What Remains of Edith Finch is a walking simulator composed of individual family member stories, each told in a unique mechanical register. Lewis Finch’s chapter — which depicts his dissociation from a fish cannery job into a fantasy kingdom — is built around a split-screen mechanic where the left side performs the cannery job and the right side narrates the fantasy.
The canning mechanic on the left is real: the game requires the player to repeatedly input a two-button sequence to decapitate and can fish. The fantasy narration on the right involves a developing kingdom story told through prose. Over the chapter’s 6 minutes, the fantasy grows more elaborate and the left-side fish canning becomes involuntary — the player keeps doing it without registering the input.
Giant Sparrow built a mechanic that dissociates the player in real time. By the chapter’s end, most players report being unable to account for the last two minutes of fish canning — they were attending to the story, not the hands. The chapter ends when the narration reaches its conclusion and the left screen goes dark.
Lewis Finch’s story is about losing yourself in fantasy to escape monotony. Giant Sparrow made the player experience that loss in the six-minute runtime.
Didn’t realise how much was hidden under the surface. Makes me want to replay it with fresh eyes.
This is why I always check every corner. You never know what’s been left for the observant player.