a pretty quick game with a relatable and deeply personal story i feel like a lot of people would resonate with! the mechanics and interactivity were good (i loved the silly running sprites), but the story, sound design and music really shone through
the implications of addiction and/or unhealthy relationships were subtle but pleasantly shown too! i love how the story was set in a resort, so it's like they all got into the same situation at the same time, but nearly every one of them had a different storyline. the different ways people could succumb to any kinds of addiction, peer pressure, or generally getting into the wrong crowd regardless of who they were at the start really puts different perspectives into place. i also appreciate the game showing how everyone starts "rotting", showing that getting into these kinds of circumstances isn't just a one-way thing: mccoy by accident, carmen taking vonnie along, and ryan by peer pressure. the two endings of june either letting herself be dragged down along with everyone else or to painfully swim back up and leave her friends behind seemed to be foreshadowed by the story of her cousin's situation early in the game, about leaving her friend group as well.
i like how the ocean (or water?) was also a metaphor. whether for substances or "fish in the sea" i.e. blending in with the crowd. there can always be too much of anything, including water. the shortness of the ending, i feel like, really fits. the path into and out of toxic bonds and addiction never feels good, whether or not we eventually get sober. it's as hard getting out of the cycle as it is to get in, but what matters is that we do find a way out.
gaaahhhh stories with hidden implications and symbolism>>>>>
A really good story! I enjoyed the art work, the cute walk sprites that gave everyone personality, and the sound design.
my only nitpick is that when june comes off unexpectedly dense in the cabana scene with her and mccoy. if my friend started chugging water in the middle of the night and lashing out I think most people would conclude that a medical problem is happening. Obviously she still couldn't have done much to help him in that situation, but I'm surprised that the thought never crossed her mind.
Other than that she's a solid character with interesting chemistry with her friends, and her reaction to the terrible situation she's in is compelling. she's even super brave when she pulled that man back on the beach, despite all her friends ignoring it.
It took me a bit to piece together that the reason everyone started compulsively eating iron was so that they would sink better 0.0 really cool!
Yes, I created an account to leave a comment and my observations and theories.I noticed that many people see this game as a toxic friendship, but for some reason I stick to the theory of dr#gs.To begin with,dehydration, aggression, and lethargy are the consequences of drug use. First of all, let's look at the official artwork for this game and the soundtracks. The soundtrack cover shows Ryan covering a glass of alcohol with his hand and preventing June from drinking the contents, as if protecting her from using illegal substances, but at the same time looking towards the rest of his friends(Recall that in the end he also succumbed to the "infection". At the same time, June herself said that Ryan is easily influenced by others).
On the cover of the game, Vonnie,McCoy,CarmenandRyan are walking to the left,butonly the firstfour are walkingconfidently,whileRyanlooks back at a frightenedJune. In the screensaverat the beginning of the game, Vonnie,McCoy,Carmen, andRyanstandin the orderinwhich they were "Infected."CarmenandMcCoyareclosertoJunebecause"got infected", thatis, they consumed the dr/nksfirst(Carmen at night,and a dr/nk was spilledonMcCoy at the beginning of the game). What follows is Vonnie,shedr@nk the dr/nksbecauseofCarmen, that is, literally, she"forced her to use a dr#g(a!cohol),"andJuneherselftriedquite a bitandsaidit wasn'tworth it.Ryanis the furthest away,ashe"got infected"at the verylastmoment(andevensohelooksatJune).At the momentwhen the two of them are lyingon the bed,June is wearingRyan's jacket in the morning,meaningheconsciouslyfollowed thispath.At the veryend, June is given a choice:follow her friendsand"drown"indr#gs, orswim to the surfaceandliveherlifewith the idea that herfriends are leftbehind.Ryanheld on to the last,butstill, becausehe is easilyinfluencedandeasilypressured,hestill could notrestrain himself.DuringJuneandRyan's conversations, one cannotice the classicreflection, "Is there really somethingwrongwith them, or am Ijustnotlike that?" That is, under the influence of the majority, you start to wonderifdr#g use is sobad,maybeit's just that I'm toocorrect.Isee this as a picture of dr#g use andhoweasily a largenumber of peoplesuccumb to addictionandconsciously sink to the bottomin an attempt to getanotherdose.
