I had this game sitting in my "to play" collection on here for what feels like actual ages, and finally got around to sitting down and... playing it. Which, to be fair, probably wasn't the best idea for me to do at 4 (now 5) AM
(If you're wondering why I'm sat here, typing everything out in an almost pitch-black room with only the computer being lit up, it's because I wanted to get all of my thoughts out while they're fresh and I'm better able to put them into words and remember everything. So please forgive my probably terribly grammar, lack of proofreading, and stream-of-consciousness writing. I should have been in bed hours ago (lol))
I really enjoyed this game, the text, the illustrations, all the layers. I think it was wonderfully and thoughtfully crafted. I liked the prose, the lack of grammar, the artistic choices in how everything was presented, the "choices" and dialogue options, the jokes were amusing.
I don't think I understood all of it like the narrative designed intended when playing through it (which might be due to the fact that it's 5AM, or perhaps my own lack of knowledge on literature and overall worldly experience) but I got the central ideas, I'd hope. I think that where my interpretations started to miss the mark was when I forgot to consider them as aspects of a person, the Writer, and as whole people instead. Which, my bad. I got that the Hero was an aspect of the Writer, a mirror of something inside them, but I forgot to take that into account when trying to puzzle out what each character represented. I also put way more weight into their role in the hero's journey, when it mattered a lot less than I thought it did. I did read the comments a while ago (but not before I started playing today), so maybe that also had a role in it? Literary analysis was never my strong point, so maybe I was off about everything and had a more surface-level understanding than I thought I did (lol). I appreciated the clarification of intent in the script, it was nice to read and realize what everything was meant to be and represent.
I liked the hero. He was interesting, to me. I think he might be my favorite?When playing, I took him as representing... theatrics? Well, someone who had a front of nonchalance and confidence when they're dying, screaming, to be heard and seen and recognized. I'm a very "fake it till you make it" kind of person, and see myself as always presenting some type of front, showing what's "good" and "expected" of me and quietly shoveling the rest away. I think that's part of why I interpreted him as I did. His "I am not scared of death/not scared of death/not scared of death" was especially... something to me. I don't think I can put it into words right now. He is superficial and shallow but he is also real, and I can get that. (I read a comment a while back about how the they found the Hero to be the most forgettable story, but I think it's going to be the one I remember the most vividly.)
I've been rereading the script and knowing what they were all meant to be metaphors of does help me understand everything better, though I hope I would have been able to interpret things closer to their intended meanings on my own.
I do need to replay it and get the "true ending," but its a great game with lots to mull over and reflect on. I'll be thinking about it and its message for a long time, and it's even shown me interesting things about how I relate art to my own experiences that I haven't quite seen so blatantly a definitely want to mull over. Thank you for making something so personal and reflective. You're a great writer, and I'll get through playing the rest of your works slowly but surely.