hey guys super bro Mike here and in today's video we take a look at limbo and it's ambiguous story which has been the topic of discussion and much head-scratching ever since this creepy puzzle platformer launched way back in July 2010 in limbo we assume the role of a young boy who awakens in a forest and seems drawn toward four lights at all times eventually discovering a young girl who is knocked before a treehouse at the end of his adventure it's very mysterious and with no dialogue or text at any point during this journey everything relies
on symbolism and the player's own imagination to connect those proverbial dots if you haven't heard of limbo before don't worry as this video aims not only to cover theories explaining the meaning behind the story of the game but also briefly cover everything that happens from start to finish as well so sit back relax and let's quickly cover limbo step by step before trying to explain exactly what it's all about [Music] as the game opens we fade in on a young boy laying down in the depths of a dark and very ominous looking forest he opens
his eyes and sits up before setting off into the unknown ahead he soon discovers this forest is full of dangers from deep pools of water to pits full of spikes and bear traps fat can cut him clean into four boy must keep his wits about him every step of a way in order to survive eventually he reaches a boat which takes him across a river and into a cavernous area where he is captured by a giant spider and spun into a webbed cocoon for boys struggles and manages to break free with the spider soon giving
chase eventually the boy outsmarts his arachnid nemesis and squishes it with a giant boulder however he soon discovers that spiders are not the only predators out there coming face-to-face with a tribe of older boys all armed with deadly blow pipes and booby traps throughout this tribes hunting ground we see dead bodies hanged and drowned victims who didn't have such a lucky escape at times but boy must even use these corpses to overcome certain obstacles that block his path for eventually the tribe catches up with a boy and he must use their own mechanical traps to
defeat them we encounter a strange maggot like bug which has the ability to attach itself to the boy's head and burrow into his brain controlling the direction of his movement they are susceptible to the light shafts from above and so scolding them on this light is the only way to alter their control over our character to remove them from his mind the boy must locate these strange creatures who hang from cracks in the ceiling and seemed to enjoy chowing down on brain Berg's at this point the boys surroundings slowly begin to transform from the natural
forests and caves to more man-made industrial landscapes before too long the boy reaches a rundown hotel he risks being electrocuted by its gigantic sign and also falling to his death at every step he carefully navigates his way down into the depths of this man-made industrial hell and enters a factory full of buzz saws and other instruments of death at one point within this factory we discover a hornet like creature feasting on the corpse of a fallen traveller by carefully sneaking up on this creature the boy manages to finally snag a ride towards four lights and
possibly a way to escape this nightmarish world for good [Music] unfortunately the Hornets leg snaps and the boy must continue on his safe-haven just out of reach he navigates the interior of giant machines full of cogs which when rotated turned the entire environment on its head some of these areas of pitch black save for a single light source making progress incredibly challenging and often a leap of faith machine guns even show up and try and blast him into oblivion the final stretch of a boys adventure adds in a truly mind-bending game mechanic as we are
forced to reverse gravity for short periods of time in order to navigate a series of ever challenging hurdles [Music] at the end of this gauntlet time slows to a crawl as the boy bursts through a pane of glass and slams into the dirt of the forest he started his journey in' at the beginning of the game from here the boy awakens once again and makes his way up the hill where he discovers a young girl digging in the dirt below a treehouse she seems to sense his presence as he quietly approaches and yes that's it
this mysterious cliffhanger is indeed where the game ends there is a secret final level which can be unlocked if we collect all ten eggs hidden throughout the boys adventure sadly well this new area offers some challenging puzzles to overcome it doesn't offer anything story-wise so then what is the meaning of limbo and what exactly happens at the end well there have been many theories over the years but very few very on anything other than the meaning of that one final shot the dictionary defines the term limbo as for following in some Christian beliefs the suppose
it abode of the souls unbaptized infants and of the just who died before Christ's coming an uncertain period of awaiting a decision or resolution an intermediate state or condition from these definitions and for black and white surreal look and feel of the world this young boy explores it is fairly easy to conclude that this is indeed his limbo state a world he has entered after death in order to qualify for entry into either heaven or hell a place where his soul must ever find eternal peace or eternal damnation it seems but in order to find
