Schrödinger's Call

I finished this game, crying a bit, thinking about the nature of identity and how all of us are desperate for somebody to love us. Then I went and read up a little bit about the game and learned that the author worked as a rehabilitation instructor helping people with mental illnesses, and yeah, of course they did. That makes a lot of sense. Anyway, yeah, I think you should play this game.

The game was beautiful at the start but it derailed so hard it hurt. Up until mid-way of episode 4 the story wa s asolid 10/10 masterpiece. It made me cry. I'm was so invested in the characters it hurt badly to realize everything was pointless and nothing mattered by the end of episode 4. I could still tomach it because Mary's story was still interesting but for different reasons and was still a good 6.5/10. And episode 5 was just stupid for one reason only: It had a 4th wall break. "hey, player, why don't you enter this world and interact directly?" I'm not even joking. This crap ruined what could have been a great ending despite the flaws. So many writers don't seem to understand that trying to do a backflip when you're about to cross the finish line is a bad idea. Don't do twists for the sake of twists. I don't care if you think that "playing it straight is predictable" If what's predicatable is good, then it's good. Sunddenly treating the player as a being from another world ruined the story for me, and I give it a 4/10. If you still want to play this, I suggest you to play up until you meet all 3 characters in episode 4 and then write your own fanfic about the ending.

Yes!

I had some big ups and downs with this one. Let's start with the ups: phenomenal sounds design and score, excellent storybook artwork, and highly evocative writing. The central premise (helping complete people's unfinished calls before the apocalypse) is unique and the mystery surrounding who these characters are is intriguing throughout. The tone is empathetic, emotional, and dips into psychological horror just enough to keep you always second guessing what is really going on. The story is a succession of gut-wrenching, heart-rending realizations, but I loved how it resolved in the end; a redemptive narrative arc filled with hope for the unwanted and unloved among us. In terms of the downsides, the pacing slowed down far too much at the end. Many sequences repeated for dramatic effect, but in a game where you have very little player input/agency, you really feel it when you have to retread the same conversations several times over. I also felt like the kaleidoscopic visual effects were a bit over the top at times, like the game trying too hard to pack that emotional punch. The story was great, but in the back half it kind of went unhinged when I would have preferred it stayed a bi…

Kiwi completed Schrodinger's Call maybe a month ago, but realized just now he has a review of the demo, but not the full game. The quick summary is: play the demo, if the demo touched you, the full game will work for you. The game even picks up that you completed the demo and lets you continue from where the demo ends. Without going into detail, Schrodinger's Call is a game that grabbed him such that he played through like half of it in one sitting, staying up until around 4am to see the conclusion. It is not a game that offers wide branching paths, nor can you even really game over or anything, to Kiwi's understanding. It simply offers great visuals, great music, and one, powerful, singular narrative experience.

Amazing art visuals, amazing soundtrack and amazing story. It came full circle similar to silent hill 2 remake for me- the confusion, the questions, the figuring things out and then BAM; the revelation every episode. peak.