What Remains of Edith Finch

Hello internet! I'm very excited to post my first blog entry here ehehe :) 

I just finished playing What Remains of Edith Finch, a game developed by Giant Sparrow and published by Annapurna Interactive in 2017. It was a recommendation from my best friend Onyx, an inveterate gamer and someone who always knows what I could enjoy. Expect to see her name more times in my game log! 

It took me around three hours to finish without rushing in any way (I actually paid close attention to detail and took my time with some of the scenes involving more interaction :3).

In this amazing walking simulator, you explore the immense house of the Finches through Edith's eyes, the only member of the family that still lives, with the intention of discovering the many secrets about your bloodline that have been kept from you. 

It's an incredibly immersive experience from the very beginning, which I can't say about a lot of things, even if I'm not hard to please at all! It's true that the POV being first person makes it easier for the player to feel as if they were the one inside the screen, but I think that there's a bit more to it in this game's case. Something that wrapped everything together in a very simple way was how the text for the protagonist's internal dialogue was displayed. Instead of using any sort of bubble, every subtitle just merges and interacts with your surroundings. This has been done before, but it definitely hasn't been overused, and it adds an incredible dynamism to whatever you're telling. 

I'd call it a very special game in terms of storytelling. As I previously mentioned, you're visiting your old house in hopes of learning the truth about aspects of your family you didn't know before, specifically, the causes of the almost always premature, unnatural deaths that have made the world think you hold some generational curse. You find these stories out through numerous letters, poems, pictures, and such. They're always accompanied by interactive scenes that help you picture what you're reading. Each of those is different from the others, not only element-wise, but when it comes to mechanics as well. There's a positively big amount of heterogeneity without ever losing the main essence of the game!

Adding to this big amount of variety in the game, it's worth mentioning how nothing is explained to you straightforwardly, which hooks you even more imo! Some cases are very obvious, but some others leave some more room for interpretation since they rely on (absolutely outstanding) metaphors and analogies I can only describe as beautifully genius. 

The concept of the story sounds like it could lead into something macabre or depressing, but truth be told, the message the game sends is quite reassuring, and the atmosphere always feels familiar, comforting, or even cozy. Kudos to the developers for creating a house that feels so, so alive, even after being inhabited for years, and for paying such attention to details in design and decoration.

I would also like to say that there's an aspect of the game that screams magic realism, and it gave me this feeling of déjà vu as well as reminding me of Life Is Strange big time. An absolutely clear case of "if you like this game, you should definitely try this other one!". Goes both ways :)

In conclusion, I had a lot of fun playing this today. It was a very emotional experience that let me get lost in its narrative for a couple hours. I personally think it's wayyy better to go in as blind as possible, but I'll leave a couple screenshots I took just in case visual stuff is what you need for something to fully catch your attention! :)

Ps: loved the Indian rep! Also, the flowers you see in the first picture of the post are calla lilies. They represent rebirth and new opportunities in many cultures. Thought this was a cool detail to share :)

Bye!٩(^ᴗ^)۶