The Witness - A Great Game That You Shouldn't Play

[@EvolvedDinosaur]

Legit for three fucking hours, I thought this game was a horror game in disguise. I was so terrified to go under the windmill. I swear to god, I heard footsteps that weren't mine around that area. I went down there ONCE, saw the octagonal puzzle, realized I didn't know what to do, and promptly ran out. Later, I found the one paper diagram near the first door in the game, and was so spooked to go back down to the mill. I was certain that I would finally see the monster of the island. When I put in the puzzle solution, I let out an audible yelp as the video came on. Definitely wasn't what I expected to happen. This feeling of unease stayed with me for a few more hours until I finally looked online when this beast would show up. Turns out I was just fucking stupid and the silence/serenity of the island was playing tricks on me. I felt genuinely relieved after finding out there wasn't any monster, but a bit disappointed. I was hoping the whole island was a facade to hide some bigger secret. Turns out there was such a secret, just not what I was expecting...

[@spookeylordzey8432]

Evolved Dinosaur lol

[@toxiclaw7591]

This is the funniest shit I've read in a while xD

[@Milkra]

Holy shit, I just realized how amazing the witness would be as a horror game halfway through.

[@mrmemetop1567]

xD lol

[@mattd3224]

I thought that with Gone Home. Was very confused

[@nddragoon]

i just realized, isn't super bunnyhop colorblind? the apple is red and the leaves are green so it's possible he literally couldn't see it

[@benzeller9186]

I'm red-green colorblind and I saw it, but only after a while. Those and the color puzzles were super difficult for me

[@darksentinel082]

@@benzeller9186 Yeah, The Witness is pretty awful with accessibility. My close friend is quite hard of hearing, and the whole forest/jungle/whatever area was practically impossible for him. He brute-forced through a few but gave up - he didn't realise the mechanic was sound-based and figured he was just missing something. When I picked up the game for him - I had first advised checking a walkthrough, to which he shamed me for even considering being "that lowly" - I caught the gimmick immediately. He was a bit upset about it, but I finished the area for him and that was more or less the end of it. My personal favorite puzzles were the color ones, which makes me sad because people who are colorblind, with you as a good example, have difficulty solving these puzzles. But accessibility is very much impossible for these types of things. You can't caption the sound puzzles - it would give the solution away. There isn't a way to re-explain how colors interact with one another if the concept of color itself is muddy. I'm sure there's other examples of how something has poor accessibility but cannot be altered very far towards a more accessible version, but it's been ages since I last played the game and it's 11 PM - not the greatest circumstances to be remembering things. It's a necessary lack of accessibility, but it's still a damn shame there isn't another way.

[@evgen5647]

@@darksentinel082 some areas depend on color puzzles. Some areas depend on audio. Authors say that you don't need to solve all areas to beat the game. That's their approach to accessibility I guess...

[@nin10dorox]

@@evgen5647 what alternative is there? Since the colors are about nothing but color and sound perception, I cant think of any possible way to make them more accessible

[@evgen5647]

@@nin10dorox @nin10dorox it is a good question, because there is an area in the game which relies on color perception and color blending. However, there are couple (two or three) color issues in other areas which probably could be fixed.

[@ВладимирКоролёв-х1м]

Title: "you shouldn't play this game" First minute: "play the game before watching this" ...okay, I guess...

[@Envy_May]

He said it would be contradictory.

[@NicolaSnake98]

@@Envy_May bruh

[@callmeswivelhips8229]

I was so confused! My yearn to hear this man's perspective on...anything won out though

[@boldone66]

"Hold on. This whole operation was your idea."

[@MxPokirby]

Pretty sure he was saying something like "I don't think you should play it, but if you're already planning on it, I don't want to ruin it for you."

[@Joker22593]

"Communicating poorly then acting smug when misunderstood is not cleverness". This is a hard line to straddle for good puzzle games.

[@pooplenepe59]

It's also an extremely annoying trait in any writer. Sometimes, when the audience doesn't understand what you are trying to tell them, it means you are simply a bad writer.

[@keithl3789]

Yeah you can't expect 100 percent of the puzzles to land. Most of them were satisfying which means I enjoyed the game. The indecipherable ones, just skip and move on.

[@some-fan]

xkcd reference !

[@TheDominitri]

funnily enough the same thing could be said about Joe

[@mapler90210]

Fun fact: Professor Moriarty (the same one whose near hour long presentation is featured in the theater room) never learned while playing that after you click to begin a puzzle, you could let go of the mouse button while you solved the puzzle. He found this out from one of his students approximately two weeks after he had completed all known puzzles in the game. This means that Professor Moriarty sat in front of his computer, holding down left click, listening to his own lecture for 56 minutes, in order to complete the last environmental puzzle.

[@Flowtail]

i'm not even sure if r/thathappened, but an amusing thought either way

[@AlexAegisOfficial]

@@Flowtail It's on the internet, so it must be true

[@Trollificusv2]

Made me snort.

[@worldweaver2691]

The ult revenege from his students

[@Leon-ur8lb]

Fif Gallag ah, yes, because nothing ever happens at all!

[@kellergie2602]

I've never heard of this game, the developer, or seen this KZbinr before but this video showed up in my reccomended and it was so well put together that I watched the whole thing. And I just realized it's 3 years old lol

[@brothir]

4.

[@biancamcnamara837]

Me too

[@uhhhbobo]

oh wow same, i didn’t even realize how old the video is until i read this comment

[@ziril3972]

Ha, same

[@maegnificant]

you never heard of braid?

[@blueblack2]

It’s been three years since I played The Witness, and even now, rewatching this video, it makes me distrustful of circles. I can still feel the claustrophobia from finishing the game, flying free around the island, and then being shoved back in the tube where the whole ordeal started. On another note, there are also collectibles in Braid which take hours to reach, so I think it’s just something that Blow enjoys doing.

[@waluigiisgod3978]

Don't trust circles. Don't call me shapeist, but they're most likely gonna scam you

[@greyknight5823]

I'm thinking of one collectible in particular in Braid, which you have to waste your time to reach. You know the one.

[@Jaydee8652]

@@waluigiisgod3978, Triangles are the scammers, pyramid schemes and all that.

[@sanjoog47]

@@waluigiisgod3978 shapeist lmao

[@JediSteve-J3-]

Look, never trust circles A sorcerer once taught me that... Or something like that

[@shama1239]

The entire time I was playing the Witness I was thinking that if I ever saw another person there it would freak me out. I almost screamed when I saw the first statue person. I really like the eeriness of solitude in a big area in games.

[@hashtagrex]

here's something to make it even eerier: the statue in the middle of the town, by the windmill, has a set of stones arranged on the ground so that the statue's *shadow* is juggling. Meaning someone has been there before you

[@ToxicTony15]

Eh it made the world feel lifeless to me. I didn’t really find it that creepy.

[@Solaire_of_Astora13]

@@ToxicTony15 it is lifeless, that's the point. What are you experiencing? What is the world trying to communicate to you? How are you capable of interacting with it like this? It's metaphysical angst of some kind.

[@ToxicTony15]

@@Solaire_of_Astora13 Idk it just made the world feel boring to me.

[@Solaire_of_Astora13]

@@ToxicTony15 The Witness is not a game that's meant to excite you, nor is it a horror game, so it's not failing either way. I still agree with many of Anderson's points though, but I wouldn't describe my time with the game as being "boring" (personally).

[@java9757]

a 40 minute video with no ads in it, dude you're a madman. nice review tho

[@PooeyBum11]

well if you stay till the end you wont want to play the game. Its been ruined. So not a good ad lol

[@sembatimothynkalamo8986]

I guess what he was trying to do is compensate for ruining the experience by delivering one of his own. And he must have done something right cause I, and many others from the looks of it, somehow stuck around all the way through.

[@sebastianplugaru5417]

nah ! He's just poor !

[@theguyunmasked7401]

+Sekrit Comrade *KZbinrs Triggered*

[@OriginalPuro]

Why would there be ads in it?

[@UnderageStrangeGames]

“I know this video is long...” 4 years later... Witcher Part 1: >4 hours

[@SETHthegodofchaos]

long man good

[@LifeTheorist]

Ah, more then my hours of sleep I see

[@danielebernardi6732]

Part 2 is 5+

[@justarandompally]

@@danielebernardi6732 Looking forward to the 10h video for the 3rd game

[@danielebernardi6732]

@@justarandompally me too

[@EliTheGleason]

"I realize this video is a bit long, so if you need to take a break I'd recommend doing it now" 40 Min video Years later: "He guys it's me Lil Anders back again with a 3 hour God of War review"

[@BaileyZK]

"back again with a 3-hour God of War video until I finish my 8-hour Witcher video lads"

[@RicoSeattle]

Lil Anders!!! Oh fuck that got me good!

[@sidbore1218]

And he's said the Witcher video will be at least 9 hours long

[@Bondubras]

I once came across a video by ShayMay that's a 7 hour long review of Pokemon Omega Ruby. It's literally twice as long as the speedrun. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXemZ6B6gKtgZsU

[@shottyshane600]

2020 still no 8 hour video

[@SquareViking]

Seeing this after the 5+ hour long videos he puts out these days and hearing him call this one a long video is hilarious beyond explanation.

[@LeastTresCharLargo]

You did explain it

[@SquareViking]

@@LeastTresCharLargo oh damn. I guess I did.

[@cookies23z]

@@LeastTresCharLargo no no no, it is hilarious beyond *the* explanation, so its funnier then they explained

[@thatoneguy2394]

5:30. I had so much difficulty with this puzzle because I'm red-green colorblind. I literally did not know there was an apple until you just said it.

[@-vee-7009]

thatOne Guy Thanks to your comment I finally figured out that I am red-green colorblind as well. I don't know if I should be happy or not lol

[@kingtreedede7303]

thatOne Guy lol get rekt

[@pittagiiya]

GMTK also criticized this game for the fact that it has sound puzzles at all. You have no reason to expect them until partway through the game, so a deaf person would think that they could play this game. And they'd be wrong.

