- [Narrator] Some video
games do everything they can to nurture immersion
the entire way through. And some know that it's
fun to break it sometimes and just look right into your soul. Hi folks, it's Falcon Day on Game Ranks 10 Recent Fourth Wall
Breaking Video Game Moments. Starting off with number 10, Eve staring you down in Stellar Blade. Let's start off with
the prototypical example of someone breaking the fourth wall. The actual origins of the term come from television production where there are three walls on a set and a hypothetical fourth wall where the cameras are filming from. You can kind of regard your
television screen itself as a wall, but where the set actually is, there isn't usually a wall. There may be an audience,
there may not be an audience, but generally a TV production has stuff, has equipment, and a crew and stuff instead of a wall on one end of a set. And most productions with cameras, actors are usually trained not
to look directly at the lens 'cause it's breaking the fourth wall, 'cause we're not supposed
to be looking at the actors. Filming a movie or a television show, we're supposed to be watching
them in a dramatic situation that we suspend our disbelief about. So when somebody looks at the camera, they ruin that immersive
viewing experience, which is sometimes done
completely intentionally. In video games, it can
only be done intentionally. And Stellar Blade has a
little fun with that idea. All you have to do is point
your camera at Eve's face for an uncomfortably long amount of time and eventually she'll stop staring forward and turn her head to look
directly at the game camera. She even follows it
around when you move it. So yeah, she's looking right at you. She knows you're peeping.
She's gonna look right back. Honestly, it's a little
disconcerting for whatever reason. (whimsical instrumental music) I know it's just a 3D model program to have the head track the camera if you don't move it for a while, but there's something weird
about having the character watch you with that blank expression. It's like in a horror game
or a movie or something, the mannequin suddenly comes to life. In the game it might attack you and in the movie, it might
attack the character. There's something about it
that just feels wrong though. It's also just like, you know how in the haunted house fiction, there's always the eyes and the picture following the characters? I mean, we're kind of at the point where they just deliberately create that. And number nine is Dragon's Dogma 2, one guy knowing that the world is fake. In this one village is
an eccentric old man known as the Riveg Elder who
mostly babbles incoherently. If if you talk to him enough though, he'll start saying things
that make a little more sense. He claims the world that
we're in is fake and stagnant, trapped in an endless
cycle of slaying dragons. He talks about a real world
that can actually change and evolve and even talks
about ways to get there. - The real world is
not nearly so stagnant. All manner of things occur there. These are far more fierce in
existence than ours to be sure. - [Narrator] It's never
made explicitly clear how this guy knows this stuff. He just does. Now in this game's case, it's not really a bunch of
fourth wall breaking Easter eggs. All this stuff actually relates
to the main plot as well. But come on, we're clearly meant to get like a little weird joke about video games in general, right? Yes. The world of the
game actually is stagnant. There's a way to break outta the cycle and get the quote unquote true ending. So in a way, everything he says are clues leading you towards the true ending. But it's also just
talking about the nature of video games in general. The world only exists in
one repeating point in time where the same events always play out. That's a video game. I gotta imagine it's
a pretty sad existence to be aware that there's
a real world out there, but you're trapped in a video game, just spouting the same four
lines of dialogue when prompted and having no actual agency of your own. Sounds like a "Black Mirror" episode. Of course, none of these
characters have consciousness of any kind, but if they did, they might sound a lot like this guy if they figured stuff out. - Is there a way to travel
to the real world? You ask. Must I do all the thinking
here? Ponder that yourself. - [Narrator] And number eight, there's a literal fourth wall
break in Mortal Kombat 1. The recent Mortal Kombat
games are full of Easter eggs and jokes that reference the fourth wall or some real world thing, or just the fact that it's a video game. But if I have to pick one, I
want to go with this brutality where you literally break the fourth wall with your defeated enemy's carcass. So every game post Mortal Kombat 10, you've got brutalities
on top of fatalities. Brutalities are performed
by doing some special moves or inputs on the last hit in
the last round of the match. And this is where Nether Realms likes to sneak in some secret stuff, 'cause it's generally a lot harder to trigger than your basic fatalities. This one is triggered by doing
a back throw and holding up and back punch at the same time. How somebody figured that out
on their own, I have no idea. If you do it right, then
your combatant grabs a guy and throws them directly into the screen, cracking the camera in the process. (glass shattering)
(character grunting) (character yelling)
(glass shattering) - All right, that might be overkill. - [Video Game Narrator]
Brutality. Peacemaker wins. - [Narrator] It's simple, it's stupid, and it's perfect for Mortal Kombat. Unlike most brutalities, this one can be performed by anyone. So feel free to abuse the
fourth wall as much as you want. At number seven, appropriately, it's Final Fantasy 7,
Rebirth, specifically, cloud humming the victory theme. One thing I appreciate about Rebirth is that it really embraces the goofy side of Final Fantasy 7. The game is painful, full
of just bizarre cut scenes and laughable moments,
and most of their humor is actually intentional. It doesn't break the fourth
wall that much though. The meta plot is pretty
self-referential and well meta, but only a few moments
really count as full breaks. One example comes from winning
the Queen's Blood tournament on the cruise ship in chapter five. The whole event is optional and it's possible and even
likely that the player will lose. But if you beat all five opponents, then Cloud will receive
a trophy for his victory. And when he raises the
golden statue in triumph, he also hums the victory theme. (characters cheering)
(character humming) - And on that incredible note, our Queen's Blood
tournament draws to a close. - [Narrator] The victory
music is just a little jingle that would play when you won a battle in the original Final Fantasy 7, so it's weird that Cloud
would even know it. And if you go back to Remake,
Barrett hums it sometimes just walking around. It's weird. In fact, he
still does it in Rebirth. I just wanted to mention
that he does it in Remake. But even so like going beyond that, it feels like even more
of a fourth wall violation When Cloud does it in a cut scene. It feels wrong to
somebody who's been there since the first Final Fantasy 7. - It's a good match.
