and in pride did ugliness show.
An ugly emotion in which life is born.
Perhaps it is to be human.
Perhaps it is to be made human.
That was his second mistake.
DENIAL
𐐪|The main purpose of this blog is to talk about the OFF fangame "Sincere Deceit". I am capable of discussing other OFF fangames, however, but my depth of knowledge is far more lacking than what I know of SinDec. The about/FAQ is answered in the form of Q&A to be concise. General and misc things are here, while fangame specific subjects contain further detail in their own posts.|𐑂
⚞[🞬Sincere Deceit Q&A🞬]⚟
ꕥ|Below are the links to Sincere Deceit's story masterpost, the analyses I've written, Find Me's story tag, and the test build's tag.|ꕥ
[Sincere Deceit story masterpost] [Sincere Deceit analyses]
[Find Me story] [Sincere Deceit test build]
⸙|Below is the link to my SinDec playthrough playlist.|⸙
[🞬Sincere Deceit🞬]
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Q: What kinds of asks do you accept?
A: Any asks one might have about the game and its characters or even how [x] thing works under the hood (game mechanics asks are exclusive to SinDec). Questions about the titles and alt text of my story posts are greatly welcome, I'd love to explain my thought process for why certain parts are named as they are. You can even just talk at me about random things that come to mind. You can also just ask about what things I like about a given game.
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Q: Is there anything off limits to ask about?
A: This pertains only to Sincere Deceit as of current, but things pertaining to how areas such as the Tower function. It is a headache to figure out. Depending on what is asked about the Outside's and Sheol's mechanics, I may only be able to answer privately, as I want to preserve the mystery of them as much as possible. Questions about Heaven's mechanics must exclusively be done non-anonomously or I cannot answer them.
Any noclip secrets within the Outside and Sheol are off limits for being shown (unless they are mentioned outright in an ask). I can give cryptic hints as to what they are, but no more.
There is also one secret that is too important to post or discuss publicly.
Day twenty-seven of OFF-tober is the creepiest moment from the original OFF or from a fangame. Find Me is pretty tense all the way through, but that whole scene surrounding the monorail made me especially uneasy, even on my second time playing it.
Where exactly did the name Lucretia originate? Is it as simple as it just being her event name?
I am actually surprised it took this long for someone to ask about this. Though perhaps with how much I know, people just took me referring to Delilah's attendant by that name at face value because surely I must know what I'm talking about.
Because anyone who has rpgmaker2003 and has looked through the game would wonder where I even got that name from since nowhere in it— not even in Delilah's assistant's events— is she referred to by a name. She either has the default event number, or at best in Sheol, has a variable associated with her that when a certain value is reached, causes her to no longer speak to The Batter after exhausting her dialogue. Said variable is 0613: AttendantTalk. That is the closest thing to a "name" she gets even in the internal code of the game.
So. While I do not know the origins of her name, I can at least cite where I learned it. Where I learned it was from this post from Tzalmavet for their vampire AU where there are tags for a "Lucretia" and "Delilah's attendant", but then the last tag is "yeah I'm tagging the attendant both with what she is and her lil nickname".
I'm uncertain if Tzalmavet is one of the devs or not, but I recall them stating they weren't, just someone who really liked the game? Although they did provide things for the game like Margaret's, Rosemary's, and Magdalene's talk sounds. They also assisted with puzzles if I recall. Given Tzalmavet was someone who was privy to information about the game that wouldn't be revealed until years later (such as Adam's appearance as the Warden), I had strong reason to believe on top of the minor work they contributed to the game that Lucretia wasn't just a headcanon for Delilah's assistant's name, but perhaps something revealed in an ask that was deleted following Delilah's (and everything associated with her) removal— or even something stated in a discord server or DM?
Whatever the possible origin of that name, I personally believe it closer to something official rather than a headcanon and use it as if it is canon— especially since that's the only name I've ever seen Delilah's attendant be referred to with in all my searching for Sincere Deceit and other related posts. I can't offer anything more substantial since I didn't play SinDec for the first time until September of last year and everything involving Delilah had been removed by that point. All I can do is try to piece things together from what remains.
Is there anything unused in SinDec that you'd want to share? A game of its size has to have lots of cut content.
Oh, I really like this question. You have now given me the perfect excuse to talk about all the cut content and concept art I've found. Putting the answer under a readmore since it's going to be a lot.
To start with something more simple, as I talk about in my Red route playthrough (and even used a screenshot of in my Gaius analysis because I didn't have an authentic SinDec one), the Bovyrl enemy once had smoke around its legs in the test build that was removed come the full release.
According to Vivi's comment on that video, the Bovyrl was originally designed to be a mini boss but ended up being a normal enemy, hence the amount of detail of the sprite was lowered.
Those mechanical cows were one of the first enemy sprites I did, and originally it was designed as a miniboss, hence the coloured eye and excessive smoke. That one smokey room is where it was going to go, but when it got turned into a regular enemy instead, I erased the smoke to make it match the intimidation factor of the assimilated bovine. It would have been cool if it had extra smoke just for that one encounter in the smokey room.
Then there's an enemy called "Crocus" that exists in the test build's files.
Looking into the troops page reveals that it even had a wide angle description written for it, yet given it doesn't appear anywhere in the Industry District and the Prison was 90% unfinished by that point, I can only conclude that Crocus would've either appeared there or in a later area (like the Tower or Blue Zones).
Given the ordering of enemies and Crocus is alongside other Prison enemies, it having been intended to appear in the Prison seems the most likely case. But there's more to it.
Doesn't it look... familiar to you? A large toothy grimace, four eyes, its front legs being hooved while its back have two sharp toes?
...
I have a feeling Crocus was what Judas originally was before Roland experimented on them. What's more is that Crocus is named after a plant. A flower, specifically. This is notable because a ghoul/spectre being named after plants isn't a one-off thing; it occurs two other times both in the same area and their very existences being owed to one man and his wife's work.
There's the Bleeding Heart and the Corydalis. A ghoul and spectre respectively found within the Industry District's factory and created through an effort of selective breeding and genetic experimentation. Named after plants, for restoring plant life was Gaius' and Margaret's passion. Even when he had no choice but to stray every farther from his initial aspirations for the sake of keeping a crumbling world afloat for as long as possible, shades of this original ambition peak through. Thus, Crocus as a ghoul that is specified as being "mismatched"— as though them looking to consist of different kinds of animals isn't something that occurred naturally— and having a name that is a flower, marks them undeniably as having been created by Gaius. Either that, or Roland utilized the same methods Gaius and other researchers use to selectively breed ghouls and this was one of the first ones he created on his own, thus it not being a skinned; gory; abomination and even named in the same theming Gaius did for Bleeding Heart and Corydalis.
