Decided to give this a bash after hearing it mentioned on the latest podcast. Firstly I'm not sure where Paul got his 8 minute playtime from, it'll take you at least an hour I'd say.  Spoilers within, so if you're bothered about that don't read further!
 

Decided to give this a bash after hearing it mentioned on the latest podcast. Firstly I'm not sure where Paul got his 8 minute playtime from, it'll take you at least an hour I'd say.  Spoilers within, so if you're bothered about that don't read further!
 

I guess I just didn't get it. It was a unique experience and I enjoyed the music, but I didn't care for Emilia at all. The only thing I thought when the BBS crashed while I was reading her last message was "Well, that's unfortunate". I was just really bummed when when The Matrix crashes and happy when the Reaper was defeated, but that's pretty much the extent of my emotional involvement with the story.

wow I just finished the game and...  I didn't cry, but I truly had trouble continuing the game near the end knowing what would happen. Never has a game done that to me, and I consider it an amazing achievement that this game has. Truly a marvelous, hidden gem.

BTW, the music led me to one of the artist's 8bc page... Good stuff.

" @Bojangle: What's the game itself like? Like, what kind of stuff are you doing? What Paul Barnett was saying about it was interesting, I was just wondering about the game part of it.  "

I was surprised by the sadness I felt for Emilia's destruction. It's definitely a unique experience >.> 

I just finished it; I liked it a lot! I definitely felt sad at the end, knowing that there was nothing I could do to help Emilia. At the beginning I wasn't really all that interested in her character, but the more I did to find her again the more I wanted to. I really enjoyed the music, and the little unrelated conversations people had on the BBS boards. The fan fiction and William Gibson conversations were great.

I felt an attachment to Emelia, and I thought that over all it was pretty well executed. Doubly so considering its from just a single person. I was sad when the ending came, but its far from heartbreaking or as profound as a number of other places made it sound. If we had had a little more back and forth between the player and Emelia instead of it feeling so abrupt I could see that fixing some issues. Love the music and aesthetic though, Christine knocked it out of the park there.

I liked it for the unique experience but I had no emotional involvement with the story. I found Emilia rather annoying tbh, the whole "I love you" thing came after like what, 10 emails? Way too fast. Plus she's very emo all she talks about is people not understanding her, being lonely, and wanting to run away. Not endearing, just lame.
 
Using the clues scattered throughout the BBSes to 'hack' into other BBSes and progress the game was what made the game fun for me. Although it's too bad you never get to play those games that one dude was posting up.