i like this interpretation! the symbolism in the game hinting to addiction/drug abuse is pretty spot on, and with lots of perspectives too. McCoy being reeled in by accident, Carmen roping Vonnie in with the drinks, and Ryan eventually succumbing despite almost staying till the end (bc of peer pressure). it shows a lot of sides on addiction that anyone can fall into, whether they get out of it or not. appreciate this analysis :3
I just realized it is meant to symbolize toxic friendships and cutting them off (I think]. Really good game, but I am still confused on the story itself and why everyone (with the exception of June and Ryan] went rabid and joined the ocean. Also wondering where Ryan went, because he was on the beach at the end, but then you plummet into the ocean and either it cuts off there or you swim back to the bay and then it just ends. Anyways, this was real cool and imo both Ryan and June seem like chill friends.
Thank you for the game! Great art as always, but I just felt that maybe some bits of the story was missing? Like everyone else has said, the ending felt incomplete and the story and setting just wasn't established properly. Looking forward to your next game.
i enjoyed the whole experience EXCEPT the ending which idk didnt really give that satisfaction,,, but i feel like this one has a lot of potential and could be expanded on in the future...maybe??? hopefully??? since ya know this was prolly made on a time crunch, and honestly it came out awesome, great job team
I don't really get this game. it felt so unfinished. Like most of it is still missing. And the dialoge with Ryan at night was strange. Also how you travel is a pain! I like it when you can move from one map to another, this system was just annoying.
I MADE AN ACCOUNT JUST TO COMMENT ON THIS GAME OF YOURS SPECIFICALLY
ok i dont wanna be toooo harsh because i enjoyed it much and most of my complaints other people have already said so methinkles i'll put my highlights first !!
it was so fucking weird. i love it. ofcourse, as always. PERFECT ART !!!! waaaah i love the artstyle and the character designs and just how diverse it all looks and feels, the lineart being kinda blurry or uneven just makes it so good to look at and you guys just did so awesomesauce as always THE CHARACTER WAAAAAH THEYR ESO GOOODD !!!! your other games i feel are much more story driven (especially so since theyre longer) and obviously they have character but this one i feel focuses sooo much more on interaction and personality and just making the characters feel so real. they all have their own dynamics and blend so wonderfully with one other. you can see the little trio/duos in the group but they all get along so well as one unit and it truely feels like no one is left out. reminds me of my own friendgroup a lot :) the creepy shots in this are so. good. SOO GODFODD DGRPDGUEGEJ i was actually sooo spooked oh my goddd. when we first go to the buffet and that weirdo guy grabs our hand i my stomach actually dropped, and when mcwhatever was chugging water? CHILLS !!! especially since the game really nailed everybodys mood and personality so seeing that get totally flipped in such a short time is sooo scary ! you know mcboy is happy and silly, you know that carmen is super comfortable and carefree, you know that von is playfully snarky, so when you see them act totally wrong it wrenches your gut and leaves you not only scared and concerned but also hurt.
ok im glazing, im a sucker for character interaction. dont even get me started on ryan,, AND JUNE AND RYAN... and jsut
my complains areeeee pretty standard from what ive seen. the game was really short and i wish we got more time to play around with all the characters. studio investigrave is pretty horror focused on most of their games (atleast the endings are) but i feel like this game couldve done really well as just like a cute thingy. maybe a spin off would be cool? something different from their usual vibe, because i feel like if expanded upon people could really become attatched to these characters ! ofcourse the ending was very abrupt and confusing. i replayed it a few times because i was sure i missed something that would give me a longer finish, but no. you just end at the ocean. (however this is not an entirely bad thing. ive had fun all day wondering what happened and trying to think of theories !! just wish we had more to go off of)
ok thats it. those were my only complaints, and one of them wasnt even a full complaint it since it was half compliment. i really like this game, i wish it was longer, and i think you guys did really good considering it was made in one month. i could neverr !! i hope you guys will expand on it or make a spin off, or i hope to see LOTS of fanart of these dudes atleast. even if u dont, excited to see your next game ! stay fantastical -johnny
I feel like the game had a lot of potential but it was like getting cut off after the first half hour of a movie. Not enough puzzle pieces were left for the audience to really have much to ponder over after the ending. Or rather, there were too many questions and not enough clues for the audience to try and answer them. It set a lot of things up and just ends up falling flat due to a lack of information. I get that it's supposed to be open ended and there are certain themes it wants to convey but it just ended up feeling too empty. I think using open ending as an reason for why this game is the way it is, ends up falling too short, because it's not just open ended, it's open middled and open beginning'd too. The story isn't fleshed out enough and to top it off, there's no real climax. Usually I enjoy this studio's games but this one was a bit boring. I liked the characters and the art was really good, it just felt like it could have been a shorter game if this was the ultimate goal. It was a really interesting concept though!
