Tell Me Why: Making peace with the past done right

Most video games have almost transcendental qualities. They take their player to the worlds that don’t exist, let them experience things they would not normally be able to live through, and leave a mark of some sorts. Tell Me Why does that within its two main topics – gender transitioning, and overcoming of a shared childhood trauma. As heavy as these topics sounds, the game does an amazing job with portraying both in a loving and daring way, showing a player there’s always multiple perspectives needed to be taken in an account, and that judgement should be left to the well-informed.

Tell Me Why was published in 2020 by XboX Games Studios, run by Microsoft, in cooperation with DONTNOD Entertainment which has developed Life Is Strange among others of its game titles.

What’s the story, Alaskan glory?

The story takes place in a fictional town of Delos Crossing in Alaska, surrounded by beautiful nature where the local gives an impression of being its own character. Twins Alyson and Tyler Ronan are revisiting their old house after 10 years of not seeing each other, and all the memories attached to the old places, including the blurry and painful ones about their late mother. Mary-Anne Ronan is also the very reason twins had to separate in the first place. As we learn in the opening flashback scene of the game, Tyler killed his mom in a self-defense and was put in a correctional facility, an event effectively separating the twins.

By interacting with the characters inhabiting the town, Alyson and Tyler learn more about circumstances of their mother’s demise and what had led to it. They also employ their supernatural twin bond to realize that what they remember is not complete. It’s up to them to fill in the gaps and make peace with their own secrets, their mom’s legacy, as well as with the post-traumatic stress disorder they have been carrying for all those years.

A meta storytelling

The game’s main storyline is remarkably interlaced with stories from a “Book of Goblins”, a storybook the twins’ mom put together and created in cooperation with her kids. Not only this book works as a token of connection between the twins and their mom’s past, but it also serves as a tool for a player to solve in-game puzzles, and learn about the background of the characters.

In the book we find stories about a Princess and her two little helpful goblins going through various adventures. It is also a place where we learn about an omnipresent and omnious dangerous figure of The Mad Hunter who is lurking behind the treeline and endangering the marvelous life of the Princess and her Crafty Goblins. Only as adults, both twins learn there’s way more resemblance with the real people in those stories that they originally realized. Without spoiling too much from the plot, the characters in the book has more to do with reality than fiction, and hold the key to the mysterious behavior of Mary-Anne Ronan before she ultimately died. It also reveals who is actually to be blamed for her death.

Why I think you should play it

In my opinion, the game deserves attention not only for it’s rich story and emotional impact on a player but especially for the way it handles complicated and nuanced topics such as post-traumatic stress disorder, poverty, acceptance, and gender transitioning. I cannot say much about the latter one. But Tell Me Why mediated for me what was a non-caricaturized glimpse into that type of experience through issues of acceptance, identity and making peace with the past. Topics which are universal to all human beings, including me.

Research afterword

In the talk below, Deborah Hendersen who is one of the researchers at Microsoft Research, discusses in depth the deep representation in Tell Me Why, and how the game came to be so effective in respecting one’s identity and gender experiences. Enjoy!

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Photos taken from IGN.com