Many would agree that one of the hardest aspects of growing up is drifting away from our childhood friends. No one expects their youth to be permanent. We share an acknowledgement of the fact that we won’t be in school forever. We know that we’ll outgrow our clothes, begin to take on new responsibilities, and eventually realize that we’re no longer children. However, when it comes to friendship, it’s difficult to imagine that it could ever come to an end.
“Our Wonderland” is a horror-fantasy visual novel released between Dec. 3, 2021, and April 5, 2024, with a remaster currently in the works. The game was developed by independent creator justacarrot, and it wonderfully articulates the struggle of deteriorating childhood friendships, along with themes of identity and mental health.
The story follows Ignatius “Iggy” Maxwell, who at the age of 11 discovered a strange book detailing a ritual which led him and his four friends Genzou Ichihara, Orlam Brewbacher, Gidget Bordelle and Buxley “Bucks” Krills into the woods at night. There, they discovered a world of talking rabbits, towers of stuffed animals, an escape from the stress of their home lives and practically anything they could possibly wish for just at the bottom of an old willow tree.
The five of them were inseparable throughout their childhood, frequently retreating to their world of magic and excitement. But during the latter half of their teenage years, the door to their “wonderland” closed.
Now, at the age of 31, Iggy and his friends rarely speak with one another at all. Let alone about the seemingly impossible world that they had discovered when they were children. However, when Bucks and her newborn daughter vanish without a trace, Iggy and his friends find themselves returning to the world from their youth. Only this time, it’s not the same as they recall.
As a visual novel, “Our Wonderland” is heavily story based. The game primarily consists of images and prose. However, throughout the game, the player is able to make choices on Iggy’s behalf. Certain choices may have life or death outcomes for Iggy and his friends, whereas other decisions will only impact the interactions between characters.
Towards the end of the game, the player is able to choose Iggy’s love interest, or lack thereof, determining which of the four possible endings the player will view.
One of the things that stands out in “Our Wonderland” is that it’s drawn frame by frame. There are intricate backgrounds, additional movement, a variety of expressions and outfits for each character and even occasional cutscenes. “Our Wonderland” also contains hundreds of computer graphics (CGs) rather than reusing the same few. Some of the art appears stagnant at times, with certain events happening off-screen while still being within the same scene. There are many scenes with little to no movement, but there is an impressive amount of detail put into the visual aspects of the game nonetheless.
Another notable aspect of the game is its use of a time loop. Time loops can generally feel cliché and redundant, but in “Our Wonderland” each cycle is used as an opportunity to explore the different facets of each character and their relationships with Iggy. Each cycle may loosely follow the same plot, but the characters are portrayed in completely different lights. For every time the story resets, the player is given the opportunity to gain new perspectives.
The time loop in “Our Wonderland” is also slightly different from most as the characters aren’t able to recall previous cycles for the majority of the game. Only the player is aware that Iggy and his friends have experienced these events before. This use of dramatic irony creates a sense of foreboding as the player progresses through the game. By the third cycle, it becomes clear that no matter what the player or characters do differently, the outcome will remain the same.
By far, the highlight of the game is its characters. It’s common for media to center around teenagers and young adults discovering who they are and achieving ambitious goals. There’s nothing wrong with an inspirational coming of age story, but they can often feel overdone and slightly unrealistic.
Many people don’t have their identities completely figured out by the time they’ve graduated high school, and not everyone has a list of outstanding accomplishments. What makes “Our Wonderland” so refreshing is that the characters are well past schooling age and yet they still haven’t discovered who they are.
They aren’t particularly accomplished either, but this doesn’t prevent them from being well-rounded and compelling. The characters are honest portrayals of a variety of human experiences. They have interpersonal conflicts that are unrealistic due to the nature of the genre, but feel earnest when it comes to real life emotions. At times, they make poor decisions and even cause one another unspeakable harm. At others, they love and support one another, they cry together, defend one another and provide a genuine portrayal of companionship. The characters are loveable at certain points and intolerable at others. They aren’t always written to be agreeable and palatable, but they certainly are written to be nuanced and complex.
None of the characters felt underdeveloped, per se, but the way a certain character’s development was handled was disappointing. Compared to the other main four, Bucks had a noticeably shorter amount of screen time. Whereas other characters had their backstories revealed piece by piece as the plot unfolds, the player doesn’t get to learn very much about Bucks until towards the very end of the game. The reveal of her backstory almost felt rushed. Bucks is a fascinating character who had quite a bit of potential and whose story could have been explored much further.
All in all, “Our Wonderland” is a fantastic game. It is a blend of bizarre, intense, heart-wrenching and even wholesome at times. If you’re at all interested in a game featuring time loops, terror and tomato creatures, “Our Wonderland” is available on itch.io and is coming to Steam this summer.
