salvage.
A short interactive story about biting grief, alienation, and a beloved devil at your door.
Content warning: this story deals with parental death and features mentions of self-harm and drowning imagery.
Cover art is from the Sludge Photopack by Thomas Novosel.
Many thanks to Marri for testing!
Comments
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This was a delight of a story. It's a melancholy game, but not without comfort. My playthrough ended with the devil trying to be reassuring and staying, even if he really didn't actually know how to help, which hit pretty hard. The little bits of the old culture sticking with the player like the word "baba" really stuck with me, especially combined with the little bits of magic and how they fit together.
All around, this was a really strong game. I'll have to play it again some time after it has had a bit to sit in my head. Thank you for a great story.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! I'm glad your playthrough resonated with you and that the comfort came through even with me trying my best to hit you over the head with the Feels hammer. I hope you enjoy any future playthroughs you may do just as much.
This is so absolutely beautiful. Just...the way you viscerally describe the pain of losing a parent, but the desperate attempts to piece together the facts and facets of them. The use of the devil and the magic really just hones everything in beautifully, and I am not ashamed to say I may have sobbed at the games end. Oohhh and the disconnect between the 'old' culture- the devil being surprised at you knowing bits of the language- and the 'new' culture- sharing the cigarettes, the bits where it states that the narrator is 'drowning in' English- never fails to hit me in the chest, especially as a first gen immigrant part of the Bangladeshi diaspora who is just pure Shit at their mother tongue, lol.
All in all, this is such a melancholy game and brings out all the Feels, but also manages to (at some points at least) enter into a territory of idk...comfort? Like, the last scene in my playthrough where the narrator heads into the kitchen after dismissing the devil and decides to eat something just really hits me in the chest- like yes, the grief is there. The grief will always be there. But you have to get going- you have to eat, and sleep, and dance and drink. There is no use for running after the devil, demanding answers about his and your fathers lost love. There is no time for "what ifs" or "has beens", no time to drown in them. You have to get up off of that balcony, put out your cigarette, and find something to eat.
The whole theme of trying to 'salvage' the past, trying to dredge up old wounds to further piece together the mystery of who your Baba was will never not endear me. This game was genuinely so amazing, and I will definitely have to do a replay soon!
Thank you so much, I'm...Saying I'm glad it resonated with you the way it did feels a bit odd, considering at its core it's about alienation, but I can be glad for connection, so yeah, I'm so so glad the parts that were meant to hit did in fact do their job and give you all the Feels. This is a very personal piece for me as well and yes, yes exactly re: the ending! Life marches on, and with it come all the mundanities like tidying up and eating and that doesn't mean the grief goes anywhere, doesn't mean the mundanities come in the way of it. You can both grieve and eat, even if at first that feels wrong, and eventually the eating becomes natural again. Eventually.
Thank you for sharing this with me <3 I've genuinely been rotating your comment in my brain the past several days and grinning like an absolute nonsense person. If you do replay, I hope it's just as fulfilling.
this is really beautiful
That's very kind of you, thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.