I love a spiral, and this one hits deep. I have seen a lot of men in my life go down this path, or express these exact feelings, but I struggle to relate. It's heart-wretching to be put in the position of experiencing it, and I think that I have a better understanding now than I did before.
This game is so emotionally open and intimate that I worry to use regular game language to refer to its part, but here we go:
Spoilers - After playing the first part, I actually went to press the "new game" button again, so that I could read it a second time more in depth, savour it more, only to be surprised by a second section. I think that this moment was so wonderful, because I wanted to revisit that time from before, but of course, to my discomfort, it was long gone. By the end, after finishing the game, I clicked continue 5 or so times, just to make sure there was no chance I could miss anything more, and it really settled into my mind just how tragic this cycle had been, that the protagonist, in fear of becoming the burden that his older self was, isolates himself entirely from the player.
I desperately want to go back and read it all again, and feel like that is exactly how I should feel now that it is over....