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Eldritch Horror Game Where Eyes In Space Are Staring At You Sleep - Stares Back
Stares Back is a horror game where a woman spots a new nebula in her telescope and notices it might be staring back at her.
Game Info: stephenw313.it...
"Space anime"
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Welcome to the SPACE Club how SPACE are ya?
@walterbrink5391
10 ай бұрын
Day 559 of asking Manly to play A Cold Love Story through KZread comments
@Costa_Costa_Costa_AAA
10 ай бұрын
no
@marianaviana4717
10 ай бұрын
Yep
@kingcrimson123
10 ай бұрын
@@walterbrink5391man is on the grindset fr
@marianaviana4717
10 ай бұрын
Manly, are you gonna play Ramble?
You know, it's actually more unsettling than I expected, the way this character is presented it's just so sad...and scary at the same time.Her dreams shatered into pieces in front of her face, and then she gone desperate searching for anything... Anything that would give her life a meaning... mainly is right it is a true horror
@unixerse297
10 ай бұрын
i agree so much, this game does an fantastic showing of Vivian's descent into the desperation after going through so much despair that she ignores the world around her and obsessed with this alien star that she sees as her only hope in the darkness. it's so good, love this creators works
@alastor8091
10 ай бұрын
It's not like she can't get another teaching job. Hell, 30 years could get her any private school she wanted.
@cocoapixels
10 ай бұрын
@@alastor8091with time, true. but she seems disillusioned with teaching. and her debt is clearly getting to her.
@chilomine839
10 ай бұрын
(Plays a corrupted version of “For River”)
@bradleymoore2797
6 ай бұрын
I wish the entire game was actually depression though and nothing supernatural happened in it.
I REALLY love chris. Usually stories or games don't have a lot of focus on the main characters family or friends. Stuff happens to the main character and yet none of their loved ones step in or show concern. I loved that Chris had a personality, that he was actually a person and not just a background thing that had to be there and would appear once in a while just to be forgotten a moment later.
@amoraa5114
10 ай бұрын
I kno idk why people don’t use that element more cause it makes everything more tragic all I could think of is her husband finding out she murdered someone in cold blood and disappeared in thin air😭😭
@bloodbadger5332
10 ай бұрын
You know what's horrible? Chris will never know what happened to Vivian. Which makes the ending even more tragic.
@menace240
10 ай бұрын
@@bloodbadger5332anddd on top of that hes about to discover a student's dead body on his property. and he knows nothing about it too
@uurovital5
10 ай бұрын
In depression its possible to develop psychosis as well. Becoming mad is alwayd a very sad and painfull process.
@lovebug7985
10 ай бұрын
@@bloodbadger5332 I know right! That's what I was thinking. I can only imagine the confusion, fear and grief he's going to go through. He really seemed to love her
absolutely love the details of vivian wearing bug accessories throughout the story - butterflies, ladybugs, ants,,,, she is just a bug getting caught in a spiders trapped, lured in by a predator
It’s a nice touch that her hair grayed insanely fast. It was only a few days or weeks between her being fired and going mad, but her hair went completely gray
@moviestargf
10 ай бұрын
just like a US president 🤠
@Raspberry_Books
10 ай бұрын
@@moviestargfWHAT
@ariadnajaime6295
10 ай бұрын
@@trashpanda0033 I thought he was an old student of hers, she had been teaching her whole life until she was fired so I just assumed she was his teacher years ago
@maximtsai1856
10 ай бұрын
Her hair looks pretty consistent I thought.
@zerrodefex
10 ай бұрын
@@moviestargf except for Orange Man, he looks like he stopped aging a decade ago.
Kind of a cosmic trapdoor spider thing. The web/nebula was just a lure to attract prey that’s advanced enough to see it.
@elio7610
10 ай бұрын
Why would it need to lure her in like that? She never actually moved towards it, just stared into it, so i am not sure what the purpose would be.
@emeraldphoenix6331
10 ай бұрын
@@elio7610 that’s a good question. I think the concept they were going with is that the spider was higher dimensional. The spider was operating in 4D so the distance between it and it’s prey would be meaningless. Maybe it feeds on consciousness?
@devilishjester7718
10 ай бұрын
@@emeraldphoenix6331in scp terms, a memetic threat
@jankieek8218
10 ай бұрын
@@emeraldphoenix6331it seems to catch it's pray based on the prays perception so it waits till the pray gets "closer" to it (observes it's Web closer and closer)
@GenosseIshtar
10 ай бұрын
@@jankieek8218 prEy.. bro.. not prAy. That's what religious people do.
Another game where manly tries to fix a deppresed girl but gets killed instead.
@rjcyrusm.baclayon4120
10 ай бұрын
123 likes and no replies? Let me fix that
@Yutagrandsummoners
10 ай бұрын
Fr
@UndyingZombie
10 ай бұрын
When you say that... I can not help but think of a VN where the girl ended up getting the boy to kill her.. But it was kind of a strange sort of madness that she enraptured him in. She wanted to die.. It was a very strange one in my opinion due to how she managed to effect him in the way she did. ( Its a VN that he went through a long time ago. Can not remember its name but it was from a developer that hes done lots of videos of. They all tend to have a specific kind of madness to them. )
@catonthephone
10 ай бұрын
Spoilers 🤯
@AnimeGIFfy
10 ай бұрын
he can fix her
25:45. Even by the part by the dimension that Vivian was transported into, and you were spinning, you could see the arms next to you, it's as though she was being wrapped in a spider web.
