This review contains spoilers
You Will (Not) Remain is a “depression with a dog” simulator developed by Bedtime Phobias, a small team from Australia who had previously developed a game named Shrinking Pains and had created this game in 48 hours in the Unity Engine for the 2021 Women’s Game Jam competition and released for free on Itch.io as well as Steam. I originally discovered this game from a friend of mine named Bad Ghosts, who creates youtube reviews that you should really give a check in and watch cause they’re really good (link below) who made this as a four parter for a mini-review video along with Anger Foot, The Glass Staircase and Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death. I hadn’t heard of the game before then, but his review beforehand convinced me to give this game a shot and I had completed it in around 30 minutes or so. A couple of years later I sat down and gave the game another playthrough after my usual saturday review person wanted the game on the list for me to stream for them and after Carrier for the Dreamcast goofed up due to a controller issue, I had played this game along with Paratopic and Nightslink.
I’ll just be straight up about the gameplay off the bat: you play the game in one sitting and it takes about 30 or so minutes. You don’t do much except walk around and press the interact button and that’s pretty much it. The game is about the atmosphere and the themes of mental health with isolation (stuff the developers warn you about on the first screen) and boy does the game deliver. The story is about a singular person who wakes up day after day, trapped in their apartment due to warnings about not going outside or else SOMETHING happens. What is that something? Unknown. But going out on the porch reveals a giant purple eldritch monster during a sort of post apocalypse, and you kind of go through the days and attempt to live while also ruminating and having nightmares over “she” constantly, worrying about her safety from the threats outside. Who is she? Who knows, but eventually you hear a dog barking next door and saving them provides a respite to the overwhelming loneliness and depression that comes from the isolation of life. That’s pretty much all I’m going to go on with in terms of the plot as the game feels more like a single character’s journey, which could be interpreted in any number of ways. A lot of people with depression struggle to get out of bed in the morning, neglecting and struggling to do anything and nothing is more resemblant of that in-game than forgetting to water your plant or struggling to come up with a name for the dog and almost naming them after a marble sink. The writing here feels dead on, so shoutout to Gabriella Lowgren.
The sound design mostly consists of the music, certain sound effects like barking and the pattering of text as it scrawls by. The music composed by Talia Roso evokes a feeling of comfort and safety, a strange whimsy of sorts that I would expect from a Gamecube-era game for some reason. I enjoy the feeling that it gives me, while also appreciating how it resonates with the retro aesthetic. The dream world version gives the same effect but with a more unsettling feel to give off the nightmare feel that it relays. For the most part it keeps this same upbeat sounding tune throughout most of the game and any differentiations in the music blend basically seamlessly except for a few transitions where it jarringly goes into the nightmare music. The other sound effects that is given off is from the dog barking or growling which sounds good, the static which sounds like static and burns my ears or the text scrolling which just gives off this tapping fingers on the table feeling that just sounds so great and truth be told I could listen to it all day like ASMR.
The art design is a sweet spot for me, as I’m a weak little simp boy for retro graphics for those who know me and T-Dog eXtreme did a fantastic job. The pixelated artwork is always a plus, the sort of Gameboy-esque vibe mixed with the familiar yet alien surroundings blend in phenomenally. The main character itself feels alien to it’s own environment, which feels human in itself which to me relayed this feeling of isolationism mixed with familiarity, like knowing your surroundings but feeling like you don’t belong or are trapped. Lambshank the dog looks normal despite the giant leaf tail and looking outside the window sees this giant purple tentacle which I thought was the mouth of Cthulhu first before it appeared to be nothing related to that. The funny thing is, it excels in the lovecraft vibes because you don’t KNOW what anything looks like besides you, Lambshank and whatever the hell is that being in the background from the roof. It succeeds very well in the environmental storytelling and the pixelated apartment mixed in with the only colors being black, white and purple give it a unique flavor that I can’t say I’ve seen any other game pull off yet.
Overall, this was a really good title based on the horrors of isolation and depression released in what I dubbed the “COVID Era” which I felt tackled the struggle really well while also relaying a great bit of unseen Eldritch horror. I had interpreted the game as symbolic of the struggles of getting over someone, perhaps an ex or someone in your past that wasn’t healthy for you but perhaps but my friend interpreted it as a resemblance of comfortably sinking back into depression and continuing to do the same thing because it’s familiar. It’s a really well written 2D indie game that while short, I’m both grateful and genuinely surprised that it’s free. The fact that it is free however means that for the people who are interested in these types of games, you have no reason not to give it a try. I enjoyed my time with it and related to it a lot, Bedtime Phobias did a fantastic job and they’re a developer that I’m going to keep an eye on. Perhaps I’ll even give their previous title a spin at some point to see what that was like as well. You Will (Not) Remain is a solid title that’s worth the time spent if you’re looking for a small game to kill in half an hour.
