Game Theory - Buried and Forgotten (FNAF Security Breach Ruin)

Episode Date: August 20, 2023

NEW Merch is Here 👉 Shop our new TheoryWear website ► https://theorywear.com Join Game Theory Host MatPat as he breaks down the lore of Five Nights at Freddy's Newest DLC, Security Breach: RUIN! Credits: Writers: Matthew Patrick, and Tom Robinson Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, Tyler Mascola, Danial "BanditRants" Keristoufi, KL Allen, Pedro Freitas, Warak and Shannon (Bomb0i) Sound Designer: Yosi Berman

Hello, internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that is definitely the real deal and not a sentient robot designed to copy my voice. Today we begin our journey to solve the most anticipated DLC of the year, security breach ruin. Gotta admit this DLC has been fantastic. Playing it, it really felt like steel wool learned from their mistakes. Gone is the open world that was big but empty. Gone is the brightly lit neon environments that stopped being scary. And gone are the insane glitches that have been. made the game impossible to fully complete. Ooh, hey. Whoa!

We are not where we were. Yes, definitely feels like we've skipped something. I think we broke the game. I think I broke the game for like the third time. Okay, maybe not all the glitches are gone. And just who happened to be on my first play-through, I managed to skip an entire chapter that was filled with the most lore, but hey, consider that my contribution to the speed running community.

You can call that one the failed lore hunter, skip in my honor. It'll be my crowning achievement in the world of gaming. Just to make sure that we're all starting on the same page, In the game, we play as a new character named Cassie. A young girl that's been called to the Pizabethplex by her friend, and my personal favorite, maybe definitely robot kid, Gregory. Gregory tells us through a Roxy Talkie that he's trapped under the sinkhole in Roxy Raceway. One staff bot jump scare later and we're handed a quote-unquote security mask,

one that's meant to help us bypass certain puzzles while shutting down all the security nodes that are keeping Gregory locked down in the basement. But this, my friends, is not just any mask. This is Vanny's mask. the one that Vanessa wore throughout the entirety of security breach, making it pretty darn suspicious. Using this mask allows us to look into an augmented reality system, seeing things that we couldn't see before,

making us invisible to certain enemies. We can suddenly walk through walls, deactivate security nodes, intentionally teleport. And, as I demonstrated earlier, also accidentally teleport sometimes. Mask in hand, we make our way through the Pizzaplex, shutting down the security and encountering the various glam rock animatronics from the original game,

including the bestest boy glamrock Freddy, though something's a little. different about him this time. I can't quite put my finger on it. Ah, it's probably the fact that he's missing his head. All of this, while running from a glitching bunny entity that'll summon animatronics to our location if we wear the vanny mask for too long. Eventually, we deactivate all the security nodes, including Cassie's favorite glam rock, Roxy. Cassie, what are you doing? This allows us to head on down to the basement where, surprise, surprise, it wasn't Gregory at all. Instead, it was an animatronic. Say, told you guys Gregory was a robot this entire time. This thing right here

is the Mimic, a bot designed to learn from and copy other people and robots. And whoopsie, poopsie, we've just released it from its concrete prison. We run to the elevator to try to escape, only for the real Gregory to finally contact us and lead us to safety. The elevator is ultimately sabotaged by either Gregory or the Mimic. Unclear who exactly, that's a theory that we're going to talk about later, and we fall into the game's ending with Cassie's fate being questionable at best. Honestly, there is so much happening in this game. True to form, the fan base is just tying itself into knots arguing over all the little

Did Gregory actually betray us in the end? What does the word prototype mean on Freddy's foot exactly? And what ending of security breach actually led us to this point in the timeline? Well, good news there, loyal theorists. I believe I have at least the first batch of questions answered. And oh boy! If I'm right, this game is drawn from one of the most controversial parts of the lore, will simultaneously setting us up for some massive reveals later this year. So grab your AR Bunny Mask's friends, we're about to see the hidden truth buried within the ruin. But before I do that, you know what compliments a high-tech bunny mask? Our latest batch of Theory Wear.

