Bury Me, My Love

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

.

Review:

Bury Me, My Love is a game that’s largely a Visual Novel with occasional branching paths based on your menu selections. In this game, players take the role of Majd, a man living in Syria in 2015 during the height of the Syrian civil war, with most of the game told through text conversations with his wife, Nour, who is trying to get out of the country safely as fighting intensifies.

First and foremost I have to say that rarely has any story grabbed me in the way that this one did. The writing in this game is absolutely phenomenal, presenting these likeable characters realistically and bringing the horrors of war into stark reality using nothing more than words. Anyone speaking out about the refugee crisis that is currently a hot-button issue would do well to play through this game, as it provides a unique perspective into this humanitarian crisis.

However, as much as I’d love to keep gushing about the story, there are other elements here that bring the game down a few notches, the most notable of which being… the Nintendo Switch is clearly not the ideal platform for this game, and unquestionably not the platform it was intended for. The game is set up to mimic a text conversation on Smartphones, and it’s pretty clear that this is a game that was designed with Smartphones in mind. As I understand it, the Smartphone version of the game even forces players to wait out the periods of silence in the text conversation in real-time, much as the characters in the story would have done. Here, there’s just a fade to black and a time lapse, which takes players out of the experience, especially since it often happens while players are trying to read, forcing them to backtrack.

As for the game’s visual style… I honestly don’t care for it. I suppose it’s fine, but I wish they had used a more appealing style, or simply went with live-action actors, since everything is still images anyway. If they wanted to make this emulate a text conversation, they could have gone the full mile with it.

Still, while I do not think that the Switch is the best place to play Bury Me, My Love, I still believe that it is an excellent story that should be played, especially if you’re looking for a well-told story with real characters in a situation that’s very relevant to modern day issues.

tl;dr – Bury Me, My Love is a Visual Novel that simulates a text conversation between a man and his wife as the wife tries to escape the violence during the Syrian civil war. It is an incredibly well-told story with strong characters, but unfortunately the Switch just isn’t the ideal way to play this game, with the adaptation to the console damaging the Smartphone version’s immersion.

Grade: B-

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2019 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Story

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}