@PanicLedisko
10 ай бұрын
HOLY SHIT THAT'S WHY THE CAMERA WAS SPINNING!!! Genius!!
@projectzomboidfan517
10 ай бұрын
I noticed that too, so many small details, like how more and more spider webs appear on her porch, just such an amazing well done game.
@Kyumifun
9 ай бұрын
And the random spider arm Manly noticed at some point in the sky. It looked insect like and it was acctually a spider leg...
Whoever developed this game definitely took a class in resiliency. Confirmation Bias, downward spiral etc.
ngl as a child I had a reoccurring nightmare where a huge eye opened up in space at night among the stars and then aliens invaded and it still kind of spooks me til this day
@inqurity
10 ай бұрын
As a child I looked at two distant street lights every night and imagined them being eyes
@inqurity
10 ай бұрын
They looked kinda like stars at 2:42
@burdenedwpurpose5369
10 ай бұрын
To this day I still imagine A: Dragons or big creatures/beings hidden just behind the clouds moving Or B: At night not only every star going out but you see something coming down from the sky but can't tell what
@denkerbosu3551
10 ай бұрын
There was this one time I was, as a kid in an school outing or whatever it's called. It was to a planetarium, and felt intimidated when everything went dark to start explaining the constellations and such. I felt tiny and vulnerable considering how massive space was.
@serenegenerally
10 ай бұрын
@@jiggyjonglesidk, why don’t you start with a statement with ngl?
14:16 An Andromeda nebula, at this time of year, at this time of night, in this part of the country, localized entirely within your telescope? "Yes." May I see it? "No."
@sxatcychan1988
2 ай бұрын
Vivian! The house is on fire!!!
the art is phenomenal; the expressions convey emotions wonderfully. always appreciate more cosmic horror in my day, especially concerning the Vast and the Web
@Ads-C
10 ай бұрын
At first I thought it was the Eye.
@DrakeBarrow
10 ай бұрын
Would you please clarify what you mean regarding the Vast and the Web? Not intimately familiar with that terminology. I can get the vague idea, but additional info would be helpful.
@Armund_Wolffe
10 ай бұрын
@@DrakeBarrow hahaha, it's just a reference to the Magnus Archives horror podcast; one of the things i like about it is that it breaks down horror concepts and fears into fifteen broad categories. the Vast is about open areas; think of the emptiness of the deep ocean or the massiveness of space, or falling through the open sky. the Web is about loss of control, often connected to the fear of spiders or 'being caught in a web'.
@Armund_Wolffe
10 ай бұрын
@@Ads-C definitely a good bit of our friend the Eye in there as well!
@DrakeBarrow
10 ай бұрын
@@Armund_Wolffe excellent, and thank you for the info. Sounds like it's worth looking up.
I really love the cartoony style the creator has, it works perfectly to convey the MC’s spiral into insanity and obsession. As weird of a complement that is.
@2peoples785
10 ай бұрын
It does look cartoon kinda?
@NovaShards_Scarlett
10 ай бұрын
Exactly. It’s so interesting and adds that level in unsettling to it. (Also based username, flower my beloved)
@Vflower.Vocaloid
8 ай бұрын
@@NovaShards_Scarlett Vflower my idol ( yes )
Even better than their last title Manly covered. The art is perfect for this, both Vivian's growing depression and eventual insanity, but also the truly disturbing sequences that don't fit into the normal visual novel format, looking out into an unknown cosmos. This is just such a strong tragedy for everyone involved. Vivian was just a depressed person trying to find meaning beyond her job, Chris very clearly cared for his wife and just wanted her to be happy, and Edwin was an unlucky student happy to see an old teacher at the worst possible time. I was fairly confident that it was all just in her head, but that ending is arguably darker. She was so convinced there was meaning to it, that she was actually important to this unknown cosmic event, only to find out she was nothing more than a meal. Brutal.
@Hana1LuLu
8 ай бұрын
There are mental disorders that cause people to experience something like this in real life - seeing a recurring image, feeling things are connected, that they’re on to something, that they have have to follow the trail, whatever that may be. So it’s definitely a different but true kind of scary that this wasn’t a mental break for Vivian, but real, and a trap at that.
@euriditia
4 ай бұрын
I honestly wonder if she understood at the end there that she was nothing but a meal. Or if it keeps her in a mental stasis thinking she's still just looking at it.
I don't know whether to take the ending literally or metaphorically, but what really hit me are the parallels between Vivian's complete life story, and the small part of it shown by the game. It all comes together in the scene where Edwin expresses his worries about his degree being useless, but still tries to stay optimistic. He was essentially mirroring his teacher's former enthusiasm, something that he learned directly from her. Then Vivian starts talking, and she reveals how things ended up for her; financial struggles, spiraling into growing debts, and finally being unceremoniously fired from her job. She already said then that she felt as if she was stuck in a web. So this is basically just her life story twice: she puts all her faith into something that promised meaning, and by the time she realized it, she was already trapped, with no way to escape. tldr; Maybe the real cosmic horror was the student loans we found along the way.
The husband was so loving, he did his best to support his wife.
