Tide Up - A story analysis

[Im so hungry, it drivEs Me crAZy]

The story starts with a family where love didn't exist. The father didn't spend a lot of time with his wife and child and didn't really care about them either. The mother was a greedy and mentally unstable person who loves the money (the pig ingame depicts her) but felt annoyed about her role as a housewife and chooses a very harsh upbringing method for her child.
The daughter was a little oddball who had problems to communicate correctly, sometime phrases her words in a offensive way even if she doesn't mean it ("Mouth", which depicts the girl in her time after "the incident", uses the word "loser" with an entire different and non-offensive meaning than a regular person would do). Painting and reading were her hobbies and she hasn't much interest in social activities. She loves her father what irritated her mother the most.
Eventually the family broke apart and the father left oversea in another country (any ships ingame are connected with girls father and in the hospital scene where she is trying to call her dad, she says "He might pick up, it's lunchtime" even though her step sister said before "Dad will take us out for dinner soon").

The mother met a another man who lost his wife and lifed with his daughter alone (item descriptions about "Girls step-mother" were always positive and normally after a divorce the child would be put in the mothers household). The girl, who adored her father, didn't like the idea about the new patchwork family and wasn't really cooperative. Her drawing got darker and even the teachers got alittle bit worried (in the call with her dad the girl says "I spoke with my homeroom teacher. Ah Im fine, he just checked up on me. The art teacher told my homeroom teacher that Im a good painter! Imaginative, something like that. Pretty great, right?" and her drawing were about plane crashes, shrouded villages in the woods and drowning Jesus). She got insomnia as well and asked her mum to buy her sleeping pills (her step-sister at the bench near "The house" says "Why don't you take a short nap? Someone nearby will have that thing you always took" so she already took the sleeping pills before she met her step-sister). The girl wrote a massive amount of letters to her father (in "The hospital" there is a room full of these letters) so the divorce surely affected her negatively.
Her step-father seems to be an unreliable person which shows in the very first meeting between the girl, her new step-sister and her new step-father where he failed to do a reservation in a restaurant although it would be dinnertime.
Her step-sister though was the whole opposite. Caring, positive, helpfull and respected among her classmates (the girl got immediately bullied after "the incident" without her knowing why, that could be because her step-sister told everybody to leave her alone even if the girl was really reserved to anyone). Her step-sister got these traits from her mother who took care about many things in the family and that's why her father wasn't use to such tasks. Even her as a child knew that you have to make a reservations if you wanna pick a seat in a restaurant around the dinnertime.
The new step-sister helped the girl to give her father a call and really wanted to be friends with her but the girl couldn't stand that she was "in her dept immediately". So even if she didn't liked her she wouldn't be to reserved to her new step-sister which her step-sister will strongly misinterpret.
After a while her mother and new step-father would move together and that was the point where everything collapsed. Since you don't get ingame any further information about her step-father it seems that he wasn't a good husband too. Maybe the right mannequin (only response is "...") in the "Nowhere kitchen" is him.
Her mother nearly broke under the labor to upbring two childs and chose violence. Since the girl had enough time to adapt and got use to her harsh mother, her new sister had not. A belt, a cane and scratch marks inside the cabinets in "The house" tell the story about a very abusive mother. Her sister didn't get any help from her father but she thought at least the girl is on her side since both of them were victims of the same abuse (she told at the bench near "The house" that "when we first met we didn't take long for us to get along, right?"). They spent time together, draw pictures and she told the girl about her treasured keepsakes of her dead mum, a lantern and a pearl necklace. Especially the necklace was very precious to her.
She got more and more disturbed from the girls mother and suffered heavily under the abuse. She looked for help by her sister and told her that she wanna leave. But the girl didn't understand the weight of her step-sisters problem and stole the necklace from her. Her motif was that she thought that she wouldn't move away if she didn't find her neclace from her beloved mother. She didn't understand at this point that she was kind of fond of her step-sister, that she needed her to not being alone anymore. She didn't understand that her new sister was thinking about suicide. The girl only begged her to stay with her and her step-sister understood for the first time that they wasn't friends. And after the loss of her necklace she felt heavily betrayed.
One day the girl enters the room of her step-sisterand saw her hanging from the ceiling. An image which burns inside her eyes, a trauma which will lead to the "Tide Up" scenario. It was March 31st.

