So, there are many other narratives in the game you can experience. You can find them in journals, optional areas, and other hidden places. They help add a bit of depth to both the world and several of the main characters. Here are some of the stories you may have missed while playing through the game.
There are spoilers for the main narrative of the game.
8The Story Of The Trash-Can Man
In the game’s prologue, you can find a guy hiding in a trash can. The game names him Trash-can Man, and he’s been hiding there for six months. He believes that if he stays in there, he won’t get Gommaged. It’s certainly an interesting strategy that others haven’t tried.
Unfortunately, though, if you return to the trash can in Act Three, you will find a message from the man. It says that his plan didn’t work, and he can feel himself being Gommaged. Therefore, his story came to a sad conclusion.
The Naked Expedition
Every Expedition had different strategies for getting the job done and stopping the Gommage. Based on a journal written by Expedition 60, they had one of the more interesting ideas.
Their Expedition relied partially on nakedness. They worked out to extreme levels to put themselves in peak physical shape, and they didn’t want their bodies to be weighed down by heavy uniforms, so they ventured forward naked. The incredible thing is that they were actually pretty successful. They even managed to get through the barrier around the monolith without any special weaponry, just their strength. They even figured out that The Paintress wasn’t the real threat. So, all those fancy outfits you can wear in the game are just holding you back.
The Expeditioner Who Spent Their Time On The Beach
Apparently, she was tired of people not listening to her and the constant dangers they faced, so she left the group. She went to a Gestral Beach and just lived there until she was eventually Gommaged. She claims her only regret is being unable to overcome the challenge the Gestrals have set up on the beach.
Gustave And Sophie’s Breakup
During the game’s prologue, it quickly becomes clear that Gustave and Sophie used to be a couple. Yet, because it is their last day together, they don’t spend much time discussing why they broke up in the first place. You can still find this out, though, in an optional conversation Sophie can have with an NPC called Marie.
The two discuss children, mainly Sophie’s lack of them. She doesn’t want to bring kids into a doomed world, and she tells Marie that it ruined her relationship with Gustave. So, it seems that Gustave and Sophie broke up because of their different views on kids. This makes their final day even more heartbreaking. The two never fell out of love or fell for other people. Gustave simply wanted kids, and he never had them, so his breakup with Sophie ended up being unnecessary.
The Gestral In The Flying Casino
On the Continent, you can find a Casino floating up in the air. The place isn’t open, though. Instead, it’s bordered up with a Gestral inside. He rudely shuns humans away, but if Monoco walks up, he will be more talkative. The guy claims that he’s hiding in there because he’s sick of the Gestral people’s obsession with fighting.
In addition, he wants to maintain the Old Gestral Casino, which he used to run before the fracture. He misses those times and has no desire to move on from them. His inability to let the Casino and his past go is likely the main reason he stays there, more so than the fighting thing.
Sciel’s Dark Backstory
Sciel is one of the most outwardly positive and best characters in the game. However, if you don’t maximize your relationship with her, you won’t know how much trauma she has suffered. As hinted at in the main story, Sciel is a widow. Unlike many in this world, though, she didn’t lose her husband due to the Gommage. He died in an accident. This suddenness of his death made it all the more painful.
One day, she couldn’t deal with the pain any longer, so she attempted to drown herself. Unbeknownst to her, Esquire ended up saving her, and she woke up on the docks. It wasn’t an entirely happy ending, though. Before trying to drown herself, Sciel didn’t realize she was pregnant. The whole ordeal killed the baby, and Sciel has felt guilty ever since.
Verso And Julie
It is sometimes easy to forget that Verso has met many other Expeditioners before the 33 crew. Just like with the protagonists, he shared strong bonds with some of them. A series of journals shows he was very close to a woman named Julie. How deep their relationship really went isn’t entirely clear, but the journals do explain how it all fell apart.
On a search and rescue mission to find any survivors of Expedition Zero, Verso was ‘killed.’ Being immortal, however, meant he woke back up, which freaked Julie out, making her very suspicious of him. It didn’t help that Verso and Renoir tried to convince her that the Paintress wasn’t the real threat. She came to the conclusion that they were traitors, so she captured Verso and interrogated him. It seems like he had to retaliate, and perhaps even kill her. It’s a heartbreaking story.
Simon
Simon is one of the most difficult bosses in the game, and fighting him is optional. Yet, you have to beat him to understand his story fully, which is why many don’t know it. Simon was a member of Expedition Zero, who fell in love with Painted Clea. However, at some point, the real Clea discovered and trapped her doppelganger. Then, she manipulated Simon and gave him some upgrades, hoping he would eliminate The Paintress.
Things got more complicated after that because The Paintress/Aline also began to manipulate Simon and tried to get him to eliminate Renoir. The mental torture for the poor guy didn’t end there, though, as according to Simon’s journal, he had to fight against Renoir’s influence over his mind. All of this seems to have done severe mental damage. What’s left is a broken and overpowered man that you have to fight.
