My Big Sister Remastered: Review

This game was reviewed on PC.

Reviewed by:  Srinivasa

As some who enjoys narrative games It was interesting to play My Big Sister. It is a odd little game which is kind of odd to describe. It is a narrative story game in the skin of a JRPG. That alone makes it unique. Our protagonist Luzia is a little girl haunted by her sister, Sombie. She seems like the perky character with a tragic backstory who will fit perfectly into a JRPG.

Before I go on about the story of the game, I will be talking about the gameplay first as this is the simplest part of the game. This is a purely narrative style game with minimal gameplay. The gameplay is about collecting items and taking them to the correct place to proceed in the story or to get along the part. This aspect does not really change much. The gameplay of bringing objects to each other is the bare minimum of gameplay. But even this can be kind of frustrating with the puzzles being cryptic with what objects interact with others. This can pretty frustrating at times as the game goes more mystical as it goes on.

"My Big Sister" starts with Luzia waking up in a alley where she has to get out of the area. This part of the game has some simple puzzles and some charming characters. But the main part of this alley is when Luzia comes face to face with a ghost. This ghost does not seem to scare her but rather irritate. This is odd but as soon as this gets going Luzia wakes up in her bed. All this was a dream. This is followed by going to her sister who is portrayed as a teen who has no care for anyone. It is a pretty typical portrayal. Here the players are informed that the Ghost in the dream is Sombie and Luzia is unsure about why she is dreaming of her sister as such.

This is when the game takes a huge turn. Luzia comes downstairs to get a glass of milk downstairs for a glass of milk and find blood all over. She goes out only to find Sombie tied up outside in the back of a van, but before she can react or escape, she is pushed into the back, the doors slammed shut behind her. This is a huge turn the game takes and it got me intrigued to what is going to happen.

But just like the first time the game stops again where it goes to a dream/flashforward where Luzia is talking to a therapist seemingly after being responsible for her sister's death. But she is fully in denial about what happened leaving the therapist frustrated.

The game is full of the narrative going at full speed only to be interrupted by something very insignificant. This kind of hampers the experience. After this diversion, the game picks back in the truck where Luzia is clueless about what is happening. She is perky and happy while getting kidnapped. Here they are taken to a lady who turns out to be a witch. It is revealed that Sombie has been kidnapped by this witch in a bath house as her body has become disfigured. So she seems to see Sombie's as a great replacement for her old body.

This is where Sombie is transformed into a demon as she appears in Luiza's dream. From here the story is all about Luzia finding a way to escape the confines of the bath house that they are locked in as she gets help for her demonised big sister.

This story has a very odd tone due to this and I am not sure if this tone is fully intentional, This has many overtones of young girls being kidnaped only for their bodies. It is sleezy and combined with the mystic nature it is very creepy. This is scarier for me than all the blood spattered over the walls. This creepy nature of this bath house is great but this is undercut by the game itself. This is because Luzia remains her cheerful self-joking as she goes along. This is an interesting mix of a cheerful child with no scepticism going through this seedy horror story. This is not something which works all the time and I feel like the "The Big Sister" falters as much as it succeeds with it.

The game itself look very pretty with harsh lighting making the characters pop off the pixel world. I really do like the world design of this game. It brings out a rich atmosphere throughout. The music is fairly good but does not really stand out for me, but it works. So, if you are someone who wants to play a weird JRPG styled adventure game with a very odd but fun tone this is the game for you. Honestly, this is an interesting game which is not perfect but does many things right and is work a try if you feel like this is something that interests you.

Reviewed by: Srinivasa