"The Memory of Eddie Finch": The understanding of the past is not advised, and the knower can be traced

As the "Ninth Art" game, in its pantheon, there is an insurmountable monument in front of it, which is "The Memory of Eddie Finch", which won the TGA's 2017 Best Game Narrative Award.

I never felt that

My own family was terrible

Growing up,

I've never felt strange about my family,

But I guess

A lot of things don't seem reasonable to you,

I'm sorry about that

"Memories of Eddie Finch" is a walking simulator game in which the player-controlled protagonist Edith returns to the ancient mansion of the birthplace and explores the family story full of magical realism. In the 2-hour "Step by Step", in addition to being able to get a sense of historical vicissitudes like reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" written by Colombian writer García Márquez, players can also feel the tension and vitality of the protagonist's family to resist death and live towards death in a sad and deep sad tone.

outline

The following contains spoilers, which can be crossed into the evaluation section below.

A 17-year-old girl, the protagonist Edith, with a big belly, returns to the century-old house of the Finch family. This imaginative, stubborn, crazy house on orcas Island bears witness to the cursed rise and fall of the Finch family.

Today, only one member of the Edith family remains. She will embark on a bizarre, magical and romantic adventure in every room and every inch of land that her ancestors have stayed in.

The beginning of the game

The house looks up

I stayed here until I was eleven,

But half the time they never let me in.

Since the funeral of my brother Lewis,

I never came back here

My mother said in her will that she had left me a key.

But didn't tell me what to use it to drive.

Maybe she thought I knew,

or

I'm going to explore this house from scratch.

In the room of Molly, a 10-year-old girl, pink decorations seem to pretend to be a fairytale kingdom. However, on one night when there was no food, little Molly frantically devoured everything she could see and swallow, and finally in an endless and terrible fantasy, she devoured herself.

Walking into Molly's room for the first time is like entering a pink fairy tale world

In his waking state, Molly ate food from his gerbils, toothpaste from the toilet, gooseberries, birds, rabbits, seals, and... person

The founder of the new family of Vinci, the great grandfather Odin, took the pain of his dead wife and children 100 years ago and decided to stay away from Norway, the birthplace of Norse mythology. However, just as Odin, the king of the gods of Norse mythology with the same name as his grandfather, Odin, despite Odin's preparations, the twilight of the gods still inevitably happened, and Odin, like his later members of the Finch family, was still inevitably disturbed by the curse on orcas Island.

The Finch family traveled across the ocean in hopes of escaping the cursed historical context

Calvin, 11, has always been a determined boy. On this day, the afterglow of the setting sun sprinkled on him, and the distant mountains and white clouds were his companions, and he swung on the swing and rode freely on the edge of the cliff. As he swung to the top, the swing spun around a few times in the air, and Calvin flew off the swing. Perhaps, the stars and the sea are his destination.

Calvin's story struck me the most

Barbara is a child star known for her loud screams and sexiness. As the 16-year-old Barbara grew older, the infectious voice that brought her back then was gone, and the star smell of a child star was gone. This night, extreme fans divided her after planning a BT killer's burglar "game".

Barbara's Tragedy – A spooky comic presentation

Little Walter witnessed all the viciousness on the night her sister Barbara was brutally murdered. After that, he hid alone in the basement of the old mansion, feeding himself with cans and counting the trains passing by the basement. On that dusky afternoon, perhaps because there was no train that usually roared by on time, or perhaps, as he said, he was tired of waiting for death to come.

Finally, this middle-aged man, who had not seen the light of day for 32 years, tired of waiting in fear, bravely picked up the hammer, resolutely hammered open the "heart wall", walked on the railroad tracks, and slowly moved forward. Yes, his heart was finally filled with freedom and release, and he embraced the speeding train.

Walter lives in a basement full of cans

Choose Walter who faces death head-on

Sam is a kind and kind father who taught his ancestors the survival skills of orcas island to his eldest daughter, Dawn. After a hunt, an elk was captured by the father and daughter. However, due to lack of preparation, Sam was pushed off a cliff by a dying elk.

Sam's accidental death

The little baby Gregory drowned in the bathtub due to her mother's negligence.

