I played the game because I wanted to be ready for Dragon's Dogma 2 and well now I surely am. I was already going to buy DD2 anyway but now seeing what the game might offer is incredible. I know the game underwent a lot of cut content and that basically DD2 will be what DD1 was supposed to be and I'm really down for it. So yeah, the game feels like a draft but a really good one ! Story wise the game is really not great but I don't really mind, introduction, ending and true ending are really great so for a 2012 game it's more than what I expected. The best part of the game is the gameplay and the ability to mount on big ennemies, it's really cool to attack your ennemies on their weak spot and win a fight against higher level ennemies. It's a really strong base and I can't wait to see how DD2 improved every aspect of the game !

I don't think I've ever played a game as confident as SeaBed. It shoots snippets of its casts life at us with no attempt at dramatisation, no over the top character traits or wacky standout designs to catch our eye; its simply content in allowing the player to float on the surface of its storytelling, with the choice to dive deeper firmly their own—a choice I'm sure it knows many will not make.

This approach does afford SeaBed quite a few benefits, however. It's subtlety allows it to effortlessly evoke places and people in your mind: the bustling streets of foreign countries, a beautiful night sky with a loved one, even simple conversations become surprisingly memorable. It's wonderfully fitting soundtrack and clever sound design are in no small part to thank for this, especially in the absence of voice acting, something I'm willing to bet was intentional. Every little detail feels so natural, except for the uncanny sense that something isn't quite right lurking just out of reach, a tangled thread you can’t quite unravel—a feeling that only grows more the deeper you choose to go.

Normally I would say I contend with a stories themes through it’s characters, with them being the conductor for my understanding a good portion of the time. SeaBed flipped this perspective with its uniquely assured approach, dropping incredibly insightful metaphors into day to day conversations that would normally come off as exaggerations or worse, but work splendidly in the context of the atmospheric bubble it builds. It’s a bit lengthy, but I feel this one encapsulates what I’m trying to get across better than I ever could.


“Have you ever thought of ideas as a spring?”

“Not really. But I remember Takako saying something along those lines. She likened them to a well, though. I think she said that every person had their own well inside them, and that all the feelings they had felt up until that point were stored there. And to convey them to other people, you have to scoop them out of your well and carry them to theirs. But not much can fit into the palms of your hands and you can’t avoid spilling some along the way, so only a fraction gets conveyed in the end. That’s why you’ve got to work for it. You’ve got to make yourself a bucket. Words, music, pictures are manifestations of it in the real world. People eventually discover different vessels for their soul.”


I find myself in a very strange position after having finished this VN. Despite not having many of the traits that usually get me invested, it cleverly utilises that fact to capitalise its story of loss, grief, and above all else—it’s unparalleled understanding of people. The tangled thread you spend so long trying to unvravel does eventually come undone, but it does so with a quiet understanding more than a bombastic reveal. There are many quotes like the one above, and SeaBed is a story I’ll be thinking about for a while yet, not because of the people in its story, but because of what its story told me about people.