First off, let me just say I adore your games and your artwork. It’s truly some of the best I’ve seen on itch.io, but I have to agree with a few of the comments that this one ends a bit too abruptly. I’m all for ambiguous endings, but there could’ve been a bit more to chew on, even if it’s just June’s final thoughts as she deals with whatever decision she made.
I just wanted a bit more, not necessarily an explanation about what’s happening (there’s enough narrative breadcrumbs that implicates some otherworldly entity in the ocean calling people into the water, at least that’s what I gathered), but moreso an elaboration on how the situation impacts June and how that ties into the game’s themes. Elevator Hitch for example did a great job nailing its ending while still leaving the machinations of its world mostly unexplained and its themes open-ended.
I’m also unsure how to feel about the central theme itself. Assuming it really is allegorical to the nature of friend groups, and learning to cut off toxic and self-destructive friends instead of letting them drag you down with them (based on June’s conversation with Ryan on Sunday night), it’s hard to reconcile the fact that their toxic attitudes felt more a result of the “curse” rather than their own free will.
Where we were meant to view June’s friends as toxic even before anything started happening? In which case the message doesn’t fully land as (imo) there wasn’t really anything separating June and Ryan from the other three, other than the fact that they weren’t affected by the “entity”. Or if this was meant to be a regular, perfectly healthy friend group that only soured as a result of the “curse”, then the decision to cut them off doesn’t quite feel earned. I think some additional character development could’ve helped make the game’s greater point more clear.
Still, the artwork was gorgeous as always, the vibes were immaculate, and this was some of the best use of tension and mystery in an Investigrave game yet. I just found out about Jackpot Crash Course and I can’t wait to play that too!
Really loved the vibes and the characters on this one! I also loved how the theme of toxic friends is portrayed with the horror, great stuff that really got me thinking.
Like a lot of people I'm left wanting a lot from the endings. I do like how it's left to interpretation, but there's honestly not much to go on for interpreting. With characters this strong it's a shame you don't get to see the culmination of their spirals or see how June copes with her final decision.
TLDR I would love to see this one and it's themes expanded (though I doubt that'll happen), but as is it was a great read! Can't wait for the next one!
i had a really good time but oh god, i was really disappointed of the endings the first time i played. Like it was so brutal,no explanation, you're just left like that,"left to rot" just as the title. And also the details in the official posters are really mindblowing when you finish the game ( in the poster,McCoy is drinking, the strict girl, forgot the name, is drinking, Carmen is all wet and Ryan is mouthless).
But personnally, i think the game shows how toxic friends stay toxic cause when you play,June doesn't want to be left behind of the friend group and wants to help them even after how they rudely talked to her.Like it's to show that these kind of friends are bound to be left behind and the fact that she had to choose between following them or go back in the last scene,she had to choose between herself or her friend group. And it's an interesting subject to abord cause in today's world, plenty of people are scared of social isolation and the fact that June's character is only based on it is fascinating. Even on Saturday when she goes one by one to talk to the others,it shows that she really *need* her friends and is afraid of left behind, or when she had to watch after the luggages alone.
Overall it was a fantastic experience, loved it ❤️
This game was okay, i love this studio, ive followed them since the very start of them making games. However the last 2 games just havent been as good as their others. What was the point? The game explains nothing. Who is she? what was the phenomenon causing them to go into the water? Making all them go crazy? The characters and art were 10/10 as always. But it needs to be more clear in what they were doing.Its like it set it all up for nothing, and i was very dissapointed. The gameplay was also very lackluster and seemed rushed. Get yo stuff together Investagrave, i love you guys but comon
I think the whole point of the ending is to leave up to the players to interpretant what happened in the end, use their own theory on what happened, leave the endings to their own imagination, and what we come up with may be what happened but who knows really, honestly, despite the ending, i love the game
its up to interpretation, some think that this might be about toxic friends where the mc has to choose if she wants to stay with her toxic friends (to drown) or to leave them behind. others see that there may have been a friend (the characters always mention ,her' no name no nothing) that passed away before the mc came into the friend group and all her friends are coping in odd ways like that one character who hates sea food but our mc sees her eating sea food which is unlike her. you must like direct endings and not open ones but that doesnt mean that its a bad game.
