Masochisia "Decoded"

In this guide we are going to "decode" Masochisia so as to let you fully appreciate the art of it, by allowing you to understand the true story behind the game and how the story is, literally, "coded". Before you read this, make sure you have gone through the entire game or watched a walkthrough of it from beginning to end. AND READ THE FOREWORD!

! READ THIS FOREWORD !

I originally reviewed the game as NOT recommended, but that was only due to the bug in Act V that got me (and apparently a lot of other players) stuck. Afterwards I watched a YouTube walkthrough of the whole thing and still I did not particularly enjoy the gameplay.

Why I'm posting this "decoding" of Masochisia, however, is because the immersion of the true story behind the game turned out genuinely intriguing. I'm giving all credits to SkyLarkin because I'm posting her "Masochisia Decoded" video on YouTube, which gives us pretty much all the information and context you will need to genuinely appreciate Masochisia as an impressive and truly chilling work of art, whether or not you actually enjoyed it as an "adventure game". I'm posting her video here since I don't see anyone discussing about it on Steam, but I believe that the research she's made would be really, really helpful.

What I myself am going to do is not much, because the motivation for me to post this guide is almost entirely by SkyLarkin, so all credits go to her. I'm only trying to organise her "decoding" in writing here because I thought I could provide her findings in words for those who prefer to read than watch. However, if you do prefer to watch a YouTube video, watch the video embedded below. The contents I'm going to show in text will pretty much be the same anyway. If there's anything in this guide I need to give extra credits to other sources, I'll use footnotes throughout the guide. Oh and lastly, a SERIOUS disclaimer:

Both the video and this guide contains major spoilers of the game, and not only that, the content is ONLY INTENDED FOR A MATURE AUDIENCE, and I mean it. If you are under-aged or if you don't think you can cope much with horrors that REALLY did happen, do NOT play the game, watch the video nor read this guide. Close this right now.

And for those who want to go on, please, please make sure you've gone through the whole game beforehand. Otherwise you won't be able to appreciate the art of it.


If you prefer to watch, here goes the very informative video as mentioned:

And if you prefer to read, read on.

Decoding

Hexadecimal Codes

There have been many, literally, codes in the game, as is apparently seen on the tree trunk:



which is only an example of many more (e.g. in Walter's room and at where you get to kill Billy). Now, if you do pay attention, you'll find that such codes exist not only from within the game, but also from the without.

Consider the game description on the Steam store page. Reading these codes as hexadecimal values (referring to a 16-based numbering system of 0-9 and then A through F), which, translated to its ASCII (the American Standard Code for Information Interchange)[en.wikipedia.org] equivalent, goes like this:



Using the same transliteration for the code on the tree trunk (44 45 41 44), the word "DEAD" is seen in Hamilton's backyard where he first saw Albert, his elder brother, who eventually had himself revealed as dead later in the game. In Act V, "FLESHEATER" can be read on the furthest left side where you kill Billy and tear him to bits. More and more hex-codes appear in the final act where you get to see Grace, reading "DO YOU REMEMBER THE TASTE", "KILL", "TAKE", "EAT" and "NOW TAKE HER".




The hidden message suggested is pretty clear: the player is a sadistic cannibal - he kills and eats children.

The True Story

Now that we've grasped how to decode Masochisia with the ASCII index[en.wikipedia.org], we're able to crack lots of clues and gather pieces of information. We begin to unveil the true story behind the game with the help of a first major clue: the main screen. The hex-codes (46, 49, 53, 48) in the hexagon read, curiously, "FISH"; whereas those on the sides are both dates.



Piecing all these clues together - the hexagonal shape in the main screen and the hexagonal cursor itself, the cracking of codes from hexadecimal to glyphs through ASCII, and the messages these glyphs infer - it's not hard to Google and find a guy named Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish[en.wikipedia.org], a serial killer who lived between the dates as deciphered above.

If you go into that link above, you'll realise that Masochisia had numerous allusions to the Hamilton in real life. For instance:

The Name(s)

The real life Hamilton - Hamilton Fish - was also known as 'the Gray Man' [Footnote 1]. Meanwhile he "wished to be known as 'Albert' after a dead sibling and to escape the nickname 'Ham & Eggs'"
[2]. Remember when the protagonist in Masochisia was mostly named 'Hamilton', but also 'Albert' when he converses with a psychiatrist, whose shape resembles the Gray Man in the game?




Albert Fish was also known as "the Werewolf of Wysteria" [3]. In Masochisia, we come across a werewolf as well, when Hamilton was in an afflicted mental condition.



