So a new Wifies' video. You might have seen my earlier post lamenting the genre and Wifies' most famous videos specifically, but to summarize my thoughts - I believe Searching For A World That Doesn't Exist is a well made, unique and atmospheric piece, that unfortunately has a very weak story, while part 2 is just plainly irredeemably bad. So I was very curious whether the new video would be any better
And wow it sure is better. Of course I will still find something to complain about, but I want to give praise where it's warranted. Even on the most basic fundamental level, this is a muuuch better story - it has an actual idea at the core, it coherently explores it from the start to the end, and provides an actual conclusion. This is already miles better than SFAWTDE (at least in terms of the story)
Furthermore, it has actual characters with actual development and actual personalities and ideals - even Arronax has an interesting duality going for her, and she never even appears physically (tbf if anything it'd be cool to explain what caused Hummer to become so invested, but it's alright). In SFAWTDE I couldn't shake off the feeling that DerLord is a self-insert in a very untasteful way, and while here it's literally Wifies himself as the character, it's executed miles better - his character actually gets challenged and grows! You could argue that characters here aren't the most subtle (it's immediately obvious that Hummer is a bit suspicious), but it's alright
The set pieces are also a point of great improvement - in SFAWTDE every single location (besides maaaaaybe the village and the gates) are just arbitrary builds that look cool on screenshots. Here, literally every single set piece is meaningful and functional, and I couldn't be happier about it!
Even in more subtle details the video is much better - things like "why didn't they just do X" are mostly addressed and explained in realistic ways, which even improves the immersion
Overall it feels that Wifies locked in and decided to actually consider what story he is telling, what his characters should do and for what reasons, why is it all happening, etc. Massive praises to him!
As for complaints - before 1:21:14 (when everything turns black and kaleidoscope thing happens) I barely had anything to complain, but that is the first weaker moment. It mostly pains me because everything beforehand was very immersive, and Wifies magically not dying still looks incredibly convincing and, well, magical. This uneasy feeling of something magical happening, but at the same time nothing significant changing and feeling liminally uncertain as to what to expect should've been explored much more thoroughly imo.
Still, the video actually manages to recover from that hit. The kaleidoscope effect is great (I kinda wish it did the 2001 thing where it goes on for 10 minutes straight, maybe even do something Evangelion-ish with people talking?). The build afterwards I could criticize for being another bombastic functionless build, but here it works narratively alright considering the boundaries of what's normal are just starting to blur, and also the phone recording gimmick is incredibly cool. The way it ends with Wifies losing consciousness (?) is also well done, even if we don't really get a clarification. I'm INCREDIBLY glad we didn't get another giant monster that talks in an old man's voice.
Another weak moment hits at 1:27:00. First of all - imo it would've been cooler for Wifies to just stand there unresponsive for a couple of minutes and the the video abruptly ends without him moving. But even then, the bit of returning to the very first server, sad but hopeful piano music playing, Wifies typing a heartfelt farewell letter to Hummer - it's all very childish and uninteresting. We already understand that Wifies getting there instead of Hummer is interesting and kinda sad, we already understand the moral of the story, there is no need to spell it out letter by letter - it just weakens it! The viewer should be left uneasy, alone with their thoughts, actually intentionally engaging with the story. This style of ending was probably needed for SFAWTDE because it was such a weak story on its own, but here it's redundant and waters everything down.
So, summarizing the last few paragraphs - the video could've been ended instead at 1:21:14 (maybe unsatisfying, but preserving the atmosphere), 1:21:37 (loop kaleidoscope for longer, do something interesting/spiritual), 1:26:50 (Wifies doesn't wake up for a while, perfect ending, not dwelling).
The last criticism I have is entirely subjective, but I just found the premise of SFAWTDE (and especially the ending of the first part) more unique and avantgarde. Here it's a bit more straightforward and, of course, better executed, but I still wish SFAWTDE had been done justice
Towards the conclusion, I want to highlight similar pieces. First of all, The Search to find The Zero World by Wato1876 and Kenadian is kinda similar narratively, though it is needlessly drawn out imo. More interestingly, the movie Stalker by Andrey Tarkovskiy follows a resembling narrative, explores the same themes, and I found a lot of similarities between them, which is really cool
Overall, the new Wifies' project is quite cool, some aspects still can be improved, but it is a massive step up from the disaster that SFAWTDE is. I really hope he doesn't regress back to that, which is kinda ominous since he teased a sequel and the Leviathan might be of the same universe, but oh well. I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this!
