2022
A mildly touching story, interesting use of mix media, and pretty music don't really make up for the fact that this video game doesn't feel like a video game. There's a stunning lack of interactivity. People may complain about walking simulators like Gone Home, Firewatch, or What Remains of Edith Finch, but there's still the act of just walking around and sometimes picking something up. This game feels like turn-based combat, but instead of fighting an enemy you're fighting the cutscenes. You solve a kindergarten-level puzzle. Cutscene. You move something. Cutscene. Sometimes you even just click and then CUTSCENE, and it's over in like an hour.
It gets to a point where you think "Was it really worth making it a video game, or should you have just made a possibly oscar-worthy animated short?"
It gets to a point where you think "Was it really worth making it a video game, or should you have just made a possibly oscar-worthy animated short?"
It's a Dead Space game, except the enemies are bland, the guns are not inventively designed, the plot is extremely basic, and your playable character looks look Obligatory Space Marine #12 starring Josh Duhamel. In other words, it's decent and the stronger emphasis on melee combat does make it feel at least slightly different, but it's missing the identity and spark that makes Dead Space so memorable.
Telltale games worked, at least in the beginning. Most would say that's because they were effective choose-your-own-adventure games, but we quickly learned that Telltale's formula was to give you branches that eventually led back to the same ending. So if your choice wasn't the true seller, it meant Telltale were just really good at grabbing you with well written stories. Once they put too much on their plate and their writing became rushed the magic was lost. In my opinion, Tales from the Borderlands was the best Telltale game. An interesting, thrilling, and hilarious adventure in the Borderlands universe from the perspective of people who have no superpowers, no high tech guns, and no clue what they're doing. New Tales from the Borderlands however almost feels like a parody of a Telltale game, because it seems no one in 2K has any real idea what made the original Tales (or Telltale plots in general) so special.
I could see how from the perspective of other companies Telltale games seem simple, especially with the Telltale secret formula now known by everyone, but in reality they were bigger than anyone else realized and honestly that was part of the beauty of them. Tales from the Borderlands was a story that was fully ingrained in the Borderlands universe. Sure these characters were involved in less action and explosions, but they travelled all over Pandora. Every episode had new locations, new characters, special guest legacy characters, and new interesting lore. Tales even went so far as to forever change the franchise plot by affecting a beloved character who had been around since the first game.
New Tales feels like it has no agency, half the game-time length of the original, and possibly no budget. Seemingly 50% of this entire game takes place in the same location. Our 3 main characters just meander about doing nothing until all of a sudden the plot comes to them, and maybe that would be alright if our characters were extremely lovable and fun to watch but the only main character I truly fell in love with was Fran the frogurt lady.
All the new side characters have little to no time to make an impact on the player except for LOU13 who in all fairness is the best character in this game. The character Stapleface also stuck out to me, but again she was only there for an extremely limited amount of time. When it comes to legacy characters, as far as I can tell we got 2: Rhys who is only really in the first chapter and felt a little... off for some reason, and Lor who has I think a single 2 word line also in the first chapter (Lor is Lorraine from Borderlands 3 who has since transitioned which honestly makes me wish they were actually in the plot of this game).
Lore-wise I feel this game was nearly completely separate, and don't see anything they set up ever coming back in any real way. It's certainly possible, what with the vault treasure that the games plot is centered around and what happens to the Tediore corporation, but I just don't believe this game was meant to have such an impact.
It's really sad how disappointed I was in New Tales from the Borderlands. I don't hate it by any means. It's still got some good humor and decent attempts at heart. Sadly tho I have to say this is my least favorite entry into the Borderlands universe.
I could see how from the perspective of other companies Telltale games seem simple, especially with the Telltale secret formula now known by everyone, but in reality they were bigger than anyone else realized and honestly that was part of the beauty of them. Tales from the Borderlands was a story that was fully ingrained in the Borderlands universe. Sure these characters were involved in less action and explosions, but they travelled all over Pandora. Every episode had new locations, new characters, special guest legacy characters, and new interesting lore. Tales even went so far as to forever change the franchise plot by affecting a beloved character who had been around since the first game.
