"1) If it's really a car, how could a car be on a tree, even after an accident?" 2 possible ideas: -He was buried under a tree after death. -Something about the tree was the most important part of his life, his fondest memory. Possibly he spent a long time with his sister there. Even daddies toys have toys! -Little Sister, BS2 Current Activity: Counting the nanoseconds till Ace Combat: Assault Horizon |
I agree with Maze. I don't really see how people are drawing conclusions about things. For example, I don't see how you wouldn't believe the two are kids. I think the fact that they are kids really adds to the game. The game developers just meant to put you on a journey, and they did that very well. That is a good enough explanation to me. I'm not saying people should stop coming up with theories, just don't think your theories are what the developers intended. The devs probably won't release a statement about the story because they most likely didn't think of a story. They just thought of a way to put the player through an emotional and atmospheric ride; the rest is up to you. Music: It's not meant to be heard, it's meant to be felt. |
I haven't even played this game - just to be upfront. But I really just love this kind of story interpretation that's really only possible on the internet. While I don't have much to add, and maybe this is old, has anyone taken a good look at the box art lately? http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/30/1440176-limbo_xbla_box_art_super.jpg Your first thought is that it's a kid "going to the light" or whatever but...that could absolutely be the kid just before dying, frozen in the headlights of a vehicle. Put the ball in the Baskett http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/84/ocelotpartyll1.gif |
Reading these makes me want to play the game again. Live-PukingTiger PSN-PukingTiger |
Well I might as well put in what I think: 1.) The description of the game specifically states that our "hero" is traversing limbo to "discover the fate of his sister." 2.) This game's limbo is not like any limbo you would get from a dictionary definition. It is an original world from the creative minds of the developers and I don't believe they were trying to imitate any real world definition of limbo. 3.) Limbo itself in this game is a pale reflection of the real world. Physics don't work as they should all the time, creatures that shouldn't exist do exist and even in this world death is permanent. This idea is further supported by the title screen/last scene relationship. Title screen = real world while the last scene of the game is still in limbo. In conclusion, I think that this game has more face value in it's interpretation than something like Braid. There is little narrative to draw symbolism from, so we have to get it from what we see. The fact that the game rewards you for not dying a single time ( the 20th egg you can get to surpass 100%) dismisses a previous theory I had that the main character actually experiences every death he is put through and learns from that experience. I'm going to think on it a little more like I did with Braid but in the meantime does anyone have anything to add about the shiny eggs you find? I haven't seen anything about them in this topic. [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[|||||||||||||]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] |
Just got limbo on the new years sale and finished it. pretty sweet game. im just trying to make sense of it all and express my opinion on the game's story and meaning. The things that stood out to me was when he turned on the rain and the brain worms getting hurt by sunlight, why were other kids/dudes trying to kill him? What is the significance of the butterflies, if there is one? Why are only his eyes lit up? Why is there nobody else in the latter half of the game except bugs? When i finished the game i thought you started over and had to run through all the puzzles again to infinitely look for your sister, like a limbo punishment. like Sisyphus had to push the boulder up the hill for eternity. but it didnt turn out that way. i can only express my opinions on my questions, but these are some things i wanted to state that stood out to me that possibly the developers wanted to stand out for whatever reason. I believe in the tree house theory, but here is my take on the game. Young Limbo Bro was playing around in his treehouse with his sister. they fell and died. They were separated at death. His soul was sent to heaven and she was lost into Limbo. He is sent into Limbo to find his sister and get out of Limbo, which normally cant be done, but the boy has got some Angels waiting to pull him out at the end when he gets his sister. (Yeah like Supernatural) He runs through his sins and pains in life, spider=fear, boys are bullies, but the angels disguised as butterflies guide him. He runs through Limbo, which in his view of Limbo is a vacant city like the hotel. However, whoever runs Limbo, or Limbo itself, doesnt want a boy to escape or angels messing