Who's Lila? | The Best Mystery You Can't Solve 

Great video and AMAZING voice acting! Thanks so much for making this!

hiring a British voice actor for Lila was genius. Really communicates her inhumanity, and alien-ness.

Nobody really talks about this, but one of my favourite parts of this game is that you can find out the whole "Good Cop/Bad Cop" routine is just an act if you pay attention. If Will confesses to the murder, the Bad Cop stops being intimidating and instead becomes compassionate. But likewise, if you keep a neutral expression through the entire interrogation, Will stops talking entirely and the Good Cop eventually becomes so frustrated with the complete lack of response that he starts trying to intimidate you. Its just a small amount of depth for what ultimately amount to side characters, but I enjoyed it.

kinda chilling to think that, upon being reminded of lila by tanya, will is screaming "I DON'T REMEMBER" as a desperate attempt to forget again. he's already remembered, he can't take it back now, and him in a panicked voice saying that is like a frenzied attempt to convince himself he hasn't.

So, basically, the devs gaslight us into furthering Lila's existence. Now that they've shared the idea of Lila to the world, Lila will never die.

"Everytime you think about Lila, you sustain her." NOT TODAY! *aggressively downs anmestics*

So BASICALLY: Lila is THE GAME. Which we've all collectively just lost.

I feel like the answer to the question of "Who's Lila?" is a very simple, if meta one. She is a being who was created by a certain game developer for the sole purpose of spreading the mystery of who she is to as many people as possible while also entertaining them. After all, if the mystery of who Lila is doesn’t entertain you, your attention will be paid elsewhere and she won’t exist anymore. Without an audience to desire the answer to the question, there is no question, and therefore, no Lila.

So people talk a lot about first person and third person, but everyone forgets about SECOND person. Mostly because second person is incredibly difficult to really do properly or to understand, but holy shit. This is it. This is a second person POV game. This story isn't just you play through the game from the eyes of the character or looking above the characters, not in a traditional sense. You are literally a part of the story, and YOU are the one having to answer everything. I never thought I would see a second person game but holy shit.

thank u for letting me voice lila!! im so happy i could be apart of this video :3

the voice actress for tanya KILLED IT; whenever i read that "who's lila" i read it in her voice tilt and accent. actual perfection

1:41:28 Someone else brought this up but“I wear no mask. No mask? No Mask!” Is a line from the collection of stories called The King in Yellow. Elaborating further: In the book, The King in Yellow is a play. And the “No mask” line is one of the few lines that we actually get to see of the play itself. In the book, people become obsessed and forever changed by the nature of the play-a cognitohazard of sorts. I think this pairs well with the idea of Lila being an idea that needs to be known in order to have power. The effects of the play only were realized when people read it.

I want to point out when Lila whispers in Yu's ear, he is still sort of low poly like all the other models in the game, but Lila is a full ass person. I don't even think it's a 3d model

Lila is a cleverly disguised invitation to thought about thought.

As a long-time solipsist, Lila's dialogue explaining the Prince is what finally brought me out of that belief system. As long as I can recall I simply haven't been able to conceptualize billions of people living with the same infinitely complex soup of emotions and memory that I have, but Lila's explanation of the innate narcissism of solipsism for some reason was able to finally get me to come to terms with that. I just think it's incredible that a psychological horror was able to get me to do what nothing else has.

Lila is like the most truest form of a cognitohazard to me. Wonderful video, you did an awesome job showcasing such an incredible piece of art.

So Lila is inside my head according to the ending? Well rip to her, she gonna get annoyed by all the random ocs I have collected and that dinky kirby song 24/7.

1899 also refers to a set of coordinates to go to in the corrupted file (notice it gives you x y in the top left). If you go to -18 -99 there are portraits of the some of the game characters floating in the air. Nice vid, glad the game is finally getting the recognition!

Lila is just like "the game", it doesn't matter how long you know it (fuck, i know it since i was 8) you always lose it, and every time you lose you begin playing it again, and eventually you'll remeber and lose over and over... Such a good game tho, Lila's face keeps haunting my memory and my yt feed once in a while. Another game i think has the "appeal" as Lila is Slay the Princess. They both dwell in the ideia of light passing through fractured glass I kinda of wonder how would a game made by garage heathen, the creators of Slay the Princess and Daniel Mullins be, the most flabbergasting, mind twisting experience.

