What Remains of Edith Finch

[K]

18 minutes ago, df0 said:

How many games have you already played this year

 

It applies to any year!

[peeveen]

I went through this at the weekend, and I couldn't really say I got much out of it.

The story is OK, some good bits, some vague and unsatisying bits. I liked the punchline of the hunting trip (even the main character acknowledges that that's the best bit).

There is almost zero game in here. I'd advise anyone considering buying it to just watch a YouTube playthrough. Same thing.

Maybe this type of thing just isn't for me. The last couple of story-heavy games I played (Brothers, ValiantHearts) were miles better than this.

[deKay]

Completed it in one sitting last night. It was very good.

 

I wrote about it here:

 

https://lofi-gaming.org.uk/diary/2018/01/remains-edith-finch-ps4-completed/

 

the second half contains (signposted!) spoilers.

 

Didn't get the Swan link but it did seem very familiar- now I know why!

[Dudley]

3 hours ago, K said:

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

  Hide contents

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.

 

I can say it about 2 ever.

 

This and Little Inferno.

[dreamylittledream]

Cross post from the 2018 completions thread

 

So this is by turns one of the finest narrative games I've played and perhaps something of a disappointment.  Its clever, at times beautiful, and shows a masterstroke of imagination in turning a story book into a game with each sequence so individual but also its well not quite the game I hoped for or perhaps not quite the masterpiece I was promised.

 

It does suffer from some technical blips which particularly mar the opening 20 minutes (I'm not normally too sensitive to this story of thing but in a walking simulator where the atmosphere is everything, stuttering frame rate and slightly heavy feeling controls don't help.  It gets worse when the first story sequence suffers from illogical and inexplicable controls/mechanics which never really click as the narrative takes flight, which is a shame because from a story perspective I think I liked Molly's tale the best (I particularly liked wandering around the room afterwards and finding all the subjects of her transformations).  From a mechanics point of view I found Sam's story frustrating too.

 

It does improve, massivly and I found Barbara's, Gregory, Gus and particularly Lewis' stories to be stunning; by turns tragic and yet compelling with outstandingly different ways of expressing their respective ends and all giving striking but engagingly physical ways with interacting with them.  But then I hated the conclusion.  

 

Killing Edith in childbirth seemed particularly unnecessary, particularly if the game was trying to break the cycle of the misfortune of the Finch's, and I was massively frustrated that we didn't get to go into the old house

.

 

So yeah by turns loved and was disappointed - whilst I think its an amazing experiment in conveying narrative in a game I felt saddened and slightly unsatisfied by the end and combined with the slightly fiddly mechanics in more than one place, its not worthy of quite all the plaudits it has earned... 

 

So some more random thoughts having been digesting it again over the day - I still can see why its so acclaimed and at the same time feel incredibly frustrated by the narrative conclusion.

 

Some of the sequences were so inventive, I just loved the way Lewis' (the gamer) day dreams gradually developed from basic 2d rogue clone, via a forced perspective 3d diablo dungeon crawler to full on 3d Skyrim style conclusion.  Gus's kite sequence too was just beautiful to unwind.  

@K An 18 month old baby could definitely manage to thrown his toys around like Gus managed in the bath, you never ever leave a baby unattended in a bath...but that whole sequence with the music combined innocent play with tragedy beautifully.

 

But all these wonderful, macabre, tragic individual sequences just fail to tie into a complete story.  What is this trying to tell us?  The Finch's weren't cursed - that seems obvious but over half the deaths were due to negligent parenting (Molly, Walter, Caleb, Gregory, Gus & maybe Lewis) and a fair few due to recklessness (Sam, but also Odin and Sven and Edie - she mixed wine with her pills) but then the game concludes by killing off the final two characters in random just bad luck (cancer and child birth) that makes you lean back to thinking maybe this family is more than unlucky.  Killing Edith just doesn't seem to fit right in what the game was trying to say - and the conclusion feels like it deliberately denied the audience closure and ultimately was designed just to frame the game around the fact its a narrated diary...

 

It really damages what is a very special game in so many ways

[deKay]

The clue to the end is in the bloody title of the game though. Surely you couldn't expect anything else?

[dreamylittledream]

37 minutes ago, deKay said:

The clue to the end is in the bloody title of the game though. Surely you couldn't expect anything else?

 

 

I thought/hoped it referred to Edie (i.e Edith Finch Snr) - after all the whole thing basically revolves around her...

[Parappa]

Finished this in one sitting last night - the 2 hours flew by and it was certainly worth it.  I am not a massive fan of story driven games - although I enjoyed Gone Home - so maybe time to attempt EGTTR and Firewatch for starters.

 

Really great reading your comments and views on the game in here as there is a lot to think about and I especially like the nod to

Spoiler

Unfinished Swan

 

[Jamie John]

I started this game at about 10 o'clock this evening and finished it about 15 minutes ago. I thought it was completely mesmerising, from start to finish - imaginative, original and extremely atmospheric. My favourite story was probably Gregory's, as sad as it was, but regardless of the stories, just exploring the house and noticing all the little details was satisfying enough. The references to The Unfinished Swan made me smile, too.

