Or at least, what I think happens, according to the evidence provided.
SIGNALIS is the most narratively dense video game I've ever encountered. A lot of the time, when we say writing in a game is good, it's because it's evocative or emotionally affecting. SIGNALIS does those things, but it also crafts its story with overlapping layers of meaning while offering, to its infinite credit, as little exposition as possible. What we're left with is a game that can tell a fascinating story with almost no exposition, where an image or a gesture can stand in for two dozen lines of dialog - but it isn't just vibes with no substance. There is a concrete underlying plot that uses its obscurity to draw the player in and invite them to consider what it all means.
This indie survival horror game tells the story of Elster, a bioroid technician who awakens on a crashed spaceship - and then again in a mining facility on another world. Through her electronic eye, we are given a glimpse into a dystopian future wracked with war and a bizarre outbreak that is turning her fellow Replikas into monstrous husks. Trapped in a waking nightmare, we can only hope we're not too late to find Ariane.
Or was it Alina? I can't remember...
All music used is from the game except:
Cry of Fear OST - Brandon
Fear & Hunger 2: Termina OST - Memories, Ashes of War, Alone Prehevil, Save Room, Desperation
Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum - Army of One, Breakpoint
屠洪刚 (Tu Honggang) - Red Sun in the Sky
And Auferstanden Aus Ruinen, the anthem of East Germany
Special thanks to all the patrons over at https://www.patreon.com/c/Worm_Girl
Reddit thread with the two solved ciphers and some of the associated text: https://www.reddit.com/r/signalis/comments/yrw9bw/spoilers_i_deciphered_most_of_the_illegible/
0:00:00 wake up.
0:09:00 Intro
0:10:29 Sierpinski B1 - Reeducation
0:14:36 Meeting STAR
0:17:50 Meeting Isa
0:20:45 Sierpinski B2 - Worker Accommodations
0:27:16 Meeting STCR
0:30:36 Rotfront Interplanetar Station 06
0:34:03 Sierpinski B3-B4 - Hospital Wing
0:41:10 The Outbreak
0:42:25 Meeting EULR
0:51:40 Train Ride (The Way Home)
0:53:50 Mynah
0:55:28 Meeting ADLR
0:56:25 Mandelbrot Polytechnical High School
0:58:58 Sierpinski B6-B9 - Service, Staff, Admin
1:16:39 Meeting FLKR
1:25:06 Meeting ARAR
1:48:36 Meeting KLBR
2:03:25 The Mine
2:05:45 Meeting MNHR
2:07:48 Love Lies Bleeding
2:11:43 Nowhere
2:16:47 Nue
2:28:39 Emptiness (The False Ending)
2:35:56 wake up.
2:43:40 Standchen
2:45:05 Do you remember our promise?
2:52:31 And now, Rotfront
2:56:50 Not meeting KNCR :(
3:28:18 Forgive me (Isa)
3:59:47 Ariane's Room
4:17:24 Falke
4:22:20 Ending 1 (Promise)
4:45:47 Ending 2 (Leave)
4:50:08 Ending 3 (Memory)
5:14:38 Timeline
5:46:54 The King in Yellow
6:03:55 The Final Route
6:13:18 Ending 4 (Lily)
6:28:13 Patron Credits
6:35:59 Kkachi Kkachi Seollal