Because he respects him.
Either or, Crocus and thus Judas have ties to Gaius— which makes Judas' wide angle all the more tragic. It's entirely possible Gaius didn't actually create Crocus, as there are no documents on them nor rooms detailing them having once been down there but moved like Salathiel was. So Roland creating Crocus for the Rebellion and naming them after a plant in Gaius' honor seems that it could be more likely. From that, one could extrapolate that Jaala came second, possibly as a result of Crocus perhaps not being as deadly as the Rebellion or Adam desired. Given Jaala's more reptilian traits and the red eyes, it's possible that 1. genetic material was taken from Salathiel in creating them, and 2. that they are Corrupted but in a controlled state where they don't degrade into a gory, fleshy, mess with black tendrils bursting out of them.
One can that conclude from that that given Judas even exists, that Jaala, while being more deadly than Crocus, ended up being too deadly and dangerous to employ as a secret weapon or whatever reason Crocus may have been originally created for (if created by Roland). Given they hide in the vents in that one room and ambush The Batter as he goes to leave, they display high intelligence. That paired with having intense bloodlust made even trying to keep them sedated and contained difficult. Adam may also have not wanted them killed because while they can't be controlled, they are still effective at what they do, and hey, another ghoul that can kill inmates snooping where they shouldn't be— or just some unlucky sap who went into the wrong place at the wrong time— is still useful. But regardless of Jaala's usefulness, they aren't able to be used for what they were created for, so Roland may have been given the order to go back to Crocus and modify him to be more deadly. More willing to follow commands without hesitation.
And all of this can't be gleaned even remotely from the information that exists in Sincere Deceit (especially 1.1.3 where Jaala was removed) as Crocus isn't in the files. Even though it's objectively non-canon since it's not in the game, as a scrapped concept, it builds on the world and its inhabitants more. Gives an idea as to what "betrayal" lead to Judas' existence. It's information like this that helps me connect dots and make sense of what doesn't seem to make sense in SinDec even to the point of coming up with in-universe explanations to things that may well have never been intended to have them and were only meta or holdovers that had yet to be revised— such as Find Me 3.2 Abram's characterization helping me to understand why Red Dream Batter and the Dream Cat in the Blue Dream secret are like that. And the only reason I was able to figure that out from Find Me was because of me applying my knowledge and understanding of Abram (and Zaphkiel) in Sincere Deceit onto how he was in Find Me and comparing the difference in characterization.
As I say in Abram's analysis: Sincere Deceit exists as hypertext to Find Me— at least from how I understand it. And I only perceive it as such due to my understanding of the meta and recursive effects going on. The photo copy of a photo copy nature of it all. In Find Me, upon first entering the Nothingness, you watch Arbela branch out and connect to the Zones once more, while in Sincere Deceit, they're already connected. In Sincere Intentions, Abram asks of you to not let this world be reset again. This is a story flipped back through its pages upon nearing the end and whiting out passages and rewriting them over and over again. As I called it in Abram's analysis: the story of Theseus.
I like looking at SinDec this way even if it wasn't intended because it makes it more complex. Makes every aspect of it, both present and old, matter. That the old isn't integral to understanding the story, but it deepens the meaning of things and could even clarify what one may have been confused on with only the information present in SinDec with which to work from.
I care about this game a lot.
So all this is to say, even if Crocus is objectively non-canon and Judas objectively was never Crocus as per what strictly exists in Sincere Deceit, I like to personally incorporate that scrapped concept and what Judas may have once been into my perception of the narrative's worldbuilding. It adds more to the kind of person Roland, Gaius, and Adam are. Makes Jaala more than just some unique secret ghoul that appears practically out of nowhere and is afforded zero explanation for what that was.
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From this point forward are scrapped concepts that were either in earlier versions of Find Me that have no existing or surviving footage for, and concepts that were only discussed on Dismal's old blog that I managed to find surviving reblogs of.
First is something I found very recently as of only a couple days ago which is this.
I'm going to be more conservative with what images I show here due to the limit, so I'll only show what's needed. I do recommend actually clicking the links because of that, but it's of course your choice.
So. for that first link, there's the original lineart for what became Red Dream Batter's first battle sprite which is neat, a bull enemy that has what look like pieces of metal sticking out of it and smoke coming from its nostrils (hmm....), two characters who were originally going to be the boss(es?) of the Residential District before being replaced with Malachi, and an extremely early map of Arbela square.
The first two don't pique my interest (aside from the bull possibly being the initial concept for what became the Bovyrl), but the latter two do. To start, the gemini-esque characters.
Another concept for a scrapped boss, this time for the Residential District. This is Hirah and Hiram, who would have been a twin boss fight at the end of the apartment. They were later replaced by Malachi, and the idea for puppet like enemies was moved to the Entertainment District.
This is fascinating, as, as far as what I've been able to find and extrapolate from, Malachi existed at least as far back as Find Me 0.2 (I think the second ever version of the game?). This means these characters may predate even the first demo. Hirah and Hiram as a concept are interesting, as based on their appearances, one can discern that aspects of them were split amongst Malachi and Jadon. This perhaps could also be an explanation for why Malachi and Jadon are just Valerie/Japhet, rather than only Jadon be analogous to Valerie and Japhet and Malachi more properly analogous to Dedan. But there's slight issue with that in that, as far as Find Me 2.1 shows, Jadon wasn't even parasitized back then, he was just like... that because... loneliness? There wasn't even a second phase to his battle, you just beat him and he just gives up and lets himself be killed. Which means that incorporating the "two characters as one" concept didn't come until later, rather than that have been the very idea for Jadon from the start.
But for Malachi, you can see from the lineart for Hirah (I presume), that either they or both characters were going to have hoof-like feet rather than end in points as the base sketch depicts. Additionally for Hirah, there is striping along the lower parts of their legs— obvious precursors to Malachi's socks. The equine parts of Hirah's legs look like they were sewn onto them rather than being how their legs naturally are— which is a concept later reutilized for Malachi, given his body being forcibly warped into that of Daedalus' (whom of which as a bird and given the hoof feet— despite the Icarus' having normal talons— is because of being a parallel to Japhet. An example being Daedalus' dance to Japhet's song).