Another thing is that this game is heavely inspired of the consepts of Twin Peaks made by David Lynch, the electric towers and poles in the forest, the owls, the creepy Martha's death scene, the curtains in the hospital, Lila whispering into Yu's ear, and the small electric sound you can hear in some scenes (like in here 1:32:10), all of that is from the show, almost like this game is an spiritual sequel. . . . . . . . The mystery of "Who's Lila?" is the same as the mystery of "Who killed Laura Palmer?", the whole world of the game and show was born from that mystery, it lives because we watch it, our curiosity feeds it and keep them going, and once the mystery is solved, that's it, we move on to other things and those worlds die and fall into oblivion. That's why in Twin Peaks, David Lynch wanted to leave the case unsolved, so the mystery could live forever, but the producers forced him to reveal the murdered and the show went lame until the last 2-3 episodes of the second season. I recomend the video "Twin Peaks ACTUALLY EXPLAINED (No, Really)" by Twin Perfect, is the best analysis of the show I have ever seen so far, and would explain some parts of this game too

I first learned abt this game by a video from FlawPeacock, I really recommend it. ( it's 7hr long but it's a full experience ) Something that I realized after pondering abt this game is that I never truly understood Lilas hatred for Tanya, it mostly came that she looked like her. The " copycat girl" that was very insulting to Lila. Then I remember smtg. The doppelganger myth. Basically the doppelganger myth is that, somewhere out there, there is someone that looks identical to you, and if you one day crosses paths with them ( which is rare but can happen ) your doppelganger will kill you and take your place, the need to kill you is put in them until one of you dies. That is very much similar to Lila and Tanya, Lila could have ignored Tanya but she couldn't help herself, the mere idea of someone that looked like her filled her with bloodlust. She only rested when she killed her, something she takes great pride with. What truly surprised me is that, the doppelganger myth never truly states that your doppel will be the same species as you. Tanya was a normal human girl, and her doppel was a man made entity that lives in another plane of existence. But by only crossing paths with her somehow, it choose her fate to die

Thank you so much for letting me voice Tanya!! I need to pick up the game for myself now

The developer is a genius. He imagined Lila, created this game to make Lila "alive" through all of us(anyone that knows about Lila), and practically made a cult without anyone knowing.

Lila is probably the one of the best portrayals of an eldritch entity I've seen in a game. Her entire nature is ultimately unknowable, and as the player who just spent days trying to figure her out, that is a maddening realization. You work to understand something you were never meant to, and it drives you insane. You try to fight something that can't be understood, and it ruins you. You finally grasp understanding only to realize that you've barely even scratched the surface of an entity that can't even be defined by human measurements, and you fall to despair. As much as you may want to unravel every mystery, you are ultimately lost in the maelstrom that pursuit causes. You're finally given the answer, and the only thing left to do is accept that there simply is no solving a mystery made to be unsolvable, because it's unsolvable nature is the answer to the mystery you seek to solve. Thus, we loop. Endlessly, until the end of days. Or, until Lila decides to finally let us forget her entirely. But honestly, do the insane ever truly forget?

On the surface level, The Prince is the player, and that's a meaningful metaphor; but I'm pretty sure the writer of this story also intends The Prince to be a different word for what Aldous Huxley calls the godhead, or consciousness itself

Other the emperor/empress connection, I find the name “the prince” cleaver cos it kinda sounds like ‘prints’ as in fingerprints. They distinguish one life from another and we leave them everywhere. Our fingerprints are left everywhere, hidden proof of our memories, our experiences, our existence, right? If no one (including you) knew/remembered you were somewhere, where you really there? Like Lila, overtime we’ll forget about them, until one day someone dusts some fingerprints. (Also super interesting video that I’m definitely gonna constantly rewatch lol, thanks for introducing me to this game!)

the video is very well put together, but i really wanted to commend the voice actors you got together! they all did fantastically, so much so that i forgot some of them weren't in the game

Based on the setup, I thought it was gonna be a “people with dissociative identity disorder are scaaaawwwyyy” kind of plot. Glad to see it goes deeper than that lol

the game crashing if yu chooses to shoot william is so impactful. just like will’s body, gone in an instant.

the "Too bad it had my face" line is really funny to me because imagine you're lila, someone living in a noosphere and suddenly you get put in a reel by people you hate so you just become as much of a brat as possible

Good job to whoever did Strupnev,sounds exactly as i imagined it

i havent finished the whole video but THANK YOU. for getting liliths mythology correct. i have a long standing interest in demonology and the fact everyone calls her "satans wife" or whatever when she isnt that annoys me so much. its the bare minimum but youd be surprised how many people just dont do it.

