Kentucky Route Zero is one of those games that most know about, many put in their backlogs...yet few attempt to play and even fewer complete.

There's a very good reason for this: KRZ gets closer to a book than any game I have ever played, including visual novels. In fact, strip away the tiny amount of interactivity and you're left with one of the best 21st century magical realist novels written this side of Latin America. And while that might sound like a good thing -- after all, books are far more respected in society than video games -- its stature as more befitting a novel than a walking simulator actually works against it in multiple ways.

First (and most obviously) of all, it's long. Extraordinarily, sometimes excessively long. And this isn't just talking about the length of the game's story, but the way the story is presented. One of the benefits video games and visual novels have over traiditional mediums of fiction is their ability to break apart larger sections of plot into bite-size pieces that are far easier to digest. KRZ, on the other hand, does not do that. Aside from Disco Elysium and indie arthouse games (which KRZ should honestly be categorized as) like [domestic], I don't think I have ever seen a game with paragraphs as wordly and fleshed out as KRZ. And not only that: they're dense. There are no wasted words in KRZ, no filler sentences, no overlong paragraphs. Every word is both an action and an imperative. Every word carries its own weight, an emotional and literary baggage that weighs down on your consciousness at all times. This makes for good fiction, as KRZ often is, but it also makes KRZ extremely difficult to read in long sessions. Personally, I could only read KRZ for an hour or two at a time before having to take a break for a couple of days, just to digest and comprehend the words I had prior seen, as well as to give my poor brain a break.

Furthermore, like any good magical realist novel, there are many characters. So many characters, in fact to the point where if this was any other game it would be almost impossible to keep track of them all. Luckily, like any good magical realist novel, each character is given the proper time and exposition to develop them into flesh-and-bone humans instead of words on a page, and the amount of love and attention that went into writing and developing each character simply cannot be overstated. Even with how developed each character is, it's still a struggle, though, that remains present throughout the game. This, again, is something common in novels, especially modernist novels, yet exceedingly rare in games. In most games, the character that gets the most development...is you. You play as the main character, and everyone else revolves around you. As such, even if there are hundreds or even thousands of characters, because those characters aren't you or the people that are close to you, they don't matter past a passing reference or a short cutscene or a fetch quest. In Kentucky Route Zero, you are not the main character, or any sort of important character at all. You are a vessel for their stories; your legacy is to carry their history. As such, to understand even the main story, you have to understand far, far more people -- and by extension, the qualities and experiences of said people -- than you normally would with any other game.

Yet, even given the strength of the overall game's story, I cannot say the same for the main plot. This is odd, given that the side stories are brilliant and beautiful and executed perfectly. Indeed, the game is at its strongest when it is just unfolding the narratives of the people you're around, and revealing their pasts. Meanwhile, Conway's story...is not nearly as good, and in fact is the weakest story in the entire game. Every time I was reading through Conway's own mission of the antiques company, I was biding my time until the side stories showed up back again, because that is where the real meat of the game lies.

Before closing this review, I'd like to touch upon the episodic format and gameplay. Gameplay is simple point-and-click. As I stated earlier, it's crude. Yet, it has just the right amount of interaction and gets the job done. The episodic format is handled perfectly, and the style is consistently even.

In conclusion, Kentucky Route Zero is an absurdly-focused, fiercely creative tour de force that is executed with utmost grace and stylistic flair. Its unapologetic complexity and neverending length naturally makes it a divisive game, and many might (with good intention) view the game as being flowerly, dull, and pretentious. This is somewhat fair, especially since much of the genius behind the game's wriitng can only be revealed after careful observation, or in my case, a second playthrough (I found it dull and monotonous the first time through). Yet, pushing through Kentucky Route Zero and truly getting to know the dozens of dazzlingly-written characters reveals one of the most hilarious, heartbreaking, poignant, satirical, and ultimately unforgettable experiences you will ever encounter in this medium. As I stated in the beginning of the review, Kentucky Route Zero isn't just one of the best stories in gaming, but the best 21st century work of fiction in the magical realism genre published outside of Latin America. The developers struck a Faustian bargain to bring us this game, and we, as gamers, all collectively benefit.

But, in finality, a word of advice: to understand the magic behind this game, you need to committ. You need to understand, to listen, to put in the time and the effort. In Kentucky Route Zero, you're not talking to walking encylopedias or fetch quest robots. You're talking to humans. Remember that.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 (Phenomenal)