Dear Me, I Was Not a Game

What’s a game? Conventionally, something that has rules and challenges. Something with push-and-pull. A certain goal approached playfully. All these definitons are true to a certain extent, and once I start applying them to recent releases, I realize that not all of them fit all the boxes, if any. And there’s nothing wrong with it.

The whole discussion of what is and isn’t a video game, revived in the late 2000s - early 2010s primarily around narrative-driven “walking sims”, always came down to gatekeeping. Whether something is or isn’t a video game doesn’t really matter. What matters is if it’s any good, worth your attention. And whether it’s kinetic novels or interactive fiction, they often are.

Dear Me, I Was…, born out of Arc System’s obvious desire to have something Switch 2-exclusive close to its launch, is an examplification. It’s short, taking less than an hour to go through. Its interaction is rudimentary and doesn’t really make me feel things like Florence. But the slowly building, expressive story, a smart application of tiresome but true “show, don’t tell”, the pleasant surprise at the end, they are all there. And even if they weren’t, as long as Taisuke Kanasaki (Hotel Dusk, Another Code) is given a reason to draw, I’m good.