「劇場に満足できない者達よ 君たちは真実に興味はないかね」 "Those of you unsatisfied with theater, do none of you have an interest in reality?" Signalis was pitched to me by its fandom and some friends of mine as something very simple. "Lesbian robot game". This is entirely true, this game is about lesbian love and robots. But this oversimplification was a trap to get me into a very existential game. The game itself is a love story. And a love letter to its genre and themes. Subliminal, vague, obscene, absurd, at times engrossingly underwritten, overwritten in small moments but with resounding resonance to the rest of the plot. There is nothing imperfect about this game in its aesthetic or tone or story telling, nor its music. However, it does pay tribute to classic survival horror in a way that those of little patience may feel a disconnect. I played the game with classic settings and tank controls, only to vow that I never will again. That being said, even with extra slots for the pick ups on certain modes, this game relentlessly sticks to its rules and you will have to play by them no matter what. Gameplay wise, its one of the best of its type and the puzzles are challenging enough to take some consideration, but not too overly hard to be frustrating. Those without a stomach for puzzle-driven games and back-tracking may turn away, but I suggest you suffer through the trials to experience more of the plot. The game is great at telling its story by not telling it much at all. Unwritten words and suggestions ironically make vague sentences all the more impactful. Like a child being raised in a politicized and militant society, its mechanics and lore are written in-universe by the environment itself. What most games would tell in a text prompt or overly long tutorial, the game tells you in the form of posters and propaganda pamphlets. However, in true survival horror and Dead Space fashion (which this game borrows a lot from narratively and thematically, as well as visually) there is a literal note telling you in all caps how to defeat most enemies. Its still far from as belittling as the original Dead Space was. The game borrows a lot from many things, from the works of Nihei Tsutomu and to some very good literature, yet it has its own identity. So many games that evoke nostalgic feelings for an otherwise dead genre (starting to see how this plays into the game more than ever...) simply appropriate visuals and not much more. But the fidelity and artistic vision of the game is not at all restricted by its PS1 graphics, only enhanced. The gameplay is fine tuned, the animations are great, the sounds, the soundtrack, everything about this game is really superior to most horror developed by larger studios. It also does what E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy tried to do with loops and the cycles of guilt far better, I must admit. E.Y.E clearly appropriated many things to the point of it being a near plagarization of its inspirations, its deepest concepts lifted straight from various philosophical sources and belief systems. This is best emphasized by the fact that so many characters share distorted names taken from their sources of inspiration. A lot of E.Y.E's charm was what was lost in translation, was gained in humour and unique flow of text, as well as accidentally becoming esoteric and surreal, due to how the machine translation fumbled high brow concepts into some very unfriendly language. Signalis is the opposite of that. It is a boldly inspired game, but entirely unique to itself and doesn't rely so heavily on the references as one may think. A scene otherwise identical to a part in Ghost in the Shell is in fact very narratively significant to the plot and has been more than just appropriated into the story, it has been implanted and made its own. Much like how ELSTER implants limbs from other units onto herself. Much like how Replikas draw from neural databanks of humans and at times, they emulate needs of organic bodies that their synthetic ones do not need. And if they allow themselves to not indulge in these niches, they become distraught. Signalis acknowledges that its mandatory to pay tribute to its cultural benefactors to not fall apart, but it is not entirely the sum of a bunch of things sewn together like E.Y.E was. Which is ironic, the more you understand what happens in the story... Signalis is not lost in translation, its deliberately not even fully transliterated in its unique Chinese-East German inspired aesthetic. Signalis (Esperanto for "Signal") is a transmission of dissonant waves that only share a conscious existence in being sound that can be interpreted, intercepted through static. And the fandom has done some spectacular explorations with the setting it was given from this game. In times where large copyright holders hold modern myth and folklore, smaller games like this bring out the artisans in others. Its not a product, its players not consumers. Its art and its open to interpretation, both destructive and constructive. When I finished the first game, I immediately started a new run to get the secret ending. During this time, two things happened. A childhood friend of mine died of a lingering illness. As in, they were actively dying and yet, they were living through this process until the very end. If there is one thing that this game reminded me of, which also deals with a similar concept in physical and metaphysical, metaphorical ways - it is that once death arrives, dying is already over. The fragility of life is tragic and with that, there is at least peace in times knowing that the broken no longer have to hold themselves together. A second thing, the fandom effectively had a Cold War that no one knew about until it was too late. Yuri-horror fans vs the military factions that enjoyed the whole 200 words of exploration about the distant war. In the end, both parties more or less shook hands and walked away. It was mockingly called the "Checkpoint Charlie" incident of the fandom, a reference to when tank-build up by Soviets and Americans in East Germany nearly caused a genuine conflict but was ultimately talked down by mutual, sensible discussion between the world leaders of the then-superpowers. My personal take is that the war and the background themes of the game, while the fixation of some parts of the playerbase, merely existed to align with a certain other Chinese-characteristic of the plot itself. That being, the Mandate of Heaven. The matriarchal rebels of Rotfront and the Eusan nation have lost the Mandate of Heaven. In Chinese history, the Mandate of Heaven is lost when there is dissatisfaction/rebellion, disease and epidemics, as well as famine. The revolutionary Eusans were rebels that broke away from the Empire. The Empire, in turn, has enforced a blockade that has pushed a planet into starvation. And finally, everyone is sick and puking blood. These themes merely isolate the stakes of everything into an individual level (even though the characters themselves may represent collectives of people in the system or even collectives of thoughts and dreams and experiences forcefully bound to one person) by further decaying the world they exist in around them in real time. Exemplified more by Elster's reactions to the National Flag in the late game. Either way, this puts things in perspective in more ways than one. Going back to the loss of my friend, when you lose someone suddenly - you realize how much you could have been there. And you imagine if you had even one more day, even if everything was going to be in hell, you'd take it. That is what Signalis and its secret ending, meant to me. The world is ending and the walls closed in, rather than fell down. And all you want is one more moment. The absence of something makes us appreciate what was once there. . ° . {零} THIS SPACE LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK.
Read more
