Have you ever thought about it on a sleepless summer night:

If you could go back in time, what would you want to change?

To stop myself from doing stupid things in school that are so embarrassing that I still blush when I think about it?

In that crucial exam, was it the question that you could do correctly a hundred times without getting it wrong?

Is it in that crucial game where you can advance to rank if you win the game? Do you choose to develop your advantages steadily and don’t mess around?

Is it to face the departed relatives and leave as many warm moments of reconciliation and companionship as possible?

Unfortunately, I have to remind you that in our current timeline, machines that can travel through time and change the future have not yet been invented. Even if you pick up a banana and put it in the microwave now, what you get out is just a hot banana, and there will be no change in the timeline.

el psy congroo!

Despite this, the thought of "going back to the past and changing the future" is still a thorn in the hearts of most people that cannot be removed. Therefore, this theme is often one of the most memorable themes in games, movies, and TV series. There are countless classic works - in addition to the above-mentioned "Steins;Gate", there are also movies such as "Source Code" and "Interstellar", which also used similar stories to suck the tears of countless audiences.

What I want to recommend to you today is also a story about time and space, love, loss and longing.

It is "June Song", a narrative puzzle game that has been particularly well received on the Steam platform and has a painting style as warm and rich as an oil painting. The mobile version is now available exclusively on the TapTap platform.

June Heart Song 7.6 Puzzle Cure Steam Port

As for why I unabashedly recommend the game to you at the beginning, it’s because the most core experience of “June Heart Song” is that it tells the story without the characters saying a single line of dialogue or subtitles. An interlocking and touching love story.

I want to share this story with you, but I also hope that you can experience it directly in the game without any defense - because compared with my narration, the personal experience will be more unforgettable.

If you're ready, let's get started.

*The following contains spoilers for "June Song"

The story begins in a dark and empty house, where the protagonist Carl wakes up alone in a wheelchair.

Along with him dragging his mutilated body, we came to an oil painting of a beautiful and dignified woman.

That's his wife Joan. In Karl's memories, the memories between the two of them were so beautiful and sweet——

Until one time while driving home, in order to avoid a child who suddenly appeared on the road, the vehicle lost control and caused a car accident, taking away his legs and her life.

We can't see the man's eyes, but all his thoughts seem to have turned into his eyes, quietly looking at the epiphyllum in the painting.

I don’t know if the power of longing played a role, but the oil painting opened the door to the past, and an adventure to save his deceased wife began.

The most direct way to prevent accidents is to prevent children from suddenly appearing on the road. So in order to "tie up" the children who were running around playing with the ball, we found a rope so that the children could happily play with their favorite kites, and then they would not run onto the road and cause tragedy.

But when Carl traveled back through time, he found that everything was the same as before - he still had not regained the ability to walk independently, and his wife continued to be separated from him.

Although the future has been changed, the result remains the same: although the child did not appear on the road, a female neighbor who temporarily parked her car appeared on the road. Trying to dodge the furniture, the car accident happened again.

As for why there is furniture on the road, the answer is related to the choices we made before: the female neighbor who planned to move did not find the rope originally used for fixation, which was the one we used to "tie" the child.

So by changing the past, returning the rope to the female neighbor, and using other methods to scare away the children, can we successfully save the wife?

As you might guess, reality remains unchanged. Carl fell into the time-travel without sadness again and again, only to find that there would always be new reasons for car accidents: after solving the problem between the children and the female neighbor, the car accident would be caused by the hunter; after the hunter was lured away, another reason would be caused by Everything was too slow and he died in a thunderstorm. . . .

Because in all theories of time and space travel, the "grandfather paradox" is a problem that can never be circumvented: if you travel back in time and go back to kill your grandfather, then you will naturally not be born, and you will naturally not be able to go back and kill your grandfather. .

In the same way, if Carl had not been in a car accident, then he naturally would not have gone back through time to save his wife Joan. As the American philosopher David Lewis said: When you try to travel back and change reality, there will always be all kinds of accidents that hinder you, leaving you unable to change everything.

But Carl, who is eager to save the love of his life, will not give up any possibility and opportunity: if they can travel by car from the beginning, can the tragedy be avoided?

The purpose of this excursion was planned by Joan to give Carl a gift on the beautiful lakeside. Therefore, as long as the gift is not delivered, the car accident will naturally not happen.

But he can't: As he tries to prevent the gift from reaching his wife, all reality begins to fall apart around him.

Because everything can change along the passage of time, only his wife's love for him is the same as the gift in her hand, like the basic law of this world.

When Carl returned to the lonely, cold and dark reality, he was ready to accept the powerlessness of being unable to save his dead wife, and time was silent.

At this time, he accidentally opened a notebook from Joan. The whole story also ushered in the biggest reversal:

Joan's notes recorded how to make the correct arrangements to avoid the car accident. The things that needed to be solved and dealt with were exactly the same as what Carl had experienced.

In other words, the world that Carl is currently in was born because Joan, who was rescued, traveled through time and space to change reality. In a place where we can't see, Joan also experienced such separations of life and death again and again, so that our hero could stay alone in this world.

No matter what happens, the accident will always start with the passenger side of the car drifting off the road. Only one person can always survive.

So Carl asked Joan to hold the steering wheel tightly this time. Until Carl's life comes to an end, you can tell yourself how much you love her on this journey that you have walked countless times...

Until the moment when yin and yang were separated again, until she once again held my hand full of contradictions.

At the end of the game, in front of Carl's grave, Joan, who survived, brought her children to visit him. Red fallen leaves were buried outside the dust.

She looked into the distance, perhaps, her time and space adventure was about to begin.

The name of "June Song" comes from the original English name of the game "Last Day Of June". Literally translated, in addition to being the last day of the life of my wife Joan, it is also "the last day of June". And "heart" is the relationship between Carl and Joan that reincarnates forever, and it is also the unchangeable "end" of the story.

I know, you may ask: Why is a game that was launched in June and tells a story that happened in June recommended to you in July?

Because only when June is over, we will know for sure that June and all the stories in the past can no longer be changed. All the love, hate, wish and sorrow will only become dust and drift forward with you and me.

Just like the misty rain in the flower season, it will never look back. Just as tomorrow is a complex wandering.

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