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Thanks for reminding me why I love this guy, even if I do see him every day as my avatar.
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What Remains of Edith Finch |OT| Short Stories in a Tall Building
- Thread starter JaseC
- Start date
😃😄
Thanks for reminding me why I love this guy, even if I do see him every day as my avatar.
More reviews are trickling in now, 5/5 from The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/26/what-remains-of-edith-finch-review-giant-sparrow
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/26/what-remains-of-edith-finch-review-giant-sparrow
Finished this last night and boy I've never grinned as much playing a game.
The homage to
were all masterfully crafted.
The whole narrative and story execution was extremely well done. The voice acting was all on point and the music was terrific. As far as Walking Sims go it's up there as one of the best I've ever played.
Hats of to Giant Sparrow. This is definitely a game that I'll play through again and will stick with me for some time.
My only gripes are the
and a couple of slight stuttering issues in certain sections.
The homage to
Halloween/Tales From The Crypt, The Unfinished Swan section (complete with music), The Cannery's Isometric RPG stuff and the Bathtub section
The whole narrative and story execution was extremely well done. The voice acting was all on point and the music was terrific. As far as Walking Sims go it's up there as one of the best I've ever played.
Hats of to Giant Sparrow. This is definitely a game that I'll play through again and will stick with me for some time.
My only gripes are the
rather ambiguous ending
This inclusive part of the Lewis story was very cool.
On a similar note,
finding out about Edith's father a little bit before you get the story about he met Dawn was a really cool surprise. I almost had to do a double take when I saw the gravestone until I put two and two together. It's about as beautifully understated as you could get for a relationship like that.
This must have gone over my head...can you elaborate?
DarkLordMalik
Member
Is this a depressing/sad game or it has a happy ending?
I don't mind contexual spoilers just not full blown ones.
I don't mind contexual spoilers just not full blown ones.
AkimbO_Arcana
Banned
I don't understand this. Everything that's great about the story and its delivery is bound to its interactive nature. The same plot as a movie simply wouldn't have the same impact in my opinion.
Messofanego
Banned
We talking about how Edith and Lewis are mixed race because of their indian dad Sanjay?
Yeah, that thing.
For a game all about death it really isn't very depressing or morbid at all, almost entirely because of the way the deaths are presented. It's a really hard game to talk about without spoiling it but it is, by turns, touching, tragic, funny and life-affirming.
It's not three grim hours of watching people die if that's what you're getting at. Some of it is delightful, in its own odd way.
I'm starting to despise this overused term, but this game is the very definition of bittersweet. It deals with some heavy topics, and yet I definitely wouldn't call it depressing.
More end game stuff
I'm replaying through Unfinished Swan right now to see how it parallels the game, but my original interpretation was that Edith was writing everything for her missing brother, Milton. Maybe I missed something, but i thought it was never established that he died - I'm not sure where the 2003 death date on the family tree came from since it wasn't listed elsewhere - so I assumed he was the boy at the end. I'd also assumed that the very beginning of the game on the boat was from Edith's perspective, but looking at it again, you are the boy.
I do like the birth and son interpretation better than my initial ambiguous heart-related death and brother returning interpretation, but both are possible if the story is self-contained. I still have to connect the dots with The Unfinished Swan, but if it is cannon, then we have a few other possibilities, like maybe Munroe, the boy in it, is visiting his aunt's grave?
I wonder about the boy's arm cast. Was it simply to denote the difference in characters, or a nod to how accidents strike the family.
I do like the birth and son interpretation better than my initial ambiguous heart-related death and brother returning interpretation, but both are possible if the story is self-contained. I still have to connect the dots with The Unfinished Swan, but if it is cannon, then we have a few other possibilities, like maybe Munroe, the boy in it, is visiting his aunt's grave?
I wonder about the boy's arm cast. Was it simply to denote the difference in characters, or a nod to how accidents strike the family.
Messofanego
Banned
Yeah, that was done so well.
At first I was like, why do I look brown while nearly everyone else is white? And then figuring it out that Dawn went away to India to teach.
VanCityGamer
Member
You do realize it's on PS4 too?
Zap Rowsdower
Banned
Yeah, echoing that this game is amazing. It's like if you mixed Gone Home and Kentucky Route Zero together.
Milton's missing poster in the very beginning of the game describes him as being
part Indian
Messofanego
Banned
I didn't even check that but now that I have, you're right! Nice catch.
Bravo, Giant Sparrow, bravo! My GOTY so far
The one and only negative that I can say is the performance on the standard PS4. Some, more than visible stutters, mostly because of the level streaming system they are using.
And again, someone reminds me why Sony ditch this project (which IMO, is an absolute masterpiece)?
The one and only negative that I can say is the performance on the standard PS4. Some, more than visible stutters, mostly because of the level streaming system they are using.
And again, someone reminds me why Sony ditch this project (which IMO, is an absolute masterpiece)?
Melchiah
Member
I didn't notice any stutter on the Pro, with boost mode enabled. If there was any, it certainly wasn't as bad as it was in Firewatch.
It's weird, that they dropped an amazing game like this.
