Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags
(+1)(-1)

Really interesting game with, I think, some very important messages. This is the kind of game that I think it's genuinely valuable for people to play; it's even entirely possible that it will save some lives, by the improved awareness it raises in its players. [spoilers ahead] 

It's kind of brilliant how the game at first just seems to be some kind of lighthearted romantic story, or at most like this "goth gf" is going to turn out to have some personal issues that need working out; and that makes the sudden turn with your roommate hit you completely off guard, which is the perfect way of evoking in the player the emotions of how sudden and devastating an impact suicide can have on everyone around the victim. I can see an argument that it's kind of unfair the way it's basically impossible to catch your roommate's issues on the first issue even if you're trying to pay attention to anything, since you can't do anything without stepping away from your computer in the middle of your conversation (which there are no hints to do and which is kind of awkward with the interface); but I think that lends to the point of how hard (and maybe sometimes impossible) it can be to catch the warning signs of suicidal thoughts. 

Honestly, when that dream sequence started at the start of my second playthrough I was expecting this to turn out to be game like "One Chance" where if you try to start a new game it just puts you back into the ending where she's already dead, emphasizing that there are no second chances after someone dies; and that might have been effective, but allowing you to go again and talk to your roommate and help save her by listening to her and supporting her DOES send a more proactive sort of message about how you CAN reach out to people in that sort of situation, which is probably a more important lesson to put out into the world. 

If I have one criticism, it's that it's a little TOO easy to get your roommate to confide in you and to help her out once you actually talk to her, and that some the dialogue in the good endings is kind of cheesy and a little too saccharine.  That, combined with the ability to replay after getting the bad ending and change things to a happy outcome, makes the good endings feel more like a bit of dreamy wish fulfillment than like reality; however, if this really was based on true experiences, and for anyone who's really had to deal with someone they know committing suicide... I can completely understand wanting to include the chance to end on a bit of cheerful wish fulfillment, rather than the dark finality of reality.

(1 edit) (+5)(-1)

I don't really think that's a fair criticism, as someone who suffers from suicide ideation and has attempted multiple times: Most people don't want to die. Most people want to be heard. Most of us will grasp at any "sign" that we shouldn't do it that we can. I don't think she opened up too quickly, that's like, fair to how a lot of us handle it. The road to recovery isn't as quick and easy as the good ending made it out to be, but it makes sense for the game that it is.

And as someone who lost a very close friend to suicide, maybe the dialogue is saccharine, maybe it is a bit head-in-the-clouds, but god, did it feel good to play through. Because I wasn't there. And I couldn't stop it. And it was really nice to have the opportunity to.