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Now then, back to the digitized walls of the ruin. Let's start with something simple. Something that really sets the foundation for the rest of ruin. Which of the Security Breach endings is canon? Security Breach has had a weird relationship with its endings. Sure, some previous FNAF games have had multiple endings, some have even had upwards of seven, but none has ever been so vague about what the intended ending was.

Of Security Breach's six potential endings, there were two that felt like real contenders for being the canon choice. The so-called true ending, two-star ending where Gregory goes into the Pizzaplex's basement to fight Burntrap, ending in a collapse of the entire building, and the Princess Quest ending. The only three-star ending of the game were Freddy's dismantled by staffbots, and Gregory defeats the Glitch Trap virus controlling Vanessa. So, now that ruins out, which actually happened? Well, we could say with near 100% certainty that it was Princess Quest.

You see, Steel Bowl did something that I would have never expected. They made the comic book-style drawings of all the security breach endings into the lynchpin of the whole debate. Oh! Are we collecting the endings from Security Breach as comics? Yep, throughout ruin. One of our main collectibles are comic strips. Comic strips depicting images from the base game's various endings.

Comics that were created by none other than... It's one of Gregory's comics. Each comic comes with a little descriptor like that. These look like Gregory drew them. Gregory should be an artist when he grows up. Gregory was always so creative. That last line? About Gregory being creative?

That tells me that these endings are all made up. They're just stories that Gregory imagine. for his own little comic series, inspired by the scary true-to-life events of the franchise. But if they're made up, then how do we know that the Princess Quest ending is real? Well, once you collect all of Gregory's comics, the answer is pretty obvious. Take a look at this. These two are from the Gregory Escapes ending. These two are from the VIP ending.

These are from the Loading Dock ending. This one is from the Disassembled Vanie ending, and then, last but not least, is the Burntrap ending panel. Seems like a pretty extensive list, right? Except there's one ending that's noticeably absent here. Princess Quest. There isn't a single kind of a single kind of a single, single comic strip in all of ruin depicting that ending, implying that that one, unlike all the

others, was real. And if you look around at the rest of ruin with this in mind, you start to realize why. In the Princess Quest ending, you have to beat the Princess Quest 3 arcade machine that's in Vanney's hideout. But when you visit that same hideout and ruin, you find the machine on its side, with the princess's lantern sitting on top of it. She has conquered the virus, lighting the way to freedom. And if the lantern wasn't obvious enough symbolism for you, when you put on the Vanney mask and enter the AR world, you'll see the sword from Princess Quest two and three plunged into the machine. The beast has been slain.

Actually, the fact that Cassie's given the Vanny Mask in the first place also lines up with this ending, because it's the only ending where we actively see the mask getting left behind. It's actually a big focus of this panel right here, showing us that the mask being left behind is significant. It's still waiting around for someone, in this case Cassie, to find it and become the new Vanny. And then, last but not least, there's the fact that in ruin we come across Freddie,

sitting in a pile of rubble missing his head, something that again only happens in the Princess Quest ending. So with our canonical ending established, let's just stop right there to talk a little bit more about Freddy, shall we? In ruin, we come across this headless Freddy, but it's unclear whether it's meant to be are Freddy from Security Breach or not? You see, this Freddy has the word prototype written across his foot, something that is definitely not present in the base game. He also has a green present hiding in his stomach. Something that's awfully suspicious once he considers Security Breach started with Gregory taking an orange present out of Freddie's stomach. This can't possibly be the same robot then, right?

This is one of the big debates that's captured the attention of the FAS base. If the Princess Quest ending is correct, then it kind of has to be the same Freddy. It would be very highly coincidental if not. So how then do you explain all these new features? Well first, I think it's important to call out that design updates between games, it is nothing new for this franchise. Probably the best known example of this is the evolution of spring trap in Fnaf 3 to scrap trap in Fnaf 6.

William Afton's basic anatomy, it is nothing alike, despite it being the same dead body in the same rotten suit. Even in this game, Candy Cadet, complete overhaul between his first appearance and now. Or just take a look at any of the other animatronics. Their endos are real different to the ones at the end of security breach, and yet each and every one of them has suffered the exact same damage that they did in the previous game. But one detail that can't be replicated is something that I think a lot of the community has started to overlook, something that can't be denied, and it all relates back to the Vanny mask.

