Kentucky Route Zero is without a doubt the most pretentious game I have ever played. I would be ok with that, if the plot warranted such pretentions, but unfortunately a lot of the story beats in KRZ didn't really resonate with me. I don't think this game is nearly as deep as gamers think it is. So much ink has been spilled over "the american dream", and I don't think this has anything new or insightful to add about the current state of modern north american life. Yes, capitalism is bad. Yes, most people are forced into indentured slavery due to insurmountable debt. Yes, the system is rotten to the core, and we need to find our own happiness through....the power of friendship. I'm sure all of this would seem groundbreaking if you have never checks notes read a single book in your life, but I have had this story rehashed and retold in every artistic medium over and over again for decades. Also I am still salty about having to sit through a fucking hour long play in this game. The whole thing reeks of something some brutal undergrad student would try to convince me is deep at a house party.

Despite my overall gripes, I can appreciate some of the narrative experimentation this game does pull off. Having a non-static main character is nothing new in games, but switching characters mid-conversation creates an interesting disorientation of self and presents a way to exposit the inner thoughts of characters in a way I haven't seen before. Also, some of the actual gameplay itself is really unique; there are many small moments that stick out, and I found myself consistently caught off guard by small gameplay choices that I will not spoil here. I think that breaking this game up into chapters works ok, but also led to a wildly inconsistent tone that may have worked when playing each chapter years apart, but doesn't really work when playing the game over the span of a week or two.

I sat for two weeks after completing this game before I wrote about it, hoping that mulling it over a bit more would let me draw out more nuance from what I had just engaged with, and hindsight would allow me to appreciate the whole more. Unfortunately, my take on the game hasn't changed much since the credits rolled. I know this game means a lot to a lot of people, and I can understand why, but unfortunately the storytelling didn't resonate with me in any profound way. It's worth playing, as a piece of experimental storytelling, but it's not the decade defining piece of art it has been hyped up to be.