wow. i absolutely love every game you make! i like how we have an open ending and barely know anything. We can make lots of theories about characters this way. Hope this will have continuation though! Really curious to find out more about it. (i hope there will be continuation.. if not.. well, it's good still, just a bit upsetting)
WOW DAMN THIS DAMN HIT ME honestly this is probably my favorite games out of them idk why but i got too attached to the characters in this one. loved Ryan and June and the whole plot of this one yum
Smth panged in me, when I realized that wasn't vonnie. She doesn't like seafood. And the ending got me off the edge, where did we go? How do we get them back? Who is she?
I really like this game! I think this game has the best suspense/build-up I've seen out of all of your games. One thing I think could have been done better was the ending. It felt very empty and didn't necessarily answer any of my questions. I thought one of the endings would let me see why everyone was so obsessed with the water, but it just didn't. I am a sucker for open-ended games, but I feel like the story just plummets off a cliff at the end.
I'm trying to play this game, but for some reason, the game is very blurry on my computer. I'm playing the Windows version. especially the text and UI are all kind of fuzzy and blurry, like they're stretched out (but I'm playing it in the window dimensions the game launches in... I couldn't find a full screen option.) It's not as sharp as the screenshots on the game page. Does anyone have any ideas how i could fix this? Thank you.
I couldn't play the game. Like I managed to open the game and I saw that the game is open from the icon but I see nothing on my screen. I tried this with other games but only the SIG games are unable to open. I play on mac and I switched to the new version recently. I don't know if thats why because I could play the games before switching. I don't know if anyone else has this problem or if it's just me. Im on mac sequoia 15.0.
I’m on a Mac and had this same issue too, every RPG Maker game just stopped working when I updated to Sequoia. I managed to get it to work by following the instructions here (in Proxxie_Desu’s post):
I have a lot of thoughts about this game. (SPOILERS AHEAD)
I understand that this is mostly a metaphor for toxic friend groups and relationships. There are other people in the comments who have explained it a LOT better than I could (Kirby's Explanation is a good source). And there are a LOT of stories where it doubles as horror but also as a commentary... But I think that attempt here, is what makes the game falls flat.
The build-up was AMAZING. Genuinely eerie and sets up this air of mystery that I LOVE !!! Seeing the slow change in June's friends, the mysterious encounters, it was all very exciting. The scene of everyone walking out to see gave me intense chills. I was so ready to see what everything would build up towards, and then - it built up towards nothing.
I've seen other people say the Rachel made this with an open-end on purpose, but imo, this is TOO open ended. It doesn't answer any of the questions it sets up. The only thing it answers is why people were eating metal; to assumedly sink in the water. That's it.
You might be saying, "but it's a commentary! The ending makes perfect sense with what it represents". And that's true! It completes the commentary side of the narrative, but not the actual STORY. It made me feel like everything the GAME's in-universe narrative set up didn't matter at the end. Which really sucks, because I was super invested in the mystery and the characters.
This isn't to say I hate the game! I think it's great, but because it's so good, it makes me sad that the ending falls so flat (for me). It would be super cool to see this expanded on in the future.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
a pretty quick game with a relatable and deeply personal story i feel like a lot of people would resonate with! the mechanics and interactivity were good (i loved the silly running sprites), but the story, sound design and music really shone through
the implications of addiction and/or unhealthy relationships were subtle but pleasantly shown too! i love how the story was set in a resort, so it's like they all got into the same situation at the same time, but nearly every one of them had a different storyline. the different ways people could succumb to any kinds of addiction, peer pressure, or generally getting into the wrong crowd regardless of who they were at the start really puts different perspectives into place. i also appreciate the game showing how everyone starts "rotting", showing that getting into these kinds of circumstances isn't just a one-way thing: mccoy by accident, carmen taking vonnie along, and ryan by peer pressure. the two endings of june either letting herself be dragged down along with everyone else or to painfully swim back up and leave her friends behind seemed to be foreshadowed by the story of her cousin's situation early in the game, about leaving her friend group as well.
