One of the disadvantages of the proliferation of games that are available, through Game Pass, and PS+, and the Switch Online service, and the thousand-odd games sitting on shelves and in boxes and on the internal storage of the Wii and Wii U and 3DS and Xbox 360 and PS3 and Switch and Playdate and PS Vita and N-Gage and … anyway, one of the disadvantages is that there is always something new to discover, something new to play. I will spend some time, maybe a couple of days, with an utterly charming game, but then something new will come along and I’ll put it back on the “to be completed” list. Or worse still, I’ll forget to do even that. For some games, that will be the end of the story. For others, they will get a reprieve – often spurred by me reading a retrospective piece in Edge, or being recommended the game by a friend, or (as is the case with Dordogne) facing the possibility of losing access to the game due to it being removed from Game Pass.
Which is a long way of saying I went back to the game, last played last June, and I completed it.
The story was, in the end, a lot harder-hitting than I was expecting, with young Mimi uncovering arguments between her father and late grandfather, and older Mimi finally finding the reason that she was never allowed to see her grandmother again. Towards the end of the game there was an affecting exposition of delayed grief, and rekindling of missed connections. The text harassment from her father segued into concern from her mother and a sense of regret. It was a surprisingly complex relationship.
Definitely worth playing, and I then spent a little time going back through the story to collect stickers, words, put together new scrapbook pages, and complete one of the rhythm games more effectively (a top tip for that – don’t use your mouse, use your trackpad).
