signals, like how a virus overwrites or modifies a cell's DNA to further replicate itself. This may also be why people get headaches and nosebleeds - because the light is trying to rewrite it's victims DNA into its own algorithm and this is obviously not compatible with sustained life (the symptoms are similar to radiation sickness which is basically caused by having your DNA erased) Viruses arn't sentient and don't 'know' that they are hurting us like the Stephens fox - it seems to me that symbiosis is the ideal state for a virus as it could replicate freely without harming anyone. Unfortunately we don't live in a paradise where the 'wishes' of the virus and its host can be fulfilled simultaneously. Are we projecting sentience onto an algorithm? To support this I bring up the developer's name: 'The Chinese Room' is the name of a thought experiment by the philosopher John Searle - in short it argues how a computer programme cannot be said to have 'consciousness' or a 'mind' even if its behaviour suggests otherwise because it is basically just manipulating symbols without understanding what the symbols 'mean'. Q. "But how can the light not be sentient but also be a museum taxidermist?" A. Because the algorithm is written by some other intelligence for that purpose just like the KZbin algorithm is written by (supposed) intelligence for the purposes of keeping us watching KZbin. The light is serving up specimens for whoever created it just as KZbin serves up videos for our entertainment. Maybe the light went rougue? Anyway that's enough rambling for now and I'm pretty sure there are glaring holes in my theories - this is a game I played years ago when it was first released on PS+ and I occasionally reminisce about it every now and again due to its hidden depth.

[@Turtlee.]

i love your analysis, i honestly thought the developers were named that because they were chinese 😭 but this is way more deep

[@everest5718]

I kind of love how your interpretation is very cosmic horror and has deep thinking and is actually very clever, while mine for the longest time was “huh the rapture would be sad to actually live through :(“ It’s just so cool how people can interpret art in very different ways, from literal interpretation, like me, to very analytic, like yours.

[@MertKayKay]

I absolutely agree Emily, I love how open-ended this game is. I think when you write stuff like this, there's a huge temptation to give definitive answers. I applaud the writers for having the restraint to not tell us exactly what happened, it must have been so tempting for them

[@clammycammy7024]

3/4 of the way through the video, and while I could see the horror elements in the game, it didn’t really *hit a nerve* until you pointed out it wasn’t taking animals. i have no idea why, that just freaked me tf out

[@MertKayKay]

Glad to hear it Cameron!! I spent ages wondering why it didn't take animals

[@fabiancaceres1473]

I think it was cuz it means it isn't "mindless" or "feral" like, oh it is hungry? he is eating everything but no, whatever it is, isn't just "hungry", it is looking for humans, it's smart enough to know that. and that's terrifying, finally, something can be considered a human predator

[@sopranophantomista]

I cried at this game. I was okay until Wendy got hit by the nerve gas, and watching how it dropped and hearing Frank's voice and the emotion in it it was just... Ugh. It hurt me.

[@MertKayKay]

Aww Shanty!! You're so blessed

[@audreyloe5669]

Daaamn this actually creeped me out. I’m a big fan of Lovecraftian horror and the dread I felt during the description of Hellstar Remina and this game is thrilling. Love it!

[@MertKayKay]

Audrey I'm so happy to hear it! Glad you enjoyed it

[@bowlcuthulhu3588]

As someone who also loves junji ito and read his stories for free online, I HIGHLY recommend also buying his manga and supporting the storyteller. Not only does he deserve it, but having the physical copy makes you feel like the horror and evil sits in your room with you.

[@lightaflamethrower8573]

This has one of the prettiest soundtracks of any video game ever. It also has the vibe of the Annihilation book by Jeff Van Der Meer.

[@MertKayKay]

Oh my god I LOVE Annihilation - I've only seen the film, but god damn it's great

[@lightaflamethrower8573]

@@MertKayKay The bear was terrifying. You might like the book. I listened to it via audiobook through my local library and the narrator was great.

[@noodlepoodle3582]

@@MertKayKay It's on my tbr but I've heard the book is COMPLETELY different but still very good.

[@kalidwapur]

That's a really good comparison.

[@ProdigiaGames]

I agree regarding the soundtrack. If there is ever a story made about my life, I want Jessica Curry to score it 😂

[@infini_ty]

I thought it was a deeply human experience. The old lady looking up at the plane coming to destroy the town imagining that It is her husband returning from war, the poor betrayed lover alone in the train station waiting to save her child. It was all too human for me to ever look over the genre ever again, this game got me out of repetitive AAA and into indie stuff all on its own. Respect 😍

[@wesguffey4503]

The camp was the moment that broke me. The game has been oddly calming up until that point, but walking into that room filled with beds, toys, the props. It just hit how indiscriminate the light was, and that it took everything.

[@Charlotte-lg6ko]

The light's rated E for Everyone

[@Justaperson2023]

Fun fact: While I was watching this, at the exact time Stephens “they’re in the phones” screaming finished, an absolutely massive thunder strike hit one of our neighbors trees. Scared the hell out of me

[@P-boyPayne]

I first played this game about 5 years ago while I was still in high school. I didn’t think much about existential things back then and I hadn’t read any Junji Ito (The enigma of Amigara Fault is soooo good) and I found the game to be haunting but overall really peaceful. I replayed it a few years later after being well aquatinted with existential dread, I had a … different experience 😂. I love the discussions that can come out of this game, I’m glad you covered it!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Parker! I love how open ended this game is, means there's just so many ways to see it. And also we love fellow Junji fans 😁

[@izznt]

I thought of a good analogy for what would be happening if the light was trying to communicate: its like if we tried to talk to an ant and our exhale from calling hi at it blows it the fuck away

[@Ova-bv4os]

what i took from the story was an advanced pure energy species, perhaps a singular lonely entity, became aware it was being observed, and travelled to earth to meet humanity, focusing on the observatory that has found it, and the surrounding town. It's alone, and begins trying to force ascension on humanity, by converting them to pure energy so they can join them

[@_Skim_Beeble]

Junji Ito's Hellstar Remina is a cosmic horror masterpiece, it filled me with dread before I got to the end knowing there wasn't going to be anything remotely close to what could be considered a happy ending.