@ezkillguy8316
8 ай бұрын
You make it sound like he died. 😅
@sickening_love1154
8 ай бұрын
@@ezkillguy8316 he didn't, I was just saying he was loving when she was alive lol
@mirrond44
3 ай бұрын
I can't help but look at him as see the Chad meme guy. I guess it's fitting.
Solid Lovecraft-adjacent story: the more unhinged she became, the more of the "other side" she perceived, until her grip on sanity was entirely lost, and the monsters became very, very real.
There's something super refreshing in a much older protagonist. The art is really expressive, pretty and effective.
Why did it take me three days and multiple rewatches to realize at 29:13 that the giant space spider was there, hovering over Chris. That's why Vivian went for the knife- She was trying to protect him! ... But then she saw the binoculars and decided it was more important for her to look for the Andromeda/trap, showing how entrenched she is in her obsession. :(
@cheesychi8317
5 ай бұрын
I'm glad you pointed that out cuz I was confused and thought she was going to hurt him
@chJohnJobs
3 ай бұрын
Dont forget she probably killed her husband too. Especially when the sign is covering his face. Also the Binoculars going blank like her face in the end is a neet touch
@lentinant
2 ай бұрын
@@chJohnJobs we've seen Chris calling her when she was on the way to observatory, so not likely.
12:48 I really appreciate the small details with the pictures. They included the human error of not getting a good shot, like the blurry one and the off-center one. The music picking up on certain lines was executed well too. This artist/dev really has an eye for those small details. In their last game, Don't Die Alone, they had quite a few details that easily could go over people's heads.. But when you notice them, it adds to the spookiness a ton!
The dread at the end that the guard saw the same sign Viv saw at the beginning made me realize; The signs Viviene has been seeing were most likely also remnants of the Eldritch Tarantula's last meal, using them to lure her, and now to lure it's next victim. She certainly isn't the first, most certainly won't be the last.
Edwin: What if I'm doing this for nothing and my degree isn't all that valuable?" Manly: Then you're in a lot of trouble, and it's extremely common. Me: Yup yup... *Soku takes psychic damage*
After fear und hunger 2 I thought it was common knowledge that if a stellar body stares at you, you kick its metaphorical ass until thier is nothing more that coud stare.
@aaronji2838
10 ай бұрын
Considering the absolute domination the moon god's remnant image and its power gave us players, you're courageous to call it an ass-kicking. Then again: you give ass-kicking, Rher gives you space radiation and eldritch depression
@d3ltazer0judgement
10 ай бұрын
Olivia taught me that being crippled DOES NOT stop me from beating the shit out of an eldritch god
@randomindividual948
10 ай бұрын
@@aaronji2838I don't know Funger so I assume that the coward moon resorts to magic brain poison because it can't fight for shit.
@hatkid1398
10 ай бұрын
>The moon is trying to kill you >nuh uh, meat grinder
@thurapy684
10 ай бұрын
@@hatkid1398 good luck beating my bobs and weaves
GF: Babe there's another spider, can you kill it please. BF: is it in the bathroom again? GF: No its a celestial space god spider, can you get rid of it so I can have girls night please. BF: For you babe anything. *starts rolling up a magazine while Doom music INTENSIFIES*
@sparklylexi2159
4 ай бұрын
i have never read such a realistic description of my husband and me
reminds me of the kind of delusions you see in true crime stories. Where they see signs and follow them and are absolutely convinced it's good because it makes them feel safe, and they react violently when someone tries to break their delusion. You can see it slowly consuming her until the spider thing actually does.
@rebeccaconlon9743
5 ай бұрын
Paranoid delusional, its easy for people to fall into it. My father in law has it with his depression. It's typically call psychosis episodes
There actually are „twin stars“ that are very bright and right next to each other like that! One has a warmer, orange tint to it, and the other has a cooler, blue-ish tint. They are the „heads“ of the gemini constellation and are named after Castor and Pollux, a pair of twin brothers from Greek mythology.
@kiraina25
10 ай бұрын
Same goes for Mizar and Alcor, in the handle of the Big Dipper. People with very strong eyesight can actually distinguish those two unaided.
@asherlynn3635
10 ай бұрын
Hey thanks for sharing this! I love random facts, this is really neat! ^-^
That was a real cool horror story. At the start of it you do kinda see legs moving as she was looking at the eye,i was thinking she was probably seeing a bug or really screwing with her telescope with all the bumping.The art was really good. The artist reaaly conveyed that desperate despair kind of feeling. With how the thing she was seeing was designed when you get a closer look, honestly made me think of this one creature from the lovecraftian mythos. It was a giant amorphous blob of tentacles and i think it also had a mouth the only big thing separating it from the others was that it was big and in space lol. Forgot the name but it is something specif i came across while researching them for when i tried my hand at drawing them all as anime waifus. Of course it turned out to be a giant possibly 4th dimensional spider, which really terrifying with how it lured vivian.
@jeffumbach
10 ай бұрын
Azathoth?
@jackyisking
10 ай бұрын
I thought it's her being in inside an eye perspective
44:25 I jumped because I saw eyes just peering back at me. And then I realized it was just the reflection of my own eyes against my phone screen LOL amazing job. This game really does make you feel dread.