 

I do agree with @dreamylittledream in some regards though, especially the  ending, which I also found anti-climactic.

Spoiler

I was expecting something a bit more relevatory. The annoying thing is that the developers lead you into believing you're going to discover something surprising when you play as Edie and walk across the sea floor to the original house, but then we never get to see what's inside that Edie is so desperate to show us. After that things just seemed to end a bit too quickly for me; you die, your son visits your grave, and that's that. It's all a bit safe and, dare I say it, lazy. I felt like they could have gone for something a bit more impressive and original for the ending, which would suit the rest of the game. As it is, though, I think it fizzles out a bit.

 

Overall, however, I'm glad I played it and would recommend it to anyone who's looking for a great experience to occupy a few spare hours. 4/5 stars from me.

[noob]

On 09/01/2018 at 10:53, parrapatheslapper said:

Finished this in one sitting last night - the 2 hours flew by and it was certainly worth it.  I am not a massive fan of story driven games - although I enjoyed Gone Home - so maybe time to attempt EGTTR and Firewatch for starters.

 

Really great reading your comments and views on the game in here as there is a lot to think about and I especially like the nod to

  Hide contents

Unfinished Swan

 

Please play those - two of my favourite games of this gen. 

 

If anyone is interested, you can listen to me chat to the composer for Edith on DorkTunes.com btw...

[Isaac]

Completed this last week and absolutely loved it - the Salmon factory story, in particular, was a highlight. 

 

I wish it was longer, and I felt that some of the stories could have been expanded a bit. I also agree with other posters that the ending felt a little rushed.

 

Having said that, it was brilliant.

[Dudley]

I wondered that too but there's something to be said for not outstaying your welcome, it's essentially a quite long feature film. Any longer and it's not really a 1 day game anymore and I think emotionally if nothing else it does benefit from that.

[squall]

I felt it was just the right length. Didn't feel like it pushed too much on me, or overstayed its welcome. I liked the ending and thought that it fit well.

[Vorgot]

Just played this one sitting and agree with the positive comments people have made, I loved it. Perfect length and packed an emotional punch without getting too saccharine. Really enjoyed the way each story was told very differently, all pretty different in tone and length, and worked well for that.

 

Plus the house was a joy to explore, and the huge nod to

Spoiler

Unfinished Swan

was great as well.

 

Since I got so much from this, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is £4 on PSN at the moment, I think it would be rude not to dip into that one.

[noob]

1 hour ago, Vorgot said:

Just played this one sitting and agree with the positive comments people have made, I loved it. Perfect length and packed an emotional punch without getting too saccharine. Really enjoyed the way each story was told very differently, all pretty different in tone and length, and worked well for that.

 

Plus the house was a joy to explore, and the huge nod to

  Hide contents

Unfinished Swan

was great as well.

 

Since I got so much from this, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is £4 on PSN at the moment, I think it would be rude not to dip into that one.

 

EGTTR is the only game to make me sob for ages after I finished it. Absolutely spellbinding. 

 

The soundtrack is probably my favourite one ever. Jessica is an incredible talent, I chatted to her for DorkTunes too, she's a good friend. 

 

 

[Vorgot]

8 hours ago, noob said:

 

EGTTR is the only game to make me sob for ages after I finished it. Absolutely spellbinding. 

 

The soundtrack is probably my favourite one ever. Jessica is an incredible talent, I chatted to her for DorkTunes too, she's a good friend. 

 

 

Will be grabbing that this week then. How long does it take to finish, is it a one sitting game like Finch? That one had me clubbing at the end and had several heart sinking moments for me as I realised what was about to happen.

[deKay]

2 minutes ago, Vorgot said:

Will be grabbing that this week then. How long does it take to finish, is it a one sitting game like Finch? That one had me clubbing at the end and had several heart sinking moments for me as I realised what was about to happen.

 

If you play it properly (and write down every radio dialogue, and take pictures of every toilet, clock, car number plate and Raleigh Burner like I did), it's maybe 8 hours. Certainly at least twice as long as Edith Finch, in any case.

[Vorgot]

55 minutes ago, deKay said:

 

If you play it properly (and write down every radio dialogue, and take pictures of every toilet, clock, car number plate and Raleigh Burner like I did), it's maybe 8 hours. Certainly at least twice as long as Edith Finch, in any case.

Ah OK, cheers. Maybe over a couple of nights then

[deKay]

2 minutes ago, Vorgot said:

Ah OK, cheers. Maybe over a couple of nights then

 

You don't have to take all them photos and notes by the way

[Vorgot]

6 minutes ago, deKay said:

 

You don't have to take all them photos and notes by the way

And I probably won't. I didn't even notice you could look through peepholes in Finch until near the end.....

[deKay]

28 minutes ago, Vorgot said:

And I probably won't. I didn't even notice you could look through peepholes in Finch until near the end.....

 

How?! The game literally tells you to!