[@Fadeway101]

my personal take on Lizzie and her baby is that the baby is part of her memories. it fits with the logic that you see the people you remember in the light, and the baby might be her memory/idea of the baby forming the shape of it in the pattern. the idea of consumption of human flesh is interesting for sure, but i think what the story implies with this being an energy being is that the disintegration is what happens when you put too much power through a bad conduit. that also fits with how it spreads through the phone lines. the exception is Kate, but only barely and only because it's observed her the most/has a focus point with her. i don't entirely agree with the reading of the signal as a creature that consumes for that sake of it/hurts for the sake of consumption, but i can see why you see why interpretation works. it's just the central theme of the story surrounds no/miscommunication, community and relationships and i firmly believe that eldritch horror isn't always about an entity's desire to hurt or consume. the horror here is parallel to Stephen's story about the fox: it really doesn't know it's hurting us because it doesn't know how to communicate with us/we don't know how to communicate with it. it found a conduit through the observatory and is trapped in the 'jar' (Shropshire) and is lashing out, trying to find a way to escape. like seeing the face of god turns you blind, even benevolent beings can harm us with proximity by sheer incomprehensibility. Kate might also mean 'collector' here as an observation purely about its interaction with the people of Shropshire and not that this is the pattern's typical behavior when interacting with lifeforms (or at least i assume so seeing as i don't see how she'd know that history). maybe more like grass seeds attaching to a dog's fur? although there is some implication that the pattern itself is altered by interacting with humanity... i also don't think Kate ever had the power to stop what was going to happen, she's very explicitly written as Stephen's foil, their stories happening in parallel. instead of calling poison gas down in the last throes of trying to survive the apocalypse, Kate attempts to understand her situation and her standing with the pattern. which doesn't make the ending of humanity any better but i am reluctant to put her fully at fault for simply trying to rationalize it.

[@SergeiMosin]

Honestly... I kinda like the idea of the "rapture" being the side effect of something infinitely greater trying to communicate with humanity. Or possibly even a forced ascendance or even an apotheosis in which a new deity is born but in order to do so, it pulls in the entire noospheric resonance of humanity. At the end of the day, it's all just speculation anyway. It's a pretty great concept for an open ended story

[@MertKayKay]

Very true! I love how open ended this game is 🥰 thanks for watching!

[@robinfalkner-wedge824]

little side note, I like the reference to the Mines of Moria at the start since I felt as though there's some surprisingly lovecraftian themes explored there- at least in the book. I mean, the dwarves basically opened up an extrance to a dark underground world filled with nameless shadow-horrors led by what is effectively a fallen angel. They dug deeper and deeper and suddenly mythological horrors that are older than their species appear and start killing them for reasons that they'll never be able to know because it's got absolutely nothing to do with the mere mortals.

[@lorenzomeulli750]

Considering the Watcher, this is even worse. It's a fact of Arda that there are some things, nameless things, that may not even have been known by anyone ever, not only creatures serving Morgoth. Delving too deep was a very, very bad idea

[@AD-dg3zz]

Kate's story reminds me of Monsignor Pruitt's story in the Netflix show Midnight Mass. The way a parasitic predator takes advantage of someone in a desperate, vulnerable state and tricks them into dooming their community. While that show is less about cosmic horror and more a cautionary tale about the dangers of religious fanaticism, I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. Edit: Monsignor not Monsieur lol.

[@oneofnone7947]

I adore how how wholesome ito is just that man you would never guess he writes and draws some of the most horrifically gruesome content out there

[@MertKayKay]

He is beautifully sweet! What a precious freckle

[@zisaletter4602]

yeah, when i wrote my big final paper in college on video games, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was in the section on gods and the divine, in the subsection on weird fiction and cosmic horror. the amanda scene was one of the most frightening in the entire game. but I really do agree with kate. I don't think the signal was trying to hurt anybody. I think it was just trying to talk. It was just so vastly incompatible with people that its presence and touch were enough to kill. It didn't understand. I guess i just think that because I don't think the light was a creature with the capability to lie. re: lizzy: I would assume it's not because there actually WAS a separate entity or wasn't, but because lizzie viewed the baby as a separate entity connected to her, and so it's represented in her light. but then also, if youre right about the genetic similarity thing, then maybe the light knows there was something in lizzie with a different genetic pattern, and that's why it portrayed it i dunno! but i really love the game.

[@travislyonsgary]

It makes the endpoint where Steven says Kate really interesting if you think that it managed to make a body or at least something modeled off of Kate and so the games progression is showing it actually having achieved a ability to understand humans. Thus the whole "hearing it for the first time" thing.

[@orangeismyfavoritecolor]

40:33 I didn’t know that dying by getting hit by a train, dying by getting impaled by a tree branch, dying by getting your head smashed in, and dying from a deadly gas were all natural causes of death! _You learn something new every day._

[@MertKayKay]

Aaaaaa you know what I mean orange

[@orangeismyfavoritecolor]

@@MertKayKay Haha yeah, I’m just mean

[@abithefallenhuman921]

Yes, completely natural to die from those things, it would be unnatural if you didn't

[@genera1013]

I've actually seen this logic used in a show before. A character was shot and another character tried to bring them back because they're a witch, but they can't because the person died "naturally". They could only bring a person back if it was due to magical causes. I'm avoiding giving names or even genders to avoid spoiling anything for people.

