not a huge fan of walking simulators in general so this is already an accomplishment for the game to achieve a 7/10 (which is good fans dont kill me please pleek pleek)

i actually think that the way the story is told with the whole words in the air whatever thing actually managed to make me focused on what was happening because ADHD is a thing that could be eating me alive and the restricted interactivity of the game gets the point across for me

story wise its pretty cool and exploring the familys overarching traumas that passed the test of time is incredibly interesting and even though i thought it wouldve gotten real boring real quick the different "gameplay" and storytelling of each one of these bite sized epitaphs piqued my interest in a way i didnt think this game could be able to and going for a stroll through finch manors (i dont know if its called like this but thats the name i used to refer to the house in my mind) impossible geometry architecture and verticality using secret passages (that tbh kinda fueled my claustrophobia but lets ignore that) is great

i feel like the manor is kind of a metaphor for the familys odd nature (tough shit probably 99+ youtubers already made a video about this analogy and im acting like discovering america) and oof theres some stories here that really take the cake in the disturbing or distressing factor

clearly my fav tales were the cat one and the fish factory one and also the baby bath one kind of i think this is where the narrative abilities of the devs (and also their usage of the medium) really shine through and i hate them for putting the cat one as the first story because i still feel kind of nauseous about it i think the "fish stuff" has become a meme im not aware of because while playing the game a friend came up to me on discord and said "oh shit the fish scene game omg i finished the game feeling kind of hollow but i didnt cry" and so i told him im 100% sure it wouldnt make me cry more than famous furry gay vn adastra did and proceeded to send him the guy fucking a fish meme whatever

lewis was a fucking blast because the "epitaph part" makes you do 2 things at a time with the 2 analogs trying to convey the methodical nature of this guys day to day life in contrast to his daydreaming wonders and also its the one that possibly hit me the most as a not so mentally sane person myself

and also lewis in the little sketch is kinda cute i want him as a bf i can fix him

wow this review doesnt make sense and also i dont know english ok umh nice fish game cute experience for a less than 2 hours runtime and a testament that walking simulators can be good

i didnt cry in the end which is pretty weird for me since i actually cry for every fucking piece of media ever created but maybe the dreamlike feel of it all made the events distant and hard to relate for me at least (says the person who cried for 4 hours straight during a furry vn where a gay sexy space wolf abducts and courts you)

biggest twist was that the girl was pregnant i audibly gasped like you know your family tree has a curse deal going on and you dont use condoms ? sweetie we need to talk

also this game is so weird like "i want to know the truth behind my family members mysterious deaths" proceeds to win the golden medal in trekking and climbing

Why is this narrated? The direction for performances flatten every spoken line, which in themselves offer no setting dynamism or effective characterisation, and collapse the individual voices of the game's cast into a single barely awake drone. The chase for seriousness is maddening with this understated read; every Finch is already a parody character, so aggrandised is their position in this world, keeping quarters as if they are consorts of many themed Ikea complete room renovations - a gross misunderstanding of art design, in my opinion: it contrasts the magical realism, or heightened reality, of the house's architecture and possible supernaturalia with an utterly mundane and ill-courted seeming interiored juvenilia of daily life. How at home are we meant to feel with the glowing house in the harbour when looking out of what is effectively a wizard's tower if the room is coated in kid's stickers and hunting gear? The script itself is barely more than descriptive, and is completely redundant to the game - if this had shipped nearly wordless, playing through each of the segments with no narration from Edith, it would have strung together a surreal but obvious link between a people whose downfalls seem tragic in the traditional sense. With the VO, and presentation for about half of the Finch fam, they all read as gullible, immaterial, or idiotic. Imagine reading Dubliners and instead of having described to you the rigour and depth of inner life extent to the city and human condition, everybody was a bit floaty and got hit by passing trains or choking on pheasant bones. UGH