After that she shut herself off to anybody, got listless and her dreams became "the ocean" where she lost herself again and again (Normal ending: "How should I live to escape this ocean?"). Every playthrough starts with the depiction of the Ouroboros for the Gamma correction. Ouroboros here has two meanings: The simple one is Nietzsches quote "Allem Zukünftigem beißt das Vergangene in den Schwanz" – "Any future will got bitten in the tail by the past". This is really self-explanatory since the girls whole struggle in "Tide up" is her self hatred and remorse about her idleness towards the misery of her step-sister. The second ( and very sketchily) meaning of Ouroboros is about being a self-sufficiental thing which doesn't need any influence from outside to maintain itself. This would be the dream ("the ocean") of the girl because as long she doesn't learn to accept her mistakes and the outcome of this tragedy she will always be trapped every night in this nightmare, never able to get rest. The only way out from this demise is from within.
First, she tried to repress her agony ("Mouth" simply forgot why it left "Eye" in the first place. She uses phrases from her mother "I didn't kill anyone" what u can read in the April 1st note from the prison factory, which uses quotation marks. In "The house" the demon at the end says "Isn't it your sisters fault for not being strong enough?" or "Your sister didn't care about you. And you just begged her. To stay with you").

[Im so hungry, it drivEs Me crAZy]

In the woods you see circles on the map without any entrance and exit which depicts again the Ouroboros. You are running after a shadow which you doesn't recognize (It is her past self, the "Black Girl" from the Final Fight, but "Girl" doesn't see it because she is still unaware of her problem) and meets a teddy spider, friendly beings who can guide lost people who are trapped in such dreams if they really want to face their traumatas (The first spider says "I didn't think that you'd want to leave" "Then do you want to prove it?" "Sometimes people get lost walking because they look above". You even can see her teddy in the title screen right besides her.
After that you come across the prison factory, the enbodiment of "Girls" apathy where she disconnects from her senses and memories as a mechanism of self protection. There is quite a lot of references for that. First you can find the notice outside "Due to a workplace incident on March 31st, this factory will cease operations for the time being." Inside the building there is the production report which shows 3 months of zero production which means that "Girl" kept herself hidden at home for a long time doing nothing. This is stated later again in "Nowhere" where the teacher type mannequin says "Mmh? You're finally at school. That's good news". The prisoners inside the factory loses "their will to life and their parts one by one. And then... They just exist. Forever, safe inside" (quote from "Mouth"). "Mouth" as one of your "parts" says also that "It's cold and scary outside. Please let's stay inside". Later you can find letters from the prisoners where they wrote that they are happy and aren't forced to be there.

Of course all of this isn't healthy that's why the prisoners are dead or catatonic at the end. "Mouth" meets "Eye" again and "Girl" understood that she really has a problem.
After that you meet "Sister" at the "Terminal".

