Oooo yummy stuff! Great work. Looking forward to the Bunker video 😊
/Fredrik from Frictional

Man wish I had a new longform video essay about a cool horror game to watch

The humble YouTube algorithm:

I don't think I could ever fault a mother for choosing her child over other's lives, much less when this is her "second chance" in a way after a terrible tragedy. The ones barganing with the life of an infant that hadn't even gotten the oportunity to experience life yet are the twisted ones, not evil per se, but distorted in their humanity and morality by this point. She is certainly my favorite amnesia protagonist

hey connor, i added you (as a skeleton) to my island on tomadachi life. congratulations on your recent marriage to ethan winters.

New goal: create a good video game that starts on a plane that doesn't crash.

I think the nastiest part is that it ultimately didn't matter if Tasi agreed with the group to give up her child or didn't. Everybody was doomed from the start because Tihana never intended to actually help them. She had the water with her in that encounter, so she was definitely always going to give it to them. Their fates were sealed before the plane even hit the ground.

22:36 This isn't your average everyday darkness, this is... ADVANCED darkness

I felt it in my SOUL when Tasi got ahold of Dr. D*ckbag on the steps, that was phenomenal vo work

Today I learned there is an Amnesia game between Machine for Pigs and The Bunker. I had no idea that Rebirth even existed.

I cannot imagine an ending where Tasi ever lets Amari stay with Tihana. Ultimately, I think it comes down to if Tasi believes Tihana that about them both being doomed or not. If she thought Tihana was a liar, she'd leave with Amari and make a life for the two of them out of sheer, stubborn love. If she did believe Tihana, she'd decide to poison the vitae supply. The only thing that keeps Tasi human is her love for Amari, and after a full game of refusing to let Tihana have her, there's no reason to let that monster win.

It genuinely angers me so much when people make a fuss about women in video games. I guarantee you that if this was about a father looking for his daughter and avenging his wife, there would be no criticism of that- like there is no criticism of Ethan Winters from resident evil on the premise of him being a devoted father. God forbid women are more than objects to die or be saved for the story.
Amnesia rebirth is heart-wrenching and well crafted, and refusing to see that simply because you're playing as a woman? Are you serious???
Sorry I got heated it makes me so upset.

"If you don't make choices for yourself, someone will make them for you." Is a really good quote. Pair that with "As long as the unconscious stays hidden, it will dictate your life and you will call it fate" and you've got the recipe for why so many people feel strangely about life and why they do odd things that they don't understand.

I definitely still judge people for doing those things, but I also judge them for how they react to them. 'How you handle your losses is just as important as how you handle your success' after all.

Man, life is complicated. Thank whatever god may exist for philosophers.

So happy that the moment you got a chance to mama bear tf out, you were ON IT

18:29
As someone who experiences amnesia through C-PTSD, the random flashes feels so real.. I could just be going about my day when my brain randomly remembers something for a split second.. its jarring and very confusing.. I like this detail!

instructions unclear.

Took Orb.


Rebirth is genuinely going to be the hardest of the Amnesia games for me to complete. I already have problems staying focused on progress, when the character's fears end up my own - i get too immersed to move forward, too busy hiding to get to safety.

i know i have trouble with the dark, and the dread of what lies around the corner.

i won't do well with the sorrow and terror of protecting a child too.

Dimension 20 and Steven Universe references in the first 3 minutes? I love you even more

'What do Amnesia: Rebirth and Super Mario Sunshine have in common?' is a pretty good trivia question

Majorly fucked that almost everyone in that group turned against the woman who didn't want to lose her child AGAIN (big emphasis on "again" baby alive yet or not Tasi is traumatized from loosing a child already) and not the monster giving them all no choice simply because Tasi was pregnant and she wanted that kid no matter their answer. Tasi got punished no matter what she chose, loosing her child and becoming a monster, maybe still becoming a monster still and maybe still loosing her kid, or just dying with her newborn.
Its fucked how unfair her fates are versus Daniel who had the choice to walk away free after all he did

Connor experiencing those primordial maternal instincts immediately upon having his fictional newborn baby stolen "I AM GOING TO ANNIHILATE THIS WHITE MAN!!!" 🤣

In regards to the ending, Tasi's decisions and vitae production:
I think I'd always choose the destruction ending. Tihanan's world is decaying while on life-support. It's already dead. There is nobody except for ghosts and endless victims of industrialised torture and Tihanan.
I played the game with a friend and neither of us knew you could just... Like... Leave the dude alone? The one you can otherwise torture for vitae (we did learn from Justine, but all lessons were forgotten at that moment).

