Night in the Woods/NITW thoughts

so i finished jacksepticeyes playthru of Night in the Woods, and i gotta say its way better than when i first watched it as a dumb little kid

i love the aesthetic of it all, firstly. its all so smooth and the way shapes are used for the background and the characters just scratches an itch in my brain. smooth lines, symetrical shapes, no outlines, without feeling like those cookie-cutter corporate artstyles. the lighting is also gorgeous, especially on cinematic moments when ur backlight by the sun. yeah, i  know its not the hardest thing to implement, but its still used well 

second, the characters. jacksepticeye brought this up too, but i love how much you can learn about the characters just by talking to them, and how natural it sounds.of course gregg and mae are best friends, have u seen the way they talk to each other? angus and mae get along, but they arent besties. bea and mae have a bit of tension. but i dont think they could ever really hate each other. all of this was clear before you learn more abt gregg and mae's relationship, or before angus brings up that mae is bringing out greggs worst, or before bea lashes out at mae about college. mae is of course the main character, but the snippets we learn abt the rest of the cast also give them so much more depth. angus' childhood, bea's mom and how shes going to own the Ol Pickaxe, Gregg's impulsivity and how he doesnt feel like a good person, al of this makes u feel for the characters and more importantly, tells u that u arent alone when u feel like shit. 

third, the themes of mental illness. having been struggling in school now for like three years, i really do understand mae. even if i didnt completely dissociate from reality, i still get how its just so much, and how lost you feel, and how the future just feels like an inky black void you cant plan for. i get wanting to go back to where everything is familiar and can just stay there so you dont have to change, instead of being lost in academia thats slowly losing all meaning. but of course everything changes, and you have to change alongside it eventually. 

even while i hate college, i still get why bea was so mad at mae for giving up. its an opportunity to get out of a dying small-town, to actualy make something of urself, and your just going to give up because its too hard? of course college isnt for every1 and college sucks, but its a different story when thats where u thought ur life was going for years, and ur parents r putting all their faith in you, and every1 around u seems to be doing just fine. 

gregg's need to do bad shit, while also trying to be an adult, and feeling like he doesnt deserve the good stuff in his life bc of said bad shit, strikes a chord with me. we've all done bad stuff, and even worse we've probably done bad stuff for the hell of it without thinking about how it affects others. i think letting that run wild with gregg, just for everyone to slow down and go 'but wait, this isnt good anymore, i have responsibilities and i need to change' was really mature considering that smashing lightbulbs and stab-fighting was actually fun. 

i dont have any childhood trauma, so i cant relate much to angus, but i still love the monologue about constellations and 'i believe in a universe that doesnt care and people who do'. thats my sentiment exactly, that nothing really means anything until we look at it and feel some spark of emotion. oh boo-hoo, the universe didnt make everything to cater to you? what are you gonna do, cry? or are you going to fight to connect with people, fight to love the world around you, fight to leave ur mark somewhere? being able to pick up the pieces of urself that trauma destroyed can be difficult. its an ongoing process and youll lose and gain progress throughout it, but every day you spend living in spite of what happened is better than being pieces on the floor.

finally, the music. im no musician, but i do know a good tune when i hear one. NITW is full of smalltown autumn nostalgia, and u can see it in the art and hear it in the music. despite the lack of words, it says so much about the environment mae is in, especially when it chagnes to accompany certain events. the dream-sequence music is also stellar, it fits with the surrealism and sounds good no matter which combo of ghost mucisians you have. 

in conclusion, this game gets better as you get older, as u get a taste for the problems the characters go thru and understand what it means to find value in things that just dont seem to care about you in return. even if you dont 'get' the story the art itself is absoluetly gorgeous and iconic, and the music is perfect for a fall walk. at the end of everything, hold on to anything.