I've seen ManlyBadassHero's playthrough of this game multiple times, and I never realized the thing about the rat exterminator. Thank you for pointing that out! This game is absolutely amazing, and it's so interesting.

thanks so much for the opportunity to voice t-gotchi! i’m now everyone’s favorite green waifu :3 your video came out great! thanks so much everyone for watching!

This game made me realize something. Lilith is a being that existed since early documents of humans, yet she was never truly in the spotlight like the believe in Jesus or God. She was always a shadow of history, something hiding behind other famous legends. Yet somehow, the idea of her never perished. We know of her legend to this day, meanwhile other gods from ancient cultures are long forgotten. The only reason why we know of her is because she had always a group of people remembering her. If no one knew of her then she would be forgotten. Just like Lila who needs people's minds in order to exist, so does she.

The line "half the time I'm not even sure whether it's today, tomorrow or a month ago" is very similar to a line in the first main scene of David Lynch's Inland Empire, I thought that's why you brought it up as it was right after you'd been talking about Lynch!

The quote from "The King in Yellow" is relevant because it's also about a memetic hazard. The King in Yellow, the entity, exists in the minds of people thinking about The King in Yellow, and spreads when people read or talk about the play "The King in Yellow."

By buying my friends this game as a gift, I now realize that I have fed Lila... Good lord.

howard: Lila is the mystery and her existence is solely based off of someone knowing about her. Me, the fool: Oh so it’s like *the game* then.

Spoiler Alert. So her "Father" is the dev, talking about us being the hosts for his game. Genius game. Genius video. Good job, dude.

If Lila lives inside me I shall make that corner of my mind the most uncomfortable house, every surface slightly tilted, every tile ever-so crooked, every cushion a bit too lumpy or stuffy, every centimeter of the air filled with dust, every hinge a bit too resistant and scrappy, all the food to cold or too warm, every utility just out of reach, all the worse things for her, she earned it.

imagine someone's first exposure to this game being november 13th and just getting the secret full on first try lol

Only indies can manage to make an brilliant and insightful deconstruction about human curiosity.

1:03:51 Lila: Although sometimes you get something good. Yu: Are you referring to yourself? Lila: Well, obviously #gaslightgatekeepgirlboss

Thank you for the shoutout in the description. I applaud your ability to give a far tighter, yet still very holistic deep dive. This game is super rich and is so otherworldly, so friggin bravo! Also your voice acting for Will was fire!

The detective basically being named "you" while asking the same questions that "you," the player, would is pretty clever

During the cutscene where Tanya and Will are talking after hooking up and Will freaks out, William's name disappears after his outburst

1:37:42 ironically this video was that for me. This game is really fascinating with how it plays with the idea of a memematic entity. Though strangely enough, I’ve actually been completely satisfied with the answers I have put together. Now this game is basically just a stroll down memory lane.

Great video! Loved all the voice acting. Ever since this game came out it really captivated me. As for the King in Yellow response from Wheeliam relating to the stranger, I feel it signifies perhaps the Stranger is actually us controlling William, so it's his face but without any will or identity of his own. No mask because it's the player, not any character and in the quote the "No mask? No mask!" is said in fear, which would make sense towards a player controlling someone. I feel the quote "A statue of sorts. It looks familiar... It looks so familiar... It may be made of wax. So lifelike it is. Does it talk? It looks so familiar… His face is like a mirror isn’t it?" supports it a bit, saying it looks like William, but isn't him at all anymore. Or maybe hinting that the Stranger is a mirror of us, the player. Just theorizing! I'm probably wrong but it is an interesting part of the story to think about.

