Don't Look Back - can you explain the ending?

Just completed it before coming to the forums.

At the end, another man is at the grave and suddenly both I and the ghost disappear.

What just happened there?

Anyone care to explain why we disappeared and/or what it’s meant to signify?

I saw this on comments:
The guy wanted to take the girl and maybe killed himself and became a ghost to take her, or he died during the game and we played with him as a ghost and we didn’t know

The ending is complicated to explain, call the developer :-V

It was all a dream (well, everything but the title screen.) Overcome by his loss, the man at the grave concocts a fantasy (borrowing from the myth of Orpheus) where he travels to the underworld and rescues the woman, but at the end the dream shatters and he has nothing but the memories.

Originally posted by thok:

It was all a dream (well, everything but the title screen.) Overcome by his loss, the man at the grave concocts a fantasy (borrowing from the myth of Orpheus) where he travels to the underworld and rescues the woman, but at the end the dream shatters and he has nothing but the memories.

What makes you assume it’s a dream? Yes the title, however, that may be the because of the second half of the game.

Look, you can’t dissect a plot that simply isn’t there, all we is this, at the start he was looking at the grave. This grave presumably would be of a loved one, key the girl. After which he ventures into a cave for no reason, and falls an extraordinary distance, not just once, but two three times. In a game dealing with mortality I don’t think you can disregard this as coincidence. Personally I think he died. Anyways, he fights through this cave fighting through bats and spiders at first, but this eventually gives way to monsters. Monsters with horns, demons anyone? So I think he’s fighting his way through hell, hell is a bit harsh so I’ll think I’ll stick with the Greeks (or was it the romans?) and say it was the under world, thus, he is trying to find the soul of a love one or something along those lines. I’m pretty sure there’s a myth that follows these lines.

After which they (does he see her?) travel out of the cave, are back to the surface. Where they see presumably himself and disappear just as the girl would have if you look back. The only thing you actually know to be true is that the girl is dead, however, if you disappear as well that would seem to indicate that you died as well. Alas, who is the guy, is it you from half-hour ago, key time warp, dream or something like that to warn the person, or is it someone else, repeat endless cycle.

[edit: lol, ok I reached a similar conclusion…]

Oh I remembered this story of Orpheus!I knew it was related!I heard about it a week ago, where he went to the worl’d of dead and couldn’t look at his wife or she would dissapear.

What I understood is that he maybe fell on the World of the dead, fought against Cerberus(like in the Myth)though the dog has 1 head, and fighted the own satan to get to his girl.

I’m willing to say that there are other interpretations of the ending, but I feel mine makes the ending the most powerful, by making it a statement about grief and moving on. As you said, the title is “Don’t Look Back.”

Also, there’s the mysterious gun, which appears right after you first realize you might need some sort of weapon. Making the game a dream makes the appearance of the gun a feature rather than a coincidence.

That said, given how obviously this game is influenced by the myth of Orpheus (I mean, one of the bosses is meant to be a version of Cerberus and the whole second half of the gameplay), it’s silly to discuss the game without a knowledge of that myth, one which does not involve the death of Orpheus.

thok has it spot on. It is all about the orpheus and the underworld myth. The gun is supposed to symbolize orpheus’s wits and his lyre, both of which he used to battle the demons of the underworld (the bats, snake, spiders, etc.), cerberus (dog miniboss), and Hades (the giant demon). The title is don’t look back for two reasons: the first being that we should not linger on the thoughts of deceased love ones and that we should move on. The second is being that in the myth of orpheus, he made a deal with Hades, lord of the underworld, saying that he may bring his deceased wife, Eurydice, out of the underworld and to the world of the living under one condition, that he must not look back key words at her and guide her out without laying eyes on her. In the end, Orpheus fails and he loses his loved one forever, the moral being that we cannot bring back the dead no matter how hard we try. Hence, in the game when the ghost follows you, you cannot look back or you lose. At the end, when you and the girl ghost dissipate, it shows how the hero (you) and the ghost have found peace at last. The hero didn’t die, he merely ventured with his soul to the underworld or his own conscious in order to make peace with his loved one.

Originally posted by thok:

I’m willing to say that there are other interpretations of the ending, but I feel mine makes the ending the most powerful, by making it a statement about grief and moving on. As you said, the title is “Don’t Look Back.”

Also, there’s the mysterious gun, which appears right after you first realize you might need some sort of weapon. Making the game a dream makes the appearance of the gun a feature rather than a coincidence.

