History VideoGame / WhatRemainsOfEdithFinch

* ParentWithNewParamour: Type 3: Gus is not fond of his father remarrying after divorcing Kay, to the point of refusing to attend their wedding.

* SwallowedWhole: [[spoiler: Molly, [[AmbiguousSituation maybe]]]].
* ParentWithNewParamour: Type 3: Gus is not fond of his father remarrying after divorcing Kay, to the point of refusing to attend their wedding.
* RailingKill: In Barbara's sequence, she knocks the hook killer off the railing. Subverted in that the killer does not actually die, in slasher villain fashion.
* SingleLineOfDescent: The Finch family. It's justified by the curse (if indeed there is one), since only one kid from each generation would ''survive'' to have children of their own. [[spoiler: If Milton is the King from ''VideoGame/TheUnfinishedSwan'', then this is averted (and possibly a sign of the curse wearing down), as Monroe and Christopher would be cousins.]]

''What Remains of Edith Finch'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame developed by Creator/GiantSparrow and published by Creator/AnnapurnaInteractive. It was released on April 25, 2017, and follows Edith Finch, the last living member of her family, returning to her ancestral home in an attempt to learn more about her extended family, whose members were prone to unusual deaths, and whose rooms in the house have been more or less left in the condition they were in at the time they passed away.

** The circumstances of [[spoiler: Molly's, Barbara's, and Milton's]] deaths are left just vague enough for players to draw their own interpretations. [[spoiler:Or in the case of Milton, whether or not he's the King from ''VideoGame/TheUnfinishedSwan]]''.

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: A large part of the game. Each flashback has you play, still from a first-person perspective, a different member of the Finch family.

** [[spoiler: Walter is struck by a train after emerging from under the house. There have never been any trains or rail lines on Orcas Island.]]

** Milton wanted to get away from the curse and become a famous painter. [[spoiler: It's implied that he's the one who successfully broke the curse, but all too late; his mother and siblings still died in painful ways. If you believe that he's the King from The Unfinished Swan, his art is unseen by almost everyone real, and his obsession with perfection angers his fictional subjects enough to abandon him.]]
** Edie's wish [[spoiler: (as speculated) could be that she wanted to live the rest of her life with her family. The curse provided her with a long life with her family, but at the cost of being ForcedToWatch (and in some cases, unwittingly contribute to) [[OutlivingOnesOffspring the deaths of several generations of loved ones]]. Eventually, Dawn abandoned her with Edith, and she crossed the DespairEventHorizon, dying alone in her house.]]

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Edith notes that as a child, she was entirely on Edie's side when it came to keeping the stories of the Finch family alive, but as a late-teen she's more understanding of her mother's desire to put all the tragedy and suffering behind her. She still ends up agreeing with Edie, though, [[ForegoneConclusion as evidenced by the game's narration being her written account of the family history]].

** Sam [[spoiler: was pushed off a mountain by a deer right in front of his daughter.]]

** Edie [[spoiler: died in the night after Dawn dragged Edith away from the house. The circumstances aren't specified, but dialogue at the dinner table implies that she [[DrivenToSuicide was mixing her pills with alcohol]] when she realized her last living family was abandoning her.]]
** Dawn [[spoiler: gets incredibly sick and [[DiedInYourArmsTonight dies holding Edith's hand]] at the hospital.]]

* DeathOfAChild: Several of the dead family members are children (Molly, Calvin, Gregory, Gus, Milton) or teenagers (Barbara, Lewis[[spoiler:, Edith]]).

* EmptyBedroomGrieving: Most of the rooms are kept by Edie exactly the way they were when the inhabitants died. Notably done for Calvin's part of the room, which was roped off to prevent his sibling Sam from making a mess of it.

* {{Foil}}: A three-way example with the brothers Calvin, Sam and Walter. After the death of their sister Barbara, Walter became so traumatised that he lived in fear for the rest of his life [[spoiler: to the point of [[TheShutIn hiding in a bunker beneath the house]] for thirty years, and then dying when he stepped back into the world unprepared]]. Calvin, conversely, swore to [[FearlessFool never be afraid of anything]] again, [[spoiler: which led to his death soon after, as he died in a daredevil stunt gone wrong]]. Sam, finally, joined the Marines, and seems to have spent his life trying to [[NeverBeHurtAgain be ready for anything the world could throw at him]], and raised his children the same way, [[spoiler: which seems to have served him better than Walter's and Calvin's ways, but which still got him killed in the end in an accident on a hunting trip meant to teach his daughter survival skills]]. Each of the brothers was defined by the same event, each one responded to it in a different way, and each one came to a bad end because of it.

** In Molly's diary, before you start reading it, there's a [[spoiler: barn owl feather in it. Bet you can guess which animal she changes into]].