But the way I choose to see it is Tasi learning the steep price of keeping Amari alive and healthy. Like, damn. This isn't even equivalent exchange. That is a machine for pigs taken to a global extreme just to keep one little girl alive. Because yeah. She'll need to get this "medicine" constantly. So by getting her hands dirty this one time (one time as Tasi, the human woman and mother) she gets to experience what staying alive in this other world means. Even if it doesn't immediately register (also something capitalism, pollution, and the human suffering in the production chains of anything really. If you're not producing vitae, someone else further down the line is. Industry trying not to involve slavery challenge: level impossible. I am talking about cocoa and cobalt mostly btw.)

I also believe nobody in the expedition actually wanted to harm Tasi, or well, most of them. Richard gets a bit of a pass from me. The doctor.... Nah screw him.
But everyone else? We know the ghouls are under Tihanan's conțrol. Yasmin traps herself, Leon begs Tasi to run. To me it seems pretty obvious what their actual priorities are whenever they're themselves.

Anyway. Considering everything Tasi has seen about the other world I decided it would be better to end everything. The fact alone Tihanan's own subordinates had tried to kill her and we would just be finishing what they started. Also from what we've seen, the beings on Vitae-support seem to be.... Like... Mostly immobile? Stuck to the cables? How long until Amari would be stuck to a pod of her own?

To me the everyone dies ending was the most cathartic one. Tihanan brought about her own end and Tasi went through a character arc that made her learn from everything she's seen. And while in the beginning she was tricked into a false choice by a selfish empress, this choice is hers alone. And it seems poetic. A goddess destroyed through her own hubris by one woman she underestimated. It's not a triumphant win though. Tasi isn't a hero. She's just a woman who dies with her child. Somber shit. Good stuff.
The ghoul ending is a relatively flat character arc, which isn't a bad thing. Tasi starts out as a woman who is willing to do everything for her child, and in the end she does, sacrificing even herself in the process. What is left behind is a monster and a mere shadow of her formers self, prowling about a dead alien world and looking for a child. Will she even recognise Amari when she sees her? Who knows. But it is effectively a continuation of the status quo. The other world remains as it is mostly, Tihanan wins, Tasi is alive(ish). Except everyone Tasi knew is dead and her daughter is kept alive through torture-juice.
The Paris ending has to be the darkest in my opinion. Because what's gonna happen next? No, seriously. The more I think about it the worse it gets. Tasi leaves while on the verge of turning into a ghoul and Amari will die unless she gets vitae. And I assume that Tasi would use her connection to Amari to ground herself, but... Damn if Tasi won't leave with a hair trigger. And what then? Tasi knows how vitae is produced. Will she use everything she learned? Will she turn into a serial killer to protect her child? Would she become even worse than Daniel and Mandus? Will she enjoy the time she has with Amari instead and inevitably lose her as well and turn into a ghoul in the middle of paris? What would happen during the impending world war? It's 1937 in the game, so the war is coming and it is coming to Paris. It seems like suchba simple solution. Just fleeing with her child. And then there's all those potential consequences. That ending is a lot crueler than either of the other two in my opinion.

Either way I had a good time with the game.


Also in regards to the sexism: oh nooo a female character that doesn't exist to be seen as a vehicle for male pleasure whatever shall we doooooo. Pfff yeah right. I get the being uncomfortable. Tasi is going through a rapid pregnancy (and time is weird in the other world as well. Going through the portals can't be too healthy). Tasi gives birth. Tasi nurses her child. Discomfort? Sure. But the whining...
Oh and I guess this game also dares to question colonialism and dares to show POC in a sympathetic light and has a gay couple.
I guess some gamers are just too fragile to deal with these story elements or something. But what else is new?