Transcript for:
Exploring Dark Lore in Dress to Impress

This is the most requested  episode of Game Theory ever. Over the last two months, we've received hundreds  upon hundreds of requests to play this game. Our subreddit is practically  bursting at the seams. Our comment section is overflowing. People are hungry for this game. So today, I will answer the call. Today, I will cover the game that  you have all been dying to see. Today, I will be theorizing  about Dress to Impress. No, no, no, no, wait, it's scarier than it sounds. Trust me. Hello, Internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show  that never goes out of style. Although, I became very unsure of my  own personal style when I tried my   hand at the Roblox game that everyone had  been requesting I play, Dress to Impress. It seemed simple enough. You just pick outfits, hairstyles, get your nails  done, all to try and match the chosen theme. Only for you to lose regardless because people  vote on what's cute rather than what's on theme. How on earth is this kawaii? So I have to say, I was a little  confused why this was so requested. I thought maybe Amy and I could do a  collab episode about the psychology   behind why the theme didn't really seem to matter. But then your comments pointed something out. A book. And it would change everything. It turns out, it's not just  these outfits that are sus. What started as a simple April Fool's update   has now become four months of nearly  daily updates across multiple games. All to tell a story of  tragedy, betrayal, and revenge. And so, I've been following along,  writing down my thoughts with each   new update, theory crafting in  real time to try and solve it. So, sorry Amy, no collab today because  I gotta take a peek behind the fashion   show curtain myself and find out what hidden  lore is hiding inside of Dress to Impress. That's what you get for caking me. So, what is this random book that totally  changed my perspective of the game? On the surface, it's just  a simple diary entry from   an NPC nail technician that the  community has dubbed Nail Lady. Although, she doesn't seem  particularly fond of that name. Ahem. Ugh. Fine, I guess we can still collab. You can do the voice. The world's not ready for  my feminine voice anyway. Thank you, Tom. Ahem. They just call me Nail Lady when  I am so much more than that. My name is Lana, but no one calls me that. I'm gonna run away one day. Sounds pretty understandable, right? She just wants people to call her by her name,  but that's not what got everyone's attention. What stood out was on the next page,   where she writes that she wants to "set fire  to the studio" and reveals a list of targets. She even has "Dealt With" written  next to some of the names. I mean, I'm sure we all have  that one colleague we don't like,   but offing them might be a bit overdramatic. Maybe. Though it turns out, these aren't her colleagues. If you take a closer look at the names, some  of them are the names of the game's developers. Okay, cool. We've got a murdery protagonist who is  unhappy with the life the devs gave her,   and so she is offering them one by one. Pretty straightforward, right? Well, it was until updates started rolling in. Lana's diary was no longer on full display,  but instead was hidden at the top of a cabinet. However, it was still readable,  and it said something new. That isn't me. They replaced me with some doppelganger. That's not me. I'm Lana. She's not. But she's pretending to be me. I don't know where I am. Gigi is holding me somewhere, so I can't escape. Please help me. I am so scared, and I hope that that thing  sitting in my salon chair doesn't harm my image. I think she's the reason why all  the players are going missing. And then, if you take a look at the  wall, you'll see three missing posters,   the names of which match three of the  developers from Lana's target list. That person she mentions, Gigi, is also a  developer, and she has now taken Lana hostage,   replacing her with this doppelganger, and not  the kind with extra eyes and missing mouths. All of this is to keep the game running smoothly,  so people wouldn't suspect she was gone. However, this is slightly confusing. Lana claims that these people are  missing because of this doppelganger,   but the target list that matches the  missing posters came from her diary. Or was that actually the doppelganger's diary? I'm not entirely sure who I'm  supposed to be trusting here,   but the diary does give us a Roblox user ID that  leads us to Lana's Roblox profile, LanaDoesNails. So we should probably start there, and  oh boy, this is where the fun begins. On her page is a link to a YouTube  account with a handful of short videos. The first video is called Awakening. A face appears and tells Lana, How dare you, Lana, spread our plans? Already, we're off to a mysterious start. Lana has betrayed whatever this Awakening is. I assume by telling us about the doppelganger. In a later video, Ode to Myself, she  once again mentions this wretched group. But in the description, tells us she's  trying to warn us that we are next. Is this group trying to take over the game? To replace all the players with mindless  doppelgangers that just follow the rules? Maybe they're also mad that  people aren't playing it right. There is one more video, but it  doesn't really give us anything new. So, I went back to Lana's Roblox page  and looked around for more clues. If you look under the Creations tab, you can see  that Lana is actually making a game of her own. And it's called Forest. It invites us to view the truth of