A Definitive list of the Endings(spoilers)

[FragmentalStew]

I did a little digging, and a ridiculous amount of time in-game and I've come up with a list of Endings that I think is accurate.



Edit3: I found another ending. That makes 5.
There are two cutscenes. Leaving on the boat, and getting killed by Monad.

1. Talk to Monad on the internet one time, and then leave on the boat after she tells you to.

2. Talk to Monad on the internet twice, and get killed by her.

3. Save Ivan, and then get caught by a Typer, that turns into Monad and then kills you.

4. Save Ivan, talk to Pixie, and then leave on the boat when Pixie tells you to.

(Added)5. After starting the "hacker tests" at the lodge, do not complete the tests. Instead, go outside the front door where you will find Monad. Talk to her and agree to be her test subject. Meet Monad the next morning inside the lobby of the Ministry building. She will take you to the test chamber. Once you talk to her initially, in the lobby, talking to her again my cause her to glitch out. I think maybe it happens if you talk to her at about the same time she's trying to say something else. Instead of letting the game end, you can save yourself and continue playing, but I don't know if this affects anything else in the game.

None of these endings feel particularly satisfying to me.

I think simply adding a different cutscene for the "Save Ivan, leave on boat" ending would have been at least mildly more rewarding, and might have indicated to people that that was the ideal ending, even if there is no happy ending. Maybe a scene with Ivan looking off the boat or a bit of story text on screen, or something? Or maybe some sign of gratitude from the characters?

There's a lot of fun things you can do to essentially break the game so you can continue playing after saving Ivan, but there is no additional dialog or any other reward built into the game. Which is another thing, you get all these god-like powers just in time to not need them any more. It's a really interesting sandbox, and there are a lot of cool things you can do with it and the use of actual objects to actualize object oriented programming is pretty amazing once you get it figured out, but I wish there were more in-game rewards for using those powers towards the end of the game.

More dialogue, in general, would have been great imo, perhaps even dialogue between npcs to make the game seem more alive(even if they repeat themselves, sometimes). There are a lot of things I think could have been done t make the game feel more alive, and further develop the characters, but I'm getting off topic, and I think I've said enough.

Edit: I just found a sort of easter egg, or maybe bug? If you wait long enough after the boat credits roll(before or after saving Ivan), you will eventually find yourself back on the boat, at the dock. It probably takes 1-2 hours for this to happen.
Afaik, nothing will have changed from when you got on the boat, though. So, if you were running away from Monad, she will be there to kill you. And if you do it earlier, then you may not be able to get back on the boat and launch the end credits again; instead you will just find yourself inside the boat.

Edit 2: If you find a way to stop all 5 Typers long enough to talk with Pixie outside the boat she does thank you for everything you've done, which is nice.

I found a few ways to stop the end. The first was to continuously "ZapPersonGently" all the Typers. I had to modify the computer to run infinitely first. However, eventually the loop will stop, and the Typers will get you. I don't know why; it just seems to happen.
So, instead I figured out how to move people into a suitcase and moved all 5 Typers there. This seems to stop them from catching you, indefinitely. There's not really much left to do so it doesn't serve much of a purpose, but it was fun to do.

Edit 4: Additionally, if you can find a way to have just a little bit more time to talk to Pixie as she's standing outside the boat, she does thank you, which is something.

[Niet de AIVD]

It seems saving Ivan is as simple as making sure his corruption is kept low. I basically created a script that sets his corruption to 0 every second. The game thought that I had destroyed the heart.

[Sparkette]

I saw a function on a screwdriver to set the maximum execution time on a computer; there's an option to make it infinity. Try hacking a screwdriver to do that and using it on a computer and see if that keeps the loop going forever.

Also, are there any hints in the game that you're supposed to do Connect("Heart").Break(), other than the title of the game? I just suddenly got the idea to do that because I figured there was no way the devs wouldn't have made that do something, but it seems like I missed something because in-universe I don't see any reason Sebastian would think to try that. I mean, he can see that there's a computer called "Heart", but I don't see where he'd get "Break()" from.

[FragmentalStew]

Originally posted by flarn2006:

Also, are there any hints in the game that you're supposed to do Connect("Heart").Break(), other than the title of the game? I just suddenly got the idea to do that because I figured there was no way the devs wouldn't have made that do something, but it seems like I missed something because in-universe I don't see any reason Sebastian would think to try that. I mean, he can see that there's a computer called "Heart", but I don't see where he'd get "Break()" from.

