Personally, for me, The Begginers Guide was the emotionally effecting game I’ve played since To The Moon. That was a complete surprise to me because when I sat down to play it I had no idea what I was in for. I recommend going in blind if you havnt played it so spoilers below.
Spoilers for “The Begginers Guide”
Though not about a romantic relationship, I don’t have the worlds to properly express what this game made me feel, but it struck me as very honest.
It’s a walking simulator. You learn about “coda” through “Davey” showing you their private art. “Davey” curates this experience and over time you begin to wonder what Davey’s relationship with coda actually is. Should he be showing you these things?
What’s more, he “davey” starts making changes to codas games so the player can experience the “better/properly”, a new level of transgression that also begins to escalate and become more obvious. Davey begins to make assumptions about coda as a person based on what types of projects they made.
Finally culminating in an ending I did not see coming and punched me in the gut.
A message from coda to davey that he needs to stop showing other people his games. That’s hes upset by Davey’s actions and basically just wants Davey to leave him alone.
But davey doesnt get it. Cant get it. He feels ownership over this artist he relates to (but doesnt know in any real sense) and is trying to get that artist to make art again, but also trying to show others why that stuff was important to him. But in doing so davey is also disregarding the the art itself as it exists and stuffing it with his own meaning and making his own editorial choices with it.
It gave me a BIG THINK on a lot of topics like being a “fan” of someone and their work from a distance and how one sided that relationship is and what a folly it can be to think you really know someone based on the extremely limited information they choose to present you about themselves, and what it’s like when someone you want to be friends with doesnt want to be friends with you, the ethics of sharing other people’s unreleased art without permission, what can happen when you go to far trying to find the message you want in a work and start disregarding the actual authors intentions (and perhaps making some false assumptions about them based on what you wanted to see there instead of what’s actually there)
Etc etc etc. I could go on and on.
I like that there really isnt a lesson learned by Davey in the end. Hes in pain about codas rebuke but he doesnt change his behaviour. And that feels very honest to me. Some people dont change. Some people dont get the lesson.