[@insolace8077]

Most guys are colorblind, but not all to the same degree. My colorblindness is a rather minuscule variant of the red/green color blindness and I can see that apple easily, but other people genuinely can’t tell if the apple is red. Also most females aren’t colorblind, unlike men. Idk why though

[@annalise8572]

i feel like that's a problem with many games. a close friend of mine actually has a severe case of colorblindness, so when he got anthem and saw there was a colorblind setting he was overjoyed. i think every game creator should add that in the settings, especially if it's a puzzle game. otherwise colorblind people will struggle a lot more than one without colorblindness.

[@ieuanhunt552]

5:50 Super bunnyhop is also colour blind. Which probably made a lot of the environmental puzzles much more difficult

[@xxportalxx.]

Wow or impossible as a few look basically just like the test pics they use to diagnose it!

[@RealLargeManTheGiantOne]

I gave up on this game for two reasons, one being difficulty with colours, the other being that it turns my pc into a furnace despite being theoretically a very simple game graphically

[@mrapple2544]

@@RealLargeManTheGiantOne I think that's your pc fault, I don't have any problems and my pc is a potato with a battery.

[@Huntracony]

Yeah, red apple on green background... That's easy to miss assuming he's red-green colorblind. But at least it's possible. There's a whole area of the game dedicated to color puzzles. This game is impossible to beat without looking up solutions with even minor disabilities. Colorblind, deaf, just tone deaf, processing issues, bad visual memory, this game just requires all of your senses to work near flawlessly. Which is what it is, I don't think there's much that could be changed about it that wouldn't give away the puzzles. Though I suppose a warning would've been nice.

[@heretichazel]

@@Huntracony I struggle with some stuff like red-green colorblindness (that apple is definitely difficult to spot at first), ADHD, and auditory processing issues, and because of that the jungle was impossible when they started layering on sounds, the color puzzles with broken screens in the final area was impossible for me to tell them apart, and there's been several times with complex Tetris piece puzzles I've had to take a screenshot and just draw on it in gimp and work out the solution since there's just too many pieces to keep track of them all at once None of those issues are even too severe for me, but even then the game just requires so much that as much as I enjoy it I do have to pull up a guide every now and then because my body or mind simply isn't perfect and has disorders and deficiencies Some solutions would be to add accessibility options, some stuff like memory issues would need a more tailored solution than I can come up with on the spot at 4 AM, but other things like colorblindness are as easily solved as adding filters for colorblindness, or subtitles for deaf people, which wouldn't work with the jungle puzzle but there's definitely other times when it'd be useful, like the sound of gates opening out of sight or the footstep sounds changing in the hedge maze. Maybe for the jungle there could be an option to tweak the intensity of the background noise? Since most people with hearing issues can still hear somewhat. Speaking of that, there definitely needs to be audio settings, I found some times when the game was far too loud and being able to tweak the values of environmental sounds, music (god that vinyl player is loud), sounds tied to puzzles, and interaction sounds would be amazing

[@Pegasus436]

I literally found that weird secret ending from the beginning. What happened was that my bf told me about a cool puzzle game he was playing and he thought I’d like it. So the next time I went to his place I watched him play. He told me the concept with the pattern of the circle in the line. That’s when I noticed the sun as a circle and the line in the door. I told him and he was like what?! And then he did the line and we freaked out when the door opened. He was like “this is the end of the game and we haven’t even finished it!”. Nutty lol

[@Pegasus436]

@@dylanbyrne9591 Cute. Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? 😊

[@dylanbyrne9591]

@@Pegasus436 yeah sorry

[@beanstheclown]

I actually ended up getting the secret ending on accident before solving any real puzzles just from playing around with controls. Happened to be in the right angle, hit the "start doing an environment puzzle" button and started randomly clicking to see if it did something. Second or third click was on the sun which brought up the line puzzle, and I have to tell you that was the most jarring unintentional speedrun I've ever completed.

[@gamedominatorxennongdm7956]

Based and circlepilled

[@anonibat]

so it could be solved at the very beginning? it sounds unbelievable, as it looked so smooth for me. i finished the game, tried to run it one more time just to ensure it was really restarted, walked out of a tunnel to see that giant shiny door. i opened it and found some extra stuff, i was sure i could see it because the game is complete. they cheated me so hard.

[@chillspice]

The bridge is going slow at 25:30 to give you time to do the line puzzle that is being formed by the shadows at your feet.

[@JoeyJojoJrJr]

I realized that as well, but I also don't think that's a good excuse to have a slow bridge in the first place. When you're going through that area for the first time you need to cross the bridge multiple times, and to waste the player's time over and over just so that they could put an EP on the bridge doesn't make sense.

[@Ealsante]

It's actually fascinating when Joe says all the sounds sound the same to him, and I wonder if it's because I speak a tonal language that I got it immediately. It's high-high-low-mid, and in the others, the relative pitch of the sound dictates the direction you should approach the point from (high tone means you move down to the point from above, mid means you move to the point from the sides, low means you move up to the point from below). But yeah, it's because to me, in one of my languages, tone is absolutely crucial to deciphering meaning. If you don't come from that kind of habit, I can totally see how the sound part is a nightmare because it's all 'just chirping'.

[@ericale9700]

Oh me too! My mother tongue is a tonal language so when the audio clips came up I thought immediately, "hey, that's like up, up, down". Interesting point you made

[@Jepysauce]

I think this is exactly the point though when he brings up that the developers kind of have to assume that everyone is going to emd up having the same perception of something as them.

[@crashedwin]

I dont speak a tonal language but I attributed my understanding of the concept to growing up in a musical family. I was taught that sound is dimensional. Not just meant to be heard, but listened to like language.

[@Ealsante]

@@Jepysauce Oh yeah no, I totally agree. There's always a potential problem in any puzzle game, when you have to guess at the developer's train of thought, rather than any reasonable enough logic you can arrive at. I guess it's just that in this case, what is 'reasonable logic' to me due to my background is 'crazy train of thought' for others. Which happens!

[@aixPenta]

I speak french, and the whole language is as flat as the Netherlands. But I got the rule for this area instantly. I think it has more to do with the exposure someone has with music. When you listen to a lot of music, you can instinctively tell wheteher a pitch is relatively higher/lower than the previous/next one. There's no difficulty in that. It's just natural. But if you never listen to music or don't care about it, I can definitly see how it would be a difficult concept to grasp at first.

[@FiksIIanzO]

It's really hard to make a subjective, argumentative video right. You're one of very few people on KZbin who gets it. Making a person disagree with you, yet keep listening with genuine interest is a very, _very_ rare skill.

[@FiksIIanzO]

@@doommaker4000 I didn't say he was _the only_ one.

[@doommaker4000]

@@FiksIIanzO I didn't assume that. I'm just throwing a random recomendation

[@FiksIIanzO]

@@doommaker4000 Oh. Okay. By the way, check out Vsauce on KZbin, Forager on Steam and Disenchantment on Netflix. I hear those are good.

[@lumocite9870]

@@FiksIIanzO Sarcasm lol or did I make the same mistake and assumed

[@fanksbutnofanks5599]

It’s because you spread with respect and open-mindedness. However many people can’t do that as they are rude,blank or annoying

[@sophie3869]

I took a bonus semester long class a few years ago(free) where we played and analyzed the Witness. It was really fun but I agree with everything you said and from what I remember, we couldn’t find a secret meaning. That thing about working as a group to solve the game being more fun is also true. We had a blast eating snacks, filling notebooks and trying to beat the game. One of us got farther than the rest on his own time and we all got to see the different endings. I still hadn’t beaten the game at home so my dad and I had fun working through the puzzles together. I got fed up with it at some point and haven’t picked it up since. I think I’ll pick it up tomorrow. Great video!

[@thomaspaine7155]

Yo this sounds like a lit class, where do I sign up?

[@sophie3869]

@@thomaspaine7155 it really was. Unfortunately it was a one off and the teacher left shortly thereafter. Also I loved your username

[@klausklemens]

I feel like the game is about the experience of learning something. The experience of thouroughly getting something and how one might explain this thing. Basicly a game about how to understand the world. Thats why there are all of these audiologs about peoples worldviews in the game.

[@nicholasbailey6622]

What class was it? I'm curious if it was game design or something else entirely.

[@sophie3869]

@@nicholasbailey6622 the class was called something along the lines of “The Witness: storytelling through video games”

[@Zashmi]

I played this game with a small group of friends, and the town was one of our first locations we went to. We were, of course, very lost at how to complete almost all the puzzles. But I guess a lot of the parts that felt unintuitive was corrected by the fact that there were a few people paying attention to different things, we always had more than one perspective. We completed every panel puzzle in the town and it was the 2nd laser we activated, and we all found it really interesting and fun to work out the rules through trial and error rather than being taught it later in the tutorials that we had no idea existed. This could absolutely be a point of criticism, but for us it was fun and entertaining, we've all got really calculating brains, so to come up with rules based on what did and didn't flash red after we tried to complete a puzzle we had no idea how to solve was something we all enjoyed.

[@brent8407]

Sorry man but I call hard bs on that yall figured out those puzzles without ever looking up some of the rules online. Especially the stars are impossible to just guess like that through trial and error.

[@Kochen51]

​@@brent8407 nah, we had that exact same situation. It's definitely possible

[@brent8407]

@@Kochen51 sorry man I don't buy it. Straight up solved all of the town area without having done any of the other areas or looking things up online? nah man. The rules for the tetris pieces and colors and mayyybe the shadows I can buy you'd find that out in the town itself. But the star puzzles have such specific rules and their variants are too complex in the town to just stumble upon the right answer by yourself. You either bruteforced those or just cheated for that one. Just admit it.

[@Kochen51]

@@brent8407 are you forgetting the power of 3/4 people brainstorming about the rules/solutions? I don't know why I would want to lie to a random stranger on the internet for non existent clout lmao

[@brent8407]

@@Kochen51 You'd be surprised how many people do that. The 'I beat this on my 1st try' people. But fine, sorry then. Doesn't matter anyway.

