This level hits frighteningly close to home, there’s usually only so much I can like about a level with this flat colored art style but I feel too compelled by the idea of this being a homage to the kinda fiction I grew up with. This song is one my favourites to ever exist, it’s stupidly edgy yet captures the thoughts of a suicidal person perfectly, feeling this kind of hopelessness so early on in your childhood distracts from the dramatic undertone and makes the piece hit like magic. The level itself represents the song in a beautiful manner, the aesthetics are reminiscent of something like a self-expressive visual novel or an illustrated AU, when reminded of it I’m imagining I’m looking into the escapism of someone deep in despair. I love how the level progresses, there’s this constant unease in the visuals and only finally unravels this sense of dread once at the first drop, after that comes a small interval of relief inside a cozy bedroom but it still holds the suspense towards something sinister. The ethereal purple at the end makes for a gratifying climax, it’s alarming and shining almost blindingly with its only escape being the dark nothingness awaiting on the other side of the tunnel, death can be the only answer. It’s all a great display of pessimism and anxiety, the insinuated narrative is as depressing as the song itself yet it’s so poetic with its approach. Looking at it purely as a conceptual piece, I find a lot of comfort in how incongruous to the game it is, the level doesn’t seem to belong with any of gd’s preexisting concepts and it’s because it’s such an outlier that makes it this tiny bit more realistic and unsettling of an experience. My feelings here are very personal, I don’t think the level is all seamless, but it means a lot to me regardless