Played through Sumire today; this is a game that caught my attention back during the Steam Game Festival a while back, and I was looking forward to trying the full thing. Turns out my first impressions were correct — this is a very wonderful, very sad game.
I'll write a more detailed article on the subject over on Rice in the week, but suffice to say for now that if you enjoy story-centric games that pretty consistently tug on the heartstrings throughout, Sumire is a must-play. Beautiful visuals, understated but emotional music and an excellent script — it really is absolutely wonderful.
The basic concept is that you play the eponymous heroine, who is a young girl struggling with her current life situation. Her parents seem to be splitting up, she's lost the person she thought was her best friend, and she's in love with someone she feels to be far beyond her reach. More than anything, though, she misses her grandmother, and is haunted by constant dreams of said grandmother wanting to tell her something, but never finding out what.
What follows is a side-scrolling adventure game in which Sumire attempts to have "the perfect day", in conjunction with a mysterious flower she meets early in the story. The flower encourages her to do all the things that she has wanted to do for a while, but has been too afraid to or felt like she wouldn't be able to — these range from reaching some sort of resolution with the former best friend to getting one last chance to see her grandmother.
As you progress through the story, you're presented with a number of opportunities to make choices and perhaps help others out. Sumire's "karma" is tracked as you do so, and the combination of this karma value and the people she's helped out at the end of the game determines the ending. What's interesting is that the karma thing isn't always entirely straightforward; you know that you need to lie to help someone, but is it right to do so?
The whole thing is absolutely dripping in this wonderful sense of melancholy, which might not sound like something you'd want to immerse yourself in for three hours — but as anyone who has played a good "nakige" will attest, sometimes it's healthy and even desirable to play something that you know is going to make you cry. And indeed, for a good half of my Sumire playthrough — possibly more — there were genuine tears rolling down my cheeks.
Anyway, as I say, more on this over on Rice in the week. In the meantime, if this is the sort of experience you're up for in your games — I know it's not everyone's cup of tea — then I strongly recommend Sumire. Just make sure you're prepared to deal with the consequences.
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