Outer Wilds - 5 Years Later

Outer Wilds is a fantastic game, with incredible gameplay and story. Today I'd like to take some time to analyze and explain its story.
______________________________________________
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:37 Planets
14:44 Nomai
33:37 DLC
48:15 Ending
1:00:42 Outro
______________________________________________
Music Courtesy of Outer Wilds OST:
0;00 Main Title
0;37 Timber Hearth
14;42 Museum
38;28 The River
48;05 Space
53;19 Timber Hearth
58;22 Main Title
______________________________________________
Sources:

Full Indie Summit - Alex Beachum

Nothing Ventured - Outer Wilds Documentary:

NoClip Podcast 49:
______________________________________________
Hope You Enjoyed
#gingy #outerwilds

[JackVice]

The first time I played it was the night I discovered my dog was dying, and I played it to stay awake with him until the vet opened. After chewy died, I found the “end of the game” (I refuse to spoil anything) and I haven’t been touched by a piece of art like that before or since. It had a sense of optimism to what came next and was a lesson about mortality that I won’t forget.

[dannylark]

Something fascinating about the ending that stuck out to me is that the music that played during the Big Bang has the same melody that the Outer Wilds Ventures and Friends played at the campfire. While the post-credit scene does confirm that the gang had some physical influence on the new universe, this brings up an interest regarding the Quantum Frequency that the signal scope picks up when pointing at quantum shards and the quantum moon; the frequency plays a chorus-like tone that changes its pitch now and again, so taking the post-credit scene and the Big Bang melody, this leads me to infer that the Quantum Frequency is actually evidence of music from the last universe. Who knows, maybe the people from the last one had the exact same experience as us and they, too, decided to sing in the last moments of their existence, leaving this frequency as their remnants. It's also sweet to think that our song might play in the new universe in quantum objects, being a representation of how three different species came together in their united curiosity and acceptance of the end.

[Antichupius]

In the stranger's simulation there's a panel thrown away that shows a flower followed by the finding of the eye, wich implies that the strangers knew finding the eye would give birth to new life but still chose to not let their current one die. This was most likely the reason why the Prisioner released the eye's signal and why the cry at the end is most likely from relief and his efforts were not in vain.

[emilianocastillejos]

Outer wilds is a game I will forever remember, not many other games have given me such satisfaction when solving puzzles, its such a good blend between cozy and fear of the unknown. Glad its gotten a lot more recognition over the past few years and that you’re covering it now

[mycall]

I've always thought that 22 minutes was the loop time because thats as much time as the Nomai could squeeze out of a supernova. Their writings talk about how the amount of energy required for larger and larger time differences increases at a disgustingly high exponential rate. And the most energy they could ever possibly generate was from a supernova. They calculated that even with the astronomical amount of energy generated by a supernova, the most time that would buy them was a measly 22 minutes. Banger video as always, brother.

[FredXtechno]

One genius aspect of Outer Wilds is that the puzzles don't need items or level ups or dialogs to be unlocked : you can do everything first time, as long as you know. Usually game devs don't do that because it's too obvious and there is no challenge, but Outer Wilds managed to do puzzles that you can solve without item/dialog unlock but that you mostly don't solve at first because they test your knowledge.
And when you understand, you excaim "it was obvious ! It was under my nose from the start !".
This game is lightning in a bottle.

(sorry if I'm not clear english is not my first language)

@Gingy I'm not sure you "fly right through" the quantic moon, it's just the atmosphere make you lose visual contact for a second so the moon just change position (I think).

[ButterNuss.]

Note that we dont really "expierience" the time loops from a lore perspective. The nomai said people were arriving before they even entered the black hole, meaning the memories we have of the cycles come to us before we even have a chance to do them.

