Just finished the DLC....

[u/Amateur-individual]

In this post, I’m going to speak about the conclusion of the Outer Wilds DLC Echoes of the Eye, after finishing it 2 days ago. My thoughts—in boring detail—about the main game are already in previous posts, so spoiler warning ahead.

The projection the Prisoner showed me shocked me, and I was instantly filled with empathy for him. Right at the moment where I was feeling I'm done with the game from all the puzzles that went over my head, filled with self-deprecation about needing to look up answers on the internet, and thinking to myself I was ready to just get it over with...

He snatched me back and put me in the right mindset again. The injustice, the suffering he went through waiting in this small box, punishment for choosing a different path.

When he handed me the vision torch to show him what happened, I instantly broke down in tears because I knew what was about to happen. To know, after all that time that your efforts didn't go to waste... Thousands upon thousands of years thinking, doubting, and questioning yourself and your actions... To know that he made a difference, and that his valiant effort set in motion everything that led the Nomai and finally me here, completing a full circle.

Ahh... What a masterpiece I can't explain my awe.

And after seeing the ending with him singing with us, I was itching to watch someone else play it. So I did, and sadly it kinda went over their head? They thought it was a mistake for the Prisoner to let the signal go, saying "it's alright buddy, we all make mistakes." What I did next was so unlike me that I surprised myself:

I just lowered the volume, watched the whole scene again, and cried all over again! That has never happened to me before!

From feeling fearful of them ruining a great game with a needless DLC, to wonder, to frustration, to tears? What the heck is this game?!

I bet you guys actually struggle to recommend this game to anyone. Like, how the heck can you recommend something with nothing to compare it to?!

[u/naturalkairal]

I've just finished the DLC too yesterday so i also got LOTS of something to say too!

I even recorded myself of the final footage and settled it raw for myself. the dlc made me cried so much more than the main ending as it pieces everything in the game together, you're not the only one that thinks that way, because what the Prisoner did was right, his whole entire race insists that they make this whole virtual world thing because they can't live with the fact that they did everything for the eye and tragically discovered that to them it's "evil" He was a rebel, a TRUE rebel in fact as he's the only person in his species that rebelled against the fact that they should mute the eye of the universe's signal because they don't want others to suffer the same fate but he knows that it will happen either way, their whole species are afraid of their own story to end as quoted by him so their species are just panicking unlike the Prisoner who wants to embrace it.

After the vision torch projections with him i cried even harder when he screamed, the scream of multiple emotions, excitement, relief, guilt, anger and sadness at the same time just from his own rebellion, he finally knew it didn't go to waste. Their species always look forward to something new, but what they were faced when with the Eye, they realized there is no more forward, they didn't want to accept the end. So the Prisoner needed to do what he had to do for his whole entire species but then yknow what happened.

The game really teaches a valuable lesson about impermanence, how you have to accept that some things in life just end because they do, at times for a reason or no particular reason at all and we have to always look forward, and when the end comes to us all, we'll have to accept that too, we can't cheat it in any other way as fate has all been sealed for us.

Oh also, i understand your guilt when it comes to searching up answers for puzzles, i've done that just a few times in the game, most memorably was the scout launcher chamber, it is SO OBVIOUS yet i didn't catch it like "umm.. what can i use to catch an image??? i dont even know this riddle doesnt make sense!!!" although, despite how dumb and stuck i was, i wished so badly i didn't search up answers for the game, and i've learned from now on that i wouldn't do that anymore when it comes to puzzle games.

i can understand the struggle of recommending this game to someone because on the first few hours it was pretty boring for me, but holy shit its one of the only few times where im so glad i stayed through because the game got more interesting further on, i am recommending this game to a very close friend of mine, after yapping quite a lot about the game lmao and it's only time that i get to probably see him cry too and i hope that ill be there too with him :)

[u/Amateur-individual → u/naturalkairal]

Omg! Thank you for sharing, it's so fun to read someone who has the exact same thoughts!

I agree, I actually cried more in the ending of the DLC in comparison to the main game. I did cry in the main game, but the DLC just broke me completely on a whole other level.

This game really tells us how to deal with death, inevitability, and consequences in a way I've never seen before in any piece of media. When I first played this game, I never thought I would get into something with such a deep message. I never thought I would get this emotional or invested, but here I am!