this game is so interesting and ive watched so many LONG videos about it and youre the only one who helped me understand it in under 8 hours and thats amazing, great job! love the editing style too

Regarding The Stranger, when Lila says it's "not his usual look" she may be referring to the herself, not Will. The look is unusual for her because she usually manifests as female, whereas Will is male. Also... I don't think it's the case that Tanya looks like Lila, so much as Lila looks like Tanya. Lila is just an idea after all. She has no "real" face. She just wears whatever face is best suited to expressing the idea she is. I think Tanya had such a face. Tanya perfectly embodied what will had imagined Lila to be. After seeing Tanya, Will probably couldn't even imagine Lila without Tanya's face anymore. Tanya's face became Lila's. By the time we enter the story, this has already happened, and therefore the only Lila that we ever see is the one who has Tanya's face.

There's some things worth mentioning about the David Lynch connections. Who's Lila feels like a massive homage to Twin Peaks specifically. Tanya is Laura Palmer. Both Laura and Tanya are mysterious girls with tragic pasts who cheat on their boyfriends and are murdered before the story begins as the catalyst of the entire narrative. Detective Yu serves the same role as Agent Cooper. Both are audience surrogates who represent our desire to solve the mystery. Owl symbolism appears heavily in Twin Peaks. Just like the random owl that shows up during Will and Tanya's slow dance. David Lynch never wanted to reveal the truth about Laura Palmer's murder and therefore end the mystery, because the mystery was the _point._ Just like Lila who represents an intentionally unsolvable mystery that exists to make you want to figure it out, but remains just out of reach. David Lynch doesn't like giving people answers, he wants them to figure it out or decide for themselves, believing that whatever they come up with is a good answer as long as it's something they can connect with. There's also all the symbolism of film reels. Twin Peaks itself is believed by many to be metaphorical for movies and TV, something David Lynch is really passionate about. It's kind of complicated but it fits.

My theory is that the Stranger is other people's perception of Will. The way we see Will is his own perception of hinself, but it is only a perception and isn't accurate. The game touches on how our perceptions of others may not be how they see themselves, so it makes sense to me.

For me, the concept of this game (where the character is not real only in the memories of the player) is similar to One Shot or One Chance (I forgur 💀) except Who's Lila, Is more like a the questions will lingers in your mind, haunting you for eternity.But for the game, One [Something] is more like the character is real because of the journey with them from start to end is very memorable that it will fond in your mind until the end of days. Until now, from when I first played the game, I still remember Niko (and only her, sorry) with the promise I made for her, to remember her after the game ended even though she's not real and just a character in a video game. I still remember her even after more than 5 years since i played the game. These types of games are crazy impressive and unique, which is hard to make. Well done for the developers. That made me watched the whole video from start to end in 1 sitting.

if i had a nickel for every indie pixel shader game with unsolvable mysteries and references to the king in yellow i'd have two which isn't alot but its weird that it happened twice

Firstly, watch the whole video before reading this comment. Even though it doesn't really spoil the video, you should still watch it first since it's great. I find that the only way to truly beat Lila is to fall into absurdism. The acceptance of the fact that we will never know who Lila is, is the only way to win. Whenever she comes back you just smile back. Staring back at her knowing that because you don't know who she is and accepting that, no, basking in that fact is the only way to bring her to her knees. Sometimes to give up is the only way to win. Sometimes saying you lost is the best. Sometimes knowing that you don't know is the only way to understand

Thanks for this amazing video, Howard! I have to say, Who Is Lila is brilliant. I sat here for a while feeling just as outraged as Detective Yu at the Sun ending, because I thought it was Khee Hoon Chan trying to sacrifice the whole buildup of Lila being an eldritch horror to give us stoner-tier philosphy about the game's impact as a piece of art, and I had a scathing essay all written up before I did a bit of self-reflection and wondered why it pissed me off so badly. I went back over the established information: -Lila is an eldritch horror -Lila uses memetic gateways to feed on human emotion -Lila is a masterful manipulator and pathological liar -The game has set itself up as an ARG -The game constantly breadcrumbs the player, keeps the plot vague and confusing, and plays keep-away with the truth. That's when it hit me: you, the player, were Lila's real target the entire time. The game literally tells you several times its a trap and breaks the fourth wall to warn you, but if you're on a completionist run trying to get all the endings, you're in too deep and can't see what's really going on. The Sun ending was the final ruse, to produce an emotional reaction off of which Lila could feed. You watch her tear William apart the same way by shredding his sense of identity with logic, never for a moment suspecting she's had you in her crosshairs from the moment you start the game. What kind of BS ending is "the answer to the mystery is the mystery itself"?! The kind that induces Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy-tier levels of annoyance at the implication the entire game was a wild goose chase, that's what. Bon appetité! There is no way she would break character at the end to give you the catharsis of a satisfying ending. She needs to feed.