[@crashedwin]

It honestly sounds a lot to me like someone experiencing being controlled. Being given the illusion of choice, then being made to follow the path you are intended to follow. You stop trusting your environment. You stop trusting your own perspective. The only truly free choice you have is to walk away, but to do so is to accept loss, so you start to question everything. In the end you're just following somebody else's rules and playing their game, even when they arent there anymore and their rules don't apply. There is no reward. There is no feeling gratified. Just an empty feeling like you wasted your time. You can't quite regret it because parts of it were fun. You also can't celebrate it because you weren't given what you were promised. It's just... unsettling.

[@Rigiroony]

Deep

[@Speed001]

Yes

[@defaulted9485]

And paid $40 for it.

[@whatarewegonnadonow144]

me when I was 5 wanting to get Icecream, being sad I didn't get it and crying, then getting it 10 minutes later as a surprise

[@jamgin9890]

Wow. That STRONGLY reminds me of the Stanley Parable.

[@themindofceline]

This video is three years old now and I just stumbled across it in my recommended section but it's so interesting I couldn't stop watching it. I haven't even played the game but this video itself is very well put together. You have a great way of explaining things in a way that made me feel...not dumb, like the game would've.

[@thefrostbite1135]

I only just came here from TVoEF and I feel the same way. Joseph is a master class in analysis, and I'm seriously considering asking some professionals I know to review his reviews.

[@AkemiSakuya495]

Same here. It's 5 years old now, wow....

[@InfoSopher]

Most of his critique makes little sense. See my comment.

[@luk4aaaa]

you should have played the game before watching the video, it's incredible.

[@nucleartemptations3044]

34:08 "the result being like trying to hold a fish with epilepsy, you can't even begin to grasp it" that's a really good line, my dude! I feel like not enough attention was brought to this!

[@mogfoil]

i’m gonna steal that phrase.

[@fulldisclosureiamamonster2786]

Yahtzee tier

[@Oshroth]

After hearing about the secret ending of the Witness, the ending of the Looker makes so much more sense

[@DeSinc]

At 25:27 where you're talking about the platforms and boats moving too slowly, did you notice the shadow formed a circle + line on the ground in front of you? Could you perhaps trace that to start a line puzzle somewhere else? Like a bonus puzzle or something? That sticks out to me as a possible reason why it was moving so slowly

[@tylisirn]

The slowness of the platforms makes solving those puzzles a real pain. You noticed the circle? Great, now you have to take 60 second platform ride back to reset it, then 60 seconds again to do it, then you find out you stood in just the wrong spot and blocked the shadow yourself and have to reset and redo it AGAIN at the painstakingly slow speed.

[@SiisKolkytEuroo]

unless you do an accelerated back hop

[@notlunaticdancer4393]

@@SiisKolkytEuroo Wahoooo

[@TheGreatHsilgne]

Oh, hey, it's DeSinc.

[@SiisKolkytEuroo]

@@TheGreatHsilgne who?

[@LW-fe9sq]

I know this is a year old but i love this so much. This is a calm, respectful view of a game pointing out what was enjoyed and what was not, while still being really interesting. He points out his own ideas and theories for the game and doesn't come across as condensing for liking or disliking the game. There are even people in the comments really intelligently and respectfully putting there opinions down. Thats doesn't happen on the internet often

[@sammylammy996]

Yeah no this is like the first time i've seen this

[@xBINARYGODx]

If you think this does not happen often, that says more about you than what you just watched. The internet has always been a buzzy, white-noised place, and it has always been up to you to filter out the bullshit and focusing in on what is worth doing so for. Also, someone getting more angry or whatever is not a problem or a failing.

[@thechad9943]

Fantasy

[@JulianO-um5ik]

I know this is a year old but i love this so much.

[@lilpp4791]

Yo gay

[@buckbumble1872]

fun fact: my brother loves to brag that he was part of a debate club and he also loves the witness. i showed him this video, he yelled at almost every point you made and left half way into the vid. guess that debate club was teaching him to be a politician

[@gsofficial]

Ironically, in order to succeed in LD debate, you have to master the ability to see morally complex scenarios from the perspective of the side you don't agree with.

[@cheeseboi588]

Tell your brother he's a bitch

[@oscarsalesgirl296]

the video is moronic and just made to generate comments

[@therealthinker9464]

@@oscarsalesgirl296 LMAO really

[@N.slash.A.]

I lol’d

[@GhostBeebo]

The only natural conclusion to this would be to make a 4 hour video on the looker, the spiritual successer to the witness, that improves upon many of its shortcomings and flaws, making it a nearly perfect game.

[@aturchomicz821]

tru...💀

[@webmolgamb]

the ending had me in tears it's a masterpiece 10/10

[@zaj_mahal]

Few things in gaming have ever had me cry-laughing and wheezing so hard I couldn't see the screen but the looker managed it multiple times. Incredible game 10/10.

[@luk4aaaa]

what shortcomings and flaws and how were they improved?

[@GhostBeebo]

@@luk4aaaa it improved the fact the it's a boring videogame

[@armanymendoza4117]

This game unexplainably makes me extremely uncomfortable and panicked. It’s hard to sleep, but something about the anonymity and silence throughout the whole game scares me more than most horror games . It’s like the tension builds like crazy and I can’t ever let go

[@adaddylicious1748]

Same, I immediately searched up for jumpscares after playing for a bit

[@aegeanandy2587]

I'm glad that I"m not the only one. I can play Outlast on mega hard difficulties but I was anxious during my entire playthrough of The Witness, and not only just the first playthrough. I've played it several times searching for collectibles and the dread I feel when walking through the world sends chills down my spine.

[@robofish312]

You are literally experiencing being The Witness to your own existence, which is a real thing

[@carlotta4th]

Eh? It's definitely not supposed to be frightening, aside from lacking background music this doesn't seem different than any other game. Maybe go for a few more nature walks if this game alarms.

[@thepeanuts55]

It has the same feel as the diner scene in Mulholland Drive. So dreamlike and unnaturally bright light that you can't grasp what time it is.

[@CastafioreOnYoutube]

10:11 If anyone's wondering, the likely rule for this specific puzzle was an unbroken shadow from start to finish. That path is the only path that you can take from the center to the finish which has one continuous shadow along the path, with disregard to there being multiple branches that make up the shadow.

[@rosed3023]

Yes, except for the lower right corner. I saw that too, and then I was like… wait… no…

[@CastafioreOnYoutube]

@@rosed3023 No, it's still unbroken. Like Joseph says, you need to stay both in and out of shadow for the path. However, the path is roughly aligned with a shadow path that goes from the center to the finish without being broken, which is to say if you drew a line using the shadows instead of the grid, that path would be the only way to get from the center to the finish.

[@thje]

I see it, yeah

[@coreythepeanut]

@@CastafioreOnKZbin no, the line of shadow is unbroken, but the alignment with the path is definitely very broken there

[@CastafioreOnYoutube]

@@coreythepeanut That's why I said "roughly." And even assuming you tried doing a different path than the solution because you couldn't approximate the path from the unbroken shadow, it wouldn't work because it would violate the unbroken shadow rule. If you already know the solution and rule for it, all other paths do not make sense because they would violate the rule, even if the correct path only vaguely aligns with the grid at parts (mainly being the bottom right corner and near the top left). If it makes more sense this way to you, the rule isn't to follow the shadow, but to make sure the path only ever overlaps the single unbroken shadow when it does intersect with shadows (not that it has to be in shadows or light only).

[@Graycata]

I was watching my brother-in-law play this game when we came to the top of the mountain. I pointed out that the Waterway look like a puzzle and ask him to try and click it. He did, and we both got super excited

[@Momogamer9]

Aww haha

[@staceymulligan6486]

We need more wholesome comments like these

[@yomilemondragon1721]

When you brought up simple plots being told in a complex way, the first thing that sprang to mind was Majoras Mask. The actual story is very simple: Skull Kid steals spooky mask, causes apocalypse, Link saves the day by collecting a bunch of MacGuffins. But the game gets across the themes of death, grief, and acceptance in so many ways and from so many different perspectives. I think telling a simple plot in a complex way is a great way to do just that; to explore the themes with more depth.

[@tracyh5751]

I thought of the movie Memento, which has a similar effect.

[@pidza_hub7532]

as in depth and interesting as joseph can be, this video is proof that he has - or had at one point - a _super_ reductive and unflattering worldview on more thematically oriented and open-ended storytelling.

[@hendawg7947]

@@pidza_hub7532 I think that this idea is best understood not as an outright rejection of the notion that a simple story can be told complexly with artistic or narrative merit, but as more of a caution to writers and storytellers not to bury their story with layers of obfuscation that serve only to make the story harder to understand, and thus more exclusive. Their is nothing wrong with ambiguity, or with a story that has several layers, but those layers of complexity do need to serve the larger point that you are trying to make by telling the story in the first place in order to be narratively interesting and necessary.

[@pidza_hub7532]

@@hendawg7947 the story doesn't need to be backed by anything because the game is not story driven, it's *thematically* driven

[@luk4aaaa]

@@pidza_hub7532 finally someone else who gets it. I've seen so many people repeat Josephs point over and over not understanding that the story is simple, but the themes it tackles are complex and deep, but not something you are forced to understand, it's entirely optional for the player to do. Personally I find the "story" of The Witness, both in terms of the ending and it's themes, to be brilliant and shining gem in gaming.

[@drwhorx]

im taking a gander here, but at 25:37 you're talking about how slow one of the animations was, but i noticed that a shadow passing by formed a dot and line, so it mightve been a puzzle the game was trying to get you to notice

[@dannyrivera3442]

I noticed that too, and I'm convinced it is

[@Jungbeck]

Yep, it is. And that’s why it moves so slow.

[@Pikaton659]

But that puzzle doesn't need to exist. Even then, other, more easily screwed up puzzles (like the one with the boat) move much faster. The puzzle isn't warrant enough for that slog.

