Every once in a while, a narrative game will actually stoke some emotion out of me, whether it be from relatability, evocative moments, or pure artistry. It’s even rarer to encounter a title that manages to capture all three of these – in fact, the only titles that come to mind are Life is Strange and Before Your Eyes. Going into Fishbowl, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this self-contained adventure caught me by surprise and is one impressive debut for studio imissmyfriends. What makes this visual novel so special?

Flash back to the start of the pandemic. If you happened to be working somewhere on-site, you’d know the chaos that ensued with your workplace’s management. There was a lot of chaos, really, whether it be maintaining your employment, figuring out work-from-home, and being secluded from leaving your home during lockdown. “Home” is relative in Fishbowl, where Alo was in the first week of her job before making the WFH switch. As such, you’ll become intimate with the four walls that surround you, with the burden of grieving your recently departed grandmother that you were immensely close with.

The central theme of Fishbowl is self-care in the midst of isolation. Not only are you separated from the outside world, but you’re also pitted against something truly terrifying: the feeling of being alone. The only way to combat this is to put yourself through the wringer and take care of yourself with consistent hygiene, hydrating/eating, and regular chore work to thrive in a small space. Alo will have to edit videos for work, and go through her grandma’s many items passed down to her, as those memories wound her as much as bring her closure.

While Fishbowl is a visual novel, there’s plenty of player agency involved. Performing tasks like brushing teeth, making coffee, and watering plants all require button inputs to deliver some immersion. Days take roughly 10 minutes each across the game’s month-long tenure, but you’ll be performing a regular routine. Playing along with this monotony successfully gets Alo out of the rut of grief and into a cheery mood, which unlocks dialogue options, new tasks around the apartment, and brings her into a better frame of mind to achieve her goals. It’s all up to the player to maintain this consistency in the encapsulated environment.

Thanks to some harrowing nightmare sequences and bleary-eyed flashbacks, Fishbowl is an easy recommendation to anyone seeking emotional release or a lens into how to receive closure after loss. It’s a game that makes you want to get up and be productive for the sake of being productive. If you can tolerate a slow-but-steady pace and put yourself in the shoes of a shut-in during a recent period, it’ll reward you with a twist-and-turn tale of how to recover from tragedy. Games like Fishbowl come around once in a blue moon, and it appears to be a hidden gem on Steam at this juncture. Don’t hesitate at the low price point of $9.99 and get ready for some tears once you dig into Fishbowl.

A PC review copy of Fishbowl was provided by Wholesome Games for this review.

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Fishbowl

$9.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Heartstrings Regularly Tugged
• Beautiful Pixel Art
• Gameplay Loop Makes a Statement
• Excellent Array of Emotions

Cons

• Pace Slow at Times