Blueberry

Some games are created to entertain us, but others are designed to place a mirror in front of our own souls, inviting us to a deep introspection. [i]Blueberry[/i] is one of those rare, deeply emotional puzzle platformers that immediately tugs at your heartstrings. It invites us into the fragile mental state of Barbara, nicknamed Blueberry, as she navigates the winding road of her life. Experiencing this story feels less like playing a game and more like turning the heavy pages of a personal diary. We watch her grow from a helpless child, witnessing her parents being drunk and the shattering heartbreak of their divorce, to a conflicted teenager. In those teen years, she faces the heavy, unfair choices that so many young people know too well, like deciding whether to buy a costume for a witch party or medicine for her mother instead, knowing she will face the cruel mockery of her classmates if she attends the party underdressed. All the while suffering through several episodes of her mom nagging at her about everything. As the years pass, she comes to face the exhausting reality of single motherhood, desperately fighting the silent ghost of generational trauma to avoid repeating her mother's mistakes. Finally, in the quiet twilight of old age, she faces her lifelong traumas and finally learns to accept, forgive, and heal from her own demons. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3743949413 Much like in [i]Gris[/i], the platforming here is very casual, without any frustrating elements. You will not find any punishing spikes or platforms that are too far away, and nothing requires precision jumps. There are a couple of timed sequences, but the timers are so generous that you might as well ignore the clock completely. Even if you do happen to fail, dying simply respawns you right at the same location, which is very forgiving for a platformer game. Jumping from platform to platform leads Blueberry in a linear manner towards unlocking memory rooms that hold small puzzles or tough conversations with her family members. These rooms are the painful anchors of her past, marking the exact key points where her trauma and grief took root and then developed. As you revisit these moments, the game presents you with dialogue options that range from angry outbursts to peaceful responses, letting you decide which side of her emotional struggle to reenact. These choices hit incredibly hard, forcing you to really weigh in on Blueberry’s emotional maturity. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3743949488 Platforming thus becomes the representation of something much more profound, as it is a literal and metaphorical ascension of life’s staircase. The simple puzzles act as small knots we must untangle in our minds before we can move forward, mirroring how we handle real-life grief, where the hardest steps are never physical but emotional. From a completionist perspective, there are a few less polished aspects. Many choices in the game are tied to mutually exclusive achievements, and since there is no manual save system or post-game chapter selection, you will need to play through the entire story at least twice to see everything, including the two different endings that your choices influence. Plus, throughout your playthroughs it's not clear which of these choices affect the endings; thus, you might end up having to play the game several times until you manage to hit the good ending (or follow a step-by-step guide, although at the moment of writing this review there is none available). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3743949600 Yet, even with these issues related to achievement completion, the journey is entirely worth it for the story. [i]Blueberry[/i] is a beautiful, heavy, and deeply necessary experience that reminds us that while we cannot change the beginning of our story, we always have the power to write a peaceful ending. ⚠️ Content Warning: This game deals with heavy themes regarding mental health, childhood trauma, and the suicide/self-harm of a close person. [quote]💜 If you like this review, please consider following [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/11354094]Lilly's Corner Curator page[/url] 🌸 [url=https://lillycorner.com/]Website[/url] [/quote]

勉为其难凑活着给个中评。 创伤、悲痛和精神困扰相关的题材，在我的游戏阅历中已不少见。这作在交代家庭不幸及其影响那方面做得还行，年轻时自己没有双亲可以依靠，年长后对自己的孩子过分依赖。不过，这作苦于过于简陋，而且有些依赖多周目：跳跳乐的玩法是不必需的，音效音乐是可有可无的，和解转折来得有些太快，父母在两德统一前的难民背景是没有展开的，父亲的酒瘾不知道哪里来的，主角为什么非婚带娃也没有提及。 放在库里面，玩没玩过都显得可有可无。

This game is quite surprising. It tells a story, a very important story, of somebody who is clearly struggling but doesn't know why or how, or probably thinks it's everybody's fault, but also her fault? It's a lot of feelings in just one person and I think we all feel like that some times. That's why I think this game can give you some type of closure if you are feeling like Blueberry. It's worth a shot, and It does get better. It's hard and it would probably be easier to just feel like sh1t, but its pretty cool when you aren't feeling like total crap, I swear The platform isn't much, but worth it for the story

