You Can't Save Her

Minimalist, well-designed Twine fiction in an evocative science fantasy setting. I enjoyed the cycling choices to emulate spiraling thoughts and the illusion of choice, as if the narrative could have had a different outcome (Despite the title warning us in advance). Although I tend to find flashback sequences jarring, they were incorporated smoothly in this game, and the added context made each iteration of the fight in the cathedral more heartbreaking, exacerbated by the music.

This is, as the chronically online kids say these days, giving doomed yuri. While there's no explicit romantic tension between the two female protagonists in the game, the dynamic is the same, and reminds me of the Richard Siken quote, “Someone has to leave first. This is a very old story. There is no other version of this story.” In this case, who leaves first is a little more ambiguous, but it sets our story to its inevitable conclusion.