MyDear.Exe is a love story told through a fakeOS puzzle game filled with kind memories of a long and lasting relationship.
Brazilian author Paulo Coelho wrote in his landmark 1988 novel The Alchemist, “When he looked into her eyes, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke—the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love.” Sometimes it is best to invoke the powerful words of a tireless romantic to clearly explain what the core of an experience is. MyDear.Exe is an ode to a beautiful relationship that endured through it all thanks to the power of love.
A Life Well Lived
Essentially the love story of a couple’s 57-year relationship, it is told through a fake operating system in which everything is used to solve puzzles. Reminiscent of The Notebook, this heartwarming tale knows exactly what it wants to be, with the developer saying, “The state of the world is depressing enough already. We all agreed that something lighter would be better. Something cozy, cute, and warm.” Every pointed memory within the game is emotionally stirring.
Playing as Ellie, this kind old lady and puzzle enthusiast is trying out a new game made from his postman-turned-programmer husband, Lucien. Fully voiced throughout, this design choice helps bring to life the many pivotal moments in their life. Structured in a way that every puzzle is related to their relationship, every single scene, from when they meet to where they currently are now, tugs at the heartstrings. Both the good and the bad. Not everything in life is rose-tinted, and MyDear.Exe knows it well.
The Jitters Of A First Date
Never veering towards a depressing tone, a long relationship has many nuances, as is the case here. From the highs of the first date to asking her hand in marriage to the loss of a beloved pet and disease, MyDear.Exe is likely to make you shed a tear or two.
The reality of an excited young man meeting the love of his life for the first time is grounded. So is the maturing of a relationship that, more than passion, thrives in the small victories of a mundane routine. Reading letters, discovering pictures, and talking about memories in real time shine a light on a love story worth telling. Of course, gameplay-wise the puzzles and minigames pace the narrative beats well.
By way of illustration, most puzzles come in the form of finding passwords to access new folders. The way to solve each of them is not convoluted in the least, say, compared to Desktop Explorer. With a nifty Memo app on the right-hand side of the screen, you can also pin certain folders for easy access. It is gentle in its puzzle-solving, usually directly showing you the way as to where to find the solution.
Occasionally that may be through accessing the Control Panel and looking at the numbers in the build of its operating system. In other cases, reading through PDF files of historic events like the first job opportunity or formal university letter they had will have the answer. As such, everything is neatly tied to their love story. The same goes for the minigames.
Time For Minigames!
To take much-needed breaks from the rare tragic memory, minigames of all sorts are scattered throughout the files of MyDear.Exe. As mentioned, they are tied to the story itself. This means that you’ll be doing an array of activities from the jobs they had over the course of their working life.
Cycling as a postman in a sidescrolling game to avoid obstacles is the first game, which also shows how Lucien initially met Ellie. Matching the colors to fill a picture to parallel Ellie’s career as a photographer is another. A personal highlight is one where you play as Hoshisan, the family dog, in a Pokémon-like fight against challenging situations (for him, at least) like going to the vet. Several more silly, short games can be expected in this refreshing change of pace.
Verdict: MyDear.Exe
Making the most of its short runtime, this is an uplifting experience that does its best to tell a beautiful love story. Its puzzles are just the right amount of difficult, while every minigame aids in making the pace of the game more palatable. Earnest to a fault, MyDear.Exe is a timely reminder that a life full of love is a life well lived. Its heartfelt stroll through the memories of a couple’s long relationship is a powerful ode to kind storytelling. There’s nothing quite like it.