[Illyria]

7 minutes ago, deKay said:

 

How?! The game literally tells you to!

 

Sadly that happens to a lot of people. I think I watched at least two who didn't do it, or not until much later in the game.

[Vorgot]

33 minutes ago, deKay said:

 

How?! The game literally tells you to!

Does it? When? Bloody hell, I obviously missed that one. I remember them being mentioned, but I didn't realise you could interact with them. I might well play it again though for the trophies, so will do it that time. 

[Escape]

I found Rapture's story a load of old hackneyed hokum (especially towards the end), but I loved its environment so much that that didn't matter. I played it for another few hours post-completion and enjoyed it a lot more without the ‘game’ bits ruining my sights. Just walking around doing nothing, but a tremendous experience.

 

It's because these stories try so hard to impress that they fall over for me, and Finch is no exception. As a film it might star an actor who hasn't had a hit in fifteen-odd years and go straight to streaming. It's trad mid-tier filmwriting, long since tired in its repetition. For example, there's a 2007 LeBeouf film called Disturbia that I'm positive'd rate very highly as a walking game. As a film, hardly anyone cares.

 

The difference is interaction, but Lewis' story — the height of this — felt like a cheap trick to me, initially immersing me through multitasking flattery. But my ego soon landed and I realised how absent-mindedly easy it was for almost everyone to perform, and as a trained-chimp exercise it brought me no closer to relating to Lewis' cigarette-packet episode. I also laughed when I wasn't supposed to throughout the game, not least at the steroid-arthouse of those faces. And while Barbara's story was clearly black-comedy schlock, it wasn't supposed to be Papa Lazarou as Yoda with snail-paced action.

 

Most of all, its portrayal of death — its core — struck me as idealised romanticism. I didn't find any of them touching because they were drenched in what I perceived as emo, in contrast to our own experiences of often undignified tragedies (they shied away from Dawn's grounded case). And so I found this reframing of death as a beautiful personal event too close to smoke-arsing the player, with self-centred mindfulness upending whatever parable it was attempting until its last act.

 

I enjoyed a few bits and pieces (although I think Molly's interactions set the bar at a height it never reclaimed, and those wafting-a-lens bits were terrible), but I'm a little gutted to have paid the full £16, rather than the £6 that I think it's worth. I respect that lots of people adored it, though, and I really appreciate what it was going for.

[Vorgot]

9 hours ago, Escaped said:

I enjoyed a few bits and pieces (although I think Molly's interactions set the bar at a height it never reclaimed, and those wafting-a-lens bits were terrible), but I'm a little gutted to have paid the full £16, rather than the £6 that I think it's worth. I respect that lots of people adored it, though, and I really appreciate what it was going for.

I get what you mean, and I think the price you pay makes a difference as well, it's about the value you perceive you got against the price paid. I paid £8, and felt I got my moneys worth and more for that. At full price, I may have felt a little differently. 

 

 

[Escape]

I know that £16's probably the price of a cinema ticket these days, but for a borderline foodbanker like me that's quite hefty. I've just paid £15 for The Last Guardian, and I'm sure I'll get my money's worth from that. Finch does most of the things I've complained about better than most other games (does a number of things incredibly well), but my expectations were set too high because its price backed up the near-universal praise I'd read.

 

Had I gone in cold at £6-8, I'd have found it much easier to ignore what I didn't like and enjoy the nice graphics and original setpieces. I know I took a dig at Lewis' chapter, but that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate it. It's choose-your-own-adventure limited, that's all, with a narrative that wrote a cheque that I'm not sure games are ready to cash.

 

I feel like I'm still waiting for an evolution of Fahrenheit's first chapter, before it went full Cage. Not to say that it wasn't cliched nonsense, but until I knew better it convinced me of possible failstates, and I guess that's more what I'm after. And as many have said, NPCs would've thrown Rapture into uncanny valley because it was already so close. I don't know what the answer to that problem is, but I felt the lights made it feel like Pertwee-era Doctor Who with better effects. The closer we get to visual realism, the more jarring these gaming conventions.

 

You can hop over a hedge to the left of the gate (right if you're facing it) after you've completed it and return to the main map, and I loved strolling around Frank's farm for a while doing nothing. I found it more immersive as a top-drawer rambling sim. Wish I could've driven the tractors, though! And the bikes, of course. I was thinking about a multiplayer game in its world that doesn't involve shooting, just going around fishing and cycling and using walkie-talkies and whatever we did as kids.

[NexivRed]

Probably about halfway through this. It’s awesome. I love how you can begin speculating right from the start, even with trying to work out the family tree. And seeing all the DODs. 

 

So far my theory is 

Spoiler

they all died via accidents stemming from creative and overactive imaginations. 

 

We’ll see how it turns out!

[NexivRed]

No words. 

[Majora]

This just beat Zelda, Mario and Horizon to take the GOTY award at the BAFTAs. What an achievement.

[Illyria]

Dude, I can't even express how happy this makes me. "My" precious little game has kicked ass!!! Underappreciated no more <3