Links:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2710823795
https://mashable.com/article/you-will-not-remain-game-review
https://jordancookirwin.itch.io/you-will-not-remain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XRP7UkbHe0&ab_channel=BadGhosts
https://bedtimephobias.itch.io/
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
I’ll just be straight up about the gameplay off the bat: you play the game in one sitting and it takes about 30 or so minutes. You don’t do much except walk around and press the interact button and that’s pretty much it. The game is about the atmosphere and the themes of mental health with isolation (stuff the developers warn you about on the first screen) and boy does the game deliver. The story is about a singular person who wakes up day after day, trapped in their apartment due to warnings about not going outside or else SOMETHING happens. What is that something? Unknown. But going out on the porch reveals a giant purple eldritch monster during a sort of post apocalypse, and you kind of go through the days and attempt to live while also ruminating and having nightmares over “she” constantly, worrying about her safety from the threats outside. Who is she? Who knows, but eventually you hear a dog barking next door and saving them provides a respite to the overwhelming loneliness and depression that comes from the isolation of life. That’s pretty much all I’m going to go on with in terms of the plot as the game feels more like a single character’s journey, which could be interpreted in any number of ways. A lot of people with depression struggle to get out of bed in the morning, neglecting and struggling to do anything and nothing is more resemblant of that in-game than forgetting to water your plant or struggling to come up with a name for the dog and almost naming them after a marble sink. The writing here feels dead on, so shoutout to Gabriella Lowgren.
The sound design mostly consists of the music, certain sound effects like barking and the pattering of text as it scrawls by. The music composed by Talia Roso evokes a feeling of comfort and safety, a strange whimsy of sorts that I would expect from a Gamecube-era game for some reason. I enjoy the feeling that it gives me, while also appreciating how it resonates with the retro aesthetic. The dream world version gives the same effect but with a more unsettling feel to give off the nightmare feel that it relays. For the most part it keeps this same upbeat sounding tune throughout most of the game and any differentiations in the music blend basically seamlessly except for a few transitions where it jarringly goes into the nightmare music. The other sound effects that is given off is from the dog barking or growling which sounds good, the static which sounds like static and burns my ears or the text scrolling which just gives off this tapping fingers on the table feeling that just sounds so great and truth be told I could listen to it all day like ASMR.
The art design is a sweet spot for me, as I’m a weak little simp boy for retro graphics for those who know me and T-Dog eXtreme did a fantastic job. The pixelated artwork is always a plus, the sort of Gameboy-esque vibe mixed with the familiar yet alien surroundings blend in phenomenally. The main character itself feels alien to it’s own environment, which feels human in itself which to me relayed this feeling of isolationism mixed with familiarity, like knowing your surroundings but feeling like you don’t belong or are trapped. Lambshank the dog looks normal despite the giant leaf tail and looking outside the window sees this giant purple tentacle which I thought was the mouth of Cthulhu first before it appeared to be nothing related to that. The funny thing is, it excels in the lovecraft vibes because you don’t KNOW what anything looks like besides you, Lambshank and whatever the hell is that being in the background from the roof. It succeeds very well in the environmental storytelling and the pixelated apartment mixed in with the only colors being black, white and purple give it a unique flavor that I can’t say I’ve seen any other game pull off yet.
Overall, this was a really good title based on the horrors of isolation and depression released in what I dubbed the “COVID Era” which I felt tackled the struggle really well while also relaying a great bit of unseen Eldritch horror. I had interpreted the game as symbolic of the struggles of getting over someone, perhaps an ex or someone in your past that wasn’t healthy for you but perhaps but my friend interpreted it as a resemblance of comfortably sinking back into depression and continuing to do the same thing because it’s familiar. It’s a really well written 2D indie game that while short, I’m both grateful and genuinely surprised that it’s free. The fact that it is free however means that for the people who are interested in these types of games, you have no reason not to give it a try. I enjoyed my time with it and related to it a lot, Bedtime Phobias did a fantastic job and they’re a developer that I’m going to keep an eye on. Perhaps I’ll even give their previous title a spin at some point to see what that was like as well. You Will (Not) Remain is a solid title that’s worth the time spent if you’re looking for a small game to kill in half an hour.
Links:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2710823795
https://mashable.com/article/you-will-not-remain-game-review
https://jordancookirwin.itch.io/you-will-not-remain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XRP7UkbHe0&ab_channel=BadGhosts
https://bedtimephobias.itch.io/
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/