Sea of Solitude is a beautiful indie game about loneliness, melancholy, and a giant fish-bird.
It is developed by the Berlin-based Jo-Mei Games and was picked up by EA in 2015. Since then we haven’t seen or heard much about the game. Until now.
EA has revealed a new trailer for the game during their EA Play 2018 event, just prior to E3.
The trailer shows the game’s beautiful art style and gives us just a glimpse into the gameplay. Sea of Solitude, or SoS for short, follows a young girl (I think) named Kay, whose loneliness has turned her into a black, human-bird hybrid.
Kay explores a submerged city populated by other lonely monsters, like the giant bird-fish I mentioned. On her journey, she will try to understand where the monsters came from, and figure out why she was transformed into this creature.
“When humans get too lonely, they turn into monsters,” says writer and creative director Cornelia Geppert while presenting the game. “Embrace your self-doubt in the same way you embrace your hope. This is what being human is all about.”
It looks like the game shifts between two opposite environments: one sunny and beautiful, and the other stormy and dangerous. It’s not clear at this point if this transition is linear and happens as part of the story, or if it’s the effect of a nearby monster (or just the sense of overwhelming isolation).
SoS is ultimately about exploring dark human emotions, like loneliness, sadness and anger. It reminds me a little bit of Rime, where you also play a young person exploring a mostly empty (but beautiful) world as a metaphor for loss and grief.
Sea of Solitude will be released in early 2019.
