Endless Mode Note Album (SPOILERS)

[pflytrap]

Nobody seems to be discussing this, but Endless Mode also introduced a whole bunch of new notes to the game; and for the past three days, I have been compiling screenshots of them for the sake of general analysis. Here is a work-in-progress imgur album of everything I've found.[imgur.com]

At present, I have managed to find forty-three different notes (not counting the ones New Specimen 5 uses to taunt the player prior to their chase), seemingly left by six different individual characters; and I wouldn't be surprised if there are even more notes that I have yet to find. Incidentally, I'm beginning to suspect that some sets of notes only get unlocked when you've made it through other sets of notes: I only found the last set of notes tonight, as a matter of fact, after having made it through the fourth and fifth sets.

Without further adieu, and keeping in mind that there are lots of potential spoilers ahead, here's a brief commentary on what we seem to find in these new notes:

First Set
The first seven here are left by someone who seems frankly disinterested in the whole thing: they complain about not getting wifi in the mansion, they appear to subsist on junk food, they find the specimens "not as scary as I've seen in some horror games," and they talk about how "hardcore" they are for getting as far as they did. In their final note they mention seeing something "down the hallway" that is "getting closer": presumably Specimen 9. Basically, they're comic relief.

Second Set
The next seven are left by someone named "Jasper Midnight," who also signs all their notes "JM." I'm guessing Midnight is meant to be a shoutout/expie of someone on YouTube:Jordan Underneath comes to mind as a possible inspiration. Whoever they are, Midnight speaks in a flowery manner not unlike person writing the "Romantic" notes in the very beginning of the game. They are fascinated by all the specimens: describing them and their areas almost lovingly, and using the words "terrible" and "terrific" interchangeably. They consider going through the mansion a "life changing journey" and feel that they have at last found "a place in the world."

In their final note, they urge the reader to go on in their place because they can go no further even though they want to. Certainly an interesting character to imagine wandering through the Sandcastle o' Land Sharks; but I'm not entirely sure what (if any) greater role in the story they might have

Third Set
Next we have eight notes from someone who was exploring the mansion for their "urban exploration video channel"; and here is where things start to get interesting in a lore-related sense. They speak in a casual style and tend to address their hypothetical readers in the plural (like a YouTuber with a good-sized fanbase), they comment on the elevators only going down; nothing to really differentiate themselves from the first guy I talked about, right?

That is, until their fifth note, where they mention having stumbled upon "a greenhouse or garden area."There they found "a cool Sickle thing in a 'tree'," which they decided to take with them because they were getting a "really uneasy vibe from this place." In case this all wasn't blatant enough, in their last note they tell the reader they think they're near an exit because they found "another mansion-like area. That's right: this once mild-mannered YouTuber is now the Sickle Man: the maddened, murderous host of Specimen 12.

(It's also probably worth noting where they found their sickle: in a fake tree in a "greenhouse or garden area." This sounds very much like a description of Specimen 8's area: you know, the exact same place our character finds the axe. Just food for thought: doesn't Specimen 8 have a thing for "violent" subjects? And what becomes of our character in the Bad Ending again?

Fourth Set
The next set of notes come from a familiar character: the "Romantic" from the beginning of the game. He's dead and apparently a ghost now; but he doesn't seem to realize it. He notices that he doesn't feel hunger or thirst anymore, that his skin has turned translucent, and that the various specimens don't seem to interested in killing him anymore; but he calks this all up to his artistic genius transcending the laws of nature (how truly Romantic!). In the end, he is apparently conscripted into Spooky's ghost army and gets his pen privileges revoked.

Fifth Set
Next we have eight research reports that were apparently written by Spooky herself: giving us something of a never-before-seen look at her personality; as well as something of a meta-commentary on the game itself. Apparently Spooky's not all that adept at technology: she calls the internet "the spider portal," as well as making references to "short horror experiences as well as some sort of Italian cooking" (i.e., creepypasta). (It is worth noting that, based on the implied timeframe of the notes in the Isolation Room in Karamari Hospital, Spooky has probably been dead since 1964; so her lack of knowledge of computers is understandable.) It is from this that she learns of a terrifying creature known as "Jeff," in whose likeness she decides to make a new cardboard scare. An underling finds her chibi Jeff inaccurate to the real thing, so she apparently shows him JtK fanart and then stabs him to death.

She next speaks of her diabolical plan to attract "LP people" to the house in the hopes that their "viewers" will follow and thus become recruits in her army of the dead. Considering how many of us were introduced to this game by watching "LP people" exploring Spooky's mansion, I'd say her plan has worked pretty well so far. Finally, she learns of another house with a bigger ghost army and the same name, which wants her to change the name of her house. Rather than fight them, she goes along with the name change. I don't think I need to explain what this is in reference to.

Sixth Set
This is the set of notes I only just stumbled on as I was getting ready to submit this; and assuming there aren't more notes that I missed, it's probably the most cryptic and unsettling bit of text in the game. These notes are evidently written by a child whose parents have promised them a party. But, when the time comes, there are seemingly no parents and no party. The child hears noises and falls down a hole, hurting their leg. They fall asleep, and when they wake up, they think their daddy has come to rescue them. But "It's not Daddy."

I am at a loss for what this means or what significance this could prove to have later on. Like I said, I suspect that there are more notes to this that I simply missed: all the other sets contain seven-to-eight notes, while this one only has six so far. Also, the first time I encounted these, the first note in the series was skipped somehow, so there's probably a missing piece to the puzzle somewhere.

So, yeah. Those are all the notes I've managed to find hiding in Endless Mode so far, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find more in the coming days. Thanks for reading.

[Alex Solowjow]

how do you make screenshots?

[Tepa88]

one thing about "fifth set", on part talking about the LP people, it mentions how some of them thought "spooky's house" is some kind of canned meat product (i.e. spam)

[Churl]

I like how the research notes explain the new Specimen 1's and also reveal that the jumpscares were all created by GL Labs.

[pflytrap]

Originally posted by ^1Alex Solowjow:

how do you make screenshots?

Through an incredibly annoying process. I use a Toshiba laptop that runs Windows 8.1, so what I have to do is first hit FN+END/PRTSC on my keyboard. Then I use ALT+ENTER to leave fullscreen mode and hit ESC to pause the game (so I don'tget killed by Specimen 9). Then I open up MS Paint and hit paste: boom, screenshot.

[2Shy]

With the fifth set, why do you think she has GL Labs scientists be human and not ghosts?
1. They're good with technology
2. they are super aware of what scares people in this day and age
3. If needed, free subjects