https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3174125511Benjamin Brynn lahir dari keluarga yang sederhana, dengan ayah dan ibunya, di sebuah kota kecil tepi pantai. Ibunya adalah seorang komposer, setidaknya itulah yang dia impikan sejak dulu. Disaat impiannya tidak terwujud, dia mulai bermimpi untuk anaknya. Namun, ketika Benjamin berusia 11 tahun, dia terkena penyakit dan terpaksa tinggal di dalam rumah selama setahun.

Di tahun itu, dia mulai merasa khawatir bahwa dia tidak akan hidup begitu lama, jadi dia mulai mengarang sebuah cerita tentang kehidupan hebat yang dia pikir dia inginkan, yang malah membuatnya lupa akan kehidupan hebat yang sudah dia miliki. Padahal dia telah mengisi rumah barunya dengan cahaya, kebahagiaan, dan harapan. Dia bertemu dengan tetangganya, seorang gadis, yang merasa kesepian di dunia ini, lalu membuatnya merasa baikan lagi. Bahkan ketika dia sedang sakit, dia tetap memberikan orang tuanya sebuah harapan.

Dia mengingatkan mereka tentang siapa mereka sebenarnya, diri mereka yang hampir terlupakan. Jadi, saat dia tahu waktunya akan tiba, dia menerimanya, karena dia sudah menjalani kehidupan yang hebat. Kehidupan yang penuh makna. Dia adalah segalanya yang dia butuhkan. Seperti apa adanya.

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Before Your Eyes teaches me a valuable lesson that what I wish for my life isn’t necessarily what I need and teaches me about life's unpredictability. Life is short. But the worst, it can be suddenly short. In the blink of an eye, everything can change. That's why it's crucial to cherish every moment, to embrace the beauty of each day, and to make the most of the time we have.

I may not be as good as someone else's story. I have to be honest I'm feeling pretty bad about myself, I'm feeling empty, and defeated. But there's one thing I know... I know that God would not put me on this earth without a purpose to fulfill. Despite feeling like I'm a failure and not living up to what I truly expect, I trust that I am where I need to be and that I am enough.

One day, when I reflect on my life, I will appreciate what my life really was, what it was meant to be, and knowing that I didn’t need to make up a story of what my life could've been. Even if I didn’t experience everything that life had to offer, I can find peace in living a simple, ordinary life.

There are moments of happiness that shine brightly, reminding me that despite challenges, there is always a reason to smile. When I reflect on the lives of those who left too soon, I find more than tears... I discover a story worth remembering.

For tomorrow is not promised. Today is all I truly have.

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Click for Review

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It always starts with slow-paced and boring. But slowly, it gets more interesting and eventually drags you into an emotional ride, like being on a roller coaster.

Until Then.
This game instantly reminded me of A Space for the Unbound, and I knew that I would enjoy it at the right time. And yes, I ended up playing it at a moment that fit perfectly with what I am going through.

More than 24 hours of pressing the spacebar over and over again, but what is drained is not my energy, instead, my emotions. Sure it's a visual novel, with its setting in the Philippines, the game shows daily life and in detail. The mini-games add some variety too, though the coin-passing was confusing at first until I found the right cue.

The narrative can might confuse you and then suddenly break you down in tears. The themes are wide and heavy: loss, love, grief, acceptance, relationships, even the search for identity. Some parts feel so close to real life, like school memories.

There are four things that really made me fall in love with this game:

• Polychroma Games, the developer, added this in-game smartphone where you can check news, emails, chats, and even like or comment on posts that may or may not affect the story. It reminded me of Seen, a chat-based visual novel app with the line, "What if life gave you another chance to learn to love again?"
  
• Right at the start, you have to press start multiple times just to wake Mark up. A small thing, but clever and fun.

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Lastly, two parts that really stuck with me, and this is one of my journal entry that I am sharing here. The way the game doesn't roll the credits at the end, but instead gives you the option to "Continue". And I chose "Yes", even though I felt confused.

Once I picked "Yes", the second playthrough began. As my second run went on, things feel repeated. I was like, "Wait, why does this feel like going back to the start?", "Why is this scene happening with a different character?", or "This is new." Slowly, I realized things kept looping in search of a purpose.

In single-player games, you always get options like Try Again, Continue, or Retry (obviously). It is the game's way of saying, "It's okay, you can still fix this. You keep going until you succeed or you decide to stop."

Real life, however, doesn't work that way. In real life, when we mess up, lose, or fail, our options are to apologize, to fix things, or to let go and move on.

And when it comes to "fixing", it feels like another way of saying sorry, a way of trying to make up for what went wrong. But the harsh truth is, no matter how much you try to fix something, it will never go back to what it once was. The cracks are still there, and sooner or later, it might break again — or worse, shatter completely.

At that point, there are two choices:
To hold on or to let go.
Neither is absolutely right nor wrong.
For some, peace comes from repairing what is broken.
For others, it is found only when they finally let go.

And then comes this question, "The choice you make, does it bring you peace, not just for yourself, but for others as well?"

And finally, the butterfly in the game’s title. It's just — funny, how things in my life don't always feel like coincidences, but more like signs — something bound to happen sooner or later. I have a butterfly necklace, which I take as a symbol of the Butterfly Effect, "One day I'm gonna grow wings", and reminds me of Life is Strange, where every choice you make always comes with a consequence.

And then comes this question, "Are you ready to face the consequences, no matter how small or big they are?"

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Dalam video game, kita diberi opsi Try Again, Continue, atau Retry. Namun, kehidupan nyata tidak seperti itu. Beberapa hal bisa diperbaiki, beberapa hal meninggalkan retakan, dan beberapa hal akan hancur sepenuhnya tak peduli seberapa keras kita mencoba untuk memperbaikinya.

Di titik tertentu, kita dihadapkan pada dua pilihan:
membawa atau meninggalkan.
Tidak ada yang benar atau salah.
Kadang kedamaian datang dari memperbaiki.
Kadang kedamaian datang dari melepaskan.

Maka dari itu, "Apakah pilihanmu mampu memberimu kedamaian dengan dirimu sendiri dan orang lain?"