Larme à gauche

Larme à gauche is a slice-of-life game made in Twine, when you play as Gloria, a young woman living in Brussels, who drove down with her partner Lucy to the Pyrenees for the funeral of her grand-father, a former general in Franco’s army. She had not seen her grand-father since she was very young, as well as most of the family will may be meeting today.

Don’t speak ill of the dead. Family must stick together. Family above all. These were the perfidious sayings that kept crossing my mind as I was going through the different paths and learning about the different characters and their relationships. Sayings written white on black on the screen, said even by some of the characters, as Gloria struggles to find her place in the matter. Between her grand-father who committed atrocities, a father who could not see the truth, and other family members who didn’t seem to care much about her, what is she left with…

The game deals with difficult topics, uncomfortable ones. But does so with a strong and touching story.

A l'occasion de l'enterrement d'un grand père que la protagoniste n'a jamais rencontré et au passé franquistes. C'est l'occasion de revoir certains membres de la famille avec laquelle le personnage a coupé les ponts.

Les sensations ne sont pas agréable, mais tout est bien mené. Une bonne histoire pour ne pas totalement oublier l'Histoire...

This game is set in Spain but written in French. It's a powerful story; it made me glad that I still play interactive fiction, because I wouldn't have experienced this excellent story otherwise.

You play as a young man (I believe) who arrives at the funeral of his grandfather. However, you have decidedly unkind memories of your grandfather, who was part of Franco's army and committed numerous atrocities.

The story unfolds as you run into your family, deal with their awkward situations, talk to your partner, attend the funeral, or maybe not do a lot of these things; after all, there are several paths.

The only thing missing, I felt, could have been a little more personalization in the graphical presentation, or perhaps some more involved interactions. But the story is very well done, one of my favorite of the year so far.