(spoilers ahead)
"Now I'm 22, stressed about work, and upset that he's ignoring me."
In my friend circles, I’m infamous for being able to connect almost anything to a Taylor Swift lyric. It’s both my gift, my curse and undeniably annoying to everyone else. While I was playing this game, one lyric kept looping in my head: "How can a person know everything at 18 but nothing at 22?"
I feel like, in a lot of ways, "Left on read" perfectly encapsulates that feeling: 22 is such a weird, in-between age. It's right at the cusp of your adulthood, typically right when you're finishing college and getting a new job, and the whole world simultaneously feels so unimaginably vast and crushingly small. You feel lost, you feel some measure of hopelessness, and sometimes small problems feel ten times worse just because they're coupled with that intense uncertainty of adapting to the world when you're just becoming an adult. That, coupled with the complexities, pains and joy of the queer experience, can undoubtedly make everything feel so much more difficult.
Everything is changing, and you're expected to keep up while figuring out who you are.
Yearning for the simplicity of childhood. Longing for the freedom of your teenage years. Fearing change even while craving it, those are all experiences I found myself deeply relating throughout the game. I was very taken by the descriptiveness of the scenes and those little glimpses at the main character's struggles, even in such a short game.
I understood why they were left on read for so long. Even if Eiran’s reasoning felt a little silly at first, by the end of his explanation, my heart ached for him— for all the things he didn't know how to say and his fears of, not only being rejected but being rejected for the one thing that makes him Eiran.
It was such a vulnerable scene, and I was so happy we got to see such sweet and hopeful conclusion, where this one change was a vehicle for good.
Maybe they're both a little lost, but they can find their way together.
Wonderous work. I loved it, and I loved the art, character designs and the character maker a lot. Hope to see more soon!