Impressions – What Remains of Edith Finch

What Remains of Edith Finch is a story about death. Or rather, how absurd the whole concept of impermanence can feel, as viewed through the lens of a single misfortunate family.

You see, the Finches have a curse on them. Or so the legend goes. One which has dogged them ever since great-great grandpa Odin set sail from Norway, and was shipwrecked on tiny Orca Island in Washington state. Since then, every single member of the Finch clan has met with an ironic death. Now there’s only one left, 17-year-old Edith. After the loss of her mother, she inherits the family homestead. A gargantuan house located in a windswept locale, with lax building codes. Edith endeavors to head back to where it all began, so she can document the legacy of the Finch family before she too meets an untimely fate.

Now, walking simulators usually aren’t my cup-of-tea. They either tend to be flat and boring, or overly pretentious. In the latter case, that’s usually to make up for the game being flat and boring. To be honest, I wouldn’t have even played this one if it were not available free on PS+ a while back. Yet there’s something absolutely magical about Edith Finch in the whimsical way it weaves its tale. It would have been a darn shame had I skipped it.

Like most others in its genre, the game takes a largely linear path as you explore the Finch house. The game walls off content under the idea that Edith’s mom had sealed off all the deceased family members’ bedrooms to simultaneously preserve and bury their memories. This forces Edith to discover hidden passages within the Seuss-ian house to gain access to these closed off areas. Each new room you venture to unlocks a new story about one about one of your unfortunate relatives, and the different ways they dealt with the death that surrounded them. Whether it be facing it head on, running away, holing themselves up, or falling deep into a world of fantasy.

The story is largely told by narration from Edith, and by way of brief gameplay segments for each family member. Most of these are simplistic and don’t require a ton of skill to complete. Molly’s story, for example, has you play as she imagines herself to be a cat chasing birds, or an owl catching rabbits. This involves some jumping and flying segments. Though there’s really no way to get yourself into trouble. It’s more an interactive story than a “game” per se. However, these are a refreshing change from most walking sims, which that tend to bombard the player with exposition through the audio diary trope. Playing first person as each Finch family member also helps you better connect with their character, by getting you to seeing their world through their eyes. Which is honestly not something a lot of first person games do well, however Giant Sparrow nailed it here.

The world you encounter is surreal but still grounded in reality. You believe the Finch house and the people who lived there could exist. Yet it doesn’t take itself too seriously to the point of being a buzzkill. The team at Giant Sparrow have taken a very big and heavy philosophical subject and distilled it down into something lighthearted that can still giving you that kick in the feels. Which wraps up its point rather nicely. That life is impermanent. We have to take in what joy and wonder this big and unknowable world has to offer, less the weight of it crush us to death. A message which seems oddly more poignant today than it was when the game released in 2017.

All of this is backed up by a great art style and some fantastic voice acting. I think this safely lands in that rare category of games as art. It’s not a long experience, taking about two hours to complete. But it definitely packs a lot of solid storytelling into those hours.

From a technical standpoint, I did encounter one significant bug during Molly’s story. The Windows 10 UWP version crashed to desktop about three quarters of the way through, making me repeat the whole chapter from the beginning. I seem to recall this being present in the PS4 version as well. It’s a shame this hasn’t been patched out three years after release. Textures can also look a little soft at times. It’s also something that’s absolutely begging for VR support. It seems practically designed for it, but it’s sadly never been added. At least I can find no mention of it on the store page. However, these are mostly nitpicky issues.

So is What Remains of Edith Finch worth buying? Well, maybe. I usually find it hard to recommend paying full price for these walking simulators. They’re very short experiences that tend to be lacking in replayability. It’s like a movie in the sense that they’re usually a one and done affair. There’s certainly a lot of other stuff out there, with a lot more content, that you could spent $22 on. Though I will point out that a game’s length is not indicative of its quality. This is why I really miss the days when you used to be able to rent.

Edith Finch is available on Xbox and PC Game Pass (as of January 2021). Which makes grabbing this far more palatable for those on the fence. It’s definitely worth playing. And if you liked it, why not toss the devs a couple of bucks.

Images via WROEF Fandom Wiki