There's something to be said about horror where it is both literal and metaphorical. It doesn't have to be a shrodinger's cat, infact, its the opposite. We are looking into the box and seeing both options at once. Both the spider and her desperation are real, and either can be unreal. It could just be a story of a woman pushed to the brink, cracking after losing hope and the ending is her truly at the end of her rope, where the spider represents the depths of her descent catching up to her. But it can also be read deeply literally, of a woman driven bad by a higher entity, feeding off her despair and her hope, the very desperation forming the bridge that allows it to reach out and consume her from another dimension until nothing is left. It is both. It is neither.
“When you stare into a abyss too long, it starts to stare back”
i love the little details like vivian's bug accessories, the cobwebs that start appearing around everywhere, the tiny graffiti of a spider in the bus under the tic-tac-toe grid :> it's subtle but spooky nonetheless
I had to take a break from this video, because the decent to insanity was so realistic. I can see this genuinely happening, with losing a beloved job, deep in depression, the losing track of time, the defensive behavior and obsession-- it was all very powerful. Made me so uncomfortable. I love it, one of the few that genuinely made me feel some casual dread
@ZeyTheDaemon
7 ай бұрын
I thought they were gonna go down the, "Oh, she's just having a psychotic break" route up until the ending, because it sure seemed like that's what they were going for.
@MGrey-qb5xz
6 ай бұрын
didn't ask
@JCArules13
22 күн бұрын
I know how you feel. This one felt so much more intense, and I think the thing that TRULY makes it dreadful is the ending! Imagine how horrifying it would truly be to find out that your delusions not only were real, but a trap by something so much more powerful to eat you!
I have to admit that apart from the games you play, it is mostly your commentary that makes me come back to your channel. You talk in a really relaxing way and know when to be silent.
Huh. A game that gets eldritch madness right. Quite the rarity.
@Ainsley_the_meat_rubber
10 ай бұрын
It looks like one of those SCP that poison your mind with memes (memetics)
@JCArules13
22 күн бұрын
@@Ainsley_the_meat_rubber Cause of death, obsessive girlfriend meme (I know that's not what you meant, but the way you wrote it made me think that a person in the SCP Foundation sent an actual meme from our world and killed a dude with it by accident. And I find that very funny!)
It reminds me of a story I really wanted to tell but can never put into words. The only way I can tell it is; "The sky blinked"
@ninevehgrey
10 ай бұрын
Well now I'm interested, hope one day you find the words
@Brunoki22
10 ай бұрын
Nice title! Try to write a novel around it! Maybe post it online so I can read it in the future!
@Rylinu
9 ай бұрын
That’s already such an intriguing title, I hope you write it someday. I know the feeling of not being able to put things into words. I’ve always been majorly into writing but sometimes it feels impossible to put the stories in your head properly onto paper.
I love the games this dev makes! When you mentioned they were the same from the chainmail game my expectations for this one went way up! This person is amazing at crafting the mood and feel for each step of the story, it's definetly the highlight for me. If you pay attention you'll see that both "games" aren't actually games, there's no dialogue options or mechanichs that affect the story and ending, as there is only one ending, the most each game has besides the story is the freedom to text anyone on the chainmail game and the stargazing you can control when looking through the telescope here. But everything else is done so well that it doesn't feel like a half experience. For example, both games take advantage of the stabilished art style to break the comfort of the player. In Don't Die Alone, the whole game has pixel art graphics, except for the monster which has ultrarrealistic texturing. And in Stares Back, the game is 2D, except for when the main character breaks through the 4th dimension, then it becomes 3D! Quite creative ways to convey the sensations the scene is meant to convey without using cheap exposition or obvious sound design. Also I noticed that the space Spider monster only appears at the end of the game, right after her chat with her old student who mentions he is studying spiders a lot! That makes me think she has actually just gone crazy from all the stress she was dealing with, and her crazyness was taking from things she was seeing in her real life, like the andromeda posters and how she felt her life had no meaning anymore at the beginning and then started to believe that the space abominations were meant for her (very Junji Ito, I love it! "It was meant for me! This is my [black] hole!"). It makes me think of the movie "The Perfection" (really great movie, throughly recommend it) where SPOILER ALERT, the girl is hallucinating from being poisoned and the other one mentions there's a bug on her arm, then later she starts thinking there's bugs crawling beneath her skin...
@just.act.natural1078
10 ай бұрын
The Perfection is a brilliant movie
@_connorsseur
10 ай бұрын
Don't Die Alone does actually have a second ending, manly just didn't show it off in his video. You have to send letters to the right people who will accept them. If you look it up you can find it online
@Cove_Blue
10 ай бұрын
Thank you for naming the other game! I'm going to watch it because I liked this one so much. And you're right, you don't even notice that there's not really any game play. Terrific storytelling!
@yararinamiil
10 ай бұрын
@@Cove_Blue I mean I could only name it because Manly did, I didn't even recognize it when he said it, only when he described it
@yararinamiil
10 ай бұрын
@@_connorsseur I didn't know that! Thank you for telling me, I'm so used to Manly doing full playthroughs with all endings that I didn't even consider that possibility, I will check out the other ending when I have the time
_Some things we shouldn't look for_ Maybe her despair, as you said MBH, allowed her to actually see something people don't see normally. When your meaning and purpose are taken away and you have nothing left, maybe that's when something awful can enter to fill that void. Being driven into obsession and insanity is very Lovecraftian as humanity confronts something we shouldn't know. It was pretty well done. I felt sorry for her poor student, but even sorrier for her husband. It was sad that his love wasn't enough to help her.
