Wait, am I supposed to agree with Heng?

[minstrelofmoria]

From the way the plot started, I thought this game was going to have actual nuance and not have one character who's supposed to be right about everything. If Heng is a developer mouthpiece, I am going to cry.

[Senki]

You can agree with whoever you want, Yi is his own character and does agree with her in the end. At least on most things.

Also there is nuance in the game, Heng and Yi's story is not the only thing happening.

[leo_gear]

What about Heng did you disagree with?

[Von]

As Senki said, I think it's less about "agreeing" with someone (I didn't really fully agree with any of the characters, which i personally think is a good thing), but more an examination of what the events of the game might do to a society and the people in it. Most of the Sols react to the events of both the game and the lore behind the game in VERY different ways, and the comparison and juxtaposition of their reactions felt like the point to me - they were all theoretically working together towards a common goal, but many of them for different reasons and with different levels of investment or belief in the solution. There's a lot of intersecting pieces, especially if you do all the side quests and meet all the characters/unlock all the lore entries for everyone.

[Servant_HolyKnight]

Frankly the whole tale of the Solarians is tragic. They are dying from a mutated virus (caused by one of their own too proud to admit they ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, no less) and are trying everything to survive and fight back this problem, Yi especially. He's just always been a very devout follower of science and cause and effect that he left Heng after a fight. She has a naive, innocent viewpoint that accepts that things should have a natural end.

It becomes a little more complicated in that the virus epidemic is not exactly natural, and the Sols have been trying to figure out how to stop it through just as unnatural means. Turning a whole island from their home world into a space station. Chronically freezing themselves for half a millennia. Putting their minds into a dreamscape that they never want to leave. Using an entire other race as fuel and slaves towards their life-sustaining project. It was never going to end well considering that you have to kill the other Sols that are either ignorant at best, or complacent at worst to the situation breaking down.

[JL]

there is no right or wrong, the game is simply exploring themes of taoism and transhumanism

taoism is all about letting go and following the natural order, while transhumanism is almost the exact opposite, where you try to surpass your human limitations and go against the law of nature. i don't think Yi and the solarians were necessarily wrong in what they were doing, but they went too far and effectively destroyed themselves

I think at the end, Yi felt that he tried the best that he could to save his race, but in the end, he and the sols were too ambitious which lead to many mistakes and failures that ultimately doomed them. i think he was content with letting his race die a dignified end rather than continue to struggle and turn into an immortal race of zombies

IMO the message of the story is more about accepting your failure and the natural order of life and death. i think there is a lot more nuance than simply TAOISM GOOD and TRANSHUMANISM BAD

[Talist]

Originally posted by JL:

IMO the message of the story is more about accepting your failure and the natural order of life and death. i think there is a lot more nuance than simply TAOISM GOOD and TRANSHUMANISM BAD

Ironically, I think they could have at least partially saved themselves by going even harder into transhumanism. The Sol running the archives (I don't remember any of their names) shows that you can interact with machines while in the Soulscape, so they could have built themselves remote controlled robots to pilot around while in cyrosleep.

Though they also say staying in the Soulscape too long drives you mad, but maybe that was just for the initial testing version? It's not very consistent because most of the Sols seem to have been whackos before entering the Soulscape, and plenty of other characters, like the Dusk Guardians, seem to be fine afterwards.

Of course, this isn't the point of the narrative, but I did find it really funny to think about while I was playing.

[Seisachtheia]

I cannot remember any character in the game being "100% right about everything", and I feel like there was a lot of nuance in the way the different characters interacted and how they experienced the tragedy of the game.

I said in another thread that I think this is a game where having some years behind you (being at least into your thirties) makes you appreciate what you're seeing and the experiences the characters are going through a lot more. If it were possible I think it would be interesting to take an age poll of the player base to see if my theory is correct.