If there is one thing I will say about this game is that the story is executed perfectly when you are struggling with depression and guiding you out of it. If you are like me, depressions can trigger when you feel abandoned, losing or have lost someone, grief, not having a family. These are all themes and struggles the game beautifully tackles.

I've been replaying this game while battling through a severe depression episode and it's started giving me deeper insight into how the behaviour and habits one adopts actually feeds the depression you're going through itself.

For me, I recently had to cut off an entire friend group so my depression has been entering into over drive as of late and this game has honestly been one of the few things to make sure the depression doesn't get the better end of me.

There's a scene in this game, actually pretty iconic but I think I see it in a different light from most people. it's been a huge source of comfort when it comes to my mental health battles with depression.

The scene in question is of when Lune and Gustave have the argument of whether Gustave should continue or not, which Lune keeps reiterating into his head "When one falls. We. Continue!".

My initial interpretation of that quote is taking it in a very literal sense, where even if someone you know IRL dies you don't use it as a reason to give in but continue.

But here in this moment, my mind started extrapolating it into other meanings, where the one thing that has 'fallen' is a friendship. With me seeing it under this lens, my depression also got an important reminder with what Lune said following this:

"As long as even one of us stands, our fight is not over."

Depression can trick us into thinking our entire world means nothing when we lose a friend that is dear and close to us, which is why this quote also hit me like a truck. Since it tells you that as long as even one stands, your fight is not over. Specifically, I like to view it under the lens that as long as you still have one friend. Then your fight isn't over and you can't give into depression, since you still have a reason to stay around in this world. No matter the lies the depression tries to throw at you.

The game then further solidifies this point with the following quote in the same scene:

"You and I... Come on... we always said the future of Lumiere is more important than any-" - Lune
"Than any individual life, yes." - Gustave

I love this part of the conversation since it speaks on how no individual life, no individual person who was once your friend is more important then your life. Since I like to view "Lumiere" in this scenario as a metaphor for your life, your world. Even if you've lost those who were once close to you, they'll never be more important then your entire life. This scene has genuinely been integral towards helping me recover from my depression <3

There's a lot more scenes such as this that also help me with healing from my severe depression, but a good chunk of that does push into spoiler plot twist territory that you should witness yourself first hand ^^

I do want to say if you suffer from a condition known as Maladaptive Daydreaming, this game will help you in illustrating the harmful effects it has on your life.

"Sometimes, we paint the bars of our own prison. Your despair blinds you."
"We must accept things as they ARE, not how we want them to be."
"You'll never have to suffer a life you don't want."