Instead, it explores the different ways loneliness manifests itself and the secondary emotions it causes. Sea of Solitude isn’t just about sadness. Sea of Solitude isn't just about sadness, instead, it explores the different ways loneliness manifests itself.
During development, everyone in the studio shared their own histories with loneliness to create a more diverse story. But the game isn’t solely about Geppert’s own experience.
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Now a monster herself, Kay is desperately trying to find out why this happened and – more importantly – how to turn back to her human form.Ĭornelia Geppert – CEO, Writer, Art & Creative Director for Sea of Solitude – describes the game as “the most personal project ever made.” The lead character, Kay, is actually based on herself after going through a bad breakup. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn special.Developed by Jo-Mei, a 12-person studio based in Berlin, Germany, Sea of Solitude is an adventure game that takes place in a world where humans turn into monsters when they get lonely. If you’ve ever felt deeply lonely this game will resonate with you, and if not you stand to gain an impressively effective understanding of it in a way that other forms of media can’t offer. It’s succinct, raw, emotional and overall enjoyable despite the script almost being its own undoing. Sea of Solitude is a commendable effort and a heartfelt and personal story told in a medium that needs more of those. Even if SoS’ story had missed the mark entirely I’d still really enjoy taking in its world, spamming the screenshot button to build up a library of fantastic wallpapers and chilling out to its gorgeous tunes. There’s also a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack that the game makes sparing use of, punctuating emotionally critical scenes with a natural ease. Coupled with Kay’s design, her movements, and those of the characters she encounters it further drives home the fact that the narrative stands on its own far better than it lets on. Visually, Sea of Solitude is a feast for the eyes, with environments that are simultaneously abstract and very real.
Worlds like this work best when the player is given time to breathe and explore and figure things out at their own pace, and this game would’ve benefited greatly from keeping that in mind. Kay’s voice doesn’t fit her all that well, and the broken English throughout makes me think it might even have been more effective in the team’s native German. Adding to that are voiceover performances that, while admirable given they were performed mostly by the developers themselves, come off as really awkward. The end result is it feels like Jo-Mei were either unsure of the effectiveness of their storytelling or just didn’t trust players to get the message, and both notions are incorrect.
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I’m all for an indie game with a simple message free of the intentionally obfuscated wank that we sometimes see, but SoS wouldn’t have that problem even if it had half its dialogue stripped. Straight off the bat there is just too much unnecessary dialogue from the characters explaining what’s going on, including spelling out nearly all of its imagery and double meanings. It’s easy to see that Cornelia is telling a very personal story with SoS and that’s something I always love to see in gaming.Īs great as the themes that Sea of Solitude tackles are, and as much as I appreciate how raw and unapologetically it portrays them, the game kind of fumbles the delivery. There are a lot of great messages to be found about how the most loved and secure people can still experience feeling lonely, even when surrounded by friends or family, and sometimes because of it. Everything Kay faces speaks to her past with her family and her feelings of intense loneliness, as she learns how the two are interconnected. As the game continues and Kay starts to understand her situation the world around her shifts and changes to reflect her mental state tides rising and lowering, huge towers blowing angry smoke from their vents as she attempts to climb them and the entire place being engulfed by ice. Before long, she’s met by a couple of huge monsters that threaten to halt her progress, but as she explores and starts to piece together memories of her past she learns that these monsters are more familiar than is first apparent. Resembling something other than her usual, human self and with fuzzy memory, Kay decides to sail onward and figure out what’s going on. Sea of Solitude tells the story of Kay, a woman who awakes completely alone on a small boat in a city that’s almost completely underwater.
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