Persona 3 Portable is likely my favourite JRPG of all time, second to the Utawarerumono Mask duology and maybe NieR Automata. Why is that?

Well, to start things off, I didn't take issue with things that a lot of people did. I read a shit ton of visual novels so the lack of a 3D open world (which didn't even look that great to me in FES) is fine, I am okay with the lack of the Answer, the loss of animated cutscenes is fine, and the FeMC story changes aren't great enough to bring down my opinion of the game. The Ken SLink is disgusting, yes, but thankfully it is optional, and there has never been a Persona game that wasn't bigoted or disgusting in some way. The game didn't look blurry to me due to playing an upscaled, modded version, which work better for P3P than for FES, in the latter of which the UI is difficult to upscale.

The game has a lot of fun content. You get to play as FeMC (who is a fun protagonist in a different way than the usual MC), you get new awesome OSTs, the game is much more fun to play due to using the Persona 4 combat system (the main thing Persona 4 has over FES, imo). I've even played it to the end twice, which doesn't happen often with JRPGs for me. Tartarus is a far lesser grind, too.

I just like it, I have not much else to say.

This is a review of the pre-Royal content in Persona 5. I watched Royal on YouTube before the port happened, but I want to replay this and re-experience Royal content for myself at a later date (sometime in the 2020s).

Vanilla Persona 5 starts off as the coolest game ever, visually and music-wise. You get insane OST, a fun battle system and cool stuff like gorgeous all-out attacks. Most of this sadly gets old after you see it for the 500th time.

This also has the "SLinks (Confidants) are optional character development" problem that P4 had, except this time characters don't feel like a friend group as the group gets bigger, but more like coworkers. Morgana somehow manages to be more annoying than Teddie, too. And you have the usual Persona disgusting/bigot moments.

Also, Joker being a silent/self-insert MC makes no sense. He has too much personality and dialogue to be those, but too little to be a "full" character.

But it is actually fun to play the entire time. You get cool climax moments with tracks like Life Will Change or Rivers in the Desert, too. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't the case.

Not the (base part of) best JRPG ever, but definitely worth playing.

When I wrote my Backloggd Review of EarthBound about a year ago, I tried to shave down my impressions and interpretations into something concise, digestible, and spoiler-free. I’m not going to do that with this one; I want to take this as an opportunity to speak freely and honestly about the MOTHER series and its genre cousins without worrying myself over the burden of design, if I can (already I’ve rewritten these three lines maybe six or seven times, but we’re loosening up). Let’s leave a little less on the cutting room floor this time, how ‘bout that. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, we’re goin’ all the way in.

On MOTHER 3 (Or — "Ticket to Nowhere”)

If EarthBound feels like “hanging out” with a weird, kind, fascinating person, then MOTHER 3 is the story of her life. That’s the way it starts, anyway. It’s fantasized and spun out into a broader and heavier story than she ever intended, but it’s true to her lived experience nevertheless. She’s a liar, but only in the way my parents were liars when they told me that babies are made out of eggs and fish. MOTHER 3’s practical jokes are kinder, because its story and world are darker. She can still be funny about it, she still has excellent taste in music, but she has nothing to hide anymore. The end of our last conversation (EarthBound) saw her opening up about the sadness and trauma that lingers behind that smile, so there’s nothing left to give but the whole truth, and nothing but (and “truth” is not always synonymous with “fact”). We just had to wait twelve years before we were old enough to hear it.

We hunted for Melodies in MOTHER to sing to the ghost of our great-grandma (who babysat an alien) to fix her ghost amnesia. We acquired Melodies in MOTHER 2 as part of becoming a wiser, more thoughtful person. In MOTHER 3, the Melodies are people who die when we pull their needles. And we don’t pull all of them.