Baby Gregory accidentally drowned in a bathtub

The kite-flying teenager Gus bravely confronts his father Sam for marrying a second wife. At his father's wedding, he flew a kite recklessly and bravely raised his middle finger to his father's authority. At this time, lightning and thunder ignited the wedding scene, and the uninhibited kite brought up the ignited items and also brought death to Gus.

The kite-flying teenager Gus, the totem in the background also shows the family members who died unexpectedly at this time

Mliton was a marvelous painter, showing in his comic strips created at the age of 11 that he opened the door to a new world. Since then, we have never seen Mliton again.

"Marlene" Milton wrote about himself

Lewis is a boy with stars in his eyes, hills and hills in his chest, and flowers in his heart, but the reality is that he can only work in the cannery, like Chaplin in "Modern Times", working mechanically in the factory day after day. However, Lewis was also diagnosed with psychosis by psychiatrists and suffered from severe hypotheticals, but he abused drugs.

As Lewis's work in the boring workshop became more and more appreciated by his boss, his imagination became more and more serious, and the world of black and white lines he imagined gradually transformed from ground to clear and bright 3D images. His mother's anxiety and crying did not bring back his change of heart, and finally, the Zhengzheng boy trapped in the three-foot high platform lowered his head in the imaginary Hall of Bliss, crowned him, and placed his head under the gate fish knife in reality.

Lewis, who works day in and day out in a cannery

Lewis trapped on a three-foot-high platform

Lewis's imaginary hall of bliss

appraise

"Eddie Finch's Memory" is a suspense game with beautiful graphics, exquisite painting style, exquisite details, and a series of fragmentary human stories.

The game is a bit like the magic realism in the book "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

Genealogy of the Finch family

Centuries of vicissitudes, shuttle reincarnation, endless fate and sadness, absurd, intricate and bizarre, bizarre plots, as well as exaggerated imagination, hazy imagery, and understated character images, all make people feel the charm and connotation of the so-called "art" in the ninth art in the praise of "endless words and infinite meaning".

Haoyue is empty

A vast night view

A good work of art should be able to give people a wonderful experience of tasting and chewing and returning to the mouth, so in this two-hour art viewing tour, each player can get a unique experience and thinking.

Edith's Reflections on Death

Although the protagonist of the game, Edith, is only 17 years old, but he is already pregnant with Rokkaku, and in the game, you can feel that the protagonist's steps are really shallow and slow. In some special aisles, the protagonist's caution can be clearly felt.

From the overhead view, it can be seen that Edith is pregnant, so the details show that the protagonist is walking very slowly

Of course, when interacting with certain long-press combinations with keyboard and mouse, even if you are skilled enough, sometimes you can't get the desired effect. In addition, in the plot where little Molly turns into a cat, it is easy to make first-time players appear 3D vertigo.

The first time you play Into a Cat, some viewers may experience intense 3D vertigo.

The flaw is that Eddie Finch's Memories can give different groups of players a different experience in the game, which is indeed commendable.

Play

Players will basically only use the keys of 、、、、 shift and space throughout the process, which is suitable for players of all ages to play.

There are many such openings in the game, from which you can get a glimpse of the past and present lives of the house. This is also the operation of achieving the Steam achievement, Closer Look ( closer looking)

Unlike other games that simply press the "F" category, some elements that require interaction, the game requires you to click the mouse and transfer the direction, giving the author the experience of being really exploring the room with the protagonist Edith.

The game's scene changes very cleverly, often through climbing and crouching

Game scene changes are also very clever, and some places often need to unlock a delicate object, so as to climb, crouch and other ways to traverse the changing scene.

Exquisite mechanism design

In addition, the game also boldly uses the comic to control Barbara in a terrifying environment, using comic strips to present Mliton's superb painting skills, using flowing subtitles or play hints, or game interactions, and some novel and exquisite designs, highlighting the developer's whimsy.

Manipulate Barbara through terrifying circumstances

The words in the game are cleverly handled and have strange uses in many places

Music

After the logo appeared at the beginning of the "Bach BWV 1007", the flexible and empty music can immediately attract the attention of the player. Of course, I would also like to recommend that American musician Jeff Russo compose pure music such as "Edith's Theme" and "The End" for the game, which makes people feel deep and moving.

