[SPOILERS] My interpretation

[KL]

I've dealt with depression (and suicidal ideation, sometimes) for the past couple of years, so while I'm fairly desensitized to the topic, I have found immense meaning in this game. Here are my interpretations, I guess? Spoilers, duh.

The painting: The protagonist (you) has clearly spent so much time analyzing the paintings. The protagonist is obviously obsessed with the fairly meaningless artwork. To me, this symbolizes happiness/hope... To those who don't deal with depression, it doesn't mean all that much. They're wonderful emotions, but nothing out of the ordinary and certainly obtainable. Our protagonist is severely depressed and is likely unable to feel happiness and has obviously lost all hope. The obsession with trying to figure out the painting's meaning is comparable to the obsession with trying to find happiness/hope - a reason to live, to look forward.

The man in the cage: This one is hard for me wrap my mind around, symbolism wise. I'm thinking perhaps the man in the cage is what our protagonist envies? The protagonist kidnapped him to try and find happiness and ultimately gets the chance to let the man out or electrocute him. I can best relate this to some friendships that I had... I cared about those people enough to try and force them to stay in my life and was, at the same time, incredibly jealous and even toxic at times. I'm thinking that letting the man out symbolizes letting friends drift away, and electrocuting him symbolizes bringing those friends down with you/forcing them to stay.

The computer chat: This one was very obvious to me - it's about being silent about your suffering (whether it be due to stigma or personal relationships) and pretending to be okay. And even when you feel the words that will ask for help on the tip of your tongue, they are never spoken.

The shrimp: Hurting loved ones. The protagonist had a photo of his shrimps labeled "My babies", and he ended up eating them out of desperation. This, to me, symbolizes how suicide (an act of desperation) will ultimately hurt those you love, and you know it. But at the same time, you feel you have no remaining options.

The tasks: They embody the difficulty of living with depression. Everyday tasks that can usually be done effortlessly require plenty of effort. Simply getting out of bed and taking care of hygeine become difficult.

Boarded up windows/door: Isolation. You don't leave the house or socialize either because it's all too tiring or because you feel like you bring everyone around you down.

TV static: Existing with depression. Life that was once so colorful is now dull and meaningless. You do the same thing every day, and it's not worthwhile.

Books on the shelf: Trying to hide depression (the books can't be too neat or too messy, because they will look fake). It's difficult to pretend to feel something you're not every day.

... I probably missed some things, will update if I think of anything else. Opinions? Better interpretations?

[Fama]

Wow, great analysis!

[d_psionic]

"The man in the cage"

I guess he kidnapped and caged him to gain the control on him; the same control he doesn't have on his own life anymore. He ultimately decides to kill or free him, while his own suicide is not a choice (in fact it happens anyway)

[judah]

Originally posted by psionic:

"The man in the cage"

I guess he kidnapped and caged him to gain the control on him; the same control he doesn't have on his own life anymore. He ultimately decides to kill or free him, while his own suicide is not a choice (in fact it happens anyway)

Supposedly the man in the cage is the painter or something

[franthicc]

what about when the guy clean his microwave? i don't get that part...

man, i don't clearly understand this game but it took me a while to calm down after the game finished.

[d_psionic]

Originally posted by ellamaylind:

what about when the guy clean his microwave? i don't get that part...

Just doing usual and useless things before committing suicide. The suicide was already planned, the noose was already there, nevertheless he set an alarm in the middle of the night, peed, ate, chatted (well, kind of), cleaned a microwave, decided the fate of another man.

Why don't just kill himself? Once more I guess because this would imply a choice on his life. He planned the suicide to not be able to choose when to do that. He probably even set the "objectives" in his mind to complete before committing suicide...

[Orome]

There is a news leaflet on the fridge that talks about kidnapped person, Name: Jason Malone. In the room with paintings there are two painting that show the signature of the painter, J.Malone.
Also dunno if that has meaning behind it but on the middle wall there is one painting that is different, it shows the painters signature and the spot between trees shadows. It looks like it was scrached to me.

[Orome]

Dovahkaaz I would also like to add that there is a plant by the window that is still alive which implies that he was taking care of it, watering it and he probably boarded up the place not that long ago considering it needs sunlight to stay alive.

You start in place where you have to walk into a "cloud" thingy in order to become someone that is described to you, in two words: someone else. That is a line that distinguish the person in that "limbo" place from the person you can take control of. Most likely the person in limbo is you, you make the choice of who to take control/experience by using that cloud as a doorway considering the ending scene in limbo.

The shrimp by the man in the cage is spoiled, means he was in the for a while.

Also even though there are light switches in rooms the ceiling has no place where light bulb would go in the kitchen, laundry and corridor area. You can't interact with light switches. Is it something devoloper missed or it was intentional?