[@The_Distortionist_Waits]

I believe that rather than the typical "natural" causes of death, being health issues, sickness, etc. They refer to it as being a logical cause of death, something that can be explained, bodily harm via accident/murder rather that the illogical cause of death via The Light

[@Da12thKind]

I really enjoyed this video essay. I've slowly been dipping my toes into cosmic horros, and horror in general, and I think this video essay convinced me to check out Junji Ito's works. Your summation of The Light in this game's story really put a dread in me that I can't quite describe... I would argue that a non-corporeal entity consuming humanity for the only reason that it's hungry is truly terrifying because it means that there isn't even the tiniest of tiny slivers of a chance of trying to reason with it, assuming you could reason with, well, anything that has deemed that it's hankering for a snack is more important than our existence.

[@MertKayKay]

Hey Da12! :D I am really happy to hear you're interested in Junji! I recommend the Enigma of Amigara Fault and Uzumaki as general starting points, they're really good. I hope you enjoy his work. And yes, it's terrifying that some drifting light cloud just wandered over and thought they'd stop for a quick snack. Kind of like seeing a bird swoop down for a bug, they never ask first. Weird to think that we're the bug. Thanks for watching and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@Thenerdywalrus]

OK, I bought Rapture because....... One of the cars is a Supermarket own brand version of a Montego estate 😬😬 After the slight disappointment of not being able to drive anything I started paying attention to the story. What a gem! The end of the world set not in an irradiated wasteland but the beautiful coutryside. The mystery and suspense of people disappearing while you're in one of the most relaxing environments. The instinctual dread of something unknown, possibly unknowable, the horror of the not horrifying Thank you for your insights, I loved the way you explored the game and your narrative style

[@bobmasters9871]

43:12 "I'll play a bit of (the lullaby) for you now" Dominos ad plays

[@MertKayKay]

This got an out loud laugh from me, thanks for sharing that

[@descent1667]

wow, i might have to play this now!! i have a particular interest in anything with a symbiotic relationship, whether it be mutualistic or parasitic, and kate's obsession with the pattern because of her own loneliness and sense of alienation is fascinating. i really get the sense that she's projected a reflection of herself onto the pattern, maybe in part because of the parasitic hold it has over her, but also because she is desperately seeking connection in a place where, while she may be surrounded by people, she feels utterly alone. maybe that's why the concept of this rapture is so comforting to her -- the idea, delusional or not, that it allows everyone to be together, and that the pieces they all leave behind will be important to someone, somewhere. (and i suppose she was actually right about that latter bit.)

[@MertKayKay]

Absolutely! One of the things I love about this game is about how easy it is to interpret your own meaning from it, just as Kate is interpreting her own meaning from the pattern. If you do play it I hope you really enjoy it

[@amahana6188]

The voice acting in this game is next level. Some of the best ever in a video game.

[@NotMarthaStewart]

This is the first video of yours I have watched and there something about the delivery that I am absolutely in love with. It's so genuine and friendly and I am absolutely going to be going through everything! Also the phrase "I would need six coffees, a wank and a brisk morning walk" KILLED ME.

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Bear! I really hope you enjoy the rest of my stuff. And hehe I write thorough scripts for all my videos but I also /hate/ when videos sound too scripted, so I try to lighten it up a bit

[@Italian_Isaac_Clarke]

Minute 23 drawing is a WW2 noodle the allied troops drew around to tell other troops they were there. It was more of a meme of the times than a proper method of communication.

[@spookypaladin4667]

Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated and drawn towards Lovecraftian horror. Growing up the only artist who came even close to inflicting the same terrible yet amazing feeling of dread through their work was Junji Ito. I'd never seen anything even close to proper exploration of Cosmic horror, other than Pintrest artworks or the movie The Thing. Games like this prove that the exploration is still worth it, still interesting, as fascinating as it gets. The best way to portray Lovecraftian horror is to never show it, to never play your full hand. Even if this game is not the best it could have been in my opinion - it is a step in the right direction. I want to see more of this, I want people to feel inspired and create more Cosmic horror because human imagination is bursting with curiosity for what could be bigger and scarier than us. Brilliant video. I say this often but my god, your essays are some of the best I have watched on KZbin and I am so glad I stumbled upon your channel. A diamond in the rough, honestly! Please, keep it up!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you so much Spooky! I absolutely agree; I think the best thing about Rapture is that it's so open-ended. It's so valid to see this as a nice story with a happy ending if that's how you really interpret it, but I think there are so many different ways to interpret this game. But for me it was pure cold sweat cosmic horror and I adore how implicit it is (if intentional)

[@skizmo13]

I never tried Everybody's Gone to the Rapture because of the taboo a lot of people had against so called "Walking Simulators" that existed at the time it came out, but now I think I should give it a try, shame how a bias of certain game styles can keep someone from experiencing interesting stories. Have you ever played Return of the Obra Dinn, curious what your take of that game is- love the weird slightly unexplained aspects of the game with things like the Memento Mortem etc.

[@MertKayKay]

Yes I know exactly what you mean about the Walking Sim taboo - it's often such a lazy and overdone way of telling a story without having to worry about modelling/pathing other characters or creating systems or inventories. It does really work with this game though - if you do try it, let me know what you think! I really hope you enjoy it I have played Return of the Obra Dinn! I was initially really off-kilter because of the art style and the sparseness of the introduction/lack of explanation - I initially thought you had to walk around memories clicking on things until you 'found' the thing the memory wanted you to find, I had no idea it was on a timer. I love the mechanics including the like... admin puzzle where you put names to faces and deaths. Really impressive game.

[@ZLunare]

@@MertKayKay are there any other games you'd day successfully did thr walking sim genre justice and are worth trying out?

