the lamp of your body

This is a compelling, well-crafted short story with limited interactivity, written as speed IF, which means it's even better.

Worth noting up top: This game deals with religious themes, which is something I know very little about. And I’m gonna spoil the game in a minute.

At first this felt like a familiar story of a girl who has her eye on you in class being more...complex than you expected. In fact, that’s how I remember reading it when I first played, during Ectocomp last year. I felt sympathy for her, being continually spurned, and the final choice was easy: yes, the devil can repent. By the end I believed it was possible.

This time around I was more intrigued by the protagonist. Why are they so blasé about the possibly supernatural classmate who no one knows anything about? If their life is as lacking as it seems to be, why aren’t they at least a little bit tempted by power, money, knowledge?

It felt unusual that this devil was more interested in the random mortal who probably never has anything interesting happen to them than vice versa. Perhaps it’s rare to encounter someone who’s so empty that there’s nothing they want more than to be leveled with as an equal (“All I ever wanted was your name”). There’s definitely biblical lore here I’m missing, so instead I thought back to my younger days, when I spent a lot of time with people who didn’t value their own souls. (“You really don’t know what you’re worth, do you?” she says, and every high school crush flashes before my eyes.)

Anyway, this time the final choice was just as clear: no. Even this devil can’t try to be good.

The really cool thing about this game is that the protagonist arrives at a similar conclusion no matter which choice you (they) make. They had no real agency. As a reader, with an encounter like this, of course that’s how it ends. And a story that enthralls without surprise is doubly impressive.