I recently finished playing Season: A Letter to the Future. It's a very subdued title. I'd probably call it an "interactive experience" rather than a "game," similar to titles like What Remains of Edith Finch and Kentucky Route Zero. Regardless, it's a very beautiful work.
Season is very story-focused and touches on themes like death, the passing of time, growing up, the fault of our memory (how we perceive ourselves, how we remember people, how we remember the past), and dealing with the lack of choice we generally have in accepting it all. While those themes seem heavy, I wouldn't necessarily say the game is overtly sad; rather, it is melancholic. The game is a slow burn due to being so story-focused, and the main verbs that build the gameplay are riding your bike to explore and taking pictures of the world around you.
In fact, taking pictures is 90% of what you do in this game since your purpose as the character is to document the Season before it ends. To do this, you take photos of locations, people, objects, etc., and fill out a notebook to track your progress. The other 10% of the game is spent uncovering mysteries about the world and talking with people to help them work through their final goals and tasks before their time in the Season ends.
When a person's time in a Season ends, they don't die, but they might as well have. A Season is used as a symbolic passing of Age or Era, but it also has a physical effect on the world and its inhabitants. Like time passing us by, the people within the world of Season cannot return to a Season that has already passed; that Era is over. The effect of a Season ending also appears to wipe the memory of all world inhabitants. This leads to a world rich with documented history because everything undocumented becomes a mystery and forgotten. It is why the player's mission is so important. Without our efforts to document our past, family, and the people we meet, we will forget everything when the Season ends.
I highly recommend Season: A Letter to the Future. It's not just a game but a deeply moving experience. The game doesn't overstay its welcome, clocking in at around 6 hours, which I believe is the perfect length for a game of this emotional richness. It's a journey that will leave you feeling connected to the characters and their struggles and perhaps even reflecting on your own experiences with the passage of time and memory.
