Dear Me, I Was …

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

While many remember the Nintendo Switch as combining console and handheld experiences to bring console-quality gaming into a portable device, it’s easy to overlook how one of the keys to its success was the wealth of great smaller experiences it brought to gamers fairly early into its life, games like Snipperclips, Voez, and Golf Story.

With the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, we’ve already started to see a few games on Nintendo’s newest hybrid game console that arguably fit this same mold, like Deltarune and Fast Fusion. However, if we really want to emphasize “smaller”, then Dear Me, I Was… may be the first game that truly matches that description on Nintendo Switch 2.

Releasing exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025, Dear Me, I Was… is a Visual Novel that will only take about 45 minutes to complete, but in turn it only costs $8. Featuring a story told without words or voices, Dear Me, I Was… follows an unnamed girl over the course of her life, exploring her connections to act, food, and others around her. Or at least, this seems to be the case – without any narration or dialogue, it’s not always easy to follow the arc of the story, or understand what is driving the story’s protagonist.

That said, there does seem to be a recurring theme here of sad partings of ways, either due to death, circumstances pushing people in different directions, or even the protagonist herself pushing people away. I felt like this lent the story an overall sadness and loneliness, even if the details of what’s going on often remained fuzzy, and I feel like this issue could have been rectified if the game was longer and gave the story more time to stretch out.

However, while I may have issues with the way this game’s story is told, I think the presentation is an absolute knockout. Dear Me, I Was… features absolutely gorgeous rotoscoped, sketched, and watercolor-painted artwork that makes this game’s characters absolutely come alive with a beautiful expressiveness and down-to-Earth relatability you rarely see in videogames. This has been paired with an equally-lovely piano and violin soundtrack that does an impeccable job drawing out the emotion of this game’s scenes. Again, I wish this game was longer so I could get more of the absolute beauty that permeates this game’s presentation from start to finish.

You may notice that I haven’t spoken much about the gameplay, and that’s because there isn’t really any here. At some points you’ll be made to move a cursor (via analog stick or Joy-Con mouse mode) to either click on objects, drag-and-drop, or just to scribble on the screen to reveal a sketch the protagonist is drawing, but none of these actions are challenging in any way, they’re just a task to perform. And none of these affect the plot either.

This leads to the question of whether this game really needed to be a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive at all. I don’t think mouse mode feels particularly vital to this game’s formula, and none of the Nintendo Switch 2’s other unique features are used here. Really, the main benefit I see this game getting here as opposed to a release on the original Nintendo Switch is the higher-resolution visuals this allows for. And indeed, these beautiful visuals definitely make good use of this… but I do still think this game could have worked nearly as well on the original Nintendo Switch.

Still, I think Dear Me, I Was… is worth a look for anyone looking to enjoy something brief but beautiful. The $8 price tag makes the short length easier to swallow, and while the story feels somewhat lacking, the wonderful visuals and soundtrack really help to make up for this. This isn’t a game that I think is going to make massive waves, but it’s still an enjoyable experience worth having.

tl;dr – Dear Me, I Was… is a Visual Novel without words following the life of a girl and exploring her connections to art, food, and other people. This game can be completed within 45 minutes, but the $8 price tag helps to mitigate this issue. And the lack of narration and dialogue obscures the story’s details in disappointing ways, but I feel like the absolutely gorgeous artwork and soundtrack help to make up for this flaw. If you’re okay with a game that’s short and beautiful but not something likely to stay with you long after it’s over, this is definitely worth a look.

Grade: B-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2025 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Graphical Style

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