Come back soon, Oddie

At first, I was skeptical but considering the length of the game I gave it a try and BOY. The voice acting really sells the story, and the ending breaks my heart because (spoilers) you don't know if Oddie truly remembers him.

I WANNA KNOW IF THEY GOT THEIR HAPPY END WHAT

Those few minutes of dialogue really messed me up emotionally, great game

I did not expect this to be this good but you delivered!! ;; And I am super biased but this got my fav underrated trope- strong platonic love or camaraderie!! (thanks for introducing me that word lol) with the extra touch of torn-by-war and "do you remember me?" trope ;;;; thanks so much for making this little heartwarming story, loved it! -Hon

This was a short and really lovely read!! I recently lost one of my best friend of more than half of my life, so for a while it got me wondering about her soul's whereabouts now. Reading this reminds me of her: I wonder if she's waiting for me just like Paulo. I wonder if I am to be granted many years of living, will I still be able to recognise her? It's one thing that will never get answered, yet this VN was done wonderfully to explore one of many 'what-ifs' of what's in the afterlife. It's a curious, yet beautiful thing.

The art is so lovely, I love the dazzling sky and the yellow flower field portrayal, it must have been so comfortable that Paulo was able to stay over for a good while. It gets me thinking about how lovely that place is to meet more soul-friends after their human life finishes, so that they can walk over to the next place together. Would it be warm? Would it smell nice?

Afterlife is a bittersweet thing to ponder, and you wrote about it in such a nice, short and sweet narration. Thank you very much for creating this, I'm looking forward to more of your writings!! 🧡

Hi Len, it was such an amazing game!!

First, the art was simply gorgeous: the sky the colours, how evocative everything was... Even the textbox blurred in with the field of flowers beautifully, which added to the immersion!

The music too was absolutely gorgeous, you really chose an amazingly melancholic track!

The voice-acting was STELLAR. The two characters were insanely touching! Paulo obviously speaks more, and the actor manages to highlight his vulnerabilty and yet to portray all the weight he used to carry on his shoulders: it is a man with a sense of responsibility, who fulfilled his duties, but is now left alone, pining for a friend he might never see again, with the hope of being nothing but a memory.

The audio engineer also did a great job with everything!! The audios for the two voice actors sounded very consistent!

Finally, the writing, wow, the writing!! Goregeously poetic. And sure, we tend to say, in general, that a writing is poetic because it contains some metaphors and pretty images with delicate grammar and syntax. Here, the text is poetic in a more literal meaning: it sounds like a poem (which makes the performance of the voice actors even more impressive). It rains images, and even the usual "visual novel"-like structure of the lines is sometimes broken to emphasise, instead, the versified nature of them. This really made the game a mesmerising experience and allowed the characters to articulate their feelings in ways that go beyond normal speech: somehow, they even gained some mythical quality (which is quite appropriate with one of the characters being named "Odysseus").

Finally, the story was touching. It is quite the simple one: a man longs to be at least a memory, or the fragment of one, in the mind of his long-lost friend; then, they meet again, putting an end of decades of longing and confronting them to one ultimate truth: do you remember me, Oddie? And it's amazing to see how emotional the story manages to be, not despite its simplicity, but THANKS TO it.

Thanks for the game, Len, and congrats to all the team for the hardwork, it was a gorgeous one!!

wait for you like an animal that stops and looks behind and stares. And waits."

It was a good listen, everyone did a wonderful job.

"I

Holy fuck len, this was so good! I feel like I started crying almost at the first line and I was bawling by the end. It was so poetic and beautiful. The music fit perfectly and the voice acting was splendid. Such a beautiful piece of art!

"I'm so glad you got to be old."

This is an absolutely gorgeous game - len never fails to deliver on making games that are poetic, aesthetic, and sweetly sentimental. (Thank you for giving me the chance to proof the script!) 

The slow pan from the starry sky to the field of yellow flowers is gorgeous and suits the nostalgic, yet melancholic vibe of the game so well. The BGM - the haunting violin and guitar - sets the mood of the game perfectly, with its wistful beauty. I love the way the text box was set up as well - with the flowers on either side, sitting the text within the flower field. It's very immersive and, at the same time, easy to read/aesthetic, with the slight purple outline for the text. Len's writing is poetic as always, with Paulo's monologue reading more like a (love) letter to Oddie than spoken words. The VAs did an absolutely fantastic job - their voices fit the characters and their sentimental delivery fits the lines well. 

====MINOR SPOILERS BELOW (the game is short, you should really just play it====

I really love this vision of the afterlife - not a dark place, but one with beautiful mountains and flowers and a sky full of stars. And yet there's something melancholic about the fact that Paulo can't appreciate these things - he merely sits and waits for his friend to arrive. He doesn't regret his life, and he's at peace with it. But something within him doesn't want to be forgotten - not by the world, but by his dearest friend. Paulo's feelings are sweet and sympathetic - he is glad that Odysseus got to live a full life, and something in him believes that Odysseus doesn't belong here, in death - but he longs to see him all the same. (The reveal that Oddie is, in fact, Odysseus adds quite a bit of nuance to this story as well - since we as the audience KNOW how many adventures that Odysseus went through after Paulo's presumed death during the war. And the idea that Paulo has been waiting all this time, unable to move on - makes him seem even more lonely. Part of me wishes that Paulo had moved on, but part of me is also appreciative of his loyalty and glad that he stayed.) 

At the end, it's a bit ironic that, at first, Paulo doesn't recognize Odysseus after waiting for him for so long. Yet it also makes sense - at this point, Odysseus has lived a full life, long past when he was friends with Paulo. He's an old man, not exactly how Paulo remembers. I kind of wonder if - at this point - Odysseus is a different person, and not the friend that Paulo once knew. I don't think there is an easy answer for this question, so the open-ended nature of the ending is fitting. It leaves the player to come up with their own conclusion - does Oddie remember Paulo, or not?

Overall, this was really fantastic! (May Oddie and Paulo date in their next life...)