Dusktildawn48
Member
Would like to know this as well.
mcwizardry
Member
Finished it today and can recommend it to anyone who likes narrative-driven experiences. It is very efficient in terms of storytelling and shows what can be accomplished within this new genre of games.
holygeesus
Banned
Played it, loved it. I have no idea how people can think the ending is ambiguous though, although I haven't read through this thread yet.
As to the pro performance. It felt very sluggish to me, and there are odd stutters here and there and streaming assets sometimes take a while to load in, after a new section loads in. There's no noise while playing either, so it doesn't appear to be pushing the Pro at all, which is a shame.
As to the pro performance. It felt very sluggish to me, and there are odd stutters here and there and streaming assets sometimes take a while to load in, after a new section loads in. There's no noise while playing either, so it doesn't appear to be pushing the Pro at all, which is a shame.
It seems like they're just done with indie incubation in general. It's really weird in the case of this game, since Giant Sparrow used to operate right out of Sony Santa Monica's office.
Was it that hard to figure out? Once you figured out the layout of the family tree on the pause screen, it seemed pretty obvious that the father named Sanjay might not be caucasian.
Just finished it, beautiful game.
This is the perfect example for how interactive storytelling can be done in really interesting, creative ways. There's no audio logs or plain text to read or holograms to watch. The story sequences are actually told through really cool little gameplay sequences that are very different in very cool ways. A couple of them do things i've never seen in a videogame.
Quite the opposite of games like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture that don't really have an idea how to do interactive storytelling expect for just telling the story. In Edith Finch you experience the events first hand. Loved it.
This is the perfect example for how interactive storytelling can be done in really interesting, creative ways. There's no audio logs or plain text to read or holograms to watch. The story sequences are actually told through really cool little gameplay sequences that are very different in very cool ways. A couple of them do things i've never seen in a videogame.
Quite the opposite of games like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture that don't really have an idea how to do interactive storytelling expect for just telling the story. In Edith Finch you experience the events first hand. Loved it.
The implication is that it's her son years later, and that she had died in childbirth to bring him into the world.
His role on the game was
"Audio + Unlockables Programmer" so he just programmed himself a shoutout.
And Giant Sparrow had signed a 3 game deal. That seemed to be the standard contract, so it would appear a few of those deals became null and void.
After game discussion:
I revisited a few sections and
I still wonder:
I revisited a few sections and
then replayed through the Unfinished Swan - which is still an amazing experience as well - to look for parallels. Just in case you haven't played The Unfinished Swan, the next paragraph is about it then it's back to WROEF after that.
So if we consider it canon and not a work of fiction, then Edith's lost brother, Milton, leaves and lives a long life. However he's a bit paranoid and even has a dream about his own death. He marries an artist, and they have a son, Munroe. So Edith has a kid in 2017 who later gains a cousin in Munroe. Or Milton died, either in the house or elsewhere, or it's all just fiction and fantasy.
I still wonder:
Who buried Edith?
Who's the kid living with?
We don't know anything about his dad, but I'm guessing that's really the only option, unless Milton reappeared?
Who's the kid living with?
We don't know anything about his dad, but I'm guessing that's really the only option, unless Milton reappeared?
Around 2 - 2 1/2 hours, and yes there is voice acting.
badnewsbeers
Member
Which folks are missable? I feel like I'm at the end and maybe missed one.
Never mind, I guess a couple go at the end together. I'm thinking you can't miss any?
Great game. Great story. Wanted to see what was in
Never mind, I guess a couple go at the end together. I'm thinking you can't miss any?
Great game. Great story. Wanted to see what was in
the sunken house.
Melchiah
Member
Boost mode on or off?
Hoho for breakfast
Member
Short but sweet. Just finished it in about 2 hours. The story could have gone on some and explained everything more since half of it was over my head, but the gameplay was great. Glad I bought it.
Macadinho94
Member
Finished it before college this morning. Damn that Owl trophy was tedious though, took me 5 goes to get it. Great game, well worth the 20 I spent
Just now finished it. Really liked it overall, though I don't think I quite connected with it emotionally the way I did with Gone Home or The Beginner's Guide. I might have to give it another run sometime and see if I'm able to absorb it all better with a little foreknowledge.
I loved all the individual vignettes though, and the house itself is a beautiful creation.
I loved all the individual vignettes though, and the house itself is a beautiful creation.
panda-zebra
Member
Great game. The variety in the storytelling was quite remarkable, all the way through to the credits all very well thought out and implemented. I had a couple of semi-janky moments (awkwardly poping through a door several times while trying to simply look to the side being the worst) but so minor in the overall experience. Spent well over 3 hours, I never rush and don't like feeling I've missed out on anything..
Haven't bothered with trophies for such a long time, but doing so to get just a bit more out of this one. Just got to do more peeping and replay a story.
Haven't bothered with trophies for such a long time, but doing so to get just a bit more out of this one. Just got to do more peeping and replay a story.
holygeesus
Banned
On.
Melchiah
Member
Oh, I guess I'm not just that sensitive to the stutter, as I don't recall noticing it.
frame rate drops pretty bad on regular PS4. and slow movement.
Yeah and the game DOES support PS4 Pro - so boost mode does not matter here.
