[This review was written in Oct 2023]
Oh wow. This is one of those games that are must plays. Much like outer wilds (my favourite game of all time), this game makes you think. What is has to say about fate and approaching your future truly spoke to me. As I am currently transferring from school life to life into university and adulthood, this game made me think about what was important to me, and how I should approach my future, cherishing every moment I get with not only my family, but myself. Only gripe with this is how it is ultimately a walking sim with very minimal captivating gameplay, a creative walking sim, but a walking sim nonetheless.

quick summary of the review: story is good, there are parts i REALLY dont like, and the gameplay makes sense except for the main part of it where it really sucks

uhhh backloggd spoiler filter GO
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okay thats probably enough
im gonna start off real quick by saying although the story is pretty good, there are a few story beats that make you go "really?" or just make you feel like it's really unrealistic
the whole psychiatrist letter with lewis just felt really forced to me, like i dont think in any world would a psychiatrist write a letter like that then mail it to the mother of their patient (who just committed suicide)
it feels like it wouldve made way more sense for it to be split across multiple letters, instead of one really detailed "heres why your son killed himself" letter
also just the idea that edith, at 17 years old and pregnant, would decide that going to the house and doing things like climbing rock climbing walls and crawling around secret tunnels and shit is worth the risk also just feels entirely unrealistic, both from a "would a pregnant person do that?" angle and a "could a pregnant person do that without throwing up?" angle
ive read some people say that its probably intentionally risky for her because of the whole "curse? or massively unnecessary risk-taking by the entire family?" debate and edith's actions is just proof of the latter
but i think thats dumb! this is my opinion
as for the rest of the story i think it's all pretty good and although the whole cycle of learning about a person before immediately learning about their death got a little tiring, it all helped paint a really interesting bigger picture when taking it all into account along with the other things revealed in the game (the curse and the history of the family and whatnot)

speaking of painting, i think i may be alone in thinking that the whole "unfinished swan" connection is kind of ass
like the whole "he became the king" thing feels forced (there are inconsistencies in the unfinished swan that contradict this game), it ruins the mystery (because if he can just magically become an omnipotent king then of course there's a curse on the family) and ultimately it shouldn't have been confirmed as "canon" in any way and just left as a fun "haha what if" as an extension to the already existing reference in milton's room (and potentially depending on how you interpret it, the circumstances of his disappearance)

anyways none of this makes the story bad, just kind of spits on an otherwise really interesting experience and story

gameplay!!!!!
i cant really say if any of it was bad or good because in some strange way you could call this a collection of minigames where the quality of each game doesn't really matter considering any lack of quality could be considered a part of the story
i will say though the interstitial gameplay parts are kinda badly designed
like movement can just be really annoying, especially when there are areas where if you move towards a thing, you're forced into an action you probably didn't want to do
like slowly crawling into and out of a box! multiple times! or slowly entering/exiting a room! multiple times! or slowly looking into a peephole! multiple times!
this all could've been very easily prevented by just making it a button/click prompt, like several other things in the game are
also some actions have this weird interactivity to them where moving the mouse causes the action to happen or unhappen
so like turning a page in a book is like
swipe the mouse right to turn the page, OR swipe the mouse left to... unturn the page
sometimes this backs you entirely out of the action, and other times it just awkwardly puts you on the first frame of the animation until you move the mouse to the right, where you can then swipe your mouse back and forth to make the animation repeat multiple times which was honestly pretty funny and i did it every single time
it also kind of messes with the mood of the game but that may have just been my own fault
there were also a couple instances where there was just way too much swiping needed to complete the action
like i wonder what part of the game design process resulted in this swiping mechanic because it's implementation is so weird that it doesn't feel immersive at all, while also feeling entirely unnecessary for the majority of the game
it's bad! is it worse than quicktime events? no

other stuff!!!!!
the artstyle of this game is pretty good, i liked it, except for the weird family photographs that all just looked really off for some reason
also the very few moments where we see a person in their entirety reveals that apparently their main 3d modeler kind of sucked at humans
i mean apparently its this guy and he made this after the game released and
yeah it makes sense why he's a prop designer now (just my opinion!!! he is very skilled!!!!)
imo if you're gonna have a very emotional game like this, you should probably hide the achievements until after the player has finished a playthrough because i ABSOLUTELY was focused more on getting the achievements than on the actual story being told in some places


thats it!!! this was NOT a puzzle game
do NOT go into this hoping for puzzles (like i did)
if you want a game thats like this but with puzzles, you can probably find something similar on my list!
or just play the unfinished swan
that has puzzles

To get my biggest gripe out of the way - I went into this thinking it was some mind-bending game laden with twists, making you really think how each plot element would work itself into one another. That was not the case at all here, but I didn't realize until near the end. That’s also not the fault of the game or developers - it's solely on me, the player, for affecting how I would view the story.

This is just a simple story about a girl named Edith discovering and coming to terms with the deaths of every member of her family, most of them who she hadn't even met - in fact, many of them die before Edith is even born. "What Remains of Edith Finch" is essentially a walking simulator with the many different types of gameplay and mechanics thrown in throughout to aid in the storytelling. The setting is beautiful, whimsical, and cozy, while also possessing a feeling of ominousness and dread.

Overall, it's a good game that can be beat in one sitting (2-3 hours), and that short length lends to its replayability.

What Remains of Edith Finch is a very charming narrative experience. It isn't anything exceptional or groundbreaking, but it's very enjoyable and a well-enough written storyline combined with some captivating visuals. A very fun magical realism experience that would feel almost equally as fun on Netflix as it does on console.

I've spent some time with Annapurna games in the past, and Edith Finch has the same set dressings and trimmings. Having played Maquette early on in 2021, you can see many of the same aspects in What Remains of Edith Finch. But thankfully, What Remains of Edith Finch is a much better gaming experience than Maquette was. Unfortunately, that's because What Remains of Edith Finch is a far less interactive gaming experience.

Ultimately, you walk through mostly linear areas interacting only with exactly what the game allows you to. You'll finish the game in about two hours just by walking through and clicking/pushing x. It's a fun ride in the process though. You go by and allow the story to happen to you. And it's a good story. It's quite cute, with nice little twists. None too hard to see coming but still feel engaging when you figure out where it's heading before it tells you. A family riddled with bad luck, or a self-fulfilling prophecy, sees many of its family members die. You return to a mansion as a 17 year old girl and the last remaining living member of your family. Each room in the mansion is a shrine dedicated to a deceased member of the family and you're going to reveal how they all met untimely ends.

It's dark and morbid and surreal and heartfelt. It shares with you the lives of the Finches and what it meant to be a member of this family over the century. You feel connections to characters you never directly meet, knowing that you will never truly meet them. And it's still satisfying to consume.

I found myself disappointed by the lack of any real gameplay. You do nothing other than push a single button or two. You never solve any puzzles. You never have to make any real choices or even pretend choices. You just traipse through the game as it happens to you. But it's so well written, so well voice-acted and so well orchestrated that the experience is thoroughly enjoyable all its own. I wish there was more of a game in here. But I am very happy with what I've gotten anyway. I just couldn't help but think that with just a /tad/ more to it this game could've been an absolute all-timer.