Amnesia: Justine Discussion Topic

[Diz]

Hello! We may not be able to give you decisive answers, as we are but mere players ourselves. Commencing speculation!

1. Since you play as Justine, how come you're a normal, sane person? (assuming you're a sane person in real life, lol) This would mean that by drinking the Amnesia potion, Justine's personality was reset, and it didn't only make her forget, it also made her a 'normal' person. This doesn't make sense to me. As soon as she regains her memory in the room with the closing walls, she becomes her insane self again..

- Completely forgetting more or less every single thing about you and then waking up in a spooky place is going to have a critical effect on Justine (as it did for Daniel), and having an impression of the place and its surroundings may be so strong as to temporarily change or re-traumatize her. The human psyche is an extremely complex thing, so you can never say for certain, though one should never underestimate the things it can do.

In fact, I think you have just touched the core of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and how I personally experienced it, heavily immersing me into it. You wake up, knowing nothing, and even when I learned about the horrible things that I might have caused, I still accepted that I personally could have done it. The past may have been done in the heat of a moment and you may not have been thinking rationally, however as you wake up, entirely fresh personality, know absolutely nothing of preferences or memories, it can change you. This is why I felt I connected well with the game, even if I would never have been able to do such horrible things. You also get to see things in an entirely different light than you would have earlier.

2. How do the prisoners escape? They're all tied up (assuming the priest is the one on the painting), and they'd have to get past the suitors. How do they follow Justine if you save them?

- This is a mysterious aspect of the expansion pack and, if anything, adds to the mystic/creepy factor. We cannot say for sure how long Justine was out cold. The walls moving back might just be what woke her up after an unknown amount of time, so I think anything could have happened. The suitors are still alive from what we know, so it might be next to impossible to explain how it all worked out.

Correct me if I am wrong, but are not the suitors supposed to be blind? So they may have been able to sneak past them, while the suitors might have been able to smell some of Justine's scent. As for following Justine, we do not know for sure how long Justine had fainted, and there are only so many places you can go in the dungeon before you eventually find the exit.

There is also the chance that it all happened instantly. She fell to the ground paralyzed, had a flashback of memories, and then stood back up after ten seconds, in which case the whole affair is even more puzzling and not to dwell too much into.

3. Is the dark place with the second suitor beneath the first map, with the first prisoner? (just curious)

- I was thinking of this as well, and it does seem likely. Also, before you enter the room with the first prisoner, you do get to see/hear a suitor walking in a more lit room below, and when you are in the room with the pictures, there appears to be a suitor on the other side of the door.

4. How come all suitors look the same? Were FG feeling lazy? I mean, one of them is a simple musician, while another is someone who does heavy work for a living. Surely they didn't have the same physique?

- Also keep in mind that the suitors appear to have the same animations as the gatherers. On the plus side, god knows just how much horrible things Justine did to them, and you never see all of them at the same time to make comparing them easy, so they may have tried taking advantage of the fact that it should not matter way too much. During the time of The Dark Descent and Justine, characters' physique and appearance being different did not seem to be a big focus of Frictional Games, as long as they remained terrifying.

5. Why is the map layout so weird? You have a lot of prison cells, just randomly located inbetween a library, a storage and an underground graveyard..

- Justine is set in a dungeon which might previously have been used for prisoners or the like. It could be that the prison became obsolete at some point in time and that Justine's parents did not want all of the area to go to waste, making use of the big unused area and implementing these facilities. Of course, I am just sort of brainstorming here!

6. Also, why is it so 'open'? At the end, Justine walks up a staircase, and she's in the 'normal' house. All Clarice has to do, is just open a door and walk down and she'll find a room with closing walls, 3 prisoners (either dead or alive), and the suitors.

- For all we know, Clarice is just a maiden who gets to have a job at an exclusive and rich mansion if she promises to never go downstairs, but I entirely see your point. Even if Justine trusted Clarice with all her heart, accidents do happen. In the time prior to Justine's amnesia experiment, she may have locked certain doors and hid the keys. Something struck me just now, though. Clarice asks if Justine is alright when she exits the basement. Perhaps Clarice heard something?

7. After the first prisoner, you go into this shaft and crawl around.. what is the purpose of this shaft?

- Good question. Some sort of ventilation? Forcing forth the screams of other prisoners? Perhaps even a means as an escape route if the public came down there and found out that people were being held prisoners without official consent?

8. How are so many candles lit? Did Justine light all of them before drinking the Amnesia potion?

- Very likely so. Insane Justine did all of these horrible things down there, so she probably lit a ton of candles as part of the ritual. As to why this was done, I have no idea, but the same thing was done in The Dark Descent.

9. How is the last suitor able to bash through metal doors? Surely he is angry and therefore stronger, but a metal door? And if he can, what's the point in saving the policeman? If the suitor can bash through metal doors, he can surely bash through that door aswell, so no point in closing it. Also, why doesn't he bash through the door between the water map and the graveyard map? Sure, for us it's a door that's inbetween 2 maps, but in the story, it's a normal door like any other. So he should be able to get through it, especially when he's chasing you.

- One thing that is common for all three suitors is that they all have a blinding desire to get their hands on Justine. Not that I think I will be entirely right with these, but I believe, the first one wants to kill so that he always can have Justine with him, as part of his wicked love. The second one simply wants to brutally kill her for his wicked revenge. The third one insists that Justine will taste much more heavenly better than any other flesh for his wicked hunger, revenge and insanity. The suitor did spend a great deal of time, on the first metal door at least, in order to break it down. While it should not be possible, his strength must have become insanely super in his lust for finally scenting/assuming Justine, even if not necessarily realistic.

10. Why do some of the prisoners assume you aren't Justine? They act as if there would just be a normal person walking inbetween a bunch of monsters and a psycopath.

- Justine may have had a certain habit and behaviour when approaching the prisoners, completely nullified by her amnesia and fresh impressions, being uncomfortable and not knowing a single thing but her being in grave danger. When we hear Justine's recordings and how she behaves by the ending, we may assume that she often expressed a loud and wickedly pleased mood in the near of prisoners and whenever approaching them. As the prisoners now only would hear footsteps and nothing else, it would not be unreasonable to assume that it was someone else.

Although on the topic of prisoners, I sometimes had the opposite impression. The first prisoner would suddenly say "it is not too late to set things right", and the second prisoner would angrily say something like "wicked child" and curse you. Though whether or not they pick up on you actually being Justine, I have no idea.

It's doubtful Justine ever drank the "amnesia mixture" since it was something Alexander supposedly invented, half a continent away. I don't think he would really commercialize it, seeing as his reasons for inventing it were quite nefarious. I think Justine is just insane/has a split-personality disorder.

Her cause for amnesia is hinted towards in one of the loading screens. She had previously overdozed on certain pills, and she was very familiar with their effect. ^^

Edit: Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure that Justine made reference to coming into contact with an Orb, which might further increase insanity. However, it could also be trying to easen her mind and be the cause of why she started to actually question her personality, thus induct such an experiment. The powers of the Orbs ... Though now I am just rambling things, haha.