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Pop CultureMay 11, 2017

What Remains of Edith Finch: a game that finds perfect beauty in death

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The California based devs Giant Sparrow have another hit on their hands. Their new narrative adventure game explores all the great themes, life, death and beauty. Matthew Codd reckons it’s a must play.

What Remains of Edith Finch is a game about life, death, and storytelling. What may at first feel like a run-of-the-mill “walking simulator” with more than a little bit of inspiration from Gone Home quickly gives way to a game that’s not quite like anything else out there. It’s an exploration of how we remember and honour our loved ones who’ve passed with the stories we tell of them, and something that pushes the boundaries of what game narratives can be.

The game tells the stories of the Finch family, eccentric Norwegian expats who believe themselves cursed – Finches have a tendency to die young, and in strange, grisly ways. It’s the sort of family that, upon landing at their new home on Orcas Island, sets about building the graveyard before they build their house.

Having left the family home with her mother at a young age, 17-year-old Edith Finch knows little of her family’s history. However, the sudden death of her mother leaves Edith as the last living Finch, and with a mysterious key left to her, she returns to the Finch manor to uncover the secrets of her family tree.

Without a key for the front door, Edith squeezes in through the dog flap, only to find that every room in the house is sealed. The key she’d inherited lets her open one of a handful of secret passageways built into the house, setting her on a roundabout journey from room to room, learning about the three generations of Finches that came before her, and how they all died.

This is where What Remains of Edith Finch gets brilliant. Upon discovering the memorial of a family member and a record of the death, the player is whisked away to a little playable vignette to witness the death first-hand. Each one has its own unique approach and mechanics – one plays out as an interactive comic book, another casts you as a baby playing with toys in a bathtub. One has you playing a menial, repetitive game of working at a cannery with the right analogue stick, while with the left you’re playing through this worker’s daydreams of being a king.

What’s unique about these vignettes is that despite each one dealing with a death, there’s nothing bleak or sombre about them. They’re stories of happiness, adventure, excitement – stories of the way each Finch is remembered, rather than simply an account of their death. Calvin Finch died by falling off a swing, but he didn’t just fall; he was obsessed with space, and then one day, he finally achieved his dream of flying.

It’s deliberately unclear how much of each fantastical story is “real”. Molly Finch was apparently eaten by a snake, but her final diary entry says she knew what was coming because of a shapeshifting adventure through the bodies of a bunch of different predators, ultimately leading to her predicting her own death. Realistically, this probably didn’t happen, but that’s beside the point – that’s how she’s remembered, and how she would want to be remembered.

This is what makes What Remains of Edith Finch special: it looks at death not as some terrible thing to be avoided, but as an inherent and important part of life. There’s no doubt that the passing of each Finch caused plenty of grief for their loved ones, but that’s not where the focus lies. It’s all about remembering their death as the culmination of their life – not grieving a loss, but cherishing that time together. That’s a beautiful thing.

It also offers a fascinating insight into games as a storytelling medium. In terms of mechanics, the differences between the stories are small – they’re all some variation of a first-person adventure game. But even those little variations are enough to have a profound effect on the way that each tale is told and the feelings that they inspire. Even in a story as linear and predetermined as this, the role of pushing buttons in driving the experience forward and creating an emotional attachment can’t be overstated. With its small but impactful changes on mechanics, What Remains of Edith Finch really puts that into focus.

The end result is game that, as I said earlier, isn’t quite like anything else around. It’s a short, poignant experience that’ll make you rethink the whole concept of life, death, and storytelling.


The review has been brought to you with the help of Bigpipe Broadband.

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rainyday

PartnersMay 11, 2017

Spinoff staff picks: Calum’s top 10 rainy day songs

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There’s a perfect playlist out there for every scenario. Chances are the Spinoff staff playlists won’t be among them but we gave it a go anyway. Today: Calum Henderson details his very specific playlist for a rain delay at the cricket.

Top 10 Rainy Day Songs

I’ve always dreamed of being a DJ at the cricket. My specific dream gig is to DJ a rain delay in the middle of a test match. While the players take an early tea and the sparse crowd huddle under tarpaulins, I get to bleaken the mood with this melancholy set of rain-themed songs…

1. The Beatles – Rain

Rain / I don’t mind…

Obvious choice, but tasteful. One of Paul’s most lethal basslines. Lyrically, a savage takedown of people who don’t like rain.

2. Jean Paul Sartre Experience – I Like Rain

I like rain / when I’m inside…

Most cricket DJs would go straight for Dragon – ‘Rain’ at this point but not me. I think this is New Zealand’s best rain song.

3. Magnetic Fields – All The Umbrellas in London

All the umbrellas in London couldn’t stop this rain…

What you think you want: Rihanna – ‘Umbrella’. What I, the cricket DJ, know you actually want: the wry, morose songwriting of Stephin Merritt.

4. Prince – 17 Days

Let the rain come down…

Everyone thinks ‘Purple Rain’ is Prince’s best rain song but again, I know better and instead pull out this hard-hitting deep cut.

5. Enya – A Day Without Rain

[No lyrics]

Just when they’re least expecting it… hit ‘em with some Enya. Bam! A few people in the stands start crying at this point.

6. The Clientele – Monday’s Rain

My friends say I’m wasting all my time

The first half of this set was actually pretty upbeat, but with the rain showing no sign of easing, the mood in the stands is about to get VERY reflective.

7. Lucinda Williams – I Envy The Wind

I envy the rain / that falls on your face…

Maybe you came to the cricket to take your mind off a recent heartbreak. As you stare out into the rainy middle-distance, let Lucinda Williams sing your broken heart’s deepest desires.

8. Scott Walker – It’s Raining Today

It’s raining today / but once there was summer and you…

Too far. I’ve gone too far. The few remaining people in the stands are all openly sobbing now. They’re inconsolable. This is terrible.

9. David Kilgour & Sam Hunt – Every Time It Rains Like This

Nothing any friend or fisherman can do…

That’s better. There are few lovelier albums in this world than the one David Kilgour made with Sam Hunt. Everything’s going to be OK.

10. Nils Frahm – Over There, It’s Raining

[No lyrics]

Play has been abandoned for the day. Please, everybody, get home safely.


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