"I'm so glad you got to be old."
This is an absolutely gorgeous game - len never fails to deliver on making games that are poetic, aesthetic, and sweetly sentimental. (Thank you for giving me the chance to proof the script!)
The slow pan from the starry sky to the field of yellow flowers is gorgeous and suits the nostalgic, yet melancholic vibe of the game so well. The BGM - the haunting violin and guitar - sets the mood of the game perfectly, with its wistful beauty. I love the way the text box was set up as well - with the flowers on either side, sitting the text within the flower field. It's very immersive and, at the same time, easy to read/aesthetic, with the slight purple outline for the text. Len's writing is poetic as always, with Paulo's monologue reading more like a (love) letter to Oddie than spoken words. The VAs did an absolutely fantastic job - their voices fit the characters and their sentimental delivery fits the lines well.
====MINOR SPOILERS BELOW (the game is short, you should really just play it====
I really love this vision of the afterlife - not a dark place, but one with beautiful mountains and flowers and a sky full of stars. And yet there's something melancholic about the fact that Paulo can't appreciate these things - he merely sits and waits for his friend to arrive. He doesn't regret his life, and he's at peace with it. But something within him doesn't want to be forgotten - not by the world, but by his dearest friend. Paulo's feelings are sweet and sympathetic - he is glad that Odysseus got to live a full life, and something in him believes that Odysseus doesn't belong here, in death - but he longs to see him all the same. (The reveal that Oddie is, in fact, Odysseus adds quite a bit of nuance to this story as well - since we as the audience KNOW how many adventures that Odysseus went through after Paulo's presumed death during the war. And the idea that Paulo has been waiting all this time, unable to move on - makes him seem even more lonely. Part of me wishes that Paulo had moved on, but part of me is also appreciative of his loyalty and glad that he stayed.)
At the end, it's a bit ironic that, at first, Paulo doesn't recognize Odysseus after waiting for him for so long. Yet it also makes sense - at this point, Odysseus has lived a full life, long past when he was friends with Paulo. He's an old man, not exactly how Paulo remembers. I kind of wonder if - at this point - Odysseus is a different person, and not the friend that Paulo once knew. I don't think there is an easy answer for this question, so the open-ended nature of the ending is fitting. It leaves the player to come up with their own conclusion - does Oddie remember Paulo, or not?
Overall, this was really fantastic! (May Oddie and Paulo date in their next life...)