[Spoilers] Can someone explain the damn story to me?

[Mandolinian]

I've played through this game twice and got two different endings, and I still don't get it.

I think I get the basic idea of it, but the names are so confusing, and the bits of exposition between chapters don't make it clear at which point in the timeline the exposition is discussing.

Basically, at some point, humans from Earth, with the use of advance technology, somehow stumbled upon the world Hammerfight takes place in, some experiment involving the "singing" gems went wrong and started turning some bloodline, some, "family" of people, into the flying monsters that you have to fight in the game that come out of the slowly advancing fog.

So the humans built Seraph(?), the giant red tentacle computer, at the core of the Abyss, to "fold" the Abyss, basically bend space-time, to trap as much of the, "Family", down there as possible to save that world, but in the process, genocide-running House Gaiar. That AI, Seraph(?), then also built all those red flying machines, other AIs, to defend against the monsters and keep watch long after the Earth humans left.

Fast forward to some mythical period about 300 years before the start of the game, and, "everyone were equals until this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Gaiar king decided to smackdown some people and create the first nation," ruining everything, for everyone, forever.

The Gaiar people discovered the parts from the AI flying machines, salvaged them, and made their own Leonardo Da Vinci-esque flying machines with the scrap parts, which is how they did their conquest those 300 years ago.

fast-forward 300 years, and you, the Last Gaiar, are forced to see your people genocided again by the Emperor's men (can't remember his name, I just call him the Emperor), so you go fight up through the ranks and commit a couple of high-profile assassinations, to get to the Emperor with the intention of killing him too.

But the Emperor reveals that he doesn't really hate your people, he just knows your people are the best damn fighters in all of the world, and wanted to kill them so he could draw out the best fighter they have, their lone survivor (which is you), and recruit him to help kill whatever he thinks is in the Abyss that's creating the monsters (which he thinks is Seraph(?)), before the fog gets too close, and the kingdom is overran by monsters.

Either you join him and charge into the abyss with weapons and backup, or you keep rebelling, and get tossed down there anyways without your weapons.

If you choose to join him (I chose this on the 2nd playthrough): You go and kill the tentacle computer without hearing its side of the story, putting an end to the onslaught of robots, but trapping yourself in the Abyss and leaving humanity to fend for itself against the Family.

If you reject him (I chose this on the 1st playthrough): You get tossed into the Abyss and have to work with some guy your character doesn't like, and get to hear the tentacle computer's side of the story. Seraph(?) then explains that he was built by the humans from Earth, and had to kill the Gaiar people who resided in the Abyss so he could fold it and keep the Family at bay, and that killing him would be a very bad idea mmmkay.

If you reject Squidward (I haven't tried this yet): You kill him and still end up trapped in the Abyss like if you served the Emperor.

If you accept Squidward into your heart as your lord and savior (I chose this): You help lead an legion of robots to the surface to slaughter the emperor and his men, destroy his empire, probably enslave all of humanity, and save humanity from the Family.


Either way, you team up with one person who at one point Adolf Hitler'd your people, to kill another person who Adolf Hitler'd your people.

Unless you reject both the Emperor and Squidbot's offer, which doesn't change much from the very first real option in the game (joining the Emperor) because you still end up doing EXACTLY WHAT THE EMPEROR WANTED YOU TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE.



This still begs the questions:

- What happened to the first humans?

- If the Emperor wanted you to fight the machines and Squidward, then why did he send a bunch of AI flying machines alongside his own men to kill your people?

- What the actual ♥♥♥♥ is the timeline of all this?

- Are there plot holes? I feel like there's some plot holes.

- Like why the ♥♥♥♥ were some of the robots participating in the Hammerball games?

- How close am I?

[Dewski]

what a weird game.. might have to play this again lol

[RagingCombine]

I played the game twice as well, one time denying the Emprah, another one siding with him. 1). 2) Remember, people were salvaging remains of the machines for hundreds of years. They designed their crafts on remains of the machine technology. Well, seems like humans were able to restore limited amount of "drone swarm controllers"-like technology, from remains of machine-'lieutenants', which allowed them to reverse engineer the technology and allowed to control small swarms of the machines. It is 100% my version, based only on logic of the world 3). 4) explained above: either reverse engineered, or captured machines, who maintain some level of self-awareness. It doesn't sound impossible after they managed to capture whole ravageous calmar-crab of the Abbyss, alive, for the same purpose. 5) you catched the general Idea. I had no finale choosing the machine's side, as in both my walkthroughs I killed him. And I didnt had an other option. Somehow I didnt even had choice not to kill the AI and listen to him.. Apparently, he had a big valuable chunk of history inside of his positronic brain...

[Unknown Traveller]

Allow me unveil the mystery; I have the Great Belief that the Hammerfight takes place in the same universe as other cult classic Russian games - Vangers and Perimeter.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/264080/Vangers/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/289440/Perimeter/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/289240/Perimeter_Emperors_Testament/

Although, as if this has not been officially confirmed. Perhaps. But I believe I'm right!

Knowledge about that universe and such terms as "Spirits", "Chain of Worlds" and "Family" (name of insectoid race) can really help to better understand the final dialogue with Seraph.