[@kayar8463]

The problem is that it moves so fucking slow even when you do notice the puzzle, it still takes the full 30 seconds just to draw a line, it's not some complicated puzzle to solve, it's linear and straightforward, but still requires an absurd amount of time to complete. Not only that but there's multiple of these puzzles that take unnecessarily long to complete, in the examples at 25:37 you have to ride that platform both ways, meaning it takes a whole minute and a half to finish both puzzles if you want to continue in the same way. In that swamp section alone there are at least 10 or so puzzles that require waiting for them, but if you know what your looking for it becomes painfully obvious when you get to the next slow-moving platform that there's a secret hidden there. You probably spend a good 30 minutes in this game just waiting for something to line up. Later on in the game there literally puzzles you might have to wait 14 minutes to solve, just because certain things don't line up at that time. After playing the game it was probably the one thing I hated the most, and should have been noticed and fixed in development.

[@basb7545]

@@kayar8463 You should really look up some of the developers' commentary on this. This game is not supposed to be played at a fast pace. It's sort of like a meditation and sees value in stopping and looking around once in a while. If you want everything to go as efficient as possible, this is absolutely not a game for you, and thats okay of course!

[@samh9754]

Surrounded by a beautiful world but you never get the chance to interact or explore it because you spend the entire time looking at screens doing the same thing over and over. Sounds familiar.

[@repawn]

holy shit

[@emphyriohazzl1510]

Acute analogy :). Definitely sounds familiar, alas.

[@thewokestoic2432]

NICE

[@Herodollus]

Greatest comment i have ever seen on youtube. Been here since 2006... Fuck.

[@WillCipher]

This sounds like something that would be in r/im14andthisisdeep

[@phillipmele8533]

I can never get over that one big line. The way you say “Because I can’t shake the feeling that Jonathan Blow is fucking with us.” never fails to crack a smile outta me.

[@nicholasfolk5582]

I was dying at the clip of him moving at snail speed across the river. Never played the game but it's so obvious from that clip, the amount of insultingly easy puzzles, and especially the tone of the developer's description on the steam page that the entire game just exists to fuck with you. He's being so clearly sarcastic, it's wonderful

[@pandarrhages9211]

I think he was messing with us from start to finish. I also believe what the game teaches you is that, no matter what you think the rules are, always question. You almost never have enough evidence. More can always be revealed to help you see how limited your idea of reality is.

[@chuck6290]

The hour long puzzle, and this is my best guess, was only crafted as a big "screw you" to people that feel compelled to complete games just for the sake of completing games. I think it's in the same spirit of the 400+ collectable flags in Assassins Creed that I read were only added as a kind of commentary on collectables and achievements being pointless. All that said I hate the smarmy, mean spirit behind both of them.

[@QuinnArgo]

Honestly, if that's the point, I kinda enjoy that kind of stuff. I feel it needs to be explicated in some way though. The game doesn't have to go up in your face and say "this is parody of pointless questing" but I generally think of games as an art form that can offer unique experiences by forcing you to engage with it. And if a game had me collect some amount of collectibles before hinting "you are wasting your time for the sake of it" I would feel betrayed, because after all it did make me waste my time, but that feeling of betrayal would then urge me to think more critically about the way games waste my time the next time I play one. Similar to how a mystery TV show might put down a red herring and play with my emotional investment for artistic effect.

[@Ianisdenis]

Blow doesn't hide the facts that he hates achievement. He said that you should play a game for itself and not for meaningless rewards, and that's pretty much the kind of thing he would do: just put a ridiculously tedious task just to piss off completionists

[@Cosiek7]

@@Ianisdenis It could have been worse. Because you don't have to hold down the mouse button I just layed back on my couch waiting patienty and watched something on my phone. I was worried it would take a while or i would miss my chance but suprisingly it has a generous time window so I didn't. The boat one was worse if I remember correctly. Still cool puzzles tho.

[@atticmichael]

"Do you want a piece of cake Joseph?" Joseph : *proceeds to make an hour long video to explain why he doesn't like cake*

[@JosephAndersonChannel]

I don't like cake, it's true.

[@atticmichael]

@@JosephAndersonChannel Knew it. Love your videos by the way, even when they're 3 hours long ;)

[@daedreaming6267]

@@JosephAndersonChannel I thought i was the only one! I have birthday brownies instead cause I hate cake.

[@teviathon]

The cake is a lie. LOL

[@UnableToucan]

@@daedreaming6267 wait, brownies aren't cakes?

[@MmeCShadow]

28:27 "I can't resolve it with the prior work that was done in Braid, either." The Cloud. I can't imagine somebody hasn't already brought this up, but Johnathan Blow has absolutely fucked with his audience before. The optional Stars in Braid were extra cheallenges that have absolutely no bearing on anything outside of the game, were very easy to miss, and ranged in acquisition method from completing *extremely* refined and finicky puzzles (oftentimes themselves requiring the solving of a meta-puzzle in the main area of the game to get Jim bounced out of the map to where the actual Star puzzle was) to recognizing and creating a Star in the environment before finishing a literal puzzle, as doing so would lock you out of getting that Star forever on that particular save file. The most infamous, however, is The Cloud. In one of the earlier levels there is a single cloud which requires a little finagling to reach. This cloud moves so slowly as to appear almost static on observation, but in reality is making its way from the far right of the screen to the far left. If Jim jumps on the cloud and rides it to the left, the screen will scroll and give him access to one of the Stars. This cloud takes roughly forty-five minutes to move from its starting position to the point where Jim can actually jump on it; it takes over *two hours* to get all the way to the left side of the screen. And you just have to sit there and wait. Whether it's for the cloud to reach the point where you can jump on it or for the cloud to actually reach its destination, you are going to plant Jim somewhere in the level and do almost *nothing* for two hours. Requiring you to sit somewhere for 56 minutes while a moon slowly moves across a screen is, frankly, absurd, but not unprecedented, and I would wager almost anything that this particular puzzle was actually a reference/joke to Braid's cloud.

[@Burden_one]

But is that meant to mean something more or is it purely about making the player mad? What's the point. Is he just chaotic neutral and have no point?

[@thespanishinquisition4078]

@@Burden_one he holds a very, very high opinion of himself. If the interviews show anything, it's that he beliefs this is "postmodern phylosophical art", and thinks only simpletons would find it infuriating. Yeah he's one of THOSE artists, the "holier than though" "illuminated" fart sniffing kind. His interviews are genuinely cringe inducing. I love his games but he's a real piece of work.

[@manuelaonida995]

I don't think it's holier than thou, if you want to fuck with your audience, then you should have every right to.

[@clickpause8732]

@@manuelaonida995 You should have that right, but you're still a dickhead if you use it.

[@starshinedropkick2668]

Yes, but really no. See, there's a difference between doing something dumb to make someone mad and doing something dumb and just so happening to make someone mad -in this case, you can add "do something pretentiously" to the latter one. I'm a rude person, but I don't pretend there's some deeper meaning to it, I just don't like being all polite and nice and stuff, if you have something to say, say it. As one of those kinds of people, I can tell you that this The Cloud business isn't that at all -it isn't being mean/boring/dumb/etc for the sake of being that way/because it wants to, it's somewhat clearly an example of someone attaching some deeper meaning to it (likely just seeing "how bad you want it" or, more fittingly, "do you deserve it if you don't go through the trouble?")

[@aidanhalliwell3940]

Holy shit. Thats all i can say. I saw this video pop up in my feed and the title perplexed me, so naturally i clicked on the video. After 40 minutes of pure wonder and enjoyment i felt as if i was sucked into the video itself, experiencing the game through someone else. Normally im not interested in long lengthy game reviews but the depth with which you took it and the information that it held had entranced me and those 40 minutes felt like 5 as i started to formulate ideas of my own about the title and the videos and the island itself. Well done my sir, amazing video.

[@guywhohatescruzguys8335]

Agreed

[@jamesloggins8397]

I agree

[@kittycherry228]

Aidan Halliwell Exactly what happened to me.

[@RickolasBigDickolas]

Same here

[@BrutalPuppy]

Aidan Halliwell

[@limitbreak2966]

5:56 from my experience, the “intended route” so far is - Tutorial -> (Explore a bit after seeing the curious “double power line” puzzle in tutorial, and follow the power line, and end up finding that first ground puzzle which has a triangle, wonder about that and the odd triangle, then move on). -> complete the mirror dock area, notice another ground puzzle on roof after exploring more after being taught exploring is good, notice the second triangle. Complete puzzle and notice that now it worked. Maybe we should try the previous? -> Head back and complete previous ground puzzle with one triangle. Take note of black and white hard puzzle door btw now or when you first were here. -> move on to the desert mirror area which has a slope from the mirror dock area. Complete it, and Notice the environmental puzzles. Say to self something along the lines of “Hmm, odd. I seem to be doing it “right” but only one environmental piece? Is there more maybe? Hold on let me check” and as you go to check you likely immediately notice the similar looking pillars which seem to need adjusting to fit in. Then proceed along and eventually you do the one that again seems way fucking off. Until yoi look around , likely getting frustrated or confused and lost, and then when desperately checking for something ; you likely happen to notice The trees behind you which have oddly symmetrical reflections. You Give it a go and voila. A lesson taught by yourself. *that one of the whole perspective is in the beholder lesson is HUGE when figured out by yourself, I think a major issue for most is you have to not only BE a critical thinker to like this game, but also ENJOY critical thinking snd stuff that truly racks your brain with all the easy puzzle games out here these days. Though with some points in this game WAYYY WAY WAYY overcompensating on the difficulty when trying to make a good challenging game. I thoroughly enjoy it but sometimes I just simply don’t have enough information on certain ones That’s as far

[@joshuacem2827]

10:10 The thing is that there is exactly one way where the shadows stay unbroken to follow them to the exit point. Basically the rule here was "FInd a shadowed way to the exit". I noticed that only after you showed the right way.