- Close too. You really had me. - How the hell did you get so good? - By watching others play. A hunter must be observed. I first gleaned the rules
and then the strategies. - [Narrator] And number six is appropriately, Street Fighter 6. When jury yells at the player, this is a fighting game
heavy list, all right? Street Fighter 6 really
does go above and beyond with its characters, gives
them special animations and dialogue during the game
over screen in arcade mode. Something that like half
the people playing the game are just never gonna see. There's a lot of good ones, but the best for the purposes of this list comes from Judy Hahn. If you lose with her, then
let the game over clock out. She'll look directly at the camera and say, "What are you
looking at?", in anger. - [Video Game Narrator] Game Over. - Huh? The hell you looking at? - [Narrator] It's not even
the only fourth wall breaking thing that Jury does, she
also does a near exact replica of Tune Lee's original victory animation from Street Fighter 2, before
laughing it off at the end. Jury is very sarcastic, great character. (Jury cheering) - I did it! - [Narrator] And number
five is Alan Wig 2, it's all a fiction. This is a game that doesn't
just break the fourth wall, it blows it wide open. The entire game is full of meta commentary about the nature of fiction and how it intersects with reality. The first game, I hesitate to say, hinted at a lot of this
stuff because it really, for its time, was pushing it, let's say. But the sequel really
just dives head first into the philosophical ramifications of this bizarre world remedies created. I mean, hell, this is a game where there's a living
walking Max Payne Panache called Alex Casey, who's, well, the character written by Alan Wake, and also a real person,
who's an FBI agent in world, all played by the dude
who writes these games and the original face model
for Max Payne, Sam Lake. On top of that, he has Max
Payne's original voice actor who also voiced Zacharia Trench, the former director of the
Federal Bureau of Control. James McCaffery is that
actor. He's really good. Unfortunately deceased. Really turned in incredible performances in all of these games. There's so many layers of meta commentary in this particular character. It's almost indecipherable. It's a weird as hell game, and
it just fully embraces that. There's plenty of parts I
could specifically call out for breaking the fourth wall. But let's stick with
something somewhat simple, at least as far as this game goes. While investigating the
movie theater as Alan Wake, you're meant to be following along with Casey's investigation
into the cult of the word, which is kind of a parallel
to the cult of the tree in the Pacific Northwest, but in New York. And also it has to do with
Alan Wake and Mr. Scratch. I mean this, I could keep
going, but I'm not going to. It gets to be too much. The visions you're seeing
in this investigation are meant to have happened in the past, but there's one jarring moment where a cultus starts
addressing Alan Wake directly. - Welcome, Alex Casey. You've done well. You've played your role perfectly. - Everything out of your
mouth is a damn lie. The only place any of this makes any sense is in your psychotic brain. - As a fictional character in a story, you fulfilled your purpose. You brought the writer of the story here. You can go now, Casey. - I'm not going anywhere
before I get some answers! How was I in that movie? Why does all this feel so familiar? Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck am I? No! - And welcome to you, Alan Wake. - [Alex] What the hell? - This is the ritual to lead you on. - [Narrator] He questions
your very reality and wonders if your fictional too. That's one of the strangest
mysteries of these games. There's a guy named Thomas Zane that basically wrote Alan Wake
into existence-ish, kind of, but not really, but kind of. And he's using the same
reality warping powers of the dark place that Alan Wake is using. And also Alan Wake may
have created Thomas Zane as a guiding figure to help him. Where does fiction end in
reality begin? I don't know. They both look the same
though. I can tell you that. They're both played by the same person. I don't really know. All I know is that this is
starting to make my head hurt. - Look, you got the wrong
guy. I'm not Alex Casey. I only play him in the movies.
(character panting) He's just a fictional character. - What's going on here? - You don't have to kill me. You don't have to go
get that knife stab me. You can just give up and go back. Forget about the ritual sacrifice
to open the way forward. - The ritual sacrifice to open the way? - [Character With Mask] No! Don't do it. You don't have to become a monster. - [Narrator] And number
four is Alone in the Dark. Kern B notices something off. We are talking of course about
the recent Alone in the Dark. You can definitely see the
Allen Wake inspirations in the newest Alone in the Dark game. There's a lot of off kilter
humor, oddball characters, and even a writer who may have
the ability to alter reality. But in this case, the fourth wall breaking is just meant to throw
you off and be funny. There's a lot of meta references all over the place in this game. But my favorite is this part where the game suddenly switches from a third person
perspective to tank controls. (suspenseful tune)
(door creaking) - Detective, am I glad to see you. Lock the door, will you? I don't think Dr. Gray would
appreciate us snooping around. - What's going on here?
