'Dark Water' is a fascinating surreal dramatic story about isolation, introspection, and communication between characters of two completely different worldviews. What intrigues me about this work is how it's a very simple and effective it is with it's presentation, yet manages to conjure a story so wildly fantastical, but somehow relatable. Just how can someone be able to make a connection with someone so alien to them, have nothing in common, yet the connection be so strong, that the loss of that connection is enough to drive someone to a desperate end. This is a story about stagnation, impossible dreams, and despair.
The story follow an angler fish. Said angler fish exists like angler fish do, luring prey with it's light and eating them, but confined to the depths of the ocean, has never seen the sun, save for the singular time it saw the sun when it was born. The angler fish finds a phone. The phone lets it talk with a wolf in a forest, practically in another world away from the depths of the ocean. The two talk, about life, about each other, about what it means to want something that would destroy you, and the value of friendship and connections with other persons. The wolf having a more cold logic, the angler having warm skepticism. Despite how much the wolf seems to dislike having to deal with the angler, they stay on the line because they're curious. The angler, somewhat hurt by the coldness of the wolf, still stays on the line because it's a portal to a wider world than one he knows, that there is hope, that while he may not be in the sun, he can go other places than the emptiness of the ocean floor. While the wolf says he is not a friend, to someone so alone, even that is enough. Yet, when tragedy strikes, he's attacked by a luminous eel/fish, the phone is broken, severing his connection to the surface world. With no way to repair it, and with no knowledge of how to obtain another one, or even if he were able to find the wolf again, he swims to the surface, to see the sun, even if doing so would end in his demise. It's a profoundly tragic story, and one that such a minimalist and unassuming visual novel is surprising to find within it. It makes one reflect upon oneself and how they can relate to the angler fish. I interpret it through the lens of the phone, and through long distance communication with others you just randomly find online. How much we take for granted that we are able to forge these connections, how there are going to be such stark cultural reference points similar to the angler and the wolf. How a phone can offer a portal to a place that is a beacon of hope, a wider world that while may never be reached, the knowledge that it exists and the potential to go there is never zero percent.
The presentation is quite effective, with it mostly being a dark swirl of colors of the ocean depths, the way that lights cut through it. Even more noticeable when it goes from dark colors to pure black. The art is pretty cute too, with it being a surprise when the cell phone pops up with the reflection of the angler fish guy. Or the jump scares when the fight breaks out with the eel/fish and even in the beginning when the angler also eats another fish guy. In a way, I almost thought it was going to go in a vore-istic direction, but really, it's to punctuate how even before the discovery of the phone, angler was simply doing what would he would be the victim of later in the story, never giving thought about the lives the fish he eats. Even more punctuating how he himself also just gets drawn to light sources, when it could easily become a trap and he'd be dinner too. The writing is surprisingly descriptive, with a lot of variety when it comes to prose. Going from punchy short descriptions to experience the intensity of a situation to the long drawn out conversations between the characters.
The folklore was a little bit on the weaker side, presenting itself as the angler fish making up their own folk lore tales about what the sun is and anything he could do to keep those feelings alive. In a way he was creating folklore, but I feel since it was so internal, it's hard to also convey the part about folklore being that it should be shared. This story is crazily creative, with quite a few ways you could interpret the text, going for the surface reading or trying to see it as more of an allegorical sense. Would never have thought that I would be so enamored by the plight of an angler fish. The writing almost coming off as poetic. Even that one moment where it looked like the angler fish had a choice, but it cut off so quickly that it even denies you that choice. Such a tragic story that once his phone was broken they even tore off their own light, it wasn't enough.
For a first showing by GatoRon, I'm pleasantly surprised by how much heart this visual novel had. There was enough polish in the art and the over all design that was really efficient use of the limited art assets. I will say that the dialog between the wolf and the angler fish started to get a bit verbose as the philosophical discussion seemed to drag on. I did like how it was interrupted by interesting tense moments, like the wolf having to get out of the sun or the angler getting attacked, since if these things didn't happen, it would be a lot of quiet moments and bordering on getting bored with the narrative. There's also a lot of mystery as to what exactly is happening, but I think with the way this story is presented, I didn't think about it that much, since end up hand-waving a lot of the justification for the premise, so I continued to do that when it came to the logistics of how this world works. If that wasn't the intention, then finding a way to ground it would need to be more of a priority in the intro. Overall, it was a charmingly dark and moving piece of writing, and I feel like I'm seeing a lot of technical skill here that would easily translate to other genres. Looking forward to more from this developer/author.