Dealing with depression is never easy, but you already knew that, and it seems the creator of To Leave does too. They did after all give its protagonist – a kid who’s dealing with that very thing – a flying door, after all. I mean, it won’t help him get rid of the thing(s) that plague him, but it will enable the completion of his plan, which is to… “harvest the souls of his homeworld so that everyone can leave this world and enter Heaven”? Wait, what?!
Well, yeah. So in case you hadn’t picked up on that from the above paragraph, To Leave is a bit of an odd/surreal experience; one in which Harm, its protagonist, is tasked with collecting a form of energy known as Vibrance while avoiding all kinds of nasties. Far as I can tell, this ‘Vibrance’ thing is what keeps him, quite literally, afloat, too. That and something about “Harvesting Shrines” and “the key to redemption”. Honestly, I’m not quite sure as to what’s going on in this one, but it does sound rather intriguing and… very different from most platformers.
The game addresses depression – a state of mind that tempts you to open any doors if they allow you to leave everything behind … sometimes for a moment … sometimes for life.
Whether the developer’s description, which pitches the entire thing as “a lyrical, awe-inspiring platformer that ignores genre boundaries”, holds true or not… well, that remains to be seen. Based on the trailer below I am certainly interested in experiencing the journey of Harm, even if the whole Heaven thing does seem a tad off somehow.
That aside, mention is made of “detailed diaries that chronicle his journey of self-discovery”, leaving me to think that we’re in for a rather emotional platforming trip here – one with more than a little food for thought. And that is definitely not a bad thing, in this day and age of soulless first-person shooters. Fingers crossed that Harm’s door will not make players want… To Leave (sorry).
To Leave is available on Steam and PlayStation 4, carrying a $9.99 price tag.