MOTHER wasn’t so much about Ninten himself as the lore surrounding his family and their association with extraterrestrial forces. There’s little reason to believe that Ninten is anything other than a vessel for the player’s personality, like his Dragon Quest forebears, and I think it’s as beautiful here as it is there. It isn’t visually a first-person perspective, but a first-person story stitched together through the player’s investigation, where Ninten is the player’s mind. It’s unique to videogames, and for a game whose world is already unique among videogames, I think it’s handled well. You are Ninten, plain and simple.

But MOTHER 2 plays around with that expectation; it’s very much about Ness’ relationship with the player. Yeah, Ness begins as maybe the most down to earth protagonist in the genre’s history — a silent avatar living in a modern suburb with his family — but he gradually develops and asserts his own identity as new experiences inspire deeper personal reflection. We first read flickers of his childhood memories in each Sanctuary location, then his thoughts written out in Lumine Hall, then his feelings and flashbacks visually represented in Magicant, until finally, he speaks. The game even seems to reinforce this initial link between Ness and the player by addressing him in the second person during both the Coffee and Tea Breaks. And all the while, it's chipping away at that connection by breaking the fourth wall, reaching out to the player and asking for their real name, and then pleading for their prayers at the end.

Unlike Ninten before him, Ness has a past separate from the player’s, and he remembers it. We’re simply here to guide him through that journey, give him strength, and share in that process of reflection and growth. In doing this, he loses the innocence he had at the start, and in the strangest way. As many do, he grew up believing that Evil was a corruptive force, separate from the world he knew. Evil radiated from Giygas, pulsed through the Mani-Mani statue, and swayed everyday objects and animals and people to violence. If there’s anything we learn about Ness in Magicant, it’s that he still views Pokey as a friend, even after everything they’ve been through. Surely, he’s just another one of Giygas’ innocent victims. Like Mr. Carpainter, like Monotoli, he’ll snap out of it as soon as Giygas is out of the picture. But Giygas dies, and Evil does not die with him. After the final battle, Pokey pops in to let us know that he hasn’t changed a bit, and winks off to spread his influence elsewhere, elsewhat. He even has the last word, after the credits have rolled. And so, Ness’ last discovery is that Evil is as human as Love. My favorite thing about EarthBound’s ending is that we still walk home together, with Paula, after learning this.

Lucas picks up where Ness left off. He discovers the dark side of humanity early on in life, and has no illusions about where it came from. We know that Lucas doesn’t blame the Dragos for his mother’s death. The only monsters in the UFOs circling over Tazmily village are people. We can put a face to Lucas’ absent father. We know why he’s gone all the time. We don’t call him for favors. Lucas speaks early on in the game, we see his reactions and his memories and his feelings all laid out in front of us. MOTHER 3’s “Shower Break” in Chapter 4 already addresses Lucas in the third person. We don’t even play as Lucas for an entire scene before switching over to another playable character. The game asks the player their name mere tens of minutes into the first chapter. The sight of the “Chapter 1” title card alone might already tell us all we need to know about the game’s structure and its priorities. It’s “Shigesato Itoi’s Dragon Quest IV” (just as MOTHER had been Itoi’s Dragon Quest II, and MOTHER 2 was analogous to DQIII). Right from the start, we aren’t invited to “live” in MOTHER 3 as we had in MOTHER 2, we’re invited to perform it. EarthBound was a mirror, a conversation. MOTHER 3 is a play. And what a production it is.

In plainer terms, what I’m saying here is that MOTHER 3 was and is the logical next step for this story. We can’t go back to what we had. We’ve already grown beyond our childhood, so Lucas doesn’t have one. Po(r)ky is knocking down his door, and this time, we’re all complicit. It no longer makes a secret of the fact that it knows we’re there, because it knows that we know that it knows we’re there. The question of which is the “better game” feels ugly to me, most of the changes to the series’ staples feel more like a result of the different intent of this game than linear “improvements” on the others, though they’re worth talking about anyway.

