Research on "who" you felt like in Amnesia

[Crafter]

To be honest, Your not Daniel anymore. He has changed, ever sense he took the Amnesia Potion. I dont feel like any of the actions i did was something Daniel would do.

And yett Daniel wrote a letter to himself like as if it was another person


I wish i could mix "My self troughout the game" and "Slowly becoming Daniel" in a way :/

[GetAgrippa]

I'm not sure why this thread got revived but now I can post a good answer . I actually felt like I was in the game during the beginning; that atmosphere was fantastic. For some reason, as soon as as Alexander said "Did you really take the Amnesia mixture?" I didn't have any connection to Daniel.I saw myself as the new Daniel, but just got connected to the old Daniel if that makes sense.

[Gunslingerjh]

I felt more emotionally connected to Philip in Penumbra than I did for Daniel..
Probably because of the backstory that we get from Philip, that he is an ordinary man just like me.

I didn't know anything about Daniel at first, so when the game started and you wake up, I didn't care as much about Daniel as I did for Philip.

[lucasrfernandez]

I felt more emotionally connected to Philip in Penumbra than I did for Daniel..
Probably because of the backstory that we get from Philip, that he is an ordinary man just like me.

I didn't know anything about Daniel at first, so when the game started and you wake up, I didn't care as much about Daniel as I did for Philip.

Yes! I Think the same!!

[Carrna]

I felt like I was Daniel and I was in the castle myself. Since I didn't know anything about him when the game started it was nice to think I have amnesia and have no clue what has happened or what I've done. =P Though I noticed when I played Penumbra and Philip's background story was told at the beginning, I didn't notice it being any different than in Amnesia.

I guess it's mostly because of the first person view where you can't see them at all. If I can see the character I'm controlling I also think like "The character does this, the character does that", not like "I do."

I acted pretty much like myself, as usual. Even in some RPGs where you can choose from multiple options what to do I tend to choose the one what I would do if I were really there. Except if you need to kill or torture someone to get forward in the game then I'll of course do that although I wouldn't really want to. :[ Then I feel bad for some time.

My "relationship" with Daniel stayed pretty much the same throughout the game. Only when I found out he'd been torturing and killing people I "differed" from him for a moment and thought no more like "I did that" but "Daniel did that, what a c**t." But when I learned Alexander had been fooling and using him I kind of forgave Daniel and started thinking like "I will go and beat the crap out of him" again.

[Mehis]

In my opinion, I enjoyed Penumbra more. Amnesia was as game better, but I felt more connected and understood the story of Penumbra better. In Penumbra, you are this guy. You are Philip. You have an objective. You do this for love to another person. In Amnesia, I felt like I was going on a killing mission to murder somebody who is evil. Sounds like basic adventure game, right. Also I love some of the quotes from Penumbra. Like, better to have a story and end it, than never to realise it has begun.

[xdeath]

I couldn't connect well with Daniel(post Amnesia Drink).
It was more of myself in Castle Brennanburg.
However, I did begin to sympathize with Daniel(pre Amnesia Drink).
It seemed like they were two different people.


I did connect with Philip of Penumbra a lot better, it was probably because of his narrative. You could get a good sense of his motivations from his dialogue, and the backstory at the beginning of the game.

[she]

this is an interesting question, and one i can give a relatively unique answer to.

inadvertently, i found myself slipping into the role of daniel when he started manifesting physical symptoms of fear that i could relate to. due to a disorder, i often experience similar symptoms (teeth grinding, flashbacks, visual distortion, nightmares etc), so it really felt like i was daniel as i played. in fact, i later joked to my friend that you guys had created the perfect anxiety simulator, right down to the ringing in his ears when his sanity maxes out (on that note: thank you for not including "sanity potions". no, seriously, thank you).

once i figured out what daniel had done, i distanced myself from him a little more. i wasn't sure whether he was a huge coward or an incredibly brave individual for pressing on despite the big scary monsters with abnormally large meat cleaver hands. probably a bit of both. either way, i played mostly as myself through the latter part of the game, because i felt like he'd brought all of this misery upon himself, and i felt a little disgusted by his actions; i couldn't relate to them at all.

i've since played the game multiple times, and during each playthrough i find myself marveling at amnesia's ability to simultaneously make me feel incredibly uncomfortable and very much entertained. frictional's ability to tap into something deeper than a fear of the dark or said scary meat cleaver monsters is true psychological horror to me.

[Larai]

I chose the option "I started out acting as myself and then slowing acted more as Daniel as I learned about him.", though it's maybe not completely accurate.

I'd say it depends a lot on the sitution - most of the time I rather felt like...a friend or a watcher or something.
But yes, there are many parts in the game where it felt like I was Daniel.

[Tetrafish]

1) Did you feel like YOU were in castle Brennenburg and that you acted in a way that you yourself would do.
Or
2) Did you feel like you were Daniel and throughout the game acted as you thought Daniel would acted (not meaning that this was a conscious process perhaps, but more that you put yourself in Daniel's shoes and then acted out of instinct).

The detail of this being either 'at the start of the game' or 'by the end of it' would sway my answer.

#1 at the beginning
#2 by or closer to the end.

IMO, "Throughout" or During the game is when this joining/relationship process takes place. In the early parts there is a separation between player and character.