Lana's story. Given that we're specifically looking  for lore, this is an enticing offer. But be warned, this game is  nothing like Dress to Impress. A blood-red filter covers the screen. Eerie music plays in the background. And a human eye is constantly watching you. As you wander through the forest, you can  find sentences that tell the story of Lana. That she was diagnosed with a terminal  illness that left her and her family in debt. And that she now works in  the salon just to get by. Given her diary told us  she hates it there so much,   I suspect she turned to this  Awakening group for help. It would be classic cult-like manipulation. They promise her financial support only for them  to turn on her when she doesn't fall in line. And I think I might be right,  because as you explore the forest,   Lana's doppelgangers try to kill you. This is the truth that they want hidden. But if you manage to avoid them,   you can find a podium that requires  four people to open a portal to a maze. Get to the end, and you'll receive  a binary code that translates to... You may have finished your trials,  but the evil lurks throughout. This is not the end. There will be chaos. Well, chaos is usually bad, so I suppose  we should probably help Lana stop it. Fortunately, when I returned to Lana's page,  she had created a group called Saudade. Which is described as "the birth of an uprising. A new dawn where we stand united  against the forces of evil". Alright, let's go! Inside the group, there are a few subgroups too. One of which is called Coterie. A word that means "an exclusive group of persons  with a unifying common interest or purpose". Lana is already out here building a rebellion. Gathering people through the common  goal of exposing the Awakening. That is what led her to get  locked up in the first place. There's also another group called  Missing, and it contains four people. But these aren't the  developers, they're just people. These must be the missing people that  Lana was referring to in her diary. The ones the Awakening caused to go missing. She was trying to stop others from disappearing  by taking out the developers from the Awakening. I'm sorry that I doubted your innocence, Lana. Is what I would say if it wasn't  for this missing person's bio. You see, it's not a normal bio like most of them. It contains a Caesar Cipher. There are a few small mistakes in the  translation, but cleaned up, it says this. My death was planned by Lana, not evil. The Coterie's not just some group to help her. They're her sacrifices. Ha! I knew it! Cancel my therapy, guys! My trust issues are well-founded! Lana has been convincing us this whole  time that she is one of the good guys. That she was taken advantage of by the Awakening. But no! These missing people aren't just missing. They've been sacrificed by  the Awakening and by Lana. She was in on it the whole time. Or so I thought if it wasn't for  Lana's next game, Questionnaire. Here she'd appear for live events  to set the record straight. She confirmed some things like how the Awakening   lured her in by promising to  pay off her financial debts. But as these live streams kept happening,  her answers began to contradict that truth. Suddenly, she actually loved the nail salon,   which means she probably wouldn't have turned  to the Awakening for help in the first place. She also started saying that they weren't  evil, but people have been murdered. That's pretty evil. Is she being coerced again? Nope! Red text appeared on screen and said... Don't believe her! Please! That is not the real Lana! And everyone got booted out of the  stream with the reason listed as... "I am the real Lana." The Lana we've been talking  to was another doppelganger. The real Lana is innocent. But then Questionnaire got an update that added   a house with a new version of  Lana's diary that said this... Jayla's eyes are gone. Nicholas's heart is gone. Jisoo's voice is gone. And Sadie has been taken apart. I pray that this stays private. And no one finds out my true  intentions with the Saudade. I cannot believe how easy it's been to make  these players believe that I am the victim. And now they're all on my side. They will all pay for how they treated me. So that whole kicking us off to get rid  of the doppelganger was also just a stunt. Lana has been playing the victim,   making us believe anything bad was a  doppelganger working for the Awakening. But really, Lana was the villain behind it all. I tell ya, this story's got more  twists than an M. Night movie. After this reveal, Lana went full villain mode,   executing three members of  the Coterie live on air. But the last member, Nelly,  wasn't going down so easily. Now what happened to Nicholas and all the people  you killed, sacrificed, is going to happen to you Seeing through Lana's deceit, Nelly  flips the script and kills her instead. Finally, Lana's reign of  tyranny and deceit would end. But I'm sure you could all figure  out where this is going, right? Once the dust settles,   Lana's YouTube account posted a video  called The Last Serenade, and it said... There's still more to come. This time, it will be successful,  because I've opened the gate. That Lana that was just killed was a doppelganger. Again. But now, she's achieved her goal,  which was opening a gate, apparently? The keen-eyed among you will probably  recognize it from the Forest game. The gate that needed four people to activate it. And we now have three dead Coterie  members and Lana's dead doppelganger. Four bodies to help Lana open this new gate. Killing the Coterie members  wasn't about protecting