MOTHER 3 has far more animation, its art style smooths over EarthBound’s rougher edges, there’s a run button, full recovery stations are easier to come by, you can save and manage money with frogs, there’s a slot for key items, the menus have groovy music and so on and so forth, but more interesting to me are the considerations made to the battle system and enemy encounters. On the whole, enemies are more deliberately positioned and have more varied behaviors, so the ability to sneak up on them is easier to take advantage of. Duster acquires just about all of Jeff’s status-afflicting abilities immediately (alongside a few additions) and they occupy their own menu, meaning this game is more interested in battle turns as a resource than it is in inventory slots (one of the designers might’ve considered that, because you can only pick one per turn, and they don’t deal damage (progress toward victory), and you’re liable to take damage every turn, and most enemies are only susceptible to certain tools, the more interesting decision is simply the matter of using them, and deciding on the one for the job. Not a bad idea). Buffs and debuffs are more effective than ever, and there seems to have been a lot of attention given to the general turn order. Boney always going first (and having no special offensive or PSI abilities) means he’s best utilized as the “item guy,” Lucas’ status buffs and recovery spells have to be planned out in advance, since he’s usually going to go last. Kumatora's healing isn't quite as powerful as Lucas’, but she's much faster in a pinch. That’s important to take note of, because “Rolling Health” is given much more prominence in this one, it really comes into its own. Party members are afforded larger amounts of Hit Points to work with from the very start, and there’s a more gradual overall “roll” speed (it slows down to a crawl if you use the “defend” option, which is especially thoughtful), which, when coupled with the Rhythm Combo system, is nothing short of brilliant.

Rhythm Combos are perfect, and I want them in everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if Itoi wanted to put something like this in every MOTHER game, he probably tapped the ‘A’ button to the beat of Dragon Quest II’s battle theme in 1987 (it starts with this repetitive, percussive “boop,” so I can see it). It turns the music into an essential obstacle for the player; an active and skill-based, but not at all obtrusive addition to JRPG combat which strengthens the value of the standard physical “attack” option incredibly. It’s strict, but if you’re tuned all the way in and tap to the beat of the music, you can land more than double your normal damage. The songs themselves mess with this, having weirdo time signatures and skips to throw the player off and get them to choose their moments carefully. If your health is rolling down, you might still be tempted to squeeze in a few extra hits before the next turn, making for some excellent tension. It imbues so much personality into not just the enemies themselves, all of them having their own variants or entirely unique tracks, but the characters. When you get hit, a sound effect reflecting the enemy’s personality will play in sync with the backing track, but that goes for your party as well. It’s only fitting that a series so in love with music should allow the player to wield it. Master the rhythm battle system, and your crew becomes a band to rival the DCMC themselves (revealing that maybe every JRPG is far less about killing monsters than they are about people learning to work together). Funny though it may be to admit, it’s a key reason I’ve picked up the game as many times as I have, only to see it through to the end.

I always try to land a full sixteen hit combo as Claus at the beginning of the game, just to jam out to his sitar sound effect the only time you can.

But yes, that production. Replaying it now, after about a year away from it, I’m surprised all over again at how efficiently the game manages to convey this beautiful sense of community between the people of Tazmily. It isn’t long at all before it feels like it could be home, and it it isn’t long after that that it begins to fall apart. The careful attention to NPC placement and changing dialogue depending on the situation is nothing short of meticulous. I couldn’t help smiling at Mike’s “slightly unclean and not very tasty” cookies, Nichol’s “the Funshine Sorest is on tire!”, or Wess’ grumblings about how “nobody’s aware of how strong [he] really [is]” because he looks like an old, balding man (and he is). Everyone pitches in to help Flint out in some little way, and it’s devastating to watch — in the series’ most animated moment to this point — as he takes out the full force of his horrible grief on the people who care about him. This is one of those scenes everyone remembers and talks about when they talk about this game, and it’s a testament to the character writing that we feel it as much as we do. Flint himself is completely silent up until this point, but he never had to say anything for this moment to land. The game never has to tell us, in his words, why Lucas doesn’t want a Happy Box. It doesn’t have to tell us why Duster has a bum leg. We could control Flint before and now we can’t, because he can’t.