[@CuteC3]

9:48 I got stuck on the same exact one, and after coming back to it like 10 times I finally decided to look up the answer cause I looked around the entire place for clues... I had to be missing out on a hint right? NO... it was exactly what I was trying to do except I was making an extra turn where it looked super crooked. :/

[@CuteC3]

10:03 The rule is that you have to follow the only line that is connected all the way through... but it makes such awkward turns

[@vi0let831]

AYYYYYYY IT'S YOU I FOUND YOU (like one year later lmao)

[@greygorygaming]

lol I got that probably in a first or second try. The one I hated was the one where you just have to make about a square's length worth of movement to get itright. Also a shadow puzzle.

[@TheFuriator]

Literally same

[@devor110]

maybe i got lucky but right before he paused the video i tried to search for a solution and i traced the shadow coming from the endpoint and follow it back to the start - it turned out to be correct, seems very straight forward to me

[@Viralsiren]

this is one of my comfort videos. i come back to it every few months when i feel particularly depressed. thank you for creating such a nice, detailed review of a beautiful game.

[@HarborKid]

same, absolutely legendary video

[@kephalai]

any other good video game essays as comfort videos to recomend?

[@LuxinNocte]

@@kephalai my favourite one is "Pathologic is Genius, And Here's Why" by hbomberguy

[@lucaabate6473]

that's odd me too

[@Benderblender]

Same!!

[@judahbennett483]

I audibly laughed when he said “I know this video is long” Ohh Anderson, if you only knew what you would eventually become

[@Nikolaijuno]

I love the Witness, but I actually had to stop playing it before I reached the full ending because the game messed with my brain so much that it was messing with my ability to sleep properly.

[@duelz9366]

This happened to me as well for a week straight

[@freemang8189]

Duelz wait, what. How?

[@prod.mohomid]

@@freemang8189 yeah I want to know aswell

[@freemang8189]

Joshua Kapustin I think they just experienced Tetris effect

[@prod.mohomid]

@@freemang8189 I just googled it. I thought I was the only one who while trying to sleep would do Rubik's cube algs in my head. It was so infuriating. Dang that's crazy

[@DeathnoteBB]

10:05 the line’s path runs over the only branches that make a “solid” path to the exit. It’s a maze, but in shadows.

[@sgtkumpel]

right. the shadows are not all broken. the solution is the only path where the shadows are not broken, despite what Joe says. But the sound puzzles are weird and i have no idea what the game wants from you.

[@kaykrazzav2431]

@@sgtkumpel The sound puzzles is based on pitch, high pitch is the smaller polygons, lower pitch is bigger polygon. also the one with the "waves," high for high pitch, low for low pitch, medium for medium

[@Flamberge790]

@@kaykrazzav2431 Also these puzzles are obviously about sound and when it comes to sound there really isn't that many things to try to make the rule. Pitch = frequency = vibration. Then there is volume but all of the sounds are about just as loud so that can be easily cast away. Then you meet some interruptions and change of what you should focus on but again, the rule of drawing stays and so you need to choose one of the sounds to follow with the rule - few different tries and you're done. It wasn't the easiest for me but it definitely wasn't unclear of what to do or try

[@maverick_os]

@@Flamberge790 The issue tho is for people like me that are tone deaf. I knew going into the area that some chirps were different from the others and it was based on pitch, but I couldn't differentiate them enough to know what to do. It was so bad that often times the same pitched chirps that were directly next to each other sounded like different pitches to me. If they wanted good puzzles based on pitch, they could have made it more distinguishable.

[@Flamberge790]

@@maverick_os I see, so the problem is mostly because of the ability to tell them apart then. I guess these puzzles were supposed to be at least a bit hard for - I would assume - the average person and so people like you didn't get a fair chance. The thing is tho - is it even possible to make a sound puzzle that would be hard and entertaining at the same time for everyone? I honestly don't think so. It would require a lot of knowledge and testing if it was. So now which was right - not include the whole puzzle section because of the fairness or keep what, imo, is a refreshing and fun concept? I know it sucks to look up answers online not because you don't know how to solve it but because you literally are unable to but complaining about it isn't really justified either is it? Since what you call an issue is a great experience for someone else. I know it was personal and uh, I suppose that is just what a big puzzle game consists of more or less - puzzle concept not everyone will enjoy. If I was the author I would understand the complaints but honestly I don't think there would much to be improved using these. Hope I didn't sound like an asshole. I understand your pov but I just don't think it matters on a bigger picture

[@MagicGoat73]

You have an amazing ability to keep the attention of others on something. I'm not interested in this game although, it seems interesting. You're commentary and videos are amazing, keep it up!

[@JosephAndersonChannel]

Thanks!

[@matthall5401]

the title pulled me in, you kept me

[@alexgabriel5877]

check out Talos Principle ,sir! now that's the puzzle game=)

[@ke9n]

Agreed. I didn't intend on watching the whole thing, yet here I am, 41 min later. Amazing work Joseph!

[@ethanotoroculus1060]

Your*

[@kashino55archive94]

It's fascinating listening to you basically call puzzles that I had to look up child's play, then hearing you rant about having to look up solutions to puzzles I didn't have much trouble with whatsoever. Just goes to show how different it can be for everybody and how frustrating it can feel when something seems like it should be simply when it's really just a matter of how your brain works

[@brendenmucklow5954]

Yep! Believe it or not the ship puzzle wasn't too hard for me since I did all of the other areas first, but when I found the optional color swap puzzle with the colored lights in the town, I just gave up after an hour lol. My GF did it in her head in like 2 minutes... Like you said, everyone has strengths, and this game does a great job at parsing out different types of logical intelligence.

[@luk4aaaa]

it's always fun to see the difference between visual thinkers and abstract thinkers

[@zionbrock]

Thought the same thing. I had very little problems with the sound puzzles. Well, except for the ship one. I still don’t understand how the noises of the ship correlate, and can’t find any one to explain it LOL

[@Huntracony]

The proudest I was playing this game was in the town, there's one line of sight puzzle in a building that requires you to open the door for the line of sight, but I hadn't learned about the rules for the door puzzle yet, so I deduced what the line of sight must have been and solved the puzzle without opening the door.

[@luk4aaaa]

nice, I just guessed randomly 3 times and got it lol

[@sasha8345]

I saw this video when it came out and decided to wait to watch it until I played the game out of spite, now, four years later, I can finally watch it

[@fiaTheFae]

hey, me too! I actually really enjoyed the game, and the video had some cool points in it too, for sure

[@Yungbeck]

how'd u like the game?

[@mawillix2018]

I did the same, I'm finally back.

[@theFakeRed]

Mm, I did the same :)

[@SondreGrneng]

Personally, my opinion on the witness is that it's enjoyable for me to play, but I would never recommend it to anyone.

[@ellen3000gaming]

Oh my god this freakin game. I remember sending screenshots of puzzles to family, begging them to help me figure out wtf I was supposed to do. I know exactly how this guy feels because half the time I wanted to set my Xbox on fire, and the other half I was delighted.

[@seeqaillmind2540]

@@_Pike bruh I wanna see u playing it blind and have no troubles, this game is no joke 😂

[@somedude4487]

10:00 you've probably figured this out by now but the shadows are not broken, and the puzzle works exactly like every other puzzle in that area. You just have to look closer at the path the shadows create.

[@pyromeerkat4641]

yeah this is very true

[@buflen]

Yeah his complain here makes zero sense

[@chocohot725]

I still have 0 clue what it's trying to convey lol, I don't understand what discernable path you're supposed to follow and the solution seems so random

[@somedude4487]

It's more about the general path the shadow takes. It doesn't follow the grid perfectly but is a suggestion. You just have to notice that the shadows aren't actually broken, and then see where they take you.

[@MrMacattack11]

Since the game uses footage of Rupert Spira, I think by "The Witness" it's referring to the consciousness behind a person. The game doesn't explain itself or its puzzles because it's trying to recreate the feeling of witnessing something without any context, and figuring it out on your own merit. Or something like that.

[@kburtsev]

Yeah, I also started to think that it tried to convey some idea of how the perception of reality is more of an illusion.

[@happyfrietiez]

wow, you kept me engaged for 40 fucking minutes - impressive since I tend to stop doi

[@adaharrisonn]

😂😂😂😂

[@randy446]

theres 666 likes on this comment RUN

[@MasDouc]

All he did was complain about things he didn't understand.

[@HAWKEYESOLO]

Something The Witness failed to do.

[@bluebird9870]

Oh, there they go.

[@legendcat8913]

After 2 years I finally can watch this video.... I finally finished the game! And I can gladly say I mostly agree, but disagree with you on some points. I would not of enjoyed it, or even played it, if this was a tablet game. I loved the environment and I think it was involved in the game way more than you gave it credit for and I do believe the game island is beautiful enough to stand on its own as an attribute to the game. Me and my friend played this game on and off over the course of a year, taking a break when our heads was firmly fried. We loved nearly every minute of it and this is a game that I don't regret playing for an instant

[@planetalhena]

Late reply but I totally agree!

[@chrisgreece732]

2 years ? wtf

[@JasonLuthor]

@@chrisgreece732 Really shows how shitty the game is.

[@chrisgreece732]

@@JasonLuthor yes totally agreed this game just cosmums your time like its nothing

[@monroerobbins7551]

I’m playing this game rn, and I have the puzzle solutions pulled up. I love puzzles, and I try to do as much as I can on my own, but reading context clues is hard for me, so having a hint guide in case I get stuck has helped me loads when it comes to this game testing my patience. I feel the same way when it comes to studying: read the main book, get as much info as you can, but still have the Cliffnotes in case you get stuck. Being able to figure stuff out on your own is fantastic, but sometimes you gotta know your own limits, and be willing to get help. That’s why I like puzzle games with a big community, cause for some puzzles, it comes to you naturally, but when there are ones that don’t , you’re able to ask someone else. Community love of a game can also mean community aid in figuring stuff out. It doesn’t mean you’re weak, it means you’re utilizing a different tool.