peace this boy must locate a young girl who he strives to encounter throughout his journey but only manages to reach at its end she is his true escape from this limbo we'll get to why that is in a minute but first we need to explain a little bit about what this limbo represents and how the boy found himself here in the first place [Music] the one constant across most limbo theories out there is found when looking at the explanation of this limbo world it is commonly believed that each of the dangers this boy encounters are
representations of events and things he feared during life so the spider represents his arachnophobia for rising water his fear of drowning stemming from an inability to swim the tribe of older boys represents his peers other kids or teenagers who would bully him and cause him a great deal of pain and anxiety during his time on earth the mind-control grubs would then represent for boys feeling of powerlessness during times of anxiety and depression as the game concludes areas become darker and almost impossible to navigate which seem to represent the boys fear of darkness and also isolation
during life of course this darkness may well also represent death's grasp itself as the boy heads closer and closer to his transition from limbo to the other side so all of these dangers were fears that plagued the boy while he was alive and therefore he must overcome them in order for his soul to rest in peace this also suggests that areas in the game also symbolize important events in this child's life the hotel is a very prominent landmark for example and perhaps a place where something very bad happened to a boy or his family a
building which held a dark history in his mind the factory full of buzzsaws was likely a place where his mother or father worked and again potentially a saucepans I see for this boy due to how loud and dangerous a work environment it was [Music] it's also important to note for guns we run into at certain points of this adventure they resemble the kind of guns manufactured during World War two and the game's entire aesthetic has a very 1920s feel with this in mind it may be that these factories were manufacturing weapons for the war something
that understandably people feared at the time and so may have played into the boys subconscious and therefore appear in his limbo one location which is easier to place is for forest this is because two very key events happen here one would be the boys awakening both at the beginning and end of limbo story the second would be the treehouse for little girl sits below a treehouse that seems to be in ruin the ladder is broken and the structure collapsed and before the boy reaches this treehouse the slow-motion crashed through the window such a random event
on the surface it would seem this is where theories begin to split off and explanations very many believe a smashing windowpane represents the death of this young boy he was involved in a car accident in this forest smashing through the windscreen on impact and landing in a crumpled mess on the forest floor he then awakens to search for forest of the soul of the other passenger who died in the accident his little sister fee to reunite by a landmark from their childhood their old treehouse and after finding peace in limbo journey together to the afterlife
after beating the game we are returned to the main menu which now displays this treehouse however both the boy and girl are gone in their place are two swarms of flies hovering above the ground representing the resting place of two bodies this car-crash theory also explains why the game features several zero gravity based puzzles toward the end these anti-gravity moments symbolize the weightlessness the boy felt during his final moments as he was flung from the and through its windscreen however of a theory suggests a girl is in fact waiting below this treehouse because this is
where she and her brother both passed away after falling to their deaths when the ladder collapsed on their way up this would explain the condition of the treehouse and also why the girl waits here for her brother's arrival on this basis for boys entry for IVA window would symbolize his escape from limbo and entry into heaven the place where once again he finds peace with his sister another theory notes the girl is not dead at all instead she is burying her brother's body in the soil below the treehouse he died in it is believed by
certain religions that a soul cannot escape limbo until the body has been laid to rest so this theory is based around fats concept the boy's sister lays him to rest and then senses his spirit is behind her which causes her to abruptly sit up in shock the game ends so suddenly because the boy leaves limbo at this very point and reaches the light he has been searching for this entire time that light representing a heavenly afterlife away from the dangers of this purgatory realm these are the three main explanations for limbo story and personally I
feel that this is a game where the developers didn't want any easy answers to be found limbo can mean pretty much whatever we want it to this is one of the reasons why its story has been discussed so pervasively over the last decade since its original release it's also because it's a fantastically original game like no other so why not check it out if you liked what you saw here today with that said this has been a video explaining limbo and its story and I do hope you enjoyed it if he did remember to Like
comment and of course subscribe for more videos just like this one and I will see you on the next one [Music]
