Originally posted by:So, my thoughts are.I think we play as Lily. Yes, our father was an actor before and got injured at war. Also, he was cruel man and beat us instead of our brother James.I believe that Lily and James somehow sneak on the ship, where they tried to live and not getting caught (those memories of James and Lily). But something happened and the ship was set on fire and then drowned (why 'James' hates ships).And I think that Lily was the only one who survived that day, not James. I think like this because we can see ghost boy all the time we play and the Director said, we must create a new character. But new character can be created only if last one is destroyed. We need to destroy Lily and play James.
To change your fate, you'll need to change your decisions, and below I'll explain what to do to get each of the endings. The three endings are. May 28, 2019 Layers of Fear 2 is a fascinating horror game that centers on exploring a mysterious ship and its ever-changing layout. It isn't the scariest game, but the unsettling nature of everything you encounter more than makes up for it. The constant environmental changes designed to mess with you are amazing and one of the best aspects.
Director's instructions in acts are always like 'destroy female mannequin' which means 'destroy Lily in you'. And in James' ending there is a phrase like 'The boy must leave and the man must stay' - something like that. I believe it's too about that Lily must take his role since she's an actress like her father. We have been going back and forth with few things in the Discord but basically.We are both James and Lily at the same time. We have been in a loop of not making a choice of who we actually are, resolving in a formless figure. Throughout the game we are guided by Director who wants us to end the loop and decide who we are. Having an inner power struggle of which of them is more dominant and in power.
One has to prevail and the other cease to exist.Now who we actually were?So far thinking we were James and we took Lily in and worked as a vessel for her. Carrying her 'flame' (soul). Could write on and on about details and what things in game supports this theory but yeah, interesting!Also contemplating whether or not Director would be James as well. Or if he is under the Rat Queen herself. Rat Queen wants us to end the loop with whatever choice, director wants us to realize James more. No Lily is deadWe play as boy(who is the men now). When they was young(Boy and syster) they tryed to play a game like in a movie.
The game lead them to the ship. They was out of food and scared.
They hide frome the guards and all other stuff but the bad stuff go on and ship burned down. The boy survived it but his syster not. And in the last moment of her life he promissed to.safe. her for forever. And after this he was kinda shoked and his syster person kinda borned inside him.So he become as one with his syster.The hole game is a torture of his soul and there is a actually 3 endings.1) The boy understand who he is and his true nature wins(and systers go away)2) The syster nature won and the boy go off and he become totaly his syster3) He failed to make a choise and need to throw the torture agayne.Kinda meeeh storry for me since i dont wana know how the men become a women.But this is it. My understanding (based on 'The Flame' ending):On a literal level, it's the story of two siblings. Lily was born first (pre-WW1); the father returned from the war wounded (blind in one eye) and then the mother died giving birth to James.
The father found a job as a cinema projectionist and the children grew up immersed in the world of early cinema, sneaking into the cinema to view movies like The Black Wanderer (which seems to be based on The Black Pirate, the 1926 Douglas Fairbanks movie). Originally posted by:Wow o.oThat's interesting, I feel like you answer all my questions I had after completing LOF2:DThanks!
One thing I forgot to mention - in the Flame/Forever endings, you see the posters (which feature both Lily and James in the game proper) change so they now feature only James for the Flame ending or Lily for the Forever ending.The chest behind them, however, which opens just as the scene ends, is underneath the one poster which still features the other sibling (Shizo for James's ending, King Lear for Lily's), which implies that the other personality may still be haunting them. Originally posted by:My understanding (based on 'The Flame' ending):On a literal level, it's the story of two siblings.
Lily was born first (pre-WW1); the father returned from the war wounded (blind in one eye) and then the mother died giving birth to James. The father found a job as a cinema projectionist and the children grew up immersed in the world of early cinema, sneaking into the cinema to view movies like The Black Wanderer (which seems to be based on The Black Pirate, the 1926 Douglas Fairbanks movie). But my theory on the director is that he's the painter from the first game.Or hes influenced or connected to him.The director is deformed and has a cane. Theres a ton of fire motifs and the director talks a lot of how much does a man have to burn, etc. While this has to do with the flaming wreck of the ship, the painter burned the paintings in the first game and got burned himself from the wreck. They never specified him dying.So the director is crazy and artistic (said the agent), has a limp (has a cane), and is deformed (mask, painting, and agent). All three point to the artist.
Plus, this movie 'was to be his last masterpiece'. He always was striving for a masterpiece, perfection, to immortalize his wife but he failed, and now passes this burden of artistry to James.This also connects to the mystery items: -Rats drove the artist crazy and the Rat Queen is the personification of that. The Rats also were there driving James crazy when Lily left and never returned: hence why young James is there banging his head against the Rat Queen memorial saying 'she lied to me'. She lied about being there forever and coming back.-The second item being the crazed artist devoting his crazy undying love for her and doing her bidding.- the third being James understanding his role as an artist-the last being the director explaining the divine powers at the hands of the artists.-the page for the conch shell talking about these divine powers and how if pursued at all by anyone of talent, it will consume them absolutely and only give them madness.
