So I just played Cibele and I'm all kinds of fucked up now. I'm quite a bit older than Nina (or Nina's character Nina? I don't know if the years are accurate to her real life), so my version of this was jumping into random RP chatrooms on AOL and being a dumb awkward teenager. But man, so much about this game hits home in so many ways. I was mostly an Ichi, some of his lines feel like they were pulled straight out of my 15yo playbook, and also a bit of Nina sometimes in my interactions that always seemed to be with girls.

I even once had a plan to go visit a girl who lived halfway across the country going to far as to buy a plane ticket and because I was still like... 15 going on 16 at the time, it was this whole thing that my dad arranged with the girl's parents (like what the fuck dad you were going to send me halfway across the country to strangers? also what the fuck girl's parents you were going to let some random dude stay in your home with your daughter?) and I chickened out at the last minute and it was this whole fucked up thing oh god what a fucking tool I was. Makes me real fearful for the shit my kids are going to get up to when they reach that age.

Is this game hitting anyone else the way it's hitting me? I'm really curious to know if the game is at all effective for people that didn't go through this sort of teen internet love phase. Like, if you're coolguy mcgirlfriends does this game just seem silly to you or what?

Just finished it about 15 minutes ago and all I can think is how at times it was so uncomfortably relatable. I mean that in the best way possible. I wanted to reply and assure you, @starvinggamer, that the game was effective for me as well. I need to really let it settle in my mind for awhile and how it relates to my own life. That's the mark of something special, I think...

I just finished playing through Cibele. I didn't really have any of those experiences growing up (meaning, I never played MMOs or other community driven games and never went through the whole thing with making a friend I only knew online), but I found the game itself to be really relatable. The chat logs, the emails, the blogs, the photos, and playing the game all together told the story in an unique way. Probably the most effective part for me were the conversations between Nina and Blake. I know the real Nina used some actual resources for Cibele, but listening to that part of the game was really intimate.

Again, I have never been in Nina's situation, and I have never felt like I was a "Nina" or "Blake", but I really enjoyed it!

I felt incredibly creepy playing this game, borderline voyeuristic. Like i was watching something i'm not supposed to. I don't know if that was the intention though. But I'm definitely glad i did because of how unique it was.

I didn't have the exact kinds of experiences depicted in the game, so for me it was more about looking into another world than it was nostalgia for a different time in my life, although there was something about the old desktop environment that reminded me a bit of being a teenager. It's interesting how many people have said that the game represented something similar to what they went through though and that's quite some story @starvinggamer.

@gamer_152: Part of me wishes I went through with it because then it would really be a story instead of almost a story.

Maybe I am a broken human being, but this didn't make me feel anything, so I turned it off and haven't looked back. I think I am done with the whole visual novel genre, too much bullshit and not enough payoff.

I was really enjoying the story of what was going on until the ending.

I guess it just felt unsatisfying for me ? I thought there was still so much more to see/find out. Maybe my expectations weren't in check, but I was pretty shocked to see credits after 60 minutes. I still felt like I didn't fully understand Nina's relationships will all the characters through the chat logs, as in, they hadn't fully been developed yet. In addition to that, the game ends with Blake saying "I'll talk to you tomorrow", and then Nina expectingly sitting at her computer. I understand the point of leaving the player hanging, but there was more to the relationship to that, right ?

Maybe I didn't get it, I dunno. I really wanted to like it, I love this style of game. Maybe I played it wrong and didn't get the full chat dialogue. Anyone else feel similarly ?

I spent alot of my youth in internet chatrooms but I rarely attempted any kind of friendship or more. I guess the stigma of "stranger danger" made me nervous. So I cant say Cibele really spoke to me personally

I can't imagine the game affecting me a whole lot being closer to 40 than 30 and having had relatively drama-free teen years. The mundanity of my life knows no bounds.

@lilman1101: I always felt like the other people were more props than characters, there to enhance the sense of place and help frame Nina's relationship with Ichi.

I didn't have an intimate relationship like this over the internet, but it still resonated with me, though I'd say that the instant messenger interface of Emily Is Away spoke to my own close internet friendships more than voice chat just because I'm a bit older than the creator of Cibele.

But yeah, I thought it was a well told story and I genuinely find narrative experiences like Cibele more satisfying than a big action title for example, just where I am in my life right now. I definitely don't think you needed to have had a similar relationship to that of Cibele & Ichi to understand & appreciate the story, it was ultimately just a story of young love and all the hazards of that. I love that games have become willing to touch on these topics of late.

It's going cheap on Humble Store right now. I picked it up fully intend on playing it this weekend

@lilman1101: I do wish there was more exploration after the fact. Something like that has a huge effect on you and I would have liked to see the fallout of the event explored more deeply.

Yeah I guess I wanted the whole story, where we were only given a couple of scenes. I think some of the most interesting stuff could of been set after that.

That does make me feel a little better about how I didn't really understand them at all. But it seems that it tried to develop them somewhat in the first half, and kept on hinting that there was more to the relationships...and then just never went there ? I hate to seem like a downer, but I found it so hard to see past all that.

I thought the story closely aligned with some of the experiences I've had, but the damn story ended so abruptly that I had barely established a relationship with the characters. I felt like Blake was a scumbag and just using her for sex but i feel like the story could also have used a little bit of epilogue, really? Instead of just saying "I'm glad you were my first love" and then credits roll. Tell me about your experience. Tell me about how you dealt with it. Tell me about your relationship with Blake after you met.

There wasn't just *enough* to the game. I was enjoying what story there was there, but then it stopped. Instantly.

I just finished it.

And I'm not sure how to feel about it, Nina's side seems pretty genuine but the dude is constantly just saying she's hot and that he loves him and that's it. He came over as a total creep to me
It's basically a bite sized Ready Player One with a bad ending.

I don't know, I've been in long distance online relationships before that ended on a bad note but the game didn't do much for me either, mistakes were made and lessons were learned.