Topic: BIT.TRIP FLUX Spoiler topic

Sorry I meant Catharsis - strange I said Transition because I don't even have Beat (other than the demo).

Anyway I think what I did before the stage started was lanched a string of beats when selecting it - I dodged some and hit others. Could have been a bug or a way of playing the boss. I wish I defeated the boss now instead of giving up (I did try for 40 minutes tho).

@madgear That actually makes sense. Did you start in HYPER?

i just tried dying during the final boss for the hell of it, and all it does is reset. leaving the wiimote alone doesn't work, either — it just times out and auto-disconnects, halting the game in its tracks. so much for that theory :3

i also tried shooting a whole bunch of beats at the stage select screen (as madgear described) and hitting them all at random. didn't manage to trigger anything. i may try that again on and off whenever i'm in the mood to play some Catharsis. I actually got up to Extra tonight, something i've never done in Catharsis before, haha. all that fighting to get to the final boss over and over has paid off a little, i think :3
_{someday i'll get to meta... someday}

@Odnetnin

No I started as you usually do (with the pink bat). Everything was exactly the same as when you start Catharsis except it was the boss there instead. The background was the same as the start with the planet that flies close to the screen then backs off into the distance. The reason why I thought it was a bug was because of the background - the planet animation stopped in the distance and just hung there, spinning slightly - obviously you don't normally see that far because stage 2 starts before then (and I spent 40 mins trying to defeat the boss).

I've got a feeling had I beated the boss, it'd have just carried on to the normal end sequence. I can't say for sure, but I don't want any of you wasting your time because of a bug. Afterall, if it was a secret, I reckon they'd have given you extra to play, rather than less.

Write it on the facebook group's wall.

Regarding the TvTropes page on it, not to toot our own horn, but some of my fellow tropers did a lot of the decoding before FATE even came out. I myself made some contributions at some point too.

(This is why I say in my sig to check that site out. You'll never know what you may find)

I just figured out that the "Game Over" screen actually has meaning. It can be translated in two ways:

a.) The game is over. You return to your life, CommanderVideo is free from the game. (Became Human/Transcendence Theory)
b.) What happens in retro video games when you get a Game Over? You start from the beginning with a fresh batch of new lives. (Endless Cycle/Reincarnation Theory)

Hi everyone. I'm a few years late to this party, but I wanted to share one additional observation I've made about the BIT.TRIP saga. In addition to the brilliant story about Commander Video's life and death, I think the series is itself a commentary and celebration of the video game industry, describing the evolution of the technology and styles over the years.

BEAT starts the series, representing the earliest and simplest of popular video games: PONG and Breakout. These games were simple, but they captivated audiences for years, and they inspired the imaginations of players and developers alike, leading to bigger and better games and technology.

CORE's gameplay is more complex but still abstract, and its graphics are marginally more complex, just like the many variants of the original games that started the industry. The games became more complex and directed, ranging from all sorts of sports variants to games with simple plots, such as Missile Command. Most still allowed you to imagine what was happening in the game, to write your own story, but your story's scope began to narrow as the developers had more freedom to tell you theirs.

VOID gives the player movement and choice, just as games like Pac-Man did. While VOID is very abstract on its own, it shows a definite "improvement" in graphical effects and an increase in complexity (both in gameplay and music) that matches the growth of games in the early to mid 80s.

RUNNER is the first truly concrete game in the series, with highly directed gameplay, concrete graphics, and a definite purpose. In many ways, it represents the shift to plot-driven games, especially adventure games and platformers (ranging from Pitfall, which it heavily references, to the Super Mario series). I think this is shown especially strongly in how the player character is definitely Commander Video, and not just an abstract object that represents him. (Just as a single square represented a hero, tomb raider, adventurer, prisoner, or whatever you wanted it to be in Adventure on the Atari 2600, later games in the genre took iincreasing amounts of that imagination away from you by spelling out who your character was.)

FATE represents the increasing dominance of shooting games (first-person shooters, rail shooters, bullet hell games, and more generally the allure of controlling anyone or anything that could fire guns and missiles). This game feels to me to make the strongest statement about not only this type of game, but this period in game history - the game moves at such a slow pace, with such dark music and graphics throughout, that it feels almost like the developers meant to say "Had enough of this yet?" It cements firmly the feelings of anger and resentment that underpin virtually all war and conflict as it's represented in shooters and war simulators, and it challenges the player to question if violence is really the only answer. This strongly mirrors the ongoing debates about video game violence and its potential impacts on society.

Finally, FLUX, which presents itself as a much happier return to a familiar place while retaining the best elements of everything we've encountered along the way, represents how the industry has embraced retro gaming. The gameplay is nearly identical to BEAT, but is enhanced by all the rest of the games, just as modern remakes of classics like Pac-Man and Mega Man stay true to their roots while also incorporating new, original ideas and the best parts of other games. This is evidenced by the modern, updated graphics and music, the removal of BEAT's punishing difficulty, and the enormous level of self-reference throughout.

And finally, in what I think is the most brilliant thing I've ever seen in a game, is the double-message of FLUX's ending. As the screen fades to white, it suggests that the games will go on forever, just as the games industry is here to stay. And when the screen reaches full white and there is nothing left to do, the game beckons you to realize that there is more to life than sitting on that couch and holding a game controller. It's time to put it down and move on.

I think the people behind BIT.TRIP wrote more than one story here. It is a work of pure, unadulterated brilliance.

One interesting note is that the beats in the ending (aside from the large shapes) are identical to the beats at the beginning of bit trip beat. So, full circle?