It’s incredible that the game never seems to let up in this regard, it’s as densely written at the beginning as the crushing finale, so rich and full of ideas that it has to provide designated pit stops between major sequences. It fills its presents with fireworks and reggae beats and spills over with sad beetles to whom we can offer dung in exchange for experience points, all in the name of encouraging us to smell the roses. And we should smell those roses while we can, because the world is changing. The people we love are changing. They’re coming to throw rocks at us, spit on us, and make our lives hell…or…is that the mushrooms talking…? The Nowhere Islands don’t give easy answers.

If MOTHER 2 is about a boy growing up and losing his innocence, 3 is about how a world can lose theirs. These are people who wanted so badly to return to a state of innocence after the End of the World that they had their memories trapped in an egg, and still they become corrupted by forces promising to bring them happiness and salvation from dangers they caused. Could the people of Tazmily have continued living peacefully in this Rousseauian society, or was it destined to come to an end? Porky seems to think that humanity will always fall victim to cruelty and evil, and though he's hardly the most trustworthy character in the story, he didn't invent any of the methods he's using against the Nowhere Islands. He's just taking them to their logical extreme. Not to absolve him of blame, of course, Porky is one of the most pitiful and terrifying characters in videogames. It’s quietly horrible to watch Isaac admit to Salsa in Chapter 3 that he just wants to see if happiness really is as easy as buying a Happy Box, too naive to recognize the happiness that’s available all around him. Because we’re duped all the time in that same way, riding the hype of new products and falling for advertisements, ever encouraged to wonder just how much happier we might be if only we had that one thing. If we’re lucky, those things come with genuine sincerity and authenticity. If we’re luckier, we can share them with people who love us. We’re rarely so lucky.

Not for nothin', but Dragon Quest V’s portrayal of slavery felt pretty toothless after MOTHER 3 made me push claymen around for a whole afternoon at the factory (I’m sorry Dragon Quest V, I still love you). It doesn’t take very long, but it feels humiliating and wrong to help the enemy in such a tedious exercise, knowing that some of the villagers do this all day, every day, for a pithy reward. Knowing that everyone in the village is being molded like these claymen. Some of them even become Pigmasks. To call out the absurdity of MOTHER 3 is to feel alienated by the absurdity of our everyday lives. If we’re already feeling that way, it’ll be an eerily validating experience.

But is it too much? Is it too heavy-handed? The MOTHER series had always been such an understated thing, and now we’re just saying the quiet parts out loud. But could it be any other way? Maybe I do have to listen to Samba de Combo while considering the ramifications of materialism on our fractured world and the meaning of happiness. Maybe I need to fire a pencil rocket at a bass guitar. It’s a game of so many paradoxes. It’s a game that loves being a game, yet is wary of its own place in the world. It has such a zest for life, but lingers on destruction. How are we supposed to feel about Wess, or Flint? The islands’ sworn protectors are selfless immortal nonbinary psychics who are frequently described as “strange,” but “good-natured,” and I’m frankly not one thousand percent sure how to feel about that portrayal. One of them betrays the rest and becomes an evil monkey-torturing mechanical chimera made out of brass instruments, but is still loved by a mouse. MOTHER 3 is two brothers wrestling friendly dinosaurs. It’s those same brothers breaking down in tears because everything they love is gone. I played this game for my brother once, performed it like a musical. He asked if I was crying during those final moments. I don’t remember if I was.

I always tell people to play MOTHER 3 on a DS Lite if they can (it’s two Happy Boxes for the price of one), or another portable console of their choice, because the game is designed to be the player’s companion. The plentiful save points and hot springs are part of that, but there’s something about having this world in your pocket, by your desk, on the train, in line at the airport, in your hands, which makes it feel so much more intimate. That’s ironic in its own way — the DS Lite was new when MOTHER 3 came out, a game that wanted us to think about the nature of technological progress, and now our “portable” consoles don’t even fit in our pockets anymore. Take it from me, you don’t want to play MOTHER 3 on your iPhone. The physicality of the buttons is necessary. The lack of notifications and other applications is especially necessary.

