Echoes of the Emergent, a visually stunning Playdate exclusive, captivated me with its beauty and storytelling
Despite my love for both reading and video games, I have never been drawn to visual novels until now. The announcement of Echoes of the Emergent caught my attention a few months ago with its description as “a personal journey through a shattered post-apocalyptic world.” The gritty aesthetic and melancholic atmosphere compelled me to preorder it, and now that I have finally experienced it, I am truly impressed.
Echoes of the Emergent is a Playdate exclusive from RNG Party Games, the same team that made Bloom. It begins with its main character, Ayumi, on a tense scavenger hunt to find whatever food she can find in a ruined city. He is alone, scared and increasingly worried about his dwindling resources. As the story progresses, it bounces between Ayumi’s dark new reality and flashbacks when things were normal. His panicked efforts to stay alive, to get on with his life, are intertwined with the memories of his family and friends – some happy, some painful. And there’s a cat.
The narrative is illustrated with haunting backdrops of Ayumi’s dilapidated surroundings that move ever so slightly, creating a truly unsettling effect. If you press the down arrow on the D-pad, you can shrink the text box to get a full view of the backgrounds. Going through the whole story takes a few hours, but it’s definitely worth the time. You can save your location by pressing ‘B’ to open the menu.
Echoes of the Emergent is the kind of experience that stays with you even after a while. It’s available from the Playdate catalog for $8, but you can also buy it—and its haunting itch.io/echoes-of-the-emergent-original-soundtrack” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>soundtrack—from itch.io.