New Tales feels like it has no agency, half the game-time length of the original, and possibly no budget. Seemingly 50% of this entire game takes place in the same location. Our 3 main characters just meander about doing nothing until all of a sudden the plot comes to them, and maybe that would be alright if our characters were extremely lovable and fun to watch but the only main character I truly fell in love with was Fran the frogurt lady.
All the new side characters have little to no time to make an impact on the player except for LOU13 who in all fairness is the best character in this game. The character Stapleface also stuck out to me, but again she was only there for an extremely limited amount of time. When it comes to legacy characters, as far as I can tell we got 2: Rhys who is only really in the first chapter and felt a little... off for some reason, and Lor who has I think a single 2 word line also in the first chapter (Lor is Lorraine from Borderlands 3 who has since transitioned which honestly makes me wish they were actually in the plot of this game).
Lore-wise I feel this game was nearly completely separate, and don't see anything they set up ever coming back in any real way. It's certainly possible, what with the vault treasure that the games plot is centered around and what happens to the Tediore corporation, but I just don't believe this game was meant to have such an impact.
It's really sad how disappointed I was in New Tales from the Borderlands. I don't hate it by any means. It's still got some good humor and decent attempts at heart. Sadly tho I have to say this is my least favorite entry into the Borderlands universe.
2019
You ever heard of A24? It's a film company known for trying to bring experimental and indie films into the mainstream. It's made films like Moonlight, Uncut Gems, The Witch, Midsommar, Good Time, Ex Machina, and one of my personal favorite movies of all time Swiss Army Man. Death Stranding is like an A24 video game.
I've never played a Kojima game before this. I say this because some people will try to strike good reviews of this game up to fanboy mentality. I can't be a fanboy if I hardly know who the guy is, so believe me when I say Hideo Kojima's newest creation took my breath away. It's an experimental piece with a gameplay unlike any other and while some may call it "rage-inducing" or "boring", I call it "integral to the game's message" and "intricately connected to the plot". It's not a gameplay I would want popularized, because I don't think it could work anywhere else. You also need to be sort of a completionist to even better appreciate the game, cuz going out your way to earn 5 stars from every location also provides to Kojima's vision.
Death Stranding is about making connections. Loved ones, friends, even neighbors or acquaintances all connect us to one another and Kojima's trying to celebrate that. Main protagonist Sam Porter Bridges is a man who wants no connections and with good reason (a reason you won't find out until later in the story). A delivery man who travels the world alone, but due to unexpected circumstances Sam is forced to help the organization BRIDGES on their quest to reconnect all of a fragmented shell that was once the USA. You see some doomsday shit happened and now the land of the dead has fused with the land of the living, and now a whole bunch of foolishness such as rain that makes anything it touches age rapidly and invisible ghost creatures is keeping everyone from leaving their homes. Sure, they all have futuristic 3D printers at home to make most of what they want, but they still need food and meds and other things. Now Sam has to not only deliver packages but also install a new version of the internet into every home, allowing for communication to reconnect the nation as one.
This is where the gameplay kicks in. Surprisingly the start of the game may be the hardest point. Sam is alone with nothing but the packages on his back and the BB on his chest, forced to endure through the rough terrain and hazardous weather and ooky spooky ghosties! However as you meet new people they'll grant you with gifts of equipment that make the job all the more easier, and ranking up these locations to 5 star service grants even better equipment. Making connections stronger make you stronger, even more so with Death Stranding's online features.
That's right Death Stranding uses online features, but in a very peculiar way. You will never see another player but their presence in significant. You see, as you're playing the game you will use equipment to help reach high places or cross rivers easily or even heal your cargo from Timefall (that aging rain I told you about earlier). If you leave this stuff behind on your ventures, other players will run into it and use it for their own benefit and vice versa. You're working together heal a broken world, creating rest stations and shortcuts for everyone to share thus creating strong connections with people you don't even know much like the beloved indie game Journey. Now of course you're not receiving everything every single player has left behind, more you're receiving stuff through a filter that gives you just enough to constantly feel like you're not alone on this journey. If you start noticing a particular gamertag coming up few times with very helpful equipment drops, you can even form a Strand Contract with them in which anything they leave behind from this point on will always appear in your game. This is why I feel the gameplay is so integral to what is Death Stranding, and why I think most of those who hate this game probably sped through the story without stopping to take in these brilliant details.
