Dr. Neil Watts is one of the two playable characters in the Sigmund Corp. series alongside Dr. Eva Rosalene. He is Eva's partner at Sigmund Corporation. His official title at the company is Technician Specialist.
History[]
Early life[]
As told in Impostor Factory, Neil was born an only child to Quincy Reynard and Lynri Watts. He inherited a genetic disease from his mother, which causes him to experience intense episodes of pain. She passed away when he was young, having refused treatment while she was pregnant with him.
As a child, Neil used to go stargazing every year with his grandfather outside the city where he lived. He started drinking coffee to hide his sleeplessness from his disapproving mother.
He and Eva went to the same high school, and although he normally shunned people out of his life due to his illness, they became close. He followed Eva to work at Sigmund Corporation after he graduated.
Work at Sigmund Corporation[]
Neil has worked for the company for several years prior to the events of To the Moon. It is heavily implied in Impostor Factory that Neil's job choice was driven by his illness and legacy: his mother Lynri, a main protagonist in the game, was directly involved in the creation of the machine. Money may be a secondary motive, which he mentioned in Sigmund Minisode 1. His working partner, Eva Rosalene, may have helped him cheat through the company entrance exams, explaining why he sometimes appears incompetent.
In the job, he grows fond of the patients, as noted in To the Moon and the Sigmund Minisodes, especially John and River Wyles. He strives to improve the workings of the machine, modifying both its software and hardware on his own, even illegally testing it on Colin Reeds in Finding Paradise. He also seems to frequently find trouble in his job, though Eva often (unwillingly) helps him out of them.
Health[]
In Impostor Factory, Neil is shown to have inherited a rare genetic disease from his mother, Lynri Watts. He takes painkillers to relieve the intense periodic pain he experiences.
Both To the Moon and Finding Paradise have scenes showing him taking the painkillers, and lying to Eva about the reason he takes them.
Appearance[]
Neil is a young man with a medium skin tone and short, neat brown hair parted in the middle. He uses a pair of rectangular[1] glasses with reflective coating. He wears a double-breasted white overcoat with notched[1] lapels, four black buttons and a pocket on each side. He also dons a pair of brown shoes. In the character customization scene in Finding Paradise, he is revealed to wear black socks.
Personality[]
Neil is humorous, in contrast to Eva's character, and often makes jokes and various pop-culture references to lighten the mood throughout the games. Although often perceived as silly and childish, Neil can be serious in some situations. While not as perceptive of detail as Eva, he is still considerably intelligent and his creativity often helps whenever they have trouble advancing through memories.
In the job, Neil often appears careless and impulsive. For instance, in Finding Paradise, he blatantly tells Colin's family that he didn't care for paperwork. On the technical side, his colleague, Roxanne Winters, often notices issues in machine maintenance and fixes it for him. This is in line with the likelihood that he cheated through the company's entrance exams. Despite this, he is an ambitious programmer, and he likes to modify the machine and add new functionalities to it.
Neil has a secretive disposition, especially when it comes to his projects and personal life. One evidence is when Sarah and Tommy show Eva the "funny room" at the beginning of To the Moon, where Eva suggests that many rooms and/or cabinets in Neil's house are off-limits. When confronted about his secrets, Neil gets completely flustered: In Finding Paradise, when Roxanne starts to confront him about his machine, he falls silent until Robert Lin walks in and Roxanne resumes her normal attitude. His reluctance to share sometimes makes him come off as rude towards his co-workers.
According to the ending of Impostor Factory, his secrecy and obnoxiousness is a way for him to cope with his illness, to keep the atmosphere light, and to prevent others from getting too close to him and getting burdened by the direness of his situation. One prominent example of this in action is Neil's response to Eva's curiosity regarding him taking painkillers in To the Moon - he lies to her and even tries to crack a joke despite the circumstances.
Despite having a callous attitude towards Johnny and River's lives early on and insisting on finishing the job and getting paid, Neil later becomes attached to them; he ends up vehemently opposing Eva's efforts to apparently remove River from most of Johnny's memories, insisting that the point of the wish is lost in her method of achieving it.
Neil seems to have a mild resentment towards children, particularly those who are immature or stupid. In To the Moon, he harasses Johnny's teenage self when he is about to ask River out, as well as at the theatre. At the beginning of Finding Paradise, when the player chooses Neil to help with Potato and Amber's situation, he picks up Amber's doll and throws it into the pond, making Amber cry and cheering Potato up. Inside Colin's memory, when Colin keeps failing to throw his paper plane towards Faye, he comments that Colin has no respect for the laws of physics.