[@MertKayKay]

@@ZLunare I'd always suggest SOMA - it has roaming enemies but you can literally turn them off and just play the game, and I actually think the game is way better without them, they were definitely added because of like... higher-up pressure or something. I'd say Outlast is a walking sim in many ways, although obviously with death states. I'd recommend the first, more because it's really fun! I'm not the most well-versed in them so I imagine lots of people can give tons of really good suggestions - I've had What Remains of Edith Finch suggested to me loads but I've not had a chance to try it yet :D

[@ZLunare]

@@MertKayKay Hey thanks for the suggestions! I'll be sure to check them out.

[@KingRidley]

I didn't have a problem with the concept of walking simulators, but I had a problem with people charging the same price for them as a lot of other "full" games that were usually much higher quality. Also some of them received excessively positive coverage because they were friends with journalists and they weren't transparent about it, so that left a bad taste in my mouth.

[@samclark2442]

Absolutely love the That Mitchell and Webb Look references! I can never hear The Event the same way and it keeps cropping up in games and media. They really did a number on me. I can't stop thinking about The Event.

[@MertKayKay]

I loved that show so much growing up - and Peep Show! :D Classic TV

[@samclark2442]

You should do a video on it!! :^) I'd watch that

[@mattykat7743]

Great video! I played this game for the first time last night and my heads been swimming with thoughts so I just wanted to share some interpretations of my own to add to yours. The first being that I think we actually play as Kate. There’s a radio where she says (can’t remember the dialogue so I’m paraphrasing) that she feels disconnected from her own words like she’s simultaneously the speaker and the listener, and when I listened to that I had this slight realisation of “what if these aren’t old recordings I’m picking up, and she’s actually making them as I’m listening to them” she’s just so disconnected from everything, including time itself, that it’s all out of order. This could also sort of explain why her voice always comes from the same radio that is littered everywhere (tho obvs the doylist explanation is that it’s easier on the devs if they just reuse the same assets 😅) we’re not walking around the real village but rather it’s a collage of various points in time, maybe this is what the light is showing her just before it takes her. Also I hadn’t figured out that the orbs of light represented the characters of that chapter until you pointed it out which makes a lot of sense, and I think that actually the two lights in Lizzie’s chapter actually represents Rachel and the baby. The chapter is Lizzie’s because we’re watching her perspective unfold but the structure of each chapter is that we watch various key scenes before unlocking a final scene in which we see someone’s final moments, and Lizzie dies all the way over at the train station, so it makes more sense to think of the camp as where Rachel and the baby’s “spirit” lingers. And lastly I personally enjoy reading too deep into things and tend to approach most art like movies, books and games as being metaphors deep down whether the creators intend it or not so idk if this is was the meaning the chinese room were going for but; I feel like this game is ultimately about how we as humans will self-isolate and disconnect from each other, and we can see this in the way each chapter character meets their end. We have Jeremy who as a priest has taken it upon himself to shoulder all the problems of the village. there are so many scenes where we see people confiding in him or he’s trying to offer advice and support, but he never really gets it in return. Only once he believes that he’s the last one, he breaks down and expresses the fear he’s been dealing with, and he’s left to face his doom all on his own. And I don’t think he really is one of the last people left, it seems like he gets taken up before the planes arrive, so I theorise that after breaking his ankle he may have trudged all the way to the doctors office where he gets the crutch, but finds the village is completely devoid of people, and so has convinced himself that he’s completely alone. Then there’s Wendy, who is completely set in her ways and believes that her view of the world is the correct one, pushing back on anyone who contradicts her. Her world just seems to have been crumbling around her for years, her husband died, her son went away and then came back apparently a different man which she blames on Kate, whose scientific worldview and career directly opposes her christian beliefs, and then of course the birds start dropping dead, which is pretty sad given that bird watching is the only nice hobby she seems to have. Because of this she spends her last moments looking for her son who kinda seems to have abandoned her, and she looks up to the sky, deluding herself that her husband is coming to save the day when really those planes are there to kill. Next is Frank who is definitely the grin and bear it type of man, similar to Jeremy he never expresses the pain he’s going through until he’s alone, and he clearly took the death of his wife very hard as he hasn’t been able to clear the hospital equipment from his home despite her death being months ago. Lizzie’s isolation is due to an unhappy marriage and she also seems to have been stuck in the mindset that her disability has limited her sense of independence, a mindset that it seems she was just growing out of when she made up her mind to leave, and right when the planes came by. Then of course Stephen and Kate’s self isolation is obvious, they’re both intelligent people who have come to believe that they know better than the rest of the village and don’t even consider what other people might think should be done about the light, and don’t really bother to explain what’s happening to them. We don’t know what what Stephen was like before the game but he strikes me as a very short tempered person, and Wendy’s dialogue implies he wasn’t always like this. He clearly has a great amount of admiration for Kate and her mind and it seems that they’ve both confused this admiration for love when it’s evident (with his infidelity and her locking herself away) that they don’t actually care about each other that much. And all this self-isolation is contrasted by The Pattern, an entity that seems to operate by absorbing everything, all these minds and memories, into one collective, and it doesn’t understand, or has no ability to understand, or simply doesn’t care to know, why humans that value their individuality would find this terrifying. Anyways sorry for the essay 😅 I really enjoyed this game if you can’t tell

[@NgaMarsters]

A game that I would find interesting to discuss is a game called "Where The Water Tastes Like Wine" a game based on the very concept of American folklore.

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks for the recommendation! It doesn't seem to be available on my system :( (PlayStation) but I will keep an eye out for if it ever gets a port. Really appreciate you sharing it with me Alan, thanks very much

[@NgaMarsters]

@@MertKayKay It is available on PS4, that's where I play it kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4PSpGR4bJihm6c How strange. Might be a regional thing.

[@belot217]

It should be on PS4.

