Storm the Swan - And the Power of FRIENDSHIP and IMAGINATION
Storm the Swan - And the Power of FRIENDSHIP and IMAGINATION
is an indie horror game that can be found on itch.io.A child is playing a video game to escape the realities of life. But he finds that some things he can’t escape from.
Storm the Swan - And the Power of FRIENDSHIP and IMAGINATION contains the following examples:
- Abusive Parents: The boy's father is verbally abusive to him, forcing him to sleep in the attic, angrily yelling at him for playing his video game, and making noise bothering him and his mother. A flashback revealed that the mother wasn’t better and forced him to swim while saying she gave up her violin career for him.
- Awful Wedded Life: It is made clear by the father’s words that his relationship with his wife is strained and deteriorating. The father was in love with the mother and was obsessed with being with her, and somehow got together with her, and eventually, they got a child together. The father said that their relationship was good at the start of their marriage. It’s been made clear that their relationship is strained because the father is obsessed with the mother, and the mother resent the father and their son for her having to give up her violin career when she had her son. Eventually, near the end of the game, the father snapped and killed the mother. Horrified and remorseful, the father took himself, his son, and his wife’s corpse to the lake so he could drown the family together.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Deconstruction. According to the father, when he and his wife got together, their relationship became strained, so they had a child who was supposed to strengthen the relationship. Unfortunately, though, it’s evident that the father and mother have a strained and dysfunctional relationship based on resentment and entitlement, and having a child does not cure their problems. Eventually, they both resented the child. It was implied that they were better parents when their child was born, but unfortunately, their flaws caused the relationship between each other and their child to deteriorate.
- Bookends: This video game starts with the image of a lake where an unknown person comforts another person, saying that it’s all right and not to cry. Everything‘s going to be OK. The end of the video game has the same scene, only in the context of now, knowing that the person who’s talking to the other person is the father talking to his son and that he’s going to drown the both of them after snapping and killing his wife with the added word of we’re all going to be together.
- Dogged Nice Guy: When the kid is playing the game and interacting with three beautiful characters, Melissa the Marmot, Morris the Mole, and Anna the Alpaca, you have the option of asking each of them to date you. Melissa and Morris are shocked to be asked out by the character and reject dating him, stating that the character is too young for them and too young to even date in general. Anna just says no to dating you. The reason Anna won’t date you is not mentioned, but it’s implied to be due to the wide age gap between the two. The kid can keep asking these characters out; they’ll always reject him, but will remain friends.
- Entitled to Have You: The father has that mentality for his wife. He describes how he met his wife to his son and wanted to have her the first time he saw her and make her love him. He also had a son with his wife to bond them to be a family. It is clear from the start that the father is obsessed with having his wife with him and will do anything to keep her in his life.
- Escapism: This video game is about a boy playing a game boy video game about befriending talking animals in a village. It became clear early in the game that the boy is playing this video game to cope with his home life with his parents being abusive and their marriage deteriorating and blaming each other and him for their bad home life. It’s telling at the end of the game when he beats the video game where it’s revealed that the boy played and won the game 433 times.
- Everyone Has Standards: It’s heavily implied and outright stated that Melissa the Marmot, Morris the Mole, and Anna the Alpaca are the same characters from the dating Sim game Date Time; Melissa and Morris outright stated they were from that game, and it’s heavily implied that the three of them have sentience. Although these characters were designed to date and have a history of dating players in the other game, they refuse to date the player in this game because this is a kid's game and explicitly states that the player is too young to date and too young to date in general. It’s implied that they know that a kid is playing this game, which is why they refuse to date the player and treat him more like a little brother.
- Melissa gets a special mention because, in Date Time, she is known to be unstable because she was designed to date and kiss the players. However, she felt used by the players and eventually snapped, started killing them, and began searching for a player who would love her. But the fact that she refuses to date the player because he was a kid with it being implies that she knows a child is playing the game, implies no matter how unstable she is and how resentful she is towards players that dated her in the past, and how she wants to look for a new love, she draws the line at both dating and hurting a child who, despite rejecting she treats with kindness throughout the game.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Played for Drama. Throughout the game, the father is angry and verbally abusive to his son while being angry and sad about his deteriorating marriage to his wife, who he is obsessed with. But in the last scene of the game, he is calm and sad, apologizing to his son for being a bad father and deciding to make it up to him while mentioning making a mistake that he can’t take back. The father’s behavior is shocking and scary because you know that something horrible must’ve happened to your mother from his words and body language and the fact that he has a gun and blood on him. Eventually, when he brings his son downstairs to have breakfast, the son looks to his side and sees his mother dead and covered in a blood cover blanket. The father told his son that his mother was just sleeping, and he wrapped a blanket around her to keep her warm. It is clear that the father is lying to the son and that he snapped and killed his wife, and eventually, he’s going to kill himself and his son so they can all be together.
- Pet the Dog: Played for Horror. After being angry and abusive throughout the game, the father appears before his son at the end of the game, shaking and sad. He apologizes to his son for all his midst treatment towards him. He promises to take him and his mother to the lake and allows him to play video games as long as he wants despite previously being angry at him for playing video games for all the noise he was making that was bothering his mother. What should’ve been a heartwarming scene of kindness is instead horrifying and suspicious because it’s clear from the father‘s words that something horrible happened to the mother. Eventually, when the father makes the son breakfast, the son looks too to his side and sees his mother‘s body wrapped in a blanket. The father lied and said that she was just tired, and he put a blanket around her because she was asleep even though there was blood under the blanket. The son knows the truth that his father snapped and killed his mother, and he’s going to kill himself and the son, too; the father’s being kind to his son because he feels guilty and wants to give his son some kindness before he dies—turning what could’ve been a great act of kindness into a horrifying act of being kind before killing your loved ones.
- Precocious Crush: Implied. The player is a kid playing a Game Boy video game named Storm The Swan And The Power Of Friendship And Imagination to cope with his bad home life of having abusive parents whose marriage is deteriorating. The plot of the game is to befriend characters and solve a mystery. In the game, the player interacts with three beautiful characters, Melissa the Marmot, Morris the Mole, and Anna the Alpaca; the player can ask these three to date him. Melissa and Morris would be shocked that he asked them out and would reject dating him, saying that he was too young for them to date and too young to date in general. Anna would just say no when the players ask her out, and while not mentioned, it's implied that she won't date the player because of his age. The character the player is playing does not make an appearance, and his age is not mentioned; what is mentioned is that the character the kid is playing is very young, and despite rejecting him, the three villagers stay friends with him and even treat him like a younger brother. This implies that the character the kid is playing is a child.
