What Remains of Edith Finch Review

As I’ve been absent from Nerd Farm for a few months with some medical issues, I found myself struggling to find motivation to post anything to the site, fortunately for me, Giant Sparrow pushed me over that slump with What Remains of Edith Finch, a game that I must talk about.

What Remains of Edith Finch is the latest title from Giant Sparrow, the developers who brought us the creative paint your own story The Unfinished Swan. As with The Unfinished Swan, What Remains of Edith Finch is a creative endeavor, one that sucks you into the shoes of Edith, a pregnant 17 year old who’s returning to her childhood home after a seven year hiatus. Throughout the entirety of What Remains of Edith Finch you discover the history of a cursed family tree that had been hidden from Edith by her mother.

Each and every family member’s stories is as tragic as it is different from each others. I’m not going to spoil any of the stories for you as they are the catalyst of the entire game and their mysteries are what make their stories so powerful. Without giving away too much I can tell you that you get to play as a shark twice, once swimming and another tumbling down a hill, yes, a land shark, and climb upon treetops as a cat. As What Remains of Edith Finch is so strongly driven by these stories I can’t tell you much more even though I want to discuss each and every one so passionately it burns my inside not being able to talk to you about them. They’re just so…tragic, I want to hug every Finch family member.

With the recent absurd discussion about video games not needing stories and that they actually hurt games, What Remains of Edith Finch absolutely destroys that theory. It’s a theory that I believe the writer of the article doesn’t truly believe in and was just out there fishing for readers as even bad publicity is good publicity. What Remains of Edith Finch proves that games not only need stories but they thrive from them.

Much like Firewatch, my game of the year for 2016, I continue to enjoy the “walking simulator” genre as their success in storytelling surpasses much of everything else I’ve been playing as of late. What Remains of Edith Finch is short, but it’s as lovely as it is melancholy, a special experience that I suggest everyone try. It manages to suck you in at every turn, the house is a character in of itself, and even though Edith’s story isn’t as written out as others, she’s still an emphatic character with questions that need to be answered, as she wears long finger-less gloves, theories swirled through my brain as to what they were hiding. What Remains of Edith Finch is an incredibly special game and I thank all of Giant Sparrow for giving us something that we wont soon forget.