What Remains of Edith Finch

[Dudley]

Milton's room is pretty explicit about that connection I'd say.

[HarryBizzle]

I played it years ago and barely even remember it. All the other deaths are basically realistic deaths told in Big Fish style so “he must have actually gone to a magic world he created” doesn’t exactly fit. 

[Majora]

If you'd just played Edith Finch you'd just interpret it as a kid going missing one day, The Unfinished Swan connection was a little easter egg for people who had played both, nothing more than that really. I don't think you're meant to read too deeply into it.

[deKay]

2 hours ago, HarryBizzle said:

 

I've played it and loved it, but didn't know the two were connected or even made by the same people.

 

 

I didn't miss it, I just didn't think a tube of toothpaste and two berries was enough to kill someone.

Holly berries are incredibly toxic.

[HarryBizzle]

Spoiler

Yeah, they are. Two seems too few to kill you, though. She also wrote her experiences in her diary, so I assumed she basically tripped out from the weird stuff she ate, came around and then wrote in her book. 

 

Anyway, the more I think about this, the more I think the ending is a missed opportunity. It fell pretty flat for me. Edith never really understood what was going on as a kid, so I don't actually feel that much for her. Her death feels a bit out of left field to get a reaction from us, but it didn't really do anything for me. Edie, on the other hand, has endured basically everyone she's ever loved die and somehow remained unbroken, so most of the significant melancholy which I felt through the game was through empathising with her. Edith is basically narrating Edie's life as she tells us what happened. Then the last we see of her is on the porch of her house, and we get no story for her. We don't even finish her story of when she finally got to visit the home that meant so much to her.

 

 

 

[deKay]

Spoiler

But that's it - the whole story *is* the story of Edie and her family, and it we get to see the end of it when Edith and her mum leave, and Edie dies right afterwards. You even play as Edie when she goes out into the sea when the tide is out.

 

I took the game's title, once I'd played it, as being What Remains of the older Edith Finch - not the younger one.

 

[HarryBizzle]

13 minutes ago, deKay said:

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But that's it - the whole story *is* the story of Edie and her family, and it we get to see the end of it when Edith and her mum leave, and Edie dies right afterwards. You even play as Edie when she goes out into the sea when the tide is out.

 

I took the game's title, once I'd played it, as being What Remains of the older Edith Finch - not the younger one.

 

Spoiler

 

You play as her, but it’s cut short. Nothing really happens.

 

Her end is not the finale of the game or anywhere as emotional as I would expect. It was an opportunity to go big, tell a wonderful tall tale that does her justice. Instead it’s just a sad end that we don’t even see - it’s narrated to us.

 

 

[dreamylittledream]

Spoiler

I hated the end for that reason, Edith and Dawns deaths come so rapidly out of left field that they are just there for emotional reaction, rather than good story telling. They just don’t fit the overall narrative.

 

 The title definitely refers to the older Edith, she’s the Queen bee at the centre of everything and is either directly or indirectly responsible for most of her children’s deaths, which makes the ending all the more jarring; as the point is this isn’t actually a cursed family at all

 

[deKay]

5 minutes ago, dreamylittledream said:

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I hated the end for that reason, Edith and Edie’s come so rapidly out of left field that they are just there for emotional reaction, rather than good story telling. They just don’t fit the overall narrative.

 

 The title definitely refers to the older Edith, she’s the Queen bee at the centre of everything and is either directly or indirectly responsible for most of her children’s deaths, which makes the ending all the more jarring; as the point is this isn’t actually a cursed family at all

 

 

Spoiler

I think it's ambiguous that it's cursed or not. And intentionally so. I didn't see anything that suggested Edie was responsible for any of the deaths though.

 

[HarryBizzle]

Yeah, I didn’t see how she was responsible at all. 

[Dudley]

I could make an argument for... Walter?  Peach boy.

[dreamylittledream]

Molly only ate the berry’s because she was sent to bed without dinner.

 

 Who the fuck builds a swing on the edge of a cliff and lets the kids use it unsupervised (Calvin)

 

 Where exactly is Edith the night Molly is murdered?

 

Walter as already suggested

 

 

[deKay]

Just now, dreamylittledream said:

Molly only ate the berry’s because she was sent to bed without dinner.

 

Hardly Edie's fault.

 

Just now, dreamylittledream said:

 

 Who the fuck builds a swing on the edge of a cliff and lets the kids use it unsupervised (Calvin)

 

 Where exactly is Edith the night Molly is murdered?

 

Molly wasn't murdered.

 

Just now, dreamylittledream said:

 

Walter as already suggested

 

Spoiler

Edith was driving the train!?

 

Spoiler

What about everyone else whose deaths have nothing to do with Edie at all? Like her parents? Or Edith? Or Gregory? Or Sam? Or Dawn? Or Lewis? Or Sanjay?

 

[Dudley]

9 hours ago, deKay said:

 

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Edith was driving the train!?