[@cicada_games]

Great analysis, thanks very much for all the effort to make this. One thing though, at 10:10: The path you used to solve the puzzle IS a contiguous shadow. I can definitely see how the bottom right corner would be very confusing though, since it is so far off the path. Your video has made me realize that this game is in fact a great game. It needed to be made, and contributes a lot to indie gaming, despite its flaws. No game will ever be perfect, and puzzle game experiences especially vary wildly based on each person's perception.

[@weebjeez]

35:35 You see an unlabeled jug of applejuice. But that coder fell asleep at his desk... sofa. Anyways, long story short: That pee.

[@brux357]

The Garnet Gamer I just almost woke my wife up laughing. This is best comment

[@fashnek]

Yes, Jonathan Blow had a famous tweet about the jug on January 22, 2016. Search the web for "jonathan blow twitter jug"

[@ojrprobert]

I know this comment is a year old, but - the coder was not "asleep," he was immersed in the VR of the game itself. The bottle has a tube going into it, suggesting he's wearing a catheter. When he sits up he unplugs his headset from the system that was running the simulation. It's like he was plugged into the game, like Neo into the Matrix

[@weebjeez]

@@ojrprobert dont remember this comment, or the co text behind it, but I'll take your word on it and say "good catch!" I clearly missed that

[@justamanofculture12]

@@ojrprobert good one

[@Elighght]

This game broke my heart. I got to the end and it reset all my progress. I wanted all the doors to be opened. I wanted to show how far I had come. When I got to the elevator, all my proof of progress was erased.

[@LorenzoLame80085]

just load the save smh

[@RicardoTorres-vo3bq]

You could just load the save and open the elevator door

[@Elighght]

@@LorenzoLame80085 didn't work on PS5 ☹️

[@DemonixTB]

@@Elighght it does work on ps5

[@sayakne]

I love how you so simply and yet so thoroughly explain a game that would've taken me hours to understand. I appreciate getting to hear your perspective on all these games.

[@luk4aaaa]

I recommend playing it yourself and forming your own thoughts on it, seriously.

[@isthissmoov8290]

I think Blow should release a patch that adds this video to the theater room.

[@SunbleachedAngel]

From what I know Blow watched about one minute of this video, called Joe a pretentious idiot and did like a 5 minute rant about "he just doesn't get it" and "don't criticize a game if you don't understand it" so I don't think that'll happen

[@viperhd70]

@@SunbleachedAngel Do you have a link ? While I frowned upon and got frustrated a lot about this video, I have seen enough of Jonathan Blow to know that Blow is next level pretentious compared to Joseph.

[@SunbleachedAngel]

@@viperhd70 A very simple google search gave me this kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKOUm2yspr2qe7M&ab_channel=BlowFan

[@woomod2445]

@@SunbleachedAngel You don't understand is the defense of a coward with nothing meaningful to say in their art.

[@SunbleachedAngel]

@@woomod2445 absolutely, there is also a video of Blow "explaining what the Witness is about" and it's just 15 minutes of "it's about life or something"

[@nigelroy4002]

After getting through ten areas in this game before hitting a wall in the jungle that made me drop it, I’ve decided to go back after hearing Joe used a guide for that place too. Thank you Joe for never having an elitist attitude in you’re reviews and admitting when you needed help too. I feel much less alone because of it.

[@koloth5139]

The sound puzzles were awful. Almost as bad as the piano puzzle in Myst. I think I managed to brute force my way through them as I never used any guides in the game. But I definitely didn't manage them because of any understanding of how they worked.

[@nukmuk]

I really liked them and wish there were more of them :/

[@Death_Incarnate]

NUKMUK what the fuck is wrong with you, they were the absolute worst puzzles.

[@Death_Incarnate]

Koloth if you’re going to brute force it then why not just look the answer up online? There’s no point to solving the puzzle if you don’t actually understand it and just brute force it. Not trying to talk shit but the whole point is to try to understand the puzzle and apply your knowledge to solve it.

[@miveltkisa5572]

@@Death_Incarnate I can agree and what the fuck is wrong with this "NUKMUK" and how he can hear the difference between the fucking bird noises

[@humanzbornfresh]

the first thing i did as i walked out of the tunnel, and found a perspective puzzle that lead me down a 20 minute secret ending.

[@NetherGranite]

Yeah, that's an unfortunate possibility. Jonathan Blow, when asked about this, said he wanted to be very careful not to force this to be the last thing players do and accepts that this can happen. If you actually follow the game to completion, this does end up being the last thing you do; leaving the garden area at the beginning disables your ability to complete this environment puzzle, but one of the last things there is to unlock shows you how to undo this and bring that light gate back up.

[@heckbrother8242]

Yep me too. I saw someone play a few minutes of the game on KZbin so I already knew that you could use the environment

[@unfasten]

NetherGranite It can be re-enabled, but I'm not spoiling how.

[@NetherGranite]

unfasten Yeah I mentioned that, "one of the last things there is to unlock shows you how to undo this and bring that light gate back up". I'd be really interested to see what percentage of players ever actually come across it.

[@unfasten]

NetherGranite Whoops, sorry I didn't read your comment thoroughly.

[@marchmelloow]

10:00 Having never played the game, this puzzle is actually quite simple: you need to cross all the branches that touch, which forms the path.

[@asbjrnnelsson6604]

10:10 the game is “trying” to teach you that you sometimes can’t be practical about it but instead theoretically, what I’m trying to say is: that one of the branches behind you is broken when you try to solve it, but it weren’t when the puzzle was made. The same thing happens in the apple garden where is no apple on the tree, and again that’s because when the puzzle was made there was an apple but not anymore That is the theory i think is true

[@gabboman92]

2016: "the video is long, if you want you can take a break now" 2020: releases a 4 hour video

[@Kyusup]

I rarely comment but I just have to say that you made this video very engaging and I watched the whole thing and didn't realize it was 40 minutes long even by the end. I find your voice and the way you speak calming and cathartic as well the way you speak and flow through ideas. I don't care for the game one bit but listening to you commentate was worth it.

[@nickl608]

yeah

[@chrisherold7728]

Chris Shin I agree to everything, I feel like having a conversation with him would be thoughtful and enjoyable, and I found the way he looked at his own, and others opinions to be fair a well meant. Certainly enjoyed this.

[@burkino7046]

28:00 He pulled something similar to this in Braid. In Braid there are some hidden stars you need to get for a secret ending, one of these stars literally forces you to wait for 2 hours.The other 7 stars were hidden so well that the only real way to find them would be as a community.

[@adirsu2826]

With recent developments, its really funny that Joe apologizes twice for this 40 minute video's extended length.

[@triangularfish6487]

What recent developments

[@mr.qc21]

@@triangularfish6487 go watch the witchers vids

[@adirsu2826]

@@triangularfish6487 Joe's most recent video released was 5 hours long and the one before that 4 hours long. He has far surpassed his former record and what any other youtuber would view as a reasonable video length and production time.

[@caoilfhionndunbar]

@@adirsu2826 well, its not that past what ALL youtubers would dub reasonable length. Patriciantv has an 8 hour video essay on morrowind and a 12 hour one one on Oblivion, for example

[@AlanaBananaCanada]

Back when he made this 5 years ago, an hour video is probably the equivalent to a 5 hour video now lol. Something something, time inflation.

[@EmilMacko]

I've seen many comments from people who still can't see the solution at 9:50 and I just had to draw out the solution because of how clear it is to me. Here: imgur.com/eWV36qe (if this gets flagged as spam then I think KZbin should just remove the ability to put links in comments altogether). Some people have said there is no path to follow since they always end broken up, but that's clearly not true as you can see in the image I've drawn. There is a very clearly connected segment that runs all the way to the top left corner.

[@mixttime]

I can kinda see it, but it still comes off as strange. I remember I did solve it myself but in a "This doesn't feel right, but maybe" sort of way. Like so much of this game is about making things line up just right, but for this just pretty close instead. On the right side you are drawing below the guiding shadow at the bottom and above the guiding shadow higher up. Some puzzles don't line up and you need to mentally adjust to bridge the gap. Fine. But what am I even adjusting for here? The sun's position at a different time of the year? The growth of the tree? I don't have the disdain for that others do, but I'll admit it doesn't deliver on that satisfying click very well.

[@EmilMacko]

Whenever you have to go above or below the shadow, there's usually a split so you can choose to go up or right, up or left, left or down, etc. they're always in 90-degree angle splits. And when you do get there, the two roads both usually have shadows that line-up equally bad to the puzzle, but one has a clear gap in it and the other doesn't. This leads you to choose one over the other.

[@mixttime]

Shouldn't that lead you to go Up>Right instead of Right>Up at the bottom-right corner then? There is a bit of branch that keeps going straight and then a gap, where as the guiding path goes up a bit before continuing right.

[@EmilMacko]

That's the difficult part, but I see it in the way that the disconnected branch above which sits right on the puzzle-path currently "occupies it", so the lower branch that goes a bit up still counts as the lower path. You have to look at the red line I drew, and sort of average/merge it to the nearest path in the puzzle. And in the bottom right corner, if the path went up>right instead of right>up, then the line would go up through a clear gap between the tip of the smaller branch, which would deviate too heavily from the shadows.

[@scaryreptile]

I feel like the reason it got joseph (and me) confused, is the first two puzzles seem to teach you to follow a simple shadow, not to make sure the shadows are connected. The sudden change during the third one was too unexpected for some people because they took it as "follow the shadow" not "where do the shadows connect?" this probably could have been avoided with a better second puzzle because they are practically the same

[@Mrsqtfactory]

Fun fact: in the sequence where the player wakes up and starts seeing patterns in the kitchen, and picks up a biscuit from the counter, they have something stuck to their left forearm. I don't know what it's supposed to be, but I would recognize that anywhere. It's a 2-way Foley catheter statlok. In other words, it's used to secure urinary catheters to your thigh, so you can't pull them out of your pee-pee and make a big mess.