i like how the ocean (or water?) was also a metaphor. whether for substances or "fish in the sea" i.e. blending in with the crowd. there can always be too much of anything, including water. the shortness of the ending, i feel like, really fits. the path into and out of toxic bonds and addiction never feels good, whether or not we eventually get sober. it's as hard getting out of the cycle as it is to get in, but what matters is that we do find a way out.
gaaahhhh stories with hidden implications and symbolism>>>>>
A really good story! I enjoyed the art work, the cute walk sprites that gave everyone personality, and the sound design.
my only nitpick is that when june comes off unexpectedly dense in the cabana scene with her and mccoy. if my friend started chugging water in the middle of the night and lashing out I think most people would conclude that a medical problem is happening. Obviously she still couldn't have done much to help him in that situation, but I'm surprised that the thought never crossed her mind.Other than that she's a solid character with interesting chemistry with her friends, and her reaction to the terrible situation she's in is compelling. she's even super brave when she pulled that man back on the beach, despite all her friends ignoring it.
It took me a bit to piece together that
the reason everyone started compulsively eating iron was so that they would sink better 0.0 really cool!also the ocean view start screen art after completing the game is so beautiful and haunting. big props for such good art
i love this, i'm still a bit confused but I really like the idea of this symbolizing the usage of dr#gs or toxic friendhips
Yes, I created an account to leave a comment and my observations and theories.I noticed that many people see this game as a toxic friendship, but for some reason I stick to the theory of dr#gs.To begin with,dehydration, aggression, and lethargy are the consequences of drug use. First of all, let's look at the official artwork for this game and the soundtracks. The soundtrack cover shows Ryan covering a glass of alcohol with his hand and preventing June from drinking the contents, as if protecting her from using illegal substances, but at the same time looking towards the rest of his friends(Recall that in the end he also succumbed to the "infection". At the same time, June herself said that Ryan is easily influenced by others).
On the cover of the game, Vonnie, McCoy, Carmen and Ryan are walking to the left, but only the first four are walking confidently, while Ryan looks back at a frightened June. In the screensaver at the beginning of the game, Vonnie, McCoy, Carmen, and Ryan stand in the order in which they were "Infected." Carmen and McCoy are closer to June because "got infected", that is, they consumed the dr/nks first (Carmen at night, and a dr/nk was spilled on McCoy at the beginning of the game). What follows is Vonnie, she dr@nk the dr/nks because of Carmen, that is, literally, she "forced her to use a dr#g (a!cohol)," and June herself tried quite a bit and said it wasn't worth it. Ryan is the furthest away, as he "got infected" at the very last moment (and even so he looks at June). At the moment when the two of them are lying on the bed, June is wearing Ryan's jacket in the morning, meaning he consciously followed this path. At the very end, June is given a choice: follow her friends and "drown" in dr#gs, or swim to the surface and live her life with the idea that her friends are left behind. Ryan held on to the last, but still, because he is easily influenced and easily pressured, he still could not restrain himself. During June and Ryan's conversations, one can notice the classic reflection, "Is there really something wrong with them, or am I just not like that?" That is, under the influence of the majority, you start to wonder if dr#g use is so bad, maybe it's just that I'm too correct. I see this as a picture of dr#g use and how easily a large number of people succumb to addiction and consciously sink to the bottom in an attempt to get another dose.
i like this interpretation! the symbolism in the game hinting to addiction/drug abuse is pretty spot on, and with lots of perspectives too. McCoy being reeled in by accident, Carmen roping Vonnie in with the drinks, and Ryan eventually succumbing despite almost staying till the end (bc of peer pressure). it shows a lot of sides on addiction that anyone can fall into, whether they get out of it or not. appreciate this analysis :3
I just realized it is meant to symbolize toxic friendships and cutting them off (I think]. Really good game, but I am still confused on the story itself and why everyone (with the exception of June and Ryan] went rabid and joined the ocean. Also wondering where Ryan went, because he was on the beach at the end, but then you plummet into the ocean and either it cuts off there or you swim back to the bay and then it just ends. Anyways, this was real cool and imo both Ryan and June seem like chill friends.
