I think what I tend to miss most about modern games is a sincere interest in simplicity. Even on the indie side, far too often games are attempting to maximize ideas, making an artistic statement or weaving a complex narrative with subtext and metaphors, often to the detriment of their own focus. While I don’t think that Dear Me, I Was… is actively rebelling against the games industry with its very basic gameplay and story, it’s a flashback of sorts to a time when games were content with just being. I was more than happy with its presence for the short time I spent with it.

Dear Me, I Was… is a narrative story that tells the tale of a woman growing up with a passion for art. Through short chapters, you capture fleeting moments of her life. Glimpses at those with whom she shared a bond and in particular the importance of creativity and her art. The game has few interactive elements, mostly at the beginning of chapters where you eat and drink and occasionally by dragging your cursor across the screen to draw in images of art and the people you meet.

My attention for the game was mostly grabbed through its visual style. It’s no surprise that it is immediately reminiscent of games like Another Code and Hotel Dusk, two of my personal favorite DS titles from the mid 2000’s. The art director is Taisuke Kanasaki who has perfected this particular style over the last twenty years. His watercolors and character designs are striking in their simplicity, but never cease to stun me when in motion. Here the art is on full display, using rotoscoping to feel more lifelike than ever before. It fits the tone of the story director Maho Taguchi is trying to tell through its vignettes.

And it is the art that makes the difference, for this tale is told without words. It can at times be a bit abstract. You may not know the characters by name, or what exactly transpires between them. But the moments captured are immediately recognizable. I do not know why a relationship falls apart, but much like art I can give it my own interpretation and the game allows for those moments to linger.

The hardest thing about Dear Me, I Was… is that most will likely consider it to be more of an animated movie than a videogame. I don’t think that the game is making a statement on this per se. This feeling is recognizable for a lot of triple A games nowadays as well. What is the act of interaction, if I’m mostly folding forward and moving from cutscene to cutscene that keeps on getting longer and longer? But here the game embraces its linearity. A clear ambition of telling a story and leaving little breadcrumbs of interactivity only to further your immersion into its protagonist. Reaching that conclusion was bittersweet, because it felt poignant. A day in the life of a life long lived, but perhaps even wasted through actions outside of the protagonists control. Outside of your control. It brings color into a life that would pass most of us by. Dear Me, I Was… is a reminder to celebrate art, life and love in ways that often pass us by unnoticed.

Take a moment to sit down, put on a headset, drink a cup of tea and get lost in this artwork. It’s something you’ll remember.