Intro: we witnessed the horror, we saw the veil being lifted and smoke from our vision cleared, now it’s time to back and see where it started and where it is now. The horror, the fear, the reason behind the many broken souls. In the continuation of the game Remothered: Tormented Fathers, Broken Porcelain brings back the pain, torment, and memories of the past. Let’s dive into the latest installment where we take a look into the deeper corruption of the world that Celeste has been raised in, psychological abuse, medical misconduct, and familial chaos that unwinds this story at the hinges One of the Many Jennifer’s: This game is both a sequel and a prequel that goes through the story of Celeste and the history of the Ashman Inn and its owner. Celeste in this game is the “Jennifer” in the line of experiments and mistakes that came before in the search for her. Now this story gets confusing at times with how much information there is in it. Playing the second game right after the first clears up a lot of the information that may seem lost in translation. While Celeste is the “Jennifer” that was being sought after, there were many that died in her place who was mistaken for her. To clarify Celeste is the adopted daughter of Richard Felton/ Jennifer Richardine Felton. You may remember Richard Felton from the previous game, the man who tried to kill Rosemary Reed and the man who was forced to become a boy by her father at a very young age. Since Celeste went to work at the Ashman inn for insubordinate behavior shall we say we see that she creates a movement/narrative for herself that pins her as this renegade with a cause. She is a spark that brings not only her character to life but creates a catalyst for the story of the past, present, and future to slowly unwind. A Twisted Truth Unfolds: Ashman is the biological father of Celeste, which means that Ashman raped the ACTUAL Jennifer, impregnated her and Jennifer, who became Richard’s adopted daughter Celeste. It’s a psychologically twisted system of events that occurs. Now, since Celeste was in the womb DURING THE TIME that Jennifer was undergoing HEAVEY doses of phenoxyl and hypnosis treatment she became able to control the Acherontia moths without any side effects or consequences. I thought about what this could link to psychologically, and every time we use our “moth senses” we are technically having an out-of-body experience or dissociating from ourselves. Could her trauma have caused her to have a slight case of Dissociative Identity Disorder which the adoptive father that she has suffers from as well? During the time that we are in the game using our innate ability to utilize the power of the moth to our advantage, we also unfold a lot about the control mechanism that turns people who want to help Celeste into creepy humans that appear to be void of all kindness, empathy, and emotion and who filled with anger rage and hatred for what they are and anything that gets in their way. While we see Celeste trying to find her friends and also escape from the Red Nun (whose story is so very diverse and sad) we run into a character called Porcelain who is apparently a dead character who hanged himself in the Ashman resident two years before. Yeah, this story gets twisted. The Sadness of Gloria: The Gloria that we see in this game is the girl that grows up to be the Gloria that is continuing to hypnotize Richard Felton and the one who chases Rosemary around the mansion. It was those memories I look back on with fondness because seeing Gloria/the Red Nun was such a breath of fresh air. She was scary, she was creepy, and the voice acting had me on edge the entire time. I cannot say enough good things about the character creation of Gloria. While her story is sad, and in places morbid, it is well crafted and thoroughly done. Being that Gloria and Rosemary were the only ones who survived in the end from the fire that Stefano started it really solidified the final part of the first game for me and made it that much more real in a sense where the pieces finally fit and Gloria wasn’t just this “monster” anymore, she was a little girl who just wanted to be seen. The Story Hooked Me In, The Mechanics However Didn’t: the story of both Remothered: Tormented Fathers and Broken Porcelain hooked me in with the concept, the story, and the characters. When it comes to the controls they lack desirability. With this game in particular it got a lot better but there were still bugs that I encountered and even multiple game crashes. During and in the middle of cut scenes I encountered several a few crashes that somehow unsaved my progress when I had already saved the game which doesn’t make sense. When handling the moth side of Celeste the moth's movements were unpredictable, and too fast at times to judge where it may or may not go. The moth would get stuck on things when trying to locate an area and sometimes doing that several times would freeze the game, Nothing Stays Broken Forever, Final Thoughts: This game really took me a second to process. The story, the way it flowed, everything about it really took me aback honestly. A lot of things that make this game unique and beautifully crafted is how vulnerable mentally it makes you feel. Seeing the first game and the second come together in this dangerous cacophony of horror made me really excited and relieved to see a good story that maintained a well-balanced consistency.
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