And I feel explaining the juxtaposition of the grinning masks to the expressions of pain and horror in relation to Jadon is redundant.
Next is the early map of Arbela Square which I personally just find interesting in regards to seeing how different the layout was.
Finally we have a very early map of the center of the city in Zone ???. At this point there were only three areas you could explore, as well as a fountain that contained a group of people who may or may not have been up to no good. This map was changed several times, the group became the Rebellion/Resistence and the fountain can be found in the Entertainment District now.
Even back in Find Me, the Church didn't exist, but it's interesting to know that in the center of the City was where the Rebellion bunker hideout once was. It makes me wonder if Adam was conceptualized at this point or not— though I lean more towards no and that there really were only going to be Malachi, Jadon, and Gaius.
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Next up is something rather simple but I still find fascinating (and also only found a couple days ago), which is a screenshot of what was originally going to be the bad ending for the game.
As per my tags I wrote when reblogging this to my priv's archive,
Based on the caption and what happens in Sincere Intentions‚ this isn't just a mere changing of the ending name‚ but that while the core of the ending involving the world succumbing to the Corruption and The Batter glitching out of existence seems to have remained intact‚ the entire context is different, what with Abram having been rewritten to be a much more sympathetic character. ESPECIALLY since based on the cinematography of the ending‚ it is one of the better endings in the game— second only to Fulfilled Purpose. Based on what I know of Find Me Abram's characterization‚ that means what may have become Sincere Intentions was originally THE bad ending to the game.
To expand on this, if I'm even remotely on the right track in this thinking, that would mean, conceptually speaking, if Sincere Intentions as we know it was done for Find Me beat for beat, word for word, given Abram's characterization back then, the defining difference would be the lack of Abram pleading to the player to not let the world be reset again.
Basically, just using Sincere Intentions as a base for how Corrupted Data would've played out, that means you'd "kill" Abram, flip the Switch, The Batter would glitch out of existence, and... that's it. The world falls apart and Abram isn't even remotely sympathetic in these final moments. This perhaps could also retroactively explain what I actually thought was weirdly antagonistic/'evil'-sounding dialogue from Abram should you lose to him in the battle against The Mind.
Like, if you ignore the "Please don't let him reset it... Never again.", and focus on the "I won't ever let you win. Not while I have control over it.", it's... oddly evil-sounding. When I was first looking through Sincere Deceit in rpgmaker2003 I was surprised by this. It's not something I can put into words, but the phrasing of this felt a bit out of character for Abram in relation to everywhere else he's portrayed (again sans Red Dream Batter and the Dream Cat in the Blue Dream secret) where he's very courteous and doesn't speak antagonistically like this. It's not easy for me to explain the nuance in how it's different; I can just tell. And it's not vibes. But anyway, this piece of dialogue felt a bit off to me— and having found that what may have became Sincere Intentions was worked on as far back as 2015 or very early 2016, gives context for why that dialogue doesn't feel right.
It's also entirely possible I'm completely wrong and am conflating two completely separate things where the Corrupted Data ending was its own thing entirely, and me being hyper-sensitive to the exact way characters speak and phrase things resulted in a false positive, but... I don't know.
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One thing— or rather, character— that was cut was Fleur.
She was a character created by candyandcoffins and was in the game as a hint system for puzzles. She wasn't included in Sincere Deceit since, if I remember correctly (since the post no longer exists), Dismal hadn't been in contact with Fleur's creator for some time and couldn't find them again, so erred on the side of caution in removing her from the game. Her charm is still listed as an item though, but it doesn't do anything since all events pertaining to Fleur were removed. Perhaps it is better that way, since can you imagine the undertaking the devs would've had to go through to do dialogue for Fleur for basically every puzzle in the game past Impure Zone 3? Including route-exclusive ones?
Fleur was interesting though, and it's because of her that I know that Malachi may have had an interest in both the stars and birds rather than just stars come Sincere Deceit. Or maybe Fleur claiming Malachi looks like a bird because he likes them was just her personal opinion. Who knows.
Also from her is her belief that Jadon acting as he was was a misguided cry for help.
Additionally there's the information that everyone within the District (I assume she means the puppet workers), including Jadon, are in pain. This clarifies that Jadon is always in pain even prior to Pazuzu tearing him apart rather than, say, just feeling extremely sick.
Lastly the information that the fun house itself seems to exist on a plane than the rest of the District.
Even if much of her dialogue is just her take on things, it's still information to work off of. While many would be left wondering what she'd have to say about Gaius or Adam if she were still a part of the game, what I wonder most is how exactly she'd function in relation to the Tower. Would she be able to access it still? Would the charm still work, or would something block it? If she were still accessible in the Tower, would she still be in Layer 2? The idea of Fleur expressing her thoughts on the state of the Red and Blue Zones is very interesting to ruminate on.
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This isn't anything special, but it's neat I managed to find the post detailing Jadon's initial concept. Technically also Abram, but barely.
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Next is a post I had found back in either September or November of last year. It took me awhile to find the context for it given I completely blinded A Room from Find Me 3.2 since I never interacted with the Supreme chests before getting all memories— even back in 2018 when I first played Find Me.
“I hope Papa kills you.”
As a reminder, this is the context.
Obviously given the worldbuilding overhaul this is no longer canon, but I was floored when I finally went through A Room and saw that. That post I found almost a year ago having been right there the whole time and the context of it. There's nothing more to this other than I was debating on reblogging that post back when I finished posting for Find Me 3.2 but decided against it.
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Next are things like older character designs (like the District Guardians) and cutscenes. I'll start with the one with the most changes to his design, Malachi. Malachi's first design was posted by Dismal to his old tumblr on July 22nd 2015.
For the anon who wanted more pictures of Malachi. Malachi was based on a number of characters, including Sucre, Zant (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) and an old character design I had tucked away. The colors I chose for his outfit aren’t set in stone, so feel free to change them if you want. I also couldn’t decide whether he has human legs or bird like legs, so either will work. He carries blades that are hidden in his sleeves, which is what you see in his battle sprite. Otherwise he tends to keep his hands hidden within the sleeves. (How, I have no idea, as he has giant, yaoi hands.) The tails aren’t part of his outfit; they are prehensile and act very much like a cat’s tail. All in all, he is a lil shit.
(Completely unrelated to this question, but my design for Malachi in my A Pain Shared AU is inspired off of this design for him.)
