SeaBed

SeaBed is as much a spiritual experience as it is a quiet meditation on loss and on longing, on pain and on searching, on acceptance. The story is told through multiple perspectives and especially earlier in the story there will be an uncertainty of what is or isn't real or what time period something is occurring, and this gives it a lightly surreal quality. As the story moves forward, you may come to feel or understand a lot of new things that are never explained, through a kind of subtle story telling that demands total immersion to be emotionally felt. Because the narrative is so obtuse, insisting on delving deep into itself as opposed to telling a straight forward story, SeaBed must be felt rather than understood. It is a surrealistic story that holds much depth and power. I cried a lot reading it. I cried the most in the final chapter. For a story to make me cry like that is extremely unusual. SeaBed shows how you contrast light slice of life with heavy themes and the pain of living and the uncertainty and ambiguity of life and death. The contents are very unusual for Visual novels, which are usually egocentric stories, centered around a main character and copy-pasted girls, uneducated and uninteresting writing that is totally disinterested in the world and only concerned with itself and pleasing a stupid audience is the norm. SeaBed is the opposite as the writing concerns all kinds of different things from a legitimate perspective and real understanding or curiosity. Sachiko and Takako travelled a lot and talked about a lot of different things, the characters will routinely hold conversations about whatever subjects they feel like. It's this descriptiveness, this understanding of the world and of the human condition, this genuine and sympathetic angle and the subtle ability to contrast various events, the reminiscing and nostalgia with the present day for effectiveness and relatability that makes SeaBed such an excellent visual novel. Well, that is only one part of it, as the more you read, the more you will understand and not just feel the nature of the "mystery" presented. I haven't found a VN so resonating in quite some time; we are really on the same wavelength. The only real downside to SeaBed that I can think of is that a lot of it is really mundane and might bore you. This is partly the fault of the prose which is stiff and mechanical, almost as if written by a robot. The writing is so matter-of-fact that it sometimes comes across as depressing. The girls, no matter what the subject is, often don't really sound like they're living. Now, you could argue that this is a stylistic choice (and given the contents, it has to have been purposefully written this way, as it's a form of subjective storytelling) but I was still bored of the text at times, and I believe this to be a potential problem for most readers. Most of the time I was totally immersed though, so it's not a huge problem for me, just the biggest potential flaw I can think of. After having completed SeaBed I understand the potency of the text in an entirely new way, and I promise there's a reason why SeaBed is written the way it is. Also It's evidently a doujin... no voice acting :( The art is pretty cute though (pretty much the only thing about this game that has any relation to "weeb stuff") and The music's not bad, either; the whole sound design is intimate as fuck and they paid close attention to this in some scenes. SeaBed isn't the most impressive VN ever in a sense, but it is a gem that will appeal a lot to a smaller audience looking for an intimate and magical realist story. For those that are lost in life, for those that seek art not just to fill a void, but also to nurture that void... you are the ones who should read this rather narratively and emotionally complex visual novel. Emptiness, confusion and ambiguity is a major part of life for any intelligent human being. That's not to say SeaBed is entirely depressing, it's just a rich story, that's all. I had to read a lot until I started to understood why, but every time the characters interacted with Kozue and that song played I would get goosebumps and butterflies in my stomach... SeaBed is an anti-drama, the absolute anti-plotge, as everything will be "felt" to the right audience, long before it is "understood". That's why, for example, Interactions with Kozue started to become more and more emotional, even though on the surface, there was no cause for it, Because the writers of SeaBed understands how to write this form of magical realism and reach out to this small audience I belong to. In the end, I don't feel like I 100% "understood" the story, but that's alright! I've given myself some time to ponder it, and rereading various passages under this new mode of understanding, it is incredible just how much SeaBed wears its heart on its sleeve despite the game's overall mystical surreal atmosphere and narrative. I have some interpretations of SeaBed's story that may be more off beat. However, the simpler interpretations already leads me to think SeaBed is a psychological masterpiece. I'd love to talk a bit about it with others that have finished it.

FruitBat Factory should be commended for bringing over such a relatable, mature and niché VN even though it was obviously never going to sell in the west. When it was all over, I just had to go back and reread the first part (the first travel in the story). It's such a powerful feeling to reread it... to me, SeaBed is a profound and subtle visual novel, one of the most immersive and resonating to me. If you can get past the prose, and if you don't mind never having all your questions answered directly, you will be deeply rewarded! I suggest you do not look up much of anything about what the story actually concerns besides "two girlfriends go on travels" and just dive in.

And if going into spoilery territory, there is so much more to say about it. Unfortunately It's pretty hard to talk about SeaBed's themes or contents openly.