her   own skin or defending the Awakening. It was always part of her plan. And it's likely why she had sacrificed  the first four missing victims. But that, ladies and gentlemen,  was the end of Chapter 1. And there were two major  questions that everyone had. What is the portal, and why did Lana need it? Well, before we dive into  Chapter 2, here's what I think. Typically, when it comes to cults and sacrifices,   portals would be used to summon  some kind of evil entity. However, the portal in the Forest that looked   identical to this new one took  us to a new location instead. So, Lana and the Awakening aren't trying  to summon something, but go somewhere. Lana's motivations still seem  tied to what we saw in her diary. She wants to burn the salon to the ground,   and she likely still wants to destroy  the devs who made her life so horrible. They designed her boring NPC life. They designed her tragic backstory. And so I suspect whatever lies beyond  this portal will help her to achieve that. Maybe she needs to find some demonic  monster to bring back and kill everyone. Or maybe this new world has some kind of  item that can make her an all-powerful being,   able to transcend the game and  destroy the devs completely. Maybe it'd even allow her to enter our world. All of this would certainly  fit with the culty vibes. But whatever the answer is, I gotta  say I'm kinda hooked on this one. I know I've been sighing about the constant back  and forth of Doppelgangers versus the real Lana, but I'm just really impressed that there's this   many twists hidden inside  a Roblox Runway Simulator. So I just wanted to take a minute to say thank  you guys for recommending this game to me. I'd have never known about this fascinating  experience if it wasn't for you. So please, if you've got recommendations, please  do let me know down in the comments below. I love getting exposed to new games,   and I especially love covering games  that I know that you guys want to see. But I should stop with all this mushy  stuff because Chapter 2 is here,   so it's time to see if I'm right. After a little bit of time, the Soudade added  a new group to its affiliate tab called Plague, showing the same portal that  we'd seen in Lana's latest video. But the creator of the group wasn't Lana. It's someone named Agamemnon. Ugh, that is going to be the worst thing to say. I'm gonna call you Aggy. Sound good? At the same time this new group was  made, Lana also made a post saying, Agamemnon, I hear your call. I hear it well. I am following your voice, and perhaps it  will lead me to the portal you told me about. Sounds to me like this guy is trapped  on the other side of the portal, in some kind of alternate world or dimension. That's why Lana needs the portal.  It's to free him or to be with him. Was this really just a tragic  love story this whole time? Soudade does mean the nostalgic longing  for a beloved yet absent person. So that kind of makes sense, but her  words also feel a bit too cult-y for me. So we could still be on the right track if he  turns out to be some kind of all-powerful demon. And we don't have to wait that long because  Lana released another game called The Fortress, and the start of it is on the other  side of the portal that Lana had opened. There are words written across the walls like  plague, metamorphosis, and I finally feel free. They're written over and over and over again, like the writings of a lunatic  trapped in a room for years. So basically me when the new  Poppy Playtime ARG dropped. Across the map, there are  notes from both Lana and Nelly, spelling out that while this is the real Lana, she's basically been brainwashed by  the guy she's following, good old Aggy. This stinks of classic cult leader behavior. A man who gathers others around him to worship  him like he's the second coming of Christ, filling people's heads with promises that  will all turn out to be lies in the end. Lana isn't in love with this guy, or maybe  she is, cult relationships are kind of weird, but it's more like she sees him as her savior  and will help her to get revenge on the Salon, which never ends well in these kinds of things. Lana will likely end up betrayed  at best or dead at worst. But now, ladies and gentlemen, it's  finally time to hear from Aggy himself, because you can find two doors  that require passwords to enter. The note next to the first one reads, call it, open the door, bestow me the truth. So we just repeat that second  phrase, bestow me the truth. That leads to a second door  which asks us, what is coming? The walls speak the truth. Well, we saw three things  written on the walls earlier. Finally, I feel free, metamorphosis, and plague. And it's that last one that opens the door. Inside, we find Aggy's helmet in the corner, revealing this to be his office, and  several notes are pinned to the wall. Aggy has been the one creating the  doppelgangers, which makes sense. Thanks to them, Lana deceived everyone  and was able to open the gate. But what did he mean by Lana is perfect? Cult leaders like this  always have ulterior motives, so what does her being perfect mean for him? Is it that she's the perfect  follower? The perfect bride? This has to be important. So I decided to look a little more  into Aggy, more specifically his name. And no, not just because it's hard to pronounce. This game has already used a  few words with deeper meaning, so I wondered if this would be the same for him. Turns out Agamemnon isn't just a random name. It comes from Greek mythology,  specifically the Trojan War. Agamemnon was leading an army to Troy by boat, and