I'd be more interested if Opera wasn't getting into NFTs. I know Mozilla is dipping their toes into that too but... Opera has always been shady. I also find most sites that I go to don't work on it.
I think the greatest testament to Inscryption's quality is this: beneath all the mystery, beneath all the intrigue, beneath the characters, the world, the meta-narrative, the heart, the FEELS, the ARG, ALL of it... ...This card game is REALLY fucking fun
Is this a bad place to say the card game didn’t interest me at all and that’s why I stopped playing the demo so early on after dying once and losing patience with it entirely 😅 Tbf the escape room aspects did me in too, so I don’t think I was gonna enjoy this game if I got too frustrated to continue after only dying once Like I’m sure it’s a good game it just... wasn’t my taste ig -v-“
Fun fact: the hostage file doesn't actually delete any files if it dies. If it did, it would've been considered malware. Instead it copies the name and adds a .txt file to the folder, in which PO3 asks you to be a good sport and delete it anyway.
Going even further, there's an achievement you get if you actually delete said file after being told to. Very cool layers-upon-layers set of ideas going there!
Apparently in the Beta the game actually tried to delete the file, but couldnt do so due to technical issues and it was changed seeing some feedback from rhe beta testers.
For me it took a copy of a downloaded episode of an audio drama (called The Magnus Archives) I had used for editing the Large File, long story short I hissed at the screen like a possum multiple times playing that section
Good to know, my paranoid ass tabbed out of the game and made a copy of the file I selected so I had a backup just in case... didn't end up actually losing the card though cause my deck was pretty OP at this point in the game (I mean I created my own card that was so broken Luke actually commented on it being OP when I created it lol)
The story behind that is, I wanted something super clever and creepy to be the word. But I couldn’t decide on anything so I thought I’d just troll those that were curious enough 🤷🏻♂️
Of all the fascinating ways this game recontextualizes itself, I think one of my very favorites is a missable event that can only happen on your very first run of Leshy's Inscryption in Act 1, where, if you get the hang of playing the game much faster than Leshy expects you to, and crush his Angler boss as soon as you meet him, he throws a tantrum at how your success is coming "TOO FAST. TOO SOON." and covers the field of play with upgraded grizzly bears, more or less forcing you to lose immediately (and then die immediately after) -- throwing away the already-lopsided social contract of his game to just murder you, not as a consequence of losing the game but as a punishment for offending him personally. That's the moment that first really brought it home to me what situation I was in: "oh. Right. I'm not playing this card game as a test, or a challenge of my skills, or even a high-stakes duel with survival as the prize. I'm playing it because I'm locked in a cabin with a serial killer who enjoys playing cards."
This can also happen on your second run. After it happened to me the first time, I prepared some scissors/other items because I thought "too fast too soon" was a gimmick I had to beat. I also learned you had to lose to Leshy twice before you could progress the story as you don't get offered the special eye or totems until you lose twice so you can't progress the story without first losing
In the first act, they expect you to advance about 1 boss per run. First run, bears on the first boss, second run, bears on the second boss, same with the 3rd and last. It will also throw bears at you on subsequent bosses if you manage to best the bears the first time.
what's also funny is that if you *do* beat the grizzly bear sneak attack, leshy just takes the L and you move on normally. i half expected the encounter to just not respond to taking damage, or for every fight to be 8 bears afterwards, but nah
It's not Leshy throwing a tantrum, that's not his style, it's the bone lord/old data(?) taking control and shutting you down. I say taking control because if you look at his eyes, and the text when he says 'too fast. too soon', they turn red
@@matthewhopper9803 its not canon but it was done with Daniel mullins' knowledge and consent by the moderators of his discord server so idk if i would call it strictly fanmade
Initially, I was a little put off by the card game, since that's not my normal cup of tea, but that "get up from the table" moment immediately sucked me into the game and I just had to know what the hell was going on. Also thanks for the shoutout, that ARG video was so much fun to put together!