We're told that this mask is known as the Virtual Augmented Neural Network Integration Unit, or Vanny. As the name implies, it allows us to use augmented reality to physically see and access the neural network. That's just a fancy name for AI, controlling the Pizaplex. Throughout the game, we use this ability to make fences disappear, access security nodes, and teleport from location to location. That much is obvious. What's less obvious, though, are how the various endoskeletons behave while we're wearing the mask. As we pass most normal endoskeletons in the game, we see them wrapped in swirling pink code. This shows that they're connected to the network.

They're being powered by the AI system in charge of the Pizeplex. Now, when Cassie has the Vanney mask off, they'll start chasing us. That's because we're suddenly visible to them. We're just a kid. We're a target. But notice what happens as soon as we put the mask on. They stop chasing us. Instead, they go back to what they were doing before.

We've disappeared from them because we're integrated into the AI system. We're no longer a kid. We've become one with the code. It's actually pretty brilliant, subtle storytelling. But now let's get back to the topic at hand, our headless Freddy in ruin. Unlike every other animatronic, when we put on the mask around Freddy, Not only does he stop chasing us, he outright disappears. We can't see him anymore.

And likewise, he can no longer see us. Why? What makes him so different? What is this trying to tell us? Well, if the Vanny Mask jacks us into the Pizza Plex's AI system, his disappearance tells us that he's not a part of that system. He is not swirling in pink code because he's removed from the Pizuplex's network. How'd that happen?

Well, we saw it at the top of security breach. Freddy glitches out and has to be rebooted in safe mode. That's why he's friendly to Gregory in a way that none of the other animatronics are. He's no longer under the control of the AI network controlling the Pizzaplex. In a sense, you could say he's thinking for himself. And we see this continue throughout the entirety of security breach. Whenever Gregory sees Vanny running around, Freddie states that he didn't see anything. You didn't see the dancing rabbit lady right in front of us?

No, I did not. There is no rabbit at the Mega Pizzoplex. Not anymore. Vanny is very clearly real, but she's wearing her mask, thereby making her invisible to the one robot that isn't a part of the wider AI system, that only changes when Freddy is equipped with Roxy's eyes. Roxy's eyes in that game were a part of the AI system, which is why that upgrade suddenly allows Freddy to see things that were formerly invisible to him. He's seeing everything that's a part of the AI network, and that includes Vanny.

Vanny! I can see you now. I have new eyes. This one detail is why I feel that ruined Freddy here has to be the same as our best boy from security breach. This is a Freddy that has been removed from the system, one that was rebooted in safe mode, taking him offline, something that almost guarantees that he has to be connected to the Freddy from the original game. Weird Freddy Curveballs aside, though, this game makes it abundantly clear that I was right on the money with my last few theories about how AI is now the major focus of the series.

And specifically, AI programs that have been corrupted by GlitchTrap, Afton's old evil data, hence why everything is wrapped in this purple or pink code. Well, everything, except for Roxy. Instead of being made out of purple code like the rest of the animatronics, she instead has sections of her body made up of green code. Specifically around her face, her arm, and her foot, making her look a lot like she did at the beginning of security breach. It's strange, right? But it actually ties into our previous theories. This neural network controlling the Pizoplex isn't just influenced by Afton.

According to the books, the AI program was originally built to play with Charlie, a girl that wore a green wristband in order for the security puppet to protect her. That's why we see Tiger Rock, the book's manifestation of this same AI, with two colored eyes. It has evil and good data inside of it. And different animatronics are tapped into different amounts of that same code. That's why Roxy is surrounded by green code that makes her look like she was originally supposed to. Green is the color of protection, of safety. Her influence is now putting green markers over the parts of the system that are good. This duality is actually best exemplified by, believe it or not, the daycare attendant, sun and moon, or eclipse as they're known when infused together.

Since the beginning of security breach, this thing's presence in the game has always felt very random. Like, why is he here? Just to be another scary thing to chase us around? Maybe, but that doesn't tend to be how these games work. And why would they choose such a random design of being both light and darkness, sun and moon. Well, now we know. And what of Ruins many lore-heavy Easter eggs? If you go up to him with the mask on, while there's only one generator left to activate,

you'll hear a new line that states, No, no, no, no, no! It's not safe yet! Turn on the other generator! Clearly, eclipse is conflicted. One half wants to protect you, but it's getting shut away by the darker, more sinister half. He is good and evil combined.

