Mysteries Under Lake Ophelia

Lovely little game, I liked all the fish a lot. Feels like a dream that makes you feel both nostalgic and uncomfortable

I think this is the perfect relaxing game more than anything I’ve played in my life. It sells itself as nostalgic with an aire of “horror,” but I find it to be so perfectly peaceful like nothing I’ve ever played, or like an experience locked away deep in my childhood. The nights in this game get so dark, but I never find anything but solace in them. I stayed at a lake like this as a child and that’s the only time I can recall the night’s trees to not hold any sense of fear in them. Like everything was beautiful and nothing in the night could harm me. My dad used to talk about how little he was looked after as a child, and that he used to run away and fish in the forests as a kid. It feels like that exact same vibe from this game. No matter where I am in my life no matter what I’m going through, this kid will always be off by the lake, fishing and breathing the forest’s fresh air. When I open this game I will always be brought back to that perfect peaceful memory. Locked away in time and frozen in perfect tranquility. Like the kid at the end of that robot film where he gets one last day with his mom, except the day lasts forever and is accessible at any moment in time. The fishing mechanics are great too. It’s easy to learn and just such a joy to explore and interact with. Closing notes: It’s surprising how few hours I have relative to my other favorite games. Considering I have spent so many nights drifting away into this game. [spoiler]I plug my steamdeck into the TV and play with a controller.[/spoiler] It shows you don’t have to have hundreds of hours interacting with something for it to be beautiful, and maybe that level of interaction lies more in our attraction to feedback loops in games than enjoyment or appreciation. I’d say this game is more akin to a painting than a traditional game.