Hello Charlotte EP3: Childhood's End

feels like a confessional more than a game; raw, surreal, and painfully focused on what it means to exist.

Like mentioned in my other Hello Charlotte review, its been a very long time since I actually played these games, but I know in my heart anyway that I love them deeply. I've always been a massive fan of rpg maker games, and even more of psychological horror (its often the only horror I can stomach!), and the first Hello Charlotte was one of the first ones that I was genuinely and completely enamored by. This isn't the first one, however! I must admit, when I first played Childhoods End, I was in this weird time of my life where I couldn't handle the idea of getting 'bad endings' in games, and so I used a lot of walkthroughs. I do regret this a lot for every game I did it with, but there comes the perks of having bad memory! Whenever I do get around to replaying these games, it'll be like brand new! Mostly.

Probably this is the first time I put all my energy on serious review because wow... what a game. As someone who rarely shed tears on sentimental moment this game is succesfully hit right on the spot. Probably because Charles is too relatable to deny. The loneliness, the disgust of your ownself, the obsession to be 'clean' from any 'stain', the despair of living normally like everyone else, ignoring the very feeling that destroy us, to be loved, to love someone, to be everything except ourselves. Oh my pitiful fool God, Charles Eyler, you too will find the love and peace you deserve among the deepness dark of starry sky. Thank you Etherane for creating such masterpiece this game is really changing my life's trajectory.

I keep wondering whether I was born, or simply written. Every memory feels rehearsed, every smile like dialogue spoken before I understood its meaning. If the world ends the moment no one is there to witness it, did it ever exist without an audience? I spent so long searching for the walls of my prison that I forgot to ask whether freedom was ever more than another room. Every choice I called my own only was the result of someone's else intention, every memory felt authored before I could live it. If I am merely a story, then perhaps pain is just ink and hope another line waiting to be erased. Yet I continue to breathe between pages, to love what is destined to disappear, to mourn people who may never have existed beyond my perception. Maybe existence was never measured by being real, but by the weight of what I feel. And if I am nothing more than a character, why does my heart still refuse to believe that it isn't beating for itself? Who am I when no one is left to watch me? For me this is what it felt like playing Hello Charlotte and although I'm not the deepest person in the world this game managed to leave a significant mark on me

Best written story and narrative game OAT

Fire

so peak

BEST GAME OF ALL TIME NOTHING CAN REPLACE IT!

my favourite part is when they say hello charlotte, childhoods end

10/10 kino