Both MOTHER 2 and 3 end by reaching out to the player. MOTHER 2 fills our screen with Giygas, so we’re face to face with the embodiment of Evil. MOTHER 3 fills our screen with Nothing, so we're face to face with our own reflection.

But why go to such pains to separate the Player and the Character? Why draw so much attention to us? Why did I waste so much breath emphasizing the importance of that growing divide throughout this series?

Because it doesn’t want us to think of this experience as an “escape.” It doesn't give us anywhere to run. It wants us to take it with us. It wants us to do something with these feelings and memories. These are games we play as ourselves, whoever we are.



...Wherever we are.

The journey of an obsession that spun a decade, for both readers and the characters, ends here. This has an absolutely gorgeous watercolor-and-pencil art style, the best music in the trilogy and incredible payoffs. Actually more emotional than most of the first two games, with crazy parallels and thematic elements for the entire series. One of the most satisfying endings in the medium. For me, this is definitely the best KnS entry, despite some irrelevant investigations in the middle 40-50% and some odd follow-ups to some previous subplots (some things, like Masaki's and Yukari's storylines just get dropped and the Cartagra connections sort of become pointless??).

I also like how "pornless", for the lack of a better word, it is despite occasional sex scenes. They're more movie-like though. It is basically a "non-H eroge". There's no sign of how "porny" KnS2 or especially Cartagra and KnS1 felt.

It feels insane to be done with the main content of the final entry of this story, and with KnS3 as my first lengthy plotge VN in Japanese. I read for hours a day for nearly two months, but it was all worth it.

I gasped and started crying when the true end happened.

That aside though... I will be taking a break because for some reason, they decided to put additional side endings not before, but after the true endings. What an odd structure.

One of the few VNs that is consistently fun, has semi-decent pacing and constantly surprises you with its twists and tension. It felt like it was 10 years ago when I watched Death Note again. The main character and main heroine are fairly unique. The OST is amazing and I never want to be jaded enough to not be able to enjoy "bullshit, but the fun kind" media. Drops the ball in the final act for the most part and sometimes has amateur-level writing, but has a good, emotional ending. The art is mediocre though sadly

Innocent Grey outdo themselves again by presenting an even better story than KnS1, this time with a long flashback segment that takes place in a Higurashi/Raging Loop-like village with religious roots and aversion to outsiders, which stands out on its own from those two VNs due to the mid-20th century Japan time period.

This is the longest KnS entry and for a reason. While a bad idea on paper, with introducing a "side-story" that doesn't directly tie back to KnS1 until the end, the character writing is drastically improved, where pretty much the entire cast shines. The art and direction are a lot better, the music is amazing, and the atmosphere is different, but preferable to the first game. By the time you get a follow-up to KnS1's plot threads, you find the main characters very interesting and likable, or at least empathise with them. There are far fewer problematic (sexual) elements that get distasteful treatment. It is also more emotional. There is a specific scene that will be something I remember forever.

Tatsuya going from a silent MC to a proper, active and talkative character in this works, but Maya going from non-silent to silent from IS to EP is really jarring. Why force that trope?

Anyway, I prefer most things to IS here. The cast is almost all adults, the music is better, and it's got the climax of Persona 2, since it's the second half. I also really like the ED song. The gameplay is better but still nothing crazy for me. My problem with Persona 2, and especially Persona 1 gameplay is that it just looks very bland aesthetically, or even ugly, to me, especially the combat. I also think I was burnt out at this point from IS so I didn't appreciate it as much as I could have, I was definitely forcing myself to finish IS. Oh well. It's pretty good. Also, I didn't play the PSP-exclusive Tatsuya scenario.