(Clearly written by the artist being the only unique and crazed writing on any papers in the game)The icing on the cake is the photo set. It tells the story of James/Lily going on board. Their father being a war vet (photographer), losing his eye. The mother dying (lips pic). The shipwreck. And finale:A man talking to James with the 3rd mysterious item in hand.It's not much but to add onto that, who's talking on the phonograph clips?
Well, someone grew up by where they landed in US. And he is interviewing a boy (James) in the park while he sits alone on a bench. This is exactly what's depicted in the picture. They continue talking until the interviewer notices the 'spark' in James and talks about 'the eyes of eternity' which I'm almost certain (but dont have proof) is something the artist mentions in the previous game.This all makes sense time wise as well. While on the ship as James, a room, in the section that specifically was blocked of from anyone other than the director and crew and what not, has a closet full of empty liquor bottles, countless canvases and paint brushes.which sounds familiar, however no craziness in sight.
So this points to the artist being on the ship that sank, but he survived and wound up finding and talking to James in the town they both ended up in. (Or he wasnt on the ship and that was just a hint. The artist couldve just been in town).This implies the photos are chronological, which makes sense since two photos show a young boy and girl growing up when in order.The whole cycle links to the Rat Queen and what she wants, which I believe is for artists of great talent to earn their own love and accept who they are.
The artist, a monster; James, an actor. The Rat Queen also appearing foremost in the very beginning of the game, taking off 'James' (?) head and saying her usual 'You almost had it' as she did in LoF1.(Also, Inheritance I think comes way after either game.)But hey, that's all just a theory. Originally posted by:But my theory on the director is that he's the painter from the first game.Or hes influenced or connected to him.The director is deformed and has a cane. Theres a ton of fire motifs and the director talks a lot of how much does a man have to burn, etc.
While this has to do with the flaming wreck of the ship, the painter burned the paintings in the first game and got burned himself from the wreck. They never specified him dying.So the director is crazy and artistic (said the agent), has a limp (has a cane), and is deformed (mask, painting, and agent). All three point to the artist.
Plus, this movie 'was to be his last masterpiece'. He always was striving for a masterpiece, perfection, to immortalize his wife but he failed, and now passes this burden of artistry to James.This also connects to the mystery items: -Rats drove the artist crazy and the Rat Queen is the personification of that. The Rats also were there driving James crazy when Lily left and never returned: hence why young James is there banging his head against the Rat Queen memorial saying 'she lied to me'. She lied about being there forever and coming back.-The second item being the crazed artist devoting his crazy undying love for her and doing her bidding.- the third being James understanding his role as an artist-the last being the director explaining the divine powers at the hands of the artists.-the page for the conch shell talking about these divine powers and how if pursued at all by anyone of talent, it will consume them absolutely and only give them madness. (Clearly written by the artist being the only unique and crazed writing on any papers in the game)The icing on the cake is the photo set. It tells the story of James/Lily going on board. Their father being a war vet (photographer), losing his eye.
The mother dying (lips pic). The shipwreck. And finale:A man talking to James with the 3rd mysterious item in hand.It's not much but to add onto that, who's talking on the phonograph clips?
Well, someone grew up by where they landed in US. And he is interviewing a boy (James) in the park while he sits alone on a bench. This is exactly what's depicted in the picture. They continue talking until the interviewer notices the 'spark' in James and talks about 'the eyes of eternity' which I'm almost certain (but dont have proof) is something the artist mentions in the previous game.This all makes sense time wise as well. While on the ship as James, a room, in the section that specifically was blocked of from anyone other than the director and crew and what not, has a closet full of empty liquor bottles, countless canvases and paint brushes.which sounds familiar, however no craziness in sight.
So this points to the artist being on the ship that sank, but he survived and wound up finding and talking to James in the town they both ended up in. (Or he wasnt on the ship and that was just a hint. The artist couldve just been in town).This implies the photos are chronological, which makes sense since two photos show a young boy and girl growing up when in order.The whole cycle links to the Rat Queen and what she wants, which I believe is for artists of great talent to earn their own love and accept who they are. The artist, a monster; James, an actor. The Rat Queen also appearing foremost in the very beginning of the game, taking off 'James' (?) head and saying her usual 'You almost had it' as she did in LoF1.(Also, Inheritance I think comes way after either game.)But hey, that's all just a theory.Really interesting idea re the director. I toyed with the notion that in the Forever ending, the Director is actually James, and he was disfigured in the fire when the ship exploded.
That had a certain elegance (the Director is directing his sister to play a younger version of himself) as James has an existing connection to the Rat Lady, and explains why the Director has the face of the Formless One on his cane. It would also explain how the Director is able to set up quite involved scenarios from Lily's past, as well as her movies (of course, this could also be explained by the Director being the one conducting the interviews with James). However, it doesn't fit clearly with the rest of the themes, such as the Formless One as artistic failure (for Lily?), James's attempt to bring back his sister through his art, etc.
Your take seems to work a lot better.