After completing this game I am at a cross-roads of being at a loss for words and having so much to convey. To start, the visuals of this game are breathtaking. The mixed media in this game give it texture, it feels like each and every scene is brushing against my skin, if i like it or not. Some scenes while visually soft, were sharp and uncomfortable, while scenes with dark visuals and literal fire felt comforting. All the characters were memorable yet unmemorable in their normalcy, people you would see every day but that wouldn't be stuck in your mind and i mean that in the best way.
The music was haunting truly. There was a certain song (I won't spoil it) during a pivotal scene between two characters that made me feel sick to my stomach. It was amazing.
I want to touch on the story. While reading the best way I can describe how I felt was foggy. Like when you just woke up from a nap that was only meant to be an hour but ended up being six. I felt so out of control as everything unraveled in front of me. I had a lag with the characters, they all knew everything seconds before I did and as I tried to catch up with them their relationships evolved and digressed right in front of my eyes. I could never quite find them before they were gone, leaving me feeling like I lost something just as they did.
[potential spoilers from this point on]
Alba's narrations filled me with dread (affectionate). Her outlook on her situation as so bleak yet she was the only one who saw the situation for what it was: hopeless. That is what made her relationship with Jinny all the more heart wrenching. Every time a scene between those two came up I would sigh, knowing that it was once more, hopeless. While never having experienced a relationship like that, I could relate deeply to her clinging on to a long gone expectation of another person and her intense obsession and longing for someone who left a long time ago ad perhaps that she never had.
Erica was for sure the most confusing (affectionate again) character for me. I felt like Alba when she spoke: disconnected. I couldn't understand how she felt and what her metaphors meant and it made me frustrated. All through out the story she resented change until it was finally upon her and she accepted it. Perhaps I can't relate to such easy acceptance and that is what made me so confused about her feelings. Perhaps I was never meant to know.
Nicole was my favorite. A people pleaser through and through, an obsession with being perceived and appreciated and most of all: Needed. Her need to be needed felt so real. She is so naive and immature yet she was one of the most present characters, and in my opinion the only character who had a semblance of a grip on the truth. She didn't lie to herself and others, and while perhaps that may have been her downfall in a sense, it is what drew me to her as a character. She sat with me the most after I finished the game.
[no more spoilers]
I am genuinely so impressed with this game. Having been able to see the process of making it could not have prepared me for the beauty and memorability that this story would hold.
I loved it.