[@alflundgren8138]

@@MertKayKay It is on playstation, yes.

[@MertKayKay]

@@alflundgren8138 Must be on the NA store or something, I can't see it anywhere

[@who.lou_lou]

I really loved this game. When I first played, I thought it was just going to be a mystery game of why everyone had vanished. But as I played, I found the whole thing terrifying. I loved the menu screen and the radio broadcast thing, just the whole vibe of the game is unsettling. You're the only KZbinr I've come across that has played it, and I loved this video and your take on the game. I also adore the soundtrack, Jessica Curry is amazing with how she made the music errie, but also beautiful.

[@sherilynm9271]

I've loved the soundtrack but never knew anything about the game... This video made me cry. Thank you for your analysis of it, because I love hearing about a game from someone who truly enjoyed it.

[@Mousy677]

another interesting thing to note: as you go past it on the way to jeremy's death, we can see that the church is the church of st. hubert. amongst things, st. hubert is the patron saint of trappers, hunting and hunters, and also mathematicians. finally, he is also associated with specifically ETHICAL hunting practices because (according to the story of how he became a saint), a deer with a crucifix between its antlers that he tried to hunt on good friday (as one does) lectured him about both religion and ethical hunting. (said deer is also the logo of jagermeister, but that's a digression.)

[@robertbishop9446]

Just found this video and was glued to the screen the entire duration. (Kinda - listened to it podcast-style while working) Then checked out the rest of your videos and it's honestly insane how much our views align, both with unpopular and popular opinions. Each time I think I'm done for the day I see another video and go 'I KNOW, RIGHT?!' I'm usually just a watch-and-move-on type, but I simply had to comment. This game shook me to my core and no one seems to talk about it. (This happened, albeit to a much lesser degree, with Edith Finch and Vanishing of Ethan Carter as well.) So anyway, great job and all that! Working my way through the rest of your videos. Keep truckin'!

[@MertKayKay]

YES Robert we are twinnies. I'm really glad you like my stuff and I'm also really glad we share so many perspectives! It's always so nice to align so much on something. Thanks so much for watching my videos

[@wrenbeck3370]

Fun fact: Kate's voice actor, Merle Dandridge, is also the voice actress for Alyx in Half-Life and its episodes.

[@MertKayKay]

Oh wow I never noticed! Just combed through her IMDB, she's been in tons of things - including TLOU! Crazy

[@ryanmaclean1720]

My own personal interpretation is that it is the biblical rapture with the odd signal being the songs of the Seraphim and the trumpets of revelation. There is a well known part of revelation with the star wormwood who will crash into the earth and do untold damage to the earth. The events of revelation when they happen are going to be terrifying as while much of it is symbolic, there’s a good likelihood that the events will be on the level of some good old fashion cosmic horror since while God is a loving and benevolent being, he’s still a being that’s presence would kill on sight. Just look at the descriptions of the angels. If an Ophanim where to reveal itself it would drive many mad.

[@MertKayKay]

I really love that interpretation of the game! Like, we always see stuff crashing into the earth in a biblical sense as like... Coming from the clouds (like in those old renaissance drawings). But when you think about it, it would crash from well above the atmosphere and almost seem like a meteor or something. Or in this case, a weird light entity! Thanks for the comment Ryan 😁

[@ryanmaclean1720]

@@MertKayKay not a problem. Its really cool that you are interacting with you're audience this much. I hope you know that it doesn't go unapreciated

[@oxymoron02]

I came to the same conclusion as Mert years ago when I played this. Haven't watched the video yet, but I presume Mert will cover the very explicit allusions to something being watched from the observatory, and then coming towards Earth. I don't get even remotely religious tones from that.

[@TheLyingFigure]

There's a reason why every interaction begins with, "BE NOT AFRAID"

[@HobieBrown777]

@@MertKayKay had a dream about that once. It ripped the Vail.

[@insertfunnynamehere1673]

Man I missed so much in my playthrough! I missed the scene between Jeremy and Howard, and a bunch of the radios. Idk if it's cause I missed those bits, or if this is just another thing I missed, but for me Kate's section was entirely silent and eerie and sad. I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice the orbs had personalities! Though I did notice that Lizzie had a second orb, I didn't make the connection between that and her pregnancy. For some reason, I thought the second orb was just the baby Rachel had with her. I think I forgot that it flat out said the orb was Lizzie and thought "oh well, this orb showed me an equal mix of things Lizzie experienced and things Rachel experienced, maybe the orb is Rachel?" I don't think I'd processed enough to have an opinion on what was happening with the light, but I don't really want to think you're right.... Your argument is very well thought out to be sure, and as valid an interpretation as any, but I prefer my games to be somewhat happy, and not to end with the entire eradication of humanity. I'm picky like that. Though considering the themes of the studio's other games, you're probably closer to the mark than I am. That was kinda a paragraph, huh? Oh well, for the algorithm

[@MertKayKay]

Hey Funny!! I had no idea Kate's section could be silent and eerie and sad, that is genuinely so interesting. I guess it's related to what of the game you see leading up to it? Like certain snippets unlock other certain snippets? Either way, extremely cool. And thanks! I know exactly how you feel though; sometimes it's nice to just be like "I'm not sure what happened so I'm going to assume it was happy". I've done that a lot with games I had no definitive answers for :')

[@johnmobley9369]

I’m not gonna lie when I got to the end of the game I was extremely disappointed. It was an intriguing mystery that made me one to figure out what was happening. It was done in such a unique way that I can put it down. I don’t know what about it disappointed me but at the end of the game I was left feeling empty. On paper it’s a very interesting story. And even while playing the game in entertains you along the way. But I wanted something more and this video is giving

[@sakurasensations4786]

