You Will (Not) Remain

i dont get it. i thought the point is perhaps one must break the cycle to break free from the sadness. or maybe that since the plant and the dog require nurturing, one must do better, and that will motivate us to break the rut. who is 'she?' why are we hurt? what is our relationship to them? if the game is alluding to covid, then yeah i lived through it, but idk what the game wants me to do about it. i cant find a call to action, and i don't really feel stirred emotion either. someone smarter than me probably gets it

The world ended weeks ago. A force of unknowable scale, origin, and purpose looms outside your window. . . . You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about self-isolation after a calamity as you take the unnamed protagonist through their routine of eating, drinking coffee, watering the plants, and a short walk in the apartment hallway. It's like this every day. . . . You have the same nightmare, where it's the first night, every night. She's screaming to be let into your home for safety. You might have known her. You might have cared about her a lot even, not like it matters anymore. The voice on the radio warns to never let anyone in from the outside, for they have changed, whatever that means. The screams transform into pleading sobs. You don't let her in. Days pass. Her voice weakens. You don't let her in. Eventually, it stops. Everyone is long gone as far as you're aware. Maybe not dead, but definitely gone. You hunkered down in your apartment complex. You looted some of the other rooms already. You boarded up the door already. You haven't heard so much as a peep from the radio. From the balcony window, you see It hang over the city. It's just the waiting game...until you hear it. Whimpering outside your door, a dog begs for help. You open your door cautiously. It's emaciated with patchy fur, no one has taken care of it in a long time. You're not even sure how it survived. You're not even sure how it got here. It must've been a previous tenant's, as nothing should have come in. You let it in and it quickly makes itself at home. It sleeps on your chest at night. You name it Lambshank. . . . You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about taking care of a dog during the end times. You go about your daily routine with the dog and take care of it alongside yourself. You play with it, you walk around with it, the works. It's your first companion in a long time. It's like this every day. . . . Days pass, weeks pass, months pass, years even. Same day every day. You don't remember most of them. Every night, the same nightmare, just as real as it was before. Every day feels in service of the dog, the beast in the sky, the sobs at the door. You don't even know who you are anymore. You are okay. . . . [strike] You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about isolating yourself because it's the only thing you can control anymore. [/strike] [strike] You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure ga m e about forgetting your s e l f. [/strike] [strike] You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about your s e l v e s being no good anyway. [/strike] [strike] You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about being trapped. [/strike] [strike] You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about everything being okay, I p r o m i s e. [/strike] [strike] You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about reliving the worst day of your life for the rest of your life. [/strike] [strike] You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about wanting to love again. [/strike] [strike] You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about never wanting to be loved again. [/strike] . . . The radio chimes. Rescue teams have been dispatched to bring any survivors out of the exclusion zone. Lambshank doesn't look pleased with this, scared even. Maybe it knows something you don't. Maybe you're just like it too. But the idea of it, for as terrifying as it sounds, is tantalizing. I mean, who wouldn't want to go back outside again? Who wouldn't want to talk with people again, right? Right? You inch towards the door and [strike] you leave [/strike] [strike] Lambshank bites you and drags you home [/strike] [strike] you never ever left at all [/strike] you would n e v e r leave this place, you would never want that, right? . . . You Will (Not) Remain is a fairly minimal 45-minute adventure game about complex trauma.