Somehow, in all these years, I've never gotten into visual novels, despite being a person who loves both reading and video games. The idea has always intrigued me somehow, but I've never felt compelled to buy one. That changed when I first saw the advertisement for A few months ago. Described as “a personal journey through a shattered post-apocalyptic world,” all it took was one look at Echoes of the emergingIts raw aesthetics and melancholic atmosphere made me pre-order it. And now that I finally got to play it (read it? experience it?), I'm a little bit surprised.
Echoes of the emerging is a Playdate exclusive title from RNG Party Games, the same team that created The story begins with the protagonist, Ayumi, on a tense foraging journey in a ruined city. She is alone, scared, and increasingly worried about her dwindling resources. As the story progresses, it cuts from Ayumi's bleak new reality to flashbacks to a time when everything was normal. Her desperate efforts to stay alive, to keep going, are intertwined with memories of her family and friends, some of them happy, some of them painful. And there's a cat.
The narrative is illustrated with haunting backgrounds of Ayumi's ruined surroundings, which move slightly to create a truly eerie effect. If you press the down arrow on the D-pad, you can collapse the text box to get a full view of the backgrounds. It takes a few hours to complete the entire story, but it's definitely worth putting some time into it. You can save your spot by pressing “B” to open the menu.
Echoes of the emerging It's the kind of experience that will stay with you for a while, even after it's over. It's available in the Playdate catalog for $8, but you can also get it, and its captivating – in .
