There are a lot of great messages to be found about how the most loved and secure people can still experience feeling lonely, even when surrounded by friends or family, and sometimes because of it. Everything Kay faces speaks to her past with her family and her feelings of intense loneliness, as she learns how the two are interconnected. As the game continues and Kay starts to understand her situation the world around her shifts and changes to reflect her mental state tides rising and lowering, huge towers blowing angry smoke from their vents as she attempts to climb them and the entire place being engulfed by ice.
Before long, she’s met by a couple of huge monsters that threaten to halt her progress, but as she explores and starts to piece together memories of her past she learns that these monsters are more familiar than is first apparent. Resembling something other than her usual, human self and with fuzzy memory, Kay decides to sail onward and figure out what’s going on. But as a tool for helping kids with depression feel less alone, it's worth a good deal more.Sea of Solitude tells the story of Kay, a woman who awakes completely alone on a small boat in a city that’s almost completely underwater. Seen strictly as a game, it's an adventure that's well worth your time. Sea of Solitude does an admirably sensitive job of conveying that, along with the mix of fear and optimism that comes with that knowledge. As anyone with depression knows, it can't be conquered - only managed. And while you get a definite sense of accomplishment from helping Kay, the game doesn't rely on an unrealistically “pat” ending. Gameplay reflects this by lighting up the environment and filling it with color, and it's undeniably satisfying to watch the transformation happen. She becomes a better sister, daughter, and friend. She's forced to confront some painful truths, but in the process finds a deeper understanding not only of herself, but of the people around her. There's one thing about conscience though it has a pesky way of revealing the truth when we least want it, and the same happens to Kay. It's a survival mechanism even more mature people fall back on when life gets scary or complicated, and Kay surprisingly taps into it without thinking.
And the semi-submerged city she finds herself in is an obvious metaphor for her isolation and feeling of drowning in her own emotions.Įarly on, Kay realizes how unreliable her memory is, and how she's soothed her conscience by altering it. She looks like a monster because she feels like a monster. Kids who've suffered from depression will identify immediately with Kay, the heroine. It may also go a long way towards removing the stigma surrounding mental illness. Sea of Solitude's balance of dark/light gameplay, cartoony style, and minimal score prove you don't need complex effects to tell an effective story. This pretty little game is a lesson in graphic simplicity, while providing an honest, emotional narrative that will no doubt hit a nerve for anyone dealing with sadness or self-doubt.
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