ULTRAKILL's Lore Explained (Literally all of it)

Some random details I missed: - The Red Rooms are made via the data process (Matter, to data, back to matter) This is why we see a water filtration plant in Layer 5. - Also the Red Rooms only show up "Where they're needed" and not everyone sees them. - Greed has a unique trait where all the important structures you see (Eiffel Tower, Lady Liberty, etc) are rebuilt in Greed by sinners. Basically meaning the greed of the mortal world makes Greed worse for it's sinners. - Malicious faces become enraged on Violent or higher. Helping to add to the theory that anything with blood is alive and has free will. - The reason higher angels are men, is because god is a man. So them being "Close to god" made them resemble men. - The way nails are gained is by V1 taking the iron from his enemies blood (Metal af) - Jesus canonically doesn't exist. The cross instead represents a generic version of The Tree of Life. - The Idol also is ment to just be a lady protecting a child. Representing Gabriel protecting Ferrymen. - The machines have no gender. The only thing close to this being Mindflayers making their own bodies. - Hakita says people who use she/her pronouns on V2 are based.

1:19:11 quote from Hakita: "he showed up for V1 in gluttony because he was busy stopping 9 other fucktillion machines and can't be in multiple places at the same time"

it's worth mentioning that Gabriel in the first fight, taunts you out of pride the second fight, he taunts you while being overcome with emotion

1:13:08 fun fact: coins are made out of blood that's why you see there's a cooldown each time you toss one, its making another with blood

In my head canon , the music that plays in the game is created in v1's head while he fights and explores hell . I fully believe v1 is fully sentient but since he is a robot , his "brain" works differently than a human one , having some sort of synesthesia effect on him , being able to interpret what he sees and feels as sounds or music . V1's inner voice is represented by the heavy electric guitar that plays on most tracks , and the other various instruments represent other locations of hell (e.g. castle vein) or specific enemies like Gabriel(angelic choir) and King Minos(violin) .The drums represent hell itself or the chaos of active combat . Most of the tracks' main motifs are almost copied/played on top of electric guitar , as if v1 is responding to the perceived music and adds his instrument/thoughts/feelings on the track. The back and forth between the guitar and the other instruments , especially in the later tracks of the ost , as well as the main instruments we hear in the first levels of the game ,before you enter hell, being just the guitar and drums makes me feel like v1 has some sort of influence over the tracks we hear . Since v1's inner world is represented by guitars , and since they usually match the motifs of the other instruments , it makes me think that v1 actually shares the emotion each track make us the players feel , and relays it with guitar . This also explains why P-1 and P-2 share leitmotifs with the lust and greed layers , since the prime souls were the leaders of their respective layers , and v1's brain probably made the connection between layer and prime soul , having the same leitmotifs as a result . Someone commented in altars of apostasy that the guitar in that track sounded like it's crying , and that made this entire theory click for me . I have already thought that v1 is represented by guitars in the ost but that gave it so much more meaning . The guitar IS crying . By the time you reach 6-1, V1 is in anguish , feeling the suffering caused by his situation and by hell itself , torturing its newest and most capable victim . Hell sets up ambushes for you , locks doors behind you and teleports anything that can fight in the room with you . The terminals , in their infinite boredom , reward you for the entertainment you provide them , and help you descend deeper and deeper into your suffering . And we hear that suffering in the guitar . We hear the triumphant victory during the fight after we destroy earthmover's generator in the guitar , going off on the track in a spectacular solo , eclipsing everything else . And why shouldn't it , we killed a fucking earthmover , the very thing v1 was created to kill . And the track feels to me like it acknowledges that fact with that solo at the end . This adds an insane depth to the game's story and soundtrack , and since the game mostly has no dialogue the music does the talking . or maybe im autistic and this is entirely in my head idk

19:30 the ferrymans diary says that the river styx would fill up with millions of souls a day, that being the war. when humanity went extinct ("a sudden calamity struck the surface"), it was billions of souls coming down at a speed so fast he was knocked into the water. whatever killed humanity was fast, and it took lives faster than the war ever could.