[@georgejones3526]

9:48 - In this puzzle, you’re following the main branch from start to end, ignoring the branches that dead end. The “twigs” are just there to obfuscate that main branch.

[@nanthilrodriguez]

The youtube volume slider is a puzzle.

[@MaisieSqueak]

The first in the game too... Youtubbs was ahead of it's time, man.

[@Muhammed01FI]

HAHAHA

[@sandwichboy1268]

Nathan Rogers I'm on android so the sliders dont have the semi-circle that is the end of the puzzle. so no, the sliders are a partial puzzle

[@nanthilrodriguez]

What I said was true, from a certain point of view... or... if witnessed from a particular perspective. *Obi-wan mic drop*

[@DAS_k1ishEe]

Nope, wrong exit. The exit needs to be a half-circle.

[@trouper206]

20:06 I used to hop on that boat thing and just do a lap around the island at low speed. The landscape is just so beautiful. Vivid colours, every terrain you could think of. Then you start seeing random things line up perfectly and you start noticing the perspective puzzles. I disagree sir, without the island you’re left with a very boring game.

[@Pakkens_Backyard]

I would rather take a walk around the park in front of my house than stare at pixels if that's the kind of experience I want.

[@trouper206]

@@Pakkens_Backyard There are many games that simulate being outdoors. I’d rather roam Skyrim than walk around my own backyard.

[@foxph0rus]

After 2 and a half years I finally beat this game. Went to this video and realized I didn‘t do a single fucking environmental puzzle and that there is a hidden ending. Ooooooh booooooooy the fun never stops.

[@Ewr42]

Imagine when you find out about meta-environmental puzzles IRL Not like the in game abstract representations of puzzles, but the ones we call our problems You can apply the game's logic to outside if you're looking from the right perspective Not any answers to anything concrete, but ways to finding out ways to find out an answer Like literally stepping back when you need or changing your perspective, thinking outside the box and stuff You gotta look for it tho, if you play it for the sake of winning it you'll miss out on the actual experience itself, which is a journey you suddenly find yourself into, with no context whatsoever. Just like life.

[@ollie2111]

Honestly I'm bad at a lot of the puzzles. I think the best I managed to do were some treetop jungle ones and ones inside that one room by the quarry (i think. The one with the elevator bed that I didn't even realize I was activating and did the puzzles from a bad angle cause I thought it was part of the challenge hahaha). Anyway my favorite part is exploring. So, I thought, even if I don't win any puzzles I just wanna go everywhere. Might have to look up a few when it comes to opening doors. But yeah, great game. Funnily enough it also reminds me of some specific unrelated music albums cause thats what I'd listen to while playing it.

[@thatonekidonaboat1269]

9:55 the shadows aren't broke, if you look at the correct path, its. the only route between the two points that is not broken!

[@miyeyoo]

this is my first time watching any of your videos. never heard of this game. never heard of this developer. yet here i am subscribing after sitting through the whole video without any breaks.

[@przemek6614]

I did exactly the same

[@GrOOvedelta93]

Mieya Young I'm on your boat as well. Hope I can row faster than that platform over the water everyone's mentioning moved.

[@jadeeliss]

before even watching the video i can say my main criticism of the game was i accidentally found the secret ending and finished the game a minute in and it was so confusing at the time

[@hashtagrex]

well in all fairness, the game is completely abstract and nonlinear, even if you do all the puzzles its not meant to be *not* confusing, its meant to be up to your interpretation

[@jadeeliss]

@@Muzazabi you can call what you want. that’s what happened when i played

[@ollie2111]

@korrok Well, Spyro Enter the Dragonfly sure does 🤭. If you go to the end portal in the beginning and do a headbash you can start the final boss immediately and win in like 2 minutes. I still love that janky game.

[@paulolsen2197]

More than 1 puzzle!

[@AustinWigley]

Do you mean the door with the sun? I walked outside and spotted that about twenty minutes in and got a huge cutscene after where the developer unplugged from the game. Shit was wild, I just kept playing after lol. Very strange narrative.

[@Martin-zi9fl]

I'm late but I want to add something about the environmental puzzles. When you talked about the first laser beam being shot, you said it pointed the mountain, and we, as players, went on top of it to see what was going on, and there you found the first environmental puzzle. When I played the game, when I saw this laser beam, I assumed the mountain was the last part of the game, where I'd have to go when I have finished all the other "hubs" but where I also had nothing to see there before reaching that point. And I think I'm not the only one. Even though this first environmental puzzle is well presented, I think the process of going on top of that mountain is not well made, which made me play the whole game without ever discovering their existence.

[@BlappetureCO]

Well yeah, that's intentional? It's a non-linear game after all, you're not expected to go to places in a strict order

[@BlappetureCO]

@@Martin-zi9fl but you don't even need to do environmental puzzles to complete the game, what is your point?

[@Martin-zi9fl]

@@BlappetureCO Finishing The Witness without discovering it has environmental puzzles is like playing an adventure video game without ever discovering it has side quests. You can play the game and you can finish it, but you miss a lot of it and I think it's a shame

[@BlappetureCO]

@@Martin-zi9fl ...except that analogy falls apart when this is a puzzle game. What can you expect the game to do anymore than having a few of the EPs be right in the face? Figuring it out for yourself is the charm in it, sorry if you couldn't find them early on but I don't see what you're complaining about when you can just simply backtrack and see what you've missed after discovering them for the first time. If people still don't find out about EPs even after that mountain one, then that's just a matter of not paying attention. It would also be piss easy to find the secret ending if the EPs were pointed out more easily. This is very much a non-issue.

[@Martin-zi9fl]

@@BlappetureCO I agree with Joseph Anderson when he says the game does little to justify being a full 3d open world, because there are not enough puzzles playing with the environment. Well that wouldn't be the case if I figured out EP's existence. The problem is that the replay value of the game is close to nothing and I'm pretty sure I'll never play it again. I agree with you on the fact that I can just launch the game again and start trying to find them. But I was just complaining about how badly it was brought by the developers in the first place

[@AdamL-e9g]

19:38 I'm trying to prove your "tablet game" idea, actually challenging myself to develop one. The game is getting better and better, with some added and removed mechanics ** AND ALREADY A RANDOMIZER FOR TRIANGLE PUZZLES ** ! Wish me luck!

[@seko1102]

Is it not just called "The Witness" because you're witnessing different perspectives?

[@SETHthegodofchaos]

That and you eventually would witness yourself witnessing as well as then start making concious decisions and choices before each actions of yours.

[@geebuttersnaps2230]

Interestingly the witness is also a concept in Taoism referring to the part of our consciousness which observes our own thoughts, I feel like there may be a connection there to the title of the game as well

[@PainCausingSamurai]

I read the story as an attempt to make people better understand Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The constant compulsion to find and complete patterns that never pays off but never recedes.

[@lazerbeam1673]

You know it would've actually been amazing if it was about that, mental health is something that's often not talked about.

[@Hellooo134]

I know people with OCD and an OCD simulator sounds like a terrible time I dont want to deal with that

[@FanPhys]

That's not what OCD is. It's an anxiety disorder, which means that people who suffer from it are bound by their compulsions to stop something "bad" from happening, which is a kind of torture. Most people mistakenly think it's a case of merely scratching an irresistible itch... if only it were so mundane.

[@simonw3858]

@@FanPhys I think it really has a spectrum. I personally think I have OCD but its just not full blown and I don't really feel like something bad will happen. I just get super irritated and feel like something isn't right, but perhaps that's just perfectionism however I feel like they undoubtedly linked to the same root cause.

[@duffman18]

@@simonw3858 get yourself checked out by a mental health professional. Undoubtedly there must be degrees of severity of it. But it's like with all mental disorders, something is only a mental disorder if it starts interfering with your ability to live a normal life, and usually they're things that everyone has, just turned up in intensity to the point where it stops people from doing normal things. Like paranoid schizophrenia is regular paranoia and fight or flight response that everyone has, just turned up way too high, and focused on the wrong things (I'd know, I have paranoid schizophrenia). So if you have certain symptoms of OCD but they're only a mild annoyance, then it's not a mental disorder. People with _actual_ OCD think they're going to die and all their family will die if they don't do these specific routines and behaviors. OCD is _not_ just being neat. And the fact people use what can be a very serious illness that leads to suicide as just a joke, or a casual thing to say tongue in cheek like "oh I'm so OCD haha" annoys the hell out of me. People kill themselves over it. It's not just a funny personality quirk. So yeah I'm not at all saying you're one of these kind of people, I'm just saying if these feelings you have are interfering with your life and things that you want to do, please do get medical advice and help. It might be a simple thing that can relatively easily be overcome and your life would be happier because of it.

[@NGabunchanumbers]

25:31 the reason that animation was so slow was because there was a hidden line puzzel in the shadow of that thing that's on the right railing.

[@Bane_Amesta]

Can't wait for the review on "The Looker", lmao I bet you'll enjoy it a bit more than The Witness Also yes I spoiled myself watching this video, instead of playing The Witness, but damn that part about the one-hour-puzzle is just a complete yikes from me. Like hell, I told my brother about this puzzle and he reacted in the same way xD

[@spookyfrogs1874]

god please let Joseph make a Looker video lmao

[@anona4682]

Thank you for introducing me to this gem of a game :D

[@Bane_Amesta]

@@anona4682 You're welcome :D

[@sb-jo2ch]

There's one such puzzle in the Braid too. Stanley's Parable has a 4 hour clicking "minigame", and not to mention the achievement for not playing for one year. Don't think any developer wants you to actively complete these puzzles or achievements. They are generally not necessary for completing the game, or at most they open up a hidden ending. To me the eclipse puzzle is a positive addition to the game that I will never complete.

[@kianasheibani1708]

@@sb-jo2ch the stanley parable one is literally a joke lol. it's a parody of this exact type of pretentious game design.

[@CollinInGame]

10:00 to me it's obvious. The shadows form a labyrinth. The branches touch each other at a point which causes the shadows to connect all the way to the exit, and there's only one path. If you ignore the lines and just look at the shadows you can see it, and just follow the lines that are closest.

