V. The Last Sky

With all that said, does this post say everything that Subahibi is about? No, far from it. Subahibi is such a complex game that I can probably write a whole thesis about it and still not end up exhausting everything there is to say about the game. Does this make Subahibi a deep masterpiece that should be praised by everyone? Definitely not. There’s a lot that Subahibi wants to say, but it doesn’t get to say all of it in a graceful manner. For one, SCA-JI spells out all his thoughts in such an unsubtle manner in one ending that it drags on and just falls apart. And there’s a huge chunk of irrelevant text and ero that can be trimmed down in “It’s My Own Invention” and “Looking-Glass Insects”, which slows the game’s pacing to a crawl.

What I can say, though, is that Subahibi is a very memorable game. Despite the flaws I found in it, I just can’t help but love what it tries to do, and the things it tries to say. The story is so simple, but you can look at it in so many different ways that it ends up a very complex and enriching experience. Subahibi is also far from pretentious: SCA-JI clearly knows and understands the readings he references in the game, and even simplifies all of it for the reader to appreciate. Subahibi is a very good game, though not something that I can easily recommend to people.

But then again, this post is just me speaking about my experience with the game. I’m not a philosophy major, and I can’t claim to have a complete understanding of the Tractatus or the long philosophical background behind it. Thankfully, Subahibi digests all of it for the reader, and I’m sure more intelligent readers can pick up things that I couldn’t. All I can do is quote Wittgenstein for the sake of those who haven’t read the game and still spout opinions about it:

    7 Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent.
    -- Ludwig Josef Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus