Відео

On my most recent playthrough, what really struck me (which you mention briefly) is that Davey doesn’t get or talk about Coda's sense of humour at all. Almost all of the dialogue options, Coda's joke of sending him a load of "playable" games, he doesn’t get it. It's a sad microcosm of how Davey doesn't truly engage with Coda's work. "This book of knock knock jokes is so sad...our outside figure is always knocking and never granted entry...". It's a very sad idea to me, I often put little jokes in my creative works and to have them completely ignored by someone who "likes" them would be particularly hurtful. There's also, in House, the CLEAN figure giving more and more dialogue as you go. Davey cares nothing for the interior dialogue of the games, and very abruptly cuts that figure off to 'end' that game. Davey claims that the game is just cleaning forever, but that doesn't feel true, there's a sense (to me at least) that the CLEAN figure had more to express in their own time. Finally, I really got the sense that Coda and Davey really weren't friends in any normal sense. Davey was a fan who got a little more special attention from someone he looked up to, and called that friendship, and hooked his mental health onto it. He wanted to avoid the "messy" parts of building a real friendship, so he did not do that. He has nothing to say about any time that Coda isn't making games, they occasionally have email back-and-forths, and Coda shared his games with him because he's a fan. I may be misquoting a little, but I think he says at one point in House "it APPEARED that Coda was grossly happy", which, if he was an actually friend, he would know whether or not Coda was happy. He would have more evidence than his games on whether or not he was depressed. I had more to say than I thought, huh. Great video btw!

Something interesting to me in the Notes section, is that when Davey talks about Coda's experience of making a game, he talks as if "making a game" is as linear as (Davey's idea of) playing a game. You don't make everything in a chronological order - for all we know, Coda makes the door puzzle *first*

Thank you, thank you so much

Writing a comment because this video deserves more traction

Amazing analysis!!!!

1:20:34 positive* feedback loop

2 hours bro

My dad introduced me to portal when I was straight out of diapers, so I was able to experience the game as god intended. I do remember thought seeing my dad entering the last test chamber with the major plot twist, but i was such a distracted kid I barely took that into account and was able to have this multiple doubt moments.

Did you experience the storytelling yourself, or figure it out after the fact, or relay it from other people's commentary on it?

Option 1 he is an eminator Option 2 he is aha in the "illusion"?

I think you are far too kind to the games journalists. The point of gamergate is that the media was giving unfairly positive reviews to crap games due to personal relationships and political biases. Not one person, anywhere, ever, has ever told any group (except heterosexual white men) that they can't create or enjoy the media they want. Instead what we had was a massive politicization of the entire medium where the types of entertainment the traditional audience wanted was trashed and nothing good put in its place. I don't care what games you create but the undeniable fact is that all the "Sweet Babies" of the world have been going around removing attractive women from games and replacing them with potato-people. That is what GamerGate 2 is about... =|

I have heard "the cake is a lie" many times before, but until I played portal I didn't know what it was a reference to. And because I had no reason to suspect this game in particular, the twist was never spoiled.

It's in the southeast

I do believe doki doki did have a similar effect happen to it all be it much smaller but the idea of a date sim turned horror has been almost spoiled now by the internet

Nice Vtuber avatar

not gonna lie, never once did I get the feeling portal 1 was trying to fool you into thinking glados was good, the glitches in her voice when she first ever speaks to you are a pretty dead giveaway that something is wrong.

I can’t tell you how much this analysis blew my mind, from the gameplays I’ve watched, and when I played, you could get the sense that Dave’s did something wrong to Coda, but the way you broke down everything, it makes so evident and damingly so- I didn’t realize how much Davey had tried to heavily push for all his thoughts and feelings about his idea of Coda in his head, without ever consoling and properly ever discussing and talking to Coda about it as a real person and friend- Thank you for this, The Beginners Guide has always had a special place in my heart and mind as a game, so incredibly unique and different, to understand it to it’s entirety, (as someone who isn’t not at all good at analyzing media), this just makes the game so much more special now, understanding everything behind the game now :)

Amazing Video! As a person which usually just played games like Call of Duty and Halo when I was a kid, the moment I was introduced to my first ‘Walking Simulator’ (that being The Stanley Parable), I was completely blown out of the water. I never knew that a game that pretty much boils down to pushing down the ‘W’ key could end up being one of my favourites of all time. And then I played The Beginners Guide. That’s when I realised that this genre can really be something special.

6:19:10 When I came to this point in the story, I remembered shaoji saying that "your choices are detrimental to the story" and remembered the option given to us at the start of the game of not boarding the express so the game just ended + 2.0 End Credited with aventurine (So I connected the dots & panicked). I kept thinking "Fuck Fuck fuck, Did I make the wrong choice?!!! How far back do I have to redo?" Quite good story writing tbh, and I agree with shao bro, spoilers really hurt this type of writing.