With how much he's changed over the years, if you told someone he was based on Zant from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, they'd think you were lying. But here it's a lot more apparent.
Then there's this design for him posted on November 18th 2015.
This was his design back in Find Me 2.1. There's also this art by Vivi of this design which I think is really cute.
Next is this design posted on May 27th 2016. Alongside this design is Jadon's 2.1 design (and I think was his first one?).
Then there's this design that was posted March 26th 2017 that is more or less his final one with the only difference being how much of his legs are horse being increased in his final design.
And final is below.
For Jadon, I already showed his 2.1 design above, but there's also this design for him posted alongside the portrait of Vader Eloha on July 4th 2017 that I managed to find though I lack the context.
Though he seems to have the Corruption cracks on him that entities like the serpentine Dusks, Morris, the Helter Skelter, Serpentine Spectres, etc have. Unless the cracking is a symptom that happens regardless of the make of the Corrupted entity, him being cracked like this would suggest his body was comprised of a material like porcelain or hard plastic. That having once been known as the Doll Maker, he himself was also a doll. Or maybe the Corruption warped the makeup of his body. Who knows.
Then there's his Find Me 3.2 design that I actually reblogged here due to it being the only official color reference we have.
Of course, that's not his final design as his hair as depicted in that design is much too short and also of a different texture than the longer wavy hair he has in Sincere Deceit.
And his final design (using 1.1.2 since in 1.1.3 he uses his Find Me battle sprite).
Next for previous designs is Gaius who I've only been able to find one of. Posted on August 26th 2016.
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...I'm going to have to reblog this and add onto it because there's just SO much I've found that I want to talk about. Though there isn't much left, thankfully, I want to talk about everything. Like Abram's design in the test build bearing greater resemblance to the Dream Cat, or how I highly suspect Zaphkiel was originally intended to have more than one pair of arms, what with his depiction in the test build's Rules of Combat book, the Blue Dream Batter having four arms (in comparison to the Red Dream Batter, for instance, having a Bad Batter growth coming out of his head just like Abram as the Husk does), Delilah as having been made to be Zaphkiel's daughter having four arms, and how his god form has four arms. With so many instances of him having four arms— and even this non-SinDec design of him by Dismal himself having four arms by default— it leads me to believe Zaphkiel only having two arms was a last minute change.
I also found the post where Lugosi was first revealed, but chose to not reblog it from my priv.
Then there's Adam... His Sincere Deceit design is... very inconsistent. I talk about this in one of the Blue route's Prison videos (which likely won't go up until some time in August because it is too hot for me to record and I want to get the rest of the game done before I post the rest and I only have up to just before Enoch scheduled to post so... ¯\_(¬_¬)_/¯), but to articulate my point better, I attempt stating to the effect that Adam's design inconsistency is like a visual representation of my confusion of if he is or is not meant to have his name be known prior to speaking to Delilah after his death. Like, it's one thing to be curious and look through everything you possibly can and find his name via his room in Specimen Containment, but another to blaze through the game and then notice the way cutscenes and the narrative itself surrounding him play out, that it seems to suggest his name is meant to be a secret?
There's this... dissonance.
The narrative noticeably skirts around saying his name through epithets like "the Prototype", "the Warden", "the Snake", and then with Delilah saying his name and it being in color, it feels to me that that's supposed to be when you're supposed to learn what his name is. The connection of the yellow District Guardian, the name Adam, and that name being colored yellow. But then his name is just shown outright in the Industry Mines puzzle. It also breaks immersion a bit if you don't go into the Gen 314 room since the fact The Batter refers to Adam by name after defeating him as the Basilisk regardless of if you went in that room or not would mean in-universe, The Batter goes in that room completely separate of whatever the player does. That in the game's canon, The Batter goes in that room and learns his name and what he looks like (since what Adam looks like can't be gleaned from the Mines puzzle so The Batter learning the name Adam wouldn't result in much of anything if he doesn't have a face to place the name to and thus can recognize the Prison's Warden as this "Adam"). But then there's the way Delilah's dialogue is phrased which makes it seem that Adam's name is a grand reveal— but I guess it's no longer an issue since she was removed in 1.1.3, so ?????
So in that video I clumsily try to make an analogy with the inconsistency of Adam's design as being visually representative of this seeming indecision for what the narrative is trying to do in regards to the reveal of his name. Because his Find Me design (the only one that I know of, anyway) more or less looks like how he does in Sincere Deceit except his hair isn't brushed perfectly up into a point and is instead somewhat messily brushed over to the side, and he has ankle shackles.
I talk about this in another analysis as well as a story post (don't remember either one, though) where Adam doesn't have the ankle shackles in his battle sprite, but does in the Congratulations! ending. He also has them in his overworld sprite, but that's harder to see. In the pre-battle cutscene concerning the Basilisk, he doesn't have them, but in the post-battle cutscene in his normal battle, he does (in my video I erroneously state he doesn't. Only just now saw them upon double checking to make sure).
In his overworld, battle, pre-Basilisk cutscene, and Congratulations! ending he has the coat, but in his post-normal battle cutscene it's not there?
(Then there's the Entertainment portrait hall where he's missing his circle cheeks even though he's burnt and should have them. Though given the portraits are identical to how they were in Find Me 3.2 but edited so that the other District Guardians weren't burnt from the start, I'll chalk that up to oversight. Especially since Gaius originally didn't have the cheeks even when burnt, as you see above.)
I personally prefer to imagine him with the ankle shackles since with them, the wrist shackles, and the metal collar, it makes five points. A star.
Next is something I couldn't include where relevant due to nearing the image limit, which is that I found the old cutscenes for Malachi pre-battle and Jadon's introduction.
For Jadon, I only found this cutscene art for him because @/shadinathepurplesmallperson's custom blog view has the image in it. Given Malachi's face sprite and the fact these cutscenes don't appear in Find Me 2.1 (as per sirjavier's playthrough), but Jadon's face sprite isn't his 3.2 one yet, I can only assume it's from Find Me 3.0. Consulting the read me from the test build's files seems to support this:
~Demo 3~
Residential District
-Added in more items
-Added in more secrets
-Added onto a side event
-Changed dialogue
-Made Malachi 20% more bird
-Added in new monsters
-Revamped a side area
-Revamped the Dream
-New cutscene image for Malachi, courtesy of Foureyes
Entertainment District
-Added in the ferris wheel event, courtesy of Foureyes
-Added onto the funhouse
-New cutscene image for Jadon, courtesy of Foureyes
-Added in some new enemies
-Added onto the Jadon boss fight
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Backtracking to my brief mention regarding Abram's test build appearance, his overworld silhouette sprite is basically the same as SinDec's except he's constantly glaring.
