What Remains of Edith Finch – Nindie Spotlight – An Eerie Tale in a Dark House
Never have I experienced a game so creepy yet so cozy in the way What Remains of Edith Finch is. It follows the story of Edith Finch, the last member of the Finches, a family infamous for its wealth and incredibly poor luck, who has returned to her rural childhood home to uncover the final secrets her family have left behind. You do this by making your way around the house entering each relatives’ room and discovering a usually somewhat exaggerated story of their death.
My name is The Never Yak, and this is your Nindie Spotlight for today: What Remains of Edith Finch.
I think perhaps the best thing about the game is just how unique and memorable each moment is. Learning about the passing of each of your relatives is always done creatively and completely different from the last. From playing through a comic book to becoming a literal shark, What Remains of Edith Finch never fails to show you something you’ve never seen before and keeping you eager for the next part of the game.
The whole story-telling aspect, and actually the entire experience as a whole, is massively helped by a fantastic cast of voice actors who wonderfully embody the characters and add a real sense of engaging depth to the game. Even though all the people you’re hearing about in the stories are dead, and you don’t even have a good idea of what most of them look like, the game still tells you so much about their personalities and how they fit in, or didn’t, with the family and society at large, through both the decor of their rooms and through Edith Finch’s narration of the stories told of them in her childhood.
Next I want to comment on the truly sensational art style of the game. It is, for the most part, a very standard 3D graphic style you’ll see in most first-person games, but it’s the colours that really make it pop. With the house bathed in cozy shades of orange and brown, I think it speaks to our own childhood memories of relaxing in the house on a warm evening, watching the sun go down.
The Finch’s home is supposed to have had many people living in it across many generations, and that really shows. With shelves packed with books, photographs, and ornaments, What Remains of Edith Finch really brings across the idea of a well lived in home. My personal favourite detail being the mention of them having only one restaurant that would deliver to their house, since they live in such a rural setting, with evidence of this being left behind in the takeaway boxes you see on the kitchen counter.
After finding a way to get into each family member’s room, but before going through each of their stories, you get a chance to walk around and look at all their possessions, with Edith Finch narrating a little about them based on what you look at. This extra bit of detail really feeds into the feeling of them being a true part of the Finch family, and how their deaths have been told more like elusive family legends rather than simple tragic deaths or kept completely secret from her.
What Remains of Edith Finch is an absolute must-play indie game. It’s somehow both an unnerving tale filled with death and mystery, but also radiates such a warm sense of comfort and home. Discovering each new story and experiencing each new and ingenious way the developers have decided to tell its story is a non-stop pleasure throughout the game’s two to three hour run time.
So if you’re looking for a short and beautiful game packed with outstanding aesthetic and a suspense filled story, you just can’t miss out on What Remains of Edith Finch.
There is your Nindie Spotlight on What Remains of Edith Finch. Check back again next time for a look into another great Nindie title. What are some of your favorite Indie games? Let us know in the comments below! And thank you for visiting Nintendo Link.