Definitely a solid game, but this series is a bad fit for me. For one, side content is considered borderline mandatory, and I often only focus on the main plot, like I did here. Secondly, I am not in the right headspace to continue the series for now. I am not very fond of the combat system and I wouldn't be able to handle what is now 10+ games in this setting, especially when friends who are long-time fans tell me there is a status quo in the series. The plot and characters were good but it didn't feel very ambitious thematically or just in general, it went exactly as I would expect a story about the yakuza to go. I am aware that 0 is an outlier in the series and is divisive for long-time fans (unlike general reception), and that there is some prejudice on my part, but I will not be coming back to this series at this time.

Maybe one day I will write a proper review of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. A lot has already been said about this game as well though so for now I’m just going to leave these ramblings.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the most important games ever and is considered the best of all time by many for good reason. I think it might be one of the greatest hero’s journeys humans have ever created. It’s also a great coming of age/facing adulthood experience too. There’s a reason why, even if you have never played it before, if you play it today for the first time ever it will still feel nostalgic.

The gameplay and controls were an important breakthrough and a stand out for the time. It left an influence that can still be seen today, I think pretty much all 3D action/adventure games since owe this game. It still holds up too and is great to play now. It’s great game design and ridiculously impressive when you remember it was Nintendo’s first go at a 3D Zelda.

Visually it was breath taking at the time and surprisingly holds up really well for an earlier 3D game. It doesn’t matter how much graphics have improved since it has a great art style and so much charm and atmosphere.

The soundtrack is phenomenal and I would happily throw out entire, well known and liked game franchises to keep it. And those classic sounds, like opening a chest or finding a secret, god damn, so good.

It has one of the best beginnings to any game ever as well. The opening cinematic is great and the village and Deku tree work as a perfect tutorial. By the time you run out onto Hyrule Field the game has perfectly introduced you to the world, the story and gameplay and filled you with wonder and anticipation. The great pacing continues throughout as well.

There are some flaws though, I’m not completely blind. Navi can be annoying and the owl is way to chatty but nostalgia has rounded off this problem. It’s also too easy, although I didn’t think this as a kid. There is also some quality of life improvements needed, like being able to change items/equipment quicker. It has this weird issue too, were at times the game can feel too hand hold-y but then lean more obtuse at other times.

I think this game is pretty much as good as it could possibly be when you factor in the limitations of the time and the N64 hardware.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time blew me away as a kid when it was new and I played it a lot. I played it again as a teen and fell in love and developed a deeper appreciation for it. I played it again as an adult and it solidified its place as the best, even if there are other games I like more. I revisited it again more recently and I still love it. I will be playing this game at least every ten years until they bury me.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time was one of the key games that made me fall in love with this medium. I think it might be time to do another play through.

9.8/10

This is the one I do my occasional post-game swinging session in, as opposed to the original Marvel's Spider-Man. Until Spider-Man 2 is on PC, anyway.

Miles Morales, ever since his first appearance in the Ultimate comics, has been one of my favourite legacy superhero characters. He exemplified the idea that Spider-Man was just a normal person, and that anyone could be under that mask, like Peter did, but he also had his own struggles, along with having to live up to that Spider-Man legacy. In life, we face various struggles and responsibilities, and Spider-Man has always taught us that we have to do what we have to do.

As opposed to his original appearance, Miles swings side by side with Peter in the Insomniacverse, giving them a unique mentor/student dynamic that 616 didn't have until recently. Well, not in this one for the most part, since Peter is on vacation, and Miles has to learn how to be his own Spider-Man.

The gameplay is better than the first game here. Miles's invisibility and Venom powers are much more fun to play with than having a plethora of gadgets. The invisibility also makes stealth more interesting. The music is also better, since the OST has a more unique style, as opposed to purely orchestral heroic music like in the first game.

Visually, it's another improvement over the original. Set in the winter season, swinging in the snow with Miles's much more interesting swinging style and air tricks is very fun.

