Seen.

Game spoilers ahead.

Rarely have i ever played a game and felt this emotionally turmoiled.

When i downloaded the game, i must admit i wasnt expecting anything more than a lighthearted game about a boy Mark, talking to his childhood crush, Nicole. The game gave me the option to change the profile picture of Nicole for better effect. And i must confess that i put in MY childhood crush. So no screenshots, sorry folks.

The story started out with Nicole asking my character Mark about a couple of doubts on chemistry homework on a chatting app that looks eerily similar to Messenger. The game is textbased, meaning that i get to choose the responses which will decide the line the story will take. There were no graphics or anything fancy. Anyways, after they talk about homework, Nicole and Mike get acquainted, and they end their first conversation with these lines.

“Friends? 🙂 ”

“Friends. 😉 “

In a twist Nicole immediately got herself a boyfriend in a few days, who conveniently cheated on her the next week.

From the way my replies were designed i could tell just how much in love Mark was with Nicole. The dialogues were cute and good to read, given they were made relatable and exactly how highschoolers would chat. Mark consoled her, and helped her through this hard time.. And after a while, when she’d recovered, they became bestfriends. From there on, i was really enjoying the chat because except for all the extra love stuff that went on in the game, i could see glimpses of my own chats with my bestfriend, who’s a girl too.

Mark and Nicole get close, and you can see how Mark is madly in love with Nicole, but cant tell her because it would ruin their friendship..(Boys will call it the friendzone). He keeps on giving her subtle hints that he’s fallen for her, but she’s naive enough to not see them.

Eventually she calls him to the park on her birthday, so she can celebrate it with her bestie.. They bring each other presents, and then talk about life and how change is perpetual.. I especially liked this part because it deepened their characters and gave me a sense of greater understanding between them. Nicole fears change and wants Mark to be her bestfriend forever(Ouch Mark).

They then talk about their past, future, and love, and when the option in the message comes for me to confess, i hesitate. I dont think it was the right time to say it, so i picked the next option which suggested we eat something. The game progessess with the duo doing a couple of normal, yet wonderful things in the park. From my experience in the park, i gathered that Nicole was bright, smart, cheerful, incredibly happy to be around and beautiful. When she persuades Mark to watch the fireworks with her later that night, then run to the scene and the game describes how Mark watches her as she runs, noticing just how beautiful she was.

Then arrive at the scene, and wait for the fireworks. They see a lot of couples holding hands.. And Nicole feels awkward seeing that, so Mark offers to hold her hand so they arent left out, and the hold hands.

Its crazy how such a simple moment creates such a powerful emotion of belonging in me. Though it was computer generated gameplay, i could actually feel the accelerating thrill of holding Mark’s childhood crush’s hand for the first time.

Nicole then looks up the beautiful sky, and remarks on how the stars look like couples and how she hopes one day she will find her star… And she asks Mark if he’s found his love, to which he finally confesses:

Yes I found my star… Its you.

Nicole is surprised, but rejects Marks advances though. She tells him that she used to like him before; he was smart, funny, caring and attractive. But now, she just sees him as a friend because she doesnt want to lose him at any cost.

And from his response choices, i could see how Mark was upset… But he decides to let it go for now for Nicole, and they enjoy the fireworks.

In the next scene, Nicole confronts Mark as to why he has been ignoring her for weeks, and when he says that he still has feelings for her, she begins to cry in despair. And its insane, but i was so emotionally into this game at this point that i genuinely wanted to comfort her like an actual person. Amazing.

But yes things go downhill from there until Nicole gets to the point where she shouts at him for still not letting go of his feelings, and then apologies, but then decides its best if she and Mark dont talk anymore, and laments on the change, wishing that her old Mark would come back. There was no option for Mark to come back, so i clicked the only option which said Goodbye, affirming to her wishes and not wanting to hurt her anymore.

By this point, i was feeling quite uneasy because id come to care for Nicole quite a bit, and the knowledge that Mark would never see Nicole again tore at my heart. And its crazy because all these feelings were coming through a TEXT-BASED game, not even with graphics. Lit.

Anyways, the game continued after a day, with Nicole’s mom texting Mark telling him that Nicole was missing from her house. Feeling personally responsible, Mark agrees to meet up with Nicole’s parents to help find her.

The scene shifts to a scene called Room 147, where Nicole addresses Mark as honey, and they’re getting married. And at this point, both me and my character Mark were genuinely confused. But as the game goes on, Nicole keeps talking about some accident, and after a while we learn that the Nicole had suffered a car accident when she’d left her house, which had wiped out her memory. What Mark was experiencing in this scene was a nightmare, and it ends with Nicole getting hit by the car again in his dream and Mark unable to save her.

The next scene opens 4 years later, with Nicole having her entire memory wiped out, meeting up with Mark, who’s presumebly working now, for an interview. She’s taking up data for a psycology study in her class. And with every question she asks, and every answer Marks gives, i could sense that maybe, just maybe Nicole would remember something.

Nicole asks Mark as part of her questionnaire, what if life gave you the chance to love again, to which Mark replies that he would go back to where before it went wrong.

And as she thanks him for the interview, the game ends with the final 2 chat messages:

Friends? 🙂

Friends. 😉

As soon as the game finished, i felt so agitated that id left Nicole in such a sorry state. I frantically searched in game-sites as to whether there was a happy ending for this story. But to my disbelief, all the endings lead to Nicole losing her memory, but there was the choice of her accepting him as her boyfriend or not accepting him like in my case. There were other endings too, but even those werent happy either.

So it is understandable when i felt this weird sense of loss for Nicole, a frickin virtual character from a text-based game. So again it is understandable when i felt stupid for feeling bad for Nicole. Perhaps it was because id somehow associated Nicole with someone id cared about, so the loss would be much more personal.

But when i went and checked the reviews, all the responses were like in my case: the game had evoked some very powerful emotions in each and every one of the players.

I finally decided to give up on my search to find Nicole a happy ending, to give her the ending she deserved. But she couldnt have it; the game wouldnt allow it. And from this, i recalled a moment in the game when Nicole talks about life, and i felt weirdly attached to that little, virtual girl who’d lit up Marks life. I couldnt help but fall in love with this beautiful game.

As i switched off my phone and went to get some shut-eye, my final thoughts were of a face-less Mark and Nicole sitting in some park, and this time, instead of Nicole asking Mark like in the game, Mark asks Nicole the same question.

Friends?

Friends. 🙂

And Nicole smiles.
Get the game at Googleplay.