But then his face sprite is much more different while still being roughly the same pose.
The appearance of his face in the test build seems to suggest it wasn't a mask like in SinDec (or maybe it was? It's hard to tell, but maybe it was cracked but it's not very clear) and that he just had white skin and hair. Either that, or the white extended as much as it did because of his degrading state ala the Husk (even though this is supposed to be his full-powered form? I presume based on sprite placement and similarity to the above SinDec sprite in the corresponding facesets).
It's interesting Abram once had a mouth either by default or that it didn't seal shut again following his comparatively calmer emotional state. That is to say, that his mouth upon his face either breaking or just him becoming Corrupted was permanent. And of course it's worth noting his right eyes remained intact but broken like his left ones, whereas in Sincere Deceit the entire right side of his face is shattered with those eyes being gone and replaced by the snake eyes of Corruption.
As for Zaphkiel... his test build face sprite was... not great. He either wasn't finalized and it was more a placeholder, or he really was just "human with head wings".
But then there's their silhouetted forms where while I think I understand why they were changed (to make them true silhouettes and more mysterious), I at least vastly prefer Abram's test build silhouette face sprite over his SinDec one.
One may recall I cite a very similar-looking sprite to the test build one in his analysis, but the difference is that one has all four eyes red while this one has the lower two blue. So I conclude the test build sprite was an edited version of the all red one.
Then there's Zaphkiel's where the test build one is a little wonky but still pretty good. If it were edited just slightly it'd be perfect.
Though I do admit, I like the more sketchy appearance of the silhouettes in Sincere Deceit over the pitch black ones in the test build. Though for Abram it kind of doesn't work? Because his body is literally pitch black and the sketchiness of his SinDec silhouette ends up portraying him lighter than his overworld sprite. Hm. Although perhaps another factor for the change was so they don't just blend into any black background.
I also do like that their Hugo eyes are more round and pronounced in their SinDec designs. Both test build and SinDec designs have their merits.
For something else regarding test build face sprites, having the arc unpacker allows me to convert the xyz files into viewable pngs and I saw this particular sprite of living(?) Hugo and thought "oh, wow. Maybe this would've been used in a flashback or something?"
And then I saw this sprite.
...
Hey Zaphkiel, what the fuck?
I actually just stared at that face sprite just... completely flabbergasted. Like HUH???? I was so confused when I saw this and was wondering what the everloving fuck would've happened to cause this. I know Zaphkiel wants control over everything and ends up turning everyone into just extensions of himself in the A Sincere Attempt ending, but holy shit, he would not do that to Hugo. Though perhaps once upon a time, he would've. That's... terrifying. To see even a scrapped glimpse of how far he was willing to go to have total dominion over everything.
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There are sprites I have found that only survive through reblogs of earlier versions of enemies (like the Bleeding Heart and Hooded Spectre), but I feel it unnecessary to talk about them lest someone actually wants me to link them.
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The last thing I can think to talk about is Pure Corrupt Japhet from the test build.
In Find Me 3.2, there's only Pure Japhet and Corrupt Japhet, but in the test build there's this monster sprite labelled "Japhet Pure Corrupt Form".
The above sprite is an edited version of his Find Me 3.2 Pure form which is this↓
Again, the Pure Corrupt form doesn't exist in Find Me 3.2, so I don't know what this would've been for. I assume from an earlier version in-between 3.2 and the public test build that had yet to be removed from the files, but I note it at all because Japhet is the only Zone Guardian with a "Pure Corrupt Form". What was this? How could this happen? Was this related to Blue Zone 2 and what would've happened had you given Abram the Grand Diagonal? Or was Japhet going to function fundamentally differently when given the Grand Diagonal in comparison to Dedan and Enoch and that Zaphkiel's power of Cleansing could only do so much for him? Because to focus on exact wording, the form is called "Pure Corrupt Form", not "Corrupted Pure Form", meaning it's a purified version of his Corrupted state and not the other way around.
It's mysterious and bizarre. Why does only Japhet have such a form? Were Dedan and Enoch going to have these forms but Japhet's was done first before the entire idea was scrapped? Were their sprites actually done but just weren't a part of the public test build but still ended up scrapped anyway? Much to think about, though it serves no purpose, as that isn't the story told and what answer would be received in this regard wouldn't be worth much given the incompatibility with Sincere Deceit's worldbuilding. It can't build or expand upon or clarify things when how Zaphkiel's and Abram's powers clearly differ from whatever made such a form possible. It's like the Oracle Elsen from Find Me 3.2 where the lore regarding Abram and Zaphkiel once having been normal men, only Gods being permitted to have names, and that Adam named himself, is interesting in strict context of Find Me's old worldbuilding, but serves no further purpose for Sincere Deceit.
Is there anything unused in SinDec that you'd want to share? A game of its size has to have lots of cut content.
Oh, I really like this question. You have now given me the perfect excuse to talk about all the cut content and concept art I've found. Putting the answer under a readmore since it's going to be a lot.
To start with something more simple, as I talk about in my Red route playthrough (and even used a screenshot of in my Gaius analysis because I didn't have an authentic SinDec one), the Bovyrl enemy once had smoke around its legs in the test build that was removed come the full release.
According to Vivi's comment on that video, the Bovyrl was originally designed to be a mini boss but ended up being a normal enemy, hence the amount of detail of the sprite was lowered.
Those mechanical cows were one of the first enemy sprites I did, and originally it was designed as a miniboss, hence the coloured eye and excessive smoke. That one smokey room is where it was going to go, but when it got turned into a regular enemy instead, I erased the smoke to make it match the intimidation factor of the assimilated bovine. It would have been cool if it had extra smoke just for that one encounter in the smokey room.
Then there's an enemy called "Crocus" that exists in the test build's files.
Looking into the troops page reveals that it even had a wide angle description written for it, yet given it doesn't appear anywhere in the Industry District and the Prison was 90% unfinished by that point, I can only conclude that Crocus would've either appeared there or in a later area (like the Tower or Blue Zones).
Given the ordering of enemies and Crocus is alongside other Prison enemies, it having been intended to appear in the Prison seems the most likely case. But there's more to it.
Doesn't it look... familiar to you? A large toothy grimace, four eyes, its front legs being hooved while its back have two sharp toes?
