>>4261560I think the story is simple, functional, and obscure. Which isn't a problem. It's not unusual for characters to be set in motion without pausing to explain their motivations to the audience, especially with a protagonist as stoic as Elster. You piece it together as you go and there are no major twists withheld this way besides maybe the nature of the promise. Or that she's a gay robot. But that's a nice twist and the other is payoff to the foreboding you've known all game.
I do have a problem with the "Are you still looking for answers where there are only questions?" philosophy that encompasses the writing. Signalis is one of those stories where you can reach a comfortable understanding so long as you aren't willing to go too deep. Past a certain point the more you push the less things add up. It doesn't feel like we're missing a few key puzzle pieces and it would all click together, it's more like realizing these pieces go to different puzzles. There's a few coincidences the plot leans on with no justification hiding even if the mysteries hint at them, like Alina Seo. The game scatters odd hints and references for you like a treasure hunt but most ultimately add little besides flavor. The kind of things you can speculate endlessly and make hours long youtube analyses for but years later the community still can't come to an agreement and settles on maybes and somehows. Which can be fun but also unsatisfying.
But that's my personal preference on writing and I won't claim to be an expert on the game. Deep down it remains a plot about a robot hunting for her wife in a miserable universe. It's more about the atmosphere and presentation than the concrete details, and the game does excel there. It's simply a short story, not a novel. In the context of anon's contention, I think this comes down to expectations over what the "best story" should be. I can completely understand why someone would want a more conventional narrative to hold that title.