SkyLarkin had a sharp eye in noticing that 'Frank Howard', an alias that Albert Fish had used in real life, was available as an option in-game during the protagonist's conversation with Billy.

The Family

Fish's family had a history of mental illness [4]. He had a brother named Walter, who (probably was the one instead of the other, Edwin, that) was "confined in a mental state hospital" [5], and his mother "had aural and/or visual hallucinations" [6]. The presence of Walter and the Mother in Masochisia is apparently in line with what the real Hamilton - Albert Fish - had to face.

The Needles

Recall that in Masochisia, Hamilton would stab needles into his own palm. This very much echoes the self-harm of the real-life Albert Fish. An X-ray of Fish's pelvis and perineum, embedded with needles, was introduced as evidence at his trial which we will later discuss [7]. In real life, Fish would "embed needles into his groin and abdomen", and after his arrest, X-rays "revealed that Fish had at least 29 needles lodged in his pelvic region" [8].

'The Implements of Hell', Billy and Grace

As his perversities escalate, Fish resorted to torture, mutilation and murder of young children [9]. Such deeds were committed with his "implements of Hell" - yes, exactly the three items given to the Guardian in Masochisia - a meat cleaver, a butcher's knife and a small handsaw [10]. These tools were used in Fish's murder of 4-year-old Billy Gaffney, who was tore into pieces and eaten by Albert Fish - matching our very (game) experience in Masochisia [11].

Grace Budd, another victim killed by Albert Fish, was the one who had her case bringing Fish to arrest, and was the first child Fish claimed to have cut into pieces and eaten. He even confessed in a letter to her parents that her bottom was "the sweetest part of the body" [12].




Yes. All of it was true. The 'implements of Hell' really existed, and the atrocities mentioned really did happen.

The Hex

Remember we mentioned earlier that Albert Fish had confessed the killing of Grace Budd in a letter to her parents? The thing is, the envelope of the letter had an emblem in the shape of a hexagon with the letters around it, 'N.Y.P.C.B.A'. This is what we will deal with finally: the numerous appearances of the hexagonal shape and the letters 'N.Y.P.C.B.A'. These letters are shown in many important occasions in-game, for instance, on the corners of the hexagon in the main screen. Even the cursor itself is a hexagon. (Forgive me for posting SkyLarkin's screenshots as I myself couldn't get them due to the Act V bug.)




What the acronym stands for is 'New York Private Chauffer's Benevolent Association' [13], which does not itself relate much to Albert Fish, except that he had left stationery from this company called NYPCBA at a place he had rented. That is pretty much the most random clue, but its many appearances in-game allows us to find the relevance between the game Masochisia and the brutal events that actually happened in real life.

Hamilton 'Albert' Fish was put on trial in 1935 for the murder of Grace Budd, where he pleaded insanity, claimed that he heard voices from God telling him to kill children, and had several psychiatrists testify his sexual fetishes [14]. Yet all jurors found him to be sane and guilty, and the judge ordered the death sentence [15]. Albert Fish was executed on the electric chair on January 16, 1936 [16].

Footnotes

Basically, almost all my sources are secondary, from either SkyLarkin or Wikipedia. Here I list the primary ones that are stated on the Wikipedia page "Albert Fish"[en.wikipedia.org], in case anyone finds a bibliography helpful. The primary sources here are the furthest I can dig, so do forgive me if any information goes missing.

1. The World's 20 Worst Crimes: True Stories of 20 Killers and Their 1000 Victims by Kate Kray.
   
   
2. Credits to Deranged: The True Shocking Story of America's Most Fiendish Killer by Harold Schechter, as well as to the Crime Library archive[web.archive.org] of Albert Fish.
   
   
3. Same as [1].
   
   
4. Same as [2].
   
   
5. Same as above.
   
   
6. Same as above.
   
   
7. From the public domain.
   
   
8. Credits to the Crime Library archive again.
   
   
9. Credits to the New York Times's article[www.nytimes.com], the Crime Library Archive and Cannibalism: the last taboo! by Brian Marriner, 1992.
   
   
10. Credits to Albert Fish: The Life & Crimes of One of America's Most Deranged Killers by Troy Taylor, 2004.
    
    
11. To the Crime Library.
    
    
12. Same as above.
    
    
13. To The Serial Killers by Colin Wilson and Donald Seaman, 2004.
    
    
14. To Deranged by Harold Schechter.
    
    
15. To another New York Times article[www.nytimes.com] dated January 17, 1936.
    
    
16. Same as above.

[paran0ique]

Wish I'd known all of that before starting the game
It's brilliant

[Macedoine666]

thx