And by the way the story is one of the most emotional journeys I've ever been on in a video game. I don't think a game has ever made me cry. I've definitely been on the verge of tears with games like Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and Mass Effect 2 but Death Stranding finally broke me. Sam Bridges starts out as your typical gruff game protagonist. Annoyed grunts and a deep, angry-at-the-world voice. However by Chapter 3 you notice a crack in the persona, and with ever chapter that crack gets bigger and bigger. At first I thought most of the chapters were just character studies. Learning about one character in this chapter, learning about another one the next, and so on. In a way this is true but for Sam each chapter is making a new connection. Sam, and in turn you, are learning what makes characters like Fragile or Deadman tick and thus forming a relationship with them. A man with no connections is finally gaining friends and he's learning to sympathize. To be kind. To be a person.
All of this is brought to life by an amazing cast. You got Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Lindsay Wagner, Emily O'Brien, and Margaret Qualley all bringing in their A-game. I heard complaints of antagonist Higgs being a one-note character and while that is true I think Troy Baker really has fun with the role. The likenesses of directors Guillermo Del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn appear in the game as characters, but due to what I'm guessing is their fear of not being good actors they have voice actors fill in for them.
Not only that but there's so many cameos in this game through the different stations you visit. Junji Ito, Geoff Keighley, Conan O'Brien, goddamn EDGAR WRIGHT, and so much more. All face-scanned and subsequently dubbed by voice actors. Except Conan. He wanted the full cameo treatment voice and all.
I bet you're asking about BB huh? How can you do an entire Death Stranding review and not talk about BB? There's not much to say that hasn't already been said, bucko. I'd die for the little stinker I wish I had gotten the collectors edition so I could carry my very own fetus around and creep out all my roommates! I got the collector's edition for Christmas, and just like I said I'm torturing my roommates and friends. I love my BB.
Now what would I fix about the game? Not much really. I think any story based game that has an upgrade system can always be more fun with a New Game Plus mode. Also even though there are 14 chapters in all, completing Chapter 9 is a point of no return. You won't be able to upgrade any more stations till you finish the story. Wish I knew that going in cuz I had a lot more after-story cleanup than I expected. I feel a New Game Plus would make this cleanup a bit more fun. Also I'd make the Music Player usable out in the field. I get you want us to slowly unlock the music you wanna showcase throughout the game and already having our own music going would mess with that timing and ambience, but dude at least let us use it after the story is finished Hideo. I'm working my ass off delivering these packages at least let me jive to some tunes my guy! I can't even open Spotify because Kojima fuckin blocked the feature which is something I'm beginning to think Japanese games do as a "fuck you" because the last Digimon game I played also blocked Spotify usage.
To sum things up, I didn't really know who Kojima was before Death Stranding and now because of it I'm a loyal fan like so many people already are. experiencing this masterpiece is something that will stick with me forever. It's one of my favorite games of all time, and I doubt anything will ever change that. It's an experience like no other. I think Kojima Productions has a very successful future in store.
EDIT: A24 is working with Kojima to make a live action movie I FUCKIN CALLED IT
I've never played a Kojima game before this. I say this because some people will try to strike good reviews of this game up to fanboy mentality. I can't be a fanboy if I hardly know who the guy is, so believe me when I say Hideo Kojima's newest creation took my breath away. It's an experimental piece with a gameplay unlike any other and while some may call it "rage-inducing" or "boring", I call it "integral to the game's message" and "intricately connected to the plot". It's not a gameplay I would want popularized, because I don't think it could work anywhere else. You also need to be sort of a completionist to even better appreciate the game, cuz going out your way to earn 5 stars from every location also provides to Kojima's vision.
Death Stranding is about making connections. Loved ones, friends, even neighbors or acquaintances all connect us to one another and Kojima's trying to celebrate that. Main protagonist Sam Porter Bridges is a man who wants no connections and with good reason (a reason you won't find out until later in the story). A delivery man who travels the world alone, but due to unexpected circumstances Sam is forced to help the organization BRIDGES on their quest to reconnect all of a fragmented shell that was once the USA. You see some doomsday shit happened and now the land of the dead has fused with the land of the living, and now a whole bunch of foolishness such as rain that makes anything it touches age rapidly and invisible ghost creatures is keeping everyone from leaving their homes. Sure, they all have futuristic 3D printers at home to make most of what they want, but they still need food and meds and other things. Now Sam has to not only deliver packages but also install a new version of the internet into every home, allowing for communication to reconnect the nation as one.
