[Sorry this comment is so long lol]
Just finished the game, I still have to fully process what happened throughout the game but just WOAH this game is good! I downloaded this game in 2020 and got stuck just before you enter Ollie's house and then got back to it, starting back from the beginning, this year. I must say this is one of the best games I have played. I believe this game is really well made on basically every aspect of it.
The music is amazing and its sound design is REALLY unsettling at times which is perfect, the gameplay is literally the simplest it can get, which allows you to get fully immersed in the story, the gameplay does not get boring in the slightest in my opinion. I always found myself looking at every object just to find out more about Jon and his life and another aspect that I adore in this game is the visual design with some of the most psychologically scary stuff I have seen out there: the faces on walls, the mild gore, distorted figures, glitches, you name it and this game has it. Of course the story is also amazing: I was so intrigued by it and always wanted to know more about Jon, about Ollie, about their friendship and if Jon's mental health was ever going to get better. This is mostly what got me through the most unsettling parts. I wanted to know more about Jon’s family; information which I got throughout the game and is some of the most dark stuff in this game. I wanted to know whether Jon had some bright moments ahead of him, I wanted to listen to more of Jon and Ollie’s philosophical talks about orange juice and dreams
On a more "philosophical" level I guess, this game has a lot of meaning I feel. I always felt like the therapy sessions as transitions had something more to them than just being a transition between chapters and the ending I got proved my suspicions right: therapy wasn't really the right choice for Jon and that "therapist" wasn't actually a good influence. Some chapters have a pretty clear meaning to them but some others I am not sure about, for example, Chapter 3, the Museum Chapter has a clear meaning portraying Jon's fear of being at the centre of attention, on the other hand others are way more abstract like, for example, the Maze Chapter. Overall I find this game really abstract and metaphorical, the majority of it being inside of a dream; this allows you to really reflect on the character’s conditions, on the world we live in and on society. This game sometimes has an almost nihilistic approach to the world, that nothing actually matters, (which is really fitting with the depression related themes in the game) which I find really interesting and new from a storytelling standpoint in video games.
The ending gave some good insight on Jon’s future: him sitting down just like at the start of the game where he felt overwhelmed by the world and his routine but this time he was followed by Ollie who sat down next to him to provide comfort when he was at an all time low, presumably leaving his therapy sessions behind and falling into a spiral of self hatred and guilt. I feel this is a really well made and poetic way to end the game, acknowledging how Jon is still struggling but now there is someone alongside him to help him out.
I don’t know if someone will actually read through this since it’s so long but I really love this game in its entirety: I could actually write a whole essay on this. And Demensa if you read this, thank you so much for making this Masterpiece and Work of Art.