I hear what you're saying about the King in Yellow, and I agree that the Artifact ending ultimately stems from Elster reading the King in Yellow and paying attention to Ariane's signals, refusing to let her go. But I think that an aspect this essay is missing is Ariane's agency in all this. We're told that she is the 'dreamer,' the 'red eye,' the source of the nightmare, a God that calls to Falke in her sleep. She herself is really powerful! I think that assigning Ariane's agency to some other outer god is a mistake -- She herself is the god, able to influence reality and life itself through her signals because of the bioresonance. I think that Elster's actions in the artifact ending enable her to join Ariane in the nightmare and make it into a dream for just the two of them. I'm basing that last bit on Adler's dialogue, with him calling her selfish and saying the world can't take much more.
Very interesting take, I don’t think that’s a bad view at all, for me the complexity of where Ariane fits in is made too much by the fact that I am a Signalis Dataminer/Modder. And I’ve seen files that make me question reality XD, to avoid letting that bias leak into this video (as per the devs wishes) I just avoided the topic! But I adore your interpretation here
I think.... its Chaos !!! :) The rise of the thinking machines :)) perhaps. Ariane became... is becoming a Chaos God thru' this Event Horizon kinda thing :)) ...being bio-resonant (psyker) and all that :)) Her signals are powerful... Elster fulfils... the promise, and more... guided by Ariane's... Signal :) They transcend into the 4th dimension ? .... are ? Signalis is a masterpiece :) 👍🏻
That's nice and all, but imo it is a little underwhelming narratively if Ariane was the sole original source. It'd make all the suggested cosmic horror (which Signalis describes itself as, I think) redundant. There is nothing cosmic about an all-powerful psychic who only wanted to die. Also calls to question what exactly was the source of her sudden bioresonance outburst on deathbed? As far as the game shows, she does have a "normal" childhood, even if abusive. My interpretation is a mix of both ideas. Ariane/Falke did make contact with something (most likely Hastur) which amplified their bioresonance to reality-warping levels. In a way, they became its "avatars". The entire dream or nightmare is actually a collective one shared by all of humanity, which explains the apocalyptic suggestions by Adler. I do remember it stating something about "the primordial soup" and how humanity shares a collective subconscious (something like Evangelion).
I never subscribed to the view that Promise was supposed to be a good ending and Leave a bad one, just based on aesthetics alone. The Leave ending looks peaceful, everything looks 'normal' as if Elster has finally managed to wake up from a nightmare, the sky is clear, she discards her battle armor, even the piano music that plays as she lays down and morning dawns on her is kinda soothing. The promise ending looks straight up dreadful, the cryogenics room is enveloped in a hellish red light, the sound effects are unnerving and Elster dies with the most miserable expression on her face, one that makes the fake ending look tame. There's no way this was unintended by the developers, they clearly put thought into the sensations each ending transmits. My personal view was that Leave was supposed to represent some sort of acceptance. Elster accepts that she already failed her promise by dying before Ariane and that there's nothing that can be done. It's in the past now. What happened, happened. "It had to end this way" she says when checking her corpse. You could even view it as Elster sort of accepting Adler's advice of stopping, that she's just extending the suffering by continuing. By accepting this, Elster finally reaches some measure of peace, represented by the environment around her. Then Promise is of course the refusal to let go and stay devoted no matter what. Elster WILL fulfill that promise, regardless of how much suffering it causes, to herself included. And it clearly causes her a lot of grief. Can you really call this 'good' or 'bad'? It's neither, honestly. It simply is.
Something I noticed in Leave is that, while she dies, there's a white light glowing behind her, from the direction of the Penrose There isn't much to back this up beyond a personal interpretation, but the color white makes me think of Ariane, and Elster's line asking her to please forgive her for leaving, makes me think Ariane's understanding and soothing her to rest from the ship
Perhaps my favorite time loop story besides this one, is the Egress episode in Adventure Time. That fateful line, "something is different", gives a sense of hope. That the end of the nightmare is nearly there. Perhaps playing the game again after beating it isn't repeating the loop so much as it's simply rewinding time to before Elster breaks the cycle.
The way I see it is all endings are actually equally part of the cycles and ARE required for the ritual. Thus they are all true and canon. The "missing" ending to reach 6 in total has to be when leaving the penrose and crossing the portal and before sierpinski. One of the bodies we see in the ritual has that same orange suit. We even see the LSTR unit that has reached either memory or promise ending as part of your own playthrough.
Hm interesting take, but I would say the variation of the cycles past the revival of Elster as well as Adlers phrasing “destory it all” wouldn’t exactly support that concept for me
For LSTR to get her happy ending she has to destroy ADLR's happy ending. I don't see how it can't fit. As for the variations I'm not sure what you mean. But my biggest problem with your approach is that none of the endings except for lily ending have a set finality as evidence of all the other endings can be found within the cycles thus implying an infinite loop. Rotfront is still part of the loop unlike what you said since you find your own body and take it's armor to end up in the very same place yourself. (unless lily is achieved)
Since I was too bloodthirsty when I play this game I always end up geting the promise ending, I like your interpretation of the endings in the video but for me the endings have a more bitter sweet vibe after watching your video, because dependeing on the world view of the person playing you could interpret all of the endings as a restart of the cicle of suffering, and at the same time they could be viewed as the conclusion and the true ending of the nightmare by another person. Thank you for letting me view the game that I love in a more "happy" tone, because I really need more happyness in my life. And your lore videos are always great, I am luck to have found this channel and played that game that bringed me here.
