It was 2018. The market had come a long way since To the Moon, and while Finding Paradise had received enough fan acclaim, it also had its fair share of detractors who were hoping for another "To the Moon like" story. Further, it sold considerably less than its parent, though still enough to keep the company alive. Not that an indie venture as small as Freebird Games needed a lot of money, especially when To the Moon had raked in a fair amount of cash.
But there was a bigger problem: where exactly would the franchise go? Both sides of the core theme, the exploration of whether wish fulfillment was a good thing in balance, had already been covered. Without that theme, there wasn't much actual point to writing stories for the memory manipulator, especially since it brought a bunch of unwanted restrictions and weighty baggage with it.
Well, the author decided that he would delve into the backstory of one of the doctors. Except he would do it in a roundabout way, partly to get around the restrictions, partly to throw off long time fans, and partly to continue writing relationship dramas. Towards that end, he leaned heavily into the misdirection: you aren't the doctors anymore, you're Quincy! And you don't visit any patient, instead you are drawn into a mysterious, murder filled manor!
The first act is a cute little sequence. It's a murder mystery that gets increasingly weirder and weirder, and until it leans heavily into the exposition, it's a joy to play, despite the limited interactivity and play space.
Things start souring quickly after that, however. The second act, holding the core story, is quite blatantly a retread of many of his tropes. To be fair, it does have a mildly worthwhile premise - the story of a girl cursed by an eventual early death and being motivated by said curse to achieve great things. You could take this premise in several interesting directions if you tried. But the author settles for a long drawn college romance with Quincy as a convenient foil to her, using some of the most schlocky and worn out tropes imaginable. And it's not even that they are written poorly - if anything, it's much better written than Johnny and River's or Colin and Faye's relationship, at least technically - but it treads so much worn out ground that it fails to evoke much in the way of genuine sentiment.
Nor do things improve much after that. She gets hired by an evil science company, who are revealed to be the inventors of the memory manipulator. They attempt to use her as science bait, she escapes and tries to have a "normal" family with Quincy, but her curse(read: disease) kills her baby, and the resulting overwhelming grief pushes her back to working with the evil company. All of this is narrated through extremely long, indulgent sequences, and while there are some genuine glimmers of sadness and profound musings, they are severely held back by the dull narrative around them.
The final act tries something interesting, by revealing her entire life to be an alternative timeline created by her son, who is one of the central memory manipulating doctors of the franchise. Apparently he was attempting to view her life, and seeing what a perfect life for her would look like. While this could have been potential for interesting commentary, it is marred by the extremely lackluster presentation and the sheer amount of stretching the author does to tie her life back to the overarching narrative of the franchise, while still keeping things "suspenseful".
All of the revelations here are delivered in a long, dull monologue, and the entire situation is "resolved" by the flick of a wand granting them a carefree, idealistic life. Hell, even the doctor himself comments on how unfulfilling that felt! Someone could charitably interpret this as an attempt to provide commentary on the innate hollowness of excess wish fulfillment, except Finding Paradise did that better. Someone could also claim that it's supposed to be a commentary on stories, and how they only have meaning when there are obstacles to be overcome, except that assumes that the second act, which was where most of the story was concentrated, was anything meaningful.
All in all, I think the severe focus on misdirection, combined with the author not truly innovating on the core of his work, makes this fall flat. Had he taken more actual risks with the central narrative, there could have been something interesting. To the Moon and Finding Paradise were both interesting even if not always successful, this can't even really claim that. This is only interesting as an examination of how far misdirection can carry a rather tired plot, and, outside of the genuinely delightful first act, there is little to recommend in it. If you really like this author's previous work, you'll likely still find something to enjoy, but everyone else can safely steer clear.
But there was a bigger problem: where exactly would the franchise go? Both sides of the core theme, the exploration of whether wish fulfillment was a good thing in balance, had already been covered. Without that theme, there wasn't much actual point to writing stories for the memory manipulator, especially since it brought a bunch of unwanted restrictions and weighty baggage with it.
Well, the author decided that he would delve into the backstory of one of the doctors. Except he would do it in a roundabout way, partly to get around the restrictions, partly to throw off long time fans, and partly to continue writing relationship dramas. Towards that end, he leaned heavily into the misdirection: you aren't the doctors anymore, you're Quincy! And you don't visit any patient, instead you are drawn into a mysterious, murder filled manor!
The first act is a cute little sequence. It's a murder mystery that gets increasingly weirder and weirder, and until it leans heavily into the exposition, it's a joy to play, despite the limited interactivity and play space.
Things start souring quickly after that, however. The second act, holding the core story, is quite blatantly a retread of many of his tropes. To be fair, it does have a mildly worthwhile premise - the story of a girl cursed by an eventual early death and being motivated by said curse to achieve great things. You could take this premise in several interesting directions if you tried. But the author settles for a long drawn college romance with Quincy as a convenient foil to her, using some of the most schlocky and worn out tropes imaginable. And it's not even that they are written poorly - if anything, it's much better written than Johnny and River's or Colin and Faye's relationship, at least technically - but it treads so much worn out ground that it fails to evoke much in the way of genuine sentiment.
Nor do things improve much after that. She gets hired by an evil science company, who are revealed to be the inventors of the memory manipulator. They attempt to use her as science bait, she escapes and tries to have a "normal" family with Quincy, but her curse(read: disease) kills her baby, and the resulting overwhelming grief pushes her back to working with the evil company. All of this is narrated through extremely long, indulgent sequences, and while there are some genuine glimmers of sadness and profound musings, they are severely held back by the dull narrative around them.
The final act tries something interesting, by revealing her entire life to be an alternative timeline created by her son, who is one of the central memory manipulating doctors of the franchise. Apparently he was attempting to view her life, and seeing what a perfect life for her would look like. While this could have been potential for interesting commentary, it is marred by the extremely lackluster presentation and the sheer amount of stretching the author does to tie her life back to the overarching narrative of the franchise, while still keeping things "suspenseful".
All of the revelations here are delivered in a long, dull monologue, and the entire situation is "resolved" by the flick of a wand granting them a carefree, idealistic life. Hell, even the doctor himself comments on how unfulfilling that felt! Someone could charitably interpret this as an attempt to provide commentary on the innate hollowness of excess wish fulfillment, except Finding Paradise did that better. Someone could also claim that it's supposed to be a commentary on stories, and how they only have meaning when there are obstacles to be overcome, except that assumes that the second act, which was where most of the story was concentrated, was anything meaningful.
All in all, I think the severe focus on misdirection, combined with the author not truly innovating on the core of his work, makes this fall flat. Had he taken more actual risks with the central narrative, there could have been something interesting. To the Moon and Finding Paradise were both interesting even if not always successful, this can't even really claim that. This is only interesting as an examination of how far misdirection can carry a rather tired plot, and, outside of the genuinely delightful first act, there is little to recommend in it. If you really like this author's previous work, you'll likely still find something to enjoy, but everyone else can safely steer clear.
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