#don’t even get me started with maebea because GOD i can relate to that too

[mytrouvailles]

night in the woods is such an important game for me and i can’t ever explain as in depth as i want to but i just replayed it for the seventh year in a row so here we go

mae’s from a small town, a poor town. she’s got her close knit friends. and everyone else has got this perception of her that they’ve attached to her since she was young. lots of people bringing up her past and not even opening their minds to the fact that she may have changed, it’s just a bunch of no one’s forgotten who you are or what you did, you know. people that never even knew mae in the past, like lori m., know about what she did. it’s small town talk, and small town talk always moves around in ways you never want it to.

it takes forever in the game for mae to finally open up about why she left college, and it’s because of exactly what the small town folk have assumed of her: she hasn’t changed. she still has this illness and she represses it because that’s what she’s told to do, rather than process it, work through it like selmers says to. she represses it so deeply that we, the player, spend the entire game wondering what our character is going through. we see mae’s thoughts and feelings and what she says and doesn’t say to people, and yet she never mentions how difficult it is for her to feel alright, even internally. and it’s so devastating to have a repressed illness that you’ve shown so many clear signs of, one that you’ve been taught to ignore until your wires snap. one that takes so hard of a toll on your well-being, makes it impossible to do what seems so easy for others. and it’s so real.

i think that’s what i love most and identify most with this game, is that it’s real. from mae’s repressed mental illnesses to gregg’s insecurities with himself to bea’s losses and angus’ abusive home life, it’s real. there are people out there with lives exactly like these.

i’m from a small town, a poor town. i’ve known people like mae, gregg, and bea, and angus. i’ve known kids that were neglected, abused, ignored. i’ve known shoplifters and people that armed themselves on the street and who’ve lost their loved ones at the worst of times. i personally was not the kindest or well-behaved teenager, and i’ve watched the same people i was with then either grow into redeemable people or get themselves into something irreversible. and just like in the game, people act like they’ve forgotten about all of that. that’s small town polite right there. something happened and the signs were there, it was all the talk for a while. our moms told us not to talk to you. and suddenly you’re told to get over it without any sort of diagnosis, an answer. and everyone passes over it, even your closest friends, as if they have blocked it out of their brains for the convenience of not dealing with it. until you drown in it, and something else happens.

i’m in college now, and every time i visit home i get this feeling, one that nothing changed but yet everything did. i see someone i know with every step i take. some will serve me at the restaurant i go to eat at to catch up with my family. some will be greeting me at the only grocery store in town. some will have passed away and some will have been arrested. my high school friends have grown up, they’ve either worked or graduated college or are nearing there, they’ve set themselves up with full time careers and plans and relationships. and yet i feel as though i’ve regressed in life, i’ve decided to go to school for even longer to prevent growing up. i stayed here and got older, while you went off and stayed the same.

and it’s one thing to feel like you’ve made it no where compared to your lowest point, but it’s another to still have doubts of yourself after you’ve become a better person. you can move away, make new friends, find a loving relationship. you can start on a completely clear slate, but at the end of everything, it’s nothing but a facade if you don’t truly feel redeemable in your heart. you question how you deserve something so good, how you possibly could be seen and loved by people who know what you are, when you don’t even know yourself. i’m a good person, right? i have really up up days and really down down days, and i don’t know which it is until it’s over sometimes.

mae has no idea what she is, what her point is, there’s nothing but holding on to what she thinks is herself and her friends and her world, which is realistically so much different than how she sees it. gregg knows what he is, he knows what he was and what he wants to be. he knows that there are parts of himself that get in the way of truly believing he is good. i think that mae is in some sort of denial about learning who she is in her early adult life, constantly looking back at the past and pretending that things aren’t different when they are. where gregg is growing into himself, coming to terms with commitment and responsibility and making up for the reckless person he once was. still fearing to regress back into his more careless self, and destroy those expectations of maturity when mae is around.

throughout my seventh play-through, i found myself relating to mae and gregg more than any other characters. i have a feeling that as i have grown up, moved away, started taking care of myself as an adult, i see more and feel more for what mae and gregg each go through. mae is unhealthily attached to her hometown because attempting to start new had regressed her mental state. gregg seems to be doing all he can to get out of town, move away and start fresh. i believe that mae and gregg had grown up in their own fucked up ways, yet they have discovered opposite, personal reasons for moving past it all. they represent something that one person could always experience; they could ache for and return to familiarity, whether it’s real or not. but they could also beg and work for change. these are two feelings that i hold deep in my chest, and some days i feel one or the other, or both.

a small hometown is a bittersweet experience; it can leave you with a sense of safety, community, and flexible routine. but it can also be despicable, it can be suffocating, it can be nothing but another town, another mass of people to live far away from. mae and gregg represent this spectrum, from enjoying staying in one place to doing anything to get away from it. their reasons and their fears and their feelings are so real.

i am a woman in her 20s, who has always grown up with a complicated relationship with her hometown. i’ve never played a game that has ever hit me this hard, nor stuck with me for this long. i make it a point to replay it every year because it helps. i realize something new about these characters, i identify more with their experiences. it’s comforting, and it’s healing.

so when i tell people about this game, and i talk about getting a tattoo from it and they look at me like i’m crazy, i understand that they’ll never know why.