** Molly's story. [[spoiler: Did she really turn into a cat, an owl, a shark, and a sea monster before returning to herself (and being eaten by the sea monster she had just been), or was she hallucinating while dying of food poisoning due to eating things like toothpaste and holly berries?]]

* NextSundayAD: [[spoiler:Edith Finch died in 2017, the year the game released, which means the first and last scenes of the game featuring her likely pre-teen son take place years into the future.]]

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Several of the Finches see their children die before them. Odin outlives his infant son Johann. Edie outlives all five of her children, and Sven manages to outlive three of them (Sam and Walter are still alive by the time he dies). Sam and Kay outlive both of their sons, leaving only Dawn, who outlives her elder son and is alive when her younger son runs away, but dies before her daughter. Gregory's is especially egregious: [[spoiler:Babies should never be left alone in a bathtub.]] The only two people in the family with children to not outlive any of them are [[spoiler: Edith (who dies while giving birth to her son), and potentially Milton on the assumption he's the King and the events of The Unfinished Swan are canon.]] Exaggerated with Edie, as not only does she outlive her children, but most of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren too.

* InsideAWall: There are secret passages behind the walls. Since most of the bedroom doors are sealed, they are the only way to get around the house most of the time.

* SecretPassage: Sven Finch built several of these into the Finch house.

* AdultFear: Edie, Sam and Dawn all [[OutlivingOnesOffspring outlived the majority of their children]], and several of the children's deaths were due to direct action or neglect by their parents. Gregory's is especially egregious: [[spoiler:Babies should never be left alone in a bathtub.]]

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Several of the Finches see their children die before them. Odin outlives his infant son Johann. Edie outlives all five of her children, and Sven manages to outlive three of them (Sam and Walter are still alive by the time he dies). Sam and Kay outlive both of their sons, leaving only Dawn, who outlives her elder son and is alive when her younger son runs away, but dies before her daughter. The only two people in the family with children to not outlive any of them are [[spoiler: Edith (who dies while giving birth to her son), and potentially Milton on the assumption he's the King and the events of The Unfinished Swan are canon.]] Exaggerated with Edie, as not only does she outlive her children, but most of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren too.

* SingleLineOfDescent: The Finch family. It's justified by the curse (if indeed there is one), since only one kid from each generation would ''survive'' to have children of their own. [[spoiler: If Milton is the King from ''VideoGame/TheUnfinishedSwan'', then this is averted (and possibly a sign of the curse wearing down), as Monroe and Christopher would be cousins.]]

* ShrineToTheFallen: Most of the rooms are kept by Edie exactly the way they were when the inhabitants died. Notably done for Calvin's part of the room, which was roped off to prevent his sibling Sam from making a mess of it.
* SingleLineOfDescent: The Finch family. It's justified by the curse (if indeed there is one), since only one kid from each generation would ''survive'' to have children of their own. [[spoiler: If Milton is the King from ''VideoGame/TheUnfinishedSwan'', then this is averted (and possibly a sign of the curse wearing down), as Monroe and Christopher would be cousins.]]

** Some of the books found outside the library in the flashback to the night Edith and Dawn left the house are by Creator/{{Jorge Luis Borges}}, an author who specialised in {{Magical Realism}}. This is a nod to the {{Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane}} nature of certain elements in the story, including the Finch's curse, and the deaths of characters such as Molly and Barbara.

''What Remains of Edith Finch'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame developed by Creator/GiantSparrow and published by Creator/AnnapurnaInteractive. It was released on April 25, 2017, and follows Edith Finch; the last living member of her family, returning to her ancestral home in an attempt to learn more about her extended family, whose members were prone to unusual deaths, and whose rooms in the house have been more or less left in the condition they were in at the time they passed away.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: In Lewis' story, when he is pursuing the queen / prince, their quest can be either "sinister serpents" or "radiant rainbows".

* AnimalMotifs: With a family name like "Finch", of course, there are knick-knacks and the like with birds on them in and around the house. Edith's journal also has birds sketched around the family tree.

** Barbara's story is in the style of a cel-shaded comicbook. Justified, as Edith is reading a comic based on her death.

** Lewis wanted something brighter and more interesting than his humdrum life working a monotonous job, so [[spoiler: the curse provided him with such a rich fantasy life that he either [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself on purpose]] so that he would never have to leave it or killed himself accidentally because he was so immersed in his fantasy that he had no idea what he was actually doing in real life.]]
** Milton wanted to get away from the curse and become a famous painter. [[spoiler: It's implied that he's the one who successfully broke the curse, but all too late; His mother and siblings still died in painful ways. His art is unseen by almost everyone real and his obsession with perfection angers his fictional subjects to abandon him.]]
** Edie's wish [[spoiler: (as speculated) could be that she wanted to live the rest of her life with her family. The curse provided her with a long life with her family but at the cost of being ForcedToWatch (and in some cases, unwittingly contribute to) [[OutlivingOnesOffspring the deaths of several generations of loved ones]]. Eventually, Dawn abandoned her with Edith and she crossed the DespairEventHorizon, dying alone in her house.]]