When you reach the computer that connects to the heart, there is some sort of indication on that computer. I can't remember exactly what it says. "else Heart." maybe?

[FCC]

On reflection, I get why flarn2006 would be confused about why Sebastian would have motivation to break the heart. Sure, technically it's because the Heart is keeping Ivan on the Internet, but why would all players want to help Ivan beyond advancing the story?


Mechanically I do remember that it's pretty obvious *how* to break the heart, but not *why*

[FragmentalStew]

Because Sebastian cares about Pixie and Pixie cares about Ivan?

[FCC]

Originally posted by FragmentalStew:

Because Sebastian cares about Pixie and Pixie cares about Ivan?

I suppose there's something to be said about the characters following their own motivations rather than yours. Kinda like how the collection of dialog options hint at the fact that Sebastian's real age is 20, based on the Petra's party dialog*. So he's technically lying if you choose to say he's 21 to the bouncer at Bar Yvonne.

*edit: I misremembered, this actually happens when you talk to Petra after stalking Pixie. And I got the details about the Bouncer conversation wrong (he only asks if you're 18+). See below for elaboration. @_@

[FragmentalStew]

Oh, haha. I never caught that about him lying to get into the bar.

[FCC]

The story implementation really is a mess most of the time, but it's little details like that are unexpectedly charming. Going through the scripts, you get the impression that there was this story that Erik specifically wanted to tell, but the systems inevitably fumble the execution.

For that specific example, the player has to choose to ask Petra what's Pixie's age after stalking the latter
(what player would choose that option? It's kind of the cringey choice. :) ),
where then you get the detail that Pixie is 24 and Sebastian is only 20.

Your comment about Sebastian's motivation of possibly helping Ivan to help Pixie reminded me that there's a possible interpretation of Sebastian being an emotionally clumsy kid, and that he's not necessarily supposed to be mature.

Spoiler FOR REALS:
Translation file: Petra_AfterStalking.eng.mtf (I misremembered the context earlier)

(edited for clarity - FCC)
Sebastian:
"Jag tänkte på en sak med Pixie förresten" => "I was thinking about Pixie by the way"

Petra:
"Ja?" => "Yes?"

(Player selects this option)
Sebastian:
"Hur gammal är hon?" => "How old is she?"

Petra:
"24" => "24"
"Lika gammal som jag" => "Same age as me"
"Hurså?" => "Why?"

(branch? can't remember)
Sebastian:
"Lite nyfiken" => "Just curious"

Petra
"Märker det" => "I can tell"

(if this is the other branch point, player chooses this option to get Sebastian's age)
Sebastian:
"Nej jag undrade bara om vi var lika gamla" => "No, I was just wondering if we're the same age"
"Men jag är bara 20" => "But I'm only 20"

Petra:
"Oj, det var inte mycket!" => "Oh, you're just a baby!"


(Then below, I believe this is the alternative dialog choice instead of asking for Pixie's age. I remember that I typically chose this option when actually playing the game, and would completely miss the previous branch. Or you can ask why Pixie is with Ivan, etc.)
Sebastian:
"Vad är det för ställe hon jobbar på?" => "What kinda place is it, where she works I mean?"

[FCC]

And of course going back to check, I got a few details wrong:

The Bouncer only asks you if you are over 18. That you can say you are not yet 18 is kinda funny continuity-wise, as that makes Sebastian *super* young for Pixie. ;p

Also, drinking age appears to be 18 in Sweden, so I erroneously built up the fiction in my head as an American (over here, drinking age is 21 in most states.). So there's no problem with Sebastian going to bars if you take his canonical age to be 20.

http://travel.cnn.com/10-things-about-sweden-256186/
"You have to be 20 years or older to buy in stores, though in Swedish bars and restaurants the drinking age is 18."

[Wild Pork]

Originally posted by FCC:

On reflection, I get why flarn2006 would be confused about why Sebastian would have motivation to break the heart. Sure, technically it's because the Heart is keeping Ivan on the Internet, but why would all players want to help Ivan beyond advancing the story?


Mechanically I do remember that it's pretty obvious *how* to break the heart, but not *why*

Was the Heart keeping Ivan on the internet? when I gave him the drink, he walked off to the computer which he Slurped to a Plaza Fuse box to go back to reality. I then went to destroy the Heart because Albert and his partner told me that Monad's computer must be destroyed.