The Monologue
This is the "main" monologue of the game, which plays in labelled segments as you progress throughout the game. There may be discrepancies between this transcript and the in-game subtitles; I noticed a few mistakes which I corrected. Furthermore, there is a maximum number of characters per section so I've split the monologue into two distinct sections; one lasts from the beginning of the game to the beginning of "Orange Hell", and the other lasts from "Orange Hell" to the end of the game.
After the Dead Tree
There’s no feeling more intense than starting over.
If you’ve deleted your homework the day before it was due, as I have.
Or if you left your wallet at home and you have to go back, after spending an hour in the commute.
If you won some money at the casino and then put all your winnings on red, and it came up black.
If you won an argument with a friend and then later discovered they just returned to their original view.
Starting over is harder than starting up.
If you’re not ready for that, like if you’ve already had a bad day,
Then what you’re about to go through might be too much.
Feel free to go away and come back. I’ll be here.
A brief pause
Alright, thanks for coming with me on this trip. I’ll understand if you have to take a break at any point…
Just find a safe place to stop, and quit the game.
Don’t worry, I’ll save your progress, always. Even your mistakes.
Just Before the Outhouse
This game is a homage to a free game that came out in 2002, titled Sexy Hiking.
The author of the game was Jazzuo, a mysterious Czech designer who was known at the time as the father of B-games.
B-Games are rough assemblages of found objects. Designers slap them together very quickly and freely, and they’re often too rough and unfriendly to gain much of a following.
They’re built more for the joy of building them than as polished products.
At the Wooden Barrels
In a certain way Sexy Hiking is the perfect embodiment of a B-game. It’s built almost entirely of found and recycled parts, and it’s one of the most unusual and unfriendly games of its time.
In it, your task is simply to drag yourself up a mountain with a hammer.
The act of climbing, in the digital world or in real life, has certain essential properties that give the game its flavour.
No amount of forward progress is guaranteed; some cliffs are too sheer or too slippery.
And the player is constantly, unremittingly in danger of falling and losing everything.
Just After the Coffee Cup
Anyway when you start Sexy Hiking, you’re standing next to a tree, which blocks the way to the entire rest of the game.
It might take you an hour to get over that tree. A lot of people never got past it. You prod and poke at it, exploring the limits of your reach and strength, trying to find a way up.
There’s a sense of truth in that lack of compromise.
Most obstacles in video games are fake - you can be completely confident in your ability to get through them, once you have the correct method of the correct equipment, or just by spending enough time.
In that sense, every pixelated obstacle in Sexy Hiking is real.
At the Red Metal Beam
The obstacles in Sexy Hiking are unyielding, and that makes the game uniquely frustrating.
But I’m not sure Jazzuo intended to make a frustrating game - the frustration is just essential to the act of climbing and it’s authentic to the process of building a game about climbing.
A funny thing that happened to me as I was building this mountain:
I’d have an idea for an obstacle, and I’d build it, test it, and… it would usually turn out to be unreasonably hard. But I couldn’t bring myself to make it easier.
It already felt like my inability to get past the new obstacle was my fault as a player, rather than as the builder.
Imaginary mountains build themselves from our efforts to climb them, and it’s our repeated attempts to reach the summit that turns those mountains into something real.
At the Beginning of "Devil's Chimney"
When you’re building a video game world you’re building with ideas.
And that can be like working with quick-cement. You mould your ideas into a certain shape that can be played with,
And in the process of playing with them they begin to harden and set
Until they are immutable, like rock. At that point you can’t change the world - not without breaking it into pieces and starting fresh with new ideas.
Immediately After "Devil's Chimney"
For years now people have been predicting that games would soon be made of prefabricated objects, bought in a store and assembled into a world.
For the most part, that hasn’t happened, because the objects in the stores are trash. I don’t mean they look bad or they’re badly made,
although a lot of them are. I mean they’re trash in the way that food becomes trash as soon as you put it in the sink.
Things are made to be consumed in a certain context, and once the moment is gone they transform into garbage. In the context of technology those moments pass by in seconds.
At the Abandoned Brick Building
Over time we’ve poured more and more refuse into this vast digital landfill we call the internet. It now vastly outnumbers and outweighs the things that are fresh and untainted and unused.
When everything around us is cultural trash, trash becomes the new medium, the lingua franca of the digital age.
You can build culture out of trash, but only trash culture. B-games, B-movies, B-music, B-philosophy.
At the Middle of the Grey Truss
Maybe this is what this digital culture is.
A monstrous mountain of trash,
the ash-heap of creativity’s fountain.
A landfill with everything we ever thought of in it.
Grand, infinite, and unsorted.