Recently became a viewer of your content and I love watching it! You make these games so interesting to hear about, and I love to hear what you think of them (even if they’re awful games)! Keep doing what you’re doing :) Note: When you talked about a 16-year old Rachel, I got a spike of panic for a second there-

[@MertKayKay]

Hahahaha Sakura I can't seem to be free of these poor 16 year old Rachels 🤣🤣 thank you very much for watching, really glad you enjoyed it

[@Pihsrosnec]

Few incomplete theories, more like the equivalent of seeds to latch on to someone who finds them compelling: 'Our own light is left there for others' could imply that the events the game centres around are how the entity reproduces, leaving behind a new 'light' in its wake. There is reference to non-human animals dying before the humans do, and their bodies are implied to be visible since people refer to them as dead instead of missing. This could mean that for whatever reason the light isn't specifically trying to kill humans but actually trying to keep them alive as long as possible. Big devils advocate for the theory presented in this video: what if the light is genuinely scared, alone and unaware of the harm it's causing? Searching for any form of company and either absorbing it into itself or desperately trying to keep them alive in its presence. Finally, I would like to detail one criticism I have of this video, which is that because the methods of selecting who gets targeted and who doesn't is unknown and possibly flawed, it is inherently malicious. If it were simply searching for biomass, it would make even less sense for it to skip over plants and other animals, and if it's trying to make a museum it still doesn't make taking dead bodies any more logical than other theories surrounding it taking consciousness. Even having this be solidified by a foetus having a lingering orbiting light around its mothers when it could also be explained in many other ways, even being directly portrayed as being treated differently than an actual developed human by orbiting the mother. The religious nature of the title leans more towards the idea of souls and, as much as I don't agree with it or more specifically the attitudes it creates, it is commonly believed in certain popular religious circles that unborn foetuses have souls.

[@bearscenario5800]

I love your video essays, the perfect balance of deep dive existential dread and then making me laugh out loud with some of the things you come out with. Please keep exploring and explaining the great views you have through games, you have a fantastic way of sharing those ideas any game designer would be glad to hear you picked up on.

[@MertKayKay]

Aww thank you Bear! :D You make it all worth it

[@joshaqy]

"I look at my Hell Star Remina tab, still open. I sweat." made me giggle more than it should I love it

[@elementalgamer0732]

Its pretty hard to listen to what the video is about when I'm laugh too hard from that amazing humor you've so generously sprinkled through the video. Absolutely perfect, you made my night after working a shitty evening shift.

[@MertKayKay]

My pleasure, sorry about your smelly evening shift 🥰

[@MusicalMajestyPlays]

What an interesting game! I love the depth of the story and the ambiguity of it all. It really makes you think. Your coverage of it was brilliant. I love the essay-style you present with. And your talking speed is absolutely perfect for my ADHD. Thank you for covering this!

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks so much Daniel!! 😁

[@zeporion6091]

After finishing the game, I find Kate's phrase "others will come, to dance in the light we cast" rather captivating. As if another species were to evolve over millions of years to become as sentient and intelligent as us. They live in our abandoned homes and eventually pave over and replace them. They build vast new empires, they explore the sea and connect the world just as we did. They send their own machines into space, too. All the while *we're still there.* The Light we were caught in is a natural force of the world just like the sun in the sky is to us now. They wake up in the middle of the night to see a Light swirling around their room making ethereal static-y noises and they aren't even afraid anymore. This has happened to them ever since they were a child. Who even knows if they comprehend that the Light is all that remained of an average ordinary being who lived millions of years ago? They don't know it's true meaning, but one day will the Light take them too? When they start to vanish, will they then realize the true horror of what it is they've coincided with all this time? Is the Light something that comes to take an entire species when it is it's preordained time to go? If that's so, then why kill the birds but not take them, why leave the butterflies you can see in game untouched? The whole prospect I find haunting.

[@MertKayKay]

I do really love that interpretation because it's honestly just so reassuring in a way. Like being an ancient presence to something in the future, with our old ruins littered everywhere. Thanks for watching!

[@UberNoodle]

The fact that it seems that every last bit of Junji Ito's catalogue is being printed in English in beautiful hardcovers makes me happy.

[@xliquidpliskinx4327]

And just to reiterate, I’d love to hear what you think of “Gone Home” when you get around to it! 😄

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Pilskin! I've got a few more in the pipeline first but my eyes are firmly on Gone Home 🥰

[@eternitysedge7353]

Never have I come across such a rich analysis, I'll subscribe and await more videos like this. You've earned it!!!

[@MertKayKay]

You are the kindest! Thank you so much :D

[@MogamiKyoko13]

As you were describing this game, all I could think of was the game Observation. Cosmic horror is one of the few horror genres that I can actually play because they tend to be slow paced and all about the creeping dread centered around solving some mysterious situation.

[@exhumadora]

This video is so interesting to me because, to me, it was just a beautiful game about being one with the world and everyone else. I thought the light was a single note from Musica Universalis. This is such a lonely age for humanity and that was represented with the fear of being with someone else, of being intimate. Stephen's relationship falling apart (even love can vanish), Wendy being afraid of people who aren't just like her, the military dropping the gas because they'd rather kill everything in contact with something new rather than try and engage with it. The light welcomes one and all to be One and to accept other conciousness into our own and because of how terrified we are of that we can't but scramble in fear. For me it wasn't cosmic horror, but it was the fear of alienation and the fear of others that won't let us see we can be truly together unless we're directly faced with the reality that the light is one in all. Regarding the dead people I think the bodies, the mind and the soul are 3 parts of the same thing, so the dead bodies were also picked up into the "nirvana". I found the game sad because only one person could see what could be, while everyone else tried to leave in fear or destroy it. Felt like such a hopeless reaction. Anyways, great video! I'll be subscribing

[@zachialadams9279]

EGTR actually hits on a very rare concept. "Beauty can be truly horrifying" There's no gross horror or gorey death in it. The inevitable end comes not through being messily devoured by a cosmic monster, but being dissolved into energy and light. But the kicker is that it IS inevitable, and it's bigger than anything else you could understand.

