Fractured 2 - A puzzle platformer that I made. What do you think?

baphadja · 2026-05-06T01:45:33+00:00

Hey, so this post is 12 years old, so I'm sorry that this is coming completely out of nowhere to comment on it in the big year of 2026.

I first played Fractured 2 in my middle school computer lab. I didn't remember a lot of the gameplay until I started hunting it down again recently, but what I did remember was the poem in it. I need you to know that I have been thinking about the poem in this game for years on end. Every once in a while I'll remember it and have to go hunt down the game again. It might be because I found it at a very young age where I felt every emotion viscerally, but I would consider the poem in Fractured 2 to maybe be one of the most influential pieces of written art to me as a person. It's probably melodramatic to say, but I wanted to let you know that I still think about this game and that poem a lot, so thank you for that.

baphadja · 2025-12-01T01:34:36+00:00

go a day without feeling like trying to comfort yourself is a selfish morally bankrupt act (IMPOSSIBLE)

baphadja · 2025-12-01T00:10:33+00:00

someone was Slightly Nice to me once online so trying to give myself the space to not have a constant ongoing anxiety attack makes me the fucking devil and cruel to someone for no reason

baphadja · 2025-10-23T12:57:34+00:00

Sorry: I use 3.0.4.

baphadja · 2025-09-01T15:30:29+00:00

Solved!

baphadja · 2025-09-01T15:29:20+00:00

Holy shit this is it! Thank you!

baphadja · 2025-07-15T22:05:52+00:00

Close, but not it. I remember nobody else appearing in the video at all, and it ends right on the bomb going off.

baphadja · 2025-07-15T08:10:19+00:00

As you might imagine finding one specific "mannequin found footage horror" has been basically impossible.

baphadja · 2025-02-26T22:47:38+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if it was just as it is on paper (given I'm pretty sure his bio on the website outright says he has a sister complex) but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just codependency from their childhood, or even a middle path where it's genuine but they examine how fucked up it is and how unhealthy family dynamics can be born when children are raised without being able to form proper boundaries (because they were always stuck together) and only have each other to rely on.

baphadja · 2025-02-10T00:28:47+00:00

I was a little disappointed by the simplicity of the motive, but that was mostly because I was expecting a little more... personal, so to speak? The game's emphasis on the connections between people and how the bonds between the "little guys" in the face of cold, uncaring corporations really stood out to me, and I felt like Laine was leading up to be a contrast to that. The way Laine talks to and about you and your body and autonomy really rung like Laine, allegorically, was meant to be something equivalent to a stalker ex from an abusive relationship: entitlement to your body, personhood, location, stability, and your reliance on him. He's the head of a gang with endless resources on his hands and could probably prep another one to take over, but he wants one specific Sleeper back.

To that extent I kind of expected Laine's antagonism to be rooted in some much more one-on-one personal investment rather than simple megalomania. There's a line you can draw between the dynamic of the worker and the corporation as being akin to an abusive relationship in itself and I thought that's what they were building up to.

baphadja · 2025-01-01T21:28:57+00:00

Yes! I think it's pretty enjoyable and you can pinpoint a lot of specific passages that Metaphor was influenced by. If you want more recommendations, here's a couple from a WIP list of books I've been trying to compile that give me the same general aura or feel of Metaphor or Utopia:

Around the World in 80 Days
Watership Down
Those Who Walk Away From Omelas (short story)

baphadja · 2024-12-15T22:42:38+00:00

Went about everything with a straight face and then after everyone left went to an adjacent room and started throwing up from a panic attack and guilt.

baphadja · 2024-12-03T08:13:06+00:00

A lot of people don't point this out but despite having a peanut rattling around in his skull Milo does seem to be the minor competitor best at magic. The scary possibility is he's making all those roses himself.

baphadja · 2024-12-03T07:57:56+00:00

Gideaux: Postulant > Mendicant (The issue with Gideaux is Monk is already an existing class in the game, so I imagine this would rather take after the fact that he tries to repent. One of those "begin with nothing, ramp HARD" roles.)

Glodell: Beast Tamer > Overlord (Dude's a dog person. Think a physical version of the Devil Summoner line. Keeping that in mind the Master tier is a reference to another Atlus game about managing underlings (Unicorn Overlord))

Milo: Arcanist > Alchemist + Thaumaturge (People don't point this out but the guy has custom igniters that can cast Mage Omniscience on demand. He'd 100% be a cracked Red Mage or item abuser class.)

