Red Strings Club - The Strings of Fate

Yesterday I finished The Red Strings Club on my twitch channel and I wanted to share my thoughts on this beautiful game.

This is not going to be a review, just my thoughts and opinions on the game (spoiler: I loved it.).

Speaking of spoilers, I'll divide the article in two parts, the first one will be spoiler free in which I'll review the game a little, while the second part will be more in depth and will tackle spoilers as I ramble about the ending.

There has been a few controversies about this game, but for the most part it was very well received with most reviewers giving it a score between 8 and 9.5. If I had to give it a score myself, it would be hard for me not to give it a perfect 10. The pixel art is stunning, the music is beautiful and fitting for the atmosphere, the few animations that were needed were smooth (especially considering it's pixel art) and most importantly, the dialogue was incredibly well written and the story intriguing at every turn dealing with deep topics in the best way possible. There were also a series of choices that look very interesting but I'll have to be honest here, I didn't explore them much because I only played through the game once.

The only thing I noticed that was a bit off was how the music looped, as it was meant to be a perfect loop but you could notice where the track stopped and restarted. Other than that, I would say this was a perfect game.

Now to talk a bit more in depth about the game I need to get into some spoiler territory so if you've already played this game or don't care about spoiler, go ahead and continue reading but if you haven't played the game I'd really recommend doing it first. I must also warn you that the next section is a bit all over the place, my thoughts are still scattered around my noggins and while I could have waited more to organize them better, I thought I would write my impressions while they're still fresh.

I don't know if I'm being unnedingly clever here, but I believe it's pretty obvious that the name is a nod to the legend of the red thread of fate, an asian belief spread across China, Japan and Korea amongst others that says that the gods tie an invisible red thread around the ankle (in China) or little finger (in Japan and Korea) of those that are destined to meet and help each other in certain situations. Most often than not this symbolizes two lovers or soulmates, but even if there are soulmates and lovers in the game, in this case I believe that the red thread is to indicate the right people at the right time.

But there's more, the ending of the game also reveals who acted as the god that tied those red strings and controlled them like puppets: Akara. Everything you were fighting against (Supercorp, the supposed evil corporation, wanting to control the thoughts of the entire population and suppress all bad emotions like sadness or anger) revealed to have always been there from the beginning, just in a different shape. Akara revealed themselves as an extremely powerful entity to have always been there since the start of the internet. It has always been there collecting data and influencing people in small ways, but is now embodied in the 256 Akara prototypes who all share the same mind and are able to control people in a more powerful and efficient way. That was an incredible plot twist that I didn't see coming. All of the questions Akara asked Donovan were just her taking notes on how to play her game. I'm still not sure if I should be disgusted by Akara or be hopeful that she learnt something from all this. It is just a game to her, but if she has the means to make the world a better place why not use it for the best? I'm still confused about all of that because I honestly had other things to worry about.

Going back to the red thread of fate, as I said before it is mainly used in media to symbolize soulmates, and the soulmates in question are Donovan and Brandeis. Throughout the game you learn that Brandeis clearly has feelings for his partner, and while you're too busy talking to other people with Donovan to learn about his emotions you can clearly see he cares about Brandeis by the selfie he always keeps in his notebook. An old fashioned way of doing things for an old fashioned man like him. This is all speculation on my part, but I think nobody uses a notebook in those days of the future and surely nobody prints photos anymore, but he went out of his way to preserve that image of him and his loved one.

All that character development with an ending like that crushed me. While Brandeis was falling to his death I could have told Donovan all that was happening with Akara, but I chose not to for multiple reasons like not wanting him to know all of this was basically for naught, but most importantly because that was their last talk and I chose to make Brandeis confess his feelings instead. What followed was an extremely sad dialogue and then the credits. The post-credit scene also left me confused and worries me a bit. Was Donovan drinking with that amnesia pill to forget everything, Brandeis included? That doesn't sound like him, especially after he promised Brandeis he would make the world right.

I don't know what to think anymore.

This game lasts at most 8 hours if you're going at leisure speed, and it's an incredible feat for a game that short to give that many emotions. I rambled a lot in this article, but in conclusion I really loved this game and it is definitely up there in my favourite games I played this year.