He represents both codes competing within the same body. Other animatronics are more of a sliding spectrum. Some are more corrupt than others. But Eclipse represents the balance that naturally exists within this neural network system. Which leads us then to the ending of the game. Whether Gregory is actually the one trying to kill Cassie in the final moments as a theory for another day. Instead, I'd rather focus on this, the Mimic tunnels. At the end of the game, we're chased by an endoskeleton known as the Mimic,

a robot that's able to learn from and copy other creatures. But even before we get to the elevator, Gregory tells us his friend, presumably Vanessa, has these plans for the underground tunnels. But what are the tunnels? Why are they here? Who put them here? These tunnels aren't just random. Someone has been down here before.

They've installed lighting and an elevator and everything. We also know it wasn't Gregory and Vanessa because they're on the opposite side of the room that the mimic was locked in, the Pizapplex side, complete with the mixes system. We also know that these tunnels weren't just part of the FNAF6 location because the game makes it a point to show that we're a number of floors far below that building. It tells us that this location has to be older than the FNAF6 Pizzeria.

So again, I ask, what are these tunnels for, and why are they here? Well, the clues to finding that answer are hitting. in the mimics room. Normally you wouldn't be able to see any of this stuff. You break down the wall, you enter a cutscene and the mimic starts to chase you. However, at this point, steel wool understands that the internet gonna do what the internet gonna do. We're gonna rip into the files, we're gonna free cam our way all across these maps and we're gonna crank up the brightness hunting for clues. And sure enough, there is a lot that's hidden just out of sight. Inside the mimics room are two costumes, a grandma bird, and an elephant clown. There

also seems like there's supposed to be a third costume, a lion wearing a varsity jacket, but that one I was only able to find in the game files. That said, in one of the In the game's secret endings, the mimic wears a costume that's kind of a mix of all three of these things, so that's the evidence that we need there. And overall, it's a pretty interesting find. We know from the books that the mimic is a fan of wearing costumes. In the mimic story, as well as the Pizzaplex epilogs, we know that the mimic mainly cycles between two costumes. A mushroom and a jester. In the story, Edwin, our parallel for the game's Henry, was responsible for turning those costumes into animatronics for Fasbear.

And that right there, that's an important detail. You see, the books make it clear that those costumes came from a time before Edwin made Chica into the first animatronic. In other words, these off-branded characters like a jester and a mushroom predate practically everything else that we see in the games. They come from a time before the core lineup of characters was officially decided. When Edwin disappears after the death of his son, Fasbear Entertainment goes to his abandoned home and reclaims all of their property. The mimic, the costumes, everything. Think this is only specific to the books? It's not. I suspect that we've been hearing about these costumes ever since night four of FNAF 3.

He'll look like very short notice, no questions about flex. But that's not all. On your way down to the FNAF6 location, we find ourselves in a massive cave system full of bioluminescent mushrooms and waterfalls. This immediately felt weird to me. I mean, it is the first time that we've ever been in a place like this, a place that is outside of a building location in this franchise. So why now? Why this particular setting? Why such a beautiful cave with such specific details? It's odd because we've never seen anything like this in the entire series.

Well, almost never. In the second novel, The Twisted Ones. As a friendly reminder, that's the one where the main character gets vored. by an animatronic in the end. Good memories had by all. When Charlie awakens from being trapped inside one of the twisted animatronics, she finds herself inside of an old Freddy Fazbear pizzeria. As she explores, she too discovers a cave system with, wait for it, glowing mushrooms, and a waterfall. What does it mean? But the more I looked into it, the more I realized the strong parallels between ruin and the original novel trilogy. In both cases, we follow a young girl who's

looking for a boy the same age as her that goes missing. She finds an old pizzeria buried below a mall and when she goes down there to where she believes the boy's calling from, it's revealed to be a trap. Am I saying Cassie is Charlie? No, I might one day, but for now I'm still mulling that one over. But I do think that there are clear connections between this game and those books that are directly being called to our attention. And what's the primary location for the final book in the series? The location where this story finally comes to its ultimate conclusion? Circus, babies, pizza world. Look again at the costumes that we see in the mimics room. An elephant, clown, and a lion. Both animals that are commonly associated.