Wow. Was für eine Story. So sass ich begeistert da, als ich Blueberry nach rund drei Stunden durchgespielt hatte. Schon lange habe ich kein Spiel mehr erlebt, das auf so meisterhafte Weise Gameplay und Story miteinander verwoben hat und dabei auch noch wirklich bedeutungsvollen Inhalt vermittelt, ohne in Moralin oder Kitsch abzudriften. Aber der Reihe nach. Grundsätzlich spielt man hier die namensgebende Frau mit dem Übernamen Blueberry. Mit dieser steigt man quasi einen Turm aus Erinnerungen hinauf und arbeitet sich so nacheinander durch Szenen aus Kindheit, Teenagerzeit, Erwachsenenalter und Seniorenalter. Hochsteigen ist dabei wortwörtlich gemeint, denn man arbeitet sich in klassischer Plattforming-Manier langsam nach oben. Zwischendurch gibt es immer wieder Türen, die jeweils eine Erinnerung auslösen. Danach erhält man ein weiteres Puzzleteil des Lebens und kann seinen Weg fortsetzen. Das klingt zunächst ziemlich eintönig, ist es in der Praxis aber überhaupt nicht. Das Spiel ist sehr geschickt darin, den Spieler bei der Stange zu halten, weil das Pacing wirklich gut gelungen ist. Die Sprungpassagen an sich sind ziemlich simpel, vor allem dank des sehr fairen Checkpointsystems und weil es keine Gesundheitsbalken gibt. Es gibt nur wenige etwas mühsamere Stellen, diese sind allerdings bewusster Teil der Story und darum für mich völlig in Ordnung. Die Erinnerungen selbst bestehen oft aus kleinen Rätseln oder Interaktionen. Und immer wieder überrascht das Spiel damit, was dabei herauskommt. Aber Ja, das Gameplay gewinnt an sich keine Genialitätspreise, unterhält aber gut genug, damit der eigentliche Star des Spiels voll glänzen kann. Und das ist ganz klar die Story. Denn die Lebensgeschichte von Blueberry hat es in sich. Aufgewachsen in einer kaputten Familie leidet sie ihr ganzes Leben lang unter den Folgen davon. Ja, dieses Spiel ist nichts für Leute, die einfach nur durch eine happyflappy Feelgood-Geschichte rushen wollen. Aber genau das macht den Reiz des Spiels aus. Die Geschichte bleibt dabei unglaublich bodenständig. Und vor allem hat man immer wieder die Kontrolle darüber, wie man reagiert und kann dadurch auch den Verlauf der Geschichte beeinflussen. Wie antworte ich? Wie gehe ich mit Situationen um? Und achte ich genug auf meine eigene Psyche, um überhaupt fähig zu sein, richtig zu handeln? Das ist ganz toll gemacht. Auch dass man später frühere Erinnerungen nochmals neu erlebt und dabei neue Perspektiven gewinnt, ist sehr clever. Ein Sonderlob verdient aber vor allem das Writing. Solche Geschichten können sehr schnell in oberflächlichen Platitüden landen. Das ist hier aber überhaupt nicht der Fall. Die Geschichte von Blueberry ergibt Sinn und ist durch und durch nachvollziehbar. Und genau dadurch entfalten auch die Aussagen des Spiels ihre Wirkung. Toll ist zudem, dass unter der Oberfläche tatsächlich einiges an psychologischem Fachwissen steckt und vermittelt wird, wie z.B. wie man mit Verletzungen und Drama umgehen kann oder wie wie Traumata verarbeitet werden können. Aber anders als bei vielen anderen Spielen wird das hier nicht künstlich obendraufgeklebt oder dem Spieler mit dem Hammer ins Gesicht geschlagen, sondern vollkommen natürlich in die Geschichte eingewoben. Ganz grosse Klasse! Unterstützt wird das Ganze von einer tollen Präsentation. Die Grafik ist eine hübsche Comicgrafik, die die Geschichte wunderbar zum Ausdruck bringt. Dazu kommen viele schöne Details, etwa wie die Welt je nach Gemütszustand düsterer oder freundlicher wirkt. Zusammen mit dem tollen Sound trägt das enorm viel zum Spielerlebnis bei. Der einzige - und zwar wirklich der einzige - Schwachpunkt sind ein paar Bugs. Aber selbst diese sind verschmerzbar. Bis auf eine Stelle, an der ich zweimal vom Checkpoint neu starten musste, ist mir nichts wirklich Gravierendes begegnet. Fazit: Wer auch nur ein bisschen auf gute Storys steht, für den ist Blueberry ein absolutes Muss. Für mich ist das schon jetzt eines der grossen Highlights meines Spielejahres und ein Spiel, das mich auch nach dem Abspann noch im positiven Sinne beschäftigen wird, nicht zuletzt mit Blick auf mein eigenes Aufwachsen in einer kaputten Familie. Von mir gibt es darum eine uneingeschränkte Empfehlung.

