Recurring themes in Yuppie Psycho
(Spoilers for Yuppie Psycho.)
Yuppie Psycho has a lot of recurring themes. For example:
- The snake. Symbolizes Domori's powers, or the Witch. Also serves as a symbol of evil and temptation. The snake tempts Domori to use her powers to take revenge on Rei Sintra for hurting her.
- The serpentine S. Special case of the snake. This shows up on the witch paper. It shows up in the room where Domori was burned to death when you travel through the underwater depths of Sintracorp. It's used in the Executive Edition endings as part of a spell that destroys illusions.
- Blurred lines between bodies and machines. Machines that work like bodies. Bodies that look like machines or machines that look like bodies. Mixtures of body and machine. Like: The resurrected-as-robot Rei Sintra. The Dot Matrix printer, with its four hands. The mines with their hard metallic-looking casing and their single organic eyeball. The spider-mines in the "afterparty" section of the game. The security guards with TV heads on floor 3.
- Submission to the other creating "authority." Submitting to Col. Dumont the insane motivational speaker and his insults. Submitting to the Witch in the way Hugo does. Submitting to HR like the employees on floor 4 that want to be spit on. Brian's deal with the Devil in the Executive Edition endings. Brian's submission to Rei Sintra in the "afterparty" endings.
- Losing touch with reality. The Forest Goblin on floor 8. The Voice tape. Arguably Super-Toad. The Union of SintraCorp Syndicate Revolutionaries's bizarre questionnaire. The way Dumont dresses like a French soldier from a few hundred years ago and goes around in his everyday life acting like he thinks it's so. The way Brian and Kate walk around the office half the time talking to themselves and each other as if it's an ordinary office with a few unconventional features. The way Brian pushes his screaming, bound-and-gagged coworker down the hall filled with blood and corpses, talking to himself as if this is odd but normal enough, like oh well I guess we'll figure out some way out of this.
- Worship of or prayer to this A.M. lady who used to work at SintraCorp. Atis Moeta?