Dear Me, I Was is a difficult game to review. It walks a line, it’s not quite a visual novel but it’s even further from being an adventure game. The closest comparison I can make is Florence, with which it shares many similarities including an emotional soundtrack, story told without dialogue and not really having anything in the way of “mechanics”. Still, if you’ve got an hour free then I urge you to pick this up as it’s an excellent (if slightly upsetting) experience.
In Dear Me, I Was you experience the life of an unnamed woman from early childhood through to old age, and the major events in her life, whether happy or sad. Even just writing the previous line sent a little shiver up my spine as I thought back to some of the more harrowing moments in her story. Normally I’d like to give a bit more detail on the narrative but as the game is only an hour long I think that would be doing it a disservice. In short it’s a story about loss, companionship and coping that’s entirely grounded in reality with no need for melodrama. It’s believable, which makes the saddest moments all the more depressing.
The story is told through some incredibly beautiful watercolour frames which use rotoscoping to bring every scene to life, and, honestly, they’re unlike anything I’ve seen in a game before. They’re soft yet striking, our unnamed protagonist and the supporting characters are recognisable as they age together, and the depictions of the mundane, such as meals, are wonderful.The use of colour is lovely too, with scenes bursting with colour during her happiest moments but fading to greyscale when life gets too much.
While the game doesn’t offer much mechanically, the little it does offer is used in similarly clever ways. Eating a meal requires tapping on each food item until it disappears, but might require an extra tap or two during depressive periods, mirroring her mental state. It’s not something that’s immediately noticeable, but it’s a smart way of getting more impact from those limited mechanics. Beyond this the game also requires a bit of screen swiping as our protagonist discovers a love of sketching, but that’s it in terms of “gameplay”.
Taking Dear Me, I Was for what it is, a digital experience rather than a traditional game, I found very little I didn’t like. Narratively the pay off didn’t quite land for me, but I think that’s partially down to it challenging what a “happy ending” looks like, so I do appreciate the direction it went in.
Dear Me, I Was tells a moving story that’s grounded in a way rarely seen in video games. Paired with the incredible visuals and haunting soundtrack, it’s an experience that will make you reflect on your own life, your friendships and your passions.