Review | We'll Always Have Paris - A Beautiful Short Holiday
When it comes to storytelling I’ve always been a huge fan of the smaller, more intimate, character-driven pieces of media, whether that's games or otherwise. I’m happier with a smaller cast and more personal down-to-earth stories. That's not to say I don’t enjoy the large, bombastic symphonies of titles such as Halo Infinite and the corny humour and horror of games like Resident Evil, quite the opposite in fact. However, over the last few years, we have been overwhelmed with fantastic games and when presented with such a wide-ranging variety of games I’ve always found myself drawn to the shorter, story-driven works of art. Some of these have become indie darlings of the industry, spotlighted around the time of game of the year nominations but others can be found hiding away in some niche category on Steam or Itch.io. We’ll Always Have Paris is one of those games.
Finding the time to sit down and dedicate between 10 to 25 hours to a narrative experience can be daunting at times. They're a genre of games that require a large level of focus whilst playing them and if the story doesn’t pay off for you either emotionally or narratively in the end it can feel like a waste of time. We’ll Always Have Paris’ main appeal to me was that while it's a narrative experience it’s also designed to be completed in one 30ish minute sitting, with the option to even stop periodically throughout your playthrough and come back to it later. So, when diving into the game I was less worried about the possibility of narrative disappointment as I wouldn’t have sacrificed relatively any time at all.
Despite the small reservation of misplacing the same amount of time as an episode of The Simpsons, I was glad to see that my worry of wasted time never came to pass as from the very start I was immediately pulled into the story of Simon Smith and his wife Claire. It will certainly be a relatable story to many as We’ll Always Have Paris focuses on the difficult reality of loving someone with dementia. You play as Simon, who struggles to maintain his love for Claire while also trying to find and hold onto some level of normality in both their lives as Claire’s dementia continues to worsen. It’s a narrative that uses its brief time with you to perfection and left me quite emotional upon completion as it resurfaced memories of older relatives who had struggled similarly with dementia when I was too young to realize exactly what that meant.
Alongside its narrative, the art design and illustrations by Marina from Cowleyfornia Studios presented this simplistic yet charming atmosphere to the game. Each still frame presented throughout the game coupled with the multiple dialogue options allowed me to fill in details that were otherwise not visually represented which added a nice level of uniqueness to my own playthrough.
The gameplay featured in We’ll Always Have Paris is extremely simple and easy to understand. The game's dialogue options and story require your full attention and the music understands this as the classical music played throughout is not overly intrusive but sets the mood and tone for the game. The dialogue options you pick throughout your playthrough do not bear much weight on the overall narrative experience but they do allow you to tailor the broader feel of the story. Shorter puzzle segments of the game can be skipped completely if you’re not interested in them but in my own experience, they add a level of context and depth to Simon and Claire's story and are well worth playing through.
I found it difficult not to draw comparisons between We’ll Always Have Paris and a similar short, story-driven title designed for mobile, Florence. I mean that as a major compliment as well as just like Florence, We’ll Always Have Paris has lodged itself intimately into my mind after my playthrough and will stay with me long after this review is published. If you were a fan of Florence, of short-narrative driven experiences in a similar realm I’d definitely recommend We’ll Always Have Paris. It’s emotional, poignant and extremely user friendly.
