I’ve completed this game. It’s a fascinating game.
There are 3 characters in the game. There is you, the wanderer, also the Ego. Then there is Es, the Id. And then there’s the Facade, which is the SuperEgo.
When you first play through the game, you’re not sure what’s going on. You think you’re the main character. But you’re not. Not exactly.
The Facade seems to be in charge, and he wants to you to control Es, to make her conform to society. As Ego, I rebelled against that. I wanted Es to be free, but it ended up in destruction. That was the first ending.
The game has a New Game Plus version which allows you to replay the game and get another ending. This time, I made Es conform, but the second ending was so sad.
I replayed the game and this time, I got the Alter Ego ending, the ending where you discover that you’re actually the Ego, whose job is to maintain the balance between Es and the Facade.
Which in fact is what we are all. We are all Ego.
I then went to read up on this. As it turns out, a healthy psyche is one where the Ego is in charge. The Ego decides how to behave, considering the primitive, unconscious demands of the Id, and the social norms and values of the SuperEgo.
The Ego is the so-called adult part of me, the one that is rational, the one that thinks and plans. It has no concept of right or wrong, and is simply results-based. The Id is my “inner child”, the one who just wants to have fun and is full of energy. The SuperEgo is the part of me that wants to please people, to be accepted, to be held in high praise.
Right now, my Ego is not doing a good job of balancing the Id with the SuperEgo. My psyche is out of whack. Sometimes the Id is in charge. Sometimes the SuperEgo is in charge. This explains my anxiety.
I shall read more about this…
Daniel Tay 