Sea of Solitude
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Quantic Dream (Director's cut)
| Sea of Solitude | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Jo-Mei Games |
| Publishers | Electronic Arts Quantic Dream (Director's cut) |
| Director | Cornelia Geppert |
| Producer | Patrick Lehrmann |
| Designer | Dirk Kultus |
| Programmers | Dirk Kultus Rob Lubawski |
| Writer | Cornelia Geppert |
| Engine | Unity[1] |
| Platforms | PlayStation 4 Xbox One Windows Nintendo Switch (Director's cut) |
| Release | July 5, 2019 March 4, 2021 (Director's cut) |
| Genre | Adventure |
| Mode | Single-player |
Sea of Solitude is a 2019 indie adventure video game developed by Jo-Mei Games and published by Electronic Arts. Played from a third-person perspective, the game follows a young woman named Kay as she navigates a submerged city while confronting monsters that symbolize her feelings of loneliness and mental health struggles. Gameplay combines exploration on foot and by boat with puzzle-solving, platforming, and the use of a flare mechanic to guide progression, alongside optional collectibles.
The game was conceived and written by Jo-Mei co-founder Cornelia Geppert, who drew on her personal experiences with depression and loneliness. First announced in 2015 and unveiled publicly at E3 2018, Sea of Solitude was released on July 5, 2019, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC. A revised version, Sea of Solitude: The Director's Cut, featuring new dialogue, voice acting, and additional features, was released for Nintendo Switch in March 2021 by Quantic Dream. Both versions of the game received mixed reviews, with critics praising its visuals, atmosphere, and exploration of mental health themes, but finding its gameplay repetitive and unchallenging.
Sea of Solitude is an indie[2] adventure game played from a third-person perspective[3] and narratively structured in episodes.[4][5] The player controls Kay, a young woman who is undergoing a transformation into a monster and searches the sea and flooded cities for a cure.[4][6] Players can navigate the environment on-foot and by a motorboat.[7] Kay can also exit her boat to swim in the surrounding water.[8] Kay must avoid dangers in the game.[9] She can interact with some of the other monsters in the game, with some helping and others hindering her.[6] Though an adventure game, it includes elements from puzzle, platformer, and stealth games.[7][10][3]
In the game, Kay's primary objective is not to fight her enemies, rather, she defeats them by clearing their corruption. This is done by collecting small orbs through platforming and puzzle-solving, which allows the player to cleanse the corruption points, which appear as glowing orbs surrounded by black clouds. Doing so increases Kay's understanding of their problems.[9] Some of the game's monsters attack Kay, and upon death she respawns where she left off.[11] The game's animation depicts the dark energy being sucked into Kay's orange backpack.[12] Another mechanic in the game is the flare.[9] Shooting the flare guides the player to their next location.[12] It also acts as a weapon for the player, as it can defeat and kill shadow enemies. As the game continues, the flare can be used to turn shadow enemies into allies to help retrieve orbs that the player cannot reach.[9] The game includes two types of collectibles the player can search for during their journey; messages in bottles the player collects and seagulls the player shoos away.[13]
Plot
The player controls a young woman named Kay who suffers from such strong loneliness that her inner feelings of hopelessness, anger and worthlessness turn to the outside and she becomes a monster. As Kay, the player explores a seemingly empty flooded city and interacts with its scaly red-eyed creatures to reveal why she turned into a monster. Her emotions manifest into giant monsters standing in her way, trying to help but also destroy her. She needs to interact with and understand their underlying intentions to overcome the negative effects of those emotions. The game is an inner dialogue of a person trying to reconcile her own shortcomings.
As the game progresses, it's revealed that Kay's parents Adam and Vivienne had her at a very young age, followed by a brother named Sonny 12 years later. Sonny was bullied often at school, but Kay was oblivious to his pleas for help because she was distracted by her growing relationship with her boyfriend Jack. Adam regretted Vivienne having Kay as early as she did because family obligations held him back in his career, and tensions over it led them to get a divorce. Sometime later, Jack went through a bout of depression and steadily isolated himself from his friends, breaking up with Kay in the process. Kay had her own bout of depression as a result, until she sorts through the events of her past over the course of the game.
