I TOLD YOU I WOULD PLAY THIS THE DAY MY SISTER LEFT MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
GUHHHHHHH
I'm left with so many feelings after playing through. Particularly as dream-like drone of theme music continues to play in my ear LOL
This was... SO MUCH. Gosh. I'm kinda left here just like... thinking about everything and trying to wrap my head around everything, because there was just SO MUCH IN HERE and SO MUCH OF IT DID THINGS TO MY HEART and then in the next moment after I thought I had recovered THERE WOULD BE SOMETHING ELSE and it just kept BUILDING and that freaking MUSIC WOULD JUST KEEP HUMMING IN MY HEAD LIKE IT WAS TRYING TO TAKE ME TO ONEIRON LADKJFASD
Ok let me try to actually be more coherent LOL
First off, particularly as I just played LGBT only a few weeks ago so it was still quite fresh in my head, I found this absolutely lovely now getting to learn more about Meredith and her whole... side of things (at least a bit). ALSO LIKE IT STARTED TO EXPLAIN AND ANSWER SO MANY OF THE LITTLE QUESTIONS I HAD LEFT OVER AFTER LGBT???? This made me incredibly excited right off the bat, like jumping into this little behind-the-scenes interlude and getting to dive even deeper into the lore (and all its dark secrets laksdjfs).
Also I LOVE LOVE LOVE BLYTHE. So many of their own thoughts and like, just kinda the way they would explain or think about things resonated with me a lot. I loved them to bits. And ofc I loved Meredith, too. I really loved seeing this new look into her and her interactions beyond what we saw in LGBT. Her opening up. Showing insecurities and tumult and just like, so much emotion?? Ok I realize Meredith is not exactly someone you'd call an "emotional person" LOL but I felt like the way you handled her here, with so much subtlety in her careful words and how she'd step back from the convo for a bit, etc., was just really effective. Like even though it wasn't "emotional" from what you'd normally expect from someone quite emotive, to me who saw Meredith in LGBT I thought it was great and a really well done approach to her character and interactions.
The dynamic between these two in general was SO GOOD UGHHHHHHHHHHH. Like. The back and forths. Opening up some but then you can tell other parts are being held back. The gradual build. The acerbic ripostes. The way you can tell that Meredith cares so so much but also how you can tell that others wouldn't be able to tell that because of how she carries herself. Blythe's overly-observant commentary. AND LMAO I LAUGHED SO HARD WHEN BLYTHE BROUGHT UP THE ROOMMATES MEME HELPPPPPPPPPPPP. Had to pause reading for a second because actual tears in my eyes LOL.
I found so much of the lore and further explanation and depth into Oneiron to be absolutely fascinating. And the idea of convergence!! I went back and forth between being somewhat terrified every time it was mentioned to then by the end being like... on a similar wavelength to Blythe where like, yeah, if you can't actually be who you want to be in all aspects of your life, is life really worth living?? Especially as someone who finds it so hard to talk about... many of these similar issues... out loud with other people, even friends and family, let alone strangers, I could completely vibe with Blythe and their thought processes. I would also want to just be able to like... do it myself... even if it took time and effort and was risky as all hell. Like. I wouldn't be able to not do it at some point, especially in Blythe's shoes where they did get to experience what it's like to actually be everything they know they truly are in the dream world and then have to come back to reality... guh. Just. Brought out a lot of thoughts in me.
I keep rambling on about the story and chars and dialogue (because they were all fantastic) but the rest of the game was ALSO fantastic. THE MUSIC???? HELLO????? I love how it was the same theme (from what I could tell most / all of the time(?)) but just given different remixes for lack of a better word. It really tied everything together so well. From the dreamy drone of the main version, to the softer more introspective version in some of the poignant moments, TO THEN THE INTENSE ONE WHENEVER THE VIBE GOT REALLY INTENSE???? (that one always made my heart start to pick up LMAO). Absolutely in love with the sheer aesthetic it gave to the whole game and vibe.
AND THE ART WAS ABSOLUTELY LOVELY AS WELL. Both Meredith's and Blythe's sprites were delightful, and the dark, rich background really brought a sense of heavy weightiness to everything. I could feel right away that we were in some kind of weighty, dark, manor with a lot of history behind it, a kind of pristine but cold "prestige" dripping off everything. I also really loved how the last bit with them hugging shot to the close-up of the portrait and how it ended. Just a really neat choice of scene direction there to bring everything to a close.
GOD.
I need to perhaps stop rambling a bit as I feel like I'm just word vomiting onto the comment box now. But this was honestly so so so great. I feel like with every game of yours I play, I learn more and more and more about this dark and surreal yet tantalizingly colorful world and I can't get enough of it lkdajfasd OH ALSO THE GLOSSARY FEATURE WAS REALLY REALLY COOL??? I forgot to mention it alkdjfads
ANYWAY SORRY FOR RAMBLING. FANTASTIC GAME. LOVED EVERY SECOND.
Oh also also sobbing a little bit when I started up the game it automatically loaded my save data file from LGBT in one of the save slots?? 🤣