Dordogne Review
Mimi doesn’t remember. Somewhere in the past she’s lost all memory of everything before her thirteenth birthday, but with her grandmother Nora passing away, leaving her a box of memories, she’s determined to find out what they all mean. Her father Fabrice isn’t supportive – he hated his mother – but Mimi needs to know.
Whatever I was expecting from Dordogne, it wasn’t this. The poignant family drama interlaced with mystery has a Studio Ghibli-esque feel to it, one that’s only amplified by Mimi’s arrival at her late grandmother’s home. The mysterious secluded drive might as well be the trail that Chihiro finds herself on in Spirited Away, albeit switching the countryside of Japan for rural France, and while there’s not the same fantastical elements to this story, it is one of discovery and growth.
You manually interact with the world in Dordogne. Everything has to be grasped, lifted, turned and pulled, giving your actions a realism and weight that you wouldn’t have simply by pressing a button. It’s fundamentally a point-and-click game, but it feels… different, especially if you’re playing on console. There’s some lovely moments, like rediscovering a polaroid camera and setting it up, that carry genuine sensations of touch, and it’s a remarkable feat that lends the game a tenderness and realism that’s hugely affecting.
Mimi, of course, does start to remember, and begins to piece together her memory of her grandmother, the house and the region in France that lends the game its name. As you remember, you’re thrust into the past, taking you to 1982 and becoming a young girl once more who’s unwillingly been left for the summer with her grandmother.
Many of the things that Mimi learns come through letters and missives, drawing in
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