@JCArules13
22 күн бұрын
And it's also a good metaphor for mental illness, and shows how if your loved one really is mentally ill, your love and good vibes won't be enough to save them. The only thing you can do is what he was ABOUT to do before he talked her out of it, take them to a hospital or doctor who can truly help them.
29:50 "Eye seeee..." It sure does Manly, it sure does
46:05 you actually missed it earlier in the video before picking up the binoculars. the spider was above her husband in the shadows with the same light effect erasing it from sight
@Usrenby3992
10 ай бұрын
I was pretty confused how he didnt see it, maybe his brightness was low?
@demonkingt
10 ай бұрын
@@Usrenby3992 it was just kind of a shadow so probably didnt think of it as any thing
@Usrenby3992
10 ай бұрын
@@demonkingt oooh i get what u mean lol it is a pretty weird shape tho
The "NO IT'S MINE" around 14:38 was personal. 😭😭😭
Really does feel like the devs took a big inspiration from junji ito works, considering sudden excessive obsession is prevalent there.
If you have any kind of similar feelings as the main character please get help. Amazing narration as always manly.
@aquablast3155
10 ай бұрын
Specifically when it comes to spiraling debt, when one is at the point of giving up on everything because of that... there's bankruptcy. Can even use it as a threat to negotiate with your creditors. Obviously it's not a light decision without consequences (consult with professionals first), but instead of giving up on life, there is still this option. Don't give up!
@rookideetrainer1635
10 ай бұрын
@@aquablast3155 depression on its own is also a brutal killer... it can lead to suicidal ideation and more than that. It's just as important that your bank is full as your brain is in check as well as your body Poor mental health is a killer, and often of lonely (friendless, but also usually combines with not having a romantic partner either) men afraid to ask for help, so if you are a man going through rough times, remember; therapy is for everyone and it does not make you less of a man for needing it! You are brave and strong already and you'll be even stronger if you let someone give you a hand in the rough times Everyone needs a break and someone to carry the burden no matter how strong you are, it's a part of being human and sometimes the burden is on your mind and the only way to ease it is to find someone who can listen to you and know how to help you lessen it, which is what therapists are for
@Gandhi_Physique
5 ай бұрын
I see this so often, but that kinda help comes with a price tag most people can't afford lol
@sushiknives5110
Ай бұрын
I actually do. Was kind of disgusted by how much I related to her. I dont have debt yet but i feel no purpose in this world or that i have worth. Luckily I see a therapist soon
28:10 ...ok, something Manly said made me think. Is the weird eye thing a break in the fourth wall that allows Vivian to see us...? edit: OK well, it was a bit different - I saw the shadow of the spider when she was going to stab her husband, and how it disappeared with the light..... that's very spooky cosmic horror right there. Omg what if that one scene where she sees it for the 2nd time, and like spins around... what if that's her being spun around/caught by the web?
@aquablast3155
10 ай бұрын
Really interesting observation about the spinning... perhaps her husband actually saved her then, that time. Makes it even sadder that she snapped at him.
This reminds me of when I had a telescope as a kid that had a lens powerful enough to see rocks on the moon, but it was hard to do because at that zoom you could actually see the moon moving in orbit where it was hard to keep the same spot in focus. Plus it was hard to even find the moon to begin with at that scale.
I think the game Manly was thinking of at the end was The Ur-Quan Masters, they were definitely insectoid shaped in an oppressive way. This game was pretty thought-provoking and well illustrated. Great job by the dev!
@RazielSoulshadow
10 ай бұрын
Another more accurate name is the Star Control series, as The Ur-Quan Masters is an open source remake of Star Control 2. Also from looking it up, the Ilwrath were the evil spider race, the Ur-Quan were more centipede-like... still space bugs though. Definitely right though that this game had me... *enthralled* lol
Her descent into madness, despair, desperation, omg, handled so well!
I love how his first thought is that she found out about a lovecraftian god. you know, your normal indie horror game plots: girl meets an eldritch being while stargazing edit: lmao he was actually right. edit 2: okay I get it I know it isnt literally an eldritch god but still
@iam878
10 ай бұрын
honestly i feel like it was worse. it seems like some regular spider who was just hungry and she was one of it's many prey, to us it's like an eldritch god but in the grand scheme of the whole entire universe it's just a tiny insect.
@kidumby7599
10 ай бұрын
In our context, no - absolutely not a "regular" spider. But in the context of that universe? Yes, very much small and otherwise insignificant. Just like Vivian feared she was.
@nin2494
10 ай бұрын
Don't doubt Manly's deduction skills, he's far more of a horror detective than us
@egekahraman8985
10 ай бұрын
@@nin2494 yeah he has probably played more than a thousand horror games at this point but still its very impressive
@miniraptor3211
10 ай бұрын
It's kind of a similar play on it that Nope does. You start off expecting gradious and ludicrous in scale like the typical play on these things, but in the end, it's something that acts animalistic and purely based on instincts. It isn't an unknowable god mind controlling her into becoming one of its servants, she simply got too attracted to a literal spider web.
