Bertie: I never realised how wise babies can be. When the baby on the train told me it’s not that babies don’t understand adults, it’s the other way around, I felt as though I’d been hit in the face with a profound baby toy. I’d never really thought about it like that before. I always assumed they were the ones who needed teaching – but do they? They seem pretty happy and content with their lot. It’s only in the many ways adults complicate things that life becomes more, well, complicated.
What Comes AfterDeveloper: fahmitsu x Rolling Glory JamPublisher: Rolling Glory JamAvailability: Out now for £4 on PC (itch.io and Steam)
This is What Comes After; this is the way the game makes you think. It is a game about life, about reflecting on a life, and waving away all the complexity to enjoy simply being. It’s the story of a young lady called Vivi who has lost her way a bit, and one night on the way home from work, on the train, she falls asleep. She literally drifts off, and she finds herself on a spirit version of the same train. A train taking spirits to… what comes after. What follows are many conversations with the once-living on their final journey, and the nuggets of wisdom they have to impart.
As you walk Vivi through the compartments, you rebuild a kind of appreciation for life. A kind of hope that things are, and will be, okay. It’s not so much that passengers are guilt-tripping you into living a life they have now lost, more that they help you appreciate the insignificance, perhaps, of the things you were worrying about. Or perhaps the things you worrying about, because it isn’t just about Vivi: it’s about you. It’s about you hearing what many people, many (for it’s not just people), have to say about life. And there will be a few accounts which will ring particularly true for you, based on your life and experiences, and they will reach in and twang your emotional chords.