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You Can't Save Herby Sarah Mak profile2024 Science fantasy Twine
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You have three seconds to kill your former friend.
The nuns and sacred algorithms have willed it.
And no matter how much you want to save her, you can't.
***
A 12-minute interactive story, featuring music by Falling Islands.
Content warning: Violence and blood
15th Place - 30th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2024)
| Average Rating: based on 26 ratings Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 5 Write a review |
It’s not easy to make an impact with such a short game, but I was moved by this cameo of two friends who’ve grown apart, who live in different worlds, who can’t turn back time. The writing is minimalist yet expressive, and all the design choices felt intentional and meaningful: not just the audiovisual ones, but using a choice-based format to explore the limitations of our choices, using timed text to highlight the malleability of time, using cycling links to evoke hesitation or indecision. You Can’t Save Her surprised and transported me, and I’ll come back to it as an example of how beautiful and complete a short game can be.
The pale desert of this moon curves towards an empty horizon.
...
Clouds of gray dust swirl in your wake.
The wind is howling a language that you do not understand.
...
Moonlight is shining through the stained glass window, painting a rose of rainbows on the floor.
She is still waiting.
I had a moment in the middle of this game where I thought, 'This reminds me a lot of Porpentine, especially *their angelical understanding*. But I thought, 'No, come on, there are a lot of other twine authors and not every game is a Porpentine reference'.
But at the end it included a list of references to Porpentine, including lines borrowed wholesale (and credited). So that makes sense, it really does have a similar feel!
This is a love story of sorts between two women, raised in a monastery, trained in swords, devoted (or not) to gods. One woman was rebellious and was cast out; the other, a coward, stayed behind.
Gameplay focuses a lot on time: one second, two seconds, etcs. There are prophecies and visions, so that events happen and will happen and have happened, making time confusing. I think I saw an Adventure Time reference, too?
Overall, the writing hit a lot of what made Porpentine good, references to bones and gods and change and colors that are left unexplained but all can be seen as symbols of change or transition or other metaphors.
The game has consistent imagery and theming, even when restarting, which I appreciated.
Pretty neat game!
Final Arc
You Can't Save Her But You Can At Least Fight Her
Without giving spoilers, You Can't Save Her explores a broken friendship by manipulating time itself. Throughout the game you find yourself at various points of the characters' shared history. From split-second attacks to navigating childhood memories, you’ll eventually realize that time means nothing. Each click of your mouse advances a second in the tale, but the order of what you're shown doesn't actually matter. It's the convergence of events that make the story. Time doesn't matter when you love (or loved) someone, a fitting message for a piece of interactive fiction (IF).
See the full review
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