I still don't know if I subscribe to the king in yellow being an entity on itself My read when I was playing was that it being just a piece of literature about actors unknowingly playing parts they have no control over, it was incorporated onto the loop's logic like her other childhood memories were It would have left a mark in someone stuck in a ship with no life left back home and no way out
I started watching this because I didn't know which ending I got, thinking that the reuniting with Ariane and dancing was the end, and assuming that waking up in the bathroom was now the ng+, so I saved and turned it off at the next safe room (after running past and getting smacked by the following 5 monsters and no open doors). Now I realize there's another hallway to go up left of the safe room. Anyway, I thank people like you, cause I didn't know what was happening for pretty much the entire game. I dislike media with "dream" and "in one's head" stuff like shutter island; it's just too confusing for dummies like me.
Wow I was way off. I thought the game was almost over, but nope, now I'm collecting cards XD Got 5 so far though. Jesus, I was a little disappointed since I had the rifle and flare gun and hadn't used either when the fake ending rolled. Glad there's more to play, and hopefully a boss before the game ends.
Started this video extremely excited to delve into the details of this game only to find out that i didnt actually "beat" it and all those put of place endings i watched on yt were in fact real endings and i spoiled myself :')
@@Cristiferbeast oh for sure lmao, but I beat the game (fr this time) a few hours ago and still absolutely love it the same. Now I can actually watch this video 💀 :)
Coming here from your other video, and I like a lot of the new interpretations. I disagree that every ending breaks the cycle, it seems so heavily implied that your death in memory leads directly into retrieving the white armor in the ship. LSTR dies in the exact pose you take her armor from, to me that cant be a coincidence. Even if Memory fails to break the cycle, it is still a good ending to me, as it enables future iterations of LSTR to reach rotfront. In this sense no ending is the good ending, because they are all necessary to reach the end of the cycle. I'm not sure how I feel about your interpretation for the king in yellow. I dont think the book literally gives you power, That seems more related to simply being born with bioresonance. I think the king in yellow is more metaphorical for some of the themes inside Signalis. But the book itself needs to have some sort of importance, it marks the begining and the end of the game. I think the king in yellow contains the key to decrypt Ariane's Signal. Ariane has a note explaining the significance of the magpie signal, describing watching her mother read the book whilst listening to the magpie signal. Who knows though, You have another video on the king in yellow, so maybe that can change my mind; I just feel that interpreting the king in yellow as a real entity hurts the narrative, to me it feels out of place to have a character from another authors book as one of the driving forces behind Signalis's narrative. I instead think that Arian's bioresonant signal combined with the penroses radio is how the signal is created. In hindsight now I dont feel as though we have enough information to know if the artifact ending breaks the loop. We see the eye looming above the penrose, but the eye is also absent from the background during the dancing scene, giving very mixed signals about what it means. To me the artifact ending breaks the loop, but robs both Ariane and LSTR of the release of deaths, creating a new loop recycling the inside of the penrose rather than all of reality. Doesnt change the fact that every interpretation is valid, these are just my interpretations.
you say that the cycle gets "broken" but my intrepretation isn't that its broken but rather that its progressed. i can't remember exact notes or quotes, but i've always believed that the cycle is 'decaying' becoming more and more consumed by the flesh. Elster didn't "break" the cycle she's simply progressed to a latter cycle. Also, somewhat unrelated but interesting. How much does do you think elster knows? Because i always get the strong feeling that Elster knows much more about what's going on than the player controlling her.
I think she know as much as the player. Not because we are supposed to be in her mind (in some sense, we literally are indeed). But because the "red eye" who could hit reset anytime, aka us, also have to go through the motion, either to let it play out or gunning for a certain outcome.
The Signalis endings remind me of Spec Ops: The Line where Captain Walker (The Player) has to choose between (game ending) himself or shooting his fake imaginary villain. The former is him accepting the truth of his actions and the latter is him continuing to live the lie he created. If he chooses to continue to live the lie, he will either choose to die by the hands of the soldiers rescuing him, surrender and be rescued, or even kill the soldiers. Only the ending surrendering has the screen fade to white, meaning a lie or false end. And all other choices lead to a fade to black, meaning a truthful ending.
we could be talking about the most saddening, vile thing ever. But the moment someone says "game ended" I'm laughing my ass off. God bless pyrocyincal for using that term because it has become one of my favorite things to say
Of course, if the player chooses to stop playing after the fakeout ending, then the fakeout ending is valid. How did it make you feel? Does it need to answer the story’s mysteries? Why are you looking for answers when there are only more questions?