Development
Sea of Solitude was developed by Jo-Mei Games,[4] a twelve-person studio based in Berlin, Germany.[14] The studio's first title,[15] it was written by Cornelia Geppert,[14] who said that the inspiration for it arose in 2014, a time when she felt creatively unfulfilled despite stable studio work, and after she ended a long-term relationship and entered a new one with a man who suffered from clinical depression and left her alone periodically for days at a time.[16] She considers this time period as one of the darkest and loneliest times in her life,[17] as she was also helping friends suffering with depression, which in turn led her own low feelings.[18] Geppert, having always wanted to develop an adventure game with a deep, emotionally driven story that focused on human emotions for years,[18][19] stated that Sea of Solitude was "the most artistic and personal project" she had ever created,[17] and compared the game's writing process to how singer-songwriters fill their output with their emotions.[20] She detailed: "As an artist, you process your emotional world by getting it out and putting it into your art."[18] As well as writing the game, Geppert served as its chief executive officer, art director, and creative director.[14]
Jo-Mei Games originally worked on free-to-play browser games. The studio's first prototypical game was similar to Sea of Solitude, though it was rejected by publishers for being "too artistic", and they were encouraged to make it a free-to-play game.[18] When the game was pitched to Electronic Arts, it was picked up after then-vice president,[21] Patrick Söderlund, expressed his enthusiasm towards its themes surrounding mental health and loneliness.[19] Before it was pitched, Jo-Mei Games developed and refined their existing prototype with its earnings.[18] The game received funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg in July 2014[4] and its production primarily took place in Berlin.[22]
Sea of Solitude focuses on loneliness,[18][10] and during development, Jo-Mei hoped to reach an audience that understood the game's message and would feel less lonely after playing.[16] At E3 2018, Geppert said that the idea that "When humans become lonely, they become monsters" was the core of the plot.[17] To ensure the game's themes surrounding mental health were handled appropriately, Geppert consulted with Russ Pitts, a former game journalist who founded Take This, an organization that works to educate about mental health issues within the game industry.[18] During development, everyone in the studio shared their experiences with loneliness with each other, to allow the story to account for multiple perspectives on it.[14] The game attempts to display different types and manifestations of loneliness experienced by people, while also showing the emotions that come because of it and how others react to their struggle.[14][18] Despite the game's heavy subject matter, Geppert hoped that the story's progression would uplift and inspire empowerment in the player.[14] The game's setting is based on Berlin, Geppert's hometown.[14][19] Kay, the protagonist of the game, was modeled after Geppert and inspired by Geppert's negative experiences following a breakup in 2013.[23] In the game, it is established that Kay is close to her family, despite feeling alone, a choice incorporated to show that loneliness could be experienced by someone if they were surrounded by their loved ones.[20] Kay's design depicts her covered in black fur. When designing Kay, Geppert imagined scribbling on paper to release frustration.[20][24] Kay's loneliness transforms her into a monster, a metaphor for the mental health issues caused by loneliness in humans.[10] Horror movies such as Jaws (1975) inspired the game's other sea monsters,[20] who represent different types of loneliness made apparent in their designs and actions.[24] Geppert intended for every monster in the game to represent a figure from Kay's life–such as her family members, and used them as a metaphor for the way mentally ill people are stigmatized in real life.[25] As well as voicing Kay, Miriam Jud served as the lead animator for Sea of Solitude.[19] Geppert described the art style and tone of Sea of Solitude as "a mixture between Studio Ghibli and Silent Hill".[26] She explained that the visual style was inspired by her passion for manga, particularly the visuals of Ghibli, whereas games such as Silent Hill inspired the game's horror elements.[6] She also credited her previous work as a comic book artist as in inspiration for the art style,[18] as it inspired her to translate 2D art styles into a 3D space.[14][16][25] The game's environmental changes to mirror Kay's emotions; such as water elevation levels and weather.[27]
Release
Sea of Solitude was first announced in February 2015,[26] with the game's official website revealing screenshots and GIFs from it to showcase its visuals.[28][6] It was picked up by Electronic Arts in 2016,[29] becoming the second game to be announced under the EA Originals label, after Fe (2018).[30][22][26][28] EA Originals is an initiative used to help fund and promote indie games.[15][28] The game's first trailer was revealed at E3 2018,[31] while the game was still under development.[17] During promotion, gameplay was not shown or discussed as Geppert feared spoiling the game's plot.[18] It was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on July 5, 2019.[4][27]
At The Game Awards 2020, held in December, it was announced that a director's cut of Sea of Solitude, published by Quantic Dream, would be released for the Nintendo Switch.[32][33] The re-release included a new script, new voice acting, and include a photography mechanic.[32] Geppert returned as the game's writer, creative director,[34] art director, and head of game design.[35] It was released on March 4, 2021.[36][37][38]