14:30 when everything shifts, music stops, abrupt, rude, wonderful pacing from this dev. 😮
29.13 the way that huge spider just stays there. i couldn't see it first cuz of low light but then i was like "...waaaiiiittt"
this reminded me of something with my mom, she has had phycotic breaks, and Vivian seemed to be experiencing very similar symptoms to my mom and it kinda fucked with me
Space gives me anxiety and this game put me on edge. The art is so expressive, the artist is good at expressing despair. However I think the ending was a bit anti-climatic, from the moment she looks into the center of the nebula
@miniraptor3211
10 ай бұрын
I do agree that the ending gave a bit of a "that's it?" feeling by the end, but I'm not sure how you would end something like this better. Maybe make it about a whole cult but then that doesn't really play with the spider thing and personal insanity too well
@KomoraKriogeniczna
7 ай бұрын
I kinda think it works really well. She pursued something beyond her comprehension, she succumbed to it and just like her, the player will never know the full truth behind the mysterious nebula, as it remains beyond human reach. I feel like nothing spoils the cosmic horror more than explaining and reveals, so for me this ending was really good and matched the overall theme of feeling insignificant.
"When you look into the abyss, what do you see?" "It. Stared. Back."
That old space spider game was Star Control 2. The Ur-Quan and Kohr-Ah were two sub-species of giant predatory caterpillars, locked in a civil war because one wanted to enslave all other races, and the other wanted to wipe them all out. There was also the Ilwrath, the literal giant spiders. Anyway, the buildup was cool, but I feel like they could have done more with the creepy space visuals as you got better and better telescopes. Then that end was just....uhhhh...'kay??
@Xaintrix
10 ай бұрын
The Orz was the most terrifying to me. And Star Control 3 never existed.
@darksoul2012
10 ай бұрын
Hold! What you are doing to us is wrong! Why do you do this thing?
28:35 i thought maybe only she can see it but she literally showed the pictures to others bro just get some people and just register the thing on yo name
As a depressed teacher the start of this was a big glass of reality to swallow. Please be kind to your depressed teachers, kids.
@lexxer84
Ай бұрын
Same girl, 😮💨❤️❤
I love fact that titles are Simple descriptions of the game
@ashlirabid9614
10 ай бұрын
I love your profile picture
22:44 "Tryna steal here" Man this commentary always cracks me up
The story is interesting and uncomfortable... which means perfect as a horror. Although I can't help but to feel... unsatisfied. It's just weird. Hmm, I guess, I wonder, did Vivian felt foolish in the end? Or is it still all worth it? To run just to become a prey/food? -Let's not talk about vore.- Was that worth ending a young life for? ... Could she have resisted the lure of the eldritch spider? She didn't try, obviously, and went looking for it. But was walking away a possibility, or was it inevitable? Bad ending is logical when dealing with beings like this (and especially fitting for a horror game), but I can't help but wish for a more hopeful story, one where human spirit persists (or can persist-- i.e. you're given a choice to drive the outcome). I don't like bad ending only, but... well, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this, especially for a horror game. Just my personality, I guess. On the other hand, debt IS terrifying... but it's still possible to get out-- bankruptcy is the mechanism. Obviously won't be scot-free, but if you have too many debts, this is the last resort, not... giving up. You'll probably need the help of someone else as well (such as family or close friends), but it should give people a fresh start to start over. You can even use this as a weapon to negotiate with your creditors for a more favorable payment plan, instead of actually bankrupting, as going bankrupt is just as bad for your creditors, and they won't want that to happen either. Obviously, it's not a decision to make lightly (as you'll probably lose your house-- hence why you might need help, especially a place to live-- and your credit score will be shot until you can your act back together), but if one is at the point of wanting to give up completely due to debt... try bankruptcy first. (And obviously, consult with some professionals first too.) My dad has actually racked up a lot of debts to banks too, but the law here allows me to denounce inheritance, which is a way to avoid inheriting debts (though I obviously won't be able to inherit any property that is still under my dad's name). If you're a parent or going to be a parent, it might be worth looking up on the law surrounding inheritance, debts, and bankruptcies. As long as your children are adults, their properties should be separated from yours... that said, there are probably laws to prevent abusing this as a way to move asset right before bankruptcy, so probably have to do it very early, possibly before being in debt... Err, definitely worth looking into. I'm no consultant for this, obviously.
@rookideetrainer1635
10 ай бұрын
Just to touch on your early statement in the comment, yeah, knowing if she had an "Oh fuck" moment at the end or felt satisfied to her end would have cemented the horror a bit deeper* And the murder of the student also felt a bit loosely resolved without any real hit in the scare factor due to that. * If she didn't regret it in the end, just knowing how it absorbed her mind completely would also add to the horror, but since there's no way for us to hear her narrate the end of her story it's just a little too vague to really settle any feeling of fear that it should
@iam878
10 ай бұрын
I feel like maybe she has realized she was there to just be food for some insignificant insect. it wasn't anything special, the world isn't ending, she was just a fly caught in the web cuz the spider was hungy
@bloodbadger5332
10 ай бұрын
I don't think she could feel foolish or even think. she's under the spider's control look at her eyes when she's in the web.
@aquablast3155
10 ай бұрын
@@bloodbadger5332 Well, the spider control/influence people to bring them to itself, but the question is, would the spider keep someone under their control/influence, if they're already snared and secured? Perhaps... the human despair could make the meal even more delicious, couldn't it? What's a better way to do that, other than to just release Vivian from its influence, so she can dawn on the horror of what's happening (and what she has done)? (Not saying that this IS what happened. Just a, maybe.) To be fair, maybe the influence is automatic (i.e. Vivian is influenced without the spider even trying), but I think whether Vivian gets her thought back or not after being snared, is up to debate (and feeling like it's worth it, or that it's great, would mean she's still under the influence of the spider, which would answer my question as well, and drive in the delusion, as part of the horror experience).