...
I have a feeling Crocus was what Judas originally was before Roland experimented on them. What's more is that Crocus is named after a plant. A flower, specifically. This is notable because a ghoul/spectre being named after plants isn't a one-off thing; it occurs two other times both in the same area and their very existences being owed to one man and his wife's work.
There's the Bleeding Heart and the Corydalis. A ghoul and spectre respectively found within the Industry District's factory and created through an effort of selective breeding and genetic experimentation. Named after plants, for restoring plant life was Gaius' and Margaret's passion. Even when he had no choice but to stray every farther from his initial aspirations for the sake of keeping a crumbling world afloat for as long as possible, shades of this original ambition peak through. Thus, Crocus as a ghoul that is specified as being "mismatched"— as though them looking to consist of different kinds of animals isn't something that occurred naturally— and having a name that is a flower, marks them undeniably as having been created by Gaius. Either that, or Roland utilized the same methods Gaius and other researchers use to selectively breed ghouls and this was one of the first ones he created on his own, thus it not being a skinned; gory; abomination and even named in the same theming Gaius did for Bleeding Heart and Corydalis.
Because he respects him.
Either or, Crocus and thus Judas have ties to Gaius— which makes Judas' wide angle all the more tragic. It's entirely possible Gaius didn't actually create Crocus, as there are no documents on them nor rooms detailing them having once been down there but moved like Salathiel was. So Roland creating Crocus for the Rebellion and naming them after a plant in Gaius' honor seems that it could be more likely. From that, one could extrapolate that Jaala came second, possibly as a result of Crocus perhaps not being as deadly as the Rebellion or Adam desired. Given Jaala's more reptilian traits and the red eyes, it's possible that 1. genetic material was taken from Salathiel in creating them, and 2. that they are Corrupted but in a controlled state where they don't degrade into a gory, fleshy, mess with black tendrils bursting out of them.
One can that conclude from that that given Judas even exists, that Jaala, while being more deadly than Crocus, ended up being too deadly and dangerous to employ as a secret weapon or whatever reason Crocus may have been originally created for (if created by Roland). Given they hide in the vents in that one room and ambush The Batter as he goes to leave, they display high intelligence. That paired with having intense bloodlust made even trying to keep them sedated and contained difficult. Adam may also have not wanted them killed because while they can't be controlled, they are still effective at what they do, and hey, another ghoul that can kill inmates snooping where they shouldn't be— or just some unlucky sap who went into the wrong place at the wrong time— is still useful. But regardless of Jaala's usefulness, they aren't able to be used for what they were created for, so Roland may have been given the order to go back to Crocus and modify him to be more deadly. More willing to follow commands without hesitation.
And all of this can't be gleaned even remotely from the information that exists in Sincere Deceit (especially 1.1.3 where Jaala was removed) as Crocus isn't in the files. Even though it's objectively non-canon since it's not in the game, as a scrapped concept, it builds on the world and its inhabitants more. Gives an idea as to what "betrayal" lead to Judas' existence. It's information like this that helps me connect dots and make sense of what doesn't seem to make sense in SinDec even to the point of coming up with in-universe explanations to things that may well have never been intended to have them and were only meta or holdovers that had yet to be revised— such as Find Me 3.2 Abram's characterization helping me to understand why Red Dream Batter and the Dream Cat in the Blue Dream secret are like that. And the only reason I was able to figure that out from Find Me was because of me applying my knowledge and understanding of Abram (and Zaphkiel) in Sincere Deceit onto how he was in Find Me and comparing the difference in characterization.
As I say in Abram's analysis: Sincere Deceit exists as hypertext to Find Me— at least from how I understand it. And I only perceive it as such due to my understanding of the meta and recursive effects going on. The photo copy of a photo copy nature of it all. In Find Me, upon first entering the Nothingness, you watch Arbela branch out and connect to the Zones once more, while in Sincere Deceit, they're already connected. In Sincere Intentions, Abram asks of you to not let this world be reset again. This is a story flipped back through its pages upon nearing the end and whiting out passages and rewriting them over and over again. As I called it in Abram's analysis: the story of Theseus.
I like looking at SinDec this way even if it wasn't intended because it makes it more complex. Makes every aspect of it, both present and old, matter. That the old isn't integral to understanding the story, but it deepens the meaning of things and could even clarify what one may have been confused on with only the information present in SinDec with which to work from.
I care about this game a lot.
So all this is to say, even if Crocus is objectively non-canon and Judas objectively was never Crocus as per what strictly exists in Sincere Deceit, I like to personally incorporate that scrapped concept and what Judas may have once been into my perception of the narrative's worldbuilding. It adds more to the kind of person Roland, Gaius, and Adam are. Makes Jaala more than just some unique secret ghoul that appears practically out of nowhere and is afforded zero explanation for what that was.
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From this point forward are scrapped concepts that were either in earlier versions of Find Me that have no existing or surviving footage for, and concepts that were only discussed on Dismal's old blog that I managed to find surviving reblogs of.
First is something I found very recently as of only a couple days ago which is this.
I'm going to be more conservative with what images I show here due to the limit, so I'll only show what's needed. I do recommend actually clicking the links because of that, but it's of course your choice.
So. for that first link, there's the original lineart for what became Red Dream Batter's first battle sprite which is neat, a bull enemy that has what look like pieces of metal sticking out of it and smoke coming from its nostrils (hmm....), two characters who were originally going to be the boss(es?) of the Residential District before being replaced with Malachi, and an extremely early map of Arbela square.
The first two don't pique my interest (aside from the bull possibly being the initial concept for what became the Bovyrl), but the latter two do. To start, the gemini-esque characters.
Another concept for a scrapped boss, this time for the Residential District. This is Hirah and Hiram, who would have been a twin boss fight at the end of the apartment. They were later replaced by Malachi, and the idea for puppet like enemies was moved to the Entertainment District.
This is fascinating, as, as far as what I've been able to find and extrapolate from, Malachi existed at least as far back as Find Me 0.2 (I think the second ever version of the game?). This means these characters may predate even the first demo. Hirah and Hiram as a concept are interesting, as based on their appearances, one can discern that aspects of them were split amongst Malachi and Jadon. This perhaps could also be an explanation for why Malachi and Jadon are just Valerie/Japhet, rather than only Jadon be analogous to Valerie and Japhet and Malachi more properly analogous to Dedan. But there's slight issue with that in that, as far as Find Me 2.1 shows, Jadon wasn't even parasitized back then, he was just like... that because... loneliness? There wasn't even a second phase to his battle, you just beat him and he just gives up and lets himself be killed. Which means that incorporating the "two characters as one" concept didn't come until later, rather than that have been the very idea for Jadon from the start.
