What Remains of Edith Finch: Many Endings are Bittersweet
When I was done learning about Milton, I left his room and went up some stairs that were near the doorway. This led me to Lewis’s room. He’s Edith’s brother.
Part of learning about him was going through a labyrinth, which was fun because I love those types of games. It was interesting to me how the psychiatrist is narrating Lewis’s story instead of Lewis narrating his own story, like most of the other family members. Maybe it was to show that his mind had wandered so far he couldn’t even tell his own story?
I thought it was cool how the fish would block the mini screen so you had to do two things at once- chop the fish and navigate as King Lewis. I also want to give props to how the mini-game slowly took up more and more of the screen, which I didn’t even notice at first, until you could barely see the real Lewis.
For some reason, my game glitched and I could no longer see the mini-game, only slice the salmon. I did that for a while because I thought maybe that was what I was supposed to do but I kept slicing salmon and nothing was happening so I just swiped my app up and tried again. Thankfully, it didn’t glitch that time.
I liked how all the people in his kingdom were faceless. I feel like there’s a metaphor in there, maybe how he stopped feeling like he could face his family because they wouldn’t be there for him? Either way, it was a nice little detail.
The slice as he got crowned was honestly horrific.
I left his room feeling almost weighed down by all the sad stories and walked out of the exit door and up some stairs. Turns out, there’s ANOTHER part of the house haha. It reminds me of the Weasley house.
Edie’s story was hard to navigate, but I was happy I was finally learning about her, especially after hearing about her so much. First, the house was dark and then there was all the fog on the beach. My strategy was to just keep walking forward and thankfully that worked.
I figured the grandma was going to die the second they mentioned medication because that’s always how it goes.
Then the entire Finch story was done and it turns out we were reading the journal like I originally thought at the start of the game. I will say, I was surprised the child was a boy and not a girl. I don’t know why I just assumed it would be a girl. I’m also sad because I’m under the assumption that Edith died in childbirth after looking at the dates on her tombstone.
Overall, the game had a very sweet and thought-provoking message, even if it was tied with sadness and death. I do wish we had gotten clarity on whether or not the curse was real. But I suppose, if you believe a curse is real, doesn't that make it real?
I also liked how the post-credit scene brought all the stories back and we got to see the little knick-knacks that represent each story we learned about.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a good reminder that many endings are bittersweet.