[@amybickett7949]

Remina is also like Azathoth, an incomprehensibly-large orb of flesh that only eats

[@sameastop3906]

Brilliant video essay, Mert. I love your witty writing and blunt humour.

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you! I was very proud of this one.

[@sameastop3906]

@@MertKayKay the bit about the ants broke me. 😂

[@artemis2227]

Just found your channel a few days ago and you're already one of my favorites. Great videos, love the horror content especially, can't wait to see what you do next! I will be here!!

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you so much Amai! Hope you enjoy my future stuff!

[@SentinalhMC]

This was a great essay. Your connection with Junji Ito was fascinating but very apt, a lot of his work seems to deal with inevitability, that whatever is about to happen is going to happen. I see an interesting parallel with Uzumaki here, namely its ending. It's horrifying what happened and you can't deny it but there's a tiny glimmer of something comforting there even still.

[@MertKayKay]

Hey Sentinal! Thanks very much for watching and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I love your observation of Junji as dealing with inevitability; I never quite cottoned on to that central theme, but looking at a lot of his stories, it's absolutely true. I just read his work The Slapping Tree and, yeah, absolutely about inevitability.

[@ancientandbored]

Your writing is superb and this is a game that deserves this care and attention. It's a beautiful and terrifying game, but the horror aspect of it is so calm and subtle... Reminded me of Silent Hill, not in appearance and gameplay but with that kind of dread and sadness that makes you think about it days after you finish it.

[@MertKayKay]

Yes!! It did give me that Silent Hill Hangover as well! Glad I wasn't alone

[@chrkme]

I'm from Shropshire and can confirm this is exactly what it's like (minus the light stuff ofc)

[@oddity_vvitch]

I love this game and it feels so nice for someone to review it in some way, or actually simply talk about it

[@Nathan-ej3bk]

I'm legit so happy I found this channel, I've always loved this type of content. In a weird way, some of her humor and writing reminds me of Shammy, which is definitely meant as a compliment

[@MertKayKay]

Aww thanks Nathan! Really glad you like the channel. I'll have to check out this "Shammy" :D

[@zeporion6091]

I only found your channel recently but I already love it. Your style of game review is a rare one on KZbin and you do it so well. Thanks for the content :D

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you so much Zep! Hope you enjoy it

[@archsteel7]

Never played this game, never seen this channel before, but glad I saw this video in my recommended.

[@MertKayKay]

Glad to have you here Arch

[@HyperionStudios]

I remember being so excited for this game. Pacing through and listening to all the stories and trying my best to make sense of it all. The meaning of why it all happened. I was initially expecting a level of presentation similar to that of Dear Esther. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture has a lot of subtlety, maybe confusingly so from all the different angles someone can interpret it. I think that makes it worth discussing, excellent video essay mate.

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks Scoot! What did you think of the story by the end? Biblical Rapture? Friendly Celestial being? Hivemind? Or creepy Lovecraftian predator?

[@HyperionStudios]

@@MertKayKay That can be quite a loaded question. On my initial playthrough when the game first released; I first took it as a classical biblical rapture. Then, as time went on, I began to see it more as a twist on that premise. As if God in this game was not so much a benevolent being, but more so this uncaring "You're coming whether you like it or not". This strangeness in the air of ALL humans being raptured really just sold me more on it. There was a sense of grandness to it, not something isolated, how is it that biblical God would allow all humans to be raptured, surely there were some that don't deserve it. I guess in hindsight, I was probably coming closer and closer to understanding the cosmic horror element that you brought home. It's those moments of clarification followed by contradiction that makes these less recognized pieces be so thought provoking sometimes. I might be looking too deep into it though haha.

[@Persephone01]

The scene with the mum on the sofa with Jeremy waiting for her husband and children for over six hours knowing that they were taken really broke me. 😢 They couldnt do anything, they were just taken like instantly. The fact that you cant fight it, is also scary. It definately made me think of Hellstar vibes. The pattern is not good at all. Its just a mindless entity that eats everything on the planet in terrifying ways. Its destructive and yet hauntingly sad. Thats what upset me the most that people's lives and loved ones were gone in a split second all because of this pattern and wanting to see whats out there which brough destruction and death on the town. They didnt ask for this. It just happened to them. Often the scarier games that make you think are just silent places to roam and an undiscovered mystery. Places like this where theres no one actually freak me out the most. 😢 It also has a somewhat message about Grief and moving on. The people that were taken were scared until they saw a fictional afterlife with their loved ones. The people who died in the blast, died alone and in pain. I dont know what is a worse fate to be honest. Kate became so disollusioned with the pattern that it warped her mind and she just accepted it. She talked about this fake afterlife but is that really what happened to them.

[@mullerpotgieter]

I specifically keep the soundtrack on my phone to put me to sleep. So beautiful

[@davidpeterson8432]

Says not going to go into nitty-gritty of the story, and only give light spoilers... The proceeds to break down entire story.

[@MertKayKay]

woops

[@arachnidsLor]

also, its nice to hear someone talk about remina. its one of my favourite stories by junji ito, besides army of one. the utter overwhelming dread of remina just gets to me. gemini home entertainment really hits that note for me too, in case you dont know it, i really recommend it!

[@RainbowRenegade]

This game is kinda forgotten gem. I'm so glad people still talk about it sometimes. It was so underappreciated when it came out, because walking sim bad or smth.

