What Remains of Edith Finch [WRoEF] is a first person exploration narrative game created by Giant Sparrow. It’s offered on PC, PS4/5, Xbox, Switch, and iOS. Its target audience is quite wide given the gripping story, but I would skew the majority towards younger audiences between 14-24 since you’re playing as Christopher (Edith’s son) who is around 10-13 years of age.
“How does walking tell the story?
Walking tells the story by allowing the player to traverse the map in such a way where each new area is like a different chapter of a book. The player is simultaneously 1) reading (text on the screen in physical 3D space), 2) hearing (the text is read aloud to you so you’re not forced to read), and 3) seeing things in physical space that are “real” or “narrative” elements (ex: real being the house, narrative being visual overlays or flashbacks for certain characters). The designers do a great job balancing leading the player to a specific spot (with paths through the forest or highlighted objects or where the text appears) but also forcing the player to explore the map and get accustomed to the house (like when the key doesn’t work on the front door). The game had an eerie feeling at first. I thought that something was going to jump out at me like a horror game. But by walking through the game, I felt like I was just on a chill stroll through the game where I was learning about characters and nothing was out to get me. If the game had me running through the map, I might have gotten more freaked out–why do I need to run unless something is going to hurt me? The thing about this game is that you get to experience and play as all the characters you’re told about, you don’t just read about them but you get to play as them. Imagine if someone made a game where you got to play as your relatives: that would be a pretty cool way to understand their histories, and in this game, using certain mechanics and narrative devices, you get to do just that.
There’s a lot going on in this game temporally. You’re playing as a character you don’t know about and you’re learning about other different characters who have all died in the past. You get to play as those characters in the past and see through their eyes, but it can be a bit confusing to keep track of all the players. It was helpful move by the designers to include a family tree with the names of all of Edith’s relatives and fill in their faces as you discover them, because it can be a lot to remember. I also think the choice to make the setting of the game be on an island makes it easier to venture off into someone else’s (not the main character) life in a flash back. I’m not sure how to describe this, but it feels kind of like a blank mindmap where you have the island in the center and each new person/story you learn about branches off of that central island into the surrounding misty open water. I don’t know if this was intended, but I like it.
A lot of these walking/story games are beautiful to look at and explore (abzu, journey, paperbark, etc.) but I think this game is nothing short of beautiful. What’s different about WRoEF though, is that you are immersed in each of the Finch’s lives. You’re told how they died in a beautiful way and its always surprisingly creative/allegorical, with the next room down the hall waiting with an entirely different story for you to experience.
One thing I expected more of in this game was puzzles, however challenging. While there are small moments of trying to catch things (like the bird as a cat, or rabbits as an owl), there were never any challenges. I think the game is great without puzzles, and I think puzzles might actually get in the way of the story, but they might offer more player interaction rather than just being guided through a lot of the story.
The mechanics of this game are quite simple, its mostly just moving around–which is great! This means the skill floor is very low and almost anyone could pick up this game because of how easy it is to interact with the world. However, they are also very creative and usually the mechanics tie to the specific Finch: camera vs. animals vs. etc. There aren’t really any obvious dynamics at play in this game… I feel like you’re walking along a somewhat guided path through the game, so the only dynamic I really see is exploration and being able to find little things placed around the world that you might not otherwise see if you didn’t explore. As for aesthetics, this game is narrative (telling the story), discovery (exploring!), fantasy (playing as different animals), and sensation (beautiful to look at and weird sensation playing as animals or crawling through small spaces. The gripping story combined with different game mechanics that are all simple, just like walking, allow for a seamless exploration of a family tied together by life and death.
Within just a minute, I got to play with two very different game mechanics that are just as easy as walking: one where I get to move a kite around, and the other where I play with a frog in the bathtub. Both of these allow me to explore more about this specific Finch’s life which will leave me with just a little more understanding and perspective into how they died.