around in its world messing up the natural order of things. It flips the world on him throwing him all over, it drops mind controlling worms on him, and throws middle school level puzzles at him, knowing he only has a 4th grade education. The boy manages to find his sister with the angels ability to reanimate his spirit anytime he "dies." and the game ends before showing any clear sign if their souls find peace in Heaven. But i hope they are atleast together now. I do not think he breaks into the real world or his sister is alive at the end because the world is still black and white after the glass/mirror shatters at the end. if he was in the real world wouldnt there be some crayola colors in there? it was simply him breaking the last of Limbo's defenses. But i believe them both to be dead due to the flies over what i believe to be their corpses. I think the sister didnt even know she died, or was missing and in Limbo, which explains why she is just playing in the dirt. This also explains why she doesnt run to her brother at the end, she also doesnt look surprised to me either. she just stands up like "huh? playtime is over now gotta go back home?" I believe the theme of this game to be something along the lines of, and i know its corny, even in a dark and dreary world to keep striving towards your goals and do not give up. even if the world is against you. Yup. Being constantly reanimated only to try the puzzle over again is some evidence for my theme. this is just my theory and i am going to play through again for sure, and this time look for some more possible symbolism and themes. And not die 6 times. |
"and throws middle school level puzzles at him, knowing he only has a 4th grade education." That made me laugh :) And, generally speaking, I think everyone is trying to give much too complicated interpretations for a simple game. This game is simple in it's every aspect: simple graphics, simple art design, simple coloring, simple sound design, and I'd say simple story too. Also it doesn't use words during the game (save for "Hotel"), so I'd say that the developers pretty much tried to reach for something compelling and deep but unusually simple. Thus, I'd try to understand the story as simply and directly as possible, without far-fetchet interpretations or speculation, just taking straight from what the game tells us (and from the description in xbox live arcade: "Uncertain of his sister's fate, a boy enters LIMBO"). Please note that if I call anyone's theory far-fetched it's not that I'm being... ugh, forgot the word... trying to invalidate what others say just because I say they're wrong, your theory is just as valid as mine, it's just that I'm trying to see the story from a simple perspective, to fit with a simple game, as I said. Anyway, onto my interpretation... The car theory at first seemed to fit with the ending of gravity shifting puzzles to me at first, but really, I think it's way too far-fetched to think that that thing on top of the tree at the main menu screen is a car, the developers really wouldn't have made it like that, plus it's atop a tree, that has a ladder on it's side, so I think it's just a tree house taken down by time. I agree with almost everything that Maze_ wrote, but I do think that the developers tried to add a little more depth into the game, because the main menu screen is clearly the same as the ending place, but torn apart from time (Implying a concrete storyline, and not so much as just a journey through an atmospheric game to find the sister). First of all, I do think the boy is indeed a boy, and always was, because probably most of us knew a definition of limbo as the place where kids go if they die, and I think it's the most popular definition for it, so I'd say that the protagonist died as a child, being uncertain of his sister's fate, and passed onto limbo. We do not know if he did it on purpose or not, but I think not, because really, a kid comitting suicide at that age? Also they only say that he was uncertain of his sister's fate, but she might as well be alive for all we know, maybe she was lost, and the boy didn't know what happened to her, but when he died and woke in Limbo, she was the first persone that he thought about, and he set onto find her (though she might not be dead, and not in Limbo). Now, because I believe that developers did intend meaning for some things that were obvious enough, I do think that the eyes carry some meaning, and it's the "being alive" (also seeing as the eyes are popularly known as "the windows to the soul" or something like that), and he, all along the game, is the only one that has eyes, thus I think that he is only living thing (with a soul) in limbo (or at least the part that we see of it) and all the other creatures and persons are just created by limbo as hazards that are inherent to that place... and his sister appears with no eyes (and I believe too far-fetched to think that she was just looking in the oposite direction, this game is all about simplicity and I think developers meant something with that, also, the