Super well done on it man! Thanks so much for posting it, I know you just reported what was discovered but I mean hot damn, it blew my mind just how MUCH had to be done, you know?
this is an ARG type of game, ARG are made with the focus point in making the expatiator a part of the story, by leaving incomplete part of the story, only complete if the expatiator finds and solve the "code", ARG is a type of game that sadly we dont get a lot of them, and when we do its just not good enough, or it end in a "infinity loop" were the story is never finished and the codes are just impossible, but every now and then you get games like Inscryption.
Exact same reaction I had. At first I was interested by the aesthetics (from a video by ManlyBadassHero). Then I saw that it was also a puzzle game by getting up from the table. Then I saw it was by Daniel Mullins ( I loved Pony Island) so it was an instant buy from me.
@@artuno1207 If you're a fan of Daniel Mullins, have you tried The Hex? It's his other big game released between Pony Island and Inscryption, though it doesn't seem to have gotten nearly as popular.
Just the sheer fact that the Act 1 game drives you to want to beat Leshy so badly that you can get LOST in Act 1, never needing or wanting to use the knife and THAT'S a very meta plot point shows how well this is done. You CAN never find the Stunted Wolf for hours and hours and hours. Of course, Magnificus calls out to you and wants you to rescue him, but the game itself doesn't push you along to that conclusion like a theme park ride 90% of games are. You could agree with Leshy and play his card game for eternity, like Kaycee wanted.
Kaycee didn't want anything. The Kaycee's Mod expansion's limited lore so far makes it clear that Kaycee had no say in, or knowledge of, how Leshy took over.
and that's why i have so many hours racked up on Inscryption. i played the escape room up until I found the Stunted Wolf, but I never picked up the film - so now every time I draw that card, he reminds me that I left the film in the secret compartment. Sorry about that, Magnificus, but I just really want to play with Leshy.
@@icymoons I've played through the whole game, then went back to play with Leshy and I mistakenly progressed too far. And now I regret it. Because I still wanna hang out with Leshy. 🤣
I looked through the manual and found the "hostage file" sigil in it long before the fight. None of the files I used existed before I met the archivist.
Spoiler... But the files you chose where mere copies with the same name and were a text file. If the game actually deleted files it would be considered malware. You files were bever in any dangercwhat so ever.
@@asj3419 because it shows all files, including files that tell file-managers ( such as explorer ) not to show them; because, why would anyone care to implement that logic in a game.
@@chri-k I suppose that its fairly obvious in hindsight that the game would not actually delete any files, but I didn't really want to take any chances.
I'd like to point out how Leshy is also to best choice for a stalemate of power between the scribes. He is focused on just playing the game for lore and fun. Having him on top makes it very difficult for the others to gain power.
It's very likely Kaycee intentionally left Leshy in charge before she buried the disk. Grimora wanted to delete everything, P03 wanted to upload the game, and Magnificus was too much of an unknown.
@@saphiriathebluedragonknight375 I think it's even better that she left him in charge because he was the first to take control, and his game was too fun for her to bother helping the other Scrybes. His game ultimately succeeds at being what players want in a way none of the other Scrybes manage.
Watching this just made me go "I'm sorry you can do WHAT?" That Ctrl C to interrupt the loading is actually brilliant - even after this game showed off how it would break its own rules I never thought to attempt something like that. I kept the illusion of the magic circle real because... Well, guess I'm not quite that curious haha - you found way more than I did.
The dev is basically the unrivalled god of meta mind-fuck games at this point. Pony Island could've been a complete one-off and it would be completely understandable, but Daniel Mullins continued to hone his craft and somehow made an even better game in Inscryption. Truly a masterful example of the potential of video games as an artform
Yeah The Magic Circle was a VERY nifty game. One of the best conclusions to a game I've ever played. It hit it at about 11 PM, and I stayed up until 3 to complete it because I was completely drawn in. XD
Inscryption was possibly the best video game purchase I've made. Saw a playthrough of the demo at youtube and decided to buy it an hour ahead of release (I think it was available for 10% off then), completed the game unspoiled, and oh boy what an amazing experience it was.
