Three Days to Chicago

Extremely cute, cozy, and comforting.

First up: My play time isn't just few minutes as it might appear. As, how fittingly, I played the game last December when I took the train to visit my parents. The train ride didn't took Three Days but I had a 3hrs+ part where I could use my Steam Deck and played the game. From start to the last station. And as others have mentioned: It's a warm, comforting little gem that hit many boxes for me. I could relate to many of the scenes that happened there. To some degree I've been on the same boat.. well train.. as the main character here. And -GOSH- I somehow wished that I had the guts in real life to act the same as I did in the game on some - mostly work related - decisions. And that's what I want from a visual novel. Something that's still on your mind even weeks after playing it.

I love liminal spaces, and this is the sort of visual novel that finds comfort in that. The primary plot points are about taking a train trip (in a country where that is notable and considered inefficient), deciding your relationship to work, and how to approach a stranger you've just met. But more broadly speaking it wants to explore navigating major turning points in life, taking time to figure yourself out, and in a medium full of the fantastical and melodramatic, allowing for a slower beat to communicate something a bit more mundane and yet no less important to how we progress through life.