That said, given how obviously this game is influenced by the myth of Orpheus (I mean, one of the bosses is meant to be a version of Cerberus and the whole second half of the gameplay), it’s silly to discuss the game without a knowledge of that myth, one which does not involve the death of Orpheus.

It’s silly to discuss without knowledge of this myth? How so, I was thinking of a different myth entirely, I can’t remember the details, but something about a beautiful girl eating the fruit of the underworld and being stuck there. Until some hero rescues her. It is possible to figure out the majority of the plot of the game via deduction only, and that by no means indicates that you have to know that particular myth. I didn’t catch on to the Cerberus thing , because he was missing two heads, and didn’t breath fire. Otherwise, yes, if he was it would be apparent that you are entering the underworld at that point, since he is the guardian of the it. However, due to other subtle clues it really is apparent that you are in the underworld, and that must have been Cerberus.

Nice speculation on the gun I missed that completely :P.

Stoic001, the myth you are thinking of is the story of Persephone (who was kidnapped to the Greek underworld and was forced to stay in Hades during the winter months because she ate some pomegranate seeds while she was there.) But that myth doesn’t fit in with the rest of the story of the game.

I do think when discussing a story that’s clearly based off of a Greek myth, part of the research into understanding the story is to review the Greek myth.

Originally posted by thok:

Stoic001, the myth you are thinking of is the story of Persephone (who was kidnapped to the Greek underworld and was forced to stay in Hades during the winter months because she ate some pomegranate seeds while she was there.) But that myth doesn’t fit in with the rest of the story of the game.

I do think when discussing a story that’s clearly based off of a Greek myth, part of the research into understanding the story is to review the Greek myth.

If you only have a very vague idea of what the myth says, and you are confusing it with other myths, than you can make it mean anything. But, yeah that was the one I was thinking of, I had that one, and the one you were referring to entangled so some pieces were fitting, but it was a bit off.

Has anyone beat the game without dying? Perhaps you get a different ending because… dead people generally turn in to ghosts, y’know? And doing something hard is generally rewarded by something rare and special.

I think its pretty obvious.

Thats you at the grave, the entire thing was just you imagining going to the depths of hell to get her back. When your imagination gets back to the grave you look and see its not there, so it vanishes.

There’s no secret ending. Said so by the developer on the comments for the game. I have to agree with thok, his ending makes the most sense and ties in with what the game is based off.

I just completed the game without ever looking back with the girl. And as ICMINDEED says, the dev has confirmed the absence of a secret ending.

Looking more carefully this time, I noted that the guy at the grave most definitely does not look back – something I was slightly unsure of before. To my mind, if the guy at the grave had looked back, there might have been an argument for the ’you’re dead’ theory.

I really don’t think the massive drops are meant to be the death of you – rather, they’re simply a way to denote your travel to the UNDERworld (without taking a lot of time on a rope of mere single-screen drops.

In conclusion, I currently think thok/seth were probably right and no-one else’s hypothesis seems plausible.

In the interests of providing alternative angles: maybe the man by the grave at the end is another friend. Both realise that to re-enter the world of the living would be to screw up nature. So rather than the girl retreating alone, they both go back to be in the underworld together?

In the interests of providing alternative angles: maybe the man by the grave at the end is another friend. Both realise that to re-enter the world of the living would be to screw up nature. So rather than the girl retreating alone, they both go back to be in the underworld together?

I so already said this,

“Alas, who is the guy, is it you from half-hour ago, key time warp, dream or something like that to warn the person, or is it someone else, repeat endless cycle.”

If you know which cues to look for, the relation to the myth is undeniable. Thus, I feel that there are no other reasonable conclusions to be drawn, especially considering the names of the badges added recently.

Originally posted by Seth1134:

I think its pretty obvious.

Thats you at the grave, the entire thing was just you imagining going to the depths of hell to get her back. When your imagination gets back to the grave you look and see its not there, so it vanishes.

I think your right :P

Originally posted by WDoE:

Has anyone beat the game without dying? Perhaps you get a different ending because… dead people generally turn in to ghosts, y’know?

Meaning if you played it while YOU were dead, you’d get the different ending since you were a ghost? :)

there is only 1 ending so no

have not completed the game so no

Thok’s interpretation is correct

I think it´s a nice way someone tried to live over a loss of his loved one one…..

It was beautiful game, but I don’t think the developer meant for a big argument over the ending, although it is quite confusing. I think Thok has interpreted it correctly.

if you go to jayisgames.com and find something about this, also ive heard that orpeuss (how ever you spell)used a harp for a weapon…i barely beat the cyberus…and it was hard…