 

 

 

I would suggest that if someone is subject to decades of emotional abuse and then throws themselves in front of a train, the train driver is not the murderer here.  Not that Walter threw himself in front of the train, if there even was one, but his entire route is one born of abuse.

[deKay]

35 minutes ago, Dudley said:

 

 

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I would suggest that if someone is subject to decades of emotional abuse and then throws themselves in front of a train, the train driver is not the murderer here.  Not that Walter threw himself in front of the train, if there even was one, but his entire route is one born of abuse.

 

What abuse?

[Unofficial Who]

3 hours ago, deKay said:

What abuse?

 

I think there's an implied view that

Edie while upset at some of the earlier deaths does seen to enjoy the attention of later tragedies, or at least obsesses over them.

 

I mean look at this.

 



 

Who keeps a photo of the moment their husband falls to their death next to a framed newspaper article reporting on it?

 

A lot of people see this game as a celebration of the stories we tell. I see it as a cautionary tale about how stories can become toxic narratives. There's a reason why Edith's mother fled into the night with her child after arguing with Edie about stories.

[HarryBizzle]

4 hours ago, Dudley said:

 

 

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I would suggest that if someone is subject to decades of emotional abuse and then throws themselves in front of a train, the train driver is not the murderer here.  Not that Walter threw himself in front of the train, if there even was one, but his entire route is one born of abuse.

 

He wasn’t emotionally abused. He chose to live down there from when he was in his 20s. 
 

And there clearly was a train. Edith sees the memorial right next to the track when she follows his footprints. He didn’t throw himself in front of it, either. Just standing there a bit awestruck and got hit. 
 

I thought that one was supposed to be funny, actually. Properly black humour. 

[deKay]

I don’t really agree (I think she just accepts they happen and you can’t stop them), but either way that doesn’t explain how someone would think Walter suffered decades of abuse.

[HarryBizzle]

5 minutes ago, deKay said:

I don’t really agree (I think she just accepts they happen and you can’t stop them), but either way that doesn’t explain how someone would think Walter suffered decades of abuse.

I agree. She seems to have come to terms with the fact that death is a part of life. 
 

There’s also nothing to suggest that she is constantly telling her kids about the curse at every turn. It’s not even clearly said whether she believes in it or not. She doesn’t encourage them to live in fear. She just doesn’t hide their past from them, like Edith’s mother tried to. 

[Thwomp]

I just played through this and thought it was a decent little game. I don't think it was as good as Gone Home, mind. 

 

One question I must know the answer to:

Spoiler

Did the kids seriously have to climb all the way down from the top of the house to use the toilet??

 

[Dudley]

Off the side mate.

[Wroth]

 

Spoiler

When I first played this game it felt weird that the moral of the story seemed to be "having an imagination is bad and will get you killed". But after seeing this video I think it contextualises it much better towards something like "Real tragedies happen. Explaining them away with fantasy doesn't solve the problem". In doing so it very clearly paints Edie as the villain, addicted to the glamour and fame of the "curse".

 

[Dudley]

I think that's posted, possibly in a spoiler, right back at the start, it's an interesting theory.

[GokouD]

Just played this on the Switch without really knowing anything about it other than it was supposed to be good, and my jaw is on the floor. Just stunningly brilliant. I'm a big fan of magic realism and this felt like the gaming equivalent of reading One Hundred Years Of Solitude. I assume it's not a coincidence that there's a copy on one of the bookshelves. 

[Popo]

On 27/05/2020 at 14:24, GokouD said:

Just played this on the Switch without really knowing anything about it other than it was supposed to be good, and my jaw is on the floor. Just stunningly brilliant. 

This is me. I played and finished (as is the style) in one session last night. Blubbed like a big baby at the end. Really, really beautiful. I wasn’t even sure why I was crying. The way the tragic story of the family creeps over you and, in the space of two hours, you come know and like the characters within is a testament to how well told the story is. 
 

Also - it looks great. Absolutely loved the colourful, pulsing vibrancy of the different rooms, as well as how packed with detail the whole house is. It feels at once lived in and like something out of Harry Potter. 
 

What I’d love to play - a game that mixes the bizarre house/mansion exploration of WRoEF with the puzzles of something like Myst or The Room. 

[CovisGod]

I’ve also just finished this on Switch after meaning to give it a go for ages,

 

Two and a half of my favourite and most memorable hours in gaming. Absolutely excellent.

[Trumpets]

I found it a bit of a curate's egg. Some parts felt like a weak tech demo with a quirky character attached to justify its existence, but others parts were much better. The bit in the cannery is easily one of my favourite parts of any game.

[Spacehost]

Why did I put this on at 11pm. It's 1.40 in the morning and I'm sobbing.

 

90/100 and an "It's a Corker!" Award, Commodore Format style.

 

Gregory. Christ on a bike.

[denisb]

I played this over the weekend and absolutely loved it . I’ve just finished fire watch which was equally awesome .

 

any more similar games for me to try on game pass preferably 

 

but switch or PS5 also 

[df0]

Very short one (2 hours max), Gone Home. Less intricate, but neat nonetheless.