You are starting to reflect yourself, not only about your step-sister but also about your whole family situation. Since your mother is a daily part of your life you starts with her. You came across a lot of mannequins, some friendly which you don't give any responses, because you are always an introvert and some are enemies, like bullies. You also see some weird flesh creatures with tongues, eyes, ears who are hostile towards you if you are standing in their way. They seem like leftover parts from the prisoners before or are depicting your difficulties with any form of communication.
You can also see a ferry wheel in the distance, maybe a symbol of freedom (somehow it reminded me very strong to "Deadmans Wonderland" where also a ferry wheel in the distance were kind of a symbol of freedom). Than you come to your house and see this shadow again on its way to the pig. Since the shadow goes straight to the pig and your sister is always on the bench from the start shows that the shadow and sister are not the same entity.
The pig depicting your mother since it eats all of the money, calls your pearls "garbage" and gives you the sleeping pills. She never shows any remorse and even cannot understand the problem of her very own daughter. "Do you get it? Bring me as much as went into your piehole!" "I'm giving this to you so you can at least take care of yourself! When are you going to stop leeching off of me?". She is so annoyed from her own daughter that she just want her to leave and makes clear that she has to work for her sleeping pills. You can give her your collection of pearls which locks you into the Bad Ending where you are unable to face your mistakes and choose pure hatred towards your sister.
This is everything what your mother is doing. Telling you that your sister was just weak and didn't care about you since she left you behind. "Stick a knife in that ♥♥♥♥♥. And get what you want" says the mannequin in the Nowhere kitchen which has a overbearing lavender scent in the air, the parfume of her mother.
In the house you can find a note from April 2nd where is written "Why do they pick on me?". After the death of your sister there wasn't anybody anymore who could protect you from bullies in the sidelines. You cannot understand why everybody suddenly seems to hate you. After getting psychological help in a hospital you weren't in school anymore seemingly for 3 months if you think about the production report in the prison factory.
When you wake up from the house scenario you can travel to the hospital scenario. Here can you destroy the wedding ring and show it to the pig and your sister again. It seems that your mother were really just full of hatred, she hates her husband, her daughter, her step daughter because she had the feeling that they destroyed her whole life. And even although your sister really suffered under the abuse, she kindly asks: "How is she lately? Im thinking about your father, too". Maybe she felt back than that your mother were ill, mentally ill and she herself was a victim in a very unhealthy relationship with a man who ignored her most of the time.

Just like he ignores you, too. In the hospital you had to speak about your father with your doctor, about the suicide of your sister, about the bullies in the school or the neighbourhood, about your insomnia. This all was a nuisance to you. If you are looking at the blue keycard you can read the description: "The tests in the hospital were so annoying".
But after a while you starts to wonder about everything. Especially one question were getting to pain you: "Did you kill your sister?" If you are reading the description from the red keycard than you see: "Sometimes it brought back painful old memories" and the final fight at the hospital is just you trying to cover you from the gazing eyes of strangers who are trying to look into your deep inner feelings and fears.
Your hatred becomes to confusion. Your mother doesn't love you. Your father doesn't love you. You have no friends and maybe you don't deserve any friends and love since you betrayed your sister, the only person who seemed to care for you.
And even now in this nightmare she is still there "to help you get out of here as soon as possible".

The Nowhere after the terminal is a amalgam of all places you were before and confronts you with the decision whether you want to hate your sister for all eternity and slowly break under this pressure or facing and accepting your mistakes for that you learn from it.
You have to "fix you up again". Take a clock as a heart to find your will to life again. Find a pile of paper full of your regrets so you can face them. But hurry because if you looses to much time and your blood, the rusty water gets cold, than you will end like just the prisoners back than in the factory.
But the most important part to escape this dark ocean is to learn again how to love yourself. Give your pearls, your memories to your sister and value them like a treasure. Because she was the nicest person in your life and if you learn how to love other people like she did than she will always be with you.
In the peak of your nightmares you confront your past self, the little hateful child who didn't understand anything and is lost in her sorrow. "You cast me away. Pulled me apart. Locked me away. Did she tell you to? So thinking about something else this time? You're going to kill her?" "I DON'T WANT YOUR APOLOGIES!"
"Counterclockwise", the soundtrack of the final fight, starts with 3 bell sounds of a grandfather clock which shows that you will wake up soon from your horrible dream in 3 o'clock and you won't find any rest again in this night even if you are horrible exhausted. For 3 months now "it is coming in waves" and each wave is one horrible nightmare which will force you to wake up again and again. It is 3 o'clock and the ocean won't let you sleep.
So what did you do? Did you neglect your precious memories about the person you love? Or did you keep them treasured and valued in your heart? Maybe you didn't find your answer yet.
Than the next wave will approach you soon.

