@Od Oh thanks, but now I want to know what happens!! And I sort of realized after not too long that I needed to hit a beat a certain number of times in a row, and I even guessed 15... I just was incapable of doing this for 20 minutes.....

I think the five other shapes represent godly beings which attempt to help him transcend to the next life. Once he accepts it, they ultimately join him in carrying him to the next world, leading him to the Aether from which he came.

Touching ending, but I felt more empty from its ending rather than complete.

@SMF Oh haha I follow you.
@StarCross Good stuff, I had figured out about the friends in the first scene before and someone mentioned the icons representing different games. I think they are his body.

Gotta play this again. I don't think it's really a game for all practical purposes.

From Facebook: "I think the trigger is putting the controller down."

You know, you might be right. The Game Over screen didn't appear for me until I put the controller down. If this is true, BRILLIANT!!!

That's it. So brilliant.

Oh it is still a game, but they wanted it to be more of an ending art piece, too.

Overall, I place it 4th in my rankings of BIT.TRIP games, blow BEAT. BEAT set the tone, and FLUX, while improving it all, muddled it up with the white-only beats and oddly-emptier presentation.

Dude. They're BOTH. He realized that those things make him, HIM. Notice how the one cutscene they surround him and TOTALLY form an old CV body.

That's definitely one way to look at it for sure. Would make sense as he travels with constellations to his afterlife. I totally agree with your last statement too. Definitely how I felt the first time through. Needs more closure.

Agree with this. Don't get me wrong, it was still a lot of fun and probably even better than BEAT, but.... the unoriginality (at least compared to the progress that happened with all the other BIT.TRIPS), the excessive checkpoints, the fact that the excessive checkpoints allow the average gamer (me) to beat the game in under 2 hours..... it feels like the game was just an excuse to show off all these cutscenes and whatnot.

I wish I had time to go back and play so I can try my "miss all the constellation beats in the bonus stage thingy" theory, but tonight I don't. And tomorrow I'm doubtful that I'll have any time to play between, school, homework, and going out to dinner but I'll certainly try.

EDIT: For anyone who didn't click Odnetnin's link, here's a quote from the article: "That said, the ending was moving, powerful, and with a surprise twist that requires the player to trigger something that isn't immedietely obvious. It certainly wasn't to me."

Wow. MUST TRY. I hope your right. That would be the coolest, most devious ending EVER.

When I did it, I set my controller down because I was curious if something would happen if the controller disconnected.

I don't know if that would be the greatest thing ever or the most disappointing thing ever. Only thing: How does it know when you put the controller down?

It's probably once you stop pressing buttons of tilting the controller for a bit. I will confirm this after I shake the crap out of the controller =D

Okay, not talking anymore until I finish replaying it.

Some cool theories tossed around by people. I'm also really curious about this whole trigger thing now.

I just thought about it some more... If the controller thing is right... That's brilliant. Just as CV needs to come to grips with the fact that he is dead, you must come to grips with the fact that the Bit.Trip series is over. The only way to do this is to stop playing and put the controller down. It is only then that you will be able to... stop staring at a blank white screen.

Oh god, I need some sleep....

Had another theory regarding this hidden trigger thing and after reading the following snippet on the Bit.Trip site.... I was convinced I was right.

From Bit.Trip site: Ride along with CommanderVideo as he completes his mission and returns... home.

My theory was that somewhere during the endscene you should hit the home key.... sorry but I was wrong... nothing happened.

I´m very unsatisfied with Bit.Trip Flux. Polished, beautiful but it was just too easy to beat, maybe not with a decent score but still.... I got to the game over screen without much trouble. My guess is that it´s more to Flux. We havn´t seen the end of it yet.

Where is the online leaderboard channel?? I want the online leaderboard channel!

Just tried putting the wiimote down on the table during endscene.... nothing.

Confirmed, if you tilt the remote in the very end with the white screen, you still can hear sounds and "playing", but if you put it on the table, or dont tilt, get the game over screen.

@SMF You're totally right.

Guys, watch this video released before BEAT ever came out, notice the sounds at the beginning and how similar they are to the ones in the post-credits scene, and notice the TV in the video. Remember what happens right before the Game Over screen. CommanderVideo is home; he's here on earth; he's made it out of the confines of video games and into reality. Basically, CommanderVideo is more real than any video game character ever.

EDIT: There are birds chirping at the end of the soundtrack (the song is called "Arrival"), so it's definitely earth!

EDIT 2: How I explained it to a fellow NLifer via Facebook: Alex kept telling everyone to let go when they got to the end and were asking about the trigger. The Game Over doesn't show up until you let go of the controller, and to an extent, CommanderVideo, the series, and life itself. Letting go literally and mentally is the trigger.

I'm right? I'M RIGHT? Wow, I posted that incoherently half-asleep last night. But, I guess I was feeling strongly enough about it to go and post it after I had gone to bed, which is when I thought of that. I guess the mystery is basically solved at this point. _{Or is it?} Yes, he is now on Earth. The only way to escape "the confines of a video game" is to go ahead and put down that controller. By doing this, not only do you escape the confines of a video game (whether you wanted to or not ), so does CV. That's what Alex Neuse meant when he said something about how you will feel like you were a part of CV's journey once you find the trigger (or something like that).

This series is why video games have the potential to be the best storytelling medium. There's no trigger in a book or movie.

I only have a few things to say now. First off, the last stage is called Catharis. Look it up, and the very last part of the game makes sense (with the Wii mote vibrating). Unrelated to that, the whole story makes total sense now, though I don't feel like explaining it all. It's really a beautiful story. And in the final part, if you keep moving, there will still be beeps, then there will only be wind, and then there will be no noise at all. I'm assuming you can stay like that indefinitely, but eventually you just have to let go.....

Side note, in the credits, it says "For Carl Sagan". He was an astronomer who also wrote the book Contact. The film that's based off the book gives the perfect description for the game.

Words.... cannot describe........ should've sent...... a poet.......

/joins Od

@Starcross Your post confused me.

@Starcross So now we're CommanderVideo-incarnated-on-earth buddies? Sweet.