Inscription is one of these games that when you see a vidéo on it months after you finished playing you're like : "ah yes, that game, **deep breath** **mental préparation** here we go." (Looking at you, Omori)
The first time I beat the mysterious Man In The Cabin, I had already completed the clock puzzle and retrieved the roll of film. Imagine my surprise when I got to watch the found footage for the first time *AND THEN* started a new game only to have the entire world spun on its head after that huge reveal to the entire context of everything I had just played up until that point. This game is fantastic.
@@vinsplayer2634 Because his name isn't revealed until Act 2 and the first half-ish of this video tries to remain spoiler free so I'm trying to be vague on the off chance that someone who hasn't played that far into the game strolls upon my comment thank you for coming to my ted talk
I just stopped playing in act 2 after 10 minutes because I thought the creator only had time to polish that first fight and just lazily slapped this second act ontop of it. Oops
Inscryption was quite possibly my first encounter with a proper ARG. I was fascinated by the way that codes, ciphers, and other puzzle tools were used to tell such a complex story. After getting through the ARG myself, and even to this day, one single line stuck out to me again and again… “In the end, even something as simple as a pitiful stoat, will win.”
Thanks for making these videos. I’m planning to major in Psychology and these videos have introduced me to a lot of neat psychology topics and made me love the field even more. Keep up the good work
I was thinking about going into psychology because of things happening in my life and this channel made me actually interested in it, which was really what pushed me to start studying it!
Interestingly the second act did transport me somewhere. It transported me back to my childhood playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game on the Game Boy Color. It transported me to my experiences playing Magic the Gathering opening packs like Luke Carter. I did get more interested in the meta narrative, but I was most interested in building a deck that let me draw my whole deck with blue mages. Also, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the game via Sacrifices will be Made, the Game Jam game Inscryption was developed from.
My experience with the archivist fight was extra terrifying because I'd paged through chapter 3's manual and saw the "delete your file" sigil before the fight. So I assumed that every one of the files I chose in phase 1 was going to come back to haunt me in phase 2, and was desperately trying to find files which were big but not important and to squeeze through regular damage while killing as few cards as possible (which is nearly impossible in that fight).
During the fight with Grimora in the epilogue you can read the manual for her version of Inscryption. Because the fight is for cinematics rather than actual gameplay, the manual is full of joke card mechanics that you'll either think are funny because they're silly or question they're real after get jerked around by this game alot. Like there's one where the card's power is increased if you shout into a microphone loud enough.
Inscryption was the first game in MONTHS to make me feel something. I'm not a fan of horror games, but this game was just so intriguing I went past the eeriness. I suck at strategy, but the card game is so simple to pickup and learn that it made getting better a blast. Slowly piecing things together, learning the story, the *raw ending* is just beautiful.
I loved pony island back in the day but when i finished inscryption and watched how the arg unfolded i knew i had to see the hex. those three games are amazing and it’s incredible how daniel mullins managed to make a universe as engaging as this one
played pony island years ago and loved it, just got/finished inscryption recently and loved it, so of course I bought the hex but haven't played it just yet! same order as you tho lol
Man, I really need to get around to playing this already, the more and more I hear about it, especially the spoiler-y stuff, the more and more interesting it gets
Im playing with the idea of this kind of "4th Wall Breaking" for a long time already. Games like this and others like Undertale and DokiDoki (even Superhot kinda do it) Feel reaaaally inmersive cuz the "break" of the 4th wall doesnt feel like "break" at all, isnt something to abrupt to send you out the experience, in fact, the acknowlede of the world of the game about our world fuse them in a way I never think it could. It all start with some game and the 4th Wall Break video of this channel XD, and Iam now wishing to had some times to finish a game that Im developing since a long time ago
Inscryption was a really wonderful, fascinating experience, and one of the best card games I've ever played as well. ...But I gotta be honest, I don't like how much information is tied to the ARG stuff. If you bought the game near release and was willing to interact with strangers on discord, or if you have some experience with decryption and code, I'm sure that was great, but I never got the satisfaction of puzzling these things out myself. I was very much interested in diving into the game again and learn more, but apparently all I'd get were clues I could do nothing with. The only way for _me_ to get the information is, well, just digging into youtube explainer videos. I ended up finishing Inscryption feeling like I wasn't done with the game and it's misteries, _but they were done with me._ It's a very sour feeling, and very much dispelled some of the spell the game had put me under up until that point.
i think inscryption would've benefitted massively from the ARG being singleplayer, and would probably be a little easier as a result. a substitute for the element where people dug up the floppy, and making the "beneath the surface" portion less convoluted would've made a lot more people bother to find The Hitler Thing
Thanks for the shoutout! I won't be able to watch the video until I play Inscryption (it's in my library but I haven't gotten to it yet) but I am very much looking forward to this game because everything I know about it seems really cool.