Sorry if someone already asked this question, but if all 4 endings are like.. endings, if the cycle anyway is over, why Memory ending in game files is named "Cycle" (as I know), and we find another same looking LSTR in the same place after fake ending? For me, Promise and Leave may look like the end of the cycle, but Memory... It makes less sense.
Well game file names arent really good sources, for example some files that are clearly just images of adler are named Vineta, if we took it seriously then Adler is a Planet, on top of that the devs have explicitly said not to use the game files to help w theories because alot of times the files are just named for letting the devs better understand whats going on. Memory is a full ending in a sense, It is a demonstration of a note left on the shores of eternity "for while the soul may pass, the flesh still remains" it creates a unique counter dynamic between the two lovers Elster (soul persists, flesh is dead) and Ariane (soul is dead, flesh persists), but most importantly hammers home the same results as the other two endings, both Elster and Ariane's Souls have passed on, able to rest in whatever lies beyond. At least thats partially how i view it (i interpret memory each time Y^Y)
i wonder if rose-engine has code that keeps track of which ending you get on your first playthrough. would be really interesting to see which ending is the most common. i got the Memory ending on my first playthrough
this is very interesting analysis, but there's a couple things i'm confused about how does falke kill elster in the fake out ending and how do we know everything about the king in yellow? they seem presupposed in this video, so i assume they reference other videos?
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_j_CuhhqnQY.html my apologies! This video goes into greater depth on the KIY w those details kept out for sake of duration
Watching about the endings ONLY TO FIND OUT THE GAME CONTINUES WTF. Great video! When I realized that the game continued, I went back to play and returned. Your explanations are superb. Thanks for making it clear. 😬
Now that I think about it, considering the nature of the loop and LSTRs and piles of bodies of LSTRs converging into one single place Could the penrose LSTR source be one who was in this loop, making her completely a product of the cycle? There's no end and no begging, a completely closed loop (until we pick an ending) People probably already theorized about this lol
Even picking an ending doesnt close the loop... Remember when we pick up the armor from a dead elster in the penrose. look closely at how she was laying down before death... thats right. the very same ending. still looping
I may be reading in too this way too much but when he said “all the endings are good or true” did he mean that all the endings are good in the literal sense or “there is no wrong ending” type of way
It can prob be taken both ways, In the no wrong ending way it’s ie that all 4 endings are equally valid In the all are good, its that the result of the ending is “good” just for different people
@@Cristiferbeast yeah cause honestly with how much of a gut punch this game is I really want the artifact ending too be what we see, a ending where arian and Elster are able too dance forever. But what confuses me is that the key of eternity says “what are you looking for this will only end horribly” or something along those lines im just trying too figure out what it means, witch causes a lot of brainrot. Maybe it’s trying too discourage Elster? Or maybe it means it ends badly? Idk it certainly seems happyish at face value even if the giant eye is Arian as a god watching the memory of them dancing it’s still “happy” since she gets too relive the memories of their time together
My previous comment was deleted, but I'll restate: Your information on ending requirements isn't totally accurate, as the memory ending isn't affected by NPC dialogue. NPC dialogue and blocked door interactions do affect the leave ending. Since memory becomes the default if promise and leave are tied I can sorta see why you thought NPC dialogue affected memory. EDIT: Worth noting I blame RU-vid's automated system for my deleted comment, not any real person. I referenced the forum post that had the info, and having an outside link is what probably flagged my comment.
Honestly, this game caused me to have another emotional breakdown ... cuz my life has been alot like Ariane's, trapped in a small hellscape i never get to leave, but unlike Ariane, i have no1 special like that i can share it with, hellscape nightmare or no .... ... So for me, they're all different kinds of bittersweet/tragic ending, because no matter what, Ariane & Elster loose each other thru death/the cycle, or end up trapped in a nightmare remake of the world that's no more that an illusion inside a ship, like beinga reflection on a mirror, where only the reflection is real & everything else doesn't actually exist or is dead ... The way i interpreted it was they somehow came in cantact with some evil alien presence that played off Ariane's pain & her Love for Elster, after they crashed somewhere, maybe some desolate snow world, to slowly drain away the souls of the world; & didn't want Elster to break the cycle because then it would lose it's power over them & the Souls of the people they had connected with when alive, with ADLR having figured out they're in a Time-loop borne from this & Ariane somehow, & wanting to stop Elster because she effectively, if unintentionally, took Falke from him & skrewed up the worlds... & so the Ritual Rnding is her sacrificing the worlds to have Ariane, not realizing it's all a Guilded Cage created by a Monster, that loves it's willing marionettes in the Cage... Honestly, i only started to make a basic connection to "The King in Yellow" at the end, when Falke becomes some gruesome Totem/Avatar for that "King" but i figured ADLR was an unwilling participant in all this who just wanted HIS Falke back, before her mind & soul were currupted by the Cycle & Ariane's Essence ... So i guess I'm just slow ... cuz i apparently missed ALOT of nuanced details ... Still, heart-breaking story for me, probably never play this again tbh, cuz i don't need any more depression in my life X_X
