Gameplay
When the Past was Around retains the typical point and click puzzle gameplay. The game has a simple operation of just reading, observing, brainstorming puzzles through dragging and touching on the screen.
When the Past was Around has successfully built a picture-perfect broken love story. With over 1000 words and beautiful hand-drawn art, the game draws you in not only at first glance but as the whole story progresses slowly.
As the story progresses, you will be transported into the world of Eda’s re-imagined memories in the form of rooms in the surreal world. Each room represents an important milestone in Eda and The Owl’s relationship. In each room, there will be many pieces of memory presented in the form of puzzles that need you to solve. When solving all puzzles in one room, the next door will open inviting you to the next room.
The game continues like this until you pass through all the places in this surreal world and complete the story of the protagonist’s memorable love memory. At this time, the secrets between Eda and her ex-lover, and the secrets she did not know, will all be revealed one by one. The reason the relationship broke down and the pain in the present gradually took shape, bringing players to interesting surprises.
Our twenties
Sure, to be such a soft catalyst for human emotions, When the Past was Around will surely bring in a poetic story with many emotions.
The story in When the Past was Around talks about love, brokenness and letting go of Eda, a young girl only in her 20s. Like many young people, she hurriedly searched and lost on the way to find her own dream.
Remember yourself in your twenties, weren’t you always confused and feeling lonely? Eda is the same, not only with dreams, but also in love. Eda also could not find a soul in tune with her. She always felt that everything around her seemed not for her.
Eda has spent many days living without purpose. Everything changes when she meets The Owl.
This man, just one chance meeting, changed her life forever. When she met him, she realized that she had lived a tasteless life before, how guilty she was to herself. With sincere love, The Owl ignited in her the fire of fervent passion. A relationship that is not calculated, no one is better than anyone else. The two are simply giving each other sincere feelings and going to the end of their youth.
Break up and go through
But, life is never like a dream. Farewell to the dreamy days is also when The Owl left, leaving Eda alone in the house the two used to live together. Eda is sitting here now, reliving the fragments of love memories through the tangled timelines. In this world of now only surreal lines, the memory seems to be tormenting, reviving, and causing Eda to once again face her pain.
Fortunately, looking through those memory fragments, she gradually understood many things, realized the secret of the relationship and the reason for The Owl’s departure. Everything has a reason, it’s just that the insider never looks at things from the other person’s perspective. Each unlocked door opens, a series of strange puzzles are waiting for you to solve, thereby opening the way to go deeper into the secrets.
Eda will have to go through this journey alone, alone to face the most intimate secrets that even when the two are still together, The Owl has not once shared with her. It turned out that like her, he had suffered from loneliness in his own great love.
The journey of reviewing the journey of love, discovering all the innermost thoughts, the journey of understanding yourself and the one you love is also an effective medicine for the heart. At the end of the game, Eda has healed hersel. Her heart is no longer breaking, her mind is gradually going to a state of letting go. Then there will be a day when Eda looks back, smiles lightly and holds the memory in her heart, keeping it in the most cherished corner.