19:30 Actually there is a secret unlisted video from the game's ARG that shows that Leshy was actually too late and P03 succeeded, explaining how the game ended up on steam. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e-FuQZ6hTS0.html
There's a clip from that exact video at 20:08. I believe he was just illustrating that beating the game alone does not actually conclude its story, because Inscryption has already "grown its roots" deeper than the magic circle of the initial game, so to speak.
What I find really interesting is that PO3 didnt actually succeed in a sense, as i think he didnt publish the actual game,rather he published Luke's recordings of the game inscryption, ofc their some loopholes to this but I find it interesting
Loved how you talked about this through the lens of theagic circle. I've always questioned what separated games that were just fun and games that left a major impact. It's seems like viewing stuff like Zelda, Guilty Gear, and Undertale through expanding Magic circles, may be a good way to measure that impact. Good vid again Daryl!
Fun fact, on the Switch version of the game, since the Switch doesn’t have computer files the game can access, you can instead access *Luke’s* files, with some very interesting pieces of lore tucked away inside of them if you can find it, and some neat little additions like selecting a file of some art causing the Archvist to project that art on its face
My first time seeing Inscryption I just saw someone play the beginning and though "huh neat atmosphere, maybe another day" then, a few months later I saw somebody else recommend in a way that gave me little to no information about it. The mystery had me hooked from the moment the game refused to be explained and demanded to be experienced
I’ve played this off and on and came back to it after awhile and finally beat Leshy. I got the dagger on this last run and once I did, it seemed so obvious. I used it out of necessity, but a little uncertain as to what it would do. Wow! That cut-scene (pun absolutely intended) was amazing. Inscryption has some of the best audio I’ve ever experienced in a game. I’m excited for the next chapter to begin and I’ll try not to compare it too much against the first chapter because it has such unique deck building, card battler mechanics and atmosphere.
Like the best horror stories, there are questions left unanswered not due to plot holes, nor contradictions, but us simply not being given an answer. Comes close with Stoat's goals coming up short, but we can assume it succeeded one way or another. Otherwise the game wouldn't have reached us.
About The Magic Circle: Most things humans do that can be seen by others follows the rules of such a Magic Circle. The rules are there because we all (implicitly or explicitly) agreed to them. If you don't follow the rules, you'll be treated differently, people become more distant (at least in that area). If enough people want change, they can do it, however it will take a lot of effort and convincing that playing by the new rules is acceptable (even as an alternative to the normal rules). This is actually directly connected to ethical terms like the Social Contract. Just as we decided that even though we could just throw all cards away and 'win' immediately and agreed to abide by these self-imposed rules, we decided that even though we could take away stuff someone else owns we don't do that, and whoever doesn't play by these rules gets thrown out of the game(i.e. prison if he steals, etc.).
not much of a horror guy, but played it for the card game. Without connecting into those arg/reality encroaching magic circles, the game did loose me at points as the rougelike elements started becoming overbearing, the puzzle boxes getting solved too quickly overall and leaving most of the time at the table, or the simplified state of cards in act 2 started feeling overly restrictive, but still had fun with the overall experience. Going back into the game to tackle the final few achievements i missed lead to a much smoother experience as i knew what i needed to do in a general sense and had a better idea of what cards were good, but even now ive seen at least one "card" in this video i did not find in act 1. In both of my runs through act 1, i had only gotten as far as the second painting replication completed. the first time because the cards dealt were stubborn and the second because i knew the card pool a bit too well and didnt have enough deaths to do it.
Very late but the 11:00 carving is relevant in the first half of the game, it's not JUST used later. Using it with the clock in Leshy's cabin gives you a ring, meaning that for the boon trials before Leshy's boss fight, you'll be guaranteed at least 1 boon. Kind of a pseudo-shortcut for the sake of progression.