This is where the gameplay kicks in. Surprisingly the start of the game may be the hardest point. Sam is alone with nothing but the packages on his back and the BB on his chest, forced to endure through the rough terrain and hazardous weather and ooky spooky ghosties! However as you meet new people they'll grant you with gifts of equipment that make the job all the more easier, and ranking up these locations to 5 star service grants even better equipment. Making connections stronger make you stronger, even more so with Death Stranding's online features.
That's right Death Stranding uses online features, but in a very peculiar way. You will never see another player but their presence in significant. You see, as you're playing the game you will use equipment to help reach high places or cross rivers easily or even heal your cargo from Timefall (that aging rain I told you about earlier). If you leave this stuff behind on your ventures, other players will run into it and use it for their own benefit and vice versa. You're working together heal a broken world, creating rest stations and shortcuts for everyone to share thus creating strong connections with people you don't even know much like the beloved indie game Journey. Now of course you're not receiving everything every single player has left behind, more you're receiving stuff through a filter that gives you just enough to constantly feel like you're not alone on this journey. If you start noticing a particular gamertag coming up few times with very helpful equipment drops, you can even form a Strand Contract with them in which anything they leave behind from this point on will always appear in your game. This is why I feel the gameplay is so integral to what is Death Stranding, and why I think most of those who hate this game probably sped through the story without stopping to take in these brilliant details.
And by the way the story is one of the most emotional journeys I've ever been on in a video game. I don't think a game has ever made me cry. I've definitely been on the verge of tears with games like Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and Mass Effect 2 but Death Stranding finally broke me. Sam Bridges starts out as your typical gruff game protagonist. Annoyed grunts and a deep, angry-at-the-world voice. However by Chapter 3 you notice a crack in the persona, and with ever chapter that crack gets bigger and bigger. At first I thought most of the chapters were just character studies. Learning about one character in this chapter, learning about another one the next, and so on. In a way this is true but for Sam each chapter is making a new connection. Sam, and in turn you, are learning what makes characters like Fragile or Deadman tick and thus forming a relationship with them. A man with no connections is finally gaining friends and he's learning to sympathize. To be kind. To be a person.
All of this is brought to life by an amazing cast. You got Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Lindsay Wagner, Emily O'Brien, and Margaret Qualley all bringing in their A-game. I heard complaints of antagonist Higgs being a one-note character and while that is true I think Troy Baker really has fun with the role. The likenesses of directors Guillermo Del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn appear in the game as characters, but due to what I'm guessing is their fear of not being good actors they have voice actors fill in for them.
Not only that but there's so many cameos in this game through the different stations you visit. Junji Ito, Geoff Keighley, Conan O'Brien, goddamn EDGAR WRIGHT, and so much more. All face-scanned and subsequently dubbed by voice actors. Except Conan. He wanted the full cameo treatment voice and all.
I bet you're asking about BB huh? How can you do an entire Death Stranding review and not talk about BB? There's not much to say that hasn't already been said, bucko. I'd die for the little stinker I wish I had gotten the collectors edition so I could carry my very own fetus around and creep out all my roommates! I got the collector's edition for Christmas, and just like I said I'm torturing my roommates and friends. I love my BB.
Now what would I fix about the game? Not much really. I think any story based game that has an upgrade system can always be more fun with a New Game Plus mode. Also even though there are 14 chapters in all, completing Chapter 9 is a point of no return. You won't be able to upgrade any more stations till you finish the story. Wish I knew that going in cuz I had a lot more after-story cleanup than I expected. I feel a New Game Plus would make this cleanup a bit more fun. Also I'd make the Music Player usable out in the field. I get you want us to slowly unlock the music you wanna showcase throughout the game and already having our own music going would mess with that timing and ambience, but dude at least let us use it after the story is finished Hideo. I'm working my ass off delivering these packages at least let me jive to some tunes my guy! I can't even open Spotify because Kojima fuckin blocked the feature which is something I'm beginning to think Japanese games do as a "fuck you" because the last Digimon game I played also blocked Spotify usage.
