This review contains spoilers
The meat of this game comes from both the story of the relationship between the two game devs Kanii and Kumade, and also the mental health of the protagonist Kanii. You can see their relationship change and grow more tense when they decide to make indie games full time instead of just doing it for a school project. A relationship dynamic that honestly felt a lot like a previous romantic relationship I've had, despite this not being romantic at all. But still, it feels very real. You may want to take Kanii aside and tell her to be a better friend and business partner to Kumade, but you also see all the anxiety and problems socializing she has, and you can really understand why she may act the way she does. It's not that she doesn't want to be a better friend, it's just that can be very hard at times. So yeah, I really related to the story of this game, and that is definitely where this game shines.
That said each story chunk is broken up with a bit of gameplay. You take out a Gameboy essentially and play a pretty simple puzzle-platformer about putting blocks down. The gameplay is nothing to write home about, and it is a tad clunky in the old Gameboy games tend to be, but I enjoyed these parts. I found it to be simple fun, like a friend made this cute clunky pixelated game to play. Of course the game eventually reveals that this was Kanii's game you've been playing all along, and honestly I think that works perfectly in the context of the story. The only thing problem I have is that the story is obviously the meat of the game, and none of the story chunks last long enough for me to be like "oh I could go for some more puzzle platforming right about now!" In fact, a general complaint I have is that the game could be a bit longer with more story detail put in, which I say as someone who loves short games. It is nice that the Gameboy game never gets in the way though, as getting a game over will force the story to continue. The gamer part of me wants to beat every level, but honestly this choice is MUCH better for the pacing of the game overall.
Last thing I want to talk about is that goddamn ending. I both love and hate it. On one hand, having Kanii suddenly commit suicide makes a certain amount of sense. She doesn't feel like she has a place in the world at all outside of making games, the game publisher told her that her game is trash, and her best friend Kumade left her for a full time job. So when Kumade says she can't hang out last minute .... I get why her mind go to dark places. But the rest of the game, while heavy, never quite feels that dark, so the suicide kinda feels unearned in some sense. This is made so much worse though when the game tells you that Kanii didn't actually commit suicide, and Goodbye World is actually the game the two of them end up making together. This is even revealed by Kanii questioning why Kumade put this in the script, as if she also doesn't love this ending. It's a cute twist, but really kills the impact of that entire scene.
Goodbye World is very short, very heavy story based game that I do recommend playing sometime. The way it explores relationship of the two main characters is really great. I wish it were a tad longer, and I don't think it quite earns it's ending, but overall I really quite like Goodbye World.
That said each story chunk is broken up with a bit of gameplay. You take out a Gameboy essentially and play a pretty simple puzzle-platformer about putting blocks down. The gameplay is nothing to write home about, and it is a tad clunky in the old Gameboy games tend to be, but I enjoyed these parts. I found it to be simple fun, like a friend made this cute clunky pixelated game to play. Of course the game eventually reveals that this was Kanii's game you've been playing all along, and honestly I think that works perfectly in the context of the story. The only thing problem I have is that the story is obviously the meat of the game, and none of the story chunks last long enough for me to be like "oh I could go for some more puzzle platforming right about now!" In fact, a general complaint I have is that the game could be a bit longer with more story detail put in, which I say as someone who loves short games. It is nice that the Gameboy game never gets in the way though, as getting a game over will force the story to continue. The gamer part of me wants to beat every level, but honestly this choice is MUCH better for the pacing of the game overall.
Last thing I want to talk about is that goddamn ending. I both love and hate it. On one hand, having Kanii suddenly commit suicide makes a certain amount of sense. She doesn't feel like she has a place in the world at all outside of making games, the game publisher told her that her game is trash, and her best friend Kumade left her for a full time job. So when Kumade says she can't hang out last minute .... I get why her mind go to dark places. But the rest of the game, while heavy, never quite feels that dark, so the suicide kinda feels unearned in some sense. This is made so much worse though when the game tells you that Kanii didn't actually commit suicide, and Goodbye World is actually the game the two of them end up making together. This is even revealed by Kanii questioning why Kumade put this in the script, as if she also doesn't love this ending. It's a cute twist, but really kills the impact of that entire scene.
Goodbye World is very short, very heavy story based game that I do recommend playing sometime. The way it explores relationship of the two main characters is really great. I wish it were a tad longer, and I don't think it quite earns it's ending, but overall I really quite like Goodbye World.