№54059[Reply]
No, Im not a human. Its a wonderful game from a literary perspective. Here is what I think about it, tell me if it resonates with you.
I think No im not a human (NINH) is a metaphor for the collapse of the modern society scenario from the perspective of people realising how fucked up the human condition is in the modern capitalistic world. The sun and the apocalypse is the metaphor for daily life, work. At the end of the day, most normal joes only look forward to getting back home from their long shifts and enjoying whatever time they have to themselves. This monotonous cycle consumes our entire lives. Combined with the overarching theme of death and finality in this game, the apocalypse is the realization to said realization, its quite Zapffian. So the need to stay home is a metaphor for hedonism, completly giving up on life, i think focusing on this human condition of death being inevitable. The visitors then, are those who have been "broken" by this thought, those who were affected by this realization to the point of going crazy and wishing nothing more but the destruction and finality of the system and condition they live in. It is portrayed as a "virus" becasue such thinking is contagious. FEMA is, quite literally, the goverment. Its the made up by humans idea of order, civillization, etc. They seek to destroy this destructive thinking, but not for humanity's benefit, only for their systems' own. The idea of needing to stay together to "survive" this is true as well - humans fare better together. The pessimism, the terrifying thought of human finality, it is checked by interactions with other humans. Talking, being social. You can't be alone because otherwise you will be alone with your thoughts. And become a visitor. Thats why, obv, you try to stay with non-visitors throughout the game, to keep yourself from going mad, which you achieve by talking. The game explores different ways people go mad or cope with the thoughts for finalityt, obv all in metaphors and not directly. Its also strikingly anti-religion I suppose based on the cultists and the ortho-priest character. It would be fun to explore what aspect of "going mad" if you will every character explores. Im not sure how can I explain other game mechanics and I do not want to get into the endings for now, but i find this… very interesting ig.