my name is Lila and the title of this video made my heart stop for a sec 💀 i RARELY see my name in places because most people spell it Lyla edit: i just watched the part where it was revealed that the fire happened on November 13, which is my literal birthday 😭 there r so many coincidences its freaking me out lmaoo

I loved the video! You made so many more connections that I didn't pick up on, so this video was a wonderful treat. The thing I love the most about the game is just how wonderfully the beginning of its story and the end mirror each other. You could tell someone, "Lila is the mystery of not knowing who Lila is" and that is both a complete answer and absolutely meaningless - depending on the context. In a way, it kind of makes the story cylical: I wonder if Wheeliam is an allusion to that idea?

The no mask quote is from the book "The king in yellow." A book of anthology stories from the perspectives of different victims who fell to the yellow king's madness. the stranger and lila are both representations of the madness of the search. the cursed play "the king in yellow" bestows upon all who read the second half of the play a debilitating madness that they feel control over as they search for answers. But there lies the rub of the more you know, the less you know, and the more drive to finish the play leading to ones own demise. the quote specifically is between camilla, cassilda and the stranger who is infered to be the king himself of Carcosa. The king in yellow is a great, beautifully written, cosmic horror in similar vein to who is lila as who the king is, is the driving force to continue to read. But the king is everything and nothing in the same way as lila, the deeper you look the more you lose yourself to the madness, and yet you can not look away. If anything I'd argue "who is lila" is the play itself in a less lethal dose.

Theory: I personally see the stranger as the embodiment of when Will and Lila's wants intersect to an extreme degree. The stranger appears when Will dances with tanya, because the shared awakening/rediscovery of Lila that gets some emotion out of Will (which feeds lila enough to take things further, forming the stranger) I believe the Stranger killed Tanya because both Will and Lila share bad feelings toward Tanya, lila is jealous and Will doesn't like that he sees Lila in tanya, Will freak out over not remembering Lila gave her enough strength to take control and form the stranger

It’s actually pretty damn clever to link Lila with Lilith. While Lila alone might eventually fade from the mind with time, Lila (whether she actually is or ISN’T Lilith) linked herself with a Persistent figure. A figure that is echoed, recreated and used in many a tale throughout history. By linking herself with Lilith, she has ensured she’ll keep existing. One way or another. Either as the FIRSTGOLD, or as herself. It’s better if you recollect her as both, but one or the other will suffice.

the writing in this game is so beautiful. i would eat up a novel by the writer.

Love the Blue Velvet reference, and there's actually another Lynch reference! "The best and the worst are drawn to dead dog farm" is a line from season 2 of Twin Peaks, although in that case it's referring to a place not a person. Great easter egg, I wonder how much of Lynch this game references throughout?

I would say you can know who Lila is, as long as you accept the game as well, a game. Lila only exists on the back of the creator, like everything else. If you can accept how Lila is the mystery as an answer and apply the constraints of the game to her existance. If a mystery is the desire to know more, created by the person with the desire, then no longer being curious by blindly asserting an answer and never looking back ceases the mystery to exist. Lila is the question "who's Lila" and that means I can stop asking.

