a lot of life is accepting you might make the wrong decision, and you can't go back and change it if you do. i don't think you can ever fully know yourself, other people, or the world at large. if you can't fully know those things, you can't fully know your options in life. so it's impossible to know whether your decision was the best one to make.
Mouthwashing makes fun of the whole "choices matter" aspect in video games. in the game, you're given a lot of different doo-hickeys to play around with. you think, "if i combine the doo-hickeys the right way, or do them in the right order, i'll get the best ending"
there's only one ending.
it also makes fun of your confidence, your belief that you'll be able to figure out what's right on your own. it doesn't help that typically in games like this, there's usually an unreliable character trying to swindle you, or maybe it's the narrator like in The Stanley Parable and Slay The Princess. so now you're extra confident that you and your brain are needed to make the right decision, and that there's at least one other character out there trying to trick you.
the story goes to shit because you didn't listen to the other characters. Swansea in particular. Spoiler alert, you get "House MD"'d by him. He acts like a complete jackass for the entire game, gets drunk the first instant he can, but he was fucking correct about the vent in the utility room, and he made the most headway in trying to save everyone.
I'm not even finished it yet, but I will later some time this week.
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i just finished it, and there's still a lot i don't understand about this game. i don't know why jimmy is so obsessed with taking responsibility, and why that phrase haunts us throughout the entire game? responsibility for the rape? for the ship's crash? T think's he crashed the ship, and we both think he raped Anya.
i guess that's why he was obsessed with responsibility, trying to alleviate the guilt he feels for his wrongs. it's why he kept Curly alive despite how much I believe he should've been put out of his misery the first instant after the crash. jesus christ.
im confused as to why in some scenes, the cryopods were dug out from the foam, and in others, and especially the end scene, they were still submerged in foam. did Swansea manage to clean out the cryopods, and Jimmy was pretending at the end that there was only one left? or was all the foam we saw through Jimmy's eyes at the end the truth?
did the developers just forget to put foam in some scenes? xD
there's no way to know. I'm inclined to believe that Jimmy pretended the other cryopods were unusable, so he had an excuse to kill himself. I'd have to watch the scene between Daisuke and him again to confirm whether this is true.
if Jimmy really was pretending there was only one cryopod left, well, that's just the icing on the cake for a game like this. other games of this genre want to flaunt all the different choices you can make. by the end of this one, Jimmy doesn't want to choose anymore.
in real life, making choices is often terrifying, because you only have yourself to blame if they go wrong. some people, i think, stay in a state of powerlessness on purpose, to avoid taking responsibility.
Maybe I'll play it again? I don't usually replay games though, or rewatch movies or etc. But this game was a great satire on "choices matter" games, and honestly, because of that, this is one of the best stories I've come across in a video game.
I have something to say. So shut the fuck up and listen.
I spent thirteen years half-cut up to my eyeballs.
Drunk, to put it mildly.
Then suddenly I saw it, a streetlight shining in my face.
500 Gigawatts of the power of God.
A vision of my bloated body found in some ditch.
Scared me straight.
So I got a collar shirt, mortgage, and a credit card.
All the things that make a good man.
I hoped I could raise my children to be better than their old man.
I wanted to believe I was never one setback away from my worst self.
But the truth is,
Discipline.
Drive.
Routine.
The endless fucking desperation to get shit done.
A loving wife? Great kids?
Sobriety?
I’m telling you.
You.
Accomplishments I’d been chasing all my life.
Never felt as good as I expected when I crossed the finish line.
So now that we’re at the end. Takin’ inventory.
Those nights spinning out of my head, sinking into the sofa.
Broken glass in my palms. Bleeding dry the funniest thing ever.
Old dogs laughing and snarling on a waterbed floor, mocking the moon for daring to show its face.
All nausea and wreckage and vomit and ugly cruelty.
The only problem in the world an empty bottle.
Those were the best days of my life.
Yeah.
…Those were the best days of my life.
I got nothing to hide. Ready to face the music.
I can see myself for what I am.
But you? A cowardly, selfish motherfucker and you can’t even see it.
…I should’ve been able to protect the kid.
If I could have done one thing right, I wish it had been to give him one small chance off this goddamned rock.
-- Swansea