This feels so strange. (mysterious music) - [Narrator] It looks
exactly like Resident Evil or you know, the original
Alone in the Dark, and immediately your guy
knows something is off. This is one of those games
that just gets weirder as it goes along. There's no real reason
why any of it's happening. It just does. And the character's just as
confused as the player is. There's even a part where they find a key that's impossible to see. And the only way you'd
know something was there was because of the prompt and your guy just verbally wonders if it was there the whole time. I have no idea why any of this
happens, but it's memorable. This game is a bit of a mixed bag, but it also really does
a lot of things well and it's memorable at least, right? (suspenseful music)
(gun shots blaring) And number three, Hi-Fi Rush, an awkward time to take a break. Okay, enough weird stuff. Let's just do some goofy. Hi-Fi Rush is a game
that has a lot of jokes and humor hidden in unexpected places. There's a lot of extremely
specific dialogue that most people are never gonna see. Like this entry, for example. Most games, if you return to base, they usually force you to restart
whatever mission you're on from the beginning, but not this game. Even if you quit MidBoss fight, the game will let you continue right from where you left off. Not only that, the characters in the base will actually acknowledge
what you've done. Chai will be confused
about what's going on, and other characters just
straight up tell on you. - Peppermint, I thought
we were in Macaron's Lab going to take down Zanzo? - Oh, we are. - Uh... Not as far as I can see. - Yeah, you quit at an awkward time. Might wanna sit on that couch and get back to where you were. - [Narrator] It doesn't
make any logical sense that you could be in the
middle of a boss fight and also at the base at the same time. But it's a gameplay contrived,
so who really cares? It's just funny that
Hi-Fi Rush even bothers acknowledging any of
this in the first place. - Pretty sure we didn't
bring you back here yet. - Most certainly you did not. - So you just came back here on your own? - Mr. Chai, you were
the one who took a break as we were taking on Zanzo, nonetheless. Did you think we were
just going to sit around in Sir Macaroon's lab and wait for you? - [Narrator] And number
two is Balder's Gate 3's Carlock, realizing she's in a video game. It's kind of a bizarre one. There's a weirdly elaborate scene that you could trigger
when you talk to Carlock, where she asks if she can
practice her interrogation skills on you. It starts off normal enough
until you actually agree to it. And then she turns towards the camera and starts asking you,
the player, questions. She's not asking your character questions, she's asking you questions. And depending on how you reply, she can have a full on existential crisis realizing that she's
an NPC in a video game. Apparently this can happen naturally, but it's extremely rare and nobody knows what, if anything, actually causes this
conversation to trigger. It just goes to show how
dedicated Larian is to the game that they made a scene that
99% of players will never see, but have it fully
animated and voice acted. - High pain tolerance and a
dynamic deal of truly bosses. But it's a bit early in the game to be getting into tragic backstories. Let's save the scar-show for later, after we've worked up
an appetite for tragedy. - [Narrator] And finally,
at number one, Lunacid, the fourth wall obliterating ending E. If you thought Alan Wake 2 was weird, you haven't seen anything yet. Lunacid is this weird little indie that builds itself as an
old school dungeon crawler. And for the most part it is that. You swing swords, explore
dungeons, and fight monsters. It's your classic medieval
Dungeons and Dragon style fantasy. (character roaring) So it's a little disconcerting
when you find a VHS tape behind a secret wall
and you put it in a VCR hidden behind an another
completely unmarked secret wall, in a completely different area. The fourth wall, it's getting thinner, but it's not completely broken yet. From copying the totally random
thing you saw on the tape, you get a corrupt key, which is literally just
a corrupted texture with nothing else on it. Use that key on a messed up texture in an otherwise totally
unremarkable dead end, and you get the white VHS, which you can load up into a big screen TV behind multiple fake
walls in, you guessed it, a totally different area. So do all of that and collect
every spell in the game and you trigger the fourth wall demolishing true ending called, Ending E. You have to face the Final
Boss in a rhythm game right out of Dragon and Guard.
(suspenseful music) And your reward for
winning is, I don't know. I don't really know what this is. The game dumps you into
a featureless void, which is just named after
what you've decided to name your character. The music track also has
your character's name in it, and all the enemies are called Imperfect, your character's name. It's utterly surreal and
there's no ending to it. There's no credits. You're just trapped there
to wander around forever until you get bored or let the mostly harmless
enemies just kill you. (enemies growling)
(blade blaring) The only way to win is to
literally turn the game off. It's really bizarre. This is a game that breaks the fourth wall and the fifth wall and the sixth wall. It just doesn't respect any wall at all. It's all absolutely insane. Just to be clear, the rest of
the game is nothing like this. And that's all for today.
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