To sum things up, I didn't really know who Kojima was before Death Stranding and now because of it I'm a loyal fan like so many people already are. experiencing this masterpiece is something that will stick with me forever. It's one of my favorite games of all time, and I doubt anything will ever change that. It's an experience like no other. I think Kojima Productions has a very successful future in store.
EDIT: A24 is working with Kojima to make a live action movie I FUCKIN CALLED IT
Well no one's written a review for this game so I guess I will...
Don't play this game.
I liked Kimulator Films' first game "Totally Normal Journey: The Interactive Musical." Sure, it's really just a choose-your-own-adventure movie with limited choices, but Kimulator Films is not some big company. It's a guy and his girlfriend making youtube content. To expect something larger would be kind of ridiculous, and it felt like there was some dedication put into it. Some of the songs were fun and it was "animated" (That's in parenthesis because the animation really boiled down to people being filmed doing limited movement with like a drawing filtered over them).
"I'm in Love With Your Dead Grandmother" however feels like it was made in a single week. A day for a script, and day for filming, and other 5 days for coding it together. every choice felt easy to pick, and I feel like every other choice would either loop me back to the main story thread somehow or just game over me back to the choice to make the right one now. I feel no dedication for this game, and now I fear Kimulator Films is speedlining these tiny "games" as just a quick way to make money off a few people who find them and think "That sounds weird but hey it's only $5."
It took me 15 minutes to get the platinum trophy, so maybe if your obsessed with trophy collecting it might be a deal for you.
Don't play this game.
I liked Kimulator Films' first game "Totally Normal Journey: The Interactive Musical." Sure, it's really just a choose-your-own-adventure movie with limited choices, but Kimulator Films is not some big company. It's a guy and his girlfriend making youtube content. To expect something larger would be kind of ridiculous, and it felt like there was some dedication put into it. Some of the songs were fun and it was "animated" (That's in parenthesis because the animation really boiled down to people being filmed doing limited movement with like a drawing filtered over them).
"I'm in Love With Your Dead Grandmother" however feels like it was made in a single week. A day for a script, and day for filming, and other 5 days for coding it together. every choice felt easy to pick, and I feel like every other choice would either loop me back to the main story thread somehow or just game over me back to the choice to make the right one now. I feel no dedication for this game, and now I fear Kimulator Films is speedlining these tiny "games" as just a quick way to make money off a few people who find them and think "That sounds weird but hey it's only $5."
It took me 15 minutes to get the platinum trophy, so maybe if your obsessed with trophy collecting it might be a deal for you.
2020
“No one has the eyes for art anymore.”
There’s something about the pixelation of older games from the Playstation 1 era that has an inherent creepiness about them. Not being able to fully comprehend the creatures you’re looking at because of the limited polygons that make up those creatures. Think about those eerie games: Silent Hill, Medievil, A BUG’S LIFE. The fog may be there to hide the draw distance but it sets a tone that could send a shiver up my (back then) 4 year old spine. Now I’ll admit I never played Silent Hill, and my only interactions with Medievil or Bug’s Life were through something known as the demo disk. Short snippets of multiple games meant to give you taste of what you might want, which in a way can be creepy in its own right. Thrust into a game with no idea what’s going on just maybe a tutorial of the controls and an implication to explore the unknown. It all just throws you out of your element, and Fatum Betula captures that mood perfectly.
“Consider this tree and our land to be one and the same. A synecdoche.”
Fatum Betula (translated to “Fate Birch”) is a fairly short indie game created by Bryce Bucher. Bucher is part of a community of small time game creators who make The Haunted PS1 Demo Disks, a series of low rez snippets of horror games. Bryce made Fatum Betula as part of this series but liked the concept so much he decided to expand it into its own indie game. In this game you are given 3 vials with the task of finding a new liquid to add to the waters that feed a magical plant. The growth of this plant determines what will happen to the universe, and feeding it different liquids you can find in the game will give you different endings to the game, Finding a single ending is quite easy and can be done in less than an hour, so the goal is for you to find every ending in the game. Some can be quite difficult to find. I know I had to look up a guide after getting like 3 of the endings.
“Please don’t leave me here. If you do, please come back and kill me.”