[BOYCOTT]

Originally posted by Orome:

Dovahkaaz I would also like to add that there is a plant by the window that is still alive which implies that he was taking care of it, watering it and he probably boarded up the place not that long ago considering it needs sunlight to stay alive.

honestly, i read that as more succumbing to paranoia and desperation, he knows eventually people will find out about his kidnapping, thus why the ending is forced on him by his previous actions.

[guybrush1220]

Your thread made me feel depressed. Good analysis I guess!

[evo]

Some things sound a bit overanalyzed. Other things left unexplained or rather unclear. I've seen ♥♥♥♥ and dealt with depression myself so this has 0 shock value to me and wasn't as "weird" (in this case, people mean unfamiliar) as some people claim it to be.

But hey it's better than anything I could ever do, as much as I love analyzing things, I don't bother with writing up lengthy articles that I don't think anyone cares about (yet when I post on a forum, my posts are way longer than average). So yea good job.

You didn't explain the ending though? The ending with the other "clouds". I suppose it means that there's many more out there with problems, that this guy isn't the only one but one out of many. Something like that.

[76561198073412613]

I'm depressed for more than 10 years, I feel the same as main character about friends (the feeling of not telling everything and not open, just a little saying things like "well, I don't care if I crash" or something that they think it's only a joke) even I also had shrimp aquariums (with red cherry and rili shrimps) but I didn't eat them!

I think the atmosphere in this game is about the "last day", the game is like a picture of a suicidal mind showing many things as actually it is and many others as metaphors.

First the main character sets up the clock alarm, I know what's living by night and sleep by day and if you don't have tasks like going to work or study the most probably is you don't set up an alarm ever, you just sleep when you feel you need it, also for eating and other things.

The chat, that's just a cry for help. I feel that way and I often go on IRC channels just to talk to strangers or write on forums like right now. This would sound quite weird but just a simple task like ordering food at McBurgers can become hard if you're social phobic like myself, but surprisingly writing a 2000 words post talking to total strangers and in a language that's not your native language could be easier.

The friends in the photo. Maybe it's my thought but their faces are not real but "what he sees". The main character took a photo from social media where their friends are happy (their body language tell us that but not their face expression) their faces show us all hate he feels to them. I can feel totally identified with that, I'm very sad when I enter in social medias and see people I know who is getting married, going on holidays, buying a new car or motorbike... then when I see myself, 28 years old, no job, no girlfriend, no future... two feelings round my head: killing myself or wishing bad to all them.

It is said social media could cause or worsen depression, it's a fact that looking to other's success make you compare to yourself, if you got 400 friends and many of them achieve 1 or 2 great things then you'll compare to your success and probably feel bad, or you just understand that all photos are telling "I'm better than you, please die, you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥".

I know chatting is different to social media depression, but talking to other that aren't depressive is very hard, they don't fully understand for example why you don't go out home, find a job or go on a travel, as far as they only can "help" is telling you "if you feel bad then stop feeling bad", like if you say a cancer patient "hey, stop having cancer, you can die because of it, stop it, man", that level of "healing words" is what depressives usually got from happy people.

The clean the microwave: I think that's representative of the "don't leave anything to be done". From WikiHow's How to recognize the warning sings of suicide:"Tying up loose ends." People planning suicide may take measures to settle their affairs before proceeding. This is a major warning sign, since someone tying up loose ends probably has a suicide plan in place. The main character cleans the microwave in order to not leaving it dirty, microwave is just metaphoric.

Also the fact to kidnapp the painter isn't meaningless. "Since suicidal people feel no reason to live, they may take risks that could lead to death, like driving recklessly or while impaired".

As far as I realised, all in this short game has sense.

[Dryunya]

Originally posted by Orome:

Also even though there are light switches in rooms the ceiling has no place where light bulb would go in the kitchen, laundry and corridor area. You can't interact with light switches. Is it something devoloper missed or it was intentional?

If you examine the grocery list, you can see that the guy kept forgetting to buy lightbulbs.

[Orome]

Originally posted by EvoSteven:

You didn't explain the ending though? The ending with the other "clouds". I suppose it means that there's many more out there with problems, that this guy isn't the only one but one out of many. Something like that.

I can try with that.
You see this game has two characters that you can control, of course we all know the one that wakes up at 3:22 once we walk into the cloud thing, but the other one is the person or thing in limbo where we get to choose to walk into that "doorway". So the person/thing in limbo is complitely different from the person who is going to suicide. After the suicide you being returned back in limbo in order to choose to experience someone else's last moment.

My theory is:
The person in limbo is you, the player. You decided to play this game and experience it.
If i am right and that place is limbo you are probably being judged, implying this has religious references.

[SタレTVENDOR]

Originally posted by psionic:

Originally posted by ellamaylind:

what about when the guy clean his microwave? i don't get that part...

Just doing usual and useless things before committing suicide. The suicide was already planned, the noose was already there, nevertheless he set an alarm in the middle of the night, peed, ate, chatted (well, kind of), cleaned a microwave, decided the fate of another man.