* BloodyHandprint: A bloody handprint can be seen on a door in the CreepyBasement in Barbara's story. It was caused by Sven Finch who hurt himself with a table saw right beforehand.

** Milton [[spoiler: [[NeverFoundTheBody never dies onscreen]], since his disappearance was never solved. The one clue we get tells us that he either ran away from home or [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence]]. It is implied that he may be the same character as The King from ''VideoGame/TheUnfinishedSwan'', meaning he possibly outlived Edith herself.]]
** Lewis [[spoiler: [[OffWithHisHead decapitated]] [[DrivenToSuicide himself]] with the chopper at the cannery after realizing that his real life could never live up to the dream kingdom he created (that, or he immersed himself so deeply into his fantasy that he was simply unaware of the real-life danger.]]

** The music box in the hallway can be turned on early on but becomes a plot point two-third into the game.

* ConvenientlyInterruptedDocument: In the Edie sequence, Dawn takes the book from Edith before she could learn what Edie found in the old house.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: As there are two characters named Edith Finch, the title can refer to both. Edith "Edie" Finch, Sr. is the matriarch of the Finch family, having been the first to land on America and construct the house with her husband Sven. She spent the remaining seventy years of her life there, watching her family grow and die in equal measure. What remains of her are her house and the stories of her progeny, which are the main focus of the game, as well as Edith Finch, Jr., the last of the Finch line. It isn't clear until the end what remains of her: [[spoiler:a son, Christopher, who embodies Edith's hopes that the family can live on without curses and tragedy]].

* {{Foil}}: A three-way example with the brothers Calvin, Sam and Walter. After the death of their sister Barbara, Walter became so traumatised that he lived in fear for the rest of his life [[spoiler: to the point of [[TheShutIn hiding in a bunker beneath the house]] for thirty years, and then dying when he stepped back into the world unprepared]]. Calvin, conversely, swore to [[FearlessFool never be afraid of anything]] again [[spoiler: which led to his death soon after, as he died in a daredevil stunt gone wrong]]. Sam, finally, joined the army and seems to have spent his life trying to [[NeverBeHurtAgain be ready for anything the world could throw at him]] and raising his children the same way [[spoiler: which seems to have served him better than Walter's and Calvin's ways, but which still got him killed in the end in an accident on a hunting trip meant to teach his daughter survival skills]]. Each of the brothers was defined by the same event, each one responded to it in a different way, and each one came to a bad end because of it.

** [[spoiler: By simply looking down, you can see Edith's protruding round belly. To observant players, the confirmation that she is pregnant will not be much surprise.]]

** If you look at the pond before entering the house for the first time, Edith mentions about the story that a dragon living in the pond killed Sven. If you look closely, you can see that the thing in the pond is actually a dragon-shaped slide. Later it is revealed that indeed Sven died in an accident while building said slide.

** When Lewis is entering [[spoiler:the Throne room to be crowned King in his fantasy, it's not hard to notice before he even gets to the podium that his "throne" is a Guillotine]].
** [[spoiler: [[FridgeLogic The very name of the game]]]]

** Molly's Story. [[spoiler: Did she really turn into a cat, an owl, a shark, and a sea monster before returning to herself (and being eaten by the sea monster she had just been), or was she hallucinating while dying of food poisoning due to eating things like toothpaste and holly berries?]]

** The story in Edie's journal. [[spoiler: Did she actually find something at the old house, and did the light in the window really come on, or is it just the ramblings of an imaginative old woman meant to symbolize the great unknowns of life? The journal gets torn by Dawn, and the house abandoned before we can get an answer.]]
** The family curse as a whole. Does it exist, or has the Finch family just been supremely unlucky for generations (perhaps aided by a heritable tendency to being subtle {{Death Seeker}}s)? The matriarch is 93 when she dies. As the above examples show, we never do get a definite answer.
* NestedStoryReveal: The outer frame [[spoiler:of a character returning to the Finch house is set up to look like Edith's story but is revealed to be another layer of her son returning to the grave of his mother]].

* NeverRecycleABuilding: Edie refuses to clean up and re-purpose the rooms of family members. Instead keeps them exactly as they were, even decades after the occupants have died. The bizarre house is not merely lifeless, it is a mausoleum with each room a ShrineToTheFallen.
* NextSundayAD: [[spoiler:Edith Finch died in 2017, the year the game released, which means the first and last scenes of the game featuring her likely pre-teen son, takes place years into the future.]]