[sarcasmo-mexicano]

Night In The Woods Review

So.

I finished my first playthrough of Night in The Woods a few days ago.

And I dont know how to feel about this game.

I dont know how to define how I feel about it or how to describe it.

[Spoiler down]

Let's start with the characters 'k?

Mae Boroswki its a college dropout. She obviously have a mental illness (or that's how I see it, because I dont really understood the dreams sequences) and after what could be a stress or anxiety or panic attack she comes back home, where she feels safe, cuz for her everything was the same.

But little did she knew that the people and the town itself changed.

I did relate to Mae. I feel like she is in the middle of some existencial crisis and she just wants to be on her comfort zone again. Maybe that zone was her old town. Where she obviously felt safe before the accident. Its a big shock to her that her friends change and the town its differently too, new people, new places, places that are gone. Her comfort zone had change and she cant quite fit. And guess what, that stressed her more.

 Bea

Bea's mom passed away (maybe while Mae was away), her father gets very depressed and neglect both his daughter and his job at the Old Pickaxe. So the work of the house and the job are on Bea's back, when it doesnt have to.

Bea seems depress, stressed and distant. She is just a young adult that was kicked into adulthood way too soon.

Bea did have dreams and aspirations that went away because of her mom passing and what that bring with it.

I do know how this feels, because my mom passed away two years ago.

It is very hard to recover, and even when two years already passed, Im still not quite over it. Because its not only that you lost someone important, it is that you have to deal what it is coming, right there, right now. You really cant just ignore the matters until you are better.

Bea did this, but she didnt have to do it alone.  

Gregg

I did hang out more with Bea (due that I ship MaeBea don't judge me).

What I could gain on my first run about Gregg is that: First, Gregg it's very hyperactive (I think, I cant quite put the word, but Gregg is very active, very sincere of how he feels or like what he wants to do, or at least that its what I can say of what I see while hanging out with him). Also he does love crimes.

The thing with Gregg is that he, I believe, wants to grew up or more like he wants to be mature.

He and Angus were (are?) going to move to a better (apparently) town, to Mae's surprise. This is why both of them are working, they are trying to save money.

Adding to this, Gregg, sincerely wants to become a better/good person because, probably, Angus. He feels like shit.

While taking to Mae, Gregg says that he only does the things he does throughout the game because she is there, and on his words: "It would be the last time he would do them." (Or something along the lines).

Gregg does want to move on, to mature.

Angus

Angus is such a good person.

It's a shame we couldn't hang out more with him.

Angus had a very harsh childhood, both his parents neglected him and along the lines, he become the good person he is now.

I believe, Angus and Gregg complements each other, its probably because of that ship statement about, quiet Person A and Crazy Person B thing. I cant say too much about Angus, I can say tho, that Gregg moves on, because of Angus.

(Also he apparently has a great ass)

Mae's Parents

I fell in love with Mae's mother. She is sincerely such a great parent. Supportive, loving and she does share some weird hobbies with her daughter.

She is worried about Mae but doesnt not pressure Mae into talking about it, she lets Mae to take action herself, the same goes with her father.

All the characters on this game were amazing.

I absolutely loved Lori and Selmers, and Mr. Chakovz (i dont really know how to spell your name, sorry dude).

Night in The Woods, it's an amazing game. It's hard to describe why, but I think that is because you can relate to main group, you can decide to meet new people (Like Lori), talk to the old folks (Selmers or Mr. Star Bear)  or discover something new about the town, you decide how your playthrough is, but the thing is I guess, that NITW is not about that! Its not like some Undertale where your choices matter at the end. The game (for I can tell) does have like a lineal gameplay.

It contains so many themes that are very fresh to me, that are like maybe everyday problems to somebody.

I feel like that make it amazing. Along with the landscapes and the music.

Things said, I did not understood very well the dreams sequences, their meaning or the whole "Cult" under the mines. Does it have some sobrenatural matter? Does it really was some lovecraftian God thing going on?

I really dont know. It could take me a few more plays to do it (since english its not my first language and it is difficult to translate it all while playing).

Night in The Woods it's a pretty amazing game and I recommend to buy it and play it.