Today, I'd like to recommend everyone who likes a deep and tragic story to take a look at A Story Beside.
As a disclaimer, I am not affiliated at all with the studio or promo. None of that. I don't even have a yt channel to promote.
I just happened to play this game 2 years ago and it still haunts me with both joy and sadness.
To make it clear how much I loved it : I played it on the high seas, finished it, knew I was never going to play it again (for me, that's the kind of story based/narrative game you only play once), and still bought it on Steam the day after and bought it for a few friends.
While the gameplay is simple and the gfx are nothing to write home about (rpg maker, my first game of the kind), the story is superb and highly emotional. It has a simple point and click interface (definitely NOT my type of games), choices with heavy consequences and mostly non genderlocked romance, IIRC.
But what cracked my heart the most us the VA. It's beautiful behind words, haunting and powerful. It made me understand how VA is important in a game. Some sentences from this game are still with me to this day and randomly pop in my thoughts.
So do yourself a favor and play this one of these days.. Just make sure you have someone you trust close enough, because it can be really heartbreaking sometimes. Or beautiful. Or happy. Depends on your perspective.
Edit : typo in the title of the post >.<
P. S. : If I had one criticism about this game, it would be that some choices are quite obscure. A little thing you said, did or forgot to do at one point can have cataclysmic consequences later on, and it can be frustrating because back then, you didn't even know you were making a choice. I started blind, got a heartbreaking story event, restarted from the beginning with a guide to avoid the.. err.. bad endings.
