It's clear from just a glance that Dormin, developer of "A Hint Of Purple" has played and enjoyed Disco Elysium. Taking DE's general character artstyle and text system is not at all a bad or hollow idea, these are loved for a reason and indeed AHofP is not trying to be DE. Its a visual novel rather than an RPG which uses the dramatic device of being "stuck in one's own head" to tell a very compelling narrative.

This is one of those games which is hard to write much about because its short (30mins) and I genuinely want more people to play it (its free on steam) so I think I'll just drop a spoiler warning here, please come back to read the rest of it and maybe even start a bit of a discussion about it.

AHoP does a rather clever thing in recognition of an issue a lot of branching narrative games fall into where they struggle with the balance of providing a nebulously defined "meaningful" choice and keeping the scope of the game manageable.

There are people for e.g who accused Pentiment of "Your Choices dont matter!" and I genuinely wonder what the hell those people are talking about. In conversation with Disco Elysium and Pentiment and the like, which are games less about how you bend the world to the will of you, the player and more about how your character reacts and approaches this world. AHoP goes for a risky gambit : Your character is a victim of an accident only alluded to at first, who has become totally paralyzed from the neck down, requiring 24/7 care and being unable to speak or communicate, even.

I can definitely see some who would dislike this dynamic, your character being unable to speak, pretty much all dialogue choices amount to how your character is thinking about the people around her, unable to meaningfully reply to any of them. As strange as it sounds however, there is still meaning to be found in this, the cast of strangers who's lives we get smaller or bigger glimpses of appreciating someone who will just listen to them, implied poetic justice for a character who was previously forceful and self centered.

This last point is of course where I imagine the game will lose a lot of you. Personally I found it compelling and it worked, but I can begrudgingly admit it will come across as a bit trite to some. And even I have to admit theres one or two small moments where I thought the game was going to shit the bed but thankfully never did.

There are also flashbacks from before the accident in which you have more explicit control in how she dealt with these issues whilst still within the bounds of her implied personality in the present, which strikes that golden balance of player and author collaboration that this medium is all about

Its not just people who are alone, who are struggling with work, growing old, abusive partners and having to grieve the loss of a loved one who is still alive and denying closure through continuing to live.

There's just something fascinating about it, the vicarious grief, anger, desesperation of not being in control of your body and seeing your partner ruin their chances at happiness by taking care of you, the seemingly vestigial Disco Elysium element of speaking to your prefrontal cortex who has their own voice. I think the highest compliment I can give this game is that when I'm done writing this I want to play it again to see If I can understand what I might have missed the first time around. Also that it made me tear up a bit; and that the music is good.

P.S I love you Maude and I hope your boyfriend makes a full recovery