What did the game mean to you?

[adityastreams]

I just finished playing the game. I wanted to look up the intended experience, but sadly couldn't find it on youtube. I wanted to ask others who have played the game. I know it's highly subjective. But what was your conclusion on the grandpa and ai(?) that lived deep in the forest why was it one of them saw the world as animals and other as robots, i felt the person who saw the world as robots was more emphatic? because he wanted to "fix" the dog, repair the family, etc who was the one in the train? finally who was the monster? mortality? maturing/becoming an adult? what is your general takeaway of all this. I loved the game a lot, but it left me with more questions than answers and was hoping to find some interpretations of others who were on this journey

[Ghuldarkar]

Ok, BIG SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

Blue, the robot, seems like he had to grow up a little earlier and sees the ugly and oppressive machine bit of the world, and has to solve problems by himself since he has no father figure and an absent mother. On the other hand, Green is generally trapped in his private life, has nobody around and sees the world more like he wants things to be, happy, full of colour. Since he is drawn to the brave new world outside, he doesn't see it as cold and uninviting.

I don't think either is lacking or has especially much empathy for others, since it's mostly their experiences in the game that influence their reactions: blue learns about the old man's pain only having his dog/AI to keep him company, so he wants to repair grampa out of empathy, green however sees grampa kill a talking animal and a person you've met earlier, so is hesitant to save the killer, arguing instead for more empathy towards the rabbit and the other person.
Earlier the boys also decidedly talk to the person that corresponds to their respective problematic parent, blue seeing a (former) single mother that loves her son, and green gets a caring dad that encourages freedom.

I'm not sure if you've seen the secret ending that you get when you play through twice with the same friend, but it's already hinted at before that that Haru is the monster. Now what role Haru played from a narrative point is definitely that of an arbiter of each boy's point of view, at first making the differences extreme and thus enabling them to learn to see things more from each other's pov by talking and working together instead of assuming they'd agree.

As for the grampa and AI-dog, I think apart from their allegorical role it's probably an old man that went insane from grief with his dog. I don't think either of the two boy's perspectives are a fit for his, the robo-view seems more fitting but I think that is again the boy understanding things in his own way. The old man might see things similar to the roboview, but I'd also think he'd probably see the dog more vivid, so we could argue that it's some combined or in-between view.
Their allegorical role, however is clearly to make the boys and the players think. Blue needs to learn that not everything can be fixed, and even some things that can be fixed can end badly. Green can learn that people do bad things out of good intentions. Overall it's less a lesson but a question on morality (which is typical for buddhist thinking, where there isn't a clear answer but you're encouraged to think and ponder a question instead of getting an easy or hard truth).

[Red]

Hey guys, If you have not already you need to play it a third time with the same friend. I don't want to give anything anyway but you will notice the models are now adult.

[Ghuldarkar]

Originally posted by Red:

Hey guys, If you have not already you need to play it a third time with the same friend. I don't want to give anything anyway but you will notice the models are now adult.

oh? I've suspected something until we ended up having all achievements after second playthrough. Are the models all that change, or are there more changes?

[Richard]

Originally posted by Ghuldarkar:

Originally posted by Red:

Hey guys, If you have not already you need to play it a third time with the same friend. I don't want to give anything anyway but you will notice the models are now adult.

oh? I've suspected something until we ended up having all achievements after second playthrough. Are the models all that change, or are there more changes?

you get the epilogue when you play with the same friend for the third time, boys are older and they go in the forest to meet haru.