Can somebody explain to me the lore of this game?

[Bazim]

I just finished it and I really did not get it.

[GIRL]

I just finished it too. Also after looking at other people's explanations, there's really only a couple ways you can read it, I think. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

Interpretation 1: What Ognin/the Voice say at the end of the game is true, and everything you've been experiencing is a total illusion. The entire island of Granichny is a sort of "dream world," made by Ognin, for an unknown purpose. Either he made it so that war can end - essentially pouring all of humanity's violence into Granichny so that nobody else has to die to war - or just because he's mad himself.

All of the story, the quests, the monsters you've killed, and all the characters... are all just manifestations of Ognin's thoughts. You, the Volunteer, are just another of his thoughts. If what he said is true, you're a nagging idea in the back of his mind to "undo" what he did, and bring the world back to how it was. But seeing as how your character kills himself after hearing this explanation, we can assume that's Ognin finally choosing to get rid of that idea. Of course, you just wake up the next day, so maybe he can never truly get rid of you? Or once you wake up again, you simply represent a different thought. Maybe Ognin just appreciated how strong you were, and wanted to keep you around for pure amusement.

Interpretation 2: What you actually saw and did was real, but you go mad at the end. Obviously, being on Granichny has made tons of other people go mad. Your character has been in countless life-or-death situations, endured anomalies and has been in close proximity to moss (the green stuff), so it's possible you were just slowly going mad all along.

Right before you met Ognin, you totally lost it, and the entire ending sequence is an illusion - except in this interpretation, it's the only illusion you see, the rest of what you did actually mattered. Elenora and 400 are actually gone, and maybe Ognin is gone too, but there's no way to tell. "The voice" aka Ognin, and the ghostly face thing in Ognin's room, could just be a manifestation of your insanity. In the end, after realizing you're going insane and having no hope left, you shoot yourself in the head, knowing you'll just become another Madman like the others.

There is a 3rd explanation too, but I think it has too many logic gaps to make sense. And I doubt it's what the devs had in mind, anyways.

Interpretation 3: Granichny isn't an illusion, and everything is real, but the state of Granichny isn't entirely Ognin's fault. Ognin stumbled upon some kind of... force, or some sort of paranormal entity (the voice), and tried to use it to better mankind. His experiments on/with it resulted in the island turning into what it is. It turned humans into mutants and anomalies, like Alice. Despite all of this, Ognin keeps experimenting in the hope that he'll find a solution (based on what he says in the end cutscene about never giving up on his goals).

In this interpretation, Ognin is alive right up until the final mission. When he sees that the Volunteer is coming for him, he realizes he's going to die, the truth is going to get out, and all his work will be for nothing. So he either kills himself before you reach him, or turns himself into an anomaly (possibly the ghostly face in his room?). You never get the chance to kill him yourself, and he instead uses his anomalous powers to mind-control you into thinking everything is an illusion, and ultimately taking your own life.

There's lots of problems with this last theory, but I really wish this was the actual truth. I think it's way more interesting than what we got (which I'm pretty sure is just Interpretation 1). The main issue is explaining how the Volunteer wakes up, after supposedly dying, but I guess we could just make up some excuse like, "He actually survived the gunshot wound and Ognin used his magical ghost powers to heal you and transport you back to your room."

Like I said, I think it's too far-fetched to work. You obviously just woke up in your room because this is a video game, and you want to keep playing. Trying to explain that part with lore is pointless.

[Bazim]

Thank you very much