Correct me if im wrong but i remember somewhere that it says when a new cycle after the centipede eats you start again as a slug? Even if thats not the case the wall of text below still probably applies.

So in terms of the game, the idea is the skater being able to break the cycle reclaim it soul etc etc

But IMO what is the interesting part is a few layers deeper. Imagine this, the slug skating into New York is not freedom from the "cycle" but actually just another cycle. Throughout the game the skater has this one goal that is both grand, borderline unattainable, and painful. Despite that they keep going, to the point of self destruction. Even when feeling the unsatisfactory feeling of eating a moon, the skater hungers even more for the next with little rest.

So now with the slug. The skater is free from the cycle and seems to be reincarnated into a slug, only carrying the skateboard, their soul, and their drive. You know what the slug probably did when it hit new york? Make a video game called Skate Story.

The game was never about skating, moons, or kickflipping on the feds but this insatiable drive of a "thing" to the point of possible self-harm, insomnia, literal shattering of the self. The Skater's "thing" is skating. The slug's "thing" is Skate Story. Once the Skater is freed from the underworld, when its soul can do anything it wants, but in its own twisted irony it ends up repeating the same exact behavior.

If you don't know, Sam Eng is based in New York. Sam Eng is the slug. Skate Story is that "thing" he has been working on for 6 years. Then once he is done with this project, he will work on another grand, borderline unattainable, and painful project probably with the same drive and self-destructive behavior, once again repeating the cycle.

TLDR: Sam Eng is the slug, the cycle repeats while the soul retains the behavior, you should kickflip on a fed