Responses
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Idk about "doomed to fail." I think failure is so likely for the player's because the game hinges on the player's mental fortitude. It would take a massive toll on the mind to repeat the same horrific day over and over and over again. That's why they stop their tapes. There comes a point where they just can't take it anymore, thus making failure the only option remaining.
It's strange though that Bada could interact with a cassette tape in the first place. If he truly were an npc, why would an npc need to be able to save their data? How could an npc have data to be saved? What if Bada isn't an npc at all. What if Bada is a player left over from the last time the game was played? That's why he's at the tunnel exit. He's trying to prevent another game from happening. Maybe that the end of the game, someone has to stay behind? I don't see Bada as the self-sacrificing type, so maybe he was forced by the game's previous players to stay behind. Which is why he has no memories, because all that gets wiped at the start of a new game. He only has a strong feeling that a new game must never begin again, else history will repeat itself.
I'm so eager to see where this goes.