Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: What Remains of Edith Finch
Developer: AnnaPurna Interactive
Publisher: GameTomo
Genre: adventure, walking simulator
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 04 July 2019
Price: $19.99
Also Available On: Epic Store, PS4, Steam, XB1
I first heard about What Remains of Edith Finch in 2017 during The Game Awards, where it was nominated for Best Narrative, and won. Over time after that, I have only seen snippets and short video clips around the web showing the game’s gameplay, but I really had no idea what the game is generally all about up to the time when I played it.
The game is about the titular Edith Finch, the sole surviving member of the Finches, a family believed to be cursed, as only one child in each generation survives. Edith comes back to her old family home after many years. She lived and grew up there, until she and her mother left the house after her brother, Lewis, committed suicide. Dawn, Edith’s mother, gave her a key to the house, which prompted her to return there. The key, however, did not open the front door, thus she had to enter the house by the backdoor. Inside, she is greeted by the house which remains untouched since the night she and her mother left. The house has lots of rooms, all of them sealed shut. Edith begins walking through the house, and in one of the rooms, she is able to use the key to open a secret passage to a room of Molly, Edith’s grandaunt, who died in the 1946 at the age of 10. There she finds Molly’s diary. She read the last diary entry that Molly wrote on the night she died, and Edith, while reading the words, begins to relive that fateful night…
The rooms are interconnected by a series of passages and crawlspaces, and you as the player get to reach these rooms in a fairly linear fashion. In most of the rooms that you visit, there is a memento that you get to interact with, which, like Molly’s diary, transports you into their thoughts, and you get to play as them in first person. These memento vary, from a diary to a letter, to scribbled drawings. The gameplay for each of these mementos vary as well and rather wildly at times, and this is where the game really shines the brightest. Each of these sections are very different from the one before, but they all end the same: the character that you play as dies at the end. No, you can’t change the outcome whatsoever, they all have to die, because they have already died, and you are just reliving how it was like to be in their shoes during their last few moments. Even if this is the case, all of these sections don’t leave you feeling dread and despair, but knowing how it feels like to be them for a brief moment in their life will make you feel some sort of closure with a heavy dose of melancholy, as Edith probably also feels as she writes her entries on her own diary, describing each of her family members and having tiny glimpses to their life.
Aside from the uniquely amazing gameplay, the presentation also makes the game special. At its core, the game is a walking simulation, where you just have to walk from one area to the next. You are pointed to where you have to go next by words and sentences as Edith narrates them that float in the air. This captures your attention right away and you will find out that the only way to go forward is to go where the floating words are written. Aside from these, you also get prompted to interact with various things like doors, latches, and the aforementioned mementos and you do so by pressing ZR. The HD Rumble is also put to use very well and adds tactility in these interactions. The visuals are pretty good, though I think the quality is a bit pulled back due to it playing on the Nintendo Switch. I have never played the version of the game on other platforms and I am not entirely sure this is indeed the case, but despite that, I think the game looks really good. The game also has a good musical score that evokes the feeling of subdued sadness and longing, but it does add to the overall experience and atmosphere that the game conveys.
Overall, What Remains of Edith Finch is one very good game. It’s a bit short, only lasting for about 2-3 hours of total play time, but you won’t feel unsatisfied when it ends. The game actually allows you to play any of the memories once you beat it and there is a good chance that you will want to replay those that really tickled your fancy, or maybe replay the entire thing if you want. It is that good. It’s a bit pricey at $19.99 for a 2 year old game, but like other Switch games, you can play it anywhere you want. So if you want to go through an adventure with Edith Finch and the rest of the Finches, prepare for one emotional ride that will make you a bit sad, maybe even teary at times, but one very good, unique adventure nonetheless.
REPLAY VALUE: High
PROS
- Good visuals, especially during memory gameplays that very much vary in style
- The musical score evokes the feeling of subdued sadness and longing, complementing the visuals very well
- Very unique narrative style and gameplay
- Very good use of HD rumble
- Short and sweet, and you can play it anywhere
CONS
- Frequent frame rate drops and slight lagging throughout the game, but not too much to ruin the gameplay
- A bit pricey for a 2 year old game and for its length
RATING: 4.5/5 Finch flights
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