57:34 my personal theory is that v1 is ran on fish like ai, gabriel goes through every stage of grief over this thing, and all it thinks is "blud blud"

28:45 Minos was always that big (Same goes for sisyphus) in Hell and no it did not have to do with his reputation as Judge of Hell but rather his reputation as King on earth. And yes that means Gabriel killed 2 giants (maybe 3 if he killed the husk of the 3rd prime soul) >Minos died on earth >Is remembered a lot since he was a good king >Manifests as a Supreme husk titanic in size >Eventually killed by Gabriel in hell >The corpse of his husk is possesed by parasites

There's something about Ultrakill's story that make me feel a way like no other and I couldn't figure out why, but after watching this I've pieced together that it's because some of the story reflect's off of Hakita's belief's and him figuring out his faith. Which is really existential, I don't know a story that dives into that stuff. You don't see Marvel or Disney getting remotely close to why a god would make a hell, and the fact that it's not a corporate team making the story and just one guy makes it even better.

ULTRAKILL gameplay: haha coin go pew-tink bloody mess yay ULTRAKILL lore:

26:20 It sure is. Here's a fun fact for ya. Hades and Persephone is one of the most functional relationships in Greek Mythology. It started with Hades asking Zeus for advice. His advise was to kidnap Persephone.

2:21 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe testament IV frames it as lucifer being the angel to question god on his creation of hell. The question led to what is describe as gods "hour of weakness" his terror consumed him, after which god cast lucifer into hell.

2:34 actually as stated in the 5-S (I think) terminal, it was Lucifer himself that planted this seed of doubt, which caused god to cast him into hell, then that was when the regret really filled him.

"There isn't a single line in game that hints at machines wiping out humanity" Whilst Hakita has not explicitly said "Machines did not kill Humanity" (because he doesnt want to give direct answers) he has hinted at that NOT being the reason for humanity extinction He replied to a comment regarding Machines killing humanity and said "Did they kill humanity?" And has asked the wiki to remove the part where it said "Machines wiped off humanity for blood" "Billions dying in minutes is a lot" again regarding machines wiping off humanity TLDR: Machines did not kill humanity

I know V1 isn't that important to the story, but there's one thing that's been bugging me, and that's: who activated V1? If I remember correctly, V1 was built but never activated. His very first moments are being activated and immediately making his way to hell in search of blood to fuel himself. If humanity is gone, how did he activate?

Dropping in to say I can't watch this because I want to avoid spoilers for Ultrakill before I play it, but I love your channel!!! ❤

I have a small theory about the sword machines The sword machine, or at least the original, was originally built to help with construction during the era of peace, hence why theyve been modifying themselves Its quite literally a habit of theirs to build

What if God made a 10th level of hell for him self when he realizes what he did

29:55 hakita said this on the entrace being in mino's throat “Space in Hell is sort of dreamlike in a way where things don’t really connect physically, it’s more like general vague ideas of space. It’s different for every person in a way. For example V1 can just come in here like this, but if anyone from the Gluttony layer tried to get out from this it wouldn’t exist. This whole place wouldn’t exist it would just be a perpetual trap. The real reason is because Hell was transforming in the way where the opening to the next layer had to come from somewhere and the only way down was Minos’s throat. For people who are going down the depths of Hell, regardless of what paths they take you always end up going the right way to keep going down further. There’s things that are in the lore that aren’t explained that might be explained eventually so I don’t want to go too far into it but there’s the way that perception interacts with spaces and things like that. There’s a lot of ideas that are really hard to put into words but they’re definitely part of the design. Gluttony is inside Minos but it’s also kind of a separate space because they’re not physical places. The layers of Hell aren’t really physical places which is why they can have open sky despite being below another layer. It’s more like ideas. It’s very abstract. It’s not a place that actually makes sense.”

I love how for all of the apocalyptic stuff regarding machines in the game, it really seems like humans killed themselves instead of the typical "AI took over the world" Great video