: Tough to say. I never did really get that story. I thought it was just there
: to add a creative substory to MInf. Perhaps there's some really, really,
: REALLY deeply nested symbolism in it. In fact, that's very probable. Has
: anyone ever taken a deep look into those stories?
I took 'em as a look into your character's mind during the game. I look at it this way: he's died, been reassembled and reprogrammed as a cyborg, been teleported up and down the Core - ALWAYS into combat situations (never into something peaceful and pleasant), and (by that point in the series) has an alien implant that allows him to or is causing him to travel through time and space. He has NOT been having a fun time over the course of the game - hence the images of constantly running and being hounded by shadowy, mysterious figures in an ever-more complex maze. The only way out is to turn and fight, to draw that knife, but that just leads him deeper into the maze.
In fact, the "dream" levels may not literally be dreams. It seemed to me that the Jjaro device was being operated by him subconsciously - when events go too far in a direction, he tries to escape and the device picks up on that and teleports him into another timeline. The dreams may be really strange alternate universes that he's been transported to - reflecting his own inner turmoils - which is why he can die within them, and why they look like really twisted versions of the landscapes he's seen within the game.
Not sure what "durability" means, though.