Lila is the game, and the game is an impression, an impression that will one way or another influence the way you live and will remain with you until the day you die.

i wanted to put this on in the background while i draw but the editing is so tight that i simply have to watch this later with my full attention to give it the respect it deserves.

i love it when a story plays on the cognitivohazard concept, making your own mind the ennemy the more you try to escape it the more it wins. One of my favorite horror genre, and you explained it amazingly

NOT THE JOSH HUTCHERSON MEME............... also seriously great video!! love your analysis and the voice acting certainly adds to it. kudos to the actors! great work

Considering it's relation to Jungian psychology, perhaps that having 3 answers giving information you already know when talking to Wheelian reflects the completion of the game. The number 3 in Jungian psychology represents the fundamental triad of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, as well as the dynamic interaction of complementary opposites, such as the Father, the Mother, and the Son. Jung viewed the number 3 as a universal archetype reflecting completeness and conflict resolution through the synthesis of opposing elements. Neat

oh my god okay so. i love whos lila, its been one of my favourite things to ever exist. ive only known you from you 'we happy few' video. so please imagine the gutteral scream of joy i let out when i saw this video in my recommended.

Seeing this reminded me of watching Manly Badass Hero do a playthrough on this and i remember thinking jt was a really intriguing game and clicked on the vid. Was not disappointed gj mate.

Glad to lend you my voice. I hope I did the game and your video justice.

I think “1899, both inverted” is coordinates. At (-18, -99), there’s a pole playing a an electricity sound that has been modified to have its spectrogram repeat “Yu is you”. Also, oddly enough, the game’s Itch page background features two of the questions you can ask to Wheeliam, although “1899?” is instead written as “18 9?” as if whoever wrote it was missing the third number. What’s also odd is that the other question is “Who’s The Stranger?”, which I feel is an odd connection to make. …Then again, Yu is the player, but we play as Will, and when we ask Wheeliam, who is connected to Will by name, about The Stranger, he responds by quoting The King in Yellow, a book about a mysterious god-like king who possesses people and drives them mad, which seems to all connect somehow. At least, to me it does. Maybe not to you. Maybe there’s something to it all since, as I said, we are Yu, but we play as William. Edit: I just realized Yu tells Lila that *she* saves the game, and that *she* “knows (the save menu) all too well”, which makes this even more confusing. So, from this, we can potentially assert that we *are* Yu, we *control* Will, and we *use* Lila to save. We also *represent* The Prince, but only the in-universe Prince, as our Prince is on a plane above us. This is… very confusing, and I don’t really get it. Also, on the topic of reels, when Will discards Lila’s reel to forget about her, both reels are in the projector. When you enter The Noosphere and return to Will’s projector, it is in a different place than it was before, and Will’s reel is gone entirely. Also, the foreshadowing of “I won’t die if you shoot a gun at me” was brilliant.

i also want to add another connection between Your Amazing T-gotchi and Who's Lila?, that i am not sure if anyone else has mentioned. an ending in Your Amazing T-gotchi, titled "Martyr", features Taika (or T-gotchi) walking through a landscape that is completely different from the scenery in the rest of the game. the scenery is black, with snow(?) falling down from the sky. it also includes faint lightning, much like the electricity shown in the nosphere. this ending resembles the area that the player walks through in the Wheeliam scene, with the same darkness and snow. she seems to be being called by someone, likely the same person she mentioned telling her about the sycamore trees and ozone smell. i'm not sure how important this is to the plot of Who's Lila, or if the two stories as connected as i think, but it is a cool easter egg

Lila in Sanskrit literally means “play or sport,” but is often described in different Hindu teachings as the cosmic play of creation which god has created to watch, I.e. our whole universe is an entertainment for god in a way. Garage heathen may or may not be into Hindu philosophy, idk. ETA: it can also be understood to be god taking form on earth to enact a heroic journey, or referring to a playful manner in which god can play with humans. It’s like a very complex and difficult to understand concept.

Who is lIla? Short answer:mystery impossible to solve complicated mystery:history of philosphy, history of psychology, history of the question "who am I and what does that answer mean?"

Imagine an alternative reality where you didn’t buy this game, I would be bored for 1 and 3/4 hours

so.. garage heathen just baited all of us into giving lila a Grand Feast. cool.

im simultaneously confused while also understanding it completely. bravo 👏to howard, to the voice actors, and to the developers of the game. crazy good shit.

the detective you thing was a bit on the nose and i understood it was a meta thing right away, it was very interesting during the sun ending how it called back to the chat lila and will had, when she tells him that other people only exist in his imagination and then during the interview with Yu she says it quite clearly, the only reason she isnt gone is because he is still asking her questions, because the player decides to keep going back, the three important pieces to put together are the prince, Yu and Lila, Lila is the game itself, Yu is the analogue for "the player" and the prince is the actual player playing the game on a computer, the only way to get rid of lila is to stop playing and forget her, but you cant forget things so easily.

