I appear to have made a mistake playing this.

It was only at the end that I realized that I'd kind of just skipped to the last chapter of the book without my knowing. "Brand new players" in the game description is deathly misleading, as even to me it felt like I wasn't seeing the full picture at all. The game absolutely expects you to be on the final chapter of the whole journey, literally calling back to elements I had no way of knowing about until I just looked them up.

I don't think that changed my opinion on the end though. I could see that it was minimalist, very clearly a sort of painting put up on an art museum at the chronicles of fate, where this is the point of passing on. A final farewell to a series meant to feel very transcendent.

And it is dreadfully not fun to play, in fact my eyes are still strained and crying as I'm writing this, because it's fucking painful on the eyes. The game's main mechanic, in response to all you're doing being paddling the pong balls coming to you, is to obfuscate the way to hit them in the most 'fair' way possible, but at the same time with so many trippy and bright elements in the background ESCALATING as you get better at it. It was a fight against my eyes, and at the end of it I wasn't feeling the ethereal emotion.

I also kind of think the music just completely went one ear and out the other? I wasn't feeling anything, especially when I was severely trying to fight back against the pain to get through the game. I don't want to say the music just sucks, and I'm sure there's an intent to it, but I don't think I'm supposed to walk away thinking "I just wasted a full hour just to get my eyes hurting".

Y'know you could just play Journey. Ok that's unfair they're like not cognitively the same, but look I just want to give fair warning that unless you're in it to appreciate this, you're paying a ticket to potentially suffer.