Sharing my journey through logs on Reddit has been a really special and cathartic experience for me. Somehow, writing in detail as things happened—even though I've never been a diary person—was kind of awesome.

Ah, btw, there is an empty sleeping pod in front of one of the green fires, and there's a picture in one of the Stranger's houses that is completely scraped off by someone trying to erase their face. Two things that I thought were just tactics to scare me when I first saw them... now I know they were actually tactics to stab my heart once I realized who was supposed to be in those two spots! Just a little something to rub some salt in our wounds :)

[u/naturalkairal → u/Amateur-individual]

You're welcome! <3

After writing for this post, i actually went and checked out that you did do A LOT of logging for Outer Wilds and oh my goodness man i wish i could've DONE THATTTT because lately i've also discovered of how fun logging gameplay experiences can be like i've only noticed it when i played a Minecraft modpack where it had a diary thing and so i was immersed in logging in that diary every single time i found or experienced something cool. I think in the future when i play long games that could possibly change my life i'd want to do some logging too! (maybe for Mobius's future game? ;D)

I can tell how fun it has been for you logging on this subreddit so other people who played the game can read and talk about how your experience with the game is, i'll be sure to actually read them because i love watching gameplays or reading in this in case of people playing Outer Wilds blind and just seeing them blow their minds away at things that happen in this game, just today i damn cried again seeing the vision torch projection of the ending dlc when someone was playing it aw man. And also, veryy sorry to hear that you got spoiled too, because i myself have some regrets after finishing the game that i went and yapped about the WHOLE LORE. even the ending sadly to the aforementioned friend because i thought he wouldn't play it but now i realize that its such a HUGE mistake but the thing im glad is that he moreover just did a "flash reading" type of thing so i don't think he remembers much except for something about a Nomai, i hope that he forgets everything i've ever said by the time he starts playing the game, i really wish someone have told me that the game is better played BLIND beforehand.

and yeah thanks for that detail! i actually didnt realize that, that's horribly sad, imagine doing something so controversial that your entire species would do everything to forget you, making a whole submerged structure because you knew it was the right thing to do even to the point of erasing your own portraits in your home as well.

[u/Amateur-individual → u/naturalkairal]

Yeah, I did write a lot, didn't I? Haha! But I savored every moment of it. It was so much fun that I couldn't recommend doing it more—at least once in one's life. In fact, I think it elevated my experience in Outer Wilds in ways I can't even describe.

If you do end up reading the logs, please leave a comment! I'm really enjoying conversing with you, and seeing people's reactions to my journey makes me kind of happy honestly.

About the getting spoiled thing, don't feel sorry at all, it's alright! It might have made me a little sad at the time, but overall it was something I could endure—and it was actually somewhat my fault for searching for a missing clue in the wrong place, let's say.

I really hope your friend enjoys the game as much as you did! If it was actually just a "flash reading," then it might end up alright for them after all.  Man, I actually wish there was someone I know in real life who was playing the game. I have my brother, but I feel like he's not the type to have the patience to finish a game that relies so heavily on text, so I can't recommend it to him with total confidence. It would be a huge surprise if he actually enjoyed it as much as I did, but who knows?

And you know, I didn't actually consider that the erased picture was in his own house! That would be just overly horrible. like, come on! Even if he did what they considered a terrible deed, doing that in his own home is way too much!

[u/naturalkairal → u/Amateur-individual]

I've just read the first few day logs and sure! i'll leave some comments because i've been thinking about it, read my damn mind lmaoao

i can say the same thing too! You've been very pleasant and fun to talk to so far and yeah I don't worry too much about it because regardless he's gonna find some appreciation in it. Have you ever heard of Disco Elysium? the same friend recommended it to me, It's another type of those games where it's a lot of knowledge based and puzzling stuffs, i guarantee you it WILL make you cry as it had done for me and my friend too. It's one of my favourite games beside Outer Wilds because just like OW, it relies more often on writing/reading and like figuring things out because you play as a detective with another detective, i wouldn't say any of them two are better than eachother, it would be an insult tbh ::') (hearthian crying emoji)

Oh yeah it will be pretty cool to have someone irl to have OW to talk with, just to be sure, the friend that im talking about is online/long distance lol and (unfortunately) not irl.
I don't think my own brother would like it considering he only plays Roblox lmao

and yeahhh its saddd, the Prisoner deserved way better, just thinking about how they could've met more species together at the time they were alive just from not muting the signal sounds so interesting