i cried, thank you...really, it's the first time that i cry for a game
will you guys make a male mc
Thank you for the game! Great art as always, but I just felt that maybe some bits of the story was missing? Like everyone else has said, the ending felt incomplete and the story and setting just wasn't established properly. Looking forward to your next game.
i enjoyed the whole experience EXCEPT the ending which idk didnt really give that satisfaction,,, but i feel like this one has a lot of potential and could be expanded on in the future...maybe??? hopefully??? since ya know this was prolly made on a time crunch, and honestly it came out awesome, great job team
I don't really get this game. it felt so unfinished. Like most of it is still missing. And the dialoge with Ryan at night was strange. Also how you travel is a pain! I like it when you can move from one map to another, this system was just annoying.
This game is truly phenomenal, and its exquisite artwork is nothing short of breathtaking.
I MADE AN ACCOUNT JUST TO COMMENT ON THIS GAME OF YOURS SPECIFICALLY
ok i dont wanna be toooo harsh because i enjoyed it much and most of my complaints other people have already said so methinkles i'll put my highlights first !!
it was so fucking weird. i love it.
ofcourse, as always. PERFECT ART !!!! waaaah i love the artstyle and the character designs and just how diverse it all looks and feels, the lineart being kinda blurry or uneven just makes it so good to look at and you guys just did so awesomesauce as always
THE CHARACTER WAAAAAH THEYR ESO GOOODD !!!! your other games i feel are much more story driven (especially so since theyre longer) and obviously they have character but this one i feel focuses sooo much more on interaction and personality and just making the characters feel so real. they all have their own dynamics and blend so wonderfully with one other. you can see the little trio/duos in the group but they all get along so well as one unit and it truely feels like no one is left out. reminds me of my own friendgroup a lot :)
the creepy shots in this are so. good. SOO GODFODD DGRPDGUEGEJ i was actually sooo spooked oh my goddd. when we first go to the buffet and that weirdo guy grabs our hand i my stomach actually dropped, and when mcwhatever was chugging water? CHILLS !!! especially since the game really nailed everybodys mood and personality so seeing that get totally flipped in such a short time is sooo scary ! you know mcboy is happy and silly, you know that carmen is super comfortable and carefree, you know that von is playfully snarky, so when you see them act totally wrong it wrenches your gut and leaves you not only scared and concerned but also hurt.
ok im glazing, im a sucker for character interaction. dont even get me started on ryan,, AND JUNE AND RYAN... and jsut
my complains areeeee pretty standard from what ive seen. the game was really short and i wish we got more time to play around with all the characters. studio investigrave is pretty horror focused on most of their games (atleast the endings are) but i feel like this game couldve done really well as just like a cute thingy. maybe a spin off would be cool? something different from their usual vibe, because i feel like if expanded upon people could really become attatched to these characters !
ofcourse the ending was very abrupt and confusing. i replayed it a few times because i was sure i missed something that would give me a longer finish, but no. you just end at the ocean. (however this is not an entirely bad thing. ive had fun all day wondering what happened and trying to think of theories !! just wish we had more to go off of)
ok thats it. those were my only complaints, and one of them wasnt even a full complaint it since it was half compliment. i really like this game, i wish it was longer, and i think you guys did really good considering it was made in one month. i could neverr !! i hope you guys will expand on it or make a spin off, or i hope to see LOTS of fanart of these dudes atleast. even if u dont, excited to see your next game ! stay fantastical -johnny
I feel like the game had a lot of potential but it was like getting cut off after the first half hour of a movie. Not enough puzzle pieces were left for the audience to really have much to ponder over after the ending. Or rather, there were too many questions and not enough clues for the audience to try and answer them. It set a lot of things up and just ends up falling flat due to a lack of information. I get that it's supposed to be open ended and there are certain themes it wants to convey but it just ended up feeling too empty. I think using open ending as an reason for why this game is the way it is, ends up falling too short, because it's not just open ended, it's open middled and open beginning'd too. The story isn't fleshed out enough and to top it off, there's no real climax. Usually I enjoy this studio's games but this one was a bit boring. I liked the characters and the art was really good, it just felt like it could have been a shorter game if this was the ultimate goal. It was a really interesting concept though!