But for Malachi, you can see from the lineart for Hirah (I presume), that either they or both characters were going to have hoof-like feet rather than end in points as the base sketch depicts. Additionally for Hirah, there is striping along the lower parts of their legs— obvious precursors to Malachi's socks. The equine parts of Hirah's legs look like they were sewn onto them rather than being how their legs naturally are— which is a concept later reutilized for Malachi, given his body being forcibly warped into that of Daedalus' (whom of which as a bird and given the hoof feet— despite the Icarus' having normal talons— is because of being a parallel to Japhet. An example being Daedalus' dance to Japhet's song).
And I feel explaining the juxtaposition of the grinning masks to the expressions of pain and horror in relation to Jadon is redundant.
Next is the early map of Arbela Square which I personally just find interesting in regards to seeing how different the layout was.
Finally we have a very early map of the center of the city in Zone ???. At this point there were only three areas you could explore, as well as a fountain that contained a group of people who may or may not have been up to no good. This map was changed several times, the group became the Rebellion/Resistence and the fountain can be found in the Entertainment District now.
Even back in Find Me, the Church didn't exist, but it's interesting to know that in the center of the City was where the Rebellion bunker hideout once was. It makes me wonder if Adam was conceptualized at this point or not— though I lean more towards no and that there really were only going to be Malachi, Jadon, and Gaius.
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Next up is something rather simple but I still find fascinating (and also only found a couple days ago), which is a screenshot of what was originally going to be the bad ending for the game.
As per my tags I wrote when reblogging this to my priv's archive,
Based on the caption and what happens in Sincere Intentions‚ this isn't just a mere changing of the ending name‚ but that while the core of the ending involving the world succumbing to the Corruption and The Batter glitching out of existence seems to have remained intact‚ the entire context is different, what with Abram having been rewritten to be a much more sympathetic character. ESPECIALLY since based on the cinematography of the ending‚ it is one of the better endings in the game— second only to Fulfilled Purpose. Based on what I know of Find Me Abram's characterization‚ that means what may have become Sincere Intentions was originally THE bad ending to the game.
To expand on this, if I'm even remotely on the right track in this thinking, that would mean, conceptually speaking, if Sincere Intentions as we know it was done for Find Me beat for beat, word for word, given Abram's characterization back then, the defining difference would be the lack of Abram pleading to the player to not let the world be reset again.
Basically, just using Sincere Intentions as a base for how Corrupted Data would've played out, that means you'd "kill" Abram, flip the Switch, The Batter would glitch out of existence, and... that's it. The world falls apart and Abram isn't even remotely sympathetic in these final moments. This perhaps could also retroactively explain what I actually thought was weirdly antagonistic/'evil'-sounding dialogue from Abram should you lose to him in the battle against The Mind.
Like, if you ignore the "Please don't let him reset it... Never again.", and focus on the "I won't ever let you win. Not while I have control over it.", it's... oddly evil-sounding. When I was first looking through Sincere Deceit in rpgmaker2003 I was surprised by this. It's not something I can put into words, but the phrasing of this felt a bit out of character for Abram in relation to everywhere else he's portrayed (again sans Red Dream Batter and the Dream Cat in the Blue Dream secret) where he's very courteous and doesn't speak antagonistically like this. It's not easy for me to explain the nuance in how it's different; I can just tell. And it's not vibes. But anyway, this piece of dialogue felt a bit off to me— and having found that what may have became Sincere Intentions was worked on as far back as 2015 or very early 2016, gives context for why that dialogue doesn't feel right.
It's also entirely possible I'm completely wrong and am conflating two completely separate things where the Corrupted Data ending was its own thing entirely, and me being hyper-sensitive to the exact way characters speak and phrase things resulted in a false positive, but... I don't know.
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One thing— or rather, character— that was cut was Fleur.
She was a character created by candyandcoffins and was in the game as a hint system for puzzles. She wasn't included in Sincere Deceit since, if I remember correctly (since the post no longer exists), Dismal hadn't been in contact with Fleur's creator for some time and couldn't find them again, so erred on the side of caution in removing her from the game. Her charm is still listed as an item though, but it doesn't do anything since all events pertaining to Fleur were removed. Perhaps it is better that way, since can you imagine the undertaking the devs would've had to go through to do dialogue for Fleur for basically every puzzle in the game past Impure Zone 3? Including route-exclusive ones?
Fleur was interesting though, and it's because of her that I know that Malachi may have had an interest in both the stars and birds rather than just stars come Sincere Deceit. Or maybe Fleur claiming Malachi looks like a bird because he likes them was just her personal opinion. Who knows.
Also from her is her belief that Jadon acting as he was was a misguided cry for help.
Additionally there's the information that everyone within the District (I assume she means the puppet workers), including Jadon, are in pain. This clarifies that Jadon is always in pain even prior to Pazuzu tearing him apart rather than, say, just feeling extremely sick.
Lastly the information that the fun house itself seems to exist on a different plane than the rest of the District.
Even if much of her dialogue is just her take on things, it's still information to work off of. While many would be left wondering what she'd have to say about Gaius or Adam if she were still a part of the game, what I wonder most is how exactly she'd function in relation to the Tower. Would she be able to access it still? Would the charm still work, or would something block it? If she were still accessible in the Tower, would she still be in Layer 2? The idea of Fleur expressing her thoughts on the state of the Red and Blue Zones is very interesting to ruminate on.
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This isn't anything special, but it's neat I managed to find the post detailing Jadon's initial concept. Technically also Abram, but barely.
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Next is a post I had found back in either September or November of last year. It took me awhile to find the context for it given I completely blinded A Room from Find Me 3.2 since I never interacted with the Supreme chests before getting all memories— even back in 2018 when I first played Find Me.
“I hope Papa kills you.”
As a reminder, this is the context.
Obviously given the worldbuilding overhaul this is no longer canon, but I was floored when I finally went through A Room and saw that. That post I found almost a year ago having been right there the whole time and the context of it. There's nothing more to this other than I was debating on reblogging that post back when I finished posting for Find Me 3.2 but decided against it.
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Next are things like older character designs (like the District Guardians) and cutscenes. I'll start with the one with the most changes to his design, Malachi. Malachi's first design was posted by Dismal to his old tumblr on July 22nd 2015.
