Review for Last Day of June. Game for PlayStation Network, PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 31/08/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 16/03/2018
Ovosonico by Massimo Guarini is one of the most talented Italian development studios. After the agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment that led to the release of Murasaki Baby exclusively on PS Vita, it was Digital Bros. that took an interest in the Varese team, investing almost a million and a half euros. The first project resulting from this collaboration - published on the digital stores by 505 Games, of course - is Last Day of June, a poignant "interactive story“, As the authors themselves define it.
The Butterfly Effect
As mentioned above, as an interactive story, Last Day of June can be described using the videogame categories as a story driven adventure game featuring a relevant puzzle component. Since the plot is fundamental, now we will express the basic concept without any spoilers, simply by using the question contained in the official website: "What would you do to save the one you love?" As Carl, the player must find a way to change destiny and save their beloved June. We don't say more, and we don't even have to say.
Despite the focus on the story, we shouldn't think of Last Day of June as a wordy game. obviously there is textual communication, but we are not talking about oral or written texts: the characters communicate with each other in gibberish (not subtitled) and there are no messages, letters, diaries or other amenities to consult.
The plot and its implications are understood by the player thanks to the expressiveness and gestures of the characters, and this happens progressively, by virtue of the structure of the adventure, which sees the intersection of different temporal and "dimensional" planes, so to speak. As we have already illustrated, the scheme is based on the "butterfly effect": Carl's goal is to modify an event (retro) by acting on its contributing causes, replacing a moment in the past, presented as a flashback, with an alternative version of it. This process is repeated for four characters, and the combination of their interactions will lead to different outcomes; the player will have to act on this "formula" to change fate at the end of the day. It might remind you of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, in a way.
All controllable characters have a strong identity, made of gestures and feelings of various kinds towards the other inhabitants of the village, as well as of a background provided by the memories, five "photographs" for each to collect during the adventure. On the playful level, however, depending on the characteristics of the virtual alter ego in use at the moment and its starting position, it will be possible to open gates and perform other actions that can affect the reality of the other characters, thus gathering all the memories (the only collectibles of the game) and determining new outcomes of the day.
Drive Home
As we had already had the opportunity to say in the preview, Last Day of June was inspired to Massimo Guarini from the song "Drive Home" by Steven Wilson, which in turn was inspired (yes, art is like that, Ed) from a short story and an illustration by Hajo Müller, highly respected by Wilson, as evidenced by the fruitful collaborations. The whole soundtrack is made up of splendid tracks taken from various solo albums by the English artist, who in this way indirectly forged the game while "compiling" the soundtrack. The last key figure to mention is Jess Cope, the mastermind behind the “Drive Home” video clip.
Knowing the muses of Ovosonico, it is easy to find the points of contact between the various works mentioned above, but you can also appreciate their peculiarities and new ideas. Visually, the character design is certainly reminiscent of Cope's video (which in turn was guided by Müller's storyboards, but newsprint has been replaced by something more like papier-mâché. A similar argument can be made on the settings, characterized instead by an impressionist nature.
A less bleak picture emerges, but the same cannot be said of the themes, adhering to the original ones. Even in this area, however, Guarini has put his own, adding characters - or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say "personae" - and amplifying the temporal element to excess: time, in Last Day of June, is not linked to only dimension of the painful memory, but also to that of destiny, stimulating reflections that go beyond the suggestions and emotions aroused by "Drive Home". This is one of the aspects that the writer has appreciated the most, if I am granted a personal consideration in closing: a single suggestion is captured by the sensitivity of a man, but, through a spontaneous process of artistic stratification, it reaches the user in different declinations ( story, illustration, song, video, videogame) and gradually gets richer. This is the great merit of Last Day of June, which in all this also manages to remember that it is (also) a video game.
Last Day of June represents one of the most successful attempts to combine art with videogames to date. The intensity of a poignant story, the artistic direction and the soundtrack, the most important component in the genesis of the work, are conveyed in what is certainly not a complex or fun game in the classic sense, but not even a walking simulator. Last Day of June is an all-round work to be contemplated, listened to, played and internalized. The numerical vote loses its meaning.
► Last Day of June is an Adventure-type game developed by Ovosonico and published by 505 Games for PlayStation Network, PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 31/08/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 16/03/2018