First off, let me just say I adore your games and your artwork. It’s truly some of the best I’ve seen on itch.io, but I have to agree with a few of the comments that this one ends a bit too abruptly. I’m all for ambiguous endings, but there could’ve been a bit more to chew on, even if it’s just June’s final thoughts as she deals with whatever decision she made.
I just wanted a bit more, not necessarily an explanation about what’s happening (there’s enough narrative breadcrumbs that implicates some otherworldly entity in the ocean calling people into the water, at least that’s what I gathered), but moreso an elaboration on how the situation impacts June and how that ties into the game’s themes. Elevator Hitch for example did a great job nailing its ending while still leaving the machinations of its world mostly unexplained and its themes open-ended.
I’m also unsure how to feel about the central theme itself. Assuming it really is allegorical to the nature of friend groups, and learning to cut off toxic and self-destructive friends instead of letting them drag you down with them (based on June’s conversation with Ryan on Sunday night), it’s hard to reconcile the fact that their toxic attitudes felt more a result of the “curse” rather than their own free will.
Where we were meant to view June’s friends as toxic even before anything started happening? In which case the message doesn’t fully land as (imo) there wasn’t really anything separating June and Ryan from the other three, other than the fact that they weren’t affected by the “entity”. Or if this was meant to be a regular, perfectly healthy friend group that only soured as a result of the “curse”, then the decision to cut them off doesn’t quite feel earned. I think some additional character development could’ve helped make the game’s greater point more clear.
Still, the artwork was gorgeous as always, the vibes were immaculate, and this was some of the best use of tension and mystery in an Investigrave game yet. I just found out about Jackpot Crash Course and I can’t wait to play that too!
I really liked the characters' diversity!
Great game!!!!
June is so cool
Really loved the vibes and the characters on this one! I also loved how the theme of toxic friends is portrayed with the horror, great stuff that really got me thinking.
Like a lot of people I'm left wanting a lot from the endings. I do like how it's left to interpretation, but there's honestly not much to go on for interpreting. With characters this strong it's a shame you don't get to see the culmination of their spirals or see how June copes with her final decision.
TLDR I would love to see this one and it's themes expanded (though I doubt that'll happen), but as is it was a great read! Can't wait for the next one!
your profile.... NOEEEEEE!!!! :D
VANITAS!! :D
WHAT
Love all your games!!! Looking forward for future content :D
i had a really good time but oh god, i was really disappointed of the endings the first time i played. Like it was so brutal,no explanation, you're just left like that,"left to rot" just as the title. And also the details in the official posters are really mindblowing when you finish the game ( in the poster,McCoy is drinking, the strict girl, forgot the name, is drinking, Carmen is all wet and Ryan is mouthless).
But personnally, i think the game shows how toxic friends stay toxic cause when you play,June doesn't want to be left behind of the friend group and wants to help them even after how they rudely talked to her.Like it's to show that these kind of friends are bound to be left behind and the fact that she had to choose between following them or go back in the last scene,she had to choose between herself or her friend group. And it's an interesting subject to abord cause in today's world, plenty of people are scared of social isolation and the fact that June's character is only based on it is fascinating. Even on Saturday when she goes one by one to talk to the others,it shows that she really *need* her friends and is afraid of left behind, or when she had to watch after the luggages alone.
Overall it was a fantastic experience, loved it ❤️
I WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END I'M SO CURRIOUS [cry] [cry]
no need to play i already know its a banger cuz all her games are a banger🙏🙏🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
edit: ok nvm, dope game but THE ENDING OMG LIKE EXPLAIN WHY WHAT WHEN AND NOT JUST END SCREEN😡😡💔
REAL
This game was okay, i love this studio, ive followed them since the very start of them making games. However the last 2 games just havent been as good as their others. What was the point? The game explains nothing. Who is she? what was the phenomenon causing them to go into the water? Making all them go crazy? The characters and art were 10/10 as always. But it needs to be more clear in what they were doing.Its like it set it all up for nothing, and i was very dissapointed. The gameplay was also very lackluster and seemed rushed. Get yo stuff together Investagrave, i love you guys but comon
I think the whole point of the ending is to leave up to the players to interpretant what happened in the end, use their own theory on what happened, leave the endings to their own imagination, and what we come up with may be what happened but who knows really, honestly, despite the ending, i love the game
its up to interpretation, some think that this might be about toxic friends where the mc has to choose if she wants to stay with her toxic friends (to drown) or to leave them behind. others see that there may have been a friend (the characters always mention ,her' no name no nothing) that passed away before the mc came into the friend group and all her friends are coping in odd ways like that one character who hates sea food but our mc sees her eating sea food which is unlike her. you must like direct endings and not open ones but that doesnt mean that its a bad game.
