Once on a Windswept Night

Once on a windswept night is just do damn good. I feel like I say every ebi-hime novel is the best ebi-hime visual novel, but it feels true every time.
 
To tell the plot is to recount a dream. The player's ambiguous body meets Lycoris, a princess-looking lady in a library full of books written and yet to be written. She asks for help resolving a book and we're thrust into the nest stories of Daffodil, Sister Madeline, and The Traveller. Usually I content myself with one run of a game, in the name of getting through my backlog, but I couldn't stop playing windswept until I reached the true happy ending. The ruminations on loneliness, grief, coming-of-age, hunger, toxicity, love vs obsession, self-actualization (like having the selfishness to declare oneself a Person with Wants and Needs), emotional desperation/desolation, fairy tales, authorship, and narrative arcs (as in, what characters think is supposed to happen vs what they want to happen) are recognizable themes from ebi-hime's other works. At points, Once on a windswept night felt like a proto- or sister story to It gets so lonely here. Sister Madeline and the gravedigger would have a lot to talk about, and Daffodil admires a cannibal queen from another land. There's tons of Easter eggs to ebi-hime's earlier games. I feel honored to be able to witness repeated motifs and preoccupations in one creative person's body of work. Us fans are so lucky. Each game is a delectable treat, and Once on a windswept night is no exception.

Be a little selfish! Take up space! Vocalize your feelings and let people know you love them! An ever increasing number of lesbians!!! Dive into this story about stories.