If you could grant wishes, where would your boundaries for wishes lie? Would you grant any wish within your power? How do you feel about changing someone’s heart or their own dreams and wishes? Many Nights a Whisper put me in a contemplative trance for just over an hour. As I took on the role of the Dreamer, I decided to play the role in earnest. I would accept the role myself, and whatever the outcome, that was my experience.
Many Nights a Whisper
Developer: Deconstructeam & Selkie Harbour
Price: $2.99
Platform: PC (reviewed)
MonsterVine was supplied with a Steam code for review
What Is Many Nights a Whisper?
As I took on the role of the Dreamer, I learned so much about the world around me through simple conversations with my mentor and hearing the wishes of the townspeople who put their faith in me. The Dreamer has spent the past ten years in training, simply meditating, firing a slingshot, and creating a contemplative routine to sculpt both body and mind. No amount of training could stop me from considering just how screwed up it was to place everyone’s wishes on a single person, making a single shot with a slingshot.
Every ten years, a Dreamer takes the shot, and if they hit the target, everyone’s wishes come true. Not quite everyone, the Dreamer must accept the wish first. But those the Dreamer accepts come true. If the Dreamer misses the shot, however, it’s guaranteed calamity. Both the Dreamer and their mentor acknowledge this, but that’s the world they’re living in. Perhaps the first meditation one should have during a ritualistic emergency is accepting the fact that this is how things work, and right now, you’re not in a position to change that. Even if you’re of great influence right now.
Because it’s not the Dreamer’s wishes that get fulfilled here. It’s the townsfolk. The Dreamer sits at the Confession Wall and listens carefully as the candled pillar rises, a braid comes through the hole, and the townsperson makes their wish. Followed by the Dreamer’s poem, the Dreamer needs only to sever the braid to accept the wish. If the braid remains intact, better luck next decade. As the Dreamer, it was up to me to listen to these wishes and determine whether or not I deemed them worthy of granting, but even then, who was I to judge that?
My internal boundaries were simple, to me at least. I wasn’t going to change any hearts, I’m not going to grant immortality, and I gave myself the right to refuse a wish if I found it trivial. And as the wishes came in, I realized that any wish can be trivial to the right person. The first person wanted rain, a beautiful wish, and selfless too, but we’re on a lush and beautiful island. The island didn’t seem like it needed rain, so could I consider this trivial? I slowly centered myself and realized that, as the arbiter of wish granting, it was a joke for me to even consider what was trivial.
So I allowed it. I stuck by my denial of changing a person’s personhood, raising the dead, or granting immortality, but let the trivial wishes flow. And as I cut the braids, my slingshot was able to shoot further away. At first, my shots could barely fly beyond the temple, but as I granted wishes, soon I was shooting far into the sea. I was soon able to achieve my goal, and the day was soon upon us, the day when I would determine the fate of this island.
I believe I could talk about Many Nights a Whisper for hours. This game, as many of Deconstructeam’s games, brings about a way for the player to live within their world while reflecting on their own. Games have spent decades trying to get me invested in a meta-narrative that struggles to stick the landing, grows stale in the middle, or fails to capture me from the beginning. In just over an hour, I felt this experience. And it would behoove me to stop talking about the experience now before I ruin it for anyone else.
Beyond what you see and feel, there’s a ponderous soundscape that provides a soothing melody in the foreground. One that remains consistent throughout the game, a safety blanket that reminds you to breathe. A reminder that you’re in a messed up situation, but it’s still beautiful out, you’re still practicing, listening, accepting your fate. Regardless of the outcome, you will be okay.
And a reminder that whether or not I hit that target, light that fire, grant those wishes, it’s going to be okay. Hitting the target is almost irrelevant.
The Final Word
Many Nights a Whisper offers a contemplative experience that acts as a meditation that might help you in your own life. Deconstructeam and Selkie Harbor have worked together to forge a masterpiece that can be experienced in a single sitting. Don’t pass this up.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