I love how this man has played horror and porn games in the broad daylight of KZread, maintained a million subs and an indomitable fanbase for a good long while now, and still refuses to say fuck in front of a camera
Those eyes were so creepy 😫 I like when horror games just calmly show you something creepy instead of jumpscaring you. That’s always been scarier to me. Jumpscaring is just cheap and lame. I also thought Chris was a good guy but shouldn’t have dismissed Vivian’s interest in space as a phase. At least he was caring and supportive. And the “this isn’t for you bitch” was hilarious. The climax was definitely both disturbing and sad. I do think this was probably all in Vivian’s head, but we really can’t be 100% sure, which adds to the mystery. The music was creepy too which was neat. Very good game overall.
I have really bad arachniphobia, but I really enjoyed this honestly! (I could handle it up until the end) Especially liked that sort of perspective shift, I really enjoyed how that was done
Don’t Die Alone was one of my favorite VN’s I’ve watched on this channel so I’m really hyped for this one! I think this artist is really great at making an atmosphere filled with dread, they’re quickly becoming one of my fave indie game devs. I’m thinking I should pick up the danganronpa VN they made since it looks like the MC here as well as the MC from don’t die alone are both in it
I really liked this but thought it was kind of boring about the monster being a bog-standard spider, but big. It was going into a more psychological and Lovecraftian direction, something as grounded as the monster being a spider kind of took away a lot of impact for me. Vivian being manipulated and twisted, eyes in the sky, things moving, blinking galaxies and strange constellations, all of that worked well and had more oomph because it was strange and unknowable. At least that detail in the end with her and the web being unobservable by the guard worked well.
Damned eldritch gods. Why the f you staring so much? Take a damn picture and get out of the way of my telescope, I'm not interested in you.
Woman looks at stars, takes 10D10 Sanity damage.
@TyrannosaurusRex..
7 ай бұрын
Florida woman throws herself into space just to see “Giant space eyes”
HellStar Remina is on her way over for lunch...
🕷️ 👁️ when the credits roll it would be awesome for a parody song eye of the tiger but instead spider
This reminds me of that kickstarter girl that got into a fight with the sun
i remember seeing a meme of a deranged wojack with the caption “please let me into the planetarium, i am very normal and can be trusted with the knowledge of the stars” And tbh i just think that’s very Vivian-coded
38:19 there is no such thing as 'just depression'. Depression comes in different varieties. And despair and not seeing any way out of it is just one of the severe forms it might take. Never underestimate what effects depression can have on a person's mental or physical state and general quality of life
Without that Lovecraft ending, I can interprete the game like this: aged people came with depression and swinging mood. Sometimes they needed distractions, like a hobbie of some sort. But this one just straight up eating you from inside out, further dragging you down that spiral. If she did wake up from that illusion to see securities dragging her out, facing the court for her murder and her husband's dissaproval... Maybe that's too much for us to see, but I prefer if she snaps back to reality at the very end. Oh well.
Star Control series. 1, 2 and 3 (with muppet FMV sequences that was awesome) 4 was writen and started but never finished. Then some randos bought the rights and made a 4 that isn't an actual sequel as it ignores 3. I'm confused how she ended up with the spider. However, the photo does show that she was seeing something. I honestly thought it was going to be that her telescope's mirror was misaligned and she was getting a distorted partial reflection of her own eye when the star light hit it just right. But no. Space spider... Weird.
@kennymustdie8518
10 ай бұрын
The Ur-Quan Masters 2(UQM2) is currently in development. Which is a sequel to SC2. The devs are the authors of the SC2 remake. Looks promising.
I think part of it is meant to be a metaphor for bipolar mania/psychosis as there were definitely signs referencing it.
@mothhuuny
10 ай бұрын
i thought it was more of a metaphor for cults. not even specifically religious ones, but mechanically. they find people who dont have a strong support system and then draw them in with love and support, making them feel special and then they start enforcing their rules upon you, making you repay your "debt" to them more and more until you've given yourself in your entirety to them.
@lesbingus
10 ай бұрын
by this logic literally any supernatural horror game is psychosis. i don't subscribe to this, as smn who actually suffers from it.
@Sin_Ligereep
10 ай бұрын
@@lesbingus I wouldn't have said it if I thought all supernatural horror games showed metaphors for mania/psychosis =A=;; I wasn't even saying this as a bad thing, just something that seemed like it could be referencing. In this game the: Obsessing over a specific thing, seeing signs that one thinks has a deeper meaning or connection, feeling like one is being led to a bigger purpose, etc. etc. I've seen my mom and friends who have bipolar and have gone through mania/psychosis displaying such behavior. If you're worried I'm trying to make it out like a stereotypical bad thing because this particular character ended up killing something, that's not the case. Although I know there can be stages in mania/psychosis where someone can become aggressive, I am aware it's very rare that it could escalate to this degree unlike how it tends to be depicted in media. In any case, mania/psychosis is different for everyone.
@ashlirabid9614
10 ай бұрын
Can we just let the 'metaphor' comments die? Please!? 🙄 Not every game/plot needs to be a metaphor for something.
