The Kids We Were is an adventure game focused on storytelling. There’s little to no gameplay; instead, it’s like a visual novel with exploration mechanics.
Presentation
Visually, it looks like 3D pixel art. Everything is blocky, yet more detailed than something like Minecraft. It gives off a retro vibe that fits well with the 1980s setting. The collectibles have especially beautiful models that show off the game’s cute aesthetic. It’s far from a technical marvel, but it’s great for an indie title like this.
There’s no voice acting, so the only audio comes from the soundtrack and occasional sound effects. The score features quite a bit of music, definitely more than I expected, I thought the story would be shorter than it was, so the soundtrack wound up being the perfect length and never felt stale. The songs are typically slow and simple, often featuring minimal instrumentation. They are mood setters, not attention grabbers, and they do their job well.
Gameplay
As I mentioned in the intro, the gameplay doesn’t play a major role. You walk around town talking to people and searching for both coins and collectibles. That’s all there is to it. The items you find have little snippets of info, usually pertaining to their relevance in 1980s Japanese culture, but it doesn’t serve a purpose outside of these fun tidbits. Coins are used to buy more collectibles, so they’re essentially the same thing as finding items directly. Walking around is mostly unnecessary because it’s a linear narrative. You can talk to other residents, but it’s only killing time until you go to the next story section. Granted, the dialogue is usually interesting, but it typically isn’t relevant to the plot.
Story
This is where all the meat is. Without the story, there would be no reason to ever play this game. Thankfully, The Kids We Were delivers a meaningful tale with a solid blend of humor, nostalgia, and sadness. It’s balanced well, so nothing feels tacked on or unnatural. It begins with you playing as a young Japanese child in the year 2020. Your family has assorted health issues, but you aren’t given any specific details. This part of the narrative is setting up the main plotline, but I didn’t read the store page before playing, so I was blindsided by the transition to a time travel story. Once it did though, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the writing. Outside of a couple of typos or mistranslations, and some very telegraphed twists, it was excellent. It overstayed its welcome near the end, but only slightly. A few of the later chapters could have been trimmed down and combined into one big chapter, but it didn’t ruin the game or anything like that.
I loved some of the story’s themes, specifically with regards to childhood experiences shaping your adulthood. There were some thought-provoking moments that stuck with me, something that rarely happens to me when I play games. I didn’t love the ending, but it was only a slight step down in quality compared to the strong middle.
Verdict
The Kids We Were isn’t much of a game in the traditional sense, but it was good as a purely narrative experience. Because of that, it’s going to be fairly hit-or-miss for a lot of players. The heavy, emotional story beats are fantastic, but there are still a few missteps that didn’t go over well. Even though it’s technically an adventure game, visual novel fans are probably the most likely audience to enjoy it. Overall, a solid indie game that might be priced a bit too high, but definitely an enjoyable experience.