during the trip incurs the  wrath of the goddess Artemis. He's told that the only way to appease  her is to sacrifice his daughter. If he doesn't, then the army will  continue to suffer misfortune, most notably a plague, just like  the door to Aggy's room said. It asked what is coming,  and the answer was a plague. So if a plague is on the way, that would  mean that Aggy needs to sacrifice someone to appease whoever he angered, someone  that was perfect, someone like Lana. But then why bother with the doppelgangers? Well, in some versions of the myth, Agamemnon  tries to deceive Artemis with fake offerings, to trick her into thinking he killed  his daughter, but never really did. That is what the doppelgangers are for. If he can create one that is a perfect copy,  then he can sacrifice them and keep Lana alive. Is this guy actually a hero here? Trying to save humanity from a  plague and save Lana from her fate? Yeah, no. Another note in the fortress written by Aggy says, I need to create the perfect doppelganger. Lana will help me, and when all  is done, I will get rid of her. And there it is. Thanks to Lana, he can kill her, while also having   a perfect doppelganger that  has all of her influence, while also following his commands. He would have full control of the sawdad  and all of the users that are a part of it. At this point, I was feeling  pretty good about the story. It felt like we had a backstory, a motive, an  idea of where the story was moving towards. That was until I discovered this  note hiding behind the bookcase. It's so easy to manipulate those  that are blind to others' tactics. While I feel bad, I just remember that Lana,  the real one, is just a vessel that empowers me. Okay, so I guess he isn't going to sacrifice Lana? At first, I thought of the vessel as a  container, something that stores something else. And given my theorizing in the indie horror scene, I wondered if she was going to become  a vessel for someone else's soul. Maybe Aggy's daughter from the  Greek myth, or maybe Aggy himself, but it all just felt like too much of a stretch. Outside of the myth, there's been no mention of  a daughter or really anything to do with souls. But then I remembered that  vessel has another meaning. It can also be referencing a ship  like Agamemnon used to sail to Troy. Lana isn't going to contain Aggy's spirit. She's just the metaphorical ship that  he can use to escape this fortress. She's the one that opened the portal,  something he couldn't have done without her. And now she's going to empower him to escape. But how? Well, in one note, he says this. I consume the parts Lana gives me. My true form will be victorious. I just need more parts to fulfill me. We heard from Lana's diary that the missing  people had their eyes and limbs taken out. Well, this is where they went. Aggy is using them to create his true  form so that he can escape this dimension. On Lana's YouTube channel, a new video got  posted showing security footage of Aggy and Lana sacrificing the last KOTORi member, Nelly. But instead of sacrificing her at a  live event, Aggy unleashes a monster. We only catch glimpses of it, but it's a very tall   and misshapen humanoid body  covered in eyes and teeth. Aggy remarks to Lana, Was it not what you were expecting? No, Aggy, this is not what any of us were   expecting when you said you  were making your true form. I was expecting the most  chattified Roblox character ever,   but instead you went full Vita Carnis on me. But while that reveal was confusing  and a little disappointing,   there was another reveal in this moment. Lana, out of nowhere, feels regret. Nelly, I'm so sorry. In the live stream, she tried  to kill Nelly with zero remorse. But in this video, she's apologizing. Later on, Lana begins sacrificing  members of the Soudad group,   Horizon, a group filled with real Roblox users. But if you look around the room during the stream,   you can find some strange  text above the chamber door. Another Caesar cipher. And it says, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to do this to the  Horizon, but A made me do it. This feels like a big shift in her personality. Until now, she's been freely killing people. Anyone that rebelled against  Aggy liked the coterie easy. But now, Aggy requires innocent  people to be sacrificed. But suddenly, his hold on her began to fade. And then she released one final game. Sanagen's Gallery, which in  Swedish means gallery of truth. As soon as you start the game,  you are met with a list of rules. But the most important rule is  everything you see here is truth. Lana, the real Lana, is finally  giving us her side of things. No more doppelgangers, no more lies. Just her. There are a lot of photos of Lana in this gallery. But the deeper you go, you can  start to find plaques next to them. Lana, the one who tells the truth. The one you should trust. Lana, the real one. The one that isn't in the chair. Vessel, you'll meet her soon. Once innocent, pure, and serene. Most of these make sense. Lana is telling us the truth here. The Lana in the livestream chairs  has always been a doppelganger. And we've talked about how Lana is going  to be Aggy's mean of escape, his vessel. But what is this apple thing about? The quote about losing innocence matches  the Christian symbolism for apples. The fruit that was eaten by Adam and Eve from  the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that made them lose their innocence. However, we've spent a bit of time  looking at Greek mythology this episode. So I thought I'd have a look to see  if apples had any importance there. And oh boy, do they! Specifically, in the story  with our good friend Aggy. The Trojan War. The story began because Paris of Troy had  to choose who was the fairest goddess. Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite. He ends up choosing Aphrodite, but she actually   bribed him by offering him  Helen of Sparta as a bride. However, she was already married to  none other than Agamemnon's brother. Sending the two nations to war with each other. But the thing that forced Paris to choose  between the goddesses in the first place was a golden apple that had to  the fairest one inscribed upon it. It became known as the Apple of Discord. And if you take a look at the  badges for the Fortress game,   you'll find one called the Judgment of Paris. The same name given to the  start of this Greek myth. For Lana to be described here as an apple, it could be referencing her sowing  discourse amongst the community. The real Lana having regrets and  changing her mind is ruining Aggy's plan. But you know what? I'm gonna take a bit of a  swing here and say it's actually something bigger. If the apple is what caused Agamemnon to go to  war and endure all that suffering in the myth, what if Lana, as the apple here,   is somehow responsible for Aggy  being trapped in the first place? Aggy clearly doesn't care for Lana. He calls her a pawn in his game,   someone he's okay with getting rid  of once their usefulness has stopped. He even questions if she is perfect  when he's making the doppelgangers. He doesn't want to use her, but he has to. And looking back through the Fortress map,   you can find an apple on Aggy's  desk with an arrow going through it. He cannot help but telegraph his disdain  for her, and yet she is completely unaware. It would also be quite a poetic narrative, having the person who is somehow responsible for   getting him trapped there being  the only way that he can get out. It is a bit of a leap, I'll admit. But the leap from chapter 1 to 2 was also  quite big, so who knows with this series? But there you have it, theorists. After four months of waiting, we finally  have uncovered the law of dress to impress. The story of a girl fallen on hard  times, upset with her lot in life,   and sought help from a cult  that promised her the world. She was swayed by the charms of its leader,   who took her under his wing, using her to  make doppelgangers to deceive everyone. Sacrificing players to make his perfect  form and free him from his prison. Or at least, that's what I  think is happening right now. This game is still updating almost  daily, which is really impressive,   but as a little peek behind the theorist curtain, our scripts are usually written two to three  weeks before you guys ever see a video. So, when a game like this is updating so  often, it becomes nearly impossible to make   a theory that isn't gonna get debunked  just days after I finish recording. Hi, future Tom here. That  is exactly what happened. There weren't as many updates as I was expecting,   seems they're mainly waiting  for the Halloween update, but there was a livestream where  Lana clarified one crucial detail,   that we were wrong about her being the vessel. Turns out, the vessel is actually this fleshy   room that you can find hidden in  the corner of Dress to Impress, that the community has dubbed the Meat Room. I mean, we only thought that Lana  was this vessel because, you know,   she was literally referred  to as the vessel by Aggy. But, okay, if this room is the  vessel, what does that mean? Well, given all the references to the  Trojan War, I think this Meat Room,   this vessel, must have to be related  to the famous vessel from that story, the Trojan Horse. Something that was able to sneak the  Greeks into enemy territory and destroy it. This Meat Room is the vessel  that will transport Aggy from   the fortress into the world of Dress to Impress, into his enemy's territory,  where his true form will be   able to take revenge and destroy  everything, just like in the myth. But don't worry, Lana isn't totally useless now. In that weird Meat Room, a key has also been  added, one with the name Lana attached to it. So, while she may not be the actual  vessel, she's definitely the key to it. In Lana's latest YouTube video, she  shows the Dress to Impress world,   only now it's dark, red, covered  in eyes, and we see another portal. I could see Lana or her doppelgangers  doing one final sacrifice. One that will open up the portal and allow Aggy to   escape his prison through  the vessel, the Meat Room, and then he will be able to  enact his revenge and turn   the world into that hellscape we see in the video. The only other thing I'll note is that Lana  seems to have completely lost her sense of guilt, and is back to being fully gung-ho  about taking over Dress to Impress. Given her past changes like this, I  wouldn't be at all surprised if we   have another doppelganger on  our hands, just lying to us. So, who knows, maybe Lana will turn  out to be the vessel after all. But regardless, I think we can all  agree that this game is fascinating. I don't think anybody would have expected this  level of storytelling from a game like this. So, I tip my hat to you, developers, keep it up. I, for one, am very excited  to see where things go next. But in the meantime, remember,  it's all just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching. And if you've enjoyed uncovering the dark  secrets behind a seemingly innocent game, then you should definitely check out our  episode on the very disturbing Lacey Games. Step through the portal, theorists.