[@severalcakes3267]

“Braid was such as hit... that he could justify a permanent name change to Jonathan Blown.”

[@goaty7766]

I watched the video too

[@colecube8251]

I too, watched the video

[@missmarreynolds]

@@colecube8251 whaaat? Me too! What a coincidence

[@HarrisonWeber21]

Same!

[@colecube8251]

@@missmarreynolds omg that's crazy! It's almost like everyone reading this has also watched the video!

[@Lep_19]

I love that you made the conflict of opinions of the game one of the first things you discussed, because I think everyone that played this game felt their own version of that. I know for me it was a misunderstanding of what I was going to get out of the game. The game dropping you in at the beginning and not telling you anything seemed to me like the perfect introduction to a mysterious plot line, and this was further supported by the lasers, mountain, and new area unlocks seemingly accumulating into a final goal. I hoped to have everything explained - I thought something had happened in this world, and that this ending would explain the empty towns and audio logs and STONE PEOPLE for goodness sake! And then... nothing. In fact, worse than nothing - a complete reset. All of the hard work, all of the hours spent doing tedious, repetitive puzzles, wiped away. It felt insulting. I was infuriated by the cruel humor of it all, the cryptic nature of the story, and the cliffhanger ending to the story I had fabricated for myself. And yet, I don't hate the game. I really truly feel like I hate the game, but there's so much to love. The art style appealed to my taste so perfectly that it may be my favorite game of all time with regards to its visuals, and this consistently made the experience of being in the game downright pleasant. The audio logs made me want to cry at first - just hearing a human voice, so crisp and clear and talking about something philosophical, in this weird, confusing world hit me right in the feels. One of my favorite genres is puzzles, video games or otherwise, and obviously this game had no shortage of those, so I also enjoyed that component of it. All of this contributes to the battle I have with myself about what my overall opinion of the game is, and I think both the title and content of your video captured that brilliantly. And in some way, that's my interpretation of your proposition that Blow was fucking with us. All of the perspectives proposed in the game - these seemingly contradictory and yet equally valid ways of looking at the world that you mentioned - mirror the game itself. I love this game to death and yet I fucking hate this game, and while it seems like those can't both be true, just as you said, it's how I honestly feel. And I can't help but feel that that was intentional. Great video as always Joseph. I'm a little late to this one, but I've just recently found your channel and am on a grind through all of your critiques on the games I've played.

[@QuackerHead-j]

Y E S

[@Sebastianrm30]

I really understand why people can feel so much hate towards this game; it gets very fucking frustrating a lot of times and in a lot of ways. But I disagree with the claim that Jonathan Blow is fucking with us, that's kinda insulting to his work. This is why I recommend you this interpretation of the game by Electron Dance: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hICtdGloqZl9nKM I find it impossible to hate The Witness after watching that video, I just got love for it now and a whole lot of respect and admiration for Jonathan Blow not just as a game designer, but as an artist.

[@GEB_Rosee_PPS]

"I hate being bi-polar it's awesome"

[@esxivy1944]

I've been playing The Witness for a couple of days non stop for the first time ever. I LOVE the whole game, but once i got my lastest save deleted i just felt bad man. Yes i had a "bakcup" from 150 puzzles before (fuck you Blow) but still, at the end: No history No satisfaction Nothing And i gotta say i still love this game and i really feel the way you felt. Interesting

[@DeathTemplar1]

@@esxivy1944 Don't understand how your save was deleted. I finished the game and still got my save in a perfect state just before the ending elevator. Maybe its a problem only for computer player.

[@mreatboom1314]

For the puzzle at 10:00 the solution is the only continuous line of shadow you can draw, and the game just taught you before the approximate shadow

[@thewhitefalcon8539]

yeah that one is super obvious... sigh

[@drago3036]

DAAAAAMN... Thanks, no matter how i looked at it, i just didn't notice that. TuT

[@mysticdustz7115]

Except it’s literally not continuous. The solution has multiple breaks in the fucking shadow

[@mreatboom1314]

It's continuous just not overlaped perfectly with the grid

[@cericat]

@@mreatboom1314 yeah which is more obvious to some of us that are used to having to mess with perspective in our heads to solve puzzles I guess. The Witness wasn't even the first game to pull that one.

[@JeffreyQProductions]

Joseph Anderson, I haven't played the game, but thoroughly enjoyed watching your thoughts on it. One thing I did notice just by chance in your video that you did not talk about, but I wonder if it has significance, was at 39:51. I am a registered nurse. I work in an intensive care unit, and the patch on the devs left forearm is very unique. It anchors a PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line onto the skin so as not to become tugged out or loosened with use over time. It is a special type of IV line typically only used for very sick people who are currently hospitalized, or for patients undergoing long term (think at least a couple of weeks) intravenous drug therapy. Like cancer patients, or people who need IV antibiotics for wicked bad illnesses but come in from home to the hospital or an infusion clinic on a daily basis. What's strange is, there is no PICC line in the devs arm, like it was recently removed but they forgot to take the patch off. So I'm extremely curious: is there anything in the extremely thin plot to suggest the dev was sick or dying? Food for thought.

[@spicymage677]

You talk incredibly fast, and yet incredibly clearly. Will you auction off my organs when I die?

[@civilservant9528]

He sound like a moron to me.

[@tacostheinfamous4383]

CivilServant95 sounds* moron

[@GEB_Rosee_PPS]

@@civilservant9528 could you elaborate on that?

[@stejn_2918]

I don't know you nor do i give a shit about the game your talking about but i still watched the video all way through and liked is very much, great video.

[@gigabuachidze2802]

Stejn_ omg same here. video is insanely interesting and done greatly.

[@jerodwolf5582]

Stejn_ the video is much more interesting than the game lol

[@stejn_2918]

Jerod Wolf Well, that's for sure.

[@androooooooooo]

same lmaooo

[@lilhealthpack977]

Stejn_ Same, maybe the new KZbin algorithm is for the best

[@mattweber2512]

Saying that the game could have just been a menu interface where you select puzzles is at odds with the complaint about the too-long puzzle sequences such as in the treetops. One thing the world does is give you a break from puzzle solving where you can wander around and find environmental puzzles, find secrets, or just look at things. I get the complaint about how the slow animations and travel time belie the notion that the game respects your time, but remove all the animations and make everything near instant--would that be a better experience? Still, games shouldn't include overly subjective statements like 'respects your time' in their marketing pitches.

[@claclarolo1]

39:56 that guy just threw a cookie down the back of his cooker nnnnaaagghhh thats more infuriating than the whole of the game

[@thelunaman]

seeing this game makes me think of an advanced security system

[@rampageblizzard]

What If We Died In 2012 And This Is Hell reminds me of ratchet and clank... That hacking thing.

[@blazerlazer55]

how do you like channel names

[@cresalp]

yes, we died...we are being simulated my non-existent friend

[@JinwooYoon1217]

Amazing name, 10/10

[@dantorts]

This was my first video of yours. I have watched this video at least 10 times over by now. Also, the Witness was released for 10 dollars on the appstore.

[@chrisgreece732]

Now it's free

[@dantorts]

@@chrisgreece732 wait really?!?

[@chrisgreece732]

@@dantorts when I wrote it ps4 gave to everyone who headed to the ps online store a free copy of it for "staying home" but now i think its over I still have the game downloaded and playable tho

[@trixturrr]

dude i love this. you completely and thoughtfully explained a game I've never heard of and you clearly care about your channel and viewers. the times when you pointed out convenient times to break up the video were so nice :) thank you for making this

[@Rycluse]

That puzzle around 27:48 reminds me of a similar hidden puzzle in Braid where you have to wait for over an hour for a supposedly stationary platform (that's actually just an extremely slow-moving platform) to move across the level. On one hand I think developers should get a little more freedom to do weird stuff for optional hidden secrets, but on the other hand I'd much prefer they be rewards for curiosity or creative problem solving instead of patience.

[@TheHenryFilms]

A good middle ground is the intro to Far Cry 4. The dictator who's hosting you tells you to stay put for a few minutes and leaves. 99.999% of people would assume that's their cue to leave and start their adventure because nothing happens. However, if you do wait he comes back and you get a secret ending (which arguably is the only "good" ending).

[@mitch-lawless]

I feel like the tranquil nature of the game is trying to unconsciously encourage those of us with rapidly firing brains to slow down a bit and be mindfully present; embrace the slow sections of the play-through and not necessarily take it on with the end in mind.

[@robofish312]

Mitch you are completely correct.

[@calebgoodfellowcg]

Haha I just listened to KZbin videos like this one when I played, never ended up finishing

[@SondreGrneng]

I find it interesting that you call it tranquil while I have seen a few people call it unsettling or even downright horrifying.

[@horseluver4ever623]

Maybe people find it scary because of how it influences you to slow down. I know that I get seriously anxious when I listen to relaxing sounds or relax too quickly.

[@lukawolibrzakola]

Worked for me, prolly the first game where I enjoyed listening to data logs, usually they stress me out cause I just wanna play the game

[@RadiantSolarWeasel]

IIRC Braid also had something that required you to wait for hours for 100% completion; I think Jonathan Blow just dislikes the idea of playing a game for completion rather than enjoyment. So in a way your hypothesis about him fucking with people is accurate.

[@AGiantPie]

That's an inherently bullshit thing for him to think since for some people completion = enjoyment.

[@matthewfanous8468]

well, it doest just depend on the person, it depends on the game, and *this* game isn't made for completion, its made for puzzles

[@WobblesandBean]

In Braid, you could walk away and leave the game open while doing something else. In The Witness, you have no choice but to keep your finger on the mouse button and ride it out. Frankly, if that is the reason behind his decision to put this in, then I've lost a lot of respect for him.

[@touhoe]

controller yo

[@Wint20k]

This is one of those videos that I keep coming back to. This video has always been here for me, with all my highs and lows, for going on five years now.