@mothhuuny
10 ай бұрын
@@ashlirabid9614 no. let people have fun interpreting games they like. it literally does not effect you.
That is the most upsetting horror game I've ever watched; incredibly well made.
Being fan of Ito's works i'm pleased how often Manly started to reference his stories lately. Because Ito's horror (much like Lovecraft's works) is ANIME WE DESERVE. BTW, game reminds me of Ito's Sensor, it also had evil cosmic entity.
That game you mentioned at the end is called Star Control 2 the Ur Quan Masters. The spider race were called the Illwrath and the centipede things were the Ur Quan. Absolutely fire game with a lot of charm and personality. Apparently the og devs are working on a follow up right now as Pistol Shrimp Games.
i keep coming back to this video. i seriously love the characters and the writing. the story is beautiful in a tragic way. so happy to see more from this developer!
Manly always has the best audio for his commentary on the games it’s always clear doesn’t sound like he’s speaking from deep within the void where he probably is actually stationed lol 😂😂😂
I really like this games mix of 2d and 3d, made the monster really creepy since it stood out from the rest of the artstyle.
The creator of this game said that chapter one of Danganronpa eternal ending is coming soon.
@duplexspy9731
10 ай бұрын
I'm so looking forward to it
The music and sound design in this game were phenomenal. I loved the theme that would start playing during heightened moments in the story - it conveyed such a strong sense of danger and anticipation, I loved it. Also incredible commentary and voice acting by Manly as always
Such an incredible experience. I just find the reveal to be a little underwhelming. It's definitely the relatable likeable characters this dev is great at. Watching her expressions contort as she gets further into madness... *chefs kiss*
The game you were talking about is Star Control, specifically star control 2 the Ur-Quan Masters. Very awesome game one of my favorites. The Ur-quan are very cool as well they are like these awful spider/squid/centipede things.
The abyss. - HP lovecraft or something.
That was some seriously good Lovecraftian madness right there. I gotta check out the other game you've played by this dev too, what a writer! I love how you still can't really tell if there actually was a crazy space entity or if she was just going insane - I love horror that still leaves you wondering all the right questions by the end
Oh I wondered if this was from the same person who made 'Don't Die Alone'! The art style is very telling but it's nice to have it confirmed. Absolutely LOVED 'Don't Die Alone' it was so good. I'm just starting this so I have high hopes for this one too! Edit: Wow, this was amazing. Maybe even better than 'Don't Die Alone' honestly. They got the Eldritch Madness right and in such a good way. Also she did save her friend in a weird way by refusing to give her the pictures of the being she saw or ceased to share any other info about it, otherwise maybe her friend would have been taken too if she did share the pics. And poor Edwin man, he was just trying to share his love of biology with his favorite teacher who helped him realize that. I also feel bad for Chris, he was such an awesome character, so supportive and loving.
Wow, this was such a good game that I will try to forget it because of the depression, the horror and what happend to certain character. Great commentary Manly! And glad that you could enjoy it, like many times your commentary was delicious and amazing.
Hey Manly. The game you are referring to is called Star Control 2. The updated version is known as Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters if I recall. It was an amazing game where you explored a huge chunk of the Galaxy if I recall. With rainbow worlds that point to a direction, a mess load of different alien races. You could download it for free with the updates audio for voice clips and music. It was a super fun & challenging game for sure. I highly recommend it to everyone.
I wonder if this has any inspiration from Gemini Home Entertainment her calling it the Iris definitely stood out to me
49 minutes? my depression is cured
@miche1257
10 ай бұрын
Ironic given that this visual novel is quite depressing
@marcoasturias8520
10 ай бұрын
The protagonist soaked up all the depression!
Theory: Could be a mutated spider when she’s looking at that telescope she got bitten, there some spider that causes hallucinations like the brown recluse spider, when the time she’s got in the accident with her telescope that’s when the spider bite her, and due to her depression and anxiety it manifest subconsciously in what she wants to see and also there are cobwebs everywhere that is the sign that there is spider in that place.
The game you're thinking of at the end is Star Control 2. There were two races of Ur-Quan, which were kind of spider-like but had tentacles not legs. The green Ur-Quan wanted to enslave all other races, the black Ur-Quan wanted to kill all other races. An absolutely fantastic game!
This is making me want to read HP Lovecraft.
I really like the art style. It's pleasant to look at... at least, for me.
The game sounds like the premise of a Junji Ito manga to be honest.
I used to panic about the Andromeda-Milky way collision until I learned that stars are so far apart there will be virtually no collision at all.
Eye always keep an eye for my notifications, whenever Manlybadasshero uploaded new gameplay! 👀
Holy shit.. This game is huge jump from the chain game. Damn poor Edwin. Poor Vivian. This was depressing asf😭
Yoooo this is the creator of Danganronpa: Eternal Endings! I knew I recognized those character designs from somewhere.
I guess it's a good lesson that even in the most desolate situations we do got loved ones.
@aquablast3155
10 ай бұрын
Too bad Vivian forgot about that. Also specifically when it comes to spiraling debt, when one is at the point of giving up on everything... there's bankruptcy. Can even use it as a threat to negotiate with your creditors. Obviously it's not a light decision without consequences (consult with professionals first), but instead of giving up on life, there is still this option. This is to people who are also in spiraling debt. I know it's horrible, but don't give up!