Unfortunately, it's a bit short, and the story isn't very ambitious, but it improves over the original in multiple ways, and succeeds at developing Miles as a character. I enjoyed it greatly.

I grew up with Spider-Man as my favourite fictional character and the ideal of what a human being should strive to be. I'd played his videogames, watched his movies and cartoons, and read his comic for years preceding this, so when it was announced and I saw various trailers for it, I was extremely excited. I took the day off when it came out, and that opening scene with the first swing is one hell of a feeling that I will never forget.

Marvel's Spider-Man is a love letter to everything Spider-Man is. It has a great respect for Peter Parker's history as a character. Insomniac's Peter has a history that covers most of the classic villains, his origin story is very faithful, and his overall character is an excellent blend of the original 616-verse and Ultimate Universe Spider-Men. Peter's intellect is also shown with the tech he makes, but it doesn't turn him into overly powerful, and keeps the core of what made Spider-Man great in the first place stay. The supporting cast and other characters are well-written, too.

There's not much to say that hasn't already been said about the game. Even though time has made the novelty wear off, I will still consider this the gold standard for any Spider-Man stories going forward, due to its emotional and small-scale focus relative to a lot of superhero stories. He's just a guy who wants to do the right thing for the little guy, while facing various struggles and responsibilities.

Before Your Eyes was an intensely emotional experience for me on many levels. I teared up at a few different points, and the ending caused me to weep. The game is only an hour and a half long, the passage of time in the game is controlled by your real-life blinking, and it goes on to explore a lot of challenging and engrossing themes that were paid off very effectively in ways I wasn't expecting even partway through; if this sounds appealing then I advise you learn nothing more about the game before playing it, even though I am someone who isn't particularly spoiler averse this is absolutely one of those rare examples of a game that is best played with as little foreknowledge as possible. If you're not convinced you want to play this game, hopefully me touching on its strengths in this review can help in some way though be warned I will talk a fair amount about the emotional impact of the mechanics and I lightly hint at the themes of the game's narrative.

Two things really stand out to me thinking back on this Before Your Eyes. The first is the game's exploration of memory and transience, which just on a textual level is already fascinating and moving to me, but the blinking mechanic breathes life into this discussion so beautifully. The are moments where you're caught in a moment so warm and safe you want to linger there forever, and you try and hold your eyes open so you can, but then you come to this acceptance that time has to move on, everything will pass eventually, and you give in and finally learn to let go of that moment, that precious memory of the past, and move on to what waits for you in the future; you give in and blink.

Conversely there are moments where you're in the middle of listening to what your mum, your dad, your best friend, has to say and then you reflexively blink without intending to and that moment disappears; memories, and time, slipping away from you like sand through your fingers. There were moments where this happened and I was okay with continuing onwards, but also multiple occasions where time escaping me like that, where this relentless march of time leading to sentences being cut off in your memory, half-formed, felt like an emotional gut-punch, leaving me longing to be able to turn back the clock even for a moment.

The blinking mechanic is, sadly, not perfect. It worked well enough for the game to absorb me into its world like it did, and led to some incredibly emotional moments as I detailed above, but there were definitely a handful of moments where I blinked and it didn't register (though thankfully the alternative, registering blinks that didn't happen, didn't occur which is good as this would have been much more dire I feel). These imperfections are the main thing stopping me from giving the game a perfect score, though they aren't so notable as to stop me from loving the game and all it has to say and show.

The other thing that stands out to me about the Before Your Eyes is the themes it explores via its narrative. Partway through the game I actually had a few different things I wasn't entirely onboard with about this narrative, and yet by the end every single one of these concerns had been directly addressed and often subverted in ways that paid off the fact that I wasn't entirely onboard with them earlier. I don't want to go into the themes here too explicitly since I don't want to ruin the ways in which they come together so beautifully, but I will say that the game's final notes are remarkably mature having something to say that we dearly need to hear in this time of rampant capitalism. The way this messaging was delivered was deeply affecting, incredibly healthy for me, and left me feeling very well-nourished.