There is only one thing truly certain about life, and that is death. One day we will pass on from this world, and we cannot know the day it will come for us. Accompanying death is grief – grief from the ones who love us and care about us. Grief does shatter you, remoulding you, and changing you. Sometimes that change is small and other times it is so significant, those around you do not recognise the person you have become. Afterlove EP is a game that explores grief following the death of a loved one, and how it can grip you.
Afterlove EP has two central characters, though only one interacts with the wider world. Rama is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist for the band Sigmund Feud. He is also the character experiencing grief after the unexpected death of his girlfriend, Cinta. Cinta is not completely gone, however, and is the other central character. Her voice and memory is lodged inside Rama’s head, making comments and holding conversations with Rama. Rama can’t let Cinta’s voice go, having a knock on effect on his relationships with his friends. Sometimes Rama will have a conversation with Cinta, speaking his responses out loud which leads to confusion with his friends, adding to the strain as they struggle to follow what Rama is talking about.
The game is structured around choosing how Rama spends his day. There is an overarching time limit as Sigmund Feud has a gig at the end of the month, which could make or break them. The events of the game take place a year after Cinta’s death, and it is only now Rama is reaching out to his friends and bandmates, who have continued to live their own lives while Rama stayed in place. During the day, Rama can meet with people, do some busking, attend therapy, go to band practice. and wander around. To be honest, aside from finding photo locations to trigger memories, there isn’t much to do in this version of Jakarta when wandering about.
The band practice and therapy happen on specific days. You will get reminders for band practice, but for therapy you need to check the map and see if your therapist’s icon is showing up. The game is very much about people’s mental health and wellbeing, and not just Rama’s, though you will have the most insight with his. Going to therapy lets him unburden, while the therapist listens and helps him to process. Handily, I’m married to a therapist and asked to get her view on these interactions. Her verdict is that she would not have been so direct as Rama’s therapist is, but generally the representation was good but more counselling heavy.
Who Rama chooses to spend time also impacts the activities he takes part in. There is Regina, your friend Adit’s girlfriend, Mira who is Regina’s friend and a poet, and Satria who is works in the record store. Hanging out with Regina will focus on her life as a model, and the issues she is facing there. Mira will recommend you books and ask for help with a poetry show, while Satria jams out with friends in the park and invites you. All three are romance options too, though it seems very strange to have a friend’s girlfriend as an option as a love interest. Mira and Satria both have their own qualities, if you want to pursue those romances.
There has been an artistic decision in Afterlove EP to have Cinta as the only voiced character, outside moments when Rama is singing. This has the effect of making Cinta’s views much more prominent, even if she is a figment of Rama’s memories, drowning out the other characters. The voice acting is fine, though it can be a little too doting toward Rama.
As the name suggests, music is a major part of Afterlove EP too. There is a rhythm based game tucked in here, as well as a minigame where you choose lyrics while busking. The rhythm game is fine, though it is not always obvious which notes your inputs are corresponding to, and sometimes inputs will keep coming along the track even though the song has stopped.
Unfortunately, Afterlove EP has bugs and I was even softlocked out of continuing when getting close to the end. First, on a lot of scenes Cinta’s lines would flash up on screen, she would start to speak, and then the line would just auto skip so quickly that her voice would cut out and you wouldn’t have time to read it. Considering how the core focus of the game is about relationships and impact of choices, this is not a great thing as you lose context.
Additionally, you are presented with the purpose of managing relationships, but outside of a few conversations, you are a passenger as Rama gives his own responses. More player input to explore different ways the story could go would have been welcome. The softlock came when I had to have an important conversation with Mira. This task flagged up during the morning period of the day, but I couldn’t progress because I had nothing to do that could advance time. You can only speak to Mira in the evening at the bookshop, and I could not talk to anyone else, busk or do anything to move time forward to have this conversation. I searched high and low for Mira to no avail. I had to stop the game there as my last manual save was a couple of hours back, and the autosave loaded into this task with the same result.