Sea of Solitude (2019)

Sea of Solitude: The Director's Cut brings a strikingly emotional tale to the Nintendo Switch. Set sail through a sunken city to confront the inner demons of Kay and her loved ones. Uncover the past and discover the hardships that they had to endure.

With Sea of Solitude we still discover today, two years after its release, an incredibly mature work from every point of view, graphic, thematic and also in terms of gameplay. The experience touches the perfection of the genre with an evocative glance, a soundtrack practically without defects and an atmosphere that is sewn onto the player making him breathe deeply all the air of a sea that is perceived so much calm and vast, as much as inhabited by creatures that perhaps we should let sleep. In Sea of ​​Solitude there is everything: introspection, the focus on the character and on us, the openness and pleasure of travel. If during our journey we are then called to face our own monsters we will have the courage to do so: in this experience we are Light, Darkness, Sea and the same monsters. We have everything we need and on this tour we have all been kindly offered through one of the best video games of the genre, to be suggested instead of a book.

The simplistic gameplay could have carried the sloppy story if it was more polished. Animation breaks and the bugginess of the collision happen far too frequently in such a short game. If Sea of Solitude: The Director’s Cut was marketed as a satire of pretentious, arty, non-engagement style indie games, it would probably fool everyone.

The events that play out are often powerfully voice acted and complemented with incredible art. It wears its influences on its sleeve and is profoundly direct with its ,but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Even though the gameplay is flawed with clumsy and inaccurate platforming, it's not enough to capsize a strong overall presentation.

Sea of Solitude: The Director’s Cut is difficult to quantify the efforts of. I can appreciate the premise of the scope of negativity it attempts to convey, and the voice actors were clearly invested in their roles. However, nothing it says manages to stick and leave a semblance of meaningful impact when it comes down to it. The writing is too direct, showing a lack of needed subtly for the darkest elements of the character-driven narrative to hit home.