[SPOILERS] Thoughts on the ending?

[Stormy]

I was fully expecting and emotionally unprepared for the little brother to die at the end. I was disappointed that the story went the disney way instead. I think a much more impactful ending would have been if, after the final crate cutscene, the little brother wakes up to find his sister gone, and a puddle of green goo in her place. Then the game resumes, but you control the little brother, and it's just 'explore' mode. We wouldn't know if the sister was dead, or maybe she is a golem now. It would leave the game in a more infinitely playable state, as opposed to the closure we get in the shipped ending.

I feel like the devs would have had to consider the brother dying. Wondering thoughts?

[Quinquaginta]

I thought it would have been more logical for the sister to become one of the 'remnants', as her skin was increasingly like that of the beings still inhabiting the ruins.

I also thought it was odd that the remnants could, and did, 'cure' her as this suggests they could also 'cure' themselves. This would imply that they feel no need to cure those who have become like them, as otherwise they would no longer look like faceless green humanoids.

[Psyringe]

I think the ending would have worked for me either way. The way it turned out, probably fit better to the relaxed atmosphere of the game - but there is also a strong sense of melancholy, so a sad ending would have worked as well. I guess the current ending is more satisfying for more people.

Regarding the remnants, I did not get the impression that they would have been able to cure themselves. Rather, that the "green stuff" had merged with their bodies to the point where they were able to also absorb it from others.

[Hekateras]

If you look carefully at the brother's textures and model, you'd notice he began to improve around crate... six or seven, I think - he didn't have an unhealthy flush to his face anymore, and didn't have obviously infection-reddened skin just around his bandage. So the brother not dying, I could see coming.

I also expected the girl to turn into one of those creatures, though, and for the brother to survive but find that he'd lost his sister. (Incidentally, I don't think they're golems. I think the entire green thing that covered the city, emerging from the deep as told in the story, is some kind of parasitic algae that covers static objects but parsitises on living beings... First of all, the entire city is covered in a pretty unifor green film, in the water and on the buildings, which does not look like moss, and this includes glowing patches (there are type sof algae that are bioluminescent), so I don't think it's a coincident. You notice Miku develop a cough as her symptoms worsen, the green rash she gets is clearly a bit bioluminescent, like some of the algae you see in the water... She gets the rash first on her hands and bare feet, i.e. where she also has the most direct contact with the algae-covered buildings she's walking on and climbing, and from there it spreads. Even if some life forms survived the process and being parasitised by this organism, it would make sense that not all life forms do, and she was getting worse. (Incidentally, you may notice even her boat is being covered with algae the longer she's in the city! Curiously, it's back to normal after SHE is cured.) Just my two cents.

To me, the "remnants" being able to magically cure her came a bit out of nowhere, though I was not too disappointed by it. I wasn't particularly looking forward to having my heart broken by the game, either. :P Still, it would have fit the build-up and the subly haunting, tragic feeling of the game a little bit better than green magic lights and a sudden cure.

[worstcaster]

I thought the "magic" cure was odd. Especially since there was no evidence of magic in this world before that. The ending was immersion breaking in my option. Otherwise good game.

[Lûte the Goblin]

I agree with worstcaster. Magic seems an odd resolution to the conflict in a world that has no established magic until that point.
The brother had to live either way, or the whole game will have been for nothing. All supplies you gather are to keep him alive after all, so it would be a huge anticlimax.
The protagonist surviving is an acceptable twist but I agree it would have been more interesting had she either become one of the remnants or died, which I expected to happen throughout the whole game.

Continuing as the young brother is an interesting idea. Perhaps something for a sequel?

[evildrganymede]

The glyphs for the humanoids in the Creature section spell FRND, which I figured early on to mean Friend so I was pretty sure that they were not going to be hostile.

[kevintheradioguy]

The creatures, though, cannot "cure" themselves, because tehre's nothing to be cured. Look at the city's story carefully. They are not "infected", they are... like this. Human doubles, copys of people out of... whatever that turquoist thing is. Created from the deep long after all real humans died.

[kschang77]

If there's no dying in the game, why should the ending including dying?

[Strez]

Hi all!

I't always great reading these discussions about the story :)

We did discussed many different ways to end the story. As with most of the narrative elements in Submeged we aimed for ambiguity over a discreen explanation of what's happened. As some have noted above, desiphering the glyphys can add more detail to the back story...and hint at what has happened.