4:40:00 I find the concept of fools very interesting in this game & many other medias as theyre always portrayed as intelligent & self aware (just not directly). Here we see the Jester saying "since what is essential (Stars, life, etc) will continue regardless of who rules, then why the drama on new master, old master, or self determination, its irrelevant". Then in the current story, our fool, sparkle is the most intelligent from penacony cast as she knows everyone's intention from the start, had a correct suspicion on the current circumstance and made many simple but effectives moves sunce the beginning. Finally, this all ties back to our beloved aha who breaks through easily broke through the SU simulation. The path of elation is extremely terrifying, Im not ready.

fun fact: after navia offers macarons to clorinde npc, if you took the cooking skill you can offer to cook for her and you litearlly pull out a whole ass camp fire and pot and cook a nice meal lol

i would love to see a liveplay cmapaign in teyvat!

Loved the video, incredibly well-written and presented! I felt compelled to comment after reaching the end hearing you say you wanted a three dots tattoo because that was my first tattoo I ever got! Even during this video I was looking down at it and remembering everything the game meant to me and why I chose to get that symbol on my body forever, thanks so much for everything you do <3 (and you should totally get it tattooed if you haven't already)

16:33 I haven’t played or consumed much fnaf that footage is stressing me out

Idk I had a weird interaction with portal I don’t know if I knew the cake is a lie or not when I played (close to portal 2’s launch as steam gave it away for free) but I had played the 2d portal flash game which had much harder puzzles. There was very few challenging puzzles, though they were satisfying. I think the dialogue even spoiled is pretty good. An a side note people bring up Star Wars as another example and I’m someone who watched space balls before Star Wars

Watching travail like in the good old days 💚

The Heavenly Principles has yet to awaken - Paimon: yawn...so sleepy. Paimon's head still feels all fuzzy... Coincidence? I think not.

1:22:20 fully misheard and thought you said “six pikmins” here

I did what you said and played the game completely blind, i didnt even know this game existed before your video showed up in my feed and im so glad I played it for myself, not many games I play are able to emotionally pull me into it, but this one is different so thank you for showing me a game thats able to do something other games cant

What's the game at 17:59 called?

If sampo's power is to change the narrative on a whim he reminds me of the comedian sorcerer who can manipulate reality with his imagination. Which would be a cool concept if a little unnerving if it goes down the unreality direction.

videos like these remind me why i subscribed to your channel

I think I get the epilogue. At the end of the game, that level was made by Davey. He wants so badly to speak about it, but he instead lets it speak for itself. He's not done with all his bad habits, but it's a beginning.

I always got the impression when Coda said stop adding lamppost to my games he was truly saying stop adding endings. his games end with lamppost but most aren't reachable. take the house cleaning game. it's meant to loop forever, the lamppost forever out of reach.

It's similar to how Half life 2 focuses a lot of its puzzles of their new at the time physics engine, but because I had played a lot of Skyrim before picking it up, all that awe that I was supposed to feel was completely lost on me.

I discover the glitch and found out the cake was F real

maybe TMI but when i realized i'm non binary and ended up choosing a new name I went with Coda. Nowdays i use it as an introduction to this piece of work sometimes "Hey this is the video game i stole my name from it's pretty good check it out" I never managed to convince anyone but I'll never stop trying haha.

we know damping is apart of the masked fools as he talks about the tavern which is the hq of masked fools

I'll have you know _.8 patches are infact not empty at all lol. Each has a whole new area and major event. And the last two (and 3.8 especially) have lead into the next area massively.

Great analysis :) Long story short, it wasn't until last year where I really started to think about this game differently, and this video solidified my change in thinking. The Beginner's Guide really resonates with me more now than when it came out nine years ago. Good work, you've got my sub. 👍

1:01:32 ?? It was animted perfectly idk what your talking about there lmao

I feel like this is just me but I'm starting to get fed up with how little progress we've had in the Traveler's sibling story despite being so close to the end (at least based on the storyline preview). Yes, they did tell us to find the truth ourselves and explore Teyvat and we also did realize she's not a Descender, but beyond that we haven't been trying to find her as much at all, almost like we forgot the whole point of us being here in Teyvat journeying across the 7 nations is to ask the Archons about our sibling. And it's like the Traveler hasn't considered trying to find their own clues if the Archons don't know anything. I'm more than sure we would be able to find the truth and find more info about them not being a Descender if we were actively looking for them. Those different objectives aren't mutually exclusive but the story treats it like it is. So I do hope that 4.7 quest presents something meaningful in that part of the lore. In a way, we've been getting so much about the Gnoses, Celestia, Fatui, etc., but what about the very reason why the Traveler is going around Teyvat in the first place?