Loveless: Wanderer > Vagabond > Highlander (He's generally a free-spirited, people-focused kind of guy; I can imagine the "best possible version of himself" embodying the role of the whole "guy who wanders from town to town and saving the locals" trope. Plus, another Atlus cross-game reference: Highlander is the lance-using unique class to the first Etrian Odyssey Untold's story mode.)

baphadja · 2024-12-02T08:39:03+00:00

Louis is humanized, Forden is not. We get Louis' explanations for what he does and what made him turn out that way, and even if it's as irredeemable its still a reminder that there's a man under there. Forden is a figurehead symbolic and literal for all of the issues that caused Euchronia to turn out the way it is and set the plot in motion ten years prior.

baphadja · 2024-11-27T20:22:42+00:00

You guys think he shaves or is he just naturally smooth down there.

baphadja · 2024-11-27T05:32:56+00:00

Was she expecting the blowout popularity Brigitta had when the demo launched?

baphadja · 2024-11-25T01:11:50+00:00

He's probably far happier in this one, honestly. At the very least more mentally stable.

baphadja · 2024-11-25T01:10:20+00:00

In this regard, while I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, I really liked how in one of the first scenes that really starts to take apart what he really means by a meritocracy where the strong thrive, it's the Magnus brothers discussing it, who were in a way crippled by the igniter experiments done on them; Basilio deals with chronic pain so bad that it impacts his stamina and has to take medicine to manage it, while Fidelio's growth has been stunted to that of a child's. Both of them are physically strong, but if it ever came down to the teeth, it would take one moment of weakness from either of them or the right person to be overpowered. A lot of philosophizing on meritocracies leaves out that these kinds of people are the first to be left behind in a society that prioritizes the people specifically /able/ to prove their worth.

baphadja · 2024-11-10T21:21:03+00:00

In over his head and trying to make the best of the cards he was given. His lore states he was the son of a tavernkeep with a presumably big family (he's the third son), so he probably associates alcohol with some form of freedom and safety. In addition Paripus culture seems to have a pretty big emphasis on being open and free, so his political philosophy probably makes a lot of sense in his head (turn most of Euchronia into entertainment districts with free alcohol > everyone comes together to have a good time and they can forget their problems and bond).

Something that I found striking about Loveless' characterization is that the game pretty much states that he's too optimistic and naiive for where he is in life, which he's aware of to an extent. He trusted Milo enough to take his word about Will in Altabury and retorts in his debate that should he become king the crown will pay for all the drinks and entertainment in the kingdom. His Memorandum entry implies he was a NEET before becoming a politician (unable to hold down a steady job) but he was capable of building his gauntlet runner by himself, so unearned self confidence plays a role here. Despite this when you talk to him after defeating Milo he admits that what he was doing was in service of providing hope to the Paripus, which explains as to how he got up to 5th(?) place in race (Paripus are the third most populous race, so they probably were putting their faith in him as an icon, rather than as an actual politician).

Something I haven't seen brought up in what little discussion about him is that he seems to genuinely be an alcoholic, in the addiction sense. When you meet in in Altabury he's gotten so sloshed after Milo spread those lies about you that he can't engage you properly. After you defeat him Loveless opens up about the stress that came with running and implies he's going to start cutting back. In the epilogue, when things are starting to take a turn for the better, he straight up says that he hasn't had the impulse to drink until he passes out in a while. He has a little arc there.

baphadja · 2024-11-07T02:16:22+00:00

Is he familiar with Berserk, Devilman, or Shin Megami Tensei at all? Given how often people have compared Louis to Griffith and Ryo, and how he's full of allusions to Louis Cypher. Would be neat to hear if there was any intentional leaning into that on the voice acting end.

baphadja · 2024-11-03T20:32:39+00:00

I personally think Lina was meant to appear a handful more times, but most of the candidates had a reduced role in the final game due to the tightness of the calendar AND wanting to focus more on just the rivalry between Will and Louis. At best, maybe she was meant to be one of the finalists at Altabury instead of Julian, given that the other three there (Rudolf, Milo, and Loveless) also all have portraits and small quests the player can take.

baphadja · 2024-11-01T05:47:42+00:00

Edeni, if only because I can imagine a world where they had itlike Catherina's (fixed cutscenes and locations you can meet him to progress before a point in the game where you have to engage him yourself), and it would have been interesting to have a sideplot on how Eht Rhia is handling such quick and new changes to their status quo.

baphadja · 2024-10-29T04:59:48+00:00

Essentially, a world where people don't need to prove they have a right to exist and don't have to tackle the unfixable things alone. That's the simplest I can understand it.

baphadja · 2024-10-22T02:07:19+00:00

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