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An expansive life simulator with magic school, August 31, 2023When I first played this game, I’d forgotten what I’d heard about the gameplay, so the main mechanic was a delightful surprise. I recommend playing it that way before reading any more about it (including the rest of this review).
What I love about games with this mechanic is that they give the story a sense of perspective that’s otherwise hard to convey, and not easy to stumble upon in daily life. Stay? has a heartening perspective on the human experience, both from a broad vantage point—whether looking back on a decades-long struggle, journeying to faraway places, or comparing the distant outcomes of different life choices—and from close enough to smell the flower petals on graduation day.
At first the world seemed oddly empty, with large chunks of the player character’s story omitted and certain characters missing the expected dimensionality. But as it looped and branched, the exponential growth of the story made it feel like this world—and probably also our world—was infinite. That sense of awe gets me every time.
Not every time loop game does this, but Stay? manages it with smart design choices: It includes less and less detail as you loop—because you only need to read the same paragraph so many times—but then starts adding in new details that would naturally become salient as you developed into a weary time traveler. New random asides felt perfectly timed for emotional impact, and new choices appeared just when the old options were getting stale. And there are kindnesses like offering a recap at the beginning of each loop, and rewarding the player for trying new options, even the boring ones like “no, I don’t want to hang out with anyone right now.”
Also, the story just felt good. Things are very wrong, but get to know the people and the world around you and you can learn how to put them right. It’s a powerful message, and it’s told through gameplay rather than, say, clunky dialogue.
When a game fundamentally changes the way I see the world by expanding my perspective, however briefly, I will give that game five stars even if it’s filled with bugs and typos. This game has a few, but it’s fine. They just provide further evidence that this game was written by someone who very much understands what it is to be human.