* ParentalNeglect: If you do not believe in the family Curse, then a lot of the deaths can be blamed on parents not paying attention:
** Molly Finch died because [[spoiler: Edie sent her to her room without supper and when she got hungry Molly ate some poisonous holly berries that had been left in her room.]]

* PregnantBadass: [[spoiler: Edith shows little fear as she navigates the absurdly-unsafe abandoned Finch house. The first time her narration addresses her pregnancy, she is climbing a rickety trellis and balancing on catwalks (all alone) at a dangerous height.]] A slanted example, since her fearlessness is not framed as a good thing: she is taking unnecessary risks. So many of her family have been killed by a similar careless attitude toward danger.

* {{Public Domain|Soundtrack}} SoundtrackDissonance: Edmund Sears' "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Came_Upon_the_Midnight_Clear It Came Upon the Midnight Clear]]" (1849) plays in the background [[spoiler:while the sea monster you control [[ImAHumanitarian eats up a ship's captain and crew members]]]] in Molly's scenario, while "Waltz of the Flowers" from ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' (1892) by Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky plays in the background while Gregory plays with the bath toys [[spoiler:and accidentally drowns himself]] in his scenario. [[spoiler:Not surprising, since both are Christmas songs that play at the time of the children's deaths.]]

** Walter was so terrified of the curse getting him that he hid in an underground bunker for decades. [[spoiler: Eventually this made him desperate enough to see the sun that he recklessly breaks out of his bunker- and onto some train tracks just as a train was coming.]]

* ShrineToTheFallen: Most of the rooms are kept by the Edie the way they were when the inhabitants died. Notably done for Calvin's part of the room which was roped off to prevent his sibling Sam from making a mess of it.
* SingleLineOfDescent: The Finch family. It's justified by the curse (if indeed there is one), since only one kid from each generation would ''survive'' to have children of their own. [[spoiler: If Milton is The King from ''VideoGame/TheUnfinishedSwan'', then this is averted (and possibly a sign of the curse wearing down), as Monroe and Christopher would be cousins.]]

* StealthPrequel: [[spoiler:Possibly one to ''VideoGame/TheUnfinishedSwan'', if Milton and The King from that game are the same character (something the game gives enough evidence to support the possibility).]]

* RailingKill: In Barbara's sequence she knocks the hook killer off the railing. Subverted in that the killer does not actually die.

* TickertapeParade: Lewis imagines such a parade for the way to his AwesomeMomentOfCrowning.
* UnderTheSea: When Molly turns into a shark and chases down the seal. Also, to a lesser degree, the scene [[spoiler: when Gregory is drowning in the bathtub, he imagines himself swimming in the sea]].

''What Remains of Edith Finch'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame developed by Creator/GiantSparrow. It was released on April 25, 2017, and follows Edith Finch; the last living member of her family, returning to her ancestral home in an attempt to learn more about her extended family, whose members were prone to unusual deaths, and whose rooms in the house have been more or less left in the condition they were in at the time they passed away.

The game was critically praised and was subsequently nominated for several awards, winning the UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}} award for Best Game and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_Awards_2017 Game Award]] for Best Narrative

* MixedAncestry: Edith, Milton, and Lewis are half-Indian from their father's side. Lewis in particular takes the most from his father though Edith also has a rather dark complexion.

* RealityEnsues: A constant theme of the game is that members of the Finch family are prone to making grand gestures and acting on story-logic rather than common sense, and that this frequently ends badly for them.

* AdultFear: Edie, Sam and Dawn all [[OutlivingOnesOffspring outlived the majority of their children]], and several of the children's deaths were due to direct action or neglect by their parents.

** PlayerCharacter Edith is mostly a FirstPersonGhost, but not completely. [[spoiler: By simply looking down, you can see her protruding round belly. To observant players, the confirmation that she is pregnant will not be much surprise.]]

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: The culmination of Lewis's fantasy quest sees him become supreme king of his world in an epic celebration, kneeling to be crowned by his love interest. [[spoiler: In reality, he's being DrivenToSuicide and decapitating himself with the fish chopper. Even in the fantasy, the crowning has a horrifying undercurrent: the "altar" at which King Lewis is crowned resembles a guillotine.]

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: The culmination of Lewis's fantasy quest sees him become supreme king of his world in an epic celebration, kneeling to be crowned by his love interest. [[spoiler: In reality, he's being DrivenToSuicide and decapitating himself with the fish chopper.]]

** When leaving Calvin's room, Edith mentions that the secret passages were built "for smaller hands and bellies". [[spoiler: It's a subtle hint towards Edith being pregnant at the time of the narration.]]
** If you look down at any time, you can notice that [[spoiler:Edith's stomach is visibly swollen]].

* ItCameFromTheSink: [[spoiler:the sea monster that eats Molly]] comes up the toilet.