Too political wtf 💀 ts is sad bro you still are insecure like this

Thank you for making this video! Sorry I gotta ramble for this. I do wanna account this since I was what you might call an anti-sjw formally. Altho for GG I did hear how the opponents of it were rather not as innocent either considering some takes a bit too far or rather they fumbled it bad even as reasonable it is (just talking esp what I've heard from Anita allegedly or some I can't remember). That then prompted some bad faith reactions. I think it probably started with calling such things pretentious (whether they are or not) or "not for me" in a disrespectful manner, to some overreactions ofc. Then next, right wingers then co-opted this kinda reaction if not mixed together with such the disgruntled gamers from the takeaways they heard. And hey that does include getting women and pocs on their side as well unfortunately (something somehing NotYourShield), despite how paradoxical if you think about it, but who can you really trust at all? Like the worst thing about this bs is how underreported it is in terms of details to the point no one is able to decide what is. Like some things I say, could be rather not as confirmed or are just alleged otherwise. Lastly I did hear how TotalBisuit was initially on its side until disassociating with it becoming what it is, which I can't blame him. I mean what was the goal about "ethics in game journalism" anymore? Also how that situation with how the Night in the Woods creator's death was handled was super disgusting I seen on both sides. Like how that gave a lot of ammo to the anti-sjws is just gnarly enough to he point I fear something like this rolling in my grave. What really happened, we don't know, but to look back on the reaction of such is uhgghhhh. Luckily in this day n age, the anti-wokes we call em nowadays are rather taken less seriously which is lucky enough to see how ridiculous their ideology is anyway. How long until we make human righs sh!t "political" ever? Getting sick n tired of gay or trans people existing being called "woke." Like all they wanna do is game and live like as do straights. Like screw all you grifters, stop going "no politics, no agenda" head up your a$$ while you there pushing your own as well. The left can't meme? SO does the right as well fartface. And you know what's funny? Walking sims out here getting backlash while visual novels out here just standing fine, but ig hrrr drrrr anime, japan good whatever (dunno what the el is with that east vs west shix to that). Like who cares what is game or not, I think some things can still serve a purpose whether with a lack of gameplay or not. It's just niche, it's not for you ofc! Which I think proves something well with Theoretical Rain's I Hate "Video Games" video, def worth checking out. Altho in terms of what I like outta walking sims, Gone Home n Firewatch seems to rather be kinda the stuff I like, considering the freedom you're given to interact around the environment while in a linear structure. I do still enjoy What Remains of Edith Finch tho. Def comes down to the memorable presentation and story of it ofc, despite its very linear approach much akin to Dear Esther, with what I mention felt a bit of an experiment, not as fully fledged I feel, but I still appreciate its qualities to it. I mean with it starting as a HL2 mod does say something with it, which is a backstory I can appreciate esp coming from Source modding. Sorry I really had to let it outta my system with what I had to ramble above, it just reminds me why I'm glad to have changed my stance now that I've grown older and more open of such things. I do wish my past me didn't exist, but it is what it is. Hope for the more better in the present.

My personal opinion is that Davey isn't.. Evil or antagonist. He's just messed up or traumatized, and it's not always easy to see that and he was projecting himself on Coda and his games. Yes, it's messed up, no doubt, but the Coda himself, was, well.. Enabling him? Kept sending him games, throwing jabs at the person, who is obviously oblivious to everything. He needed help as much, but he never received it, as he just haven't seen anything wrong with himself and the only person who he was "looking up to" instead of having a talk with him and telling him what's wrong directly, he just, well.. Made further games, enabling him further until The Tower. Also, i do want to add that we don't explicitly know that Coda stopped making games. He could've just.. Stopped showing them yo Davey. Stopped sharing them with people like himself. It's an amazing story and, god, there's so much sides you can talk about. Fiction is incredible. Yeah, 3 am ramblings, i might be wrong, so come at me(please, don't).

That last fight was the first (and maybe only time given the context and setting of the story for now) that we overcame something alongside several members of different factions that follow different paths. We basically had: - Us (Astral Express, Trailblaze) and technically Misha as well - Robin (The Family, Harmony) - Boothill (Galaxy Rangers, Hunt) - Black Swan (Garden or Recollection, Remembrance) - Acheron (Emanator, Nihility) - Gallagher (Fictionologists, Enigmata) Technically you can also count Aventurine and Dr. Ratio (IPC, Preservation) and Sparkle (Masked Fools, Elation) because there were parts of the story we only knew because of what they did. So we basically had 6 to 8 different factions/paths involved with the quest. This is going to be very tought to beat story-wise for future content just because the setting and setup of the story for Penacony was massive.

I knew about the cake is a lie "meme", but that didn't affect my playthrough. It's like you said, who knows knows. I didn't know WHY it was a lie. I didn't WHO made it a lie. I didn't know if those tests had anything to do with the cake being a lie. I didn't know if GlaDos had anything to do with the cake being a lie. Knowing that the cake was a lie didn't ruin it for me. Good opinion though.

Love the vid, great work

I played it over Christmas break in 2007. Glados was always the adversary. There was never any question that the "cake" was a lie. I didn't even find Ratman's lair in my first playthrough. The game was always set up with its particular brand of dark humor. The only real twist was when Glados actually tries to kill you (and I'll be honest- I wasn't expecting it, so I did die the first time). Then, all of a sudden, Aperture Science wasn't just a plot device to frame the puzzles. Aperture was real. You were behind the scenes. It stopped feeling like puzzles to solve and suddenly slams you into the narrative. In other words, as somebody who was there, I think you might be overestimating the twist of "the cake is a lie"... You learn right away that the voice is trolling you every step of the way.

Just came from your Beginner's Guide video (which I loved, wasn't nearly long enough) and I have to say you have a real talent for video essay.