Why don't just kill himself? Once more I guess because this would imply a choice on his life. He planned the suicide to not be able to choose when to do that. He probably even set the "objectives" in his mind to complete before committing suicide...

he was finishing up, taking care of what he percieved as his loose ends. whether mundane, like cleaning the microwave- or more drastic, like what to do with the painter... they need to get done before the protagonist feels that things are ready.

*yellow pad, next to computer*

the protagonist's attempt at a suicide note, black scribbles through some telling half-sentences. "i cant tell whats real"

*chat with friends*
first off this isn't a "friend" its a phishing bot completely ignoring the conversation hes trying to have and asking for his credit card info.

where's the protagonist's mother? does he have any real friends left? in the note on the yellow pad its mentioned that dad passed away, but what about the siblings in the family photo?

depression is a disease of loneliness and isolation. its easy to distance oneself from those that care. and just as easy to push people away with obsessive behavior, constant grief, desperation.

the protagonist is desperately reaching out and failing. he tries to tell the "friend" (that doesnt exist) that he's having problems, and stops himself.

second, the options the protagonist has in the conversation further illustrate that reality is starting to wear thin. "i saw myself get decapitated by a shovel" or something? thats textbook dissasociative hallucination.

as someone who's struggled my whole life with depression and recently survived my own self-inflicted hanging (hence the name, 'ligature') this game hit me really hard. sadly his home reminded me of the dark, falling apart barn i had to live in for years. i know how it feels to withdraw from the world and let that isolation make you more and more unhealthy. simple tasks like keeping food in the refrigerator or remembering to buy lightbulbs become insurmountable feats. all the color and joy and love drains out of life. nothing tastes good, nothing feels good. love hurts. seeing other people happy makes you jealous. time distorts. things like night and day lose all meaning.

...i think the thing that messed with me most was eating the shrimp, knowing that the protagonist loved them.

i hung myself with my dog's leash, she's one of the only things thats kept me going for the last two years...

[SタレTVENDOR]

Originally posted by by.shaw.lee:

I'm depressed for more than 10 years, I feel the same as main character about friends (the feeling of not telling everything and not open, just a little saying things like "well, I don't care if I crash" or something that they think it's only a joke) even I also had shrimp aquariums (with red cherry and rili shrimps) but I didn't eat them!

I think the atmosphere in this game is about the "last day", the game is like a picture of a suicidal mind showing many things as actually it is and many others as metaphors.

First the main character sets up the clock alarm, I know what's living by night and sleep by day and if you don't have tasks like going to work or study the most probably is you don't set up an alarm ever, you just sleep when you feel you need it, also for eating and other things.

The chat, that's just a cry for help. I feel that way and I often go on IRC channels just to talk to strangers or write on forums like right now. This would sound quite weird but just a simple task like ordering food at McBurgers can become hard if you're social phobic like myself, but surprisingly writing a 2000 words post talking to total strangers and in a language that's not your native language could be easier.

The friends in the photo. Maybe it's my thought but their faces are not real but "what he sees". The main character took a photo from social media where their friends are happy (their body language tell us that but not their face expression) their faces show us all hate he feels to them. I can feel totally identified with that, I'm very sad when I enter in social medias and see people I know who is getting married, going on holidays, buying a new car or motorbike... then when I see myself, 28 years old, no job, no girlfriend, no future... two feelings round my head: killing myself or wishing bad to all them.

It is said social media could cause or worsen depression, it's a fact that looking to other's success make you compare to yourself, if you got 400 friends and many of them achieve 1 or 2 great things then you'll compare to your success and probably feel bad, or you just understand that all photos are telling "I'm better than you, please die, you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥".

I know chatting is different to social media depression, but talking to other that aren't depressive is very hard, they don't fully understand for example why you don't go out home, find a job or go on a travel, as far as they only can "help" is telling you "if you feel bad then stop feeling bad", like if you say a cancer patient "hey, stop having cancer, you can die because of it, stop it, man", that level of "healing words" is what depressives usually got from happy people.

The clean the microwave: I think that's representative of the "don't leave anything to be done". From WikiHow's How to recognize the warning sings of suicide:"Tying up loose ends." People planning suicide may take measures to settle their affairs before proceeding. This is a major warning sign, since someone tying up loose ends probably has a suicide plan in place. The main character cleans the microwave in order to not leaving it dirty, microwave is just metaphoric.

Also the fact to kidnapp the painter isn't meaningless. "Since suicidal people feel no reason to live, they may take risks that could lead to death, like driving recklessly or while impaired".

As far as I realised, all in this short game has sense.

+1, all of this. same here. social media is something i try to minimize, it hurts. i have so much trouble getting myself outside... there are PEOPLE out there. lol and thats why i pull 80hrs a week in tf2....