At the Swimming Pool
There’s 3D models of breakfast
Gen-xer’s fanfic novels
Scanned magazines
Green-screen Shia LaBoeuf
Banned snuff scenes on LiveLeak
Facebook’s got lifelike bots
With unbranded adverts
And candid shots of Kanye
And Taylor Swift mashups
Car crash epic fail gifs
Russian dash cam vids
Discussions of McRibs
Discarded, forgotten, unrecycled
Muddled, rotten, and untitled
At the Outdoor Furniture
Everything’s fresh for about six seconds
Until some newer thing beckons
And we hit refresh
And there’s years of persevering
Disappearing into the pile
Out of style
Out of sight
On the Cardboard Boxes
In this context it’s tempting to make friendly content…
That’s gentle, that lets you churn through it but not earn it.
Why make something demanding, if
It just gets piled up in the landfill.
Filed in with the bland things?
Just Before the Security Camera
When games were new, they wanted a lot from you.
Daunting you, taunting you, resetting and delaying you.
Players played stoically. Now everyone’s turned off by that.
They want to burn through it quickly, a quick fix for the fickle
Some tricks for the clicks of the feckless.
But that’s not your, you’re an acrobat
You could swallow a baseball bat.
Just Past the First Couch
Now I know most likely you’re watching this on YouTube or Twitch
While some dude with 10 million views does it for you
Like a baby bird being fed chewed up food.
That’s culture too.
Just Before the Furniture Tunnel
But on the off-chance you’re playing this, what I’m saying is
Trash is disposable but maybe it doesn’t have to be approachable
What’s the feeling like? Are you stressed
I guess you don’t hate it if you got this far
Feeling frustrated it’s underrated.
The Monologue (cont.)
At the Beginning of "Orange Hell"
An orange is sweet juicy fruit
Locked inside a bitter peel
That’s not how I feel about a challenge
I only want the bitterness.
It's coffee, it's grapefruit, it's licorice.
Just After the Church
It feels like we’re closer now.
Composer and climber.
Designer and user.
You could have refused but you didn’t.
There was something in you that was hidden.
That chose to continue.
At the First Floating Stone
It means a lot to me
That you’ve come this far.
Endured this much.
Every wisecrack, every insensitivity.
Every setback you’ve forgiven me
Is a kingly gift you’ve given me
At the Bucket
We have the same taste, you and I
It’s not ambition
It’s ambition’s opposite.
An obdurate mission to taste defeat
You’ll feel bad if you win
So I put this snake in for you
At the Centre of the Ice Cliff
Have you ever thought about who you are in this
Are you the man in the pot, Diogenes?
Are you his hand?
Are you the top of his hammer?
I think not-
Where your hand moves, the hammer may not follow
Nor the man, nor the man’s hand.
In this, you are his will, his intent
The embodied resolve in his uphill ascent
At the Tower
Now you’ve conquered the ice cliff,
The platforms, the church, the rectory,
The living room and the factory,
The playground and the construction site,
The granite rocks and the lake side,
You’ve learned to hike
There’s no way left to go but up
And in a moment I’ll shut up, but let me say
I’m glad you came
In Outer Space
I dedicate this game to you, the one who came this far
I give it to you with all my love
Other Lines
The Bad Ending
You get this line by climbing to the final tower, then swinging your hammer to the other side of the tower and falling down to the base. Although considered an ending, stubborn enough players can wiggle their way out.
You got so close, but this is past mending. You got the bad ending.
500 Clicks
You get this line by clicking 500 times. Other than this, clicking has no function in the game.
Listen, this is a little awkward, but
you've clicked the mouse button 500 times now.
I'm gonna say you're gripping the mouse a little bit hard.
Quotes
Among losing a certain amount of progress in one fall Bennett Foddy will recite one of various quotes, generally about maintaining a stoic mind, or persevering through challenges. I have arranged them alphabetically by the surname of their speaker. Aside from Mary Pickford's quote coming first, I do not believe the quotes are in a set order. If you know the precise source of a quote I did not source, please let me know!
"There are no regrets in life, just lessons."
- Jennifer Aniston
"Somethin' filled up
My heart with nothin',
Someone told me not to cry.
Now that I'm older,
My heart's colder,
And I can see that it's a lie."
- Arcade Fire
From Wake Up off their 2004 album Funeral.[en.wikipedia.org]
"She smiled in defeat,
With unconquerable eyes."
- Atticus
From a poem posted online by the anonymous Canadian poet.[atticuspoetry.tumblr.com]
"Life is a mosaic of pleasure and pain - grief is an interval between two moments of joy. Peace is the interlude between two wars. You have no rose without a thorn; the diligent picker will avoid the thorns and gather the flower."
- Sathya Sai Baba
The word "thorns" was originally another synonym, but it is unfortunately censored by Steam for no good reason. It rhymes with "licks".
"Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?"
- William Blake
From his 1789 poem On Another's Sorrow.[www.poetryloverspage.com]
"In the end… We only regret the chances we didn’t take"
- Lewis Carroll
While trying to source this quote, I found out that it may be misattributed to Carroll, though I could not find another author who could have been responsible
"The soul would have no rainbow
Had the eyes no tears."
- John Vance Cheney
From his 1892 poem Tears.[en.wikiquote.org]
"This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –"
- Emily Dickinson
From a (likely) untitled poem by Emily Dickinson written in 1862.[edisciplinas.usp.br]
"Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.
It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain."
- Emily Dickinson
From a (likely) untitled poem by Emily Dickinson written in 1862.[edisciplinas.usp.br]
"Your failure here is a metaphor. To learn for what, please resume climbing."
- Rob Dubbin
Dubbin is a friend of Foddy's who beta tested the game, likely explaining the relevance of the quote.
"Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die."
- Mary Elizabeth Frye
From her 1932 poem Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep.[en.wikipedia.org]
"Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;"
- Kahlil Gibran
From his 1923 poetry book The Prophet.[en.wikipedia.org]
"I feel your pain the pain in knowing this has
Happened to you. The pain in knowing what more
tears we have gained. But through all this I feel your pain"
- Octavia B. Hawkins-Richardson
From her poem I Feel Your Pain. I could not find a year of publication.[www.poemhunter.com]
"Don't hate the player hate the game."
- Ice T
From Don't Hate the Playa off his 1999 album The Seventh Deadly Sin.[genius.com]
"Patience is the foundation of eternal peace. Make anger your enemy. Harm comes to those who know only victory and do not know defeat. Find fault with yourself and not with others. It is in falling short of your own goals that you will surpass those who exceed theirs."
- Tokugawa Ieyasu
From the Testament of Ieyasu, a formal statement made by Ieyasu in 1605, during the ceremony wherein he resigned as Shogun.[en.wikipedia.org]
“The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal.”
- C.S. Lewis
From Lewis' 1961 book A Grief Observed.[en.wikipedia.org]
"You cannot now believe that you will ever feel better. But this is not true. You are sure to be happy again. Knowing this, truly believing it will make you less miserable now."
- Abraham Lincoln
From an 1862 letter Lincoln wrote to Fanny McCullough.[en.wikiquote.org]
Quotes (cont.)
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
From his 1887 book On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic.[en.wikipedia.org]
"Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called Ego."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Possibly from his 1885 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None.[en.wikipedia.org]
"This thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down.”
- Mary Pickford
From chapter six of her 1936 newspaper serial Why Not Try God?[en.wikiquote.org]
"I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?"
- Edgar Allan Poe
From his 1849 poem A Dream Within a Dream.[en.wikipedia.org]
"Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad."
- Christina Rossetti
From her 1862 poem Remember.[www.poetryfoundation.org]
"I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience."
- William Shakespeare
Spoken by Wosley in Henry VIII.[shakespeare.mit.edu]
"Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises; and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits."
- William Shakespeare
Spoken by Helena in All's Well That Ends Well.[shakespeare.mit.edu]
"Our doubts are traitors,
and make us lose the good we oft might win,
by fearing to attempt."
- William Shakespeare
Spoken by Lucio in Measure by Measure.[shakespeare.mit.edu]
"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste"
- William Shakespeare
From his 30th sonnet.[shakespeare.mit.edu]
"The mountain seems no more a soulless thing,
But rather as a shape of ancient fear,
In darkness and the winds of Chaos born
Amid the lordless heavens' thundering-
A Presence crouched, enormous and austere,
Before whose feet the mighty waters mourn."
- George Sterling
From his poem Night on the Mountain.[mountainpoems.wordpress.com]
"If you try to please audiences, uncritically accepting their tastes, it can only mean that you have no respect for them"
- Andrei Tarkovsky
From his 1986 book Sculpting in Time[en.wikiquote.org]
"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been."
- John Greenleaf Whittier
From his 1856 poem Maud Muller.[en.wikipedia.org]
"Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own."
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
From her 1883 poem Solitude.[www.poetryfoundation.org]
"Sorrow is my own yard where the new grass flames as it has flamed often before but not with the cold fire that closes round me this year."
- William Carlos Williams
From his 1921 poem The Widow's Lament in Springtime.[poets.org]
Music
Not so much words, but I figure I should put these here for the sake of comprehension. Luckily, this is the easiest part of the guide; someone besides me has already made a YouTube playlist of all the delightful blues standards that play as you fall in the game.
Link to the playlist
Thank You
Thank you for reading my guide; I hope it was helpful. If you feel as if I should add anything to this guide, please don't hesitate to let me know; I'll appreciate it a lot.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2174116846
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