I Woke Up Next to You Again All Endings

March 18, 2022 Post a Comment

Hey Hey Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs, I'1000 getting back into the swing of things by going back and working through all of the game review requests I received while I was on hiatus. Get-go upwardly is a rather surreal and surprisingly deep short psychological thriller visual novel from Angela He (Zephyo). This is a game dissimilar anything I accept ever played earlier, with it'south dream-like visuals and stream of consciousness like storytelling, Angela He paints a rather startling pic of the psychological toll addiction and depression can accept on one's life, through the lens of a toxic more than-than-one-nighttime stand relationship.

"Y'all'd told me,
Hey, this is a one-time thing, and I said yep, of course –
Yet hither we are."

..who, exactly, am I waking up next to?

A romance about a more-than-one-night stand;
A psychological thriller well-nigh toxic addiction.

–Synopsis (Game Site)

I Woke Up Next to Yous Once moreis a pay what you lot want PC game available for Windows, Mac, and Linux over on itch.io. Information technology's a rather brusk game, with playthroughs lasting anywhere betwixt fifteen – 30 minutes, depending on your reading speed.

I will acknowledge that at the start I was more than a little dislocated, after choosing the gender of the individual y'all wake up next to, the game just kind of hits the ground running, dropping you lot into an surprisingly casual morning after run across with an unnamed bed mate. The brief opening narration just states that you recently moved to a new town and "plant someone". Who this person is and how you came to be in bed with with them doesn't matter, merely the nighttime hazy black and white visuals and eerie repetitive background music propose that this is non a normal interaction between mutual acquaintances. Even the dialogue between the player and the unnamed bed mate isn't all that normal, at that place's a poetic kind of cadence to it that kind of flows a trivial also naturally to be normal, as if this is something that has been adept and reiterated over and over again, only with a quickness to information technology that suggests the two characters are only going through the motions of a prearranged song and dance in order to go to a much more anticipated outcome.

IWUNTYA 4

But, at that place is an overarching sense of foreboding, that builds upon itself every bit the player navigates their way through a series of seemingly innocent choices. Your choices make up one's mind not just the course of the story, only the psychological state of the nameless protagonist as they navigate what at offset glance appears to exist niggling more than a coincidental sexual relationship with a stranger. There are little hints scattered throughout the story that tease the game's ultimate purpose, but, unless you achieve all of the endings, the big picture will remain simply out of achieve. Volition you choose to pursue a relationship with your tantalizingly seductive bed mate? Is this relationship really for the all-time? Or should you stop things before things go too far?

In that location are two story paths (male "lover" or female "lover") and a total of four endings, each path is indistinguishable from the other save the gender pronouns used to draw your bed mate. So choosing a gender at the get-go is wholly a matter of preference and has no existent effect on the outcomes of the game and with the game's rather short runtime, that's non all that unexpected. At first, information technology seems uncomplicated enough, placate the bed mate, pursue them and strike up a relationship with them. Simply, in doing so the player'due south own well being seemingly deteriorates, and the player is left with a startling and rather disturbing realizations nigh your graphic symbol and the nature of their "human relationship". While the relationship is at the forefront of the game,I Woke Upwards Adjacent To Y'all Once more, makes it abundantly articulate that romance is not the goal of the game, with each of the relationship positive choices leading to a negative mental issue for the player. This is a game about the toxicity of codependency and the addictive nature of empty relationships. It's a biting pill to swallow, and deeply unsettling at times as you lot lookout man the player requite themselves over to their need for their bed mate, equally their desires give way to habit and eventually depression as the futility of the human relationship is revealed.

Visually,I Woke Upwards Next To You Againis a very creative and atmospheric game, that felt more like a visual art exhibition slice than a game, with it's dark, layered backgrounds and haunting instrumental soundtrack. But, what really stood out aboutIWUNTYAis that it is e'er moving, be it the dialogue text, the movements of clouds in the background, the small animation of the onscreen characters (blinking mostly) or the pulsing geometric shaped dialogue boxes, each scene has some chemical element that is constantly in motion. There are also some rather unique visual cues that aid the player gauge the mental state of their character, while also carrying the overall ethereal dream-like facade of the game and its narrative.

final thoughts

I Woke Up Adjacent To You Once moretakes its rather short runtime and offers a uniquely wistful visual novel experience, that will cause players to seriously consider the nature of our relationships with one another. Players volition lose themselves in the dream-like atmosphere and visuals, falling deeper into the addictively toxic liaison betwixt the player's character and the unknown individual they observe themselves waking up next to once more and over again and again…

But, don't just have my word for it! Check out the game over oncrawling.ioor take a gander at the game's trailer beneath! If you like what you see, play the game, hitting the like button, share, or annotate! As always, Give thanks You for Reading!!