Contemplating from afar

I have finally finished the game, between all my activities. In short, it’s  beautiful and sad at the same time, which I guess is the type of game Minori is good at. The main theme is the end, end of  one’s life, end of the world, and how one face it. The game depicted this quite well, and what I liked particularly is the background, as it’s really detailed to the point of looking real, but still adequate for the character. It shows the world as beautiful it can be, but also conveys the atmosphere. I must warn that the rest of the post is just things I noticed, and is a spoilerish.

The game can be divided in 3 parts, each with a different title screen image. The first part is in a laboratory, which looks more like a great european house. The color are rather vibrant, but confined, with a certain sepia tone, and red. The only form of green is the military uniform. It’s an oppressive feeling for the reader, and you realize it when you reach the second part, which is mostly outdoors. The color design is totally different from the first part of the game since it represents the world. I think it’s tied to the story, since it follows the environment of Sion, who has never seen the world.

Aside of the background, there is also that little bit of poesy in the story. It uses symbols and images in the writing which I guess is their trademark. Starting from the middle of the second part, you know there will be an end, a tragic one, since Sion doesn’t have much time left. The heavy theme is easier to talk when the writing is close to poesy. A rather striking moment is when Rio ask what Sion was digging for in the field. Her answer was her “grave”.

What I wondered during the whole game is whether who end first. Somehow, as you are attached to the character so you would rather see the world end first so that you don’t see people die. But it’s the other way around, and while it’s harder for the reader, it’s more beautiful in the writing.

My only wish would have been a longer third part for the game, the part when there are only two on the planet, what the eden is on earth. It was short and developing the story of two people alone would have been nice ( in fact, I just remember Planetarian when writting this ), especially considering the title of the game. But Sion is sleeping more and more, so the interaction are fewer.

To conclude, I would say that it was a very good story, which I liked, and it was nicely completed by the writing, visual and sound. In fact, I wrote in my first post a “journey toward the end of the world”, and I think it fits the experience perfectly now that I have finished. The end is something important, and everyone has their own way to approach it in eden*. Facing it, running away from it, waiting for it. It’s this sort of story. And to finish, I think the game would be easy to adapt to anime, in 12-13 episodes… let’s wait for SHAFT?