[@definitelyhooman7939]

I'm happy to find another Junji Ito/Lovecraft fan! I would be totally down to see a more specific video talking about the Lovecraft mythos, or some of Ito's other work. I see you've already made a video on some Lovecraft inspired games, so I'll have to check them out soon

[@MertKayKay]

Aww thank you Hooman! I do love chatting pure shit about Ito, he's a lovely boy. Hopefully I find some games in the future that give me that Ito inspiration

[@jacobkiblinger1363]

Love me some horror and I'm a huge manga fan. Please eat well, you're really fun to listen to and I worry when folks don't eat. Hope you're ok.

[@MertKayKay]

Thank you Jacob! I am so bad at remembering to eat haha

[@TheGameGuy99]

So glad to find such an in-depth video essay on such an intriguing game! There's already a lot of comments on the phenomenal music so all I'll say is Austin Wintory is a gem! As for your theory on the Light gathering people in a Lovecraftian sense, I had a bit of a sudden spark of a theory on that. A lot of the dead characters that appear to those gathered by the light are mentioned by characters the "orb" characters (like Jeremy) interact with during the events leading up to their eventual capture. Perhaps the Signal has latched onto these characters in particular as owing to their roles in the community they interact with the most citizens and thus have the most information. Thus, these dead characters can be used to lure the prey into a false sense of security when they're finally taken. It might also explain why they're taken last on their own as they no longer are capable of gathering information. Also, as there's not really any explanation for why our character/avatar was spared...and I realize this a stretch... maybe we're some physical manifestation of the creature gathering all of the specimens our orb lures gathered? Overall, phenomenal vid, and glad to stumble upon your channel!

[@MertKayKay]

Thanks so much Carl! I'm really glad you liked the video. And yes, that would be a pretty sound reason as to why these were the characters that remained. The substitution cypher at the beginning refers to people dying having their memories draped over everyone else like a blanket - maybe the people you mentioned as being the orbs know the most people, so they're like the biggest/most central to that blanket? Love your theories Carl, thanks for sharing!

[@TeaMasterIroh]

My favorite game of 2015. Personally, I would love a miniseries based on this game.

[@MertKayKay]

Oh absolutely, I would have loved to learn more about all the people in the village, or in other small towns and villages. Maybe an in-universe tie-in book or something with some more insights

[@loganiosmithanio5373]

The Enigma of Amigara Fault was, and still is, my favorite piece done by Jun Ji Ito.

[@voodoolew]

You got me into Ito, thank you. Remina was a hell of a ride

[@MertKayKay]

Hell yes I'm so happy to hear it!!

[@TimZoet]

Could be a metaphor for ideology? New girl from a different place comes into a small town; new idea is spread around unsuspecting people. It starts mildly and creeps up; at first the idea is planted and it grows with your thoughts. It spreads through communication in the form of talking and phones. As it is new, it is seen as a threat and thus people try to attack and destroy it. Slowly people are corrupting by it, the idea, the mindset. Eventually the people disappear; the ideology has taken over the person and his mind, the old self disappears and is no longer there. Only a memory of what once was is left behind. The light is a new idea. A new ideology. Enlightenment. The word 'light' is even in it. This is my interpretation.

[@hektik2200]

“She looks at an intergalactic light and says ‘yeah I can fix you’. What a rebound” that fucking slayed me lol

[@AspelShuyin]

This sounds like the light is some kind of instrumentality situation, and human beings are inherently afraid of intimacy and closeness with one another. It reminds me of Evangelion. The idea of becoming one with everyone is frightening. But from the other side of that wall it must be beautiful. i suppose it's better than simply singing holy holy holy holy for eternity.

[@dinofelis9343]

That is exactly what I was thinking of as well.

[@ulysseschang129]

Just love it when you are directly talking to Wendy. Music to my year.

[@arachnidsLor]

seeing this video now is kind of a crazy feeling. this game gave me the weirdest, surreal experience while i played it. i had a fan on at the time and no noise around me beside the game, playing on a really big screen. i didnt really like the store back then, but the way the environment and the little echoes of the people there were constructed just left me with a real sad feeling. because you hear the story, you hear what they were doing and its like its happening "now". but no, its all over already. in the end you are just left with emptiness. what even was the player character? i have a lot of thoughts..

[@KatjaCrayon]

This was a really great video, Everybody's gone to the rapture is one of my all time favorite games! The visuals are so eerie and the soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful! 10/10

[@AmaryInkawult]

Junji Ito also has a thing for warping oral anatomy. I mean if you ever play a drinking game involving every panel that has an engorged tongue or a gaping human mouth you are guaranteed liver damage.

[@TheMightyPika]

I once played this game all in one go and ended at five in the morning bawling my eyes out on the couch as the credits rolled. One of the most powerful game experiences I've ever had and the second game to make me cry. Just amazing.

[@MertKayKay]

What was the first game to make you cry Pika? :D Mine was Telltale's Walking Dead

[@TheMightyPika]

@@MertKayKay Telltale's Walking Dead was the third for me. Silent Hill 2's ending monologue was the first. Broke me like ripe asparagus.

[@TheMightyPika]

@@MertKayKay oh, and thank you for talking about EGTTR. Everyone else's video is whining and shrugging like their idea of 'profound' is replacing bacon with turkey or something.

[@MertKayKay]

No worries Pika, thank you so much for watching!

[@admiraldanger1419]

"It's not an angel. It's an anglerfish." WOW, what a quote.

[@Foreseer117]

I've been meaning to read Ito for years now and just binged Hellstar Remina, Amigara Fault, and I'm currently in the middle of Uzumaki. I have never felt my stomach twist as much as it did reading Remina. The looming dread of something so wildly incomprehensible as a living planet with Earth as it's entrée just leaves me terrified. What if the universe is really this horrible and our dumb inquisitiviness leads us right where we shouldn't be? Thanks for recommending such a terrifying tale!