SELF Reviews

I think I was expecting something different when I bought this originally, but I'm not upset by the gameplay at all. I had the expectation that this was going to be a game that made you question your own identity and somewhat self-reflect on your own trauma - that's not what it explores. [b] If you enjoy indirect storytelling as well as using some critical thinking to piece together the story, you will enjoy this game. If you are expecting the story to be handed to you on a silver platter, you will likely be disappointed. [/b] Without revealing too much, this game is a text-based, "choose your own ending" style game in which you play as a protagonist trying to find your dad. Through a series of different settings, [spoiler] it appears as if you are trapped in a dream state going through different locations [/spoiler] - hence the multiple different endings angle. It also takes inspiration from games like Undertale in which you have little minigames sprinkled throughout where items/symbols come across the screen and you are either supposed to touch them or avoid them depending on their color. These minigames typically happen at pivotal moments in the story, creating the new branches of endings. I found the story to be hard to follow at times as well as overly symbolic, however, once I found all of the endings and memory pieces, a lot of the symbolism started to make sense and was quite literal in certain instances. Kind of confusing as you're playing through, but all seems to come together in the end! I was really happy that I ended up getting Ending 2 as my last ending because I felt that it tied up all my loose ends rather well. I also really appreciated the ability to replay the story from certain nodes or memories rather than starting the game all the way from the beginning every time. This made finding all the endings and memories a lot easier.