Score

Storytelling: ★★★★★

Operability: ★★★★

Screen infectivity: ★★★★★

The image of the "deer" appears in many places in the game, which not only expresses the natural beauty of agility and harmony, but also expresses the endless pursuit of life

ponder

About the Ninth Art

As the ninth art born out of painting, sculpture, architecture, music, poetry (literature), dance, drama, and film, games are independent of the world with their more direct senses of sight, hearing, and touch.

Under the vast sky, looking out of the cave, there was a little man standing in it

To ask what is the difference between the ninth art and the other eight major arts, the author believes that the recipient of the ninth art can connect with the content and process of the work as a whole as a participant or even a creator. This is something that the other eight arts are difficult to do.

In Sam's story, a random shot is a good photo

In fact, when it comes to the masterpieces of the Ninth Art, the player group generally admires works such as "BioShock: Infinity" and "Wind Traveler". Why? Because each of our players can not only feel the joys and sorrows of the characters in the work, but also get happiness in the process of playing, more importantly, we feel that this is a work of art in these games, which is no different from appreciating painting, sculpture and other arts.

There are many interesting details in the game. The Chinese element that appears here is Chinese cuisine

The hookah gun on Lewis's desk, which he used to smoke marijuana, and the "familiar smell" that Edith exclaimed as he entered the room, revealed that Lewis was already a drug addict at this time, which also laid the foundation for his later fantasies

Milton's disappearance is revealed in the abandoned pool outside the old house

The painterly Milton even left his own graffiti in Molly's room

Of course, we must also beware of making the ninth art mysterious and shelved, so that it will change from a "work of art" to a "fragile product". The Ninth Art is neither Yangchun Baixue nor a Xia Riba person, and it can neither be regarded as a supreme "platform confrontation" or a self-regarded existence in the mouths of some people, nor should it be regarded as a contemporary hazard of "electronic heroin" and "electronic opium".

It is necessary to use the ancient for the present and the foreign for the Chinese, but also to take its essence and remove its dross, so that the vitality of the ninth art can be renewed and immortalized for a long time.

About death

"There are only two things in the world that are inevitable, taxes and death." Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, once said so.

Perhaps everyone has had such an experience: in the middle of the night, or lying in bed, or looking out the window, it is inevitable to sigh that things are not human, and people are cold.

Death is such a heavy and sad topic, it makes us search for the meaning of life, but also makes us doubt and despair in pain, but also let us know how to cherish the things around us and be kind to the people in front of us. "Those who have realized the past are not advised, and those who know what has come can be traced; the real lost is not far away, and they feel that the present is not yesterday." Tao Yuanming lamented in "Return to Xi Ci".

If in the face of death, do you believe in fatalism and humble yourself, or do you raise the sword in your hand and bravely slash at the injustice of fate?

Great-grandmother Edie weaves cloth engraved with the names of each deceased family member

In the face of the 500-year curse of the Finch family, the people of the Finch family still bravely fight against death and the injustice of fate. Great-grandmother Edie still chose to stay in the old house in the face of the cruel fact that 5 children died, carefully caring for her offspring with warmth and love; her mother Dawn also left this legendary house and went to India to meet Edith's father Sanjay, but in the end, she returned here without hesitation; the protagonist Edith, after a few years of absence, still resolutely returned to her hometown to explore the ancient house that brought countless memories and joys to her childhood.

Thoughts about home

As the game concludes, Edith travels through time and space with her unborn daughter in the womb, expounding and thinking about death in the depths of her soul:

After these terrible deaths, everyone still tried their best to deal with it calmly, as the last person in the Finch family, although they still did not know how to tell all this, but if we have been alive, we may be able to use time to understand. Even if it's hard, it should be an eye-opener to all this strange and ephemeral.

At the end of the story, Edith wrote in his diary to his daughter:

This will be where your story begins

I'm sorry I couldn't see it with my own eyes.

Although I know that this will ask too much,

But I don't want you to grieve because of my departure.

I hope you have all been for us

Be amazed by the opportunity to come here.