What Remains of Edith Finch

[Mike]

Just played this in one go and loved it.  I'd been meaning to play it for a while and have had it sitting on my steam list.  Glad I've gotten to experience it.   

[Hexx]

Really liked this - but didn't love it as much as (say) Gone Home - and did it in one sitting.

Beautiful world and storytelling - but it feels that you get most story elements on one play through. (Although I'm sure there's lots of details hidden in the world/art work, most of these seemed to flesh out the story you already knew, rather than adding new elements).

Didn't feel like it could maintain itself throughout. There's a clear difference in design quality between, say, Barbara's story (which while told in an inventive manner, seemed the weakest story) and Lewis' (which was also told in an inventive manner, and had a strong message to it)

I liked Gone Home where there's about 2-3 subplots (e.g.

child abuse, parents issues/reconciliation

) that you can completely miss.

[SozzlyJoe]

I also finished this over Christmas. Loved it so much. Short and sweet, and really raises the bar for the genre.

One question - what actually happened Barbara in 'reality' (I presume she didn't really meet the fate she did in the comic!)?

 

[Hexx]

25 minutes ago, SozzlyJoe said:

I also finished this over Christmas. Loved it so much. Short and sweet, and really raises the bar for the genre.

One question - what actually happened Barbara in 'reality' (I presume she didn't really meet the fate she did in the comic!)?

 

 

 

You don't know.

 

She disappeared (presumed dead). All they found was her ear in a box (And I think a broken banister.) Her boyfriend disappeared at same time 

Walter, the only witness, didn't describe much - but says later "Whatever killed Barbara". Because he's uncertain, or because he saw...something

 

Could be dead from passing monster, passing person, boyfriend (accident or on purpose)...or could have run away with boyfriend hoping she'd be a big news story..(seems unlikley she doesn't sound like she wanted to be remembered, she wanted to be famous)

 

How did the random comic know the secret to opening the Finches basement?

 

 

[SozzlyJoe]

Make sense. Just wondering if I had missed a fuller explanation.. My guess was that

her boyfriend killed her. I'm guessing they got the specific house details from a police report or suchlike? Obviously suspension of disbelief required for that point! I also was musing on how the grandmother lived to such a ripe old age,  perhaps because she was not a 'Finch' at all, having only married into the clan and not being part of the cursed lineage.

.

[Hexx]

5 minutes ago, SozzlyJoe said:

Make sense. Just wondering if I had missed a fuller explanation.. My guess was that

  Hide contents

her boyfriend killed her. I'm guessing they got the specific house details from a police report or suchlike? Obviously suspension of disbelief required for that point! I also was musing on how the grandmother lived to such a ripe old age,  perhaps because she was not a 'Finch' at all, having only married into the clan and not being part of the cursed lineage.

.

 

 

I liked the Grandma, but she's totally bat shit crazy.

 

Shrines to the dead people (complete with character portrait she paints), the stories she keeps around.

What sort of wierdo keeps a picture of their husband dying in their room?

 

Edie was Odin's daughter wasn't she? She's a blood-finch. Sven married into the family..

 

Dawn's (that's Edith's mother right?) husband died though, and he's not a Finch. He doesn't get a story though.
 

 

[SozzlyJoe]

Ah, you're right, I was getting the relationships mixed up there.

A mystery then how she escaped the 'curse', but I guess she was cursed in her own way.

[Hexx]

2 minutes ago, SozzlyJoe said:

Ah, you're right, I was getting the relationships mixed up there.

  Hide contents

A mystery then how she escaped the 'curse', but I guess she was cursed in her own way.

 

 

There's no curse - just lots and lots of stupid people ("Oh let's build a swing next to, and aimed over, a cliff") - and some unhappy people

 

You could say that she survived because she fed/honored the curse by passing on stories...causing more deaths

 

Also she kills a fair few people doesn't she?

Molly - sends to bed without supper so she poisons herself

Calvin - calls him in to eat dinner he doesn't want ("he'd die before eating another mushroom")

Walter - foster's fear of the curse, then doesn't bring enough peaches

 

 

She probably snuck in and brutally murdered Babs

[Dudley]

24 minutes ago, Hexx said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

You don't know.

 

She disappeared (presumed dead). All they found was her ear in a box (And I think a broken banister.) Her boyfriend disappeared at same time 

Walter, the only witness, didn't describe much - but says later "Whatever killed Barbara". Because he's uncertain, or because he saw...something

 

Could be dead from passing monster, passing person, boyfriend (accident or on purpose)...or could have run away with boyfriend hoping she'd be a big news story..(seems unlikley she doesn't sound like she wanted to be remembered, she wanted to be famous)

 

How did the random comic know the secret to opening the Finches basement?

