Spoilers : Love the ending, but

[☼Arkonev☼]

Isn't sad there is only option for the slug cat. The game story ironically is in a decayed fallen world. But there is no hope for it. All you can do is go into the LCL ego death soup, and dissolve. Or you can continue to survive above. But shouldn't there be another ending where survival was actually possible.

I was thinking that before going to the depths you should be given an option by one of the iggys, a purple one or something, to go back up as it saw another slug cat but can't tell you where. From there you can return and search it out. You aren't sure where it went so you back track through out the rest of the game, one final time to apreciate the world irregardless of how cursed it is. Would be harder for the hunter.

The Pup would be with Moon. The survivor, would embrace the pup as family. While the hunter would teach it the ropes. And then would die from the disease. A cute tie in would be the pup for the hunter could also be the ancestor of survivor.

I love the game, the ending and the vision. But it feels like Rain World is without hope. There is no salvation. There is only oblivion. I understand the mythological roots, in some respects. But it is still a shame that no other alternative exists, besides just living. Which is still relatively fun as it goes.

[Chap]

different endings would be cool, but the ending now is the only "good" ending that there is. take for example you re unite with your family or find other slug cats as an ending, you will still be in a broken world with a high chance of mortality, whereas in the ending right now you literally ascend to become some sort of higher being. out of the two i would say that the slugcat is getting the better deal by ascending.

[☼Arkonev☼]

I don't think the slug cat family was 'hopeless' at the very start of the game. It might be a fallen world in that moment. But I don't think it would be forever. And, if given the option to reunite with his family he probably would. Mortality is the price of admission.

In transedence. We aren't sure any part the slug cat transedence. I think the slug cat achives true ego death marked by the (X). Meaning the slug cats, last dream is fufilled and once that happens he has nothing left but to complete dissolution. I think it's his interpretation of what slug cat heaven would look like. It's not literal but the last step in giving up his struggle.

He didn't become a worm like those that couldn't escape. When you do escape the cycle of life and death. Nirvana as I understand it is just nothing. Oblivion. I understand the ending as a meditation on existance.

But I still think, there is an alternative path of not giving up hope on the world.

[Chap]

good point, i also forgot that the world is slowly healing (you can see the environment become less screwed via the timeline of hunter through to monk) so there is hope i guess.

[☼Arkonev☼]

Yeah... and one day the rain will stop. The robots are not eternal, but generative nature can continue.

[LackingOxygen]

Some argue that the ending isn't actually slugcat finding their family, but rather a dream they have as their conscience fade away. Considering this, 3 different endings could be possible. Breaking the cycle, finding your family, and putting a stop to the rainfall would all be interesting conclusions to the story. Either way, there's still space for at least a second ending.

[☼Arkonev☼]

Yeah, ending the rain by ending five pebbles would of been cool too.

I don't think it being the last dream of the slug cat cheapens it any. He experiences it as if it were real. Once he grasped what the deepest part of his soul wanted. He was able to be 'free' in the truest sense. It's a dark way of viewing the world. But still it felt like the extra endings got cut.

They would of required a lot of work and I understand the devs are a small team. They are finished with it. It is what it is. Just reflections and hope is all I am sharing...

[Johnnysaurus04]

I think slugcat not being able to find his family keeps the theme of a broken world in the game, but yeah, a couple more endings would be nice.

[Johnnysaurus04]

I also think it's worth mentioning that finding your family would be a neutral ending, as nothing in the world can truly die until it ascends, and no one deserves eternal life.

[☼Arkonev☼]

If no one dies. Slug cat would find his family. If no one dies there should be an over population of wild life. Because creatures would breed more creatures.

It also doesn't seem anyone in that world has eternal life. All the machines are breaking down. It's also not a cycle of life and death, if no one can really die. Though maybe it is meant literally in rain world...

[Johnnysaurus04]

When I say slugcat doesn't die, I mean reincarnation, because when someone dies in Rain World, they get reincarnated, barly remembering their past life. But by ascending, they no longer come back.

[☼Arkonev☼]

Yeah. You made it sound like something else. But this would still apply to his family unless they had already ascended.

The crux of what I am talking about is 'no longer coming back' is only preferable if you find the process intolerable. This can not be taken as an inevitable absolute.

[LackingOxygen]

The ending that stops the rain would have to be the slugcat somehow destroys fives and takes his spot in the chamber, essentially locking them in some type of stasis or coma. This would more or less be the morally "good" ending since you're saving thousands of animals, and Lttm. Though, this would be quite sad as the slugcat is in anguish, presumably indefinitely... But I guess it would be the right thing to do.

[☼Arkonev☼]

It almost seems that it was originally planned considering there was the special robot who managed to die. And the tie ins with the rain. Though who knows.

[Johnnysaurus04]

That would be a cool bitter sweet ending.

[LackingOxygen]

There could be a major dilemma in the story that you have to choose between saving your family, or saving yourself. Only by disabling Fives can you ensure (the possibility) that your family is still alive. Or, you could dive into the void, and try to save yourself from the very same cycle.

By finding your family, you neither ensure their survival or your own. They're completely oblivious to the source of the rain, and the prospect of the void. You have the knowledge to save them all, but you just cant communicate it to them. Therefore again, another bittwersweet ending.