For the anon who wanted more pictures of Malachi. Malachi was based on a number of characters, including Sucre, Zant (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) and an old character design I had tucked away. The colors I chose for his outfit aren’t set in stone, so feel free to change them if you want. I also couldn’t decide whether he has human legs or bird like legs, so either will work. He carries blades that are hidden in his sleeves, which is what you see in his battle sprite. Otherwise he tends to keep his hands hidden within the sleeves. (How, I have no idea, as he has giant, yaoi hands.) The tails aren’t part of his outfit; they are prehensile and act very much like a cat’s tail. All in all, he is a lil shit.
(Completely unrelated to this question, but my design for Malachi in my A Pain Shared AU is inspired off of this design for him.)
With how much he's changed over the years, if you told someone he was based on Zant from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, they'd think you were lying. But here it's a lot more apparent.
Then there's this design for him posted on November 18th 2015.
This was his design back in Find Me 2.1. There's also this art by Vivi of this design which I think is really cute.
Next is this design posted on May 27th 2016. Alongside this design is Jadon's 2.1 design (and I think was his first one?).
Then there's this design that was posted March 26th 2017 that is more or less his final one with the only difference being how much of his legs are horse being increased in his final design.
And final is below.
For Jadon, I already showed his 2.1 design above, but there's also this design for him posted alongside the portrait of Vader Eloha on July 4th 2017 that I managed to find though I lack the context.
Though he seems to have the Corruption cracks on him that entities like the serpentine Dusks, Morris, the Helter Skelter, Serpentine Spectres, etc have. Unless the cracking is a symptom that happens regardless of the make of the Corrupted entity, him being cracked like this would suggest his body was comprised of a material like porcelain or hard plastic. That having once been known as the Doll Maker, he himself was also a doll. Or maybe the Corruption warped the makeup of his body. Who knows.
Then there's his Find Me 3.2 design that I actually reblogged here due to it being the only official color reference we have.
Of course, that's not his final design as his hair as depicted in that design is much too short and also of a different texture than the longer wavy hair he has in Sincere Deceit.
And his final design (using 1.1.2 since in 1.1.3 he uses his Find Me battle sprite).
Next for previous designs is Gaius who I've only been able to find one of. Posted on August 26th 2016.
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...I'm going to have to reblog this and add onto it because there's just SO much I've found that I want to talk about. Though there isn't much left, thankfully, I want to talk about everything. Like Abram's design in the test build bearing greater resemblance to the Dream Cat, or how I highly suspect Zaphkiel was originally intended to have more than one pair of arms, what with his depiction in the test build's Rules of Combat book, the Blue Dream Batter having four arms (in comparison to the Red Dream Batter, for instance, having a Bad Batter growth coming out of his head just like Abram as the Husk does), Delilah as having been made to be Zaphkiel's daughter having four arms, and how his god form has four arms. With so many instances of him having four arms— and even this non-SinDec design of him by Dismal himself having four arms by default— it leads me to believe Zaphkiel only having two arms was a last minute change.
I also found the post where Lugosi was first revealed, but chose to not reblog it from my priv.
Then there's Adam... His Sincere Deceit design is... very inconsistent. I talk about this in one of the Blue route's Prison videos (which likely won't go up until some time in August because it is too hot for me to record and I want to get the rest of the game done before I post the rest and I only have up to just before Enoch scheduled to post so... ¯\_(¬_¬)_/¯), but to articulate my point better, I attempt stating to the effect that Adam's design inconsistency is like a visual representation of my confusion of if he is or is not meant to have his name be known prior to speaking to Delilah after his death. Like, it's one thing to be curious and look through everything you possibly can and find his name via his room in Specimen Containment, but another to blaze through the game and then notice the way cutscenes and the narrative itself surrounding him play out, that it seems to suggest his name is meant to be a secret?
There's this... dissonance.
The narrative noticeably skirts around saying his name through epithets like "the Prototype", "the Warden", "the Snake", and then with Delilah saying his name and it being in color, it feels to me that that's supposed to be when you're supposed to learn what his name is. The connection of the yellow District Guardian, the name Adam, and that name being colored yellow. But then his name is just shown outright in the Industry Mines puzzle. It also breaks immersion a bit if you don't go into the Gen 314 room since the fact The Batter refers to Adam by name after defeating him as the Basilisk regardless of if you went in that room or not would mean in-universe, The Batter goes in that room completely separate of whatever the player does. That in the game's canon, The Batter goes in that room and learns his name and what he looks like (since what Adam looks like can't be gleaned from the Mines puzzle so The Batter learning the name Adam wouldn't result in much of anything if he doesn't have a face to place the name to and thus can recognize the Prison's Warden as this "Adam"). But then there's the way Delilah's dialogue is phrased which makes it seem that Adam's name is a grand reveal— but I guess it's no longer an issue since she was removed in 1.1.3, so ?????
So in that video I clumsily try to make an analogy with the inconsistency of Adam's design as being visually representative of this seeming indecision for what the narrative is trying to do in regards to the reveal of his name. Because his Find Me design (the only one that I know of, anyway) more or less looks like how he does in Sincere Deceit except his hair isn't brushed perfectly up into a point and is instead somewhat messily brushed over to the side, and he has ankle shackles.
I talk about this in another analysis as well as a story post (don't remember either one, though) where Adam doesn't have the ankle shackles in his battle sprite, but does in the Congratulations! ending. He also has them in his overworld sprite, but that's harder to see. In the pre-battle cutscene concerning the Basilisk, he doesn't have them, but in the post-battle cutscene in his normal battle, he does (in my video I erroneously state he doesn't. Only just now saw them upon double checking to make sure).
In his overworld, battle, pre-Basilisk cutscene, and Congratulations! ending he has the coat, but in his post-normal battle cutscene it's not there?
(Then there's the Entertainment portrait hall where he's missing his circle cheeks even though he's burnt and should have them. Though given the portraits are identical to how they were in Find Me 3.2 but edited so that the other District Guardians weren't burnt from the start, I'll chalk that up to oversight. Especially since Gaius originally didn't have the cheeks even when burnt, as you see above.)
I personally prefer to imagine him with the ankle shackles since with them, the wrist shackles, and the metal collar, it makes five points. A star.
Previously unpublished Dream Batter icons that wouldn’t fit attractively in this photoset because I couldn’t get one of White Dream Batter to look right.
