I found the concept of this interesting, a playable essay on game design, and I'd love to see more things like it. Going through the examples, and seeing moments from other games recreated to illustrate the definitions was really effective. The artstyle was neat, though it certainly had some serious drawbacks (the handwritten font in particular being almost unintelligible at times, enemies completely blending into their surroundings, etc). I'm glad I took the time to experience it, I wouldn't mind it leading to more things like it. Unfortunately, like a lot of essays though, it does end up hinging on what the essayist's opinions actually are, and at the end of this, nothing really new or insightful here.

essentially another jonathon blow-esque claim that only pure interactivity and systems is TRUE 'video game'. and just, yawn? thought we left this tired take behind a decade ago. begging game designers to take some art + humanities classes.

i think the funniest thing for me personally was just that the title in my mind evoked what could've been a radical essay redefining what we even view as meaningful 'interaction' in games, but instead it's literally just the game crit status quo as always believed. oh well.

Honestly, probably some of the best and most lived-in, realistic relationship writing in games. There's so many little touches and vibes that I absolutely adored, but for whatever reason the game didn't quite fully hit for me. On paper so much of this stuff is exactly my kind of thing, and what I love to see, but the actual playing of the game felt a bit of a repetitive chore at times. The vast majority of the areas look and feel exactly the same and expect you to do exactly the same things in them. There are some later areas that do shake up the visuals a little bit, but by that point I was already struggling to continue with the game. I'm glad I did though as the game definitely sings the most in its central relationship which is very well realized. I also really liked the structure of how those relationship moments are unlocked and the general gameplay loop there. I just wish there was some more variety in the core, in-the-field gameplay. I did enjoy the combat and the almost rhythmic groove it often leads to with the way you control both characters. I also suffered from technical issues (dropped/choppy frames, audio glitches, etc), but it's hard to know what was the game and what was perhaps my PC not being capable.

Overall I definitely think it's worth checking out, especially if you're someone who is looking for a more chill meditative kind of gameplay. The ability to change the match-ups of the central characters to allow for same-sex pairings in a post-launch update was definitely a delight to see as well. And with the whole game being co-op I think it would be a nice fit for couples to play together especially. I hope more games take some lessons from the writing of the main relationship and its refreshing honesty on topics like sexuality, especially in this medium. I'm glad I stuck with it.