wow. i absolutely love every game you make! i like how we have an open ending and barely know anything. We can make lots of theories about characters this way. Hope this will have continuation though! Really curious to find out more about it. (i hope there will be continuation.. if not.. well, it's good still, just a bit upsetting)
WOW DAMN THIS DAMN HIT ME honestly this is probably my favorite games out of them idk why but i got too attached to the characters in this one. loved Ryan and June and the whole plot of this one yum
Smth panged in me, when I realized that wasn't vonnie. She doesn't like seafood. And the ending got me off the edge, where did we go? How do we get them back? Who is she?
Not a bad game, just a twisted plot.
I don't know if my interpretation of the game is right, but it sure made me emotional either way🥹
I really like this game! I think this game has the best suspense/build-up I've seen out of all of your games. One thing I think could have been done better was the ending. It felt very empty and didn't necessarily answer any of my questions. I thought one of the endings would let me see why everyone was so obsessed with the water, but it just didn't. I am a sucker for open-ended games, but I feel like the story just plummets off a cliff at the end.
Love the game, love ur art <3
is there a third ending or the both endings are bad ending?
(the game is AMAZING! I played many times! please continue the game!!!)
It was good but I'm confused ngl. I think I got the 2 endings already.
Ryan best boy fr btw.
ryan you goofball get back up
damn!
oh. my. god.
I'm trying to play this game, but for some reason, the game is very blurry on my computer. I'm playing the Windows version. especially the text and UI are all kind of fuzzy and blurry, like they're stretched out (but I'm playing it in the window dimensions the game launches in... I couldn't find a full screen option.) It's not as sharp as the screenshots on the game page. Does anyone have any ideas how i could fix this? Thank you.
have you tried restarting your device?
I couldn't play the game. Like I managed to open the game and I saw that the game is open from the icon but I see nothing on my screen. I tried this with other games but only the SIG games are unable to open. I play on mac and I switched to the new version recently. I don't know if thats why because I could play the games before switching. I don't know if anyone else has this problem or if it's just me. Im on mac sequoia 15.0.
I’m on a Mac and had this same issue too, every RPG Maker game just stopped working when I updated to Sequoia. I managed to get it to work by following the instructions here (in Proxxie_Desu’s post):
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/need-some-help-cannot-open-a-game-on-my-macbook-pro-the-game-was-made-from-the-rpg-maker-mv.150926/#post-1307030
I have a lot of thoughts about this game. (SPOILERS AHEAD)
I understand that this is mostly a metaphor for toxic friend groups and relationships. There are other people in the comments who have explained it a LOT better than I could (Kirby's Explanation is a good source). And there are a LOT of stories where it doubles as horror but also as a commentary... But I think that attempt here, is what makes the game falls flat.
The build-up was AMAZING. Genuinely eerie and sets up this air of mystery that I LOVE !!! Seeing the slow change in June's friends, the mysterious encounters, it was all very exciting. The scene of everyone walking out to see gave me intense chills. I was so ready to see what everything would build up towards, and then - it built up towards nothing.
I've seen other people say the Rachel made this with an open-end on purpose, but imo, this is TOO open ended. It doesn't answer any of the questions it sets up. The only thing it answers is why people were eating metal; to assumedly sink in the water. That's it.
You might be saying, "but it's a commentary! The ending makes perfect sense with what it represents". And that's true! It completes the commentary side of the narrative, but not the actual STORY. It made me feel like everything the GAME's in-universe narrative set up didn't matter at the end. Which really sucks, because I was super invested in the mystery and the characters.
This isn't to say I hate the game! I think it's great, but because it's so good, it makes me sad that the ending falls so flat (for me). It would be super cool to see this expanded on in the future.
I entirely agree!! it has so much potential if it were to be expanded upon
I really LOVED the game ! But.. I don't really understand the end..What happened ?
a really cool game! was fun to play it!