Neil is strongly suggested to have acrophobia, an irrational fear of heights, when he and Eva teleport onto the roof of the lighthouse in To the Moon. In Finding Paradise, he reveals that it doesn't apply inside a plane.
Relationships[]
Eva Rosalene[]
- Main article: Eva Rosalene
Eva is Neil's working partner at Sigmund Corporation. They have known each other for a long time, at least since high school, as shown at the start of To the Moon and in the ending of Impostor Factory.
In the series, Eva is mentioned to have gotten him out of trouble in multiple occasions. According to To the Moon and Impostor Factory, she helped him cheat through Sigmund Corporation entrance exams. Another example is one scene in Sigmund Minisode 1 where she tells him she has saved him from getting fired more often than she had liked.
It is hinted that he cares deeply for Eva and may be romantically interested in her. At the launching scene, Neil slides closer to Eva and attempts to put his hand on her shoulder, but she swats his arm and he retreats. He also expresses anger when Eva tells him to leave during the destabilization of the system, refusing to leave her behind to get hurt or killed on her own, and calling her a moron for playing "hero". He later sheepishly takes it back after the danger has passed.
Despite his fondness of her, he never told Eva directly about his feelings. In Impostor Factory, it is mentioned that he fears that others would get too close to him. He knows he has less time due to his illness, and he doesn't want to burden someone else with the knowledge.
Family[]
Neil's family history is a major theme in Impostor Factory, where his parents, Quincy Reynard and Lynri Watts, are introduced as the game's main characters. His grandparents from Lynri's side are Bill and Naomi Watts, while those from his father's side died when Quincy was still young. He has no other known relatives, one reason being that neither Quincy nor Lynri seem to have siblings.
Quincy Reynard[]
- Main article: Quincy Reynard
Quincy is Neil’s father and sole parent since Neil's mother, Lynri, died when he was very young. Sigmund Minisode 2 suggests that their relationship is distant at best. In the minisode, which takes place at Christmas Eve, Neil repeatedly tries to call one of his parents, which can be inferred to be Quincy, as his mother has already passed away. However, Neil keeps hanging up, unable to speak. The fact that Neil attempts contact at that time of the year suggests that he is regretful of their distance. Quincy initially doesn’t recognize the caller, indicating that they have been out of touch for a very long time. However, he does eventually realize who it is, as he asks, “Is that you, Neil. . . ?”
Lynri Watts[]
- Main article: Lynri Watts
Lynri is Neil's mother who passed away due to her rare genetic condition. She was pregnant with Neil when the disease began its onset, and she decided to delay treatment so Neil didn't have to be born prematurely, resulting in her own death. In Impostor Factory, it is stated that Neil strives to continue his mother's legacy, her work on developing early prototypes of the Memory Editor. Prior to the release of Impostor Factory, his mother is referenced only once: in To the Moon, when Neil recounts his time stargazing with his grandfather, Bill Watts, to Eva, in which Lynri would disapprove of them going out late at night.
Neil's machine[]
In Sigmund Minisode 2, Neil is shown to be in possession of a version of the memory machine that seems to be designed for self-use. He appears to be extremely careful not to let anyone find out — he even hides it behind his cabinet when he goes out of his office to restore the power, in spite of knowing nobody else is supposed to be inside the building. It has less physical features than the original machine, and is operated through Neil's computer instead of its own built-in keyboard. He seems to have been working on it for some time. It is hinted that at some point, Eva finds out about the machine, as she is seen using it at the post-credits scene.
In Finding Paradise, Roxanne Winters discovers that the machine Neil brought to the job is unauthorized. It is plausible that this machine is the same one shown in the minisode, although there is no indication of it. The new machine looks more like the one used in To the Moon, the only difference being the patient's helmet, whose casing has been removed. When Eva asks Neil about this, he gives no answer. During the traversal, Eva notices that the machine didn't correct inconsistencies in the memories' environment. When inspecting the machine, Roxanne finds some technical issues, including the fact that Neil has removed the machine's stabilizer. She notes that it can cause unexpected things to happen with patients like Colin, whose imaginary friend, Faye, is very sentient. Perhaps with the stabilizer removed, the user has more control over the environment inside the memories, although the purpose of which isn't certain.
Trivia[]
- There are unused To the Moon sprites where Neil doesn't wear glasses, showing his green eyes.[2]
- In the To the Moon 2 joke trailer, Neil is shown to keep his glasses in his pyjamas' chest pocket while sleeping.
- Neil's ringtone is the opening theme song from Quintessence: The Blighted Venom, another game from Freebird Games.
- Neil's glasses are coated with extra-reflective material because he likes the way it shields his eyes from strangers.[3]
Gallery[]