Its like sitting in your chair and telling yourself "im going to read this book now", and the second you finished that thought you suddenly know the entire content of that book, because you read it in a now erased future and send those memories back to the "real" you, right this moment.

i know its really hard to wrap you head around. But essentially, for our hearthian protagonist, he wakes up, and gets his head flooded instantly with all the information you will ever gather in the game. He knows there were multiple loops but he can only recollect waking up once, and suddenly having all that knowledge. The whole wake up, die, repeat stuff only happens in a theoretical future that gets erased instantly, because we get that knowledge in the past and thus prevent that future from happening, and even if we choose to repeat the same future, the machine causing the loop will eventually shut off, be it by us or natural causes, erasing the theoretical timelines, leaving us once again where we started the game.

[sharn_]

At 22:00 in the video he shows the supernova. Nice editing.

[EricGranata]

My kids keep asking me to spoil this game for them. I can’t. I won’t.

[devinleff]

I’m so glad you explained the fact that watching this video will rob you of the whole point of this game. It really is a once in a lifetime experience.

[ytho]

Time to re-live the joy of descovery vicariously again.

[duye]

I played this game at probably the lowest point in my life: I had spent a terrible trimester in high school after quarantine, which hurt me way more than I was aware of (alongside other stuff). So I forced myself to try out this game I had bought many months before at the beginning of the Christmas holidays. This experience changed me. I had never experienced this much curiosity, this much emotional connection to a videogame's world. I had so many moments where my jaw dropped and I gasped in disbelief, even to some things that probably weren't that exciting. Sometimes it was too much to bear, I feared exploring new planets and the lore bombshells often made me have to take a rest. The game made me care when I just didn't care about anything in life anymore. I finished the game the day before the second trimester began, and the ending was very much lifechanging. Really. An entire game full of new experiences and emotions built up to such an emotional ending that opened my eyes to a new life perspective. I felt refreshed. I went to the first day of the second trimester feeling like a new person. Things got better, even if slowly, but Outer Wilds gave me a purpose and taught me in a beautiful way the value of life, time, the beauty of the world and of death and the fleetingness of it all.

[DeBode]

“Some of y’all sleep to these videos” is great

[atticusx]

I literally cried when I finished this game. It was so beautiful and somber. And never being able to play it the same ever again is bittersweet but fits so well with the theme. Surprised you didn’t talk about the music. The soundtrack is what keeps me going and actually playing the songs myself and in my own interpretations is how I can truly relive this experience

[ErgoSum]

I like the interpretation that the prisoner understood his species wasn't the one to make the call about the fate of the universe, that's why he deactivated the signal, thats why he screeched knowing what he did was heard and was ready to pass the torch to a new generation, just like the nomai gave the "torch" to your species in the game by caring for your ancestors.

[Schwenne]

35:50

This moment. This sequence of you going into the Stranger, finding the boat and then dropping into a ring-world. I never had to pick my chin of the floor more than during this moment

[JSlvr]

This game is incredible. The music alone makes my skin crawl. It's such a terrifying theme to talk about and explore. It has deeply philosophical questions of your sense of being and questions a lot of how you perceive de world around you.

I played this game while waiting for my daughter to be born, and this game made question a lot about myself.
She's here now, and the world has never been the same again since she was born into it.

I hope that one day I'm able to see her experience with the Outer Wilds.

This is how important I think this game is.

It's unbelievably good.

[ivagishin]

This is one of my absolute favorite games. I wish I could wipe my memory of having played it so I can play it again for the first time. Since that's not possible, I watch a lot of blind playthroughs and get my kicks from watching others experience its wonder and perfection for the first time.

[arya_srp]

Judging by your previous videos and the understanding I got from your taste in video games, the moment I saw the word perfect on the thumbnail of this video I knew I should play it myself.

About 60% through the game I was really tempted to just watch the video and spoil the game. But the intro convinced me to finish it myself so thank you for that.

Now I can confidently say Outer Wilds is one of my top 3 games of all time and it's sad that I won't be able to experience it again.

[thisisdayvid]

Every time this game gets covered by a larger channel it makes me incredibly happy. Outer Wilds is far an away the best game I've played and definitely a once in a lifetime experience for anybody. You've done the game justice with an incredible video ❤