Some last words: After playing this game for many hours and after taking soooo much screenshots from any dialogue and description ingame I am still very unsure about the "true story". This is the interpretation which made the most sense to me but there are a couple of quotes which are hard for me to interprete. Like what is about the hammer, a "tool that I used. I am still alive". Is the Bad Ending really just the path of pure hate for her sister or is she killing herself as well? Did she attack her mother maybe? Why is every person with a teddy head? I interpreted the teddy spiders as "tour guides" in dreams but it doesn't really fit with these teddy head persons. In which direction points the upsidedown lighthouse its light? About who is the end boss girl refering to when she said "You're going to kill her?". What did her step-father do all this time? Why uses the April 1st quotation marks besides "I didn't kill anybody?". Is the prison factory really the enbodiment of her apathy or does it has a completely other meaning?
This is the first time I wrote something like this since I am not really good in such things and I would be happy if anyone would share his/her own interpretation, with references of course.
Anyway, I am happy that I did this peace of work. I know, my english is not perfect but I hope it isn't to tedious to read this.

Have a nice evening you all.

EDIT: I just googled now the symbolism of ferry wheels in dreams and yeah, it is quite literal written there. I found two meanings.
Meaning 1 is simple, the ferry wheel is life itself and it goes it ways. There are ups, there are downs and sometime it holds still so you can enjoy the view, reflect about your life. But the girl is disconnected from her ferry wheel and fails to catch on her life.
Meaning 2 is, if you are trying to look at your ferry wheel from different angles than you are trying to change your perspective about your life to solve a specific problem by perceiving a bigger picture from it. The girl fails in that task yet, because she has to figure out her feelings about her sister first.

[Gustav]

I really enjoyed it. It's too bad I couldn't write a long review!

[Im so hungry, it drivEs Me crAZy]

Originally posted by Gustav:

It's too bad I couldn't write a long review!

For that you make great video games. That is more than enough.

[Milk Tea]

thank you for this! Since she woke up in one of the endings, was it all a dream? I'm not so sure because of her sister saying "come visit me again" at the end

[Im so hungry, it drivEs Me crAZy]

Yeah, it is a little bit shaky there, I give you that. But it can be answered with two possible interpretations.

First one: Not a good one, but it could be just a message from the dev like "I hope you play this game again someday"

Second one: The sister isn't purely a part from the "ocean". She was there for helping the girl to overcome her trauma. She stated that two or three times, I believe. After the true ending, the ocean is over but her sister lives on inside Girls memory, helping her to be a loving, caring human.

And yes, I wouldn't say "It was just a dream".
It WAS a dream at the end, yes, but you can safely assume that she lived at least three months with these horrible nightmares and it was a very hard path to face and overcome her trauma. The "ocean" is a realm of traumatizing dreams and it destroys its hosts very slowly. I would like to think about "the ocean" like the "Otherworld" from Silent Hill.

[Milk Tea]

Originally posted by Im so hungry, it drivEs Me crAZy:

Yeah, it is a little bit shaky there, I give you that. But it can be answered with two possible interpretations.

First one: Not a good one, but it could be just a message from the dev like "I hope you play this game again someday"

Second one: The sister isn't purely a part from the "ocean". She was there for helping the girl to overcome her trauma. She stated that two or three times, I believe. After the true ending, the ocean is over but her sister lives on inside Girls memory, helping her to be a loving, caring human.

And yes, I wouldn't say "It was just a dream".
It WAS a dream at the end, yes, but you can safely assume that she lived at least three months with these horrible nightmares and it was a very hard path to face and overcome her trauma. The "ocean" is a realm of traumatizing dreams and it destroys its hosts very slowly. I would like to think about "the ocean" like the "Otherworld" from Silent Hill.

I see!! I think the second interpreation is very plausible. I would also love to believe that the realm is real, it makes it so much more interesting. Thank you again for the summary, I understand the story so much better now

[Im so hungry, it drivEs Me crAZy]

I am very happy that I could help with my analysis .