When the Past Was Around

It's hard to know what the future is going to look like when you start making a game. I suspect that's true for Indonesian developer Mojiken Studio, the people behind A Raven Monologue and She and the Light Bearer. Their newest game is a point and click adventure called When the Past Was Around that deals with the heartbreak of losing a loved one and the difficulties of moving on. It's a sad yet hopeful story that would be good in any year, but is especially needed in 2020. This is the right game at the right time.

I don't think I'm giving too much away to say that Eda is grieving. She's a young woman in her early twenties who should be living her best life, but the once joyous days have turned dark and meaningless. She's stuck, piecing together memories of the past and trying to come to grips with the pain of loss. What comes next is a cathartic story about honoring the limitations of time, while still finding a way to let go.

It's up to us to help Eda piece the memories together and move on. This allows us to explore different parts of her life through dreamy flashbacks, giving us a sense of who she used to be and what led to the grief. We see her as a lost twentysomething who has strayed from her musical ambitions and how a chance meeting with a like-minded person can turn everything around. This is The Owl, a man who not only renewed her passion, but also taught the young woman about heartbreak.

For the most part, When the Past Was Around plays by conventional point and click adventure rules. We're given a long hallway or space and told to pick up items and solve puzzles. This typically means pulling up rugs, opening boxes, looking behind books, digging up the sand and generally searching for useful items. If there's a dirty mirror, for example, you'll need to find the wash cloth and then run it under the water faucet. But before you can do that, you'll need to open up a box and find the faucet's knob. Finding all of these items, using them in the right order and washing off the mirror will give you the next piece of the puzzle, which will start the process all over again. Our goal is to find the feather at the end of each chapter, which will help Eda get the closure she so desperately needs.

The developers have made some smart decisions when crafting their point and click adventure game. For one thing, the game eases you into the puzzles and keeps the first part of the game incredibly simple and straight-forward. As the story unfolds and the emotions become more complicated, you'll find that the stages are longer and with a lot more items to collect. The good news is that the items don't transfer from one chapter to the next. You'll get everything you need in each part of the game, so there's never any backtracking.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

Of course, When the Past Was Around still falls into some pretty familiar traps of the genre. The most obvious is the puzzle solving, which doesn't always make sense. This is a situation where you're stuck in dreams and memories, so they play by a certain logic that can sometimes come across as baffling. Where is the missing hand of the clock? Well, a bird has it in an envelope, and you can only take it if you grind up bread in the blender. Obviously. The game is filled with those types of questionable solutions, which is a little disappointing.

The good news is that most of the puzzles are well-constructed and fun to solve. Many of them deal with music, which is one of the central themes that runs through the entire game. Both Eda and The Owl play the violin, which is beautifully incorporated into every facet of this game. There's a song that is used for a whole lot more than just background music. I love the way this song mirrors the young woman's emotional state, and I found myself humming the infectious tune long after beating the game. Trust me, you won't be able to get it out of your head.

And that's also true for the rest of When the Past Was Around. When I beat the game, I was impressed. I loved the gorgeous hand drawn graphics and gentle adventure, even if some of the puzzles were nonsensical. But in the days since, I've found myself thinking about the message and meaning of the story. It's a game I haven't been able to get out of my head, which is especially impressive given the short length. I'm not sure I would call this the most fun game I've played this year, but it's definitely the most cathartic.