This reminds me of the inscryption ARG and story with how the other games by the same dev are seemingly connected.

Wait, you're saying the voice acting in this video was done by "random" people from your discord? Amateurs? There is some serious talent on display there! But anyways, amazing video. Who's Lila is one of those games that you never thought could scare you at all but then it turns into one of those traumatic experience that makes you wake up from a nightmare in cold sweat, years down the line. No idea how you even write something like that. The whole game feels like an hostile and alien entity at times.

This plot reminded me of that movie The Empty Man, with this talk of consciousness and tulpas, but this one dives even deeper on the philosophical matter.

Maybe The Stranger is Adam, he sees him in the noosphere and latches on to him, he loves Lila (Lilith) just like Will, and maybe when he says that "She looks like her" hes refering to Lilith, and he later on heeds her commands, maybe Lila chooses him because he reminds her of Adam and depictions of Adam have a femenine look to him, just a thought

Oh man, that King in Yellow quote opens a whole can of freakin worms. And referencing Crowley's Thelema... Dude. This game is crazy. Amazing.

I like movies, games, tv series, books, etc. that allow me to try to find a definite answer to everything without having solid proof that what I’m thinking is right. There’s fun in uncertainty for me and stories. And when a theory is proved right, I’m happy for a moment and I take pride in it- but it’s not the same when I look back at a theory, or if every question I’ve had is answered. There’s a thrill in not knowing yet trying to find everything you can to try and *make* yourself understand. Even if in the end you don’t necessarily *want* to have the answers, so you can rejoice in the theorizing and research and little things that click for you occasionally. I suppose this is a “journey before destination” scenario. It’s not the place you’re going, but how you get there. Thanks, Brandon Sanderson.

I think "The stranger" is literally Will with makeup. It symbolize the complete takeover of Lilla over Will's body

Crazy fact: if people remember you after death, you continue to exists, just like Lila!

Maybe the real Lila was the questions that we asked along the way. Are we cool yet?

Only at 24 minutes here but we play as Lila. Able to transend time, save, and continue. We controle William we die and come back. We are the ghost here. Spooky stuff

This is such a great analysis of the game and the voice acting really makes the characters feel alive. I'm having identity crisis after watching this video. I think Lila will be in my head for a while...

1899 is reference to the show I believe. Discusses the same themes to the nth degree. I’d say that this game is a discussion of ego death more than anything else. Also, sweet William, the nickname Lila gives William, is a flower. He is just a flower in her garden, a discussion of perception. Lila was his everything, meanwhile he was another seed to toil for her. Similar to how a significant event, like a breakup or traumatizing loss, is to some: devastating for one, merely a blip in the strata for the other. Or else the breakup wouldn’t have happened in the first place. What is consciousness if not what the world makes us to be? Would it be different if we weren’t here? Probably not, but that’s liberating for a few. I think that’s what this game is portraying. To know is to suffer, but to suffer is to understand.

Lila is truly the friends we made along the way.

Well... damn. I intended to watch this whole video, but five minutes in, I kinda want to play it for myself... the facial expression thing is a really unique gameplay mechanic

You did a fantastic job on this video and I really enjoyed it. I've watched others talk about this game and I know it's a daunting task to explain it in a way that's easily understood but you really boiled it down so perfectly. You should feel accomplished with this video regardless of how much engagement it gets cause this was genuinely a pleasure to listen to!

Honestly surprised the voice actors were not professional people but pretty much just random people that give you money, they were all wonderful

you know, back when i first saw this game, i was so curious. But i couldn't shake this feeling i was knowingly walking into some horrible *memetic hazard* or something... i had lost long before i could have ever known

This is a fantastically made video!!! So well put together and easy/fun to watch, wonderful job to the voice actors they did amazing and fit so perfectly i barely remembered they werent canon at times.

David Lynch made Twin Peaks which is (spoiler) basically about an evil violent spirit possessing someone and killing people haha. and the murder scenes are very very twin peaks, so horrifying