"We have to save our marriage by devastating our daughter for no reason!"
this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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My wife and I concluded that the developer was a child of an unhappy divorce house
Haven’t gotten that far, but I’ve heard of it.
Yep, my partner was none too pleased at this part.
Right? I understand what they were doing but DAMN.
my ex partner really liked this game. we broke up before we finished it. can someone fill me in?
Sure. Very very spoiler heavy below.
spoiler
For a refresher, the core concept of the game is that a husband and wife are divorcing for a variety of reasons. Their daughter finds out and cries over a book asking her parents to get back together. The self help relationship book then comes to life, turns the parents into dolls, and guides them on a quest to be better for each other so they don't split up. The parents aren't happy with this and just look for ways to get back into their normal bodies. When they realize that their kid cried over the book, the dad assumes that tears are the answer based off of the books he reads with said kid. So they go into the kids bedroom, find the kids favorite stuffed animal (an elephant) and proceed to literally tear it apart while it begs for its life. Like screams and pleads for the parents to not tear it apart. I cannot emphasize enough that the toy came to life and started begging to not be killed but they do it anyway. You as the two players RIP IT APART. You tear off a leg and an ear (I believe) in the process. The kid finds the toy and is mortified and proceeds to start crying. It obviously doesn't work and they're still stuck as dolls. Parents feel bad but frankly not remotely bad enough.
I remember reading a review, i think from Ars Technica, that said that the dad was by far the worst parent and, as a character, someone who didn't evolve or learn anything. Is that right?
I never ended up finishing the game from what I remember, although I came close. I was playing with my ex as well lol
I don't really remember him learning anything but honestly? I think the wife is worse. They're both awful people in different regards but the wife is just so fucking cold. The dad is a dope. Stay at home dad that clearly has ADHD that he can't manage and isn't really in the best position to be a good parent but is an excellent dad, if that makes sense. He takes care of his child and spends absurd amounts of time with her but the lessons that he should be teaching her are often just left on the wayside. He just wants to have fun with her and be a good dad, not a good parent. He will go out of his way to set things up for his wife to try and be kind to her. The wife on the other hand works all the time and doesn't have much time for the family. That would be one thing but the time she does have she just refuses to use to engage with said family. She ignores the husband and the kid and just runs off to be on her own. The dad keeps mentioning this throughout the game, that she doesn't spend any time with them. She will just go into her shed and start tinkering on things, actively ignoring her family.
From what I could tell, neither one learned a single fucking thing during the (majority) portion of the game I played. The self help book keeps trying to teach them lessons and both of them ignore it but the husband is often more receptive. He'll question what's being said and try to bring it up with his wife who just refuses to engage.
They both suck but the dad tries and spends time with his kid. The mom seems to just hate her husband and her kid.
haha wtf!
Yeah.... the game is definitely a bit special.
Well... To put it lightly and relatively spoiler free: They made their daughter cry doing something quite awful.
my headcanon is that that fucking book is a demon trying to make things even worse for the family
Yeah honestly, this wasn't too far off the GTA V torture mission. Can't believe the creators saw no issue with this.
I always enjoyed the mission, I guess I have a passion for dentistry.
I still don't know why people like this game. Sure the gameplay may be fun, but everything else about the game is screaming in your face "these are terrible people, you should hate them"
My partner and I spent the whole game going "these two better not stay together at the end, they're horrible and that would be a terrible moral"
That was our thoughts too, they didn't learn shit and that scene was viscerally uncomfortable.
I never played it, but watched a playthrough. Tbh I didn't even finish that cause I got to the elephant scene and noped the fuck out. Like who actually thinks this is good? In any capacity?
"oH tHe CoNtRoLs ArE gOoD fOr NoNgAmErS!" Tbh that's not enough for me to think a game is GOTY. It needs to have a story that's at least as well done as the gameplay. It's why the Arkham games are S tier imo.
I played it with a friend and we had the exact same thoughts.
The whole game felt fucked up. Like partaking in a business casual traumatization of their daughter by way of varied mini games.
Yeah and it was never addressed or really commented on?? The script for the game seems really poorly thought out.
Literally NO ONE talks about how shit the writing for the game is. No one.
The Ars Technica review was pretty open about it. But yeah I've never had a person who recommended it mention the plot.
Such amazing gameplay, my friend and I really enjoyed it but holy crap is it fucked up. The end of their previous game (A Way Out) was also very fucked up. Even with the emotional trauma, I'm looking forward to Split Fiction.
Me and the wife were just talking about this last week. wild part of the game