The Last Day of June is an adventure puzzle game by Ovosonico about a day in a couple's life with their tiny village. Or so it seems...
Members of the tiny community are Glasses Guy, Painter Girl, The Kid, the Old Man, the Best Friend and the Hunter. Plus the Hunter's dog and a blue bird.
Inspired by the music video to "Drive Home
" by Steven Wilson, who also serves as the composer for this game's soundtrack.
Contains examples of:
- Arcadia: And it is played perfectly straight. There is nothing that ever makes the game not look beautiful and peaceful.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: All that Glasses Guy wants is for Painter Girl to survive. He succeeds. By taking her place.
- But Thou Must!:
- Obviously the player also wants to stop, but he can't. They have to bring the present to the house.
- In general, the player can't just have the characters sit still in their house for six hours to stop them from interfering. The characters need to actively solve their problem in a way that makes sense, otherwise they will return to their original course of action.
- Played with in the last loop as Glasses Guy: he is at the lake with the full awareness of everything that has happened. He can't throw the present away, can't walk away, can't have Painter Girl stay with him. He has to get into the car. So he decides to enter the car, but not as the driver...
- Butt-Monkey: The Hunter. He isn't really well liked by the other characters, is a horribly bad shooter and one ending has him fall into a hay stack while hunting a bird. During the semi-last run, his gun gets exchanged with his toy gun, having him stare at it in utter confusion.
- Chekhov's Gift: The present box that Painter Girl gives Glasses Guy at the lake.
- Close-Knit Community: There are only a handful of villagers, so this naturally happened.
- Cursed with Awesome: While grateful to have the power, Glasses Guy is definitely not happy since he lost both Painter Girl and his ability to walk for it.
- Darker and Edgier: Once the best Hunter ending has been achieved, the game goes this way.
- A Day in the Limelight: The day can be experienced from the view of all human members of the village except Painter Girl.
- Despair Event Horizon: Both Glasses Guy and Painter Girl have one.
- Glasses Guy hits his when he remembers that if no one in the village causes the accident, the weather will. And he can't change the weather.
- Painter Girl has hers when she realizes that she can't stop the Old Man from bringing the present to her house. She has a second one when she manages to stop herself from getting the idea of going to the lake, only for Glasses Guy to get it instead.
- Determinator: No matter how often he is set back, Glasses Guy will try again and again.
- Did Not Get the Girl: The Best Friend is hopelessly in love with Glasses Guy. But instead of meddling with his relationship with Painter Girl, she decides to move away and start anew.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The characters don't talk, so only the credits give the names away and all but two ( Glasses Guy aka Carl and Painter Girl aka June) are literally just called what they are.
- Foreshadowing: The character choice menu gives away that doing the Kid or the Best Friend in a better way will not yet solve the problem.
- Painter Girl doing a Hand on Womb while looking at the present.
- Glasses Guy being in a magical nursery with Painter Girl behind him.
- When controlling the Old Man, one can see that the card that gets taken out is the only one. There is no alternative.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Glasses Guy enforces it to save Painter girl. He succeeds.
- Guide Dang It!: Quite a few players were confused how to solve the story about the Best Friend, unaware that they can go back to the Kid and change his solution.
- Hand on Womb: One of the first scenes with Painter Girl shows her doing this.
- Hates Being Alone: The story of the Kid is that he wants to play with someone, but everyone is busy. Depending on the player's decision, he can finally either play with the Hunter's dog or the Old Man. His memories even reveal that he once had a friend of his age in the village, but the boy moved away.
- Here We Go Again!: Averted. Painter Girl stands at Glasses Guy's gravestone while pregnant and reaches out to it in the same way that he had done to her painting. But before she touches it, she stops herself and walks away.
- Heroic BSoD: Glasses Guy has them a few times. First when he remembers that Painter Girl is dead, the biggest one though happens when he realizes that he can't change their fate, they will ''always'' have a fatal accident.
- There is also Painter Girl literally ripping the past apart in an attempt to stop the Old Man from reaching the house.
- Improbable Infant Survival: The Kid can't get hurt, no matter what. But in almost every case, pregnant Painter Girl takes her unborn with her.
- Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Glasses Guy can't go to many places since his wheelchair doesn't allow it. The Kid is too small or weak for a lot of the fences or gates. It doesn't really make sense though why the adults can't open a few gates, especially those to their own homes.
- Invisible Parents: Nothing in any of the memories hints on the Kid's parents being dead, so they are probably this.
- Never Trust a Title: No, this is not about the characters enjoying the 30th of June. Painter Girl's name is June and this is about her last day alive.
- Pink Means Feminine: The Best Friend wears a pink and blue outfit, underlining her feminine and lady-like character.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Subverted. She already knows. He didn't. In the final loop, he finds out a few seconds before he dies.
- Plot-Triggering Death: If June wouldn't die in the car accident, the game wouldn't have happened.
- Red Herring: The Old Man has nothing to do with the accident.
- Scenery Porn: Most reviews call it as a virtual Monet painting.
- Sole Survivor: Glasses Guy wants to avoid this. He does.
- Speaking Simlish
- Take Me Instead: How Glasses Guy finally solves the Time Loop.
- The Lost Lenore: Painter Girl for Glasses Guy.
- Way less prominent, but the Old Man's story involves his own Lenore in the form of his passed wife. While important to him, she has no relevance to the plot other than being the main character of his memories.
- The Reveal: While hinted at before, it is later revealed that June herself is the reason why the time loop exists. All alternative version were her ideas.
- In-Game, in the last moment it is revealed what was in the present, to Glasses Guy at least. The Player never sees, but from the context it is clear that it informs him about Painter Girl being pregnant.
- Tragic Stillbirth: A few of the static flashbacks imply that Painter Girl had been pregnant at one point, but then something happened. Since there is no child, she obviously lost the baby.
- Too Desperate to Be Picky: The semi-last loop. Painter Girl doesn't care anymore if what she does makes sense as long as it stops her from suggesting to go to the lake. It doesn't work.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: The Hunter's story reveals that he looks up to his father a lot. His memories though show that his father never really appreciated his son or his possible interests.
- Wham Episode: After solving the Hunter story, the Glasses guy remembers that the old man never did anything that caused their death. It is the weather which can't be changed.
- Shortly after that comes the second Wham Episode where it becomes obvious that the Painter girl is trying to save them as well.
- You Can't Fight Fate: The theme of the game. No matter how hard Glasses Guy tries, they always have the accident.