I knew nothing about this game, except that some of my RU-vidrs had played it and I didn't think I would ever watch it myself. Now I wish I could forget this video and play it without knowing anything
Every time you have a new video I’m so excited to see what game you’re explaining a concept in. I e never heard of magic circle (except in crochet but that’s different) in psychology terms. Your voice is great, your analogies are spot on, and your humor is perfect. Please never quit doing these videos.
Amazing video. I find it funny that in almost all footages and screenshots of Inscryption that I watched, all players including myself gave the Painter that big cyclopes eye and toothy grinning mouth. At this point, I'm even suspecting that that is actually the only allowed face in the game that even if you made another face for the Painter, it'd get changed into the grinning cyclopes lol
Amazing video, presentation, editing, writing, review, the pacing, truly the best one I've seen in a long time on RU-vid, just like in Inscryption, so much thought was put into it. I applaud the dedication.
I started playing Inscryption to help my research for a game I’m working on and wasn’t expected to be so blown away by it. I hadn’t even played a single deck building game before and this one completely sucked me in. Definitely up there with my favorite games of all time!
Inscryption is such a good game, legitimately got hooked for weeks on it, actively watched lore videos and prayed we could see what the other campaigns of scrybes would be like.
Listening to you describe all the different elements that pull you into the game, as well as the magic circle discussion made me think back on the other two games in this 'series' Pony Island and The Hex, and notice how both of those games successfully do the same thing in their own ways. It's impressive how well Daniel Mullins is able to capture these feelings and play with our heads so much over and over again to such great effect each time. Btw, I lost it at "Aw hell no put that back" XD We all thought it when we first saw that scene.
So many seeking thereness.. never finding hereness. 😌 This is an incredible idea for a game, I love it. I actually had much the same idea a while back, but never had a method of attempting to implement it. Glad somebody picked up the slack. That "magic circle" model is particularly important, don't lose that one.
Fun fact, the whole reason I got steam when I was younger was to play inscription because I saw some of my favorite RU-vidrs playing it. That’s the whole reason why I have Steam and all the games that I have now inscription was the reason I got into TF two doom in a bunch of other steam games is because of this little game that I really wanted.
This game has such a special place in my heart. Besides being a fucking incredible piece of art, it was also the very first game I ever played to completion on my twitch channel, and I had an excellent time the whole way. The way its narrative unfolds is just like nothing I have ever seen before, and the amount of detail is just... incredible. It really does feel REAL.
Great point about Act II shifting perspective. The first time I played the game I hit Act II and bounced off immediately, annoyed that the card game I’d grown to love playing was different. Second playthrough I pushed through to see this very perspective shift in its glory
Great analysis, using the magic circle to understand how this games fucks with the player was great and going over lesser talked about aspects like the sound effects was great.
I love this game. I’ve played through several times, but I’ve played act one dozens and dozens of times. It’s relaxing and also fun to see what kind of insane death cards you can end up with.
Glad I went into this game blind, bought it on a whim. Wow what an experience. I'm glad you could vocalise the feeling I had when... damn can't spoilers ...
Funny story about this game, my first experience with it was walking in on my cousin about half way through with zero context and sitting down to watch the rest of his first playthrough. I saw the very end of the second act through to the ending. His name is Luke. Needless to say I had some _concerns_ when he got to the end sequence.
It was actually really funny for me to play Inscryption (together with some friends) because the machine we ran it on used an operating system (NixOS) that has very strong file ownership protections, and we supplied it files that could simply not be deleted by anything other than the operating system itself. We kind of laughed at how we had 'defeated' the game using our superior technical skill (we are all computer scientists,) but that is again just another level of magic circle: we got to experience Inscryption as a very mild piece of malware.