with circuses. The grandma bird actually looks a lot like a crow to me with its wide yellow beak and its dark blue coloring, which again reminds me of the Disney film Dumbo, another circus-based film that stars crows and an elephant attraction. The elephant is even wearing a clown outfit, for crying out loud. It is practically screaming at us that these costumes were designed to be mascots for circus babies. It's why when they were brought into Fasbears as backup costumes like Phone Guy said, their relevance was questioned. Because Fasbear never had a circus theme or revealed any of these sorts of characters. They were Williams from a long time before. But that's not all. Throughout ruin, there are secret plush baby rooms where the dolls troll you. And a whole suite of plush baby AR collectibles that specifically call out how weird it is that these things are here. This is Fasbear, not circus babies. There is no reason to call out all of these parallels unless it is specifically to call our attention to Circus Baby. These locations are connected somehow. But the final nail in the coffin for me comes thanks to one of the secret endings in the game. After the mimic chases you in costume, you end up in a locked room where you hit a big old red button and a claw like

machine comes down from the ceiling, grabs the mimic, and defeats it, at least for now. And what's that ending called in the game files? The Scooper ending. This thing right here, it is a scoop. And where's the only other place that we've ever seen a scoop used? Circus Babies. An underground bunker that you can only access via an elevator. Oh wait, that describes exactly where we are.

Now, remind me again what game is coming out later this year, one that has a trailer starting in the sister location elevator, one where we see a very familiar security panel from ruin down in the bottom right corner. Help Wanted 2. the second VR game. The mimic has been around much, much longer than any of us suspected, and we're going to find out more about him in the next VR installment come in this winter. This has all sorts of implications. For one, the parallels between the mimic and Ennard are undeniable. An animatronic that's an amalgamation of a bunch of other animatronics. What makes this one even more

interesting is that the books just confirmed all games up through FNAF6 as being games in universe the Pizzaplex. So was Enner just a fictional version of the mimic the whole time? Again, that's a theory for another day. But more importantly, this actually has some massive timeline implications as well. Part of the reason it always felt tough for me to place circus babies into a timeline is because it closes after the death of Elizabeth. It always felt like a good starting point for

Afton to then begin seeking eternal life and to put people back together. But what didn't make sense is why baby would have a claw mechanism in her chest to capture kids. Afton wouldn't need to capture kids until after he had lost his child. But if circus babies was actually much earlier in the timeline, like these old costumes seem to suggest, things

start to fall into place. Henry was the initial robotics genius. Afton just had the ideas and then gave him to Henry to turn into animatronics, like what we see with Edwin in the mimic stories. I always brush this little detail off as confusing, but before the release of sister location, we got this ending from FNAF World, where Henry sits at a desk talking about the evil that he created before he unalives himself, just like what we see him do in the novel trilogy. At that point, we see a pair of glowing eyes and Baby's voice calls out, Everyone please stay in your seats. This all implied that Henry was the creator of

baby, not William. Despite Afton's name, being the one on the copyright. But now I think we have an answer that solves all of this. William went back to collect his costumes after Henry's disappearance, just like what we see happen in the books. When he does this, he also finds the mimic program, deciding to use its programming and technology for his own creations, the fun time animatronics, who can do what? They have the ability to mimic voices. We see Baby doing the exact same thing in sister location when she mimics the voice of Elizabeth to try and lure Michael to his death. I suspected in my last theory that Baby was still at play here. That's why Tiger Rock's eyes are

in Green, Elizabeth and Charlie. And given everything that we just talked about today, I have no doubt that this is still very much the case. How it's going to play out, though, we'll have to see in FNAF VR too later this year. Obviously, there's going to be more to cover here in the coming weeks, specifically about Gregory, Cassie and Cassie's dad. But more on that one next time,

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If I spot you in the wild, I tend to sneak up and do jump scares of my own. And by jump scare, I mean, I come up to you, shake your hand. I say thank you for supporting team theorist. I run away, and it's kind of a funny surprise for all of us. So anyway, in the meantime, remember, my friends, it's all just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching.