Thin Walls

"Thin Walls" is an about 20 minute long game about a mute girl revisiting and working through her memories inside of her small house. While it is tagged horror, the horror-portion is very slim, you can be surprised once or twice, but the focus is on the feels.
There are three endings in total.

You play as Iki, stuck in her home, and delve into what happened with the help of your changing diary and your wall-friend Lo. I won't give away more about the plot as it as well as the way it is presented, is what this game is all about.



Yet they never do.

I'm torn as to whether it's depicted realistically or unrealistically.
In one way, given the issues, their effects and the way people deal with, it is very "natural". We have problems expressing yourself (mute, I know that feeling, I'm afraid), how you put blame on things which didn't have an alternative, how you seek unhealthy, but (somewhat) effective relief.
But the fact that so many different aspects come so shortly after another makes it seem rather staged. You have not one traumatic incident, but two or three if in the short period of time. The center is clearly on one, but it does make the focus for these 20 minutes not quite clear. The environment changes come as suddenly, although you will soon expect them. It blends into the next segments crudely, but still effectively.


Not expressing yourself tosses those away, alright..

Despite all that, the problems Iki faces do resonate with you and you feel with her quite strongly. It delivers a great atmosphere with its changing environments, with the sad music pieces in the background and the run-down-look of your house.
Lo is quite cheery, which makes for a constant contrast to this depressing atmosphere, but I didn't find it harming the experience. On the contrary, it helped balance it, especially considering his role in the game. There is a very small portion of cutesy in it as well, which does not add to the theme... but it's cute, I guess.

The process is soon mixing up reliving these memories with working through them. It tries to depict reasons for staying mute in metaphors and effects rather than words. It also shows that the "road" to recovery does not end after you just went through it again.

The difference of portrait and ingame haircolor is a little bit jarring, there are a couple of typos as well, but they do not distract from the game.

I must admit I have a soft spot for mute characters, partly because of personal experience. This makes for different interpretations on my side, and I could very well attempt to elaborate mine, but these interpretations are better left for afterthoughts, not reviews.

All in all is "Thin Walls" a very intriguing, sad, yet beautiful game. If someone likes games with such an atmosphere or feels in general, they should definitely check this out!