I’m back for the second part of A Quick Review of Schrödinger’s Call (Acrobatic Chirimenjako) after playing the third chapter. I mentioned at the end of the last post how I would probably need a break before playing the third chapter, and I was right.
I love this game. I adore it with all my heart and soul. I wanted to state that upfront before I quickly add, I have such a rough time playing it. It’s nearly two months to the day I played chapter two, and I went in with a heavy heart. Not because I thought it was going to be bad, because I knew it would take a toll on me. In fact, Hamlet, the cute, round, and sarcastic black cat explicitly told me in the game that doing a certain action would cost me. It’s pretty clear that this game is trying to tackle some pretty hefty topics. Does it succeed? I’ll get to that later.
Let me get the frustrating parts out of the way firs. My biggest gripe with the game is the gameplay, ironically. The minor gripes: there is a lot of text to button through, and sometimes when I’m on automatic, I press the button one too many times. Fortunately, I haven’t missed anything too important, but it bugs me, anyway.
Two, it’s usually clear what the game wants from me, but occasionally, I don’t know which exact phrase they want me to input. There’s a lot of dialogue saved in my notebook, and the game can be pretty cryptic at times. I risked looking up the answer once when I got stumped and got a mild spoiler (I think?) and to add insult to injury, didn’t even get the answer I was looking for. I eventually figured it out, but I did not want that in my cozy game about death. Well, not so cozy, but definitely about death.
Oh, the third gripe is something I mentioned in the last post was that some of my choices don’t matter at all. The game wants me to go down a certain path, which I’m fine with! But then don’t allow me to choose and give me a stock answer if I make the wrong choice. I get why they do it, but it’s frustrating at the end of the day.
I mentioned that the game continues to break my heart, and chapter three completely broke me. I will not be talking about the chaarcters themselves because you really need to go into the game unspoiled.
I can talk about general themes, though. Despair, loneliness, grief, ousider-ness, and more. All the characters are broken in one way or the other, underlying the fact that no one is completely normal*. I’m in a dark place right now, and this game isn’t alleviating that feeling. On the other hand, it’s the perfect feeling to really sink into this game, so who knows if it was a wise choice or not?
I think I’m getting close to the end. I’m not sure, though, because I have studiously avoided anything related to the game. You really need to experience it as fresh as possible, and even when I read reviews before playing the game, I stopped the second they started spoiling even the smallest thing. Oh, and I read them after I played the demo (which was the first chapter), but before I played the second chapter.
It’s a weird sensation to play a game with my heart hurting the whole time. Going forward both dreading and eagerly anticipating what is going to happen. I really related to the main character of this chapter (the one I as Mary is trying to help move on/save). She said so many things that I felt in my heart, and I wanted to help her. But, the way to do that…well, I had a hard time with the method for saving her.
This game is very good at delving what it means to help someone. It’s nothing groundbreaking, really, but it’s done with such deftness and sensitivity. And it helps me clarify my own beliefs. This chapter harped on something that I don’t agree with, so initially, I was having a hard time getting past that. At some point, I just tried my best to go with it. That made it easier for me to go through the chapter, and I got drawn in as I went.
There’s a mystery to each chapter–what happened to this character in their life? How did they end up here? I think it was a good decision to make the game just seconds after the moon crashed into the earth and nanoseconds before everyone dies. This is all in the trailer to the game, by the way. And in the very beginning of the first chapter. This is not a surprise or a spoiler–it’s the very premise of the game.
You would think that with the world ending, the last moments of a person’s life or the last call they had would not matter. But it does–at least in this game. In fact, because the whole world is about to end, nothing is more important than figuring out your last moments. I don’t know where I stand on that. I don’t remember several days before I died, and I made my peace with it. But nothing important happneed during those days so I can easily shrug it off.
I’m surprised, though, at just how easy it’s been for me to say, “Oh well” about missing several days of my life. I’m glad I can, though, because I can’t change it so it’s better that I’m not ruffled by it. I’m just surprised, though, because normally, I would endlessly fret about it.
No one is talking about this game. I’m not surprised by that, exactly, but it’s a shame. This is a game that is very niche and a difficult sell. It’s mostly a graphic novel about a very heavy and dark subject. It’s slow-paced and redolent with atmosphere. There is a lot of text to read through, and there is very little gameplay. It’s not a game for everyone, and I would hesitate to recommend it to just anyone.
For me, I am grateful to be playing it, but I have to be careful not to take in too much at once. If things keep going on as they have been, this will end up on my favorite games of the year list in December. As long as I’ve finished it by then.
*Fighting back the desire to rant about ‘normal’.