Fatum Betula’s atmosphere is very similar to Little Nightmares but while Little Nightmares looks like a playable Tim Burton / Henry Selick movie, Fatum Betula feels like a David Lynch fantasy world with some Hayao Miyazaki influence. A 50s mom with no face, an immortal being withered to a skeleton, a man at the bottom of the ocean whose hands reach for the air above, a really hungry kitty cat. These odd characters permeate the land each with untold stories, but the character design leads to hideous implications to some of these beings. Ethereal music made by Simone Peltier spreads across each landscape, including a song that sounds a lot like Twin Peaks score in the “Autumn” level. Everything in this world could have a super deep meaning or it could be a lot of random pieces put together in a way that just works, and honestly that's how most Lynchian projects feel.
“I don’t even know how long I’ve been here… There is a constant pain in my empty stomach.”
Fatum Betula isn’t always serious though. It knows to make fun of itself just a little bit too. One of the best endings you can find is just hilarious. There’s a diver who admires the ocean and asks you not to tamper with it. Of course I immediately wanted to tamper with it, pouring oil into it turning the entire sea black. The next time I talked to the diver all he said was “I literally hate you.” A simple line that made me out loud chuckle like a loon. All in all Fatum Betula is a truly eerie aesthetic that is entrancing the whole way through. It captures a feeling and uses that feeling to encapsulate you for the entire sadly short runtime.
“It’s all really weird honestly.”
There’s something about the pixelation of older games from the Playstation 1 era that has an inherent creepiness about them. Not being able to fully comprehend the creatures you’re looking at because of the limited polygons that make up those creatures. Think about those eerie games: Silent Hill, Medievil, A BUG’S LIFE. The fog may be there to hide the draw distance but it sets a tone that could send a shiver up my (back then) 4 year old spine. Now I’ll admit I never played Silent Hill, and my only interactions with Medievil or Bug’s Life were through something known as the demo disk. Short snippets of multiple games meant to give you taste of what you might want, which in a way can be creepy in its own right. Thrust into a game with no idea what’s going on just maybe a tutorial of the controls and an implication to explore the unknown. It all just throws you out of your element, and Fatum Betula captures that mood perfectly.
“Consider this tree and our land to be one and the same. A synecdoche.”
Fatum Betula (translated to “Fate Birch”) is a fairly short indie game created by Bryce Bucher. Bucher is part of a community of small time game creators who make The Haunted PS1 Demo Disks, a series of low rez snippets of horror games. Bryce made Fatum Betula as part of this series but liked the concept so much he decided to expand it into its own indie game. In this game you are given 3 vials with the task of finding a new liquid to add to the waters that feed a magical plant. The growth of this plant determines what will happen to the universe, and feeding it different liquids you can find in the game will give you different endings to the game, Finding a single ending is quite easy and can be done in less than an hour, so the goal is for you to find every ending in the game. Some can be quite difficult to find. I know I had to look up a guide after getting like 3 of the endings.
“Please don’t leave me here. If you do, please come back and kill me.”
Fatum Betula’s atmosphere is very similar to Little Nightmares but while Little Nightmares looks like a playable Tim Burton / Henry Selick movie, Fatum Betula feels like a David Lynch fantasy world with some Hayao Miyazaki influence. A 50s mom with no face, an immortal being withered to a skeleton, a man at the bottom of the ocean whose hands reach for the air above, a really hungry kitty cat. These odd characters permeate the land each with untold stories, but the character design leads to hideous implications to some of these beings. Ethereal music made by Simone Peltier spreads across each landscape, including a song that sounds a lot like Twin Peaks score in the “Autumn” level. Everything in this world could have a super deep meaning or it could be a lot of random pieces put together in a way that just works, and honestly that's how most Lynchian projects feel.
“I don’t even know how long I’ve been here… There is a constant pain in my empty stomach.”
Fatum Betula isn’t always serious though. It knows to make fun of itself just a little bit too. One of the best endings you can find is just hilarious. There’s a diver who admires the ocean and asks you not to tamper with it. Of course I immediately wanted to tamper with it, pouring oil into it turning the entire sea black. The next time I talked to the diver all he said was “I literally hate you.” A simple line that made me out loud chuckle like a loon. All in all Fatum Betula is a truly eerie aesthetic that is entrancing the whole way through. It captures a feeling and uses that feeling to encapsulate you for the entire sadly short runtime.
“It’s all really weird honestly.”