boy always faces the screen despite whatever he does, so clearly they meant this as a sign), I believe that his sister is just another one of the tricks of limbo, and that when he finds her, he is fooled by it and stays with her as if it where his siter. As soon as I finished the game, and saw through the credits, that screen appeared, and, since the image appears, and a short while later the menu appears, I thought it was the epilogue to the game, and it struck me that, after finding his sister, the boy died along with her. When the menu appeared, I realized it was not the epilogue, but the impression stuck with me, that after finding his sister, they both just stayed there, with nowhere else to go, and died there. I do not think that that image is before the events of the game because the developers clearly wanted to set the "limbo mood" through the black and white visuals, and so I think that throughout the game we do not see a single moment that happens outside limbo. Therefore, I think that after being fooled by this vision of his sister (I believe it's that because it has no eyes), he stays there to die... maybe at peace because he found his sister, I do not know. And that is all that I have figured from the game thus far, I think that the places he goes through are just the hazard filled locations of Limbo, though the Hotel does seem to stand out, I don't know what it means, and I don't think that the game is a metaphor for his life. It's just Limbo. I also don't know what the eggs might mean, though I do think they meant something with them. |
Honestly i thought it made a lot more sense that the girl was a love interest/childhood friend...but what ever, my main take away from the ending though was that the girl in question was not actually dead. You went on the journey through limbo (with all the great symbolism discussed).... figure out you died in a car crash...finally unite with your loved one at your tree-house/place you met/played together--->but wait you don't, you can't (your a ghost and only thing she is able to feel is a cold chill in the air...at which point you cease to exist. the life flashing before you and figuring out the last moments before your death/finally reaching the person you cherish and realizing you can never be with her again. Discovering that all your efforts were futile...as you watch your loved one, morn your death all alone at the place that was so important to both of you, the tree-house. --> possible her wish to see you again is what kept you in limbo/cold chill/sense of your presence at the tree house is all she was able to obtain |
A child's dream enters reality: The forest was only the beginning for the boy. In fact, it was his dream. He didn't know why everything was in black and white nor did he know why there was an egg close by him. The boy walked and ran into traps and predicaments. He passed through them all but one thing seemed off... He never died if he did the puzzle incorrectly. After a few puzzles, the boy saw other children but except these children tried to kill him as well. It was a memory. The boy was bullied by other kids. The boy saw other kids too except these kids were dead, victims of the bullies. On child drowned almost as if his mind was being controlled. Truth is, he WANTED to die. Time passes by and the boy is now older by a year or two. The pressures of school make him controlled easily by others as well. He encounters a spider. His fears. When he was younger, he was afraid of heights and drowning. Now, he doesn't know what to think. The boy gets captured by the spider and finally realizes. It's not a dream. Anymore. The boy kills off his fears and escapes. Why oh why did he have to run away from home? He had no where to go except to a hotel living off of nothing but scraps and poor jobs. Then rain. Then a flood. Then destruction. The hotel is destroyed and the boy finds himself in puzzles that have to do with the destruction of the town. The factory. His worse nightmare and the worst part of his life. The place he dreaded and feared the most. The boy escapes the factory and finds himself a few feet away from a person who longed to see... his sister. But everything seems so calm, what could happen? His fear takes over. The boy reawakens his fears. He finds himself in all the places he has ever dreaded. Then the boy decides to end it. Going back forth, up and down by all the gravity and fear that is in his mind. But... butterflies. They follow him. They are around him. Guardian angels? Not anymore. The boy endures through a few more puzzles and remembers. He is dead from a car crash. It was no ordinary crash. He landed feet first. The boy is now in a state of Limbo. All he does is stare at what he thinks is his sister. There is nothing left now. No choice to have. No sister to hold. No Heaven to go to. No Hell to die in. Nothing but a place of fear and suffering as the boy waits for his sister to return. |
LIMBO is about a boy searching for his sister. Nothing more. |
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