arwen_lune

It's interactive fiction, but more interactive than some. It's a road-trip story, of course. The summary is that it's a really nice character-driven story, where the things you say and the choices you make mould the character development along the way. The people feel largely realistic/plausible, which is no mean feat in writing. Like most such games the big picture of the plot is fixed, although I think there are different ways to reach the milestones, but the evolution of the people is not.

 It's a game about people, families, and relationships; also a game about resistance, and different forms that it can take.

The protagonist starts off as quite a flawed character, and I had a number of "I don't want to say any of these things!" moments near the start. But that gets better, if you have her develop that way. The pacing is perhaps a little slow in the middle, but it picks up again and makes that a very minor complaint. The art is lovely, and it has a good soundtrack.
Alongside this there's some combat which... eh, I found it fun, but it's not the strongest part of the game. And there's a note-bashing minigame, which... again, I enjoyed it, and how good you are does affect what happens, but I don't think in any major ways. Both of these break things up nicely and give changes in pace.

Good on accessibilty: combat difficulty is adjustable, and fights can be skipped altogether. There's an "easy QTE" mode. It does require a games controller, I think. It took me about 20 hours to complete in non-rushed way. It rewards you for remembering what characters say and like, so it's worth trying to play in a relatively concentrated period rather than spread out over months.

Bonus points for unremarked queer and non-wihite representation throughout, people struggling with mental health, and for a female protagonist. Actually, a majority-female cast. It got review-bombed on steam for being woke, so maybe extra bonus points for that? ;-) Recommended, either way.