I only recently got around to this game finally. It was an utterly stunning experience. And now I can revisit videos like this one safely (and learn even more like how I am now off to watch the ARG video)
The file I chose was one of my oldest drawings from 8+ years ago... When He said he was going to delete it I instantly made a copy of it just to be safe XD Also I missed quite a bit during my playthrough, I never opened the second clock. I didn't even realize that I was supposed to copy the board in the picture frame, tbh I thought it was a creature compendium that wasn't unlocked yet so I just never interacted with it beyond that. And also I never actually understood the drawer puzzles and just ended up trail and erroring my way through them all.
This game just sends you on a trip! Easily one of my favorite games I've played in a long while! And this video going in depth with the madness of this game, was done so very well!
Thanks for not so heavily suggesting I don’t spoil Inscryption for me as I usually just ignore spoiler warnings but after playing it blind it’s my favorite card game ever.
Wow, well done on building a 7/7 3 prong attack card for 2 blood. You must have had a fantastic deck (or been extremely lucky in the card options you were given after losing).
Saw this game on the front page of Steam and I was really into Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon at the time, so I bought it straight away thinking it would just be another really cool rougelike deckbuilding game. Never saw anything about it online, I had no fucking idea what I was getting myself into. Legitimately one of the best video game experiences I've ever had. And the best part is that I got what I originally wanted out of it, a fun, rougelike deckbuilding game, all the way to the end.
I've struggled so much to describe to people why this game is so brilliant, especially to those who tried it and "didn't get it". I've credited the card game being fun and inventive, or the writing being self aware and atmospheric, or the characters being interesting and charismatic (all of which is true, btw), but you really got to the heart of it here. Inscryption feels like more than just a game. the collection of mechanics, imagery, themes, and showmanship go the extra mile to embed a specific experience into you. and if you give it the buy-in it asks for, you will walk away feeling a kind of... transcendence
i'm proud to say that my favorite youtuber ever beat it on first try without dying, bob lennon, episode 1, he bypassed the "impossible part" and beat the moon unscated, even i was like "noooo don't make that move it's sub-optimal" but what i didn't know was that the man wasn't playing encryption in his head, HE WAS PLAYING YU-GI-OH! I SWEAR IT WAS CLUTCH LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME
I love these magic circles, I think everyone independently rediscovers the philosophy behind that concept, and my view of them I'd that they make life worth living
The only complain i have with this game is that the ending of the PC game was very very unsatisfing. And probably by design. It want to push you to the ARG, where the actual answers are, but in doing so it's pretty meh. And, ARGs are exausting and complicated, i don't have time or will to follow them.
Definitely agree in that regard. I was super impressed with what the game was doing, I thought it was incredible. But the game definitely had a “that’s it??” Moment at the end. Especially after teasing the Grimora and Magnificus versions.
@@DarylTalksGames Yeah exactly. It could have been like "that's chapter one, chapter two is in an arg" instead the ending leaves you even MORE thirsty for answers... Like, katana zero had a better ending xD
I remember the first games I felt really immersed into that didn't require an act of imagination from a text based interface and years of looking hard at ink stained paper and hallucinating to train me for it... Myst. Even before the game first lets you do anything, on the pier, you hear water. The creak of planks. Sight and sound together, sure, but it moved well, just enough trickery that walking in game and walking in my head felt the same. Reaching for an item was reaching for an item. ... it didn't happen again until 7th guest, and then again with Riven, and with 11th hour. All games I'd love to try in immersive VR sometime. The first games I'd want to try on a holodeck for that matter.
a fun fact about the archivist! on console it shows you luke carders files instead, there is actually quite a few differences between the pc and console version that i havent seen talked about
I didn't actually finish playing the game myself (at least not yet), but I watched a playthrough of it, and that is the most unsettling game I have ever witnessed. Like, even just watching a recording I felt genuinely nervous during the Archivist fight.
I actually played this game mostly with a friend. It was *really* cool. But, he didn't want to see most of act 3; that's fine. But, i did show him the ending. It freaked both of us out. It was the most interesting game i've ever played.
Fun fact about how the ARG was solved; At least one major part had a "we got the right answer using the wrong method" to end up getting the correct 4 digit code.
Great video! You’re videos are what pushed me to study psychology and I want to thank you for that because I’ve been really enjoying it. Btw, have you ever heard about everhood? It’s kind of a mix between undertale and a rhythm game and I think you’ll enjoy it.
