Imaginary Friends

I'm just going to start out this review by saying: This game is the best game that I have ever played in the five years that I have played games! This review definitely won’t be able to even begin communicating how much this game made me laugh, smile, and cry in all the right ways.

This is my first game review, so I guess I’ll start with the art.

The art in this game was really well done! I loved the CGs (especially the one where Hailey and Oliver are floating down from Cloud Kingdom), and I loved the character portraits for all of the characters. The pixels were also really cute, and the different areas that Hailey explores throughout her adventure are really cool-looking!

Next, I’ll review the music! The music in this game was, like the art, amazing. I especially liked the music for Cloud Kingdom and the School.

Although the art and music were both outstanding, what really made me love this game is the story and the characters! I really liked how all of the areas Hailey and Oliver explored had some connection to Hailey’s childhood. Another thing I liked was how Hailey wasn’t friendless because she was being bullied at her middle school. Yes, she was bullied in the past, but people at her school like Johanna were trying to reach out to her. It was Hailey that wouldn’t let anyone get close. I can relate a lot to this because this was how I was in middle school! I was a new student at the last year of elementary school, and I was extremely shy, so I didn’t end up getting close to any of my classmates. Because of this, along with some other reasons, when I entered middle school, even though I wasn’t shy anymore, I believed that everyone didn’t want to be friends with me. I can see some of myself in Hailey, and so I felt less like she was just a character in a game and more like she was a real person (sorry for talking too much about my personal life!). I also loved Hailey’s character development throughout the story and how she learns to reach out to others while still remembering Oliver in the best ending.

Speaking of Oliver, he was definitely my favorite character! It might have something to do with the fact that I really like child characters in games (because I babysit lots of them in real life and have lots of little siblings). I really loved his character development as well, from the cute, kindhearted Oliver that we met in Cloud Kingdom, to the cynical, hurt Oliver that we first meet in the store and see the most of in the school. And the moment with him and Hailey in the ending… that made me cry so hard ;o;

I also liked the plot twists and turns in the story! I really loved Oliver’s reaction to Hailey’s friendship with Alex when she was younger, and how that caused him to do the things that he did in the game.

I got all four endings of the game, but what I liked about the ending system was that, unlike most games that I play, I really wanted to get the best ending. Not just to see what happens, but because I really did care about the characters and what happened to them. I wanted to find out the truth about what happened between Hailey and Oliver. I wanted Hailey to get back to the real world. And most of all, I wanted to see Hailey and Oliver become friends again. This is something that I don’t see with a lot of games that I play.

The message of the game was one that I felt was really well done. It wasn’t the stereotypical “friends are good and making friends is important!” It was much more realistic. Sometimes, you have to be the one to talk to others, instead of waiting for them to talk to you.


Thank you, Mannytsu, for making this amazing game.