Some games are heartfelt, and some are HEARTFELT. this one is the latter. A self-therapy session that does not shy away from some very dark topics. All handled incredibly well, and the writing is 10/10!

Blueberry is a perfect example that a good game does not need to do too much! Even though the game is very short and can easily be finished in about 2–3 hours, it was an emotional rollercoaster in the best way. This game will make you feel things, even with this simple yet perfectly fitting vector-illustration artstyle! Usually, I want games to be fun and mechanically heavy, and I would also say that I might not be the target audience of the game. But I also understand, that this game does not want to be "fun" in the traditional sense. Much more, it wants you to experience different emotions and leads you on a very personal and real journey: In this game, you play through the life and memories of Barbara, or "Blueberry", as she was called by her mother. We start with her as a senior and after a phone call from her son, you basically save yourself into some kind of "Wonderland", the Tower of Life, where you then recall different memories and experience different stages throughout Barbara's life, starting with her as a 4 year old child. The gameplay consists of simple platforming and focuses more on the different memories. There are decisions to be made and while some just include different dialogue options, some decisions in this game go much deeper. In some cases, the game does not even present them as actual choices, but instead lets your actions influence the outcome, so it always feels like YOUR story. As mentioned before, this makes this game an emotional rollercoaster. The game also includes heavy topics such as alcohol abuse, suicide and suicidal thoughts, depression, and anxiety. But it handles them in a way that helps you understand why people act the way they do, without ever telling you, "This is good" or "This is bad." Instead, you get to understand the emotions behind not only Blueberry /Barbara, but also of her parents. And even though the game is short and mechanically not very demanding, I would still recommend playing it, because it manages to connect its visuals to the narrative so well. As she grows up, Barbara's wonderland develops from a childish dreamland filled with huge talking rubber ducks and crayon trees to a more adult version, sometimes even leading you back to previous memories, now seen from the perspective of the older Blueberry. The memories also feel natural and are written well enough to make it all feel real rather than "videogame"-scripted! There are also different endings, that reflect your choices and how you acted towards your dad, your mom and most importantly, yourself. My only complain would be that the price is a little high for what is offered, but I would rather have a short and sweet emotional journey where its very clear the devs spent love, thought and soul into every second, than have a 10-20 hours game where things get repetitive and boring, just to pad the runtime. So, if you have read this far, I hope you will give this small indie game a chance and support the devs! Have a great day and, most importantly, take care of yourself and the people around you!

It's a very emotional game that tells a deeply touching story about a woman rewinding her life in the form of a puzzle getting rebuilt. Behind the colorful graphics there are many distinct details that hit really hard if you think about it. The jump n run in-betweens are sort of cooldown between these pretty intense scenes. Often making one to wonder "Wait what just happened. .. ohhh, damn." It's not a game the "market-forces" would ever push to exist, but a very human life journey driven piece of art. Giving a very unique glimpse into a life.

WOW. I have only played a short moment to checkout the game but it caught me on a very strong emotional level after just 1 minute. Some games (or movies) don't get this even after 15h of game play. This game appears to be very charming and I need to prepare myself for a deep emotional journey. Very good first impression !

Heartfelt, heartbreaking, and more than just occasionally hilarious.

An utterly beautiful game!! Gorgeous graphics and a gorgeous, complex story about generational trauma and breaking the cycle. Beautiful, deeply human storytelling. Runs great on Steam Deck.