 

 

 

There's a very few plotholes in the game but that's probably one of them.

 

The other one is

 

So mum went mad and boarded up the rooms, Gran drilled holes.  But Edie's room and the final child's one both also have this setup, which they shouldn't since that happened afterwards.

 

For new people to the thread there's a video a page or two back that explores that the Grandmother is the real villain in this story.

[Hexx]

15 minutes ago, Dudley said:

 

There's a very few plotholes in the game but that's probably one of them.

 

The other one is

 

 

  Hide contents

 

 

So mum went mad and boarded up the rooms, Gran drilled holes.  But Edie's room and the final child's one both also have this setup, which they shouldn't since that happened afterwards.

 

 

 

For new people to the thread there's a video a page or two back that explores that the Grandmother is the real villain in this story.

 

 

She's definitely a factor. Regardless of curse lots, but not all, the deaths seem to come down to individuals brooding self-reflection caused by her

fixation on, and passing on stories of, the curse.

 

Or oddly enough the opposite with people becoming careless/desensitized to death by her harping on about it all the time.

 

And what sort of Mother helps her child live secretly in the basement for 30 years due to fear?!?!? 

I hadn't twigged Edie's door issue. Maybe Dawn locked it due to the Sven Shrine? Edie drilled it so people could see? But Edie could still go in and out?


Or was Edie sleeping the Library? There was a bed in there...

 

 

Which child do you mean?

 

 

 

 

[Unofficial Who]

4 hours ago, Hexx said:

There's a clear difference in design quality between, say, Barbara's story (which while told in an inventive manner, seemed the weakest story) 

 

 

I just read an interview in the Edge manual where they said they were going to get John Carpenter to do the narration for Barbara's section but the SAG strike apparently squashed that. Maybe that would have helped? The voice acting in that section felt a little off.

 

For her section

I assumed that the man with the hook hand had killed both her boyfriend and Barbara. I assumed everything after Barbara sneaking up on hook guy was pure fantasy, about as reliable as "and then I was a shark!"

 

It would also explain Walter living under the house, the grown up version of hiding under the bed. I thought he left not because the peaches had run out but because the rattling noise outside had stopped. The noise he equated to being the monster that knocked on his door and killed his sister.

[SozzlyJoe]

It seems pretty clear that there is a fair bit of the old magical realism going on, which I usually hate but is deft enough here. In fact, it's probably a good idea as it neatly heads off the plot hole spelunking we are indulging in here ;-)

I think at the very start Edith straight-up admits to being an unreliable narrator.

[Hexx]

Well it was all pure fantasy, as it was some comic telling a "this is what happened". I don't think anyone knows (after the parents left the house) - there's just dozens of theories as Edith says (although why did Edie keep this one in the shrine?)

 

I didn't spot no rumble - but I thought there was no can on Walters last day, saying "he can't keep living the same day again and again" or similar

[Dudley]

1 hour ago, Hexx said:

 

  Hide contents

She's definitely a factor. Regardless of curse lots, but not all, the deaths seem to come down to individuals brooding self-reflection caused by her

fixation on, and passing on stories of, the curse.

 

Or oddly enough the opposite with people becoming careless/desensitized to death by her harping on about it all the time.

 

And what sort of Mother helps her child live secretly in the basement for 30 years due to fear?!?!? 

I hadn't twigged Edie's door issue. Maybe Dawn locked it due to the Sven Shrine? Edie drilled it so people could see? But Edie could still go in and out?


Or was Edie sleeping the Library? There was a bed in there...

 

 

Which child do you mean?

 

 

 

 

 

Lewis, they left straight after his funeral, did she really board up his room already and did a 90+ year old Edie really go up there and drill a peephole?

 

And of course Edie didn't die until after Dawn left the house forever, although you have hit on a vaguely possible explanation for that.  In the last week of her life Edie did manage to make the monument for his grave for example.

 

The other possibility of course is what we're seeing is not what Edith saw but what Edith's son saw when he visited or even what he imagined based on the description and thus he might well have assumed those 2 were boarded up when they actually weren't.

[Hexx]

2 minutes ago, Dudley said:

 

 

  Hide contents

 

 

Lewis, they left straight after his funeral, did she really board up his room already and did a 90+ year old Edie really go up there and drill a peephole?

 

And of course Edie didn't die until after Dawn left the house forever, although you have hit on a vaguely possible explanation for that.  In the last week of her life Edie did manage to make the monument for his grave for example.

 

The other possibility of course is what we're seeing is not what Edith saw but what Edith's son saw when he visited or even what he imagined based on the description and thus he might well have assumed those 2 were boarded up when they actually weren't.
 

 

 

 

There was a couple of days between the funeral and them leaving wasn't there?

I'm sure Edith said they didn't tell Edie until the day they were leaving...

 

Still doesn't explain how 90 year old got up there though

 

We don't know Edie died technically do we? It was definitely a more vague "she was gone" statement.

 

[Dudley]

I think they said it was the night of but to be honest I'd have to go back and check.

 

As to your other question

 

Technically you're right but.

 

 

 

[HoiOimMarkBrown]

I'm watching a visiting friend play this at the moment. Frustratingly heavy in its writing but aesthetically terrific, and I get the impression some of the object manipulation is a lot of fun.

[Steve McQueef]

Just bought it. Another one for the digital backlog. 

[Unofficial Who]

8 hours ago, John Edward Gammell said:

Just bought it. Another one for the digital backlog. 

 

Don’t leave it for the backlog, you can easily finish it in an afternoon. When I heard how short it was I put it to the top of my pile to play.

[Hexx]

14 hours ago, Dudley said:

I think they said it was the night of but to be honest I'd have to go back and check.

 

As to your other question

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Technically you're right but.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh wow. Totally missed the importance of that.

Thanks!

[df0]

11 hours ago, John Edward Gammell said:

Just bought it. Another one for the digital backlog. 

Game takes 2 hours to complete. Make it your top priority, you'll not regret it.

[Hexx]

I regreted one thing. Got all the Trophies on 1 session. Didn't get a platinum

 

[Siri]

Bought it because of how many people are putting it in their GOTY lists, and as it's in a certain sale going on.

Blimey, I couldn't stop playing it until it was done, it had me gripped - Far more so than Firewatch or Dear Esther. The multiple fantastical stories reminded me of one of my favourite films, Big Fish. And with almost as strong a gut punch during some of them.

I will now do a mind dump after playing the entire game:
 

Spoiler

FUCKING GREGORY, MAN.

CHRIST.

 

Sam's story was also rough - Partly from how the story was told through shooting photographs, partly a heartfelt family camping trip, partly OH GOD I HAVE TO SHOOT THAT FUCKING DEER OH GOD DAWN IS CRYING partly OH GOD THAT'S HOW HE DIED FUCK THIS SHIT MAN

Walter's story was also fantastic. The focus on time, repetition, monotony, fear. And then realising the cause of the rumbles all along after he breaks free. Man, that was great.

I see a lot of people loved Lewis' story, I can understand why - You expected something to go into the chopping machine, but it went off in a tangent I wasn't expecting and that was good, but.. you kind of knew something bad was going to happen, so it wasn't as effective for me? I dunno, man.

Definitely the best 'Walking Sim' I've played, and an incredibly enjoyable narrative. VERY GOOD.

[Orbital2060]

I liked Calvin's story

 

Always wanted to try that as a kid.

[macosx]

Played through last night. Really enjoyed it.

 

Spoiler

Really wanted togo through Miltons door. There was so many missing posters about the house.

 

On Walters story, when he get’s smushed by the train, yet Edith finds the tracks mangled leading to the Sea. I didn’t quite understand why .

 

The ending felt unsatisfying and rushed,  I felt the ‘curse’  needed breaking or more understanding to be learned from all the tales rather than I’m dead here’s my book.

 

[SozzlyJoe]

Regarding this:

 

3 hours ago, macosx said:

 

 

  Hide contents

Really wanted togo through Miltons door. There was so many missing posters about the house.

 

 

Play the Unfinished Swan, that's basically Milton's story.

 

[macosx]

@SozzlyJoe I never finished it. Will download it again. 

[Marlew]

I was amazed by that story and loved the reference. It was probably the first walking simulator that I ever played and I adored it. 

[K]

I thought this was profoundly moving. The idea of a walking simulator that follows a young woman unearthing the intimate details of her extended family’s lives in a sprawling mansion in the Pacific north-west sounds like a parody of the genre, but the execution was absolutely flawless.

 

What I really loved about it was the way that it used different game mechanics to illustrate the worldview of each character, so that

the ten year-old girl operated under a kind of runaway dream logic. I found Gregory’s chapter particularly moving, partly because of the subject matter, but mainly because it used the game mechanics to bring to life the kind of abstract imaginative play that little kids indulge in. Gregory seemed a little bit too young for that kind of play, but I still found it almost overwhelming to look at the world through a baby’s eyes. A lot of it rang incredibly true, particularly the bit about escaping into fantasy from a tedious job – been there, done that.

 

A genuinely touching experience. I completed this, and just sat there thinking about it for a good while afterwards. Can’t say that about many other games I played this year.

[df0]

1 minute ago, K said:

What I really loved about it was the way that it used different game mechanics to illustrate the worldview of each character, so that

A genuinely touching experience. I completed this, and just sat there thinking about it for a good while afterwards. Can’t say that about many other games I played this year.

How many games have you already played this year