Fable
Sophia Zhao
The story I got from my playthrough of this game was, by far, the most affecting to me personally of all the games I’ve played so far. I put this down to the writing on two levels: one, the simple expressions of longing from our protagonist were heartfelt, sincere, and deep. And two, the plot of the game was perfectly structured and timed to hit me right in the feels. And here I’m going to have to diverge into extensive spoiler territory, so blurs up…
One thing I’ve realized I appreciate as I have gotten older is a story with a ‘necessary tragedy’: one where nobody is doing anything nefarious or evil, per se, but the structure of the world and the reality of life is so tuned to cause tragedy anyway. I think it might be, to some extent, because this is the situation I fear most in my life. I want to believe with all my heart that if reasonable people talk to each other reasonably, a positive outcome can always be found. But a ‘necessary tragedy’ story hits me right in that very sensitive spot in my world view. “But what if everyone was reasonable but tragedy happened anyway?” it asks. And my heart is rent because there’s nothing in my worldview that can help. So many stories manufacture conflict by having someone behave badly, or communicate badly, or not care enough. I know what to do in those situations! But if acting nobly, communicating well, and caring for others isn’t enough? I’m… I’m lost. I have no answer.
So in this story, we open with a very simple setup: unrequited love. And the extra layer of a gay man pining for a straight man means that no matter how much the straight man might care for and about the gay man, there’s just not going to be the possibility of a romantic relationship. And this is where the well-written depth of longing has to come in and sell it, because normally I’d be like, “Dude, move on; find someone else.” But I believed, with Sophia’s writing, that this just was not going to happen. The depth of the longing and the passion was just never going to let up.
Then the hook is baited: the object of your affection has returned ‘changed’. They love apricots, when they used to hate them. Other things seem… shifted. Could their attraction have shifted, or at least expanded, as well? It’s not unheard of. Maybe?
Hope, you precious bastard.
Because the shift was indeed real, but it wasn’t truly the person we loved that had changed: a foreign entity had taken over his mind. Happily/tragically for us: a gay foreign entity. And because we loved the original man, who had risked so much on their journey away, and who loved our sister (!) so deeply, we have to save him. And he comes back, still straight, and marries our sister, and lives happily ever after. While we remain, bereft.
And nobody could have acted better to avoid it. It’s just simple, common, understandable, unchangeable, unrequited love. It’s the best possible outcome. And it sucks.
(And hey, it’s the third game by Sophia Zhao! And all three have been both different from each other and solid. Congratulations, Sophia!)
Did the author have anything to say? Yeah, punch me in